Tune Tag #65 with Matt McClure: Lilys, Lickerish Quartet, Beck, Mavis Staples, Wilco, Three O'Clock, Steve Earle, Quick

Remember Pop Rocks? Blue Razz was the nazz, natch! Well, we got a little pop, and a little rock in our Tune Tag today! You may actually discover a new fave flavor!

Greetings, Matt! Polydactyl Tag! You’re IT!

Tune Tag welcomes singer/songwriter,

Matt McClure

!

Matt: I grew up a nervous kid on the Jersey coast, in the middle of the Pine Barrens. I’ve been working professionally in the video game industry for the past 25 years. 

I was the singer and songwriter for the bands The Figurants and Red Kitchen, and have been making a go of it on my own for the past few years. 

I’ve released 4 solo albums including my latest In Situ, that you can stream everywhere.  I’m just about done with my next album, Eastern Outs, which should see release before the end of the year.  

Limited-run copies of my debut album, Goodbye Felons, are available on vinyl (for the cheap) on eBay and Discogs.

I’m new to Substack, so I’m still getting my feet wet and figuring out how I want to make it work, but you can expect lyric art, videos, song stories and journal entries!  Thanks for having me, Brad!!

🎵Stream Matt’s songs, also, via SoundCloud, by clicking here!🎵

Last week, we Halloweened with

Steve Goldberg

of Earworms and Song Loops:

Tune Tag #64 with Steve Goldberg of "Earworms & Song Loops," Pt. 3: Hall & Oates, Tina Turner, Heaven 17, Blue Öyster Cult, Glen Campbell, Divinyls, Billy Lyall

Next week, we’ll enjoy the Tune Tag company of guest,

Dee Rambeau

, of Of a Sober Mind!

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Matt’s song #1 sent to Brad: Lilys, “A Nanny in Manhattan,” 1996

Matt’s rationale: I chose this song as a sort of meatball right over the plate, considering it’s got a lot of big themes to choose from: NYC, jealousy, infidelity, film criticism, nannies, stalking, and trains. 

It’s also just an incredible piece of writing and production on a classic, wildly under-appreciated album.  I’m lucky enough to call this song’s composer, Kurt Heasley (above), a friend throughout the years, and I even pitched him a video idea for this very song using goat puppets (get it?  “Nanny”?). I’ve thought so much about this video that never happened that it kinda feels like it did!

Brad’s response: Bits’n’pieces from the band’s Wiki page: “The Lilys have gained a reputation for sounding very similar to other artists and bands over the years, with Michael Sandlin of Pitchfork Media going so far as saying, “You might say Lilys frontman, Kurt Heasley, is a world-class thief.”

But, as one journalist (Vickie Chang in a 2006 OC Weekly in Orange County, California) put it, “I know we’re supposed to hate bands that sound too much like other bands, but the difference with The Lilys is that they do it so blatantly and so shamelessly, that it’s somehow rendered okay.”

Veteran rock critic,

Robert Christgau

of Substack’s And It Don’t Stop, described the band’s sound (in The Village Voice in 1999) as “amplified watercolors.”

Brad’s song #1 sent to Matt: The Three O’Clock, “Neon Telephone,” 1988

The Three O’Clock circa 1988 (l-r): Michael Quercio (vocals, bass), Jason Falkner (guitar, vocals), Danny Benair (drums, vocals), Mike Mariano (keyboards, vocals).

Matt’s response: I could be wrong, but I believe the commonality between these two songs may lie in a similarity of story: Both are takes on troubles with the narrator’s ladies. “A Nanny in Manhattan”’s story implies infidelity, while “Neon Telephone” outlines a malaise that drains the joy/connection from a romantic entanglement.  

They also both feature a telephone prominently, a wonderful parallel of modern isolation and communication breakdowns. So yeah, maybe that’s it.

Former late-’70s Deaf School-er, Ian Ritchie, recently toured with Roger Waters’ band.

Brad’s rationale: Jason Falkner is listed as having once been a member of Lilys (but, then, 58 others have been, also! Makes me wonder if I ever was, perhaps unwittingly or against my will! Falkner was also in The Three O’Clock in ‘88 for the Vermillion album (produced by former Liverpool art rockers, Deaf School’s sax player, Ian Ritchie, above, for Prince’s Paisley Park Records, distributed by Warner Bros., for whom Deaf School recorded three albums, late-’70s), from whence comes “Neon Telephone.”

Penny Kiley

wrote about Deaf School recently:

Deaf School, June 1988

The following year, Falkner joined Jellyfish, a longtime favorite of FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE, of which this is one example:

GROW BIGGER EARS #11: The "Audio Autopsy" Obsessive Power Pop Playlist Vol. 2-It's All About Wanting...More

Oh, and there’s this: The song (formerly known as a tune) was written by The Artist Formerly Known as Joey Coco (a thinly-disguised Artist Formerly Known as Prince, formerly known as an unpronounceable symbol), with backing vocals by Wendy and Lisa, formerly known as Clarence and Heathcliff:

Matt’s song #2: Wilco, “Jesus, Etc.,” 2002

Matt’s rationale: I’m choosing “Jesus, Etc” primarily because it mentions tall buildings, and that similar line in “Neon Telephone” immediately reminded me of this Wilco classic. And, I’m sure Substack’s

Jeff Tweedy | Starship Casual

is as big a fan of Prince as I am. Not to mention his drumming lad,

Spencer Tweedy

, with his own Substack!

Brad’s response: That’s exactly what I thought, Matt! You just got it before I would have!

Wilco, live on Letterman, with “Jesus, Etc.,” 2008:

Brad’s song #2: Mavis Staples, “Far Celestial Shore,” 2013

Matt’s response: I know that Jeff Tweedy from Wilco has worked extensively with Mavis on her more recent work, so I’m going with that connection. Yep! Here’s proof:

Tune Tag #62 with Peter C. Baker of "Tracks on Tracks": Bob Dylan, Mavis Staples, Jethro Tull, Tweedy, Smog, Alan Parsons, Jeremy Jordan

Judging by the time frame of the video, I’m thinking Jeff might have produced this very song and it certainly does have a Wilco feel to the instrumental track.

Brad’s rationale: I’m kinda betting Matt will immediately see a Gospel, of sorts, connection between Wilco’s “Jesus, Etc” and this Mavis Staples “Far Celestial Shore.” As it happens, Nick Lowe wrote this (which is an infinitely fascinating song choice for Ms. Staples, but does nothing to connect to Wilco, in and of itself), but the real song connection is the Tweedy family connection from Wilco to this Mavis recording:

Jeff plays guitar and bass on Ms. Staples’ 2013 album, One True Vine, and plays OP 1 synth on this track. Jeff’s son, Spencer, plays drums and percussion. I’m gonna guess Jeff, who produced the album, chose the Nick Lowe song for Ms. Staples, who just turned 85.

About a decade ago, the Tweedy’s version of the son imploring the parent, “Hey, Dad, let’s play some catch!”

Matt’s song #3: Steve Earle, “Transcendental Blues,” 2000

Matt’s rationale: You know, I could have sworn that Mavis and Steve worked together at some point, but apparently not. They have toured together (including some upcoming festival shows), however, which makes a tenuous connection but a connection nonetheless.

Plus, she’s a gospel singer and this offering from Earle certainly feels like a gospel song to me.

Brad’s response: No evidence, at least on this 2000 Transcendental Blues album (on Earle’s own E-Squared Records), Matt, of Ms. Staples and Steve working together. An eclectic collection of session cats, though, throughout, including former dB’s drummer, Will Rigby.

Brad’s song #3: The Quick, “No No Girl,” 1976

Making the scene in Hollywood, 1976. With this group, we can’t be too far from the Sunset Strip! Meet the gang: Far left, Former Halfnelson/Sparks guitarist, Earle Mankey, Mercury Records’ new signees, The Quick (with 20-year-old Danny Wilde, 13 years away from being a Rembrandt, front center), KROQ DJ and proprietor of Hollywood’s Rodney’s English Disco, Rodney Bingenheimer to Danny’s left, and The Ramones to Rodney’s left. Standing in the rear, head and shoulders over everyone, producer Kim Fowley, who had just put The Runaways together and produced their debut album.

Matt’s response: I have to admit this is a hard one, but I think I have an (albeit wobbly) connection between this song and Steve Earle’s “Transcendental Blues.” Hear me out: While these two outfits don’t seem to have a lot of crossover or commonality, the producer of this album is Earle Mankey, so they both share the “Earle” name! Was that it?! Somehow, I think it might run deeper than that.

Brad’s rationale: The Quick’s 1976 Mondo Deco was produced by Kim Fowley and Earle Mankey, with one Earle matching another, in name only (are Steve and Mankey the only double-e “Earle”s in music?). Later that same year, the Mankey/Fowley duo produced The Runaways’ sophomore effort, Queens of Noise.

To learn more about Danny Wilde and Phil Solem (of Great Buildings, and The Rembrandts, who had a late-’80s hit with “I’ll Be There For You”), click here for

Abandoned Albums Podcast

’s YouTube interview with the pair!

Matt’s song #4: Beck, “Lazy Flies,” 1998

Matt’s rationale: I love some Beck stuff, especially the Dust Brothers album and Mutations, which this song is featured on (produced by Beck and Nigel Godrich). 

Speaking of the Dust Brothers, when I was a kid and Paul’s Boutique came out in 1989, Beastie Boys did a video for “Shake Your Rump,” and they put EZ Mike of the Dust Brothers’ phone number at the end. I called him so much after that, that I had to get a job at 14 to pay off the huge phone bill I wracked up calling Los Angeles from New Jersey, where I grew up!

Danny Benair

Special note: We were reminded, via social media, by Danny Benair (drummer for The Quick, The Three O’Clock, Paisley Underground, and others), that there is an incredible link between The Quick, and Beck’s father, composer/arranger/producer (and former staff arranger for Elektra Records), David Campbell!

In 1978, Campbell produced 11 sides with The Quick (known as “The Elektra Singles”), and while the band never signed with Elektra, a compilation album (produced by Benair—who also wrote the liner notes—pictured far left in pic below) with those sides was released in 2003, called Untold Rock Stories, on Burger Records:

Thanks, Danny B.!

Brad’s song #4: The Lickerish Quartet, “Fadoodle,” 2020

The Lickerish Quartet, circa 2020 (l-r): Eric Dover, Roger Joseph Manning, Jr., and Tim Smith.

Brad’s rationale: As for The Lickerish Quartet, and their gloriously euphemistic 2020 “Fadoodle,” from their Threesome, Vol. 1 album (2020, produced and arranged by the band), the Quartet is Roger Joseph Manning, Jr., Eric Dover, and Tim Smith. Manning played all manner of keyboards on Beck’s Mutations album:

All three members of the Quartet have, at various times, been members of Jellyfish, the wildly inventive, but short-lived power pop band (only 2 albums, Bellybutton and Spilt Milk—1990 and 1993, respectively).

Matt’s response: This song is wild, so fun! At first, I was attaching the general goofiness of both acts/songs as the connection but upon further research, it appears a member of the quartet worked with Beck on a number of songs.  

And that’s a wrap! Thanks so much!

Brad: Thank you, Matt! Thanks for playing The Tag!