Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
High-Decibel Mixology (9/15/90)
Here's another mix from 20 freakin' years ago, and indeed, the one that gave this feature its name. I was firmly entrenched at the Peabody Times as the schools reporter, which meant I covered a lot of School Committee meetings and whenever there was some wacky assembly activity like the Traveling Tidepool. Not exactly Woodward and Bernstein, but it was a job. I was still thinking I would move on to a bigger paper in a year, but that never happened.
I started going to a lot of concerts: Smithereens, Aerosmith/Black Crowes, Jerry Seinfeld, Robert Plant, and even James Taylor (wasn't my idea). I drove up to Toronto in August with my brother again, this time for a week. We saw three games at the then-brand new Skydome, two against the Red Sox and one against the Brewers; the place sold out all 50,000 seats every night, but my aunt hooked us up.
At the time, I was a regular customer of Rockit Records in Saugus, which was a great store on Route 1 North. In the '80s, I used to frequent the Rockit store in Nashua with my buddy Tat to find the latest metal releases and issues of Kerrang! magazine. I used to comb through the used CD offerings to get good deals; that's where I bought the Black Crowes' debut Shake Your Money Maker, the Kings of the Sun album (had to look that one up; traded it in long ago) and the Dread Zeppelin disc, both of which are featured on this tape. The store closed in the mid-to-late '90s, unfortunately. Rockit was one of the last of the great indie record stores in the 'burbs. Thankfully, Newbury Comics (which is a chain with an indie mentality) and the Record Exchange in Salem are still around.
Musically, I still dug the heavy rock, as is evidenced by the presence of Living Colour and Tesla (!) here, and the guitar heroes (Vai, Belew, Johnson, Hendrix, Moore), but I was also broadening my listening habits and getting into acts like Public Enemy. I picked up the cassette of Fear of a Black Planet earlier in '90 and was into it. I liked the Flavor Flav stuff, but was more into Chuck D's booming raps. That dude was SERIOUS. There's also a song off the soundtrack to Mo' Better Blues, featuring none other than Denzel Washington on vocals, kinda jazz-rappin', I guess. He played a trumpet player in the Spike Lee movie, which I quite enjoyed. Listening to it now, it definitely sticks out, but what the hey. They can't all be gems.
Side A
Elvis is Dead - Living Colour
Heartbreaker - Dread Zeppelin
I am a Wild Party - Kim Mitchell
Fuckin' Up - Neil Young
The One Thing - The Pursuit of Happiness
Pop Top 40 - Branford Marsalis Quintet and Terence Blanchard (with Denzel Washington)
Don't Break My Heart! - 24/7 Spyz
911 is a Joke - Public Enemy
Drop the Gun - Kings of the Sun
Pretty Pink Rose - Adrian Belew (with David Bowie)
Cliffs of Dover - Eric Johnson
Side B
That's the Hold (live) - Kim Mitchell
Type - Living Colour
Heaven's Trail (No Way Out) - Tesla
Erotic Nightmares - Steve Vai
Trouble with the Sweet Stuff - Billy Idol
Liberty Lies - David Baerwald
While My Guitar Gently Weeps - Jeff Healey Band
Oh Pretty Woman - Gary Moore
Sister Luck - Black Crowes
Radio One Theme - Jimi Hendrix Experience
Drop the Gun:
911 is a Joke:
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query mixology. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query mixology. Sort by date Show all posts
Friday, August 27, 2010
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Mixology: Totally Intense Tunes, Vol. 1
Editor's note: Mixology is a recurring feature in
which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes or CDs I made over the years.
Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
Totally Intense Tunes, Vol. 1 (2/14/86)
It's been four years since I've done a Mixology post, because I ran out of mixes to write about. But while I was driving around this weekend listening to a mix, I remembered that there was a lost mix, one I had taped over. After I got home, I dug through my cassette collection to see if I could find the tape I had recorded over the lost mix. Sure enough, I got to literally the last tape, a recording of Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime, when I found the original playlist of Totally Intense Tunes underneath the inlay card.
The tape, which I had oh-so-cleverly dubbed "T.I.T.," was made in the spring of my freshman year at UNH, a full 30 (and a half) years ago. It was made on Valentine's Day, which I suppose says something about the state (or lack thereof) of my love life at the time. It was made on the Panasonic all-in-one stereo I had, which was a cheapo receiver/dual cassette deck/turntable combo. No Dolby sound, so it wasn't the best-sounding tape, but it was okay for my purposes.
The tape was made from my extensive collection of vinyl; I had come to school with two boxes of records, one marked "Basic" and one marked "Metallic." My Springsteen-loving buddies got a kick out of the latter and loved to rib me about my love of metal. This mix certainly reflected that love: healthy doses of Zeppelin, Rush, Van Halen, as well as more of the hair metal variety like Dokken, Ratt and Motley Crue. Still, as I hung out with more pop-minded folks, my tastes began to broaden and I started to turn away from the metal somewhat. Not totally, but I kept it under wraps a little more. When I would go home for school breaks, I would hang out with my buddy Chris and crank the hard stuff, but at college, I started listening to more alternative stuff like R.E.M., U2 and the Cure as well as top 40 shizz.
Indeed, it was Chris who lent me me the vinyl of Operation: Mindcrime in the summer of '87, which led me to tape over T.I.T. If anything, it was more metal than the mix, but I was so impressed with the concept album that I had no regrets. Nevertheless, T.I.T. lives on here. Rock on, rocker.
Side A
Territories - Rush
No Quarter - Led Zeppelin
D.O.A. - Van Halen
Battle Scar - Max Webster
Back for More - Ratt
Somebody Get Me a Doctor - Van Halen
Side B
Something for Nothing - Rush
Tooth and Nail - Dokken
Love Ain't No Stranger - Whitesnake
Shapes of Things - Gary Moore
Louder Than Hell - Motley Crue
22 Acacia Ave. - Iron Maiden
Cool Down - Triumph
Totally Intense Tunes, Vol. 1 (2/14/86)
It's been four years since I've done a Mixology post, because I ran out of mixes to write about. But while I was driving around this weekend listening to a mix, I remembered that there was a lost mix, one I had taped over. After I got home, I dug through my cassette collection to see if I could find the tape I had recorded over the lost mix. Sure enough, I got to literally the last tape, a recording of Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime, when I found the original playlist of Totally Intense Tunes underneath the inlay card.
The tape, which I had oh-so-cleverly dubbed "T.I.T.," was made in the spring of my freshman year at UNH, a full 30 (and a half) years ago. It was made on Valentine's Day, which I suppose says something about the state (or lack thereof) of my love life at the time. It was made on the Panasonic all-in-one stereo I had, which was a cheapo receiver/dual cassette deck/turntable combo. No Dolby sound, so it wasn't the best-sounding tape, but it was okay for my purposes.
The tape was made from my extensive collection of vinyl; I had come to school with two boxes of records, one marked "Basic" and one marked "Metallic." My Springsteen-loving buddies got a kick out of the latter and loved to rib me about my love of metal. This mix certainly reflected that love: healthy doses of Zeppelin, Rush, Van Halen, as well as more of the hair metal variety like Dokken, Ratt and Motley Crue. Still, as I hung out with more pop-minded folks, my tastes began to broaden and I started to turn away from the metal somewhat. Not totally, but I kept it under wraps a little more. When I would go home for school breaks, I would hang out with my buddy Chris and crank the hard stuff, but at college, I started listening to more alternative stuff like R.E.M., U2 and the Cure as well as top 40 shizz.
Indeed, it was Chris who lent me me the vinyl of Operation: Mindcrime in the summer of '87, which led me to tape over T.I.T. If anything, it was more metal than the mix, but I was so impressed with the concept album that I had no regrets. Nevertheless, T.I.T. lives on here. Rock on, rocker.
Side A
Territories - Rush
No Quarter - Led Zeppelin
D.O.A. - Van Halen
Battle Scar - Max Webster
Back for More - Ratt
Somebody Get Me a Doctor - Van Halen
Side B
Something for Nothing - Rush
Tooth and Nail - Dokken
Love Ain't No Stranger - Whitesnake
Shapes of Things - Gary Moore
Louder Than Hell - Motley Crue
22 Acacia Ave. - Iron Maiden
Cool Down - Triumph
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Mixology: Sweet Tapeage
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
Mixology: Sweet Tapeage (Fall 1986)
I just went up to the eaves in our bedroom that we use for storage and dug out a whole pile of old cassettes, including this chestnut from my sophomore year at UNH. It was technically the second mix I made that fall, but the other one was taped over at some point. It was called Totally Intense Tunes and was all hard rock stuff like Zeppelin, Whitesnake et al. I'm guessing I was embarrassed by it and recorded something over it, but I wish I hadn't.
Anyhoo, I made this tape (and other one) on my roommate Steve's stereo. He was a good guy, but pretty stressed out because he had a lot going on: He was an engineering major, on the swim team, in a frat and had a hot girlfriend. As a result, he was either out doing something related to one of those things or in the room studying. Meanwhile, here I was, a carefree English major staying up late partying and generally just enjoying myself. I was doing well in my courses, now that I had switched majors from chemical engineering. I liked to stay up late and watch Letterman until 1:30 a.m. and on certain nights, I'd join the guys next door playing quarters, cranking tunes and just making a lot of noise. Which of course bummed out poor Steve, who was trying to get his homework done. The following year, I ended up living off-campus with a couple of the guys who lived next door.
Everything on this tape was recorded off vinyl. I recorded over another cassette; I was able to just now look under the inlay card I had used. It was over a homemade recording of Elton John's Greatest Hits and the handwriting looks like my buddy Chris, who must have given it to me because he didn't want it anymore. I was more than likely flat broke at the time and couldn't afford to buy a new cassette.
Some good stuff on this one that you don't hear much anymore: U2's "Like a Song...", VH's "Women in Love," Rush's "In the End." Some classics: The Who's "Young Man's Blues," Zep's "Trampled Underfoot," The Beatles' "A Day in the Life," Pretenders' "Precious," the Stones' "Hang Fire." Some WTF choices: Henley's "Drivin' With Your Eyes Closed" (didn't get sick of him until '90), Dweezil Zappa's "I Feel Like I Wanna Cry." The Neil Young song was from his '86 album Landing on Water, which was universally panned because of all the synths and stuff, but I kinda liked it. Dug that Plant song a lot, too.
It was '86, the Sox were about to lose the World Series to the Mets in horrific fashion, and life was pretty damn good for the most part.
Side A
A Day in the Life - The Beatles
Distressed - Max Webster
Invisible Sun - The Police
Drivin' With Your Eyes Closed - Don Henley
Like a Song... - U2
Do You Know, Do You Care - Phil Collins
Hippie Dream - Neil Young
Big Time - Peter Gabriel
Women in Love... - Van Halen
In the End - Rush
Side B
Flesh Wound - Robert Palmer
Change It - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Precious - The Pretenders
Gone Hollywood - Supertramp
Little by Little - Robert Plant
Wind Him Up - Saga
Hang Fire - The Rolling Stones
I Feel Like I Wanna Cry - Dweezil Zappa
Young Man's Blues (live) - The Who
Trampled Under Foot - Led Zeppelin
In the End:
Little by Little:
Mixology: Sweet Tapeage (Fall 1986)
I just went up to the eaves in our bedroom that we use for storage and dug out a whole pile of old cassettes, including this chestnut from my sophomore year at UNH. It was technically the second mix I made that fall, but the other one was taped over at some point. It was called Totally Intense Tunes and was all hard rock stuff like Zeppelin, Whitesnake et al. I'm guessing I was embarrassed by it and recorded something over it, but I wish I hadn't.
Anyhoo, I made this tape (and other one) on my roommate Steve's stereo. He was a good guy, but pretty stressed out because he had a lot going on: He was an engineering major, on the swim team, in a frat and had a hot girlfriend. As a result, he was either out doing something related to one of those things or in the room studying. Meanwhile, here I was, a carefree English major staying up late partying and generally just enjoying myself. I was doing well in my courses, now that I had switched majors from chemical engineering. I liked to stay up late and watch Letterman until 1:30 a.m. and on certain nights, I'd join the guys next door playing quarters, cranking tunes and just making a lot of noise. Which of course bummed out poor Steve, who was trying to get his homework done. The following year, I ended up living off-campus with a couple of the guys who lived next door.
Everything on this tape was recorded off vinyl. I recorded over another cassette; I was able to just now look under the inlay card I had used. It was over a homemade recording of Elton John's Greatest Hits and the handwriting looks like my buddy Chris, who must have given it to me because he didn't want it anymore. I was more than likely flat broke at the time and couldn't afford to buy a new cassette.
Some good stuff on this one that you don't hear much anymore: U2's "Like a Song...", VH's "Women in Love," Rush's "In the End." Some classics: The Who's "Young Man's Blues," Zep's "Trampled Underfoot," The Beatles' "A Day in the Life," Pretenders' "Precious," the Stones' "Hang Fire." Some WTF choices: Henley's "Drivin' With Your Eyes Closed" (didn't get sick of him until '90), Dweezil Zappa's "I Feel Like I Wanna Cry." The Neil Young song was from his '86 album Landing on Water, which was universally panned because of all the synths and stuff, but I kinda liked it. Dug that Plant song a lot, too.
It was '86, the Sox were about to lose the World Series to the Mets in horrific fashion, and life was pretty damn good for the most part.
Side A
A Day in the Life - The Beatles
Distressed - Max Webster
Invisible Sun - The Police
Drivin' With Your Eyes Closed - Don Henley
Like a Song... - U2
Do You Know, Do You Care - Phil Collins
Hippie Dream - Neil Young
Big Time - Peter Gabriel
Women in Love... - Van Halen
In the End - Rush
Side B
Flesh Wound - Robert Palmer
Change It - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Precious - The Pretenders
Gone Hollywood - Supertramp
Little by Little - Robert Plant
Wind Him Up - Saga
Hang Fire - The Rolling Stones
I Feel Like I Wanna Cry - Dweezil Zappa
Young Man's Blues (live) - The Who
Trampled Under Foot - Led Zeppelin
In the End:
Little by Little:
Friday, November 23, 2012
Mixology: The Joy of Angst-Ridden, Gen X-er Slacker Rock
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes or CDs I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
The Joy of Angst-Ridden, Gen X-er Slacker Rock (2/4/94)
It's been many moons since the last installment of Mixology, mainly because I've been busy with other stuff and my inventory of mix tapes has dwindled down. But I did have this one kicking around. Alas, I just popped it into my tape deck to get in the mood for this post and about halfway through the first song, the tape deck started eating the tape. This has been part of a complete mutiny on the part of my stereo equipment. It started last year when my turntable (purchased in 1989) finally crapped out. Then a few weeks ago, my CD player (purchased in 1993) just stopped working; whenever I put a CD in, it spins for a moment before being ejected. And today, the tape deck (purchased a few years back off Craigslist) shit the bed. The only thing that still works is the receiver, which I also bought from someone off Craigslist a couple of years ago. I want to replace all these pieces so I can play my CD, vinyl and cassettes from time to time. Granted, most of the time I'm listening to music on my computer or iPod, but every so often I like to crank up something old-school.
Which brings me to this tape, which I've listened to many times in the car (and on the damn tape deck before it decided to defect to the underworld). The title was a reflection of my distaste with the obvious marketing going on at the time targeted at my generation, the so-called "Generation X." It was all pretty lazy stuff, and with movies like Reality Bites hitting the theaters and commercials and TVs shows all portraying flannel-clad, shiftless 20somethings, I was getting pretty sick of the whole thing.
But the music was still good, although it wouldn't be long before grunge copycats would start taking over the rock scene and making alt-rock rather tiresome. This tape is a good representation of what I was into at the time and I still like everything on it except the Counting Crows song (which isn't a bad song, per se, but overplayed and worn out for me. Saw them at Axis before they hit it big and they were fine, but I quickly tired of Adam Duritz and the band got a little too boring for me). I believe I recorded this while I was still living in Middleton, a few weeks before I moved back to Beverly. Things were turning around for me after a depressing stretch of months, and this mix reflected that. Fairly dark stuff, but in a good way.
Alas, I'll never be able to listen to this mix again (unless I make it again). So rest in pieces, faithful mix. You had a good 19-year run.
Side A
Gentlemen - Afghan Whigs
Rotten Apple - Alice in Chains
Veronica - Paw
Monolith - Redd Kross
Solar Sister - The Posies
Dogman - King's X
Crackbabies - Urge Overkill
Blood - Pearl Jam
Only - Anthrax
Scentless Apprentice - Nirvana
Last Chance for a Slow Dance - Fugazi
Latest Monkey - Buffalo Tom
Side B
Reeling - PJ Harvey
Fuck and Run - Liz Phair
Do You Love Me Now? - Breeders
Forbidden World - The Pursuit of Happiness
Dream All Day - The Posies
Time Capsule - Matthew Sweet
Mr. Jones - Counting Crows
Disarm - Smashing Pumpkins
Anything That Way - Buffalo Tom
All Apologies - Nirvana
Can't Fight It - Bob Mould
Take a Walk - Urge Overkill
Rearviewmirror - Pearl Jam
The Joy of Angst-Ridden, Gen X-er Slacker Rock (2/4/94)
It's been many moons since the last installment of Mixology, mainly because I've been busy with other stuff and my inventory of mix tapes has dwindled down. But I did have this one kicking around. Alas, I just popped it into my tape deck to get in the mood for this post and about halfway through the first song, the tape deck started eating the tape. This has been part of a complete mutiny on the part of my stereo equipment. It started last year when my turntable (purchased in 1989) finally crapped out. Then a few weeks ago, my CD player (purchased in 1993) just stopped working; whenever I put a CD in, it spins for a moment before being ejected. And today, the tape deck (purchased a few years back off Craigslist) shit the bed. The only thing that still works is the receiver, which I also bought from someone off Craigslist a couple of years ago. I want to replace all these pieces so I can play my CD, vinyl and cassettes from time to time. Granted, most of the time I'm listening to music on my computer or iPod, but every so often I like to crank up something old-school.
Which brings me to this tape, which I've listened to many times in the car (and on the damn tape deck before it decided to defect to the underworld). The title was a reflection of my distaste with the obvious marketing going on at the time targeted at my generation, the so-called "Generation X." It was all pretty lazy stuff, and with movies like Reality Bites hitting the theaters and commercials and TVs shows all portraying flannel-clad, shiftless 20somethings, I was getting pretty sick of the whole thing.
But the music was still good, although it wouldn't be long before grunge copycats would start taking over the rock scene and making alt-rock rather tiresome. This tape is a good representation of what I was into at the time and I still like everything on it except the Counting Crows song (which isn't a bad song, per se, but overplayed and worn out for me. Saw them at Axis before they hit it big and they were fine, but I quickly tired of Adam Duritz and the band got a little too boring for me). I believe I recorded this while I was still living in Middleton, a few weeks before I moved back to Beverly. Things were turning around for me after a depressing stretch of months, and this mix reflected that. Fairly dark stuff, but in a good way.
Alas, I'll never be able to listen to this mix again (unless I make it again). So rest in pieces, faithful mix. You had a good 19-year run.
Side A
Gentlemen - Afghan Whigs
Rotten Apple - Alice in Chains
Veronica - Paw
Monolith - Redd Kross
Solar Sister - The Posies
Dogman - King's X
Crackbabies - Urge Overkill
Blood - Pearl Jam
Only - Anthrax
Scentless Apprentice - Nirvana
Last Chance for a Slow Dance - Fugazi
Latest Monkey - Buffalo Tom
Side B
Reeling - PJ Harvey
Fuck and Run - Liz Phair
Do You Love Me Now? - Breeders
Forbidden World - The Pursuit of Happiness
Dream All Day - The Posies
Time Capsule - Matthew Sweet
Mr. Jones - Counting Crows
Disarm - Smashing Pumpkins
Anything That Way - Buffalo Tom
All Apologies - Nirvana
Can't Fight It - Bob Mould
Take a Walk - Urge Overkill
Rearviewmirror - Pearl Jam
Friday, August 13, 2010
Mixology: 1993--The Year That Sucked (But Still Managed to Rock)
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
1993: The Year That Sucked (But Still Managed to Rock)
The name of this mix pretty much sums it up. No need to delve into the reasons why '93 blew; that's been covered in detail in past Mixology installments. I can safely say one of the things that got me through was music. It was a good year for the brand of music I was digging, which was primarily alt-rock.
Yeah, there was a lot of the Nirvana/Pearl Jam axis, but I also listened the hell out of the following:
Side A
Go - Pearl Jam
Serve the Servants - Nirvana
Cannonball - The Breeders
Today - Smashing Pumpkins
Sodajerk - Buffalo Tom
Superdeformed - Matthew Sweet
Between Me and You, Kid - Mudhoney
Crosstown Traffic - Living Colour
Just Another Victim - Helmet and House of Pain
Thunder Kiss '65 - White Zombie
My Name is Mud - Primus
The Stalker - Urge Overkill
Missing Link - Dinosaur Jr. and Del the Funkee Homosapien
Side B
Couldn't Know - Paw
Jimmy's Fantasy - Redd Kross
Never Said - Liz Phair
Hey Baby (Land of the Rising Sun) - M.A.C.C.
Silver Naked Ladies - Paul Westerberg
Where Did You Sleep Last Night - Mark Lanegan
Bitch - Goo Goo Dolls
Don't Know How to Party - Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Divine Hammer - The Breeders
Leash - Pearl Jam
Pennyroyal Tea - Nirvana
I'm Allowed - Buffalo Tom
Another Body Murdered - Faith No More and Booyah Tribe
Superdeformed:
I'm Allowed:
1993: The Year That Sucked (But Still Managed to Rock)
The name of this mix pretty much sums it up. No need to delve into the reasons why '93 blew; that's been covered in detail in past Mixology installments. I can safely say one of the things that got me through was music. It was a good year for the brand of music I was digging, which was primarily alt-rock.
Yeah, there was a lot of the Nirvana/Pearl Jam axis, but I also listened the hell out of the following:
- Matthew Sweet's Altered Beast album, which was his dark and depressing follow-up to the 1991 power pop masterpiece Girlfriend. The album was written off by folks who primarily based their knowledge of Sweet on the great title track of the previous record, but there was some mopey stuff on that one, too. On Altered Beast, Sweet once again had sick guitarists like Robert Quine soloing all over the place, but the mood was way more bummed out. Songs like "Superdeformed," (a B-side that ended up the No Alternative comp), "Time Capsule" and "Ugly Truth Rock" pretty much captured my seemingly miserable existence perfectly.
- Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream was a revelation for me, a majestic rock opus that sounded like early Queen combined with Sonic Youth. That album led me to discover the previous one, Gish, which rocked even harder.
- I discovered Buffalo Tom in '93, first picking up the terrific Let Me Come Over and later in the year getting the latest release Big Red Letter Day, which further refined the pop sensibilities of an already hard rocking act. Another Boston-area band I got into was Dinosaur Jr., whose Where You Been was a killer blend of Neil Young-ish vocals and absolutely sick guitar soloing.
- There were some good compilation albums released in '93: No Alternative, which featured a ton of the leading alt-rockers of the day (Nirvana, Pavement, Bob Mould) contributing previously unreleased songs to benefit AIDS charities; the Judgment Night soundtrack, which saw alt-rock and hip-hop acts joining forces and unfortunately led to the rap rock trend that emerged later in the decade; and Stone Free, a Hendrix tribute album that had some good covers, some not-so-good.
Side A
Go - Pearl Jam
Serve the Servants - Nirvana
Cannonball - The Breeders
Today - Smashing Pumpkins
Sodajerk - Buffalo Tom
Superdeformed - Matthew Sweet
Between Me and You, Kid - Mudhoney
Crosstown Traffic - Living Colour
Just Another Victim - Helmet and House of Pain
Thunder Kiss '65 - White Zombie
My Name is Mud - Primus
The Stalker - Urge Overkill
Missing Link - Dinosaur Jr. and Del the Funkee Homosapien
Side B
Couldn't Know - Paw
Jimmy's Fantasy - Redd Kross
Never Said - Liz Phair
Hey Baby (Land of the Rising Sun) - M.A.C.C.
Silver Naked Ladies - Paul Westerberg
Where Did You Sleep Last Night - Mark Lanegan
Bitch - Goo Goo Dolls
Don't Know How to Party - Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Divine Hammer - The Breeders
Leash - Pearl Jam
Pennyroyal Tea - Nirvana
I'm Allowed - Buffalo Tom
Another Body Murdered - Faith No More and Booyah Tribe
Superdeformed:
I'm Allowed:
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Mixology: Reidsie Rocks!
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
Reidsie Rocks! (7/10/99)
Everybody's got pivotal moments in their life to which they can point. The summer of 1999 was pretty huge for me. At the time I made this tape, I was about three weeks away from getting engaged to Deb. It wasn't a matter of if, but when. We had already discussed the ring and everything, and I had it, but it was finding the right time to spring it on her. It was about a week before John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane went down near Martha's Vineyard, causing non-stop media coverage, and two weeks before Woodstock '99, which was best remembered for the riots that took place.
In the meantime, I decided to make Deb a tape, not because I needed to win her through the power of mixology, but just because I wanted to give her something cool to listen to. I threw on some stuff I knew she already dug, like the R.E.M. song, but most of it was stuff I thought she'd dig. I included a fair amount of cool late '90s chick rock from folks like Liz Phair, Elastica, Tracy Bonham and Luscious Jackson, and some good mid-tempo rock from Beck, Chris Whitley, Sloan, Morphine and Matthew Sweet, among others. A solid effort. I'm not sure why I included "Song for the Dumped" by the Ben Folds Five, since there was no dumping and I wasn't saying "Gimme my money back, you bitch." I just liked the song, I guess.
The name of the tape derives from a nickname I had given her, since her name was Deb Reid Siegel. This was probably the third mix tape I had made for a girl; the first two relationships didn't work out well, so I guess the third time was the charm. Deb liked the tape and it got a lot of play on road trips for the first few years afterward, until CDs started taking over.
Anyhoo, nearly 11 years later, we're still together, so I guess the tape was the clincher. That's what I'm going to tell myself.
Side A
At My Most Beautiful - R.E.M.
Bobcaygeon - The Tragically Hip
At Flat as the Earth/Automatic Love - Chris Whitley
Wishlist - Pearl Jam
Scar Tissue - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Tropicalia - Beck
Circles - Soul Coughing
When I Grow Up - Garbage
Johnny Feelgood - Liz Phair
Sharks Can't Sleep - Tracy Bonham
Stutter - Elastica
Better Than Nothing - Jen Trynin
Superconnected - Belly
Naked Eye - Luscious Jackson
Side B
Rachael - Buffalo Tom
Walking After You - Foo Fighters
One Hit Wonder - Everclear
Thinking of You - Lenny Kravitz
Early to Bed - Morphine
Song for the Dumped - Ben Folds Five
Sinking Ships - Sloan
Evangeline - Matthew Sweet
Natural One - Folk Implosion
Eurotrash Girl - Cracker
Trip Through Your Wires - U2
Love Rears Its Ugly Head - Living Colour
Early to Bed:
Dumped:
Reidsie Rocks! (7/10/99)
Everybody's got pivotal moments in their life to which they can point. The summer of 1999 was pretty huge for me. At the time I made this tape, I was about three weeks away from getting engaged to Deb. It wasn't a matter of if, but when. We had already discussed the ring and everything, and I had it, but it was finding the right time to spring it on her. It was about a week before John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane went down near Martha's Vineyard, causing non-stop media coverage, and two weeks before Woodstock '99, which was best remembered for the riots that took place.
In the meantime, I decided to make Deb a tape, not because I needed to win her through the power of mixology, but just because I wanted to give her something cool to listen to. I threw on some stuff I knew she already dug, like the R.E.M. song, but most of it was stuff I thought she'd dig. I included a fair amount of cool late '90s chick rock from folks like Liz Phair, Elastica, Tracy Bonham and Luscious Jackson, and some good mid-tempo rock from Beck, Chris Whitley, Sloan, Morphine and Matthew Sweet, among others. A solid effort. I'm not sure why I included "Song for the Dumped" by the Ben Folds Five, since there was no dumping and I wasn't saying "Gimme my money back, you bitch." I just liked the song, I guess.
The name of the tape derives from a nickname I had given her, since her name was Deb Reid Siegel. This was probably the third mix tape I had made for a girl; the first two relationships didn't work out well, so I guess the third time was the charm. Deb liked the tape and it got a lot of play on road trips for the first few years afterward, until CDs started taking over.
Anyhoo, nearly 11 years later, we're still together, so I guess the tape was the clincher. That's what I'm going to tell myself.
Side A
At My Most Beautiful - R.E.M.
Bobcaygeon - The Tragically Hip
At Flat as the Earth/Automatic Love - Chris Whitley
Wishlist - Pearl Jam
Scar Tissue - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Tropicalia - Beck
Circles - Soul Coughing
When I Grow Up - Garbage
Johnny Feelgood - Liz Phair
Sharks Can't Sleep - Tracy Bonham
Stutter - Elastica
Better Than Nothing - Jen Trynin
Superconnected - Belly
Naked Eye - Luscious Jackson
Side B
Rachael - Buffalo Tom
Walking After You - Foo Fighters
One Hit Wonder - Everclear
Thinking of You - Lenny Kravitz
Early to Bed - Morphine
Song for the Dumped - Ben Folds Five
Sinking Ships - Sloan
Evangeline - Matthew Sweet
Natural One - Folk Implosion
Eurotrash Girl - Cracker
Trip Through Your Wires - U2
Love Rears Its Ugly Head - Living Colour
Early to Bed:
Dumped:
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Mixology: Ito is Neato
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes (or CDs) I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
Ito is Neato (9/2/95)
It has been just over a year since the last installment of Mixology, mainly because I had run out of mixes to write about. But yesterday I was going through some old bins of stuff that had been stashed away in the attic eaves and sure enough, I found a few more tapes including this choice selection.
The name of the mix was an obvious reference to the judge in the infamous OJ Simpson murder trial, which was at its peak in September '95. A month later, the jury delivered the not guilty verdict that shocked many who felt Simpson was obviously the killer. The evidence was pretty overwhelming, but so was the terrible way the prosecution handled the case.
At any rate, it was a good time for me, albeit one that wouldn't last. I was about to give my notice at the newspaper for a writing position at the healthcare publishing company for which I still work, and was having a lot of fun in general. In the span of a few months, my girlfriend would dump me, I was having trouble adjusting to the new job and my dad's health would get progressively worse. But in early September, I was loving life.
I still dig every song on this tape, to varying degrees. By '95, the grunge explosion of the early '90s (and Kurt Cobain's subsequent death in '94) had begun to deliver its first wave of copycat acts that started to clog up rock radio: Stone Temple Pilots, Candlebox, Bush, et al really brought the suck. Fortunately, I had started branching out with more interesting artists like Morphine, Bjork, PJ Harvey, Elastica, Pavement and The Jayhawks. The original grunge acts still interested me, but what came after was fairly shitty. Fortunately, mixes like this helped me ignore that stuff.
Side A: Ito
Weird-out - Dandelion
Summer - Buffalo Tom
I'll Stick Around - Foo Fighters
Bed for the Scraping - Fugazi
Execution Style - Mudhoney
More Human Than Human - White Zombie
I'm Above - Mad Season
Ono Soul - Thurston Moore
Waydown - The Catherine Wheel
Act of Love - Neil Young and Pearl Jam
Eternal Life - Jeff Buckley
Serpentine Pad - Pavement
Side B: Neato
Army of Me - Bjork
Long Snake Moan - PJ Harvey
Shimmer - Throwing Muses
Super Baby - Matthew Sweet
Will - Kevin Salem
Din - Chris Whitley
I'd Run Away - The Jayhawks
Free Love - Morphine
Stutter - Elastica
Los Vargos - Green Apple Quick Step
X-Static - Foo Fighters
Trailer Park Girl - Dandelion
Ito is Neato (9/2/95)
It has been just over a year since the last installment of Mixology, mainly because I had run out of mixes to write about. But yesterday I was going through some old bins of stuff that had been stashed away in the attic eaves and sure enough, I found a few more tapes including this choice selection.
The name of the mix was an obvious reference to the judge in the infamous OJ Simpson murder trial, which was at its peak in September '95. A month later, the jury delivered the not guilty verdict that shocked many who felt Simpson was obviously the killer. The evidence was pretty overwhelming, but so was the terrible way the prosecution handled the case.
At any rate, it was a good time for me, albeit one that wouldn't last. I was about to give my notice at the newspaper for a writing position at the healthcare publishing company for which I still work, and was having a lot of fun in general. In the span of a few months, my girlfriend would dump me, I was having trouble adjusting to the new job and my dad's health would get progressively worse. But in early September, I was loving life.
I still dig every song on this tape, to varying degrees. By '95, the grunge explosion of the early '90s (and Kurt Cobain's subsequent death in '94) had begun to deliver its first wave of copycat acts that started to clog up rock radio: Stone Temple Pilots, Candlebox, Bush, et al really brought the suck. Fortunately, I had started branching out with more interesting artists like Morphine, Bjork, PJ Harvey, Elastica, Pavement and The Jayhawks. The original grunge acts still interested me, but what came after was fairly shitty. Fortunately, mixes like this helped me ignore that stuff.
Side A: Ito
Weird-out - Dandelion
Summer - Buffalo Tom
I'll Stick Around - Foo Fighters
Bed for the Scraping - Fugazi
Execution Style - Mudhoney
More Human Than Human - White Zombie
I'm Above - Mad Season
Ono Soul - Thurston Moore
Waydown - The Catherine Wheel
Act of Love - Neil Young and Pearl Jam
Eternal Life - Jeff Buckley
Serpentine Pad - Pavement
Side B: Neato
Army of Me - Bjork
Long Snake Moan - PJ Harvey
Shimmer - Throwing Muses
Super Baby - Matthew Sweet
Will - Kevin Salem
Din - Chris Whitley
I'd Run Away - The Jayhawks
Free Love - Morphine
Stutter - Elastica
Los Vargos - Green Apple Quick Step
X-Static - Foo Fighters
Trailer Park Girl - Dandelion
Friday, June 15, 2012
Mixology: Rock for Hannah
Mixology is a recurring feature in
which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes or CDs I made over the years.
Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
Rock for Hannah (6/15/02)
It's been awhile since I did a Mixology post and until a minute ago, I honestly had no idea that it was 10 years to the day that I made this one. To give you a sense of how long it's been, this mix was made in anticipation of the 11-hour drive to Toronto that we were going to be doing to attend my cousin Dev's wedding. Hannah was just six weeks old at the time; now she's 10 (duh) and today wrapped up her last day of 4th grade. Pretty mind-blowing.
As for the songs themselves, I actually did choose songs that Deb and I could both agree on that also revolved around a loose theme of the joy Hannah had brought into our lives. And yet it's completely and utterly not mushy. There's some classics like "In My Life" and "Surrender" and even "Everlong," but I also threw in some Tin Machine and Sugar to add a little edge to the proceedings.
As I recall, the drive wasn't bad considering we had a tiny infant in the back. There was the requisite weeping and diaper filling and such, but Hannah was good traveler. Deb and I were new parents, so we were still figuring it out as we were going. But it was a great week up there and when we returned a year later for my cousin Anita's wedding, we had a surprise in tow: Deb was pregnant with our second daughter, Lily.
So my memories of this mix are all good, even though I can't actually play the CD anymore. It literally spent most of the last 10 years in our various cars and has been so scratched up that it's unlistenable. I'll have to redo it again someday.
Rock for Hannah
Surrender - Cheap Trick
Everlong - Foo Fighters
A Girl Like You - The Smithereens
Your Favorite Thing - Sugar
Will - Kevin Salem
Super Baby - Matthew Sweet
Baby Can Dance - Tin Machine
It's in Your Eyes - Sloan
It's Love - King's X
Smile - Pearl Jam
Tangerine - Led Zeppelin
Trip Through Your Wires - U2
Driver 8 - R.E.M.
It's Different for Girls - Joe Jackson
Surround - Dada
It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken - The Tragically Hip
In My Life - The Beatles
Praise You - Fatboy Slim
Hey Hey You Say - Papas Fritas
Citysong - Luscious Jackson
Rock for Hannah (6/15/02)
It's been awhile since I did a Mixology post and until a minute ago, I honestly had no idea that it was 10 years to the day that I made this one. To give you a sense of how long it's been, this mix was made in anticipation of the 11-hour drive to Toronto that we were going to be doing to attend my cousin Dev's wedding. Hannah was just six weeks old at the time; now she's 10 (duh) and today wrapped up her last day of 4th grade. Pretty mind-blowing.
As for the songs themselves, I actually did choose songs that Deb and I could both agree on that also revolved around a loose theme of the joy Hannah had brought into our lives. And yet it's completely and utterly not mushy. There's some classics like "In My Life" and "Surrender" and even "Everlong," but I also threw in some Tin Machine and Sugar to add a little edge to the proceedings.
As I recall, the drive wasn't bad considering we had a tiny infant in the back. There was the requisite weeping and diaper filling and such, but Hannah was good traveler. Deb and I were new parents, so we were still figuring it out as we were going. But it was a great week up there and when we returned a year later for my cousin Anita's wedding, we had a surprise in tow: Deb was pregnant with our second daughter, Lily.
So my memories of this mix are all good, even though I can't actually play the CD anymore. It literally spent most of the last 10 years in our various cars and has been so scratched up that it's unlistenable. I'll have to redo it again someday.
Rock for Hannah
Surrender - Cheap Trick
Everlong - Foo Fighters
A Girl Like You - The Smithereens
Your Favorite Thing - Sugar
Will - Kevin Salem
Super Baby - Matthew Sweet
Baby Can Dance - Tin Machine
It's in Your Eyes - Sloan
It's Love - King's X
Smile - Pearl Jam
Tangerine - Led Zeppelin
Trip Through Your Wires - U2
Driver 8 - R.E.M.
It's Different for Girls - Joe Jackson
Surround - Dada
It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken - The Tragically Hip
In My Life - The Beatles
Praise You - Fatboy Slim
Hey Hey You Say - Papas Fritas
Citysong - Luscious Jackson
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Mixology: Summer of Loud
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
Summer of Loud (7/17/94)
It's been nearly a month since the last installment of Mixology, but never fear, I've got plenty more tapes to write about. I've just been busy with traveling and work and such.
This is one of my favorite mixes EVAH. Partly because the songs on it kick so much ass, but also because it takes me back to a great, and yes, loud, summer. As shitty as the previous summer was, this summer was terrific. I was having a blast, playing softball, roller hockey and tennis, hanging out with my roommates, and just enjoying life. I didn't have a girlfriend, but it didn't matter. By the end of the summer, things were happening. They didn't pan out to anything meaningful, but they were fun nonetheless.
Work was good. I was still at the newspaper, covering the courts and the upcoming congressional race in this district, which was fun and kind of nuts. As it turned out, my old buddy Eric was the spokesman for the incumbent, which made for an interesting dynamic. I had worked with him side by side in the old Peabody Times office, so having to deal with him in a reporter-press flack relationship was weird, to say the least. On one occasion, he gave me a flippant quote and called me back 10 minutes later to try to get me not to print it. I told him, in no uncertain terms, that it was tough luck on his part and he got so pissed he told me to fvck off and hung up on me. I was stunned by that, but also found it hilarious because we were playing tennis two or three times a week at the same time. In the end, his boss ended up winning the election, in no small part due to Eric's savvy spin doctoring. But even though he was really good at this job, his heart wasn't in it; he wanted to get back to reporting and eventually he did.
That August, I flew down to Austin for a week to stay with my brother and his girlfriend. I had never been to Texas before and picked a hell of a time to go; it was brain-meltingly hot. You couldn't go outside between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Plus they were both working during the day, so I was pretty much on my own. But the nights were fun, checking out the rock clubs and great restaurants. It was a nice introduction to the city; I went back again for his graduation from law school and later in 2000 for South by Southwest.
Like I said, the music on this mix was top notch and included some of my favorite artists of that year, including Green Day, Helmet, Frank Black, Soundgarden, Pavement, Drive Like Jehu, Superchunk, the Rollins Band, Morphine. The Spinanes were a revelation; just listened to that album, Manos, the other day. Alt-rock was at its peak, before all the crappy ripoffs of Pearl Jam and Nirvana started dominating the scene. I still like to pop this tape in from time to time. It holds up.
Side A
Deuce - Lenny Kravitz
Sabotage - Beastie Boys
Wrong Man - Rollins Band
Wilma's Rainbow - Helmet
Here Come the Rome Plows - Drive Like Jehu
Basket Case - Green Day
The First Part - Superchunk
Mailman - Soundgarden
Screaming Skull - Sonic Youth
Unfair - Pavement
Headache - Frank Black
Buena - Morphine
Side B
Geek USA - Smashing Pumpkins
Ultrasuede - Matthew Sweet
Shit Towne - Live
Noel, Jonah and Me - Spinanes
A Head with Wings - Morphine
Superabound - Frank Black
Saving My Ticket - Superchunk
Golden Brown - Drive Like Jehu
Biscuits for Smut - Helmet
Disconnect - Rollins Band
Welcome to Paradise - Green Day
Spank Thru - Nirvana
Headache:
Spinanes:
Summer of Loud (7/17/94)
It's been nearly a month since the last installment of Mixology, but never fear, I've got plenty more tapes to write about. I've just been busy with traveling and work and such.
This is one of my favorite mixes EVAH. Partly because the songs on it kick so much ass, but also because it takes me back to a great, and yes, loud, summer. As shitty as the previous summer was, this summer was terrific. I was having a blast, playing softball, roller hockey and tennis, hanging out with my roommates, and just enjoying life. I didn't have a girlfriend, but it didn't matter. By the end of the summer, things were happening. They didn't pan out to anything meaningful, but they were fun nonetheless.
Work was good. I was still at the newspaper, covering the courts and the upcoming congressional race in this district, which was fun and kind of nuts. As it turned out, my old buddy Eric was the spokesman for the incumbent, which made for an interesting dynamic. I had worked with him side by side in the old Peabody Times office, so having to deal with him in a reporter-press flack relationship was weird, to say the least. On one occasion, he gave me a flippant quote and called me back 10 minutes later to try to get me not to print it. I told him, in no uncertain terms, that it was tough luck on his part and he got so pissed he told me to fvck off and hung up on me. I was stunned by that, but also found it hilarious because we were playing tennis two or three times a week at the same time. In the end, his boss ended up winning the election, in no small part due to Eric's savvy spin doctoring. But even though he was really good at this job, his heart wasn't in it; he wanted to get back to reporting and eventually he did.
That August, I flew down to Austin for a week to stay with my brother and his girlfriend. I had never been to Texas before and picked a hell of a time to go; it was brain-meltingly hot. You couldn't go outside between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Plus they were both working during the day, so I was pretty much on my own. But the nights were fun, checking out the rock clubs and great restaurants. It was a nice introduction to the city; I went back again for his graduation from law school and later in 2000 for South by Southwest.
Like I said, the music on this mix was top notch and included some of my favorite artists of that year, including Green Day, Helmet, Frank Black, Soundgarden, Pavement, Drive Like Jehu, Superchunk, the Rollins Band, Morphine. The Spinanes were a revelation; just listened to that album, Manos, the other day. Alt-rock was at its peak, before all the crappy ripoffs of Pearl Jam and Nirvana started dominating the scene. I still like to pop this tape in from time to time. It holds up.
Side A
Deuce - Lenny Kravitz
Sabotage - Beastie Boys
Wrong Man - Rollins Band
Wilma's Rainbow - Helmet
Here Come the Rome Plows - Drive Like Jehu
Basket Case - Green Day
The First Part - Superchunk
Mailman - Soundgarden
Screaming Skull - Sonic Youth
Unfair - Pavement
Headache - Frank Black
Buena - Morphine
Side B
Geek USA - Smashing Pumpkins
Ultrasuede - Matthew Sweet
Shit Towne - Live
Noel, Jonah and Me - Spinanes
A Head with Wings - Morphine
Superabound - Frank Black
Saving My Ticket - Superchunk
Golden Brown - Drive Like Jehu
Biscuits for Smut - Helmet
Disconnect - Rollins Band
Welcome to Paradise - Green Day
Spank Thru - Nirvana
Headache:
Spinanes:
Friday, December 03, 2010
Mixology: Plan 9 Mix
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
Plan 9 Mix (2007)
In recent years, I've been making mixes primarily based on new MP3s I listen to each month. But every so often, a special occasion arises that causes me to put more thought into my compilations. This is one such occasion. This mix came about because of a podcast I listened to fairly religiously, The Plan Nine Rock Show. Host Jasper Borgman asked listeners to send in mix CDs of what they were digging, so I decided to throw one together. The show's primarily about the garage rock and occasionally metal, so that's what I went with.
This mix is all over the place, with a few new songs (at the time) from the White Stripes, Grinderman, Mondo Generator, Mastodon and the Blood Brothers mixed in with classic stuff from the Stooges, Descendents, Def Leppard and Black Sabbath. Jasper never did mention the mix on his show, but the exercise was worthwhile because I still go back to this mix from time to time. There is much kicking of the proverbial arse going on throughout.
At the time, I was still a podcast neophyte and liked supporting and communicating with podcast hosts. I still do to a certain degree, because feedback is a great thing no matter how big your show is. Jasper only does the Plan Nine show occasionally, but he spends most of his podcast time on Good Clean Fun, a show he does with the great Michael Butler. That one's mostly talk and occasionally music, but I enjoy it just the same.
This mix is great for highway driving. Before you know it, 68 minutes have gone by and you've passed 37 cars and hopefully not been pulled over by a statie.
Loose Take 2 - The Stooges
Pretty Lightning - New Bomb Turks
Everything Sux - Descendents
Hi-Lites - Hot Snakes
Heart of a Rat - Rocket From the Crypt
Love Bomb - Grinderman
I'm Through with White Girls - The Dirtbombs
Bone Broke - White Stripes
Just Like the Rest - I Walk the Line
I Can't Get It - Hanoi Rocks
Rocket Queen - Guns n' Roses
Granite State Destroyer - Scissorfight
Colony of Birchmen - Mastodon
Wrathchild - Iron Maiden
Let It Go - Def Leppard
Neon Knights - Black Sabbath
Lie Detector - Mondo Generator
Nausea Shreds Yr Head - Blood Brothers
Pirate Love - Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers
Everything Sux:
Let It Go:
Plan 9 Mix (2007)
In recent years, I've been making mixes primarily based on new MP3s I listen to each month. But every so often, a special occasion arises that causes me to put more thought into my compilations. This is one such occasion. This mix came about because of a podcast I listened to fairly religiously, The Plan Nine Rock Show. Host Jasper Borgman asked listeners to send in mix CDs of what they were digging, so I decided to throw one together. The show's primarily about the garage rock and occasionally metal, so that's what I went with.
This mix is all over the place, with a few new songs (at the time) from the White Stripes, Grinderman, Mondo Generator, Mastodon and the Blood Brothers mixed in with classic stuff from the Stooges, Descendents, Def Leppard and Black Sabbath. Jasper never did mention the mix on his show, but the exercise was worthwhile because I still go back to this mix from time to time. There is much kicking of the proverbial arse going on throughout.
At the time, I was still a podcast neophyte and liked supporting and communicating with podcast hosts. I still do to a certain degree, because feedback is a great thing no matter how big your show is. Jasper only does the Plan Nine show occasionally, but he spends most of his podcast time on Good Clean Fun, a show he does with the great Michael Butler. That one's mostly talk and occasionally music, but I enjoy it just the same.
This mix is great for highway driving. Before you know it, 68 minutes have gone by and you've passed 37 cars and hopefully not been pulled over by a statie.
Loose Take 2 - The Stooges
Pretty Lightning - New Bomb Turks
Everything Sux - Descendents
Hi-Lites - Hot Snakes
Heart of a Rat - Rocket From the Crypt
Love Bomb - Grinderman
I'm Through with White Girls - The Dirtbombs
Bone Broke - White Stripes
Just Like the Rest - I Walk the Line
I Can't Get It - Hanoi Rocks
Rocket Queen - Guns n' Roses
Granite State Destroyer - Scissorfight
Colony of Birchmen - Mastodon
Wrathchild - Iron Maiden
Let It Go - Def Leppard
Neon Knights - Black Sabbath
Lie Detector - Mondo Generator
Nausea Shreds Yr Head - Blood Brothers
Pirate Love - Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers
Everything Sux:
Let It Go:
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Mixology: Great Googily Moogily!
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
Great Googily Moogily! (7/1/98)
In retrospect, 1998 had a lot going on. President Clinton became embroiled in the whole Paula Jones/Monica Lewinsky scandal that nearly derailed his presidency. The U.S. started voicing concerns about the possibility of Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. The Unabomber pleaded guilty. A startup called Google launched in California. Former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota.
As for me, I was in a pretty good place, all things considered. Deb and I had been dating for nearly a year. I was 30, living with a couple of buddies of mine, renting out half a house in a nice residential neighborhood. Work was going well; I was a supervisor with a good staff working for me. That summer, I played a lot of softball and golf and drank a lot of beer. I honestly can't think of anything that wasn't going well.
I didn't go to a ton of shows in the first half of the year, seeing the Foo Fighters a couple of times in Boston and Portland, the Tragically Hip twice at Bill's Bar (legendary!) and later in the year at the Orpheum with Cracker, Girls Against Boys at the Karma Club, Cheap Trick and the Afghan Whigs, both at the Paradise and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at Avalon. I only saw a couple of Sox games, but I went to a bunch of Bruins games, saw the Patriots play down in New Orleans while I was there on business, saw UNH football play at Northeastern and in December, flew up to Toronto to catch one last game at Maple Leaf Gardens. My buddy Phil went with me and we were going to meet my brother, who was flying in from Texas; he ended up missing his flight and we traded our three tickets to a scalper for two and some cash. The Leafs ended up getting shut out by Eric Lindros and the Flyers, 3-0, but we had a blast.
As for the mix, it was on a 110-minute tape, hence the extra-long playlist. The first side was full of some older funk and rock favorites of mine, while the second side was mainly newer stuff I was listening to. The whole thing holds up pretty well.
Side A: Googily
It's Your Life - Lenny Kravitz
Give It Up or Turnit a Loose - James Brown
Word Up - Cameo
U Got the Look - Prince
Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing - Living Colour
Freedom - Jimi Hendrix
I Can See for Miles - The Who
Rockin' in the Free World - Neil Young
The Girl I Love She Got Long Wavy Black Hair - Led Zeppelin
Let There Be Rock - AC/DC
Godzilla - Blue Oyster Cult
Ashes to Ashes - David Bowie
Side B: Moogily
Dive - Nirvana
The Guns of Brixton - The Clash
Right Turn - Alice in Chains
Ty Cobb - Soundgarden
Heroin Girl - Everclear
Hey Johnny Park! - Foo Fighters
Siva - Smashing Pumpkins
Worst Thing - Sebadoh
Back in the State - Rocket From the Crypt
Last Cup of Sorrow - Faith No More
Park Avenue - Girls Against Boys
Party Hard - Pulp
Electioneering - Radiohead
Where You Get Love - Matthew Sweet
Money City Maniacs - Sloan
Someone Who's Cool - Odds
Great googily moogily:
Live Godzilla from 1980:
Last Cup of Sorrow:
Great Googily Moogily! (7/1/98)
In retrospect, 1998 had a lot going on. President Clinton became embroiled in the whole Paula Jones/Monica Lewinsky scandal that nearly derailed his presidency. The U.S. started voicing concerns about the possibility of Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. The Unabomber pleaded guilty. A startup called Google launched in California. Former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota.
As for me, I was in a pretty good place, all things considered. Deb and I had been dating for nearly a year. I was 30, living with a couple of buddies of mine, renting out half a house in a nice residential neighborhood. Work was going well; I was a supervisor with a good staff working for me. That summer, I played a lot of softball and golf and drank a lot of beer. I honestly can't think of anything that wasn't going well.
I didn't go to a ton of shows in the first half of the year, seeing the Foo Fighters a couple of times in Boston and Portland, the Tragically Hip twice at Bill's Bar (legendary!) and later in the year at the Orpheum with Cracker, Girls Against Boys at the Karma Club, Cheap Trick and the Afghan Whigs, both at the Paradise and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at Avalon. I only saw a couple of Sox games, but I went to a bunch of Bruins games, saw the Patriots play down in New Orleans while I was there on business, saw UNH football play at Northeastern and in December, flew up to Toronto to catch one last game at Maple Leaf Gardens. My buddy Phil went with me and we were going to meet my brother, who was flying in from Texas; he ended up missing his flight and we traded our three tickets to a scalper for two and some cash. The Leafs ended up getting shut out by Eric Lindros and the Flyers, 3-0, but we had a blast.
As for the mix, it was on a 110-minute tape, hence the extra-long playlist. The first side was full of some older funk and rock favorites of mine, while the second side was mainly newer stuff I was listening to. The whole thing holds up pretty well.
Side A: Googily
It's Your Life - Lenny Kravitz
Give It Up or Turnit a Loose - James Brown
Word Up - Cameo
U Got the Look - Prince
Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing - Living Colour
Freedom - Jimi Hendrix
I Can See for Miles - The Who
Rockin' in the Free World - Neil Young
The Girl I Love She Got Long Wavy Black Hair - Led Zeppelin
Let There Be Rock - AC/DC
Godzilla - Blue Oyster Cult
Ashes to Ashes - David Bowie
Side B: Moogily
Dive - Nirvana
The Guns of Brixton - The Clash
Right Turn - Alice in Chains
Ty Cobb - Soundgarden
Heroin Girl - Everclear
Hey Johnny Park! - Foo Fighters
Siva - Smashing Pumpkins
Worst Thing - Sebadoh
Back in the State - Rocket From the Crypt
Last Cup of Sorrow - Faith No More
Park Avenue - Girls Against Boys
Party Hard - Pulp
Electioneering - Radiohead
Where You Get Love - Matthew Sweet
Money City Maniacs - Sloan
Someone Who's Cool - Odds
Great googily moogily:
Live Godzilla from 1980:
Last Cup of Sorrow:
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Mixology: March Mix Madness
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes (or CDs) I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
March Mix Madness (March 2008)
Hang Them All - Tapes 'n Tapes
Night You're Beautiful - Ladyhawk
Always Wanting More - Jay Reatard
International Bullet Proof Talent - Bauhaus
Silence - Portishead
Oh Sister - Andrew Bird
My Favorite Year - Destroyer
You On the Run - The Black Angels
'Till Kingdom Come - Dead Meadow
Salt of the Earth - The Rolling Stones
Front Street - Gutter Twins
3 Dimes Down - Drive-By Truckers
Right Hand on My Heart - The Whigs
I The Kite - Centro-Matic
The Seus - Black Francis
Indivisible - The Dirtbombs
Living Well is the Best Revenge - R.E.M.
Front Street:
Living Well:
March Mix Madness (March 2008)
Three years ago, I was in the midst of training for the New Jersey Marathon, the Leafs were on the way to missing the playoffs yet again, the terrific HBO series "The Wire" wrapped up its final season, I was gearing up for big rock shows from the Gutter Twins and the Drive-By Truckers, and we got the news that the city was planning to close my daughter's elementary school because of budget cuts.
Three years later, not too much has changed. Except that I'm not doing a marathon this spring and I have two kids going to a different school across town, I have a different vehicle and I'm going to see Queens of the Stone Age in a few weeks.
This mix is pretty strong. Most of the artists on it are ones for which I have multiple albums. The R.E.M. song was from their "return to rock" album, Accelerate, which many critics wrote off as the band trying too hard to rock out, but what the hell's wrong with that? Especially after the string of disappointing albums they recorded after Bill Berry left the band. Now the band just released its new album, Collapse Into Now, which is being hailed as a true return to form. I've heard a few songs from it and they sound good.
Many of the bands on this mix have released consistently good albums over the last decade or so, including the Raveonettes, Ladyhawk, Jay Reatard (R.I.P.), Andrew Bird, Destroyer, the Black Angels, Greg Dulli (via the Gutter Twins, Twilight Singers or solo), the Drive-By Truckers, Centro-Matic, Black Francis and the Dirtbombs. I'm a pretty faithful music fan. If a band releases an album I really like, I'll stick with its future releases until it really disappoints me. All these acts have delivered the goods on a regular basis. And they make this mix sound particularly good.
Bang On - The Breeders
Aly, Walk With Me - The RaveonettesHang Them All - Tapes 'n Tapes
Night You're Beautiful - Ladyhawk
Always Wanting More - Jay Reatard
International Bullet Proof Talent - Bauhaus
Silence - Portishead
Oh Sister - Andrew Bird
My Favorite Year - Destroyer
You On the Run - The Black Angels
'Till Kingdom Come - Dead Meadow
Salt of the Earth - The Rolling Stones
Front Street - Gutter Twins
3 Dimes Down - Drive-By Truckers
Right Hand on My Heart - The Whigs
I The Kite - Centro-Matic
The Seus - Black Francis
Indivisible - The Dirtbombs
Living Well is the Best Revenge - R.E.M.
Front Street:
Living Well:
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Mixology: Can't You Hear Me Knocking?
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
Can't You Hear Me Knocking? (1981)
I've discussed the first mix tapes I made on my old clock radio cassette player before. Here's another one from 1981. Again, not sure of the exact date, but I'm going to guess it was around May or June, because Tom Petty's "The Waiting" came out in May. I was up in Toronto, about to finish eighth grade. My dad was getting ready to move to Washington State to take a new job; we would eventually follow him in November. At that point, I think it didn't really sink in that we would be moving, even though a realtor had been showing our house to prospective buyers.
Life for me around this time generally involved a lot of street hockey with my buddies, soccer, bike-riding and TV. In addition, I was all about music at this point; listening to it, anyway. I had a small black Panasonic transistor radio that I used to carry with me when I walked our dog Sammy. I distinctly remember walking her and hearing "Tom Sawyer" by Rush for the first time on that radio; pretty mind-blowing stuff.
My musical tastes in '81 were primarily AOR (album-oriented radio) fare: Lots of soon-to-be classic rock, hard rock, prog rock, etc. Those tastes come through on this tape, which was recorded on a Memorex cassette primarily off CHUM-FM and Q107-FM, the two big rock radio stations in Toronto at the time. Of the songs on the tape, the only ones I actually had on vinyl were "Who Are You" and "You Better, You Bet" off the Who's Who Are You and Face Dances albums and "Follow You, Follow Me," which was from the Genesis record And Then There Were Three.
When I listened to this tape again for the first time in probably 28 years, I didn't even recognize the Styx song. I had to look it up to see that it was on the Cornerstone album in 1979 and actually hit #26 on the singles chart. "Babe" was the monster single that preceded it. I had purchased the 1981 album Paradise Theater, which was a huge hit and had pretty cool etchings on the vinyl, as I recall. AC/DC was coming off the huge success of Back in Black a year earlier and re-released Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, which had come out in the mid-70s in Australia. The title track was a big hit on rock radio and paved the way for the release of For Those About To Rock later in the year.
I listened to this tape a lot after we moved to Richland, Washington, but what it reminds me of the most was that carefree time before we left Canada.
Side A
Who Are You - The Who
Watching the Wheels - John Lennon
In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins
Can't You Hear Me Knocking? - The Rolling Stones
Breathe - Pink Floyd
Jumpin' Jack Flash - The Rolling Stones
Side B
You Better, You Bet - The Who
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap - AC/DC
Why Me? - Styx
Follow You, Follow Me - Genesis
Let Go the Line - Max Webster
The Waiting - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Find Your Way Home - Jefferson Starship
Life of Illusion - Joe Walsh
The Waiting:
You Better, You Bet:
Can't You Hear Me Knocking? (1981)
I've discussed the first mix tapes I made on my old clock radio cassette player before. Here's another one from 1981. Again, not sure of the exact date, but I'm going to guess it was around May or June, because Tom Petty's "The Waiting" came out in May. I was up in Toronto, about to finish eighth grade. My dad was getting ready to move to Washington State to take a new job; we would eventually follow him in November. At that point, I think it didn't really sink in that we would be moving, even though a realtor had been showing our house to prospective buyers.
Life for me around this time generally involved a lot of street hockey with my buddies, soccer, bike-riding and TV. In addition, I was all about music at this point; listening to it, anyway. I had a small black Panasonic transistor radio that I used to carry with me when I walked our dog Sammy. I distinctly remember walking her and hearing "Tom Sawyer" by Rush for the first time on that radio; pretty mind-blowing stuff.
My musical tastes in '81 were primarily AOR (album-oriented radio) fare: Lots of soon-to-be classic rock, hard rock, prog rock, etc. Those tastes come through on this tape, which was recorded on a Memorex cassette primarily off CHUM-FM and Q107-FM, the two big rock radio stations in Toronto at the time. Of the songs on the tape, the only ones I actually had on vinyl were "Who Are You" and "You Better, You Bet" off the Who's Who Are You and Face Dances albums and "Follow You, Follow Me," which was from the Genesis record And Then There Were Three.
When I listened to this tape again for the first time in probably 28 years, I didn't even recognize the Styx song. I had to look it up to see that it was on the Cornerstone album in 1979 and actually hit #26 on the singles chart. "Babe" was the monster single that preceded it. I had purchased the 1981 album Paradise Theater, which was a huge hit and had pretty cool etchings on the vinyl, as I recall. AC/DC was coming off the huge success of Back in Black a year earlier and re-released Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, which had come out in the mid-70s in Australia. The title track was a big hit on rock radio and paved the way for the release of For Those About To Rock later in the year.
I listened to this tape a lot after we moved to Richland, Washington, but what it reminds me of the most was that carefree time before we left Canada.
Side A
Who Are You - The Who
Watching the Wheels - John Lennon
In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins
Can't You Hear Me Knocking? - The Rolling Stones
Breathe - Pink Floyd
Jumpin' Jack Flash - The Rolling Stones
Side B
You Better, You Bet - The Who
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap - AC/DC
Why Me? - Styx
Follow You, Follow Me - Genesis
Let Go the Line - Max Webster
The Waiting - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Find Your Way Home - Jefferson Starship
Life of Illusion - Joe Walsh
The Waiting:
You Better, You Bet:
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Mixology: Lawrence Welk--A Tribute to Iowa
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
Lawrence Welk--A Tribute to Iowa (6/12/88)
By now, you already know this isn't a Lawrence Welk compilation. In the summer of '88, I was making a pittance working as a reporting intern at the Peabody Times. I made the 45-minute drive from Kingston, NH, to Peabody every day, earning the impressive total of $57 and change after taxes each week. To make up for that, I worked night crews at the Market Basket in Plaistow, NH; at the very least, I'd have some beer money for my upcoming senior year at UNH. So I was working 60-70 hours a week and having a blast.
Even though I did little to no partying that summer, I was okay with that. There was plenty of time for that foolishness when I got back to school; this was my future I was working for. Besides, my parents wouldn't have been too thrilled if I was out getting trashed every night. I was too damn tired by the time I got home to do much, anyway.
One of the first stories I wrote was about a preschool class in Peabody; those kids are in their mid-20s now. Damn. I was only 20 when I wrote the article.
I remember making this mix to give me something to listen to on my drives to and from work in my dad's Pontiac J2000. It was a lot mellower than the stuff I was normally listening, more reflective of a lazy summer mood. Too bad it wasn't a lazy summer. It's funny, I probably worked harder during my summer and Christmas vacations than I did in college. Physically, anyway. Mentally, I was already in the working world. The light at the end of the tunnel, however, was the fact that I'd be back at college in a few short months for one last year of carefree living. I made the most of it, too.
Side A:
Take Your Whiskey Home - Van Halen
Hangman Jury - Aerosmith
Cold Shot - Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
Right Next Door (Because of Me) - Robert Cray
Down to the Waterline - Dire Straits
People Get Ready - Jeff Beck with Rod Stewart
Big Log - Robert Plant
Private Life - The Pretenders
Feel It Burn - Kim Mitchell
Shine Like It Does - INXS
Side B:
Friends - Led Zeppelin
Getting in Tune - The Who
In a Simple Rhyme - Van Halen
Summer's Up - Max Webster
Sweet Sixteen - Billy Idol
Wishes - Jon Butcher
That Voice Again - Peter Gabriel
Little Wing - Sting
Rain in the Summertime - The Alarm
Somewhere Down the Crazy River - Robbie Robertson
Private Life:
Somewhere Down the Crazy River:
Lawrence Welk--A Tribute to Iowa (6/12/88)
By now, you already know this isn't a Lawrence Welk compilation. In the summer of '88, I was making a pittance working as a reporting intern at the Peabody Times. I made the 45-minute drive from Kingston, NH, to Peabody every day, earning the impressive total of $57 and change after taxes each week. To make up for that, I worked night crews at the Market Basket in Plaistow, NH; at the very least, I'd have some beer money for my upcoming senior year at UNH. So I was working 60-70 hours a week and having a blast.
Even though I did little to no partying that summer, I was okay with that. There was plenty of time for that foolishness when I got back to school; this was my future I was working for. Besides, my parents wouldn't have been too thrilled if I was out getting trashed every night. I was too damn tired by the time I got home to do much, anyway.
One of the first stories I wrote was about a preschool class in Peabody; those kids are in their mid-20s now. Damn. I was only 20 when I wrote the article.
I remember making this mix to give me something to listen to on my drives to and from work in my dad's Pontiac J2000. It was a lot mellower than the stuff I was normally listening, more reflective of a lazy summer mood. Too bad it wasn't a lazy summer. It's funny, I probably worked harder during my summer and Christmas vacations than I did in college. Physically, anyway. Mentally, I was already in the working world. The light at the end of the tunnel, however, was the fact that I'd be back at college in a few short months for one last year of carefree living. I made the most of it, too.
Side A:
Take Your Whiskey Home - Van Halen
Hangman Jury - Aerosmith
Cold Shot - Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
Right Next Door (Because of Me) - Robert Cray
Down to the Waterline - Dire Straits
People Get Ready - Jeff Beck with Rod Stewart
Big Log - Robert Plant
Private Life - The Pretenders
Feel It Burn - Kim Mitchell
Shine Like It Does - INXS
Side B:
Friends - Led Zeppelin
Getting in Tune - The Who
In a Simple Rhyme - Van Halen
Summer's Up - Max Webster
Sweet Sixteen - Billy Idol
Wishes - Jon Butcher
That Voice Again - Peter Gabriel
Little Wing - Sting
Rain in the Summertime - The Alarm
Somewhere Down the Crazy River - Robbie Robertson
Private Life:
Somewhere Down the Crazy River:
Friday, May 28, 2010
Mixology: Rattle and Homina
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
Rattle and Homina (5/14/90)
It's pretty amazing that it has been 20 years since I made this mix. It was nearly a year after I had graduated from UNH. I was 22, working as a reporter at the Peabody Times, living in Wenham, Mass., with three friends as we house-sat for one of the editors at the paper, who had taken his family to China for a year.
We had some epic parties in that house, the likes of which it has never seen again. There was a core group of reporters at the Essex County Newspaper chain (comprising the Beverly-Peabody, Gloucester and Newburport papers) that were all hired around the same time, all in our early to mid-20s and all single. It was a great time. We worked crazy hours; one of my roomies, Eric, worked in Peabody with me and we would often be up at 2 a.m. playing table hockey to decide who had to get up in four hours and cover the police and fire beat on deadline. High stakes, man.
There was much hue and cry in the news over the Exxon Valdez, the oil tanker that in '89 caused the biggest oil spill in U.S. history (well, until the ongoing BP clusterfvck, anyway). Nelson Mandela was finally freed from a South African prison. Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson in a shocking upset. Microsoft released Windows 3.0. The Gretzky-less Edmonton Oilers swept the Boston Bruins to win the team's fifth Stanley Cup in seven years.
This mix covers quite a range of musical styles. I was all about broadening my horizons at this point, getting into stuff like James Brown and old blues guys like John Lee Hooker. Not so much of the metal, but still some hard rock like GNR and the Chili Peppers. And stuff like Clapton that you couldn't pay me to listen to nowadays. All things considered, it was a fun, fairly responsibility-free time of my life. Hard to imagine these days, but I'm okay with that.
Side A
99 Worlds - Peter Wolf
Blues Before and After - The Smithereens
Could I've Been So Blind - The Black Crowes
Before You Accuse Me - Eric Clapton
The Other Side - Aerosmith
She Gives Me Love - The Godfathers
Rocket Queen - Guns 'n Roses
Sunshine of Your Love - Cream
A Little is Enough - Pete Townshend
Love is the Drug - Roxy Music
Knock Me Down - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Side B
No More - Neil Young
Train in Vain - The Clash
Liars Dance - Robert Plant
Hoochie Koochie Man - Jimi Hendrix
Cold Sweat (live) - James Brown
I'm in the Mood - John Lee Hooker with Bonnie Raitt
Can't Get There From Here - R.E.M.
All Lovers are Deranged - David Gilmour
The Great Embrace - Kim Mitchell
Two of Us - The Beatles
Almost Hear You Sigh - The Rolling Stones
Knock Me Down:
Cold Sweat:
Rattle and Homina (5/14/90)
It's pretty amazing that it has been 20 years since I made this mix. It was nearly a year after I had graduated from UNH. I was 22, working as a reporter at the Peabody Times, living in Wenham, Mass., with three friends as we house-sat for one of the editors at the paper, who had taken his family to China for a year.
We had some epic parties in that house, the likes of which it has never seen again. There was a core group of reporters at the Essex County Newspaper chain (comprising the Beverly-Peabody, Gloucester and Newburport papers) that were all hired around the same time, all in our early to mid-20s and all single. It was a great time. We worked crazy hours; one of my roomies, Eric, worked in Peabody with me and we would often be up at 2 a.m. playing table hockey to decide who had to get up in four hours and cover the police and fire beat on deadline. High stakes, man.
There was much hue and cry in the news over the Exxon Valdez, the oil tanker that in '89 caused the biggest oil spill in U.S. history (well, until the ongoing BP clusterfvck, anyway). Nelson Mandela was finally freed from a South African prison. Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson in a shocking upset. Microsoft released Windows 3.0. The Gretzky-less Edmonton Oilers swept the Boston Bruins to win the team's fifth Stanley Cup in seven years.
This mix covers quite a range of musical styles. I was all about broadening my horizons at this point, getting into stuff like James Brown and old blues guys like John Lee Hooker. Not so much of the metal, but still some hard rock like GNR and the Chili Peppers. And stuff like Clapton that you couldn't pay me to listen to nowadays. All things considered, it was a fun, fairly responsibility-free time of my life. Hard to imagine these days, but I'm okay with that.
Side A
99 Worlds - Peter Wolf
Blues Before and After - The Smithereens
Could I've Been So Blind - The Black Crowes
Before You Accuse Me - Eric Clapton
The Other Side - Aerosmith
She Gives Me Love - The Godfathers
Rocket Queen - Guns 'n Roses
Sunshine of Your Love - Cream
A Little is Enough - Pete Townshend
Love is the Drug - Roxy Music
Knock Me Down - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Side B
No More - Neil Young
Train in Vain - The Clash
Liars Dance - Robert Plant
Hoochie Koochie Man - Jimi Hendrix
Cold Sweat (live) - James Brown
I'm in the Mood - John Lee Hooker with Bonnie Raitt
Can't Get There From Here - R.E.M.
All Lovers are Deranged - David Gilmour
The Great Embrace - Kim Mitchell
Two of Us - The Beatles
Almost Hear You Sigh - The Rolling Stones
Knock Me Down:
Cold Sweat:
Friday, February 11, 2011
Mixology: April Amplification
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes (or CDs) I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
April Amplification (April 2006)
What were you doing (almost) five years ago? I was watching my wife run the Boston Marathon (and joining her for the last nine miles), training for the Vermont City Marathon, watching the Leafs miss the playoffs and celebrating Hannah's 4th birthday.
I was also making this mix, which featured plenty of the so-called indie rock. Five years later, I'm digging it for the most part. Wolfmother definitely doesn't hold up, but pretty much everything else does. That first Arctic Monkeys album still stands out as an amazing collection of tunes by a young band. I've enjoyed both of their albums since, but their debut was a startlingly good surprise.
The mashup of "Eminence Front" by the Who and "Root Down" by the Beastie Boys is a lot of fun. This was probably the height of mashups and there were some pretty good ones. I used to enjoy it when WBCN DJ Bradley Jay would mash up songs back in the mid-'80s; he was good at matching seemingly disparate songs. I don't have a ton of mashups but the best ones seamlessly graft different songs together in an original way.
I Gotta Feeling (Just Nineteen) - Eagles of Death Metal
I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor - Arctic Monkeys
Rifle Called Goodbye - The Minus 5
Aftermath USA - Drive-By Truckers
Frontin' on the Root Down - I-Train (mashup of The Who and Beastie Boys)
Twin Killers - Deerhoof
The Funeral - Band of Horses
Your Blood - Destroyer
Publish My Love - Rogue Wave
Star Witness - Neko Case
Louisiana - The Walkmen
I Burn Today - Frank Black
The Bones of an Idol - The New Pornographers
I Love You - Matthew Sweet
Spider's Web - Mission of Burma
World Wide Suicide - Pearl Jam
Revenga - System of a Down
Feeding Frenzy - Early Man
Dimension - Wolfmother
Step on It, Jean - Sloan
Hockey Monkey - The Zambonis with James Kochalka
Dance floor:
Hockey monkey:
April Amplification (April 2006)
What were you doing (almost) five years ago? I was watching my wife run the Boston Marathon (and joining her for the last nine miles), training for the Vermont City Marathon, watching the Leafs miss the playoffs and celebrating Hannah's 4th birthday.
I was also making this mix, which featured plenty of the so-called indie rock. Five years later, I'm digging it for the most part. Wolfmother definitely doesn't hold up, but pretty much everything else does. That first Arctic Monkeys album still stands out as an amazing collection of tunes by a young band. I've enjoyed both of their albums since, but their debut was a startlingly good surprise.
The mashup of "Eminence Front" by the Who and "Root Down" by the Beastie Boys is a lot of fun. This was probably the height of mashups and there were some pretty good ones. I used to enjoy it when WBCN DJ Bradley Jay would mash up songs back in the mid-'80s; he was good at matching seemingly disparate songs. I don't have a ton of mashups but the best ones seamlessly graft different songs together in an original way.
I Gotta Feeling (Just Nineteen) - Eagles of Death Metal
I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor - Arctic Monkeys
Rifle Called Goodbye - The Minus 5
Aftermath USA - Drive-By Truckers
Frontin' on the Root Down - I-Train (mashup of The Who and Beastie Boys)
Twin Killers - Deerhoof
The Funeral - Band of Horses
Your Blood - Destroyer
Publish My Love - Rogue Wave
Star Witness - Neko Case
Louisiana - The Walkmen
I Burn Today - Frank Black
The Bones of an Idol - The New Pornographers
I Love You - Matthew Sweet
Spider's Web - Mission of Burma
World Wide Suicide - Pearl Jam
Revenga - System of a Down
Feeding Frenzy - Early Man
Dimension - Wolfmother
Step on It, Jean - Sloan
Hockey Monkey - The Zambonis with James Kochalka
Dance floor:
Hockey monkey:
Friday, January 14, 2011
Mixology: Lighten Up, Francis
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes (or CDs) I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
Lighten Up, Francis (April 2009)
Sometimes an old mix can really pick you up. Tuesday night, I had to go pick up my mom from the airport because her flight had been canceled due to the impending snowmageddon. It was 9:30 p.m. and I had been looking forward to a nice relaxing evening, but had to jump in the van and head to the airport.
I grabbed this mix randomly as I was running out the door, with no idea of what was on it because I never took the time to print out a track listing. One of the opening songs, Art Brut's "Alcoholics Unanimous," was my favorite song of that year. And it was a good year for music, indeed. It was nice to be greeted with one kickass song after another, all collected during April of '09.
Contrast this with last weekend, when we drove up to my mom's place. I didn't grab any CDs, opting instead to just listen to the radio. Problem is, between commercials and crappy songs, I tend to do a lot of jumping around with the radio dial. This, of course, drives my wife nuts. But I have no patience for ads and crap anymore. Why do you think I started making mixes all those years ago?
Easy - Deer Tick
Angela - Jarvis Cocker
Alcoholics Unanimous - Art Brut
Son of a Gun - The Vaselines
Watch This! - Dananananaykroyd
Prophets - A.C. Newman
Gauze - Red Red Meat
Vampire - The Pink Mountaintops
Idiot Heart - Sunset Rubdown
Black Hearted Love - PJ Harvey and John Parish
Halfmast - The Dears
Frozen in My Tracks - The Tragically Hip
I'm Sorry, Baby, but You Can't Stand in My Light Anymore - Bob Mould
Sacred Trickster - Sonic Youth
Fate to Fatal - The Breeders
I Want You to Know - Dinosaur Jr.
Divinations - Mastodon
Halcyon Days - And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
Alcoholics:
Black Hearted:
Lighten Up, Francis (April 2009)
Sometimes an old mix can really pick you up. Tuesday night, I had to go pick up my mom from the airport because her flight had been canceled due to the impending snowmageddon. It was 9:30 p.m. and I had been looking forward to a nice relaxing evening, but had to jump in the van and head to the airport.
I grabbed this mix randomly as I was running out the door, with no idea of what was on it because I never took the time to print out a track listing. One of the opening songs, Art Brut's "Alcoholics Unanimous," was my favorite song of that year. And it was a good year for music, indeed. It was nice to be greeted with one kickass song after another, all collected during April of '09.
Contrast this with last weekend, when we drove up to my mom's place. I didn't grab any CDs, opting instead to just listen to the radio. Problem is, between commercials and crappy songs, I tend to do a lot of jumping around with the radio dial. This, of course, drives my wife nuts. But I have no patience for ads and crap anymore. Why do you think I started making mixes all those years ago?
Easy - Deer Tick
Angela - Jarvis Cocker
Alcoholics Unanimous - Art Brut
Son of a Gun - The Vaselines
Watch This! - Dananananaykroyd
Prophets - A.C. Newman
Gauze - Red Red Meat
Vampire - The Pink Mountaintops
Idiot Heart - Sunset Rubdown
Black Hearted Love - PJ Harvey and John Parish
Halfmast - The Dears
Frozen in My Tracks - The Tragically Hip
I'm Sorry, Baby, but You Can't Stand in My Light Anymore - Bob Mould
Sacred Trickster - Sonic Youth
Fate to Fatal - The Breeders
I Want You to Know - Dinosaur Jr.
Divinations - Mastodon
Halcyon Days - And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
Alcoholics:
Black Hearted:
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Mixology: Jason Voorhees Sings Motown
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
Jason Voorhees Sings Motown (10/29/88)
My senior year at UNH was a lot of fun. I had just completed a summer internship at the Peabody Times that confirmed my desire to become a newspaper reporter. It also gave me a semester's worth of credits that left me with only three required courses to take to graduate.
Of course, I had no desire to leave school early, so I spaced them out over the full year and took some other stuff just for the fun of it, like Writing Poetry (with future Pulitzer winner Charles Simic). The previous year, I was the news editor at The New Hampshire, spending 30 hours a week at the paper. I decided to step back from that role into a reporting position, writing a regular column and helping create Laphos, a humor supplement. But mostly, I just partied a lot and enjoyed the last vestiges of a responsibility-free life.
My roommates and I were in our second year in our off-campus apartment and things were good. There were four of us crammed into a two-bedroom flat, but it still beat living in the dorms. As with some of my previous mixes, I made this tape in anticipation of a party we had.
I don't remember the party, but the mix is full of the mostly mainstream music we were listening to and watching on MTV. U2 was HUGE and Rattle and Hum, the movie was about to come out; my roommate Rob had already picked up the album. Coming after the magnificence of The Joshua Tree, anything was bound to be a disappointment and Rattle and Hum was, although to be fair, it wasn't meant to be a proper studio album. It was a collection of studio and live tracks designed to go with the documentary, which was originally envisioned as an arthouse pic to play a small run. But the movie went over budget and the band's success turned into it into something bigger, but it stiffed at the box office. Still, there are some good songs on the album and "When Love Comes to Town" with BB King is a great track.
The mix is a pretty fair representation of what we were listening to at the time. Yeah, Sting, Clapton, Hornsby, Mellencamp. It is what it is. But you can see the evolution into alt-rock as I worked the Cure, REM, and Midnight Oil in there. The Van Hagar track is probably the only song of theirs that I can stomach these days and the DLR song came from his second, less good solo album. And you've gotta love a party mix that ends with a Midnight Oil song about Australian aboriginal rights. If that doesn't say party, what does?
The side names come from the infamous McDLT sandwich that McDonald's was hawking at the time. If you were a sentient being at the time, you remember it:
Side A: Hot Side Hot
When Love Comes to Town - U2
Be Still My Beating Heart - Sting
In Today's Room - Squeeze
Early in the Morning - Robert Palmer
Mystify - INXS
Miss You - Eric Clapton
Tunnel of Love - Bruce Springsteen
Cherry Bomb - John Mellencamp
The Valley Road - Bruce Hornsby
Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits
Side B: Cool Side Cool
The Boy in the Bubble - Paul Simon
Dance Little Sister - Terence Trent D'Arby
Blind - Talking Heads
Hot Hot Hot!!! - The Cure
It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
Sweet Fire of Love - Robbie Robertson (with U2)
Finish What Ya Started - Van Halen
Damn Good - David Lee Roth
Pour Some Sugar on Me - Def Leppard
Beds are Burning - Midnight Oil
The late great RP:
Hot x 3:
Jason Voorhees Sings Motown (10/29/88)
My senior year at UNH was a lot of fun. I had just completed a summer internship at the Peabody Times that confirmed my desire to become a newspaper reporter. It also gave me a semester's worth of credits that left me with only three required courses to take to graduate.
Of course, I had no desire to leave school early, so I spaced them out over the full year and took some other stuff just for the fun of it, like Writing Poetry (with future Pulitzer winner Charles Simic). The previous year, I was the news editor at The New Hampshire, spending 30 hours a week at the paper. I decided to step back from that role into a reporting position, writing a regular column and helping create Laphos, a humor supplement. But mostly, I just partied a lot and enjoyed the last vestiges of a responsibility-free life.
My roommates and I were in our second year in our off-campus apartment and things were good. There were four of us crammed into a two-bedroom flat, but it still beat living in the dorms. As with some of my previous mixes, I made this tape in anticipation of a party we had.
I don't remember the party, but the mix is full of the mostly mainstream music we were listening to and watching on MTV. U2 was HUGE and Rattle and Hum, the movie was about to come out; my roommate Rob had already picked up the album. Coming after the magnificence of The Joshua Tree, anything was bound to be a disappointment and Rattle and Hum was, although to be fair, it wasn't meant to be a proper studio album. It was a collection of studio and live tracks designed to go with the documentary, which was originally envisioned as an arthouse pic to play a small run. But the movie went over budget and the band's success turned into it into something bigger, but it stiffed at the box office. Still, there are some good songs on the album and "When Love Comes to Town" with BB King is a great track.
The mix is a pretty fair representation of what we were listening to at the time. Yeah, Sting, Clapton, Hornsby, Mellencamp. It is what it is. But you can see the evolution into alt-rock as I worked the Cure, REM, and Midnight Oil in there. The Van Hagar track is probably the only song of theirs that I can stomach these days and the DLR song came from his second, less good solo album. And you've gotta love a party mix that ends with a Midnight Oil song about Australian aboriginal rights. If that doesn't say party, what does?
The side names come from the infamous McDLT sandwich that McDonald's was hawking at the time. If you were a sentient being at the time, you remember it:
Side A: Hot Side Hot
When Love Comes to Town - U2
Be Still My Beating Heart - Sting
In Today's Room - Squeeze
Early in the Morning - Robert Palmer
Mystify - INXS
Miss You - Eric Clapton
Tunnel of Love - Bruce Springsteen
Cherry Bomb - John Mellencamp
The Valley Road - Bruce Hornsby
Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits
Side B: Cool Side Cool
The Boy in the Bubble - Paul Simon
Dance Little Sister - Terence Trent D'Arby
Blind - Talking Heads
Hot Hot Hot!!! - The Cure
It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
Sweet Fire of Love - Robbie Robertson (with U2)
Finish What Ya Started - Van Halen
Damn Good - David Lee Roth
Pour Some Sugar on Me - Def Leppard
Beds are Burning - Midnight Oil
The late great RP:
Hot x 3:
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Mixology: Sounds Like a Mix, Feels Like a Sneaker
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
Sounds Like a Mix, Feels Like a Sneaker (5/31/92)
Ah, '92. It was a pretty good year. Certainly turned out much better than the crapfest of '93. I was working as a reporter for the Peabody Times (RIP) and living with my girlfriend in this very house, albeit in the downstairs apartment.
I don't remember the exact circumstances around the making of this particular tape, other than the fact that there was a lot of cool music out at the time and I was making a fair number of mixes. The name came from the cheesy Easy Spirit shoe ads with the tag line "Looks like a pump, feels like a sneaker." That whole Seattle explosion was happening: Nirvana had totally blown up on MTV and "Nevermind" was selling like crazy. I was a little late to the party on Nirvana; I was certainly aware of them and liked them, but I actually got into Mother Love Bone first, back in 1990 when their one and only album came out. Then I picked up the Temple of the Dog CD in the spring of '91 and then Soundgarden's "Badmotorfinger" later that year. It was only after getting that sludgier stuff that I bought "Nevermind" and Pearl Jam's "Ten." The first Lollapalooza tour brought the Rollins Band to my attention.
At the same time, I was still listening to a lot of blues rock, which is reflected on this mix by acts like Stevie Ray Vaughan (who had died two years earlier but had a posthumous CD out, one of about 3, 862), Gary Moore, the Arc Angels and the Eric Gales Band. On the other end of the spectrum was the alt-rock I was listening to from U2, Matthew Sweet ("Girlfriend" was and is a monster album from '91), Red Hot Chili Peppers, and newer acts like Teenage Fanclub and the La's. Hell, I still liked Live at this point, before the band's pomposity drove me away. The one outlier on this tape is from a band called White Trash, which was a metal band with a horn section and an MTV hit called "Apple Pie." Pretty entertaining song, but they dropped off the radar fairly quickly after that.
All things considered, this is a decent mix. In the months after I made it, I bought a new Hyundai Elantra, Bill Clinton beat George H.W. Bush in the presidential election and a young Jon Stewart started showing up on Comedy Central and MTV.
Side A
Remedy - The Black Crowes
The Sky is Crying - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Cold Day in Hell - Gary Moore
Living in a Dream - ArcAngels
Sign of the Storm - Eric Gales Band
Does She Talk? - Matthew Sweet
The Concept - Teenage Fanclub
There She Goes - The La's
Operation Spirit - Live
Give It Away - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Side B
Apple Pie - White Trash
Even Flow - Pearl Jam
Searching With My Good Eye Closed - Soundgarden
Wooden Jesus - Temple of the Dog
Low Self Opinion - Rollins Band
I Could Have Lied - Red Hot Chili Peppers
December - Teenage Fanclub
Ultraviolet (Light My Way) - U2
Little Wing - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Classic:
Heavy:
Sounds Like a Mix, Feels Like a Sneaker (5/31/92)
Ah, '92. It was a pretty good year. Certainly turned out much better than the crapfest of '93. I was working as a reporter for the Peabody Times (RIP) and living with my girlfriend in this very house, albeit in the downstairs apartment.
I don't remember the exact circumstances around the making of this particular tape, other than the fact that there was a lot of cool music out at the time and I was making a fair number of mixes. The name came from the cheesy Easy Spirit shoe ads with the tag line "Looks like a pump, feels like a sneaker." That whole Seattle explosion was happening: Nirvana had totally blown up on MTV and "Nevermind" was selling like crazy. I was a little late to the party on Nirvana; I was certainly aware of them and liked them, but I actually got into Mother Love Bone first, back in 1990 when their one and only album came out. Then I picked up the Temple of the Dog CD in the spring of '91 and then Soundgarden's "Badmotorfinger" later that year. It was only after getting that sludgier stuff that I bought "Nevermind" and Pearl Jam's "Ten." The first Lollapalooza tour brought the Rollins Band to my attention.
At the same time, I was still listening to a lot of blues rock, which is reflected on this mix by acts like Stevie Ray Vaughan (who had died two years earlier but had a posthumous CD out, one of about 3, 862), Gary Moore, the Arc Angels and the Eric Gales Band. On the other end of the spectrum was the alt-rock I was listening to from U2, Matthew Sweet ("Girlfriend" was and is a monster album from '91), Red Hot Chili Peppers, and newer acts like Teenage Fanclub and the La's. Hell, I still liked Live at this point, before the band's pomposity drove me away. The one outlier on this tape is from a band called White Trash, which was a metal band with a horn section and an MTV hit called "Apple Pie." Pretty entertaining song, but they dropped off the radar fairly quickly after that.
All things considered, this is a decent mix. In the months after I made it, I bought a new Hyundai Elantra, Bill Clinton beat George H.W. Bush in the presidential election and a young Jon Stewart started showing up on Comedy Central and MTV.
Side A
Remedy - The Black Crowes
The Sky is Crying - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Cold Day in Hell - Gary Moore
Living in a Dream - ArcAngels
Sign of the Storm - Eric Gales Band
Does She Talk? - Matthew Sweet
The Concept - Teenage Fanclub
There She Goes - The La's
Operation Spirit - Live
Give It Away - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Side B
Apple Pie - White Trash
Even Flow - Pearl Jam
Searching With My Good Eye Closed - Soundgarden
Wooden Jesus - Temple of the Dog
Low Self Opinion - Rollins Band
I Could Have Lied - Red Hot Chili Peppers
December - Teenage Fanclub
Ultraviolet (Light My Way) - U2
Little Wing - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Classic:
Heavy:
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Mixology: Way Cool Tunes
Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.
Way Cool Tunes (3/26/91)
Early 1991 was an interesting time. The Gulf War had begun in January, with the U.S. invading Iraq to liberate the poor sheiks of Kuwait. Names like Dr. Jack Kevorkian and Rodney King were introduced into the public consciousness. And I was a 23-year-old covering School Committee meetings for the Peabody Times.
I was living with a fellow reporter in a crappy apartment on the awesomely named Butman Street in Beverly. It faced a cemetery, which made for some creepy foggy mornings from time to time. It was one of three apartments I would rent within a 1-mile radius over the years, in addition to many others. Someday I'll write about each of those places. I moved a lot in those pre-marriage days. At the Butman place, our landlord wasn't big on so-called "amenities" like "heat" and "hot water." I remember winning $225 on a square in the Super Bowl pool that January (had Bills kicker Scott Norwood not missed a field goal in the dying seconds, I would have had another $250) and literally giving it right to the oil guy because our heat ran out the next day. Brutal. I was dating a woman whom I'd eventually move in with about three months later after the Butman Street lease was up.
I saw a lot of bands that year: Iron Maiden at the Worcester Centrum in January; Living Colour at UNH and INXS at the Centrum in February; An Emotional Fish at the Paradise and George Thorogood/Barrence Whitfield and the Savages at the Orpheum in March; The Tragically Hip (the first of many shows by the Hip) at the Paradise and the WFNX Best Music Poll show at the Orpheum (featuring Iggy Pop) in April; and Lenny Kravitz at the Orpheum in November. I also reviewed a Jay Leno show at the North Shore Music Theater in Beverly in August and even got picked on by the big-chinned one; this was back when he was funny.
This was also the year that we got a coed softball team started at the paper. A few years later, I took over as captain and ran it for another 14 years (and 18,000 beers) or so.
This mix was full of stuff I was digging at the time, which cut a pretty wide swath from alt-rock (REM, The Cure, B-52s) to geezer rock (Roger McGuinn, Robert Cray) to one-hit wonders (Urban Dance Squad, An Emotional Fish) to hard rock/metal (Queensrych, DLR, King's X, Masters of Reality, Anthrax) to just good ol' rock (Pretenders, Tragically Hip) to James frickin' Brown.
It was a good year for the most part and at times, I actually did feel better than James Brown.
Side A
Celebrate - An Emotional Fish
Radio Song - R.E.M. (with KRS-One)
Losing My Religion - R.E.M.
King of the Hill - Roger McGuinn (with Tom Petty)
Deeper Shade of Soul - Urban Dance Squad
Little Bones - The Tragically Hip
These Things - Robert Cray
The Dogtown Shuffle - David Lee Roth
Theme for the Scientist of the Invisible/Domino - Masters of Reality
Mr. Wilson - King's X
Side B
Silent Lucidity - Queensryche
Jeremiah Blues (Pt. 1) - Sting
Channel Z - The B-52s
Fascination Street - The Cure
I Feel Better Than James Brown - Was (Not Was)
It May Be the Last Time - James Brown
Got the Time - Anthrax
Battleship Chains - Hindu Love Gods
Hold a Candle to This - The Pretenders
Fight - The Tragically Hip
Celebrate:
Domino (Funny, hadn't seen this before, I always thought this song would work great in an action flick. Apparently, Seagal agreed):
Way Cool Tunes (3/26/91)
Early 1991 was an interesting time. The Gulf War had begun in January, with the U.S. invading Iraq to liberate the poor sheiks of Kuwait. Names like Dr. Jack Kevorkian and Rodney King were introduced into the public consciousness. And I was a 23-year-old covering School Committee meetings for the Peabody Times.
I was living with a fellow reporter in a crappy apartment on the awesomely named Butman Street in Beverly. It faced a cemetery, which made for some creepy foggy mornings from time to time. It was one of three apartments I would rent within a 1-mile radius over the years, in addition to many others. Someday I'll write about each of those places. I moved a lot in those pre-marriage days. At the Butman place, our landlord wasn't big on so-called "amenities" like "heat" and "hot water." I remember winning $225 on a square in the Super Bowl pool that January (had Bills kicker Scott Norwood not missed a field goal in the dying seconds, I would have had another $250) and literally giving it right to the oil guy because our heat ran out the next day. Brutal. I was dating a woman whom I'd eventually move in with about three months later after the Butman Street lease was up.
I saw a lot of bands that year: Iron Maiden at the Worcester Centrum in January; Living Colour at UNH and INXS at the Centrum in February; An Emotional Fish at the Paradise and George Thorogood/Barrence Whitfield and the Savages at the Orpheum in March; The Tragically Hip (the first of many shows by the Hip) at the Paradise and the WFNX Best Music Poll show at the Orpheum (featuring Iggy Pop) in April; and Lenny Kravitz at the Orpheum in November. I also reviewed a Jay Leno show at the North Shore Music Theater in Beverly in August and even got picked on by the big-chinned one; this was back when he was funny.
This was also the year that we got a coed softball team started at the paper. A few years later, I took over as captain and ran it for another 14 years (and 18,000 beers) or so.
This mix was full of stuff I was digging at the time, which cut a pretty wide swath from alt-rock (REM, The Cure, B-52s) to geezer rock (Roger McGuinn, Robert Cray) to one-hit wonders (Urban Dance Squad, An Emotional Fish) to hard rock/metal (Queensrych, DLR, King's X, Masters of Reality, Anthrax) to just good ol' rock (Pretenders, Tragically Hip) to James frickin' Brown.
It was a good year for the most part and at times, I actually did feel better than James Brown.
Side A
Celebrate - An Emotional Fish
Radio Song - R.E.M. (with KRS-One)
Losing My Religion - R.E.M.
King of the Hill - Roger McGuinn (with Tom Petty)
Deeper Shade of Soul - Urban Dance Squad
Little Bones - The Tragically Hip
These Things - Robert Cray
The Dogtown Shuffle - David Lee Roth
Theme for the Scientist of the Invisible/Domino - Masters of Reality
Mr. Wilson - King's X
Side B
Silent Lucidity - Queensryche
Jeremiah Blues (Pt. 1) - Sting
Channel Z - The B-52s
Fascination Street - The Cure
I Feel Better Than James Brown - Was (Not Was)
It May Be the Last Time - James Brown
Got the Time - Anthrax
Battleship Chains - Hindu Love Gods
Hold a Candle to This - The Pretenders
Fight - The Tragically Hip
Celebrate:
Domino (Funny, hadn't seen this before, I always thought this song would work great in an action flick. Apparently, Seagal agreed):
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