Idolator: jellyfish

Glen Campbell's Having The Time Of His Life

Dan Gibson — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EDT

ARTIST: Glen Campbell
TITLE: Meet Glen Campbell
RELEASE DATE: Aug. 19, 2008
WEB DEBUT: July 17, 2008

ONE LISTEN VERDICT: I think we're probably all tired of the "old guy doing ironic covers of popular songs" shtick, which is why I'm pleasantly surprised that Meet Glen Campbell isn't a joke record in the Paul Anka/Pat Boone vein but an enjoyable listening experience. The tracklisting gives some indication that Campbell isn't intending to make a fool of himself here, and a band featuring former Jellyfish cohorts Roger Manning Jr. and Jason Falkner probably helps as well. While Travis' "Sing" and Green Day's "Good Riddance" might be dubious choices, the middle of the album features well-picked songs performed as closely to the sound of Campbell's Jimmy Webb glory days as possible. The album's two Tom Petty tracks ("Walls" and "Angel Dream") sound like classic Campbell, solidly played and well sung, and the Replacements' "Sadly Beautiful" might be better in Glen's hands than it was in Paul's, as ridiculous as that sounds. Even a Foo Fighters track that didn't mean much to me in the past ("Times Like These") ends up sounding like a companion piece to "Wichita Lineman." The album isn't great all the way through, but overall, it's certainly good.

The Glen Campbell Show [homepage]

Panic At The Disco Play With Dolls

Maura Johnston — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:45:00 EDT

"That Green Gentleman" is one of the standouts from Panic At The Disco's Pretty. Odd, and its fussy harmonies and baroqueish stylings are well-matched with this cute clip, which is stuffed with Russian dolls, old-timey bikes, and lots of kids gleefully running around. (Even the product placement is mercifully—and dare I say tastefully?—brief, although I could just be saying that because I'm still suffering PTSD from that Fergie song for Sex And The City.) "Do you think they want to be the Monkees?" a friend of mine asked after I sent him the YouTube of this clip. "Nah," I said. "I think they're aiming in a different direction..."

I know, I know, they don't reach those heights. But can you blame them for trying?

Panic At The Disco - That Green Gentleman [YouTube]
Jellyfish - The King Is Half-Undressed [YouTube]

Desperate Blogger Resorts To Last-Ditch YouTube Search, Pop Bliss Ensues

mjohnston — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:37:58 EDT

Today has been so devoid of news—at least in quantity—that I'm starting to think that my hangover from last night is actually manifesting itself as a drawn-out nightmare, one where I'm sorta sweaty, refreshing a bled-dry RSS reader, and vaguely hungry for a burger the size of my head (hold the jalapeno) but unable to procure said burger because I need to post something. So why not throw up a new-to-me clip of one of my favorite bands performing one of their best songs on Jools Holland's BBC show, if only because I suspect it'll bring a new round of commenters (and a few Idolator stalwarts) out of the woodwork and into the Jellyfish-praising fray? (If only some enterprising fan out there could find a way to get their performance at MTV Spring Break online, or at least in front of my eyes. Hint hint.)

Jellyfish - The Ghost at Number One (Live on Later...) [YouTube]

The Cover-Song Showcase Showdown: It's Time For The Jellyfish Comeback

mjohnston — Tue, 15 May 2007 12:45:31 EDT

The current No. 1 single in the UK is a double A-side by the British boy band McFly (whose existence we actually were reminded of the other night during an insomnia-spawned viewing of the not-very-good Lindsay Lohan vehicle Just My Luck), and one of those A-sides is a sunshiny-bright take on "Baby's Coming Back," originally by the criminally underexposed '90s outfit Jellyfish. While we're happy that "Back" scribe Andy Sturmer is finally getting his pop-genius due on the charts, we're curious as to which version of the song our readers would rather hear blaring from their local radio stations this summer:

McFly, Arctic Monkeys Rule UK Charts [Billboard]

The Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda Files: Crying Over Jellyfish's "Spilt Milk"

mjohnston — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 15:03:33 EST

We're probably never going to run out of contenders for the Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda Files, Idolator's every-so-often look at records that didn't get their due. Today, we feature the power-pop outfit Jellyfish, and their second album, Spilt Milk.

Artist:Jellyfish
Album: Spilt Milk, 1993
What happened: This Bay Area band lost two members between the releases of its first and second albums, but the songwriting duo of Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning remained intact. Spilt Milk, the band's sophomore effort, tricked out Sturmer and Manning's instantly memorable melodies with over-the-top orchestration and Queen-recalling choirs; the band split up, though, shortly after Spilt Milk's release, due in part to simmering tensions between the two songwriters.
Why it should have been a hit: Spilt Milk was ridiculous, grandiose, and lovely, rolling through genres while staying true to the pop-song ideal. "Joining A Fan Club" was the pick hit off the album, but it didn't catch fire on radio (perhaps the "When You Wish Upon A Star" recall freaked out radio programmers?); the album's closing one-two punch, the power ballad "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late" and the circus-freaky "Brighter Day," still make us want to hit the "repeat" button for the whole damn album.

~~Jellyfish - Joining A Fan Club~~ [MP3, link expired]
~~Jellyfish - Too Much, Too Little, Too Late~~ [MP3, link expired]
~~Jellyfish - Brighter Day~~ [MP3, link expired]
The Jellyfish Homepage [zenandjuice.com]