As a matter of fact, I liked Teenage Fanclub so much in college that the first thing I did as the music editor for the campus newspaper was set up an interview with Fanclub member Norman Blake. Nat did the interview and Norman was washing dishes for most of it, and you know, maybe that housework was sort of a signifier for how boring and domesticated Teenage Fanclub has become. And in retrospect, it's funny that I thought the rest of the campus would be that into TF-- at that point they were already pretty much irrelevant.

Bandwagonesque is the only Fanclub album I still listen to often, and I also recall Thirteen and Grand Prix fondly. But the stuff that's come out since then-- Howdy and Man Made and now Shadows-- I just can't get into it. The albums have been progressing from Bandwagonesque's rough, feedback pop to well-crafted songs that are ultimately extremely boring. It's like trying to climb a glass wall-- there's too much of a sheen to get a grip on anything, with no grit or edge. It's boringly pretty, like, I don't know, Katharine Heigl or someone.

I feel the same way about the new Pernice Brothers release, Goodbye, Killer. I was super into Joe Pernice in college and loved all of his assorted side projects or back issues. I had the Chappaquiddick Skyline album, the Big Tobacco album, the Scud Mountain Boys stuff, and a Pernice Brothers t-shirt with a sandwich on it that is still my favorite concert shirt ever (which I can no longer wear because I've, uh, filled out since then). 

The gems of his catalogue, though, were the Pernice Brothers albums. The first two were chock-full of minor pop classics, but starting with Yours, Mine & Ours in 2003 the sound changed a bit. Y,M & O was still a good album but it sounded a bit too polished, and it's all been downhill from there. Goodbye, Killer is no exception. World weary lyrics, jangly guitars, the occasional Peyton Pinkerton guitar solo- they're all there but it's just not doing it for me any more.

With both bands, I don't really know what to make of the decline in quality. All of the same ingredients are there but something crucial is missing. I guess it's because pop music is tough, and eventually you run out of magic. Or maybe I just don't like the same music any more, I don't know. And it just hit me that I spent like an hour writing about and preparing posts for two albums that I don't like. What a dummy!

Download the full Teenage Fanclub album (60 MB) by clicking on the art below.