Tag Archives: Magnolia

(Upcoming Release) Aimee Mann – Bachelor No. 2 : 20th Anniversary Edition for Black Friday RSD – A Deeper Dive

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Cover Art for the 20th Anniversary Reissue of Aimee Mann’s Bachelor No. 2

I’m a sucker for earnest songs about heartbreak. Clearly.

When I watched Paul Thomas Anderson’s film Magnolia, I was struck by the songs from Aimee Mann. Like many, I was familiar with her band, the MTV darlings Til Tuesday, but I hadn’t really kept up. Though, there wasn’t much to keep up with. The classic yarn of a band breakup followed by a couple of brilliant solo albums that her label didn’t know what to do with caused her to crash land in 1999 with no label and a record in the can that wouldn’t be released.

As the story goes, Paul Thomas Anderson was moved enough by the demos of this album to craft Magnolia around it and get some more songs from her. He connected to Mann through her husband Michael Penn who scored Anderson’s first two films. She got an Oscar nom for “Save Me” (a song that was written for the film).

I rewatched Magnolia recently. A horrific storm called a “derecho” blew 130+ MPH winds across Iowa, removing over 65% of the tree cover of Cedar Rapids and knocking power out for days and cell service and internet for weeks. Once power was restored, my wife and I still didn’t have internet and cell service was spotty, so we took to digging through our sadly-neglected collection of DVD’s and Blu-Rays for stuff to watch. We hadn’t seen it probably since I bought the DVD when it came out in 2000. The film’s three hours is not an easy watch, and twenty years later the heavy-handedness of the story arc and plot devices seems almost dated. Considering this was Anderson’s carte blanche film following the breakout success of Boogie Nights, it’s apparent he was pulling out all of his directorial tools for this. The soundtrack and score of the film end up being an essential part of the narrative with songs belonging to the characters, the culmination of which is when the film pauses for the characters to sing “Wise Up.”

This part of the film was a real lump-in-the-throat moment for me and how I became a fan of this soundtrack and Bachelor No. 2. I wrote an article back in 2008 proposing a mix people could make of the two CD’s to make a perfect version of the album.

Bachelor No. 2 was released in May 2000 on Mann’s own record label Super-Ego Records. It included “How Am I Different,” “Deathly,” and “You Do” from Magnolia. “Nothing Is Good Enough” appears on the soundtrack as an instrumental. Interestingly, “Wise Up” was originally intended for the film Jerry McGuire. A really great article breaking down the soundtrack by A/VClub by Alex McLevy makes the observation that in a literal sense the song says that the film “is not going to stop” until the characters wise up. Certainly the scene in the film where the characters sing “Wise Up” is a point of inflection.

According to the Wikipedia article on Bachelor No. 2, Mann secured a distribution deal after selling the album from her website and Soundscan data as of 2008 showed that 230,000 copies had been sold.

In 2006, Mobile Fidelity Soundlab corrected sin of this album not existing on vinyl by pressing a limited run of 200g half-speed mastered LP’s based on the original US CD (which means it doesn’t have “Save Me” on it in place of “Driving Sideways” as the UK version did). These days copies of this are running around $200 and I was keeping an eye out to see if any might show up for a deal.

Thankfully, Aimee Mann is reissuing Bachelor No. 2 for its 20th anniversary for Black Friday Record Store Day as a 2 LP expanded version taking the original album and adding the Magnolia songs at the end. (this approach makes sense since it is a reissue of Bachelor No 2 primarily, but I think my mix is more fun) as well as a re-recorded version of “Wise Up.” Looking at Amoeba’s website, it will be priced at a reasonable $34.98. This is being touted as an “RSD First” which means that it will be generally available after RSD, though it’s hard to tell if the 4000 copies they’re showing is the total of all of the pressings or just what is available for RSD.

It will be interesting to hear that new version of “Wise Up.” If I had to guess, it probably removes the drum machine. In the press release she mentions that she “used a lot of drum loops” and nowhere is it more apparent than on “Wise Up.” Though for me, that works great.

The Super Ego Records twitter account posted the packaging:

The packaging is really nice with what appears to be a version of the cover art that looks like someone practicing calligraphy over it. The green vinyl and labels are gorgeous.

Here is the track listing from The Vinyl District (which had it by sides).:

Side A

  1. How Am I Different
  2. Nothing Is Good Enough
  3. Red Vines
  4. Optimist

Side B

  1. Deathly
  2. Ghost World
  3. Calling It Quits
  4. Satellite

Side C

  1. Save Me
  2. Driving Sideways
  3. Just Like Anyone
  4. Susan
  5. It Takes All Kinds

Side D

  1. One
  2. Wise Up Re-record
  3. Momentum
  4. Build That Wall
  5. You Do

B-Sides in the Bins #22 – Cedar Rapids 2/22 & 2/23/08

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Friday night Sherry was at a class, so I decided to hit Half Price Books before coming home from work. I also hit CD’s Plus on Saturday while I was out running some errands. I got some pretty cool stuff, including a CD that I was hoping to snag for a review from a label.

Prince – Purple Rain – 20th Anniversary (2 DVD, Warner Bros. 33533, 2004) ($9.98) One of the cool things about Half Price Books is that they get “cut outs” of CD’s and DVDs. They had two copies of this sealed and notched as cut-out. I had purchased not too long ago a copy of the 1997 release. I think it was in one of the bins at Wal-Mart. This was the “Standard Version” that was pan-and-scan 6×9. The 20th Anniversary version is 2 DVD with a second DVD dedicated to extras like a cool documentary on First Avenue where the live performances were filmed, a making of documentary with interviews with Dr. Z, Wendy and Lisa, Jimmy Jam and others. They also have a somewhat embarrassing “MTV Premiere Party” from the movie premiere complete with interviews of John “Cougar” Mellencamp, “Wierd Al” Yankovic, “rising star” Eddie Murphy, Wendy and Lisa, Little Richard who was in full Bible-thumping mode, and a self-important VJ Mark Goodman. An interesting view into the MTV promotional engine. Talk about non-sequitur interviewees! I guess Eddie Murphy and Little Richard make some kind of sense– but the “Wierd Al” and John Mellencamp interviews were certainly a stretch. Little Richard turned his interview into a thing about him and Murphy makes some funny digs about that. Mark Goodman goads Murphy unsuccessfully to do an impersonation of Prince, and then tries to get him to do an impersonation of James Brown. Eddie says, “I’ve already done that” and walks away. The bonuses also include all of the associated videos from Prince, The Time, and Apollonia 6. Wow, “Sex Shooter” was a really horrible song and even worse video.

As the story goes, Apollonia Kotero replaced Vanity (Denise Matthews) for the lead female part after Vanity broke up with Prince and went solo under a record contract with Motown. So, the remaining members of Vanity 6 (Brenda Bennett and Susan Moonsie) plus actress Patricia Kotero (renamed “Apollonia” by Prince) became Apollonia 6. The Vanity 6/Apollonia 6 girl group was an idea that Prince had for a while and of course created songs for. Apollonia 6 recorded one record tied in with the rest of the records associated with the movie and that was it. Kotero and group were supposed to open the tour with the Revolution and the Time but that never panned out. Interestingly, Prince apparently wrote “Manic Monday” which would eventually go to The Bangles (and likely specifically to Suzanna Hoffs) and “The Glamorous Life” which went to Sheila E. for the Vanity 6/Apollonia 6 projects. Coincidentally, both Vanity and Apollonia have become born-again Christians. Actually, Prince is too, I guess.

The movie is restored to Widescreen and remastered. The old release was really shoddy, and this one is a vast improvement. I see that there is a BluRay version of this available, too. I’ll probably upgrade this copy when I get a BluRay player.

Aimee Mann – Bachelor No. 2 (Or The Last Remains Of The Dodo) (CD, Superego Records, 2000) ($5.98) This is the album that followed the success of the soundtrack to Magnolia. It includes some of the songs from Magnolia– one as an instrumental. Aimee Mann is one of my favorite female musicians and her pairing with Jon Brion is perfect. The songs from Music from the Motion Picture Magnolia and this album would make a nice mix CD. Only “How Am I Different,” “Deathly,” and “You Do” are on both. “Nothing Is Good Enough” appears on the soundtrack as an instrumental.

This was a sealed copy or re-sealed. Aimee’s first release as an independent artist.

Mike’s Mann Mix for the Last Remains of the Magnolia

1. One (from Magnolia)
2. Momentum (from Magnolia)
3. Build That Wall (from Magnolia)
4. Deathly (from Magnolia or Bachelor No. 2)
5. Driving Sideways (from Magnolia)
6. You Do (from Magnolia or Bachelor No. 2)
7. Wise Up (from Magnolia)
8. Save Me (from Magnolia or Bachelor No. 2)
9. How Am I Different (Bachelor No. 2)
10. Nothing Is Good Enough (Bachelor No. 2)
11. Red Vines (Bachelor No. 2)
12. The Fall of the World’s Own Optimist (Bachelor No. 2)
13. Satellite (Bachelor No. 2)
14. Ghost World (Bachelor No. 2)
15. Calling It Quits (Bachelor No. 2)
16. Just Like Anyone (Bachelor No. 2)
17. Susan (Bachelor No. 2)
18. It Takes All Kinds (Bachelor No. 2)
19. Nothing Is Good Enough (Instrumental) (Magnolia)

Pylon – Gyrate Plus (CD, DFA 2181CD, 2007) ($5.98) This is one that I’d hoped would come to me as a promo for review, but at $5.98 used, it was worth buying. I was surprised to see its spine looking up at me from the bins. Pylon was one of the seminal Athens, GA bands and were contemporaries of the B-52’s. Started as a kind of side project for its members who really thought of themselves more of an art collective. They were inspired by the B-52’s very stripped down approach (at least in the early days). I think you can hear a lot of similarities in the tribal dance beats and angular guitars. I became familiar with Pylon through the documentary “Athens, GA Inside/Out” and their performance of “Stop It.” When I got to college in the late 80’s I met a guy named Tom Lally who had the Pylon records on vinyl. These were on the now-defunct DB Recs label. I had made a tape of Gyrate and Chomp. Pylon broke up after Chomp just as they were asked to open for U2. Pylon reformed in 1990 for Chain on the now defunct Sky Records. I bought Chain when it came out and the 1988 Hits compilation on DB Recs. Other than the few tracks on Hits, the tracks from Chomp have not seen re-release. I hope that DFA is planning to reissue Chomp as well.

Listening to these songs again for the first time since the Nineties, I can tell that my remedial bass-playing skills are very influenced by Pylon– especially the track “Volume” on Gyrate. Pylon got back together last year and played a handful of shows to promote this re-issue and there are a couple of them available via BitTorrent.

R.E.M. are fans of Pylon and covered “Crazy” on their Dead Letter Office album of B-Sides.

Click Here to visit Southern Shelter’s page of live mp3’s from Pylon.

Iron and Wine – The Shepherd’s Dog (CD, SubPop SPCD 710, 2007) ($7.99) I got this one from CD’s Plus. I was happy to have stumbled into this one. I was really impressed with Sam Beam’s collaboration with Calexico for the In the Reins EP. Shepherd’s Dog picks up nicely from there. Full instrumentals provided with help again from Joey Burns and Paul Niehaus. Very nice percussion one this record makes it kind of a toe-tapper for me. Sam’s voice is one of my favorites in indie rock today. Brilliant record, I can’t recommend it enough.