Twangville

Jun 5, 2009

Todd Snider/The Excitement Plan

by in Reviews

Todd SniderMy run in with Todd Snider probably happened around the mid-nineties when his comedy tune “Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues” lit up radio stations throughout the country. It was a funny song for the times and I just assumed Todd was some kind of Weird Al parody guy that had scored a cute little radio hit.

Fast forward about 5 years later, say around 2000, and I was listening to Uncle Gram one Saturday morning and I heard this killer song called “Long Year.” (Uncle Gram does a great Americana show on the college radio station here in Columbia, South Carolina. His show on Saturday mornings from 10-12 features a lot of the artists we write about here on Twangville. Stream it here.) Turns out it was the same guy but a way different subject matter.  I went and bought the album, Happy To Be Here, enjoyed it, but kind of forgot about Todd. 

Let’s fast forward again to around 2006.  I’m hanging out with my friend Tim in Nashville and he’s like, “You’ve got to hear this record.”  It was Todd Snider’s The Devil You Know.  After listening to this record over and over and over I was hooked.  I went back and bought all of his stuff from this decade and finally caught a live show last year at the Isle of Palms.  It was just Todd and his guitar and it was fantastic.  (Can you tell I’m a fan yet?)

Well, as you know its 2009, and Yep Roc is about to release The Excitement Plan.  And yes, I was excited to get a copy for review.  Its vintage Snider filled with wit and cynicism and will probably be popping up on my I-Pod a good bit in the next few months.  There’s not really a bad song on the album (although I wasn’t crazy about “Dollface”) but some of my favorites so far include the gospel-tinged “Money, Compliments and Publicity”, (yes, Todd wants it all) the story-song-Steve Earle-sounding “Corpus Christi Bay”, the maybe autobiographical “Greencastle Blues” (although I honestly don’t know) and the awesome baseball anthem “America’s Favorite Pastime” which Snider released as a video last year.  There’s also a duet with country sensation Loretta L. (I’ll preserve her anonymity) that you can tell was fun to record.

If you like your politics and depression served up with a smirk and a smile then The Excitement Plan is for you.  You can preorder at yeproc.com and I’m guessing it will also be available on I-Tunes and the like in a couple of weeks.  Support Todd!  We need more singer/songwriters like him out there on the road. 

RIYL:  Cory Branan, Loudon Wainwright III, rusty toothpicks

Visit Todd on MySpace here.

About the author:  To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box.

  • http://www.last.fm/user/MattKBrooks2781 Matt

    So far it sounds like a good album. I does showcase all of his different styles of songs that you see throughout most of his albums. However, I do miss some of his early more melodic up-tempo songs (Bring’em Home fits what I’m talking about pretty well).

    And, just in case you didn’t know, “Corpus Christi Bay” is a Robert Earl Keen song. One of my favorite songs of all time. Keen and early Earle are pretty similar though. Robert Earle Keen covered Steve Earle’s song Tom Ames Prayer on one of his albums.

    Didn’t mean to write so much. Great site though.

    Matt Brooks

  • Kevin

    I don’t know what it is with Todd, but he gets more and more disappointing with every album. I love his 90′s stuff, and the East Nashville Skyline is one of my favorite albums ever. But the last two and and a half, counting Peace Queer have been a letdown.

    Every song on here starts with a weak plinking blues beat, and it’s basically him talking over just an acoustic guitar. He can still turn a phrase here and there, but there’s nothing on this album, save maybe “Bring ‘Em Home” that makes you want to sing along with him. It just comes off as so lazy and he seems too tired to pick up the tempo a little.

    The worst of it is a song where he sings from the POV of a newspaper that’s delivered, read quickly, and discarded, an idea that I’m sure seemed a lot more interesting when he wrote it in a haze of pot smoke.

    The best song on the album is “Corpus Christi Bay”, but it’s kind of irrelevant, considering Keen’s original is much better.

    I just miss the old Todd, I guess. He used to be a lot more fun. Going to see him in Boston Friday night, but I’m a lot less jazzed about than I was two days ago. Hopefully, he’ll keep songs from the ironically titled “The Excitement Plan” to a minimum. This album is anything but exciting.

  • Kyle P

    I have to disagree with Kevin. I think this could be Snider’s best-produced studio recording. I agree he does seem to be using a lot more bluesy riffs for his songs, but I just saw him at Bonnaroo and he played a lot of stuff on the new record and it worked great (particularly Greencastle Blues, which worked surprisingly well on acoustic guitar). REK came out to sing “Corpus Christi Bay” with Todd! Having listened to both versions, however, I like the intimacy of Todd’s version better than the slicker country-rock approach o the original.


Readers' Pick

What is your favorite release for week of May 21?

View Results

Recommendations

A selection of favorites from our editors and polls.
album coveralbum coveralbum cover

View more recent recommendations »

Radio

Listening Booth

There are several ways for you to check out some of the music we feature on Twangville. Here are a few:

Authors

Our posse of gunslinging authors.

Learn more About Us.