Song of the Day: The Rembrandts "Making Plans For Nigel"
I want to talk about three topics here.
First, I hope you've had the fortune to experience a shared song between you and a friend that other people may know, but not the way the two of you do. My high-school chum Brant and I both loved to devour alt-rock back then, constantly recommending, disparaging, and ditching each other to spend nights at home listening. (If this reminds any of you of High Fidelity, note, I was there first.) The only thing better than having a shared song you both love is having a shared song that you're both trying to discover, because neither of you know where it is. I got XTC's Upsy Daisy Assortment (greatest hits) for Christmas one year, and when I was finally giving it a solid listen around April, I discovered, holy shit: that "one, two, three, four, five" song Brant and I were trying to find was XTC's "Senses Working Overtime." Now it's one of my favorites. So I like XTC. (The rest of that CD ain't bad either.)
Next, the way I finally got this song is worth note. I first heard of emusic.com in 1999, when They Might Be Giants released an mp3-only album way before that was considered appropriate. (Wait, actually it still isn't.) In any case, emusic.com is not only still around, it's much, much better: pretty much all the indie music I've ever heard of is available on emusic.com. Not only can you download all the tracks you want for 25 cents, plus you get something like 25 or 50 free downloads a month, with the final added bonus of 50 free songs when you sign up, even if you immediately cancel your subscription. I took the latter option to find an awesome CD I lost (Mono Puff's 1998 classic It's Fun To Steal, worth a lengthy discussion itself), and with 36 tracks to go, had to use some creative thinking to find more songs I wanted. (I did get a couple albums from those indie bands like Spoon and the Decembrists I'm supposed to be in love with, but devouring albums has not been my strong point in the mp3 era.) Anyway, eventually I came upon this song through means you'll probably be able to discern below, but the point stands: if you're into indie music, there are much, much worse places to get it than emusic.com. that's not a suggestion, that's an order.
Finally, there's just something about XTC covers, probably the fact that XTC writes flipping awesome songs to begin with. I overcame my, shall we say, strong dislike of Mandy Moore when I discovered her cover album led off with her actually awesome take on, that's right, "Senses Working Overtime," giving me a crush to this day that neither Zach Braff, that guy from Entourage, nor the cruel taunts of Galvin's brother can shake. One of Sarah MacLachlan's best songs is her cover of XTC's "Dear God," and They Might Be Giants, per usual, did a version of "25 O'Clock" (incidentally the creepiest song ever) that's actually better than the original. Most of these songs, admittedly, come from the 1995 tribute album A Testimonial Dinner, including our current Song of the Day from one of the all-time flashes in the pan. Do you have multiple Rembrandts mp3s? In fact, if you could tell me what Rembrandts vocals really sound like, you're one up on me, but fortunately they work well here. The Rembrandts bring their turns-out-to-be distinctive vocal style to the XTC classic "Making Plans For Nigel," adding thick drums and some deliberately plucked and heavily distorted electric guitar to a song that, to give you a vague impression here, would have done just fine as a quiet acoustic. It's basically the same song, with a slightly different style for playing the guitar in the verse and a couple different notes in the vocal here and there, but this song really takes off as a cover at the end. XTC went and repeated the final word "steel" a few times near the end and hit the chorus one last time; the Rembrandts repeat the word "steel" a lot, turn the final chorus into a tempo-slowing fadeout, and then spend the last thirty seconds turning it into a doo-wop song. Now that's a cover. All told, I can't say I entirely miss these guys (or that I've listened to the Friends theme in years), but they did know how to take an awesome song and make it rock. And since they make me think of XTC, emusic.com, and good friends, that's enough to make them Song of the Day.