Daniel Toccalino of Leopold & His Fiction: 2006 In Review

At one point or another I devoted an immense amount of attention, in some form or another, to each of these songs. I can’t rightly tell you if I was obsessed with the thirteenth song I heard in March and I am not able to say if the tenth song is better than the last song on the list; but as much as I would like to describe what I feel and know about each individually, I will pick a few that had a marvelous influence on me and those I can easily connect to the idea of my encouragement and songwriting. The idea of old versus new is the first thing came to my mind when revisiting this list of songs, the oldest having to be “When I Was a Cowboy” by Leadbelly.

If y’all haven’t heard it’s about time you cough up a measly dollar or two and buy the song, actually don’t be a cheap skate and buy the whole goddamn album. It could very well beat anything you have worth living for. This story in particular could chill the flesh off of your scrawny self and if it doesn’t, you’re not listening to what the man is saying. He’s talking right from everything he knows; he is the encyclopedia of scary shit in the old world. You try going to battle with Jessie James on the dusty plains of the ol’ west when bullets are falling all around just like the showerin’ rain. It beats the hell out of a lot of folks writing songs today, or any day, trying to get a point across of some evil things.

Now skip ahead a few years, about forty, to The Stooges. This song hasn’t the disenchanting element of “When I Was a Cowboy” and it doesn’t touch on the substantive ideals which a good portion of the band’s other work consists of, but “Real Cool Time” has a damn good story line. It’s simple and I feel pretty cool every time I listen to it; a raunchy visceral fascination of Detroit mediocrity and pleasure. Head hung low and demure emotion towards the cold cement and its virtue. Have you been to that part of the world? It hasn’t changed a whole lot. I think I left for a good reason.

Across the sea, across the sea, across the sea to London, England. Right around the exact same 1968 that the Stooges were recording their debut album Joe Cocker had him a big party inside a recording studio and called his debut album With A Little Help From My Friends. God dang right he had some help. A lot of the songs were covers and though he might have done a very exceptional job I must insist it was his friends on the album that made Joe shine. Take a little listen to track two on the album, a song published in 1926 that is very omnipotent and important in history, “Bye Bye Blackbird.” Joe does a pretty good job as do the background singers but none of that really means a thing once you get to the guitar solo at just about 1:40 in the song. The soloist? Some guy named Jimmy Page. It makes me downright moan. Now fast forward to recent times with “Strange Desire” by the Black Keys.

As a newer music or an older music, this song leaves me wanting to keep my band a rock duo. Every time I go and look for a bass player or an organist The Black Keys find their way to my ears and all that extra instrumentation is equaled to rubbish. Have you ever been to Ohio? Akron mind you? I have and I don’t remember it being as awesome as the band might lead you to believe, but wanting to move to the Midwest after hearing the band definitely says something of the music.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Phenomena” is powerful through its guitar tone, but more importantly through its vocal tone. I am so impressed how tight this band is, but then again the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are essentially a group of two instrumentalists. A rock duo with the addition of a singer makes all the sense in the world. Show Your Bones is pale in comparison to their debut but it holds its ground with songs like this.

I will have to encapsulate all of the independent bands that I cannot say enough about with our good, good friends The Studiofix. The pretty little things they are, down the way of Los Angeles, play some of the best music I’ve heard in my day! Certainly one of the best bands we’ve ever played a show with. Buy their whole album, get it, buy it, steal it, they just want you to give it a go. The Bloody Hollies are a San Diego based band you wish you were cool enough to know. I wish I was cool enough to know them. They have a ton of albums so you haven’t any reason to not listen to them. The Happy Hollows, another Los Angeles based group, are phenomenal. See them live for their best features, watch Sara roll around and she’ll make you wanna roll around too. They’ll make you want to do things you ain’t never done before. Listen to my favorite song of theirs, “Tell Me.” Ride the Blinds, by far the most talented band we’ve played with in terms of each member knowing its place—voice, instruments and how to use each of them. You like Cream? You like Led Zeppelin? Then why the fuck you haven’t you listened to everything Ride the Blinds has released? And Siddhartha, a Detroit born rock n’ roll band that will make you know something good one way or another. I think all these bands are going to be huge soon, I would say just you wait but you wont be waiting long. Buy into them before some enormous record company they become associated with makes you. Go and listen, do it for ol’ times sake. Do it just for me.

I want to pick apart each song on the list but all in all they make sense on their own. I don’t really mind when these songs were released because to me they might as well have always been around. Thank the good Lord that I crossed them this year. I haven’t worn the shoes of each of these songwriters but I try my hardest to put myself in their place. I think in a manner of traveling when I hear these songs with each story taking me a place I haven’t been. A state of the United States of America is as new to me in my head as it is in these songs. I have been to a lot of places but I haven’t stood in a lot of people’s shoes. These songs have been the most beneficial in allowing me to attempt to do so in 2006. Thanks.

The Best of the Rest:

Devendra Banhart “Now That I Know”
The Bloody Hollies “Cut it Loose”
The Stooges “Little Doll”
Link Wray “Rumble”
The Allman Brothers “Whipping Post”
The 5th Dimension “California Soul”
The Jimi Hendrix Experience “Bold as Love”
Jacques Dutronc “Et Moi, Et Moi, Et Moi”
Wolfmother “Woman”
Johnny Cash “Big River”
The Kills “Hitched”
Love “My Flash On You”
Bob Dylan “Shelter From The Storm”
T-Rex “Ride a White Swan”
Nico “These Days”
Howlin’ Wolf “Shake For Me”
The Kingsmen “Jolly Green Giant”
Hank Williams “Lonesome Blues”
Patsy Cline “She’s Got You”
The Detroit Cobras “Last Night”
The Castaways “Liar, Liar”
Ride The Blinds “Whiskey at Church”
Cream “Four Until Late”
The Faces “(I Know) I’m Losing You (BBC Live)”
Jack “Never Far Away”
Soledad Brothers “White Front St. Front”
Siddhartha “Dumbcake”

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Also: Influenza with Daniel James of Leopold and his Fiction