No. 4: Toronto Blue Jays

Baseball, eh?

It wasn’t until about a year and a half ago when I was watching the Orioles play the Blue Jays that I realized how much I missed the old Toronto unis. The tone-on-tone blue palette works so well, and contrasts nicely with the red symbolizing the Canadian flag. It’s a real shame that the ball club felt they needed to mess with the old design, but I guess I can kind of understand the reasoning behind it; it was largely unchanged for the first 25 years of the team’s existence, and it did have a somewhat dated retro 70s/80s feel. Plus, the single best way a sports franchise can drum up merchandising dollars is to change uniforms.

That being said, it’s somewhat disheartening that they went in the direction they did; there’s something very late 20th/early 21st century about the current logo and uniform in terms of the color palette and very streamlined design, but it’s not particularly timeless. It already looks pretty dated, and a little too much like a minor league uniform for comfort. There’s a good reason that the Red Sox, Yankees and Dodgers have left well enough alone over the last 70-80 years: baseball is a business, and every bit of marketing material, from letterhead to the logos on the team’s caps should reinforce and strengthen the brand. The easiest way to achieve that sort of brand positioning is to simplify. It’s no surprise that Tampa Bay is finally selling merchandise—winning helps, but so does not having a gradient-heavy manta ray on your uniform.

No. 8: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Bucco Bruce!

Bucco Bruce!

I’m not a big fan of “character” logos; they tend to be less impactful than a simple, streamlined icon utilizing universal visual signifiers. But Bucco Bruce, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ logo from 1976 to 1996, is just too great. It’s completely over-the-top and flamboyant, which matches the team name perfectly. When people hear the word “pirate”, they immediately envision dirty, quasi-emaciated degenerates with scurvy that lay waste to government property and spend their off-days raping and pillaging. But “buccaneers” are glamourous! They don’t rape, they “ravish wenches”. They don’t pillage, they “re-appropriate”. And they’re such snappy dressers! The dandies of the pirating world!

Ultimately these distinctions are semantic quibblings, but the fact remains that carrying daggers in one’s mouth is bad-ass, the red-and-orange color scheme perfectly references a gulf coast sunset, and that wink would make even the burliest defensive lineman come hither. Here’s to you, Bruce.

Random Rules, PGE Edition

(This idea was totally stolen from my good buddy Jarrett over at the Dude Weekend blog, which he in turn had pilfered from The Onion’s A/V Club website.)

From Jarrett: “For those not familiar with it, The Onion A/V Club has a feature called “Random Rules” where they get a musician or celebrity to set their mp3 players on random, play a bunch of tracks, and comment on whatever pops up. It’s an interesting insight into their artistry, so in an attempt to feign both insight and artistry I propose we all do the same.”

Duly noted.

1. The Radio Dept.-Deliverance

Clearly a holdover from the Pet Grief sessions, this cut appeared on last year’s This Past Week e.p. There’s something so utterly simplistic, effortless and derivative yet engaging about The Radio Dept.’s aesthetic. They’re Swedish, and are on Labrador Records, featuring, pound for pound, one of the strongest label rosters in indie music. They’re like the Rays this season; doing lots of little things right, playing small ball with the best of them, and occasionally juicing one out of the park.

2. Pulp-This Is Hardcore

File under “Sleaziest Songs Ever Written”. Without doubt the most Scott Walker-indebted song Jarvis ever wrote. I have to be in a certain frame of mind to sit through the whole song, but when I do, all I can think about is how critics always bad-mouthed Jarvis’s singing. He never utilized much range before this song, because most of Pulp’s tunes didn’t require it. But his vocals on This Is Hardcore are easily some of the most impassioned and expressive ever laid down on tape/hard disk during the Britpop era.

3. Mixtapes & Cellmates-Something Less Than Last Time

I don’t recall how I found out about these guys. Popmatters, maybe? Anyway, my first exposure to them was their song ‘Quiet’, which has a weird Bright Eyes-meets-Dntel/Postal Service vibe. While unfortunately none of their albums have made it onto American record store racks, eMusic does have them available for download, and I highly recommend everything you can get your grubby little digital paws on.

4. The Charlatans (UK)-I Can’t Even Be Bothered

Before they became fixtures of Cool Britannia-era Britpop known for epic keyboard-led jams, these guys were all about early-90s dance-rock. My abiding memory of this song in particular was how I let my friend Tom borrow a mix-tape of Charlatans tracks one Summer while we were in college, and how utterly sick he got of them as a result of only having that one tape in his car. Oh well. He can just consider it preemptive payback for making me eat at CiCi’s pizza buffet over his bachelor party weekend.

5. Division of Laura Lee-The Truth Is Fucked

I’m not sure exactly what DOLL’s politics are. My memory of this song and its parent album is sort of lost in the haze of that stretch back in the early 2000s when it seemed like everyone I knew (and myself) were in the thrall of garage-rock. I’m glad I held onto this one, though. While the vitriol of those bands is pretty much an interchangeable affectation, DOLL sort of presaged the mid-2000s trend of new new wave by infusing their garage-y inclinations with a darker, sinister post-punk edge. ‘The Truth Is Fucked’ has a killer groove that wouldn’t sound out of place on the first Black Rebel Motorcycle Club album.

6. The Cardigans-Rise & Shine

There’s not much to say about this one. Catchy pop tune sung by a frostily beautiful Swede? Sign me up. I will say this, though: I would not mind being lost in a strange country and running into Nina Persson, even if she sang to me instead of providing good directions.

7. Wye Oak-Regret

I just found out about this great duo from right here in Baltimore a couple months ago. Sort of a sunnier version of Giant Drag without all the grunge-y mid-90s-isms. ‘Regret’ is actually a gentle little folk ditty sung by drummer/keyboardist Andy Stack on Wye Oak’s debut, If Children. The whole album is sort of a cross-section of all the best parts of indie-rock from the last 20 years. Pick it up!