The circumstances are sort of ironic, but having the Grammys on in the background a couple Sundays back reminded me to get caught up with a couple of artists whose career trajectories I have been familiar with from the start, The Arcade Fire and Eminem, and I bought both of their newest albums a couple of days later.
Back when The Slim Shady LP was released in 1999, my friend and I were two severely fucked up New Yorkers. The brightest memory from that time might actually be spending hours in his grandmother's apartment watching MTV. I guess it was a renaissance for videos, because I can remember three memorable ones from the time: "No Scrubs" by TLC, "When a Woman's Fed Up" by R. Kelly and "My Name Is" by Eminem.
We were hooked from the opening line, "Hi kids, do you like Primus?" and then got sucked into the entire album's brilliant expression of maternal resentment, drug addiction and pointed-yet-directionless anger and frustration.
(As an aside, "My Name is" is a good example of a solution to Noah Zark's #2 Rant, and simultaneously discovering both the clean and dirty versions is an under-appreciated treat for hip-hop fans).
Anyway, it's good to see Em back in form, he had me doing air pen in the car the other day:
Arcade Fire is a band I knew about just as Funeral (which for months I thought was called "Funreal") was becoming a sensation. A co-worker friend of mine from Blue Ribbon Brooklyn knew some of the band members, and if I'm not mistaken the first time I saw them was either headlining or opening at the Leonard St. Knitting Factory with another Canadian band, The Unicorns, who poured honey all over their instruments in a really fascinating display that one might also call a "shit show." I might be conflating memories.
I remember wondering aloud where the band would go with its clear talent and potential for commercial success and how it would balance that traditionally tricky combination. Well, six years later, we might have the answer: Seems like The Arcade Fire worked hard on their music, put out good records and when it came time to make money off their hard work, they did it right, selling the anthemic "Wake Up" to the NFL.
(Edit, 2/23 to include info from a commenter who sounds like he knows what he's talking about: "I'm pretty sure Arcade Fire licensed their track to the NFL and all of the proceeds went to their charity of choice for Haiti relief. The first time No Cars Go was used by Fox NFL, I'm pretty sure they got sued. So, I don't think AF has licensed a song for profit to date.")