PUNDGE IN PRACTICE

Still no Gang of Four at the Apple store [remember the GoF song "Capital (It Fails Us Now)" -LoM], but - hello - the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are front and center on the opening screen. "Maps" and "Fever to Tell" are definitely near-pundge, with "Fever to Tell" the closer, to my mind. The songs I consider most pundgish have fairly stripped-down instrumentation, which puts a lot of pressure on the vocalist to carry the song. Their singer is as up to the job as anyone.

The Screaming Trees are, as advertised, awesome. Everyone should go get some Screaming Trees albums. This is the third grundge band I can officially stand! (Ixnay on the Oundgartensay...) PWP favors the earlier Sweet Oblivion, and songs like "Troubled Times" are right on the mark. But the later Dust also has plentiful pundgitude and, as a bonus I suppose, other moods as well. Some of the songs are in major keys, but they're all really good. According to the iTunes biography, the lead singer was a friend of Kurt Cobain! So there you go.

But it's not all wine and roses in the house of pundge. There are dilemmas and hard choices to be made. I refer, of course, to the Cowboy Junkies. Their name alone pushes them into the top ranks of candidate bands. And their sound is, at first listening, quite pundgy. But all their songs sound the same! So either every Cowboy Junkies song is a pundge song, or none are. What to do? Well, I propose three tests for borderline music: 1) Is it a grundge band (no)? 2) Is it a punk band (no)? 3) Is the music spare, dry and emotionally desperate (yes, yes, and maybe somewhat)? And that's my problem with them - they've got the mood right, but I have to look around for the emotional content. For now "Sweet Jane" makes the playlist, but no others unless accompanied by proof of actual human tragedy.

In the close-but-no-cigar category, we have The Smashing Pumpkins' "Never Let Me Down Again". It has many of the elements we're looking for: a strong vocal performance, spare instrumentation, and some dissonance. I thought at first it might qualify, but there are three issues: 1) It's a little too slick and easy. 2) It's a little too close to a major key. 3) Finally (and I'm afraid this decision cannot be appealed), it's a Depeche Mode song. NEXT!