Sir Saleski has, for three years and counting now, written the excellent Friday Morning Listen column on his own site and Blogcritics. Beginning this year, he brought that column to TheMondoProject. The idea behind the column, according to him, really is as simple as the title. The columns are rarely pre-ordained. They are about whatever it is he was in the mood to listen to on his way to work on a Friday morning as he looked forward to the weekend.
I had one of those moments today - not too dissimilar from an experience I wrote about some weeks ago. I woke up with a song in my head and just had to listen to it. I have now listened to that song a couple of times and I am now listening to its parent album.
I was awakened this morning by the sounds of "Ride a Black Swan" by Zwan reverberating through my head. I do not remember when I listened to this song or this album last. For some reason, the music library in my head dialed this up this morning and I am glad it did.
America, you blew it on this one. Mary, Star of the Sea should have sold 2 million copies. There should have been hit singles on the modern rock charts. This is a seriously great record and practically no one heard it. It's a damn shame, too.
One of the things I planned on doing with this Confessions series of mine was writing about albums that slipped through the cracks in one way or another, for one reason or another. I liked this album the first time I listened to it. Love came a little later but not much. The more I tore into Mary, the more I found myself loving these songs.
I heard this album dismissed by some as being PumpkinsLite (Zwan was ex-Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan's first post-Pumpkins project). It is difficult for me to imagine somebody missing the point more. It is only PumpkinsLite if you picked up Mary expecting another Smashing Pumpkins record. Maybe I am able to separate Zwan from Pumpkins so easily because I was only a casual fan of Smashing Pumpkins. I liked them, I didn't love them. There is so much to love on this record if you listen to it on its own merits. It is not a perfect record but is a very good one that deserved a kinder fate.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
hmm. i totally forgot that the guy from Slint is in this. hmmm.
2 - zingzing
sick, isn't it? ugh. so is the guy who played on bonnie prince billy's superwolf. a mistake was made by all.
3 - DJRadiohead
They really had something here with this one. I wish Billy would open the Zwan vaults.
4 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Heard a couple tracks (including "Honestly") on their Zwan song that, in addition to reading some positive reviews, pulled me in enough to want to earmark some ever-dwindling disposable income on it (alas, something foolish like food or rent got in the way of that plan). I even saw a short interview with Corgan and the band, all dewy-eyed about the future and swearing ever-lasting comaraderie, faking that sincerity for all it was worth, I guess. It was a couple of months later I read about their break-up, and I guess it soured me on pursuing it.
But thanks for the reminder and a little assurance that I wasn't so off-target. I'll still seek it out and make the landlord understand somehow.
5 - DJRadiohead
Yes, Gordon, all the declarations of undying love for one another do seem quite silly in the aftermath of all the acrimony. That said, it is still a very good and listenable album. Burn a copy for your landlord- they'll go along with it.
6 - Tom Johnson
I don't know how I missed this piece when you published it, but I LOVE Zwan's album - and I know I'm among few like you, too. But I feel exactly the same way - I like the Pumpkins, not love them. This is the one outing of Corgan's that I actually feel the allegiance to that all those Pumpkins fans seem to feel toward his "real" band. I don't hear the whining or posing in this music that I got in the Pumpkins, especially their later output. In fact, what I love most about Zwan is the very odd (for Corgan, at least) sunny outlook of the lyrics. I just find the whole thing a lot more enjoyable to listen to than the Smashing Pumpkins.
But yeah, Gordon, avoid the DVD that comes with this album - I'm pretty sure you saw the little documentary that is on there. I waited until not too long ago to watch that (after many years of owning the album) and it still managed to leave a sour taste in my mouth. Very clearly staged to look a certain way. Awful.