Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2006: TV On the Radio - Wolf Like Me
You remember 2006, don't you? Well, I guess it's all kind of a blur now. But it was the year that Dick Cheney shot a dude in the face and was so powerful that the victim apologized to him. James Brown, Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein all died within a few days of each other at the end of the year. And the movie Borat introduced the fun-loving side of the country of Kazakhstan to the rest of the world.
Satellite radio had been around for a few years, but Sirius made a big push in '06 when Howard Stern made the jump from terrestrial radio. Back when I was at Webnoize in '01, my buddy Ric and I got a sneak preview of then still-to-be-launched XM (pretty sure it was XM and not Sirius, but I could be wrong); they had just set up the satellite repeaters around Boston and gave us a ride around the city listening to it. Anyhoo, Sirius and XM merged in '08 and are still at it, but I've never seen the need to pony up the dough for it. At the same time Stern was starting his satellite era, David Lee Roth began as his replacement but only lasted a few months before getting canceled.
No big changes in the work situation and the family was good. Both Deb and I were doing a lot of running early in the year as she ran the Boston Marathon and I did the Vermont City Marathon in May; I also ran the Chicago Marathon in the fall. For concerts, I saw Pearl Jam, Arctic Monkeys, Mission of Burma, Bloc Party, X/Rollins Band, Yo La Tengo, Iron Maiden (a work buddy got me back into them and we saw them at Agganis Arena...but were a bit bummed when they played their new album front to back), the Hold Steady, Frank Black, the Twilight Singers and the Hold Steady again while I was on a work trip in New Orleans.
There were some terrific albums out in '06, including the Arctic Monkeys' debut, the Hold Steady continuing their hot streak with their third straight great release, another excellent comeback record from Mission of Burma, a killer double album from Sloan and a terrific Twilight Singers album. But it was TV On the Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain and specifically the song "Wolf Like Me" that was the big one for me. Just a whirling dervish of a song that was simultaneously catchy and creepy. It was the sound of a band hitting its stride, combining killer instrumental chops with amazing vocals.
Honorable mentions: Arctic Monkeys - "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor"; Arctic Monkeys - "Fake Tales of San Francisco"; Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - "Rise Up With Fists!!"; Robert Pollard - "Love is Stronger Than Witchcraft"; The Minus 5 - "Rifle Called Goodbye"; Ray Davies - "Things Are Gonna Change (The Morning After)"; Danko Jones - "Invisible"; Destroyer - "Your Blood"; Neko Case - "Star Witness"; Band of Horses - "The Funeral"; Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Gold Lion"; The Black Angels - "Sniper at the Gates of Heaven"; The Black Angels - "Bloodhounds on My Trail"; Built to Spill - "Goin' Against Your Mind"; Eagles of Death Metal - "I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)"; Drive-By Truckers - "Gravity's Gone"; Gnarls Barkley - "Crazy"; Pearl Jam - "World Wide Suicide"; The Raconteurs - "Steady As She Goes"; The Twilight Singers - "Bonnie Brae"; The Twilight Singers - "Forty Dollars"; Mission of Burma - "Spider's Web"; Mission of Burma - "2wice"; Frightened Rabbit - "Be Less Rude"; Sonic Youth - "Incinerate"; TV On the Radio - "Province"; Peter Bjorn & John - "Young Folks"; The Black Keys - "Your Touch"; Mastodon - "The Wolf Is Loose"; Yo La Tengo - "Mr. Tough"; Sloan - "Who Taught You to Live Like That?"; Sloan - "Ill-Placed Trust"; Beck - "Cellphone's Dead"; The Hold Steady - "Stuck Between Stations"; The Hold Steady - "Massive Nights"; The Blood Brothers - "Spit Shine Your Black Clouds"; The Tragically Hip - "The Lonely End of the Rink"; Jarvis Cocker - "Running the World"
Sunday, May 31, 2020
Saturday, May 30, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Entertain
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2005: Sleater-Kinney - Entertain
Some big stuff happened in '05. Hurricane Katrina and the botched response to it. A new video-sharing site called YouTube was launched (wonder if it's still around?). Pope John Paul II died. Lance Armstrong won his 7th straight Tour De France, cementing a record that would never be tarnished (right?).
In my world, things were good. The girls turned 3 and 1 and Lily started walking early in the year, so we had our hands full. After taking 2004 off from marathons, I had planned to run Vermont in the spring of '05, but I had some Achilles issues that forced me to bow out. But I recovered to run New York City for the second time in the fall.
We vacationed on the Jersey Shore again, but this time, I had to do some work editing a book while I was there. Check out the technological fun I had (from my blog post on 7/22/05): I also had to do some work the first few days down there, inputting edits to book chapters that came in late; I borrowed a laptop from work but had to get creative because the room had high-speed wireless but the laptop was not enabled to work with it. Ended up getting a 256 MB USB storage card, transferred the documents I needed from PC at the hotel's business center, spent parts of two days finishing the chapters, and then emailed the finished versions from the biz center. Not how I originally envisioned my vacation, but it had to be done.
I've had other years when I had to work on vacation, but it's a lot easier now.
It was another big year for indie rock and I was immersed in reading a bunch of MP3 blogs to learn and hear about new stuff. Among my favorite new acts were Black Mountain, LCD Soundsystem, Kaiser Chiefs, Okkervil River, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bloc Party and Wolf Parade. I even posted a few MP3s from this blog, but that was short-lived because the buddy was providing me with access to his FTP site to host the songs ended up shutting it down or something, and I was too cheap to pay for my own. Whatevs.
The NHL's 2004-05 season was wiped out because of a labor lockout, so I ended up going to a lot of college and minor league hockey games. Still went to some concerts, though: Queens of the Stone Age, Mudhoney, Sloan and U2.
The song of the year for me was Sleater-Kinney's "Entertain" from their kickass album The Woods. I had been a fan since 2000's All Hands on the Bad One, but this album really crushed it. S-K redefined the power trio, driven primarily by Janet Weiss' pummeling drumwork. On "Entertain," Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker trade vocals while Weiss just destroys.The band split up after this tour, reuniting in 2015 with a new album and tour. Sadly, Weiss left the band after making their 2019 album The Center Won't Hold, due to musical differences. Too bad, because she rules.
Honorable mentions: Black Mountain - "Druganaut"; LCD Soundsystem - "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House"; The Mars Volta - "The Widow"; Kaiser Chiefs - "I Predict a Riot"; Kaiser Chiefs - "Everyday I Love You Less and Less"; Brendan Benson - "Alternative to Love"; Queens of the Stone Age - "Little Sister"; Queens of the Stone Age - "In My Head"; M.I.A. - "Galang"; Beck - "E-Pro"; Tom Vek - "I Ain't Saying My Goodbyes"; Okkervil River - "Black"; Robert Plant - "Shine It All Around"; Teenage Fanclub - "It's All In My Mind"; The Hold Steady - "Cattle and the Creeping Things"; The Hold Steady - "Your Little Hoodrat Friend"; Nine Inch Nails - "The Hand That Feeds"; Spoon - "Sister Jack"; Spoon - "I Turn My Camera On"; Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc."; Maximo Park - "The Coast Is Always Changing"; Sleater-Kinney - "Jumpers"; Art Brut - "Formed a Band"; The White Stripes - "Blue Orchid"; The Dropkick Murphys - "I'm Shipping Up to Boston"; Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "In This Home on Ice"; The Subways - "Rock and Roll Queen"; Frank Black - "I Burn Today"; The New Pornographers - "Use It"; Bloc Party - "Like Eating Glass"; Metric - "Monster Hospital"; Wolf Parade - "You Are a Runner and I am My Father's Son"; Franz Ferdinand - "Do You Want To"; Broken Social Scene - "7/4 (Shoreline)"; My Morning Jacket - "Off the Record"; Paul Weller - "From the Floorboards Up"; Snoop Dogg - "Drop It Like It's Hot"
2005: Sleater-Kinney - Entertain
Some big stuff happened in '05. Hurricane Katrina and the botched response to it. A new video-sharing site called YouTube was launched (wonder if it's still around?). Pope John Paul II died. Lance Armstrong won his 7th straight Tour De France, cementing a record that would never be tarnished (right?).
In my world, things were good. The girls turned 3 and 1 and Lily started walking early in the year, so we had our hands full. After taking 2004 off from marathons, I had planned to run Vermont in the spring of '05, but I had some Achilles issues that forced me to bow out. But I recovered to run New York City for the second time in the fall.
We vacationed on the Jersey Shore again, but this time, I had to do some work editing a book while I was there. Check out the technological fun I had (from my blog post on 7/22/05): I also had to do some work the first few days down there, inputting edits to book chapters that came in late; I borrowed a laptop from work but had to get creative because the room had high-speed wireless but the laptop was not enabled to work with it. Ended up getting a 256 MB USB storage card, transferred the documents I needed from PC at the hotel's business center, spent parts of two days finishing the chapters, and then emailed the finished versions from the biz center. Not how I originally envisioned my vacation, but it had to be done.
I've had other years when I had to work on vacation, but it's a lot easier now.
It was another big year for indie rock and I was immersed in reading a bunch of MP3 blogs to learn and hear about new stuff. Among my favorite new acts were Black Mountain, LCD Soundsystem, Kaiser Chiefs, Okkervil River, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bloc Party and Wolf Parade. I even posted a few MP3s from this blog, but that was short-lived because the buddy was providing me with access to his FTP site to host the songs ended up shutting it down or something, and I was too cheap to pay for my own. Whatevs.
The NHL's 2004-05 season was wiped out because of a labor lockout, so I ended up going to a lot of college and minor league hockey games. Still went to some concerts, though: Queens of the Stone Age, Mudhoney, Sloan and U2.
The song of the year for me was Sleater-Kinney's "Entertain" from their kickass album The Woods. I had been a fan since 2000's All Hands on the Bad One, but this album really crushed it. S-K redefined the power trio, driven primarily by Janet Weiss' pummeling drumwork. On "Entertain," Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker trade vocals while Weiss just destroys.The band split up after this tour, reuniting in 2015 with a new album and tour. Sadly, Weiss left the band after making their 2019 album The Center Won't Hold, due to musical differences. Too bad, because she rules.
Honorable mentions: Black Mountain - "Druganaut"; LCD Soundsystem - "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House"; The Mars Volta - "The Widow"; Kaiser Chiefs - "I Predict a Riot"; Kaiser Chiefs - "Everyday I Love You Less and Less"; Brendan Benson - "Alternative to Love"; Queens of the Stone Age - "Little Sister"; Queens of the Stone Age - "In My Head"; M.I.A. - "Galang"; Beck - "E-Pro"; Tom Vek - "I Ain't Saying My Goodbyes"; Okkervil River - "Black"; Robert Plant - "Shine It All Around"; Teenage Fanclub - "It's All In My Mind"; The Hold Steady - "Cattle and the Creeping Things"; The Hold Steady - "Your Little Hoodrat Friend"; Nine Inch Nails - "The Hand That Feeds"; Spoon - "Sister Jack"; Spoon - "I Turn My Camera On"; Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc."; Maximo Park - "The Coast Is Always Changing"; Sleater-Kinney - "Jumpers"; Art Brut - "Formed a Band"; The White Stripes - "Blue Orchid"; The Dropkick Murphys - "I'm Shipping Up to Boston"; Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - "In This Home on Ice"; The Subways - "Rock and Roll Queen"; Frank Black - "I Burn Today"; The New Pornographers - "Use It"; Bloc Party - "Like Eating Glass"; Metric - "Monster Hospital"; Wolf Parade - "You Are a Runner and I am My Father's Son"; Franz Ferdinand - "Do You Want To"; Broken Social Scene - "7/4 (Shoreline)"; My Morning Jacket - "Off the Record"; Paul Weller - "From the Floorboards Up"; Snoop Dogg - "Drop It Like It's Hot"
Friday, May 29, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: The Rat
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2004: The Walkmen - The Rat
In 2004, George W. Bush was re-elected as president, the Iraq war raged on, some dork at Harvard created a social networking site called Facebook, Martha Stewart went to jail for insider trading, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake stirred up some controversy at the Super Bowl halftime show and the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years.
Our house got a lot busier in March with the birth of my second daughter Lily. I swear I spent the next year changing diapers nonstop. It was just second nature after a while. But it was fine. We vacationed on the Jersey Shore for the first time with my brother-in-law and his family. I spent a sweltering few days in Phoenix in June for a work conference.
Indie rock was booming. I finally got an iPod and was constantly downloading stuff to put on it: New bands, bootlegs, B-sides. And there was plenty of good new music: The Hold Steady, Modest Mouse, Mark Lanegan, Hot Snakes, Wilco, PJ Harvey, Mission of Burma, The Twilight Singers and on and on. I was still listening to WMBR in the mornings at work via their website, but most of my music discovery was done through MP3 blogs. Late in the year, I also discovered podcasts. For concerts, I saw Sloan, Mission of Burma, the Tragically Hip, Wilco, and the reunited Pixies (with Mission of Burma opening).
The Walkmen were another of those new bands that I discovered through the rock blogosphere in '04. They got some exposure through shows like "The O.C." but their song "The Rat" was an instant classic for me. Driven by the powerhouse drumming of Matt Barrick, the song builds in intensity and peaks with frontman Hamilton Leithauser's soaring, sneering vocals. Just a pissed off, brilliant screed of a banger. So goddamn great.
Honorable mentions: The Walkmen - "Little House of Savages"; The Hold Steady - "The Swish"; The Hold Steady - "Most People Are DJs"; Modest Mouse - "The Good Times Are Killing Me"; Modest Mouse - "Ocean Breathes Salty"; Mark Lanegan Band - "Hit the City"; Mark Lanegan Band - "One Hundred Days"; The Tragically Hip - "Vaccination Scar"; The Tragically Hip - "Heart of the Melt"; Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "Little Dawn"; Mission of Burma - "Hunt Again"; Mission of Burma - "The Enthusiast"; Hot Snakes - "Kreative Kontrol"; Hot Snakes - "Hi-Lites"; Eagles of Death Metal - "I Only Want You"; Wilco - "At Least That's What You Said"; A.C. Newman - "Drink to Me Babe Then"; Drive-By Truckers - "Where the Devil Don't Stay"; The Twilight Singers - "Too Tough to Die"; Sonic Youth - "Unmade Bed"; Probot - "Shake Your Blood"; TV On the Radio - "The Wrong Way"; Feist - "Inside and Out"; Elliott Smith - "Don't Go Down"; William Shatner - "I Can't Get Behind That"; The Von Bondies - "C'mon C'mon"; Franz Ferdinand - "Take Me Out"; PJ Harvey - "Who the Fuck?"; !!! - "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Karazzee"; The Black Keys - "10 A.M. Automatic"; Arcade Fire - "Wake Up"; Green Day - "American Idiot"; Death From Above 1979 - "Romantic Rights"; U2 - "Vertigo"; Jay Z - "99 Problems"; Beastie Boys - "Ch-Check It Out"
2004: The Walkmen - The Rat
In 2004, George W. Bush was re-elected as president, the Iraq war raged on, some dork at Harvard created a social networking site called Facebook, Martha Stewart went to jail for insider trading, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake stirred up some controversy at the Super Bowl halftime show and the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years.
Our house got a lot busier in March with the birth of my second daughter Lily. I swear I spent the next year changing diapers nonstop. It was just second nature after a while. But it was fine. We vacationed on the Jersey Shore for the first time with my brother-in-law and his family. I spent a sweltering few days in Phoenix in June for a work conference.
Indie rock was booming. I finally got an iPod and was constantly downloading stuff to put on it: New bands, bootlegs, B-sides. And there was plenty of good new music: The Hold Steady, Modest Mouse, Mark Lanegan, Hot Snakes, Wilco, PJ Harvey, Mission of Burma, The Twilight Singers and on and on. I was still listening to WMBR in the mornings at work via their website, but most of my music discovery was done through MP3 blogs. Late in the year, I also discovered podcasts. For concerts, I saw Sloan, Mission of Burma, the Tragically Hip, Wilco, and the reunited Pixies (with Mission of Burma opening).
The Walkmen were another of those new bands that I discovered through the rock blogosphere in '04. They got some exposure through shows like "The O.C." but their song "The Rat" was an instant classic for me. Driven by the powerhouse drumming of Matt Barrick, the song builds in intensity and peaks with frontman Hamilton Leithauser's soaring, sneering vocals. Just a pissed off, brilliant screed of a banger. So goddamn great.
Honorable mentions: The Walkmen - "Little House of Savages"; The Hold Steady - "The Swish"; The Hold Steady - "Most People Are DJs"; Modest Mouse - "The Good Times Are Killing Me"; Modest Mouse - "Ocean Breathes Salty"; Mark Lanegan Band - "Hit the City"; Mark Lanegan Band - "One Hundred Days"; The Tragically Hip - "Vaccination Scar"; The Tragically Hip - "Heart of the Melt"; Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - "Little Dawn"; Mission of Burma - "Hunt Again"; Mission of Burma - "The Enthusiast"; Hot Snakes - "Kreative Kontrol"; Hot Snakes - "Hi-Lites"; Eagles of Death Metal - "I Only Want You"; Wilco - "At Least That's What You Said"; A.C. Newman - "Drink to Me Babe Then"; Drive-By Truckers - "Where the Devil Don't Stay"; The Twilight Singers - "Too Tough to Die"; Sonic Youth - "Unmade Bed"; Probot - "Shake Your Blood"; TV On the Radio - "The Wrong Way"; Feist - "Inside and Out"; Elliott Smith - "Don't Go Down"; William Shatner - "I Can't Get Behind That"; The Von Bondies - "C'mon C'mon"; Franz Ferdinand - "Take Me Out"; PJ Harvey - "Who the Fuck?"; !!! - "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Karazzee"; The Black Keys - "10 A.M. Automatic"; Arcade Fire - "Wake Up"; Green Day - "American Idiot"; Death From Above 1979 - "Romantic Rights"; U2 - "Vertigo"; Jay Z - "99 Problems"; Beastie Boys - "Ch-Check It Out"
Stuck In Thee Garage #323: May 29, 2020
We're at that time of year where bugs are everywhere, annoying us but also doing their part in the natural kingdom. I still don't see what purpose mosquitoes serve, but nevertheless, we're stuck with them. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about bugs in hour 2.
You might think I'm crazy, but this is a good playlist:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
IDLES - Mr. Motivator/Single
Jeff Rosenstock - Fame/NO DREAM
Drakulas - Terminal Amusements/Terminal Amusements
Eldridge Rodriguez - Country and Western/Slightest of Treason
The Dears - The Worst In Us/Lovers Rock
Beauty Pill - Tattooed Love Boys/Please Advise
Houses of Heaven - A Place Between/Silent Places
Dig Nitty - Lomita/Reverse of Mastery
Low Cut Connie - Private Lives/Private Lives
MAITA - Someone's Lost Their Wallet/Best Wishes
Porridge Radio - Don't Ask Me Twice/Every Bad
Hanni El Khatib - Alive/Flight
Childish Gambino - Algorhythm/3.15.20
EOB - Olympik/Earth
Hour 2: Bugs
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Bartomelo and the Buzzing of Bees/The Brutalist Bricks
Boss Hog - Beehive/Boss Hog
Culture Abuse - Bee Kind to the Bugs/Bay Dream
Pile - A Bug on its Back/Green and Gray
Van Halen - The Full Bug/Diver Down
Ozzy Osbourne - Spiders/Bark at the Moon
Slaves - Bugs/Acts of Fear and Love
METZ - I'm a Bug/Covers
Herzog - Little Bugs/Me Vs. You
Mark Lanegan Band - Beehive/Gargoyle
Brainiac - Beekeeper's Maxim/Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
Ian Sweet - Bug Museum/Crush Crusher
Pearl Jam - Bee Girl/Live on KISW 10/18/93
Ovlov - Moth Rock/am
Mission of Burma - Spider's Web/The Obliterati
The Needy Sons - White Spider Bites/Vis-a-Vis
Drive-By Truckers - Box of Spiders/Pizza Deliverance
Spoon - Mean Red Spider/Written In Reverse
Guided By Voices - Mag Earwhig!/Mag Earwhig!
You might think I'm crazy, but this is a good playlist:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
IDLES - Mr. Motivator/Single
Jeff Rosenstock - Fame/NO DREAM
Drakulas - Terminal Amusements/Terminal Amusements
Eldridge Rodriguez - Country and Western/Slightest of Treason
The Dears - The Worst In Us/Lovers Rock
Beauty Pill - Tattooed Love Boys/Please Advise
Houses of Heaven - A Place Between/Silent Places
Dig Nitty - Lomita/Reverse of Mastery
Low Cut Connie - Private Lives/Private Lives
MAITA - Someone's Lost Their Wallet/Best Wishes
Porridge Radio - Don't Ask Me Twice/Every Bad
Hanni El Khatib - Alive/Flight
Childish Gambino - Algorhythm/3.15.20
EOB - Olympik/Earth
Hour 2: Bugs
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Bartomelo and the Buzzing of Bees/The Brutalist Bricks
Boss Hog - Beehive/Boss Hog
Culture Abuse - Bee Kind to the Bugs/Bay Dream
Pile - A Bug on its Back/Green and Gray
Van Halen - The Full Bug/Diver Down
Ozzy Osbourne - Spiders/Bark at the Moon
Slaves - Bugs/Acts of Fear and Love
METZ - I'm a Bug/Covers
Herzog - Little Bugs/Me Vs. You
Mark Lanegan Band - Beehive/Gargoyle
Brainiac - Beekeeper's Maxim/Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
Ian Sweet - Bug Museum/Crush Crusher
Pearl Jam - Bee Girl/Live on KISW 10/18/93
Ovlov - Moth Rock/am
Mission of Burma - Spider's Web/The Obliterati
The Needy Sons - White Spider Bites/Vis-a-Vis
Drive-By Truckers - Box of Spiders/Pizza Deliverance
Spoon - Mean Red Spider/Written In Reverse
Guided By Voices - Mag Earwhig!/Mag Earwhig!
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2003: Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?
In the year 2003, there was a lot going on but with a baby, we understandably were a little shell-shocked. The U.S. invaded Iraq, the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded upon re-entry, Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of California and Apple launched iTunes.
In the spring, my daughter Hannah turned one and took her first steps. By the summer, we discovered Deb was pregnant with our second child. We had planned on having two kids, so things were going along as planned, although I was definitely wondering what doubling the diapers was going to be like.
Meanwhile, I was getting into running in a big way. I ran two marathons in '03, Boston in the spring and New York in the fall. We drove up to Toronto for two weddings in the summer. And I did some more traveling for work, going to San Antonio in June (a tad toasty) and Chicago in the fall.
MP3 blogs were all the rage (at least for indie rock nerds such as myself) so I was downloading a lot of stuff and getting introduced to a lot of new music from bands like the Postal Service, Cat Power, Fiery Furnaces, Drive-By Truckers, the Wrens and TV On the Radio. And there was plenty of other great stuff from the likes of Greg Dulli's Twilight Singers, the White Stripes, the Black Keys, Gord Downie, Sloan and a boatload of others. Concerts included Pat DiNizio (playing a "living room show" with my friend Andrew's band WOW backing him up in Portland), Yo La Tengo, Gord Downie, Radiohead and Guster. (Speaking of blogs, I also launched this one in '03, although not as an MP3 blog.)
My favorite song was from Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, who released their second terrific record in a row with Hearts of Oak. "Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?" was a rollicking tribute to old-school ska, featuring Leo's hot guitar work and high-pitched vocal style. The album as a whole is a feel-good combination of punk-pop that was part Clash, Thin Lizzy and Elvis Costello. It was a perfect blend of all the good stuff I dug, and Leo has continued to do quality work to this day. But "Rude Boys" has that timeless feel that never fails to raise your spirits.
Honorable mentions: The Postal Service - "Such Great Heights"; Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "The High Party"; Cat Power - "He War"; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "Water and a Seat"; Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - "(Do Not Feed the) Oyster"; The White Stripes - "Seven Nation Army"; The White Stripes - "The Hardest Button to Button"; Yo La Tengo - "Today is the Day"; The Black Keys - "Set You Free"; The Black Keys - "Have Love, Will Travel"; Matthew Sweet - "Dead Smile"; Matthew Sweet - "Tonight We Ride"; Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Maps"; Electric Six - "Gay Bar"; Electric Six - "Danger! High Voltage!"; Riverboat Gamblers - "Hey! Hey! Hey!"; Radiohead - "2 + 2 = 5"; Radiohead - "Myxomatosis"; Drive-By Truckers - "Outfit"; Drive-By Truckers - "Hell No I Ain't Happy"; TV On the Radio - "Staring at the Sun"; Sloan - "Gimme That"; Sloan - "Backstabbin'"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "Nadine"; Outkast - "Hey Ya!"; Outkast - "The Way You Move"; The Twilight Singers - "Teenage Wristband"; The Twilight Singers - "The Killer"; The Shins - "So Says I"; Mark Lanegan - "Methamphetamine Blues"; Mark Lanegan - "Message to Mine"; Johnny Cash - "Hurt"; The Wrens - "This Boy is Exhausted"; Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - "Coma Girl"; Gord Downie - "Figment"; Gord Downie - "Pascal's Submarine"
2003: Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?
In the year 2003, there was a lot going on but with a baby, we understandably were a little shell-shocked. The U.S. invaded Iraq, the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded upon re-entry, Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of California and Apple launched iTunes.
In the spring, my daughter Hannah turned one and took her first steps. By the summer, we discovered Deb was pregnant with our second child. We had planned on having two kids, so things were going along as planned, although I was definitely wondering what doubling the diapers was going to be like.
Meanwhile, I was getting into running in a big way. I ran two marathons in '03, Boston in the spring and New York in the fall. We drove up to Toronto for two weddings in the summer. And I did some more traveling for work, going to San Antonio in June (a tad toasty) and Chicago in the fall.
MP3 blogs were all the rage (at least for indie rock nerds such as myself) so I was downloading a lot of stuff and getting introduced to a lot of new music from bands like the Postal Service, Cat Power, Fiery Furnaces, Drive-By Truckers, the Wrens and TV On the Radio. And there was plenty of other great stuff from the likes of Greg Dulli's Twilight Singers, the White Stripes, the Black Keys, Gord Downie, Sloan and a boatload of others. Concerts included Pat DiNizio (playing a "living room show" with my friend Andrew's band WOW backing him up in Portland), Yo La Tengo, Gord Downie, Radiohead and Guster. (Speaking of blogs, I also launched this one in '03, although not as an MP3 blog.)
My favorite song was from Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, who released their second terrific record in a row with Hearts of Oak. "Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?" was a rollicking tribute to old-school ska, featuring Leo's hot guitar work and high-pitched vocal style. The album as a whole is a feel-good combination of punk-pop that was part Clash, Thin Lizzy and Elvis Costello. It was a perfect blend of all the good stuff I dug, and Leo has continued to do quality work to this day. But "Rude Boys" has that timeless feel that never fails to raise your spirits.
Honorable mentions: The Postal Service - "Such Great Heights"; Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "The High Party"; Cat Power - "He War"; Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - "Water and a Seat"; Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - "(Do Not Feed the) Oyster"; The White Stripes - "Seven Nation Army"; The White Stripes - "The Hardest Button to Button"; Yo La Tengo - "Today is the Day"; The Black Keys - "Set You Free"; The Black Keys - "Have Love, Will Travel"; Matthew Sweet - "Dead Smile"; Matthew Sweet - "Tonight We Ride"; Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Maps"; Electric Six - "Gay Bar"; Electric Six - "Danger! High Voltage!"; Riverboat Gamblers - "Hey! Hey! Hey!"; Radiohead - "2 + 2 = 5"; Radiohead - "Myxomatosis"; Drive-By Truckers - "Outfit"; Drive-By Truckers - "Hell No I Ain't Happy"; TV On the Radio - "Staring at the Sun"; Sloan - "Gimme That"; Sloan - "Backstabbin'"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "Nadine"; Outkast - "Hey Ya!"; Outkast - "The Way You Move"; The Twilight Singers - "Teenage Wristband"; The Twilight Singers - "The Killer"; The Shins - "So Says I"; Mark Lanegan - "Methamphetamine Blues"; Mark Lanegan - "Message to Mine"; Johnny Cash - "Hurt"; The Wrens - "This Boy is Exhausted"; Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - "Coma Girl"; Gord Downie - "Figment"; Gord Downie - "Pascal's Submarine"
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Fell In Love With a Girl
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2001: The White Stripes - Fell In Love With a Girl
When you think about newsworthy events in 2001, there's really only one thing that stands out: the merger of AOL and Time Warner.
I keed, I keed, it's 9/11, of course. But plenty of other stuff happened before that. Napster shut down. Apple introduced the iPod. The XBox and the Segway were released. Dale Earnhardt and Aaliyah died.
The dotcom economy tanked, as expected. At Webnoize, we saw it coming and as the year wore on, things got bleaker. We watched dotcoms run out of money and go out of business and by the end of the summer, it was obvious the ship was sinking. So I started looking for a new job. I had a little extra urgency because Deb and I found out we were going to have a baby the following spring.
Of course, September 11 really dealt the finishing blow to the company. Our conference in November still happened (although most of us didn't go), but given a lot of the companies that went the previous two years didn't exist or had no money to fly there. I went on some interviews, but nothing really clicked. Finally, I ended up getting a job back at my old company in Marblehead, so I gave my two weeks' notice. At the end of the first week in mid-November, we were all laid off. I had a unplanned week off, and then was back in Marblehead.
This year, a lot of '90s acts were continuing into the new decade on a strong note: Radiohead, Sloan, Guided By Voices, Frank Black, Built to Spill, but there were good new efforts from Stephen Malkmus, Destroyer, Ted Leo and the Strokes. Concerts attended included: Radiohead, Gord Downie, The Tragically Hip, Built to Spill, PJ Harvey and Buddy Guy.
The White Stripes were the breakout band for me in '01. I had been hearing tracks from their new album White Blood Cells on WMBR, but it was seeing the band at the Middle East with a bunch of my Webnoize buddies that clinched it. The guitar-drums garage rock attack was particularly effective in the live setting, but the album kicked ass, especially "Fell In Love With a Girl." Jack White's guitar especially provided a jolt of energy. It didn't really catch on nationally until it was released as a single in April 2002, but I loved it from the moment I heard it. And it was great to see the band when they were still playing small venues, which definitely was not the case when they returned on their next tour.
And speaking of changes, we were bracing for the biggest one so far in our lives coming the next spring.
Honorable mentions: The White Stripes - "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "Robert Onion"; Stephen Malkmus - "Black Book"; Rocket From the Crypt - "Heart of a Rat"; Gorillaz - "Clint Eastwood"; Guided By Voices - "Glad Guys"; Guided By Voices - "Chasing Heather Crazy"; Destroyer - "The Sublimation Hour"; Radiohead - "Knives Out"; Radiohead - "Pyramid Song"; Sloan - "If It Feels Good, Do It"; Sloan - "The Other Man"; Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Biomusicology"; Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Timorous Me"; Built to Spill - "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss"; The Strokes - "Last Nite"; The Strokes - "Is This It"; Ben Folds - "Annie Waits"; Ben Folds - "Rockin' the Suburbs"; Tenacious D - "Tribute"; Fu Manchu - "Mongoose"; Jay Z - "Izzo (HOVA)";
2001: The White Stripes - Fell In Love With a Girl
When you think about newsworthy events in 2001, there's really only one thing that stands out: the merger of AOL and Time Warner.
I keed, I keed, it's 9/11, of course. But plenty of other stuff happened before that. Napster shut down. Apple introduced the iPod. The XBox and the Segway were released. Dale Earnhardt and Aaliyah died.
The dotcom economy tanked, as expected. At Webnoize, we saw it coming and as the year wore on, things got bleaker. We watched dotcoms run out of money and go out of business and by the end of the summer, it was obvious the ship was sinking. So I started looking for a new job. I had a little extra urgency because Deb and I found out we were going to have a baby the following spring.
Of course, September 11 really dealt the finishing blow to the company. Our conference in November still happened (although most of us didn't go), but given a lot of the companies that went the previous two years didn't exist or had no money to fly there. I went on some interviews, but nothing really clicked. Finally, I ended up getting a job back at my old company in Marblehead, so I gave my two weeks' notice. At the end of the first week in mid-November, we were all laid off. I had a unplanned week off, and then was back in Marblehead.
This year, a lot of '90s acts were continuing into the new decade on a strong note: Radiohead, Sloan, Guided By Voices, Frank Black, Built to Spill, but there were good new efforts from Stephen Malkmus, Destroyer, Ted Leo and the Strokes. Concerts attended included: Radiohead, Gord Downie, The Tragically Hip, Built to Spill, PJ Harvey and Buddy Guy.
The White Stripes were the breakout band for me in '01. I had been hearing tracks from their new album White Blood Cells on WMBR, but it was seeing the band at the Middle East with a bunch of my Webnoize buddies that clinched it. The guitar-drums garage rock attack was particularly effective in the live setting, but the album kicked ass, especially "Fell In Love With a Girl." Jack White's guitar especially provided a jolt of energy. It didn't really catch on nationally until it was released as a single in April 2002, but I loved it from the moment I heard it. And it was great to see the band when they were still playing small venues, which definitely was not the case when they returned on their next tour.
And speaking of changes, we were bracing for the biggest one so far in our lives coming the next spring.
Honorable mentions: The White Stripes - "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "Robert Onion"; Stephen Malkmus - "Black Book"; Rocket From the Crypt - "Heart of a Rat"; Gorillaz - "Clint Eastwood"; Guided By Voices - "Glad Guys"; Guided By Voices - "Chasing Heather Crazy"; Destroyer - "The Sublimation Hour"; Radiohead - "Knives Out"; Radiohead - "Pyramid Song"; Sloan - "If It Feels Good, Do It"; Sloan - "The Other Man"; Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Biomusicology"; Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - "Timorous Me"; Built to Spill - "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss"; The Strokes - "Last Nite"; The Strokes - "Is This It"; Ben Folds - "Annie Waits"; Ben Folds - "Rockin' the Suburbs"; Tenacious D - "Tribute"; Fu Manchu - "Mongoose"; Jay Z - "Izzo (HOVA)";
Completely Conspicuous 534: In the Dark
I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss
the Grateful Dead album In the Dark. Listen to the episode below or
download directly.
Show notes:
- Recorded via Zoom
- We originally planned to do this in early March, but then something happened
- In the Dark was released in July 1987, seven years after the last Dead studio album
- Phil had just graduated from high school, Jay was going into junior year of college
- The band had been playing the songs in concert for years
- Jerry Garcia had gone into a diabetic coma in '86
- Had to re-learn how to walk, talk, play guitar
- Band was renewed after his recovery
- CDs were just starting to get popular
- We both didn't get CD players until 1989
- First CDs: Phil's was 10,000 Maniacs, Jay's were Cult, the Who, Joe Jackson
- The Best of Steve Miller was a college staple in the '80s
- Recorded live in an empty theater
- "Touch of Grey" was all over MTV and rock radio that summer
- Very catchy single
- Phil: Album was breath of fresh air after two disappointing releases
- "Touch of Grey" resonated with Boomers as well as younger listeners
- New fans were known as "Touch heads" by veteran fans
- People were going to Dead shows for the scene, not the music
- Released videos for "Hell in a Bucket" and "Throwing Stones"
- The one clunker is sung by keyboardist Brent Mydland
- Jay: His vocals didn't seem to fit
- They ladled on the synths
- Phil: Mydland was good at harmonies
- Vocals sounded like Kenny Loggins or Bob Seger
- Phil: Listening to at least one album he hasn't heard every day
- "West LA Fadeaway" may have been inspired by Belushi
- Phil gives it a B+
- The success of "Touch of Grey" was so unexpected
- Next up: We talk about the last Dead studio album
Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts and anywhere else you get podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!
Show notes:
- Recorded via Zoom
- We originally planned to do this in early March, but then something happened
- In the Dark was released in July 1987, seven years after the last Dead studio album
- Phil had just graduated from high school, Jay was going into junior year of college
- The band had been playing the songs in concert for years
- Jerry Garcia had gone into a diabetic coma in '86
- Had to re-learn how to walk, talk, play guitar
- Band was renewed after his recovery
- CDs were just starting to get popular
- We both didn't get CD players until 1989
- First CDs: Phil's was 10,000 Maniacs, Jay's were Cult, the Who, Joe Jackson
- The Best of Steve Miller was a college staple in the '80s
- Recorded live in an empty theater
- "Touch of Grey" was all over MTV and rock radio that summer
- Very catchy single
- Phil: Album was breath of fresh air after two disappointing releases
- "Touch of Grey" resonated with Boomers as well as younger listeners
- New fans were known as "Touch heads" by veteran fans
- People were going to Dead shows for the scene, not the music
- Released videos for "Hell in a Bucket" and "Throwing Stones"
- The one clunker is sung by keyboardist Brent Mydland
- Jay: His vocals didn't seem to fit
- They ladled on the synths
- Phil: Mydland was good at harmonies
- Vocals sounded like Kenny Loggins or Bob Seger
- Phil: Listening to at least one album he hasn't heard every day
- "West LA Fadeaway" may have been inspired by Belushi
- Phil gives it a B+
- The success of "Touch of Grey" was so unexpected
- Next up: We talk about the last Dead studio album
Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts and anywhere else you get podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!
The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.
Monday, May 25, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Optimistic
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
2000: Radiohead - Optimistic
First things first, we survived Y2K intact. Nothing happened, the computers kept working and on we went. It was another presidential election year in the U.S. and this one was particularly crazy, with George W. Bush edging out Al Gore after a controversial monthlong recount in Florida. The dotcom bubble began to burst, leading into a lot of companies going under.
That last piece of news wasn't particularly great for the dotcom I was working at, although we weren't as reliant on big money as some of the more infamous companies were. We were busy in 2000, moving our office from Stoneham to Central Square in Cambridge, which was fun. We had a pretty cool space and I was working closely with a good group of folks covering all these dotcom investments. One big story we followed was when Metallica decided to sue Napster, followed soon afterward by the major labels filing suit. We went to South By Southwest in March, where we had a booth and spent a lot of time covering the event; we also spent a lot of time eating BBQ and going to see bands including Modest Mouse, Fu Manchu and the Bevis Frond. In November, we were back in Los Angeles for our annual conference. But as we tracked how a lot of these internet-based companies were unable to take advantage of the funding they had received, we also were facing a similar dilemma as we headed in 2001.
Meanwhile in Beverly, Deb and I spent the first part of the year getting ready for our wedding in July. About a month before the big day, a huge tree branch fell on and totaled my car. Since I was taking the train to work anyway, we decided to just go with one car for the time being. The wedding itself was great and we went to St. Lucia for our honeymoon. Then in the fall, we ended up buying a two-family house across town with Deb's mom. By total coincidence, it just so happened to be the same house I rented an apartment in eight years earlier.
We had shitty dial-up internet at home so using Napster was out of the question. I tried it, but it was so slow. But in the office, we had a nice, fast T1 line, so we used it "for research purposes" (which was actually true, because we had a research department that was publishing reports on the service). New music was getting leaked early on Napster, including Madonna's latest single. This was the pre-iPod era, but we had gotten different MP3 players sent to us, including my personal favorite, the Diamond Rio. The player only had 64 MB of memory, which could play about an hour's worth of music (depending on the bitrate or size of the files; we used to get stuff at 96 or 128 kbps, which is pretty low-quality, but it worked). But you could add a memory card and double the memory. So I was getting advance copies of new albums and listening to them on my commute. These included the new releases from Radiohead (more on that in a bit), At the Drive-In, The Tragically Hip, U2 and others. I was also still buying CDs and ripping them into MP3s to listen to on my MP3 player; these included albums from Queens of the Stone Age, PJ Harvey, Sleater-Kinney and Outkast.
Once we moved to the Cambridge the office, we started listening to WMBR, the MIT campus station, which introduced to a lot of newer acts like the White Stripes, Peaches, Modest Mouse and others. We also had this weird Sun ray computer system (you used a smart card to log in, so you could go to any terminal and get your settings and stuff) with a shared music drive full of stuff we had downloaded from Napster. You couldn't download it to a personal player, but it was cool when you were working in the office. For concerts, I saw Supergrass, the Tragically Hip and Guster, in addition to those shows I saw in Austin. But certainly a lot fewer shows than in previous years, probably due to a longer work day (I was up at 5 to go to the gym and then catch the 7:20 train to Boston and then didn't get home until 7:30 p.m.) and the fact we only had one car now.
Coming off the success of 1997's OK Computer, Radiohead had established themselves as a band to watch and the anticipation for their follow-up was immense. Fans and critics were expecting a continuation of the guitar-heavy sound the band had used on their first three albums, but 2000's Kid A ended up going in a totally opposite direction, embracing electronics in an almost shocking way. I'm a guitar fan so when I first heard songs from Kid A via Napster, I was disappointed, but the more I listened, the more I liked them. That was where the intimate experience of listening to those songs on my Rio 500 player really paid off. I dug into those songs while on that long-ass commute, which included walking to the train station, 35-40 minutes on the train, another 10-minute walk to the subway and yet another 10-minute walk to my office. That made Kid A really imprint itself onto my brain, and there was so much to like about it. I especially liked "Optimistic," which sort of melded the band's old and new approaches.
For me, "Optimistic" represented a lot of different things, not the least of which was a positive outlook as I moved into the "grown-up phase" of my life. It ended up coming in handy the following, which presented a lot of grown-up challenges, both good and bad.
Honorable mentions: Radiohead - "Everything In Its Right Place"; Radiohead - "Idioteque"; PJ Harvey - "Good Fortune"; PJ Harvey - "This Mess We're In"; Queens of the Stone Age - "In the Fade"; Queens of the Stone Age - "Feel Good Hit of the Summer"; The Tragically Hip - "My Music at Work"; The Tragically Hip - "Lake Fever"; Pearl Jam - "Nothing As It Seems"; Rollins Band - "Get Some Go Again"; Yo La Tengo - "Cherry Chapstick"; Steely Dan - "Cousin Dupree"; Elliott Smith - "Son of Sam"; Sleater-Kinney - "You're No Rock 'N Roll Fun"; Modest Mouse - "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes"; The White Stripes - "Hello Operator"; The White Stripes - "You're Pretty Good Looking (for a Girl)"; U2 - "Elevation"; U2 - "Walk On"; Outkast - "Ms. Jackson"; Outkast - "So Fresh, So Clean"; Dr. Dre - "Forgot About Dre"'; Fu Manchu - "Boogie Van"; Fu Manchu - "King of the Road"; Geddy Lee - "My Favorite Headache"; At the Drive-In - "One-Armed Scissor"; At the Drive-In - "Rolodex Propaganda"
2000: Radiohead - Optimistic
First things first, we survived Y2K intact. Nothing happened, the computers kept working and on we went. It was another presidential election year in the U.S. and this one was particularly crazy, with George W. Bush edging out Al Gore after a controversial monthlong recount in Florida. The dotcom bubble began to burst, leading into a lot of companies going under.
That last piece of news wasn't particularly great for the dotcom I was working at, although we weren't as reliant on big money as some of the more infamous companies were. We were busy in 2000, moving our office from Stoneham to Central Square in Cambridge, which was fun. We had a pretty cool space and I was working closely with a good group of folks covering all these dotcom investments. One big story we followed was when Metallica decided to sue Napster, followed soon afterward by the major labels filing suit. We went to South By Southwest in March, where we had a booth and spent a lot of time covering the event; we also spent a lot of time eating BBQ and going to see bands including Modest Mouse, Fu Manchu and the Bevis Frond. In November, we were back in Los Angeles for our annual conference. But as we tracked how a lot of these internet-based companies were unable to take advantage of the funding they had received, we also were facing a similar dilemma as we headed in 2001.
Meanwhile in Beverly, Deb and I spent the first part of the year getting ready for our wedding in July. About a month before the big day, a huge tree branch fell on and totaled my car. Since I was taking the train to work anyway, we decided to just go with one car for the time being. The wedding itself was great and we went to St. Lucia for our honeymoon. Then in the fall, we ended up buying a two-family house across town with Deb's mom. By total coincidence, it just so happened to be the same house I rented an apartment in eight years earlier.
We had shitty dial-up internet at home so using Napster was out of the question. I tried it, but it was so slow. But in the office, we had a nice, fast T1 line, so we used it "for research purposes" (which was actually true, because we had a research department that was publishing reports on the service). New music was getting leaked early on Napster, including Madonna's latest single. This was the pre-iPod era, but we had gotten different MP3 players sent to us, including my personal favorite, the Diamond Rio. The player only had 64 MB of memory, which could play about an hour's worth of music (depending on the bitrate or size of the files; we used to get stuff at 96 or 128 kbps, which is pretty low-quality, but it worked). But you could add a memory card and double the memory. So I was getting advance copies of new albums and listening to them on my commute. These included the new releases from Radiohead (more on that in a bit), At the Drive-In, The Tragically Hip, U2 and others. I was also still buying CDs and ripping them into MP3s to listen to on my MP3 player; these included albums from Queens of the Stone Age, PJ Harvey, Sleater-Kinney and Outkast.
Once we moved to the Cambridge the office, we started listening to WMBR, the MIT campus station, which introduced to a lot of newer acts like the White Stripes, Peaches, Modest Mouse and others. We also had this weird Sun ray computer system (you used a smart card to log in, so you could go to any terminal and get your settings and stuff) with a shared music drive full of stuff we had downloaded from Napster. You couldn't download it to a personal player, but it was cool when you were working in the office. For concerts, I saw Supergrass, the Tragically Hip and Guster, in addition to those shows I saw in Austin. But certainly a lot fewer shows than in previous years, probably due to a longer work day (I was up at 5 to go to the gym and then catch the 7:20 train to Boston and then didn't get home until 7:30 p.m.) and the fact we only had one car now.
Coming off the success of 1997's OK Computer, Radiohead had established themselves as a band to watch and the anticipation for their follow-up was immense. Fans and critics were expecting a continuation of the guitar-heavy sound the band had used on their first three albums, but 2000's Kid A ended up going in a totally opposite direction, embracing electronics in an almost shocking way. I'm a guitar fan so when I first heard songs from Kid A via Napster, I was disappointed, but the more I listened, the more I liked them. That was where the intimate experience of listening to those songs on my Rio 500 player really paid off. I dug into those songs while on that long-ass commute, which included walking to the train station, 35-40 minutes on the train, another 10-minute walk to the subway and yet another 10-minute walk to my office. That made Kid A really imprint itself onto my brain, and there was so much to like about it. I especially liked "Optimistic," which sort of melded the band's old and new approaches.
For me, "Optimistic" represented a lot of different things, not the least of which was a positive outlook as I moved into the "grown-up phase" of my life. It ended up coming in handy the following, which presented a lot of grown-up challenges, both good and bad.
Honorable mentions: Radiohead - "Everything In Its Right Place"; Radiohead - "Idioteque"; PJ Harvey - "Good Fortune"; PJ Harvey - "This Mess We're In"; Queens of the Stone Age - "In the Fade"; Queens of the Stone Age - "Feel Good Hit of the Summer"; The Tragically Hip - "My Music at Work"; The Tragically Hip - "Lake Fever"; Pearl Jam - "Nothing As It Seems"; Rollins Band - "Get Some Go Again"; Yo La Tengo - "Cherry Chapstick"; Steely Dan - "Cousin Dupree"; Elliott Smith - "Son of Sam"; Sleater-Kinney - "You're No Rock 'N Roll Fun"; Modest Mouse - "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes"; The White Stripes - "Hello Operator"; The White Stripes - "You're Pretty Good Looking (for a Girl)"; U2 - "Elevation"; U2 - "Walk On"; Outkast - "Ms. Jackson"; Outkast - "So Fresh, So Clean"; Dr. Dre - "Forgot About Dre"'; Fu Manchu - "Boogie Van"; Fu Manchu - "King of the Road"; Geddy Lee - "My Favorite Headache"; At the Drive-In - "One-Armed Scissor"; At the Drive-In - "Rolodex Propaganda"
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Sexx Laws
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
1999: Beck - Sexx Laws
The turn of the millennium (or even dare I say the Willennium) was quite the time. Everybody was freaking out about the Y2K bug, which supposedly was going to cause the world's computers to shut down after 12/31/99 changed over to 1/1/00. Napster made its debut in June and before long was in heavy use on college campuses everywhere as kids discovered a free and easy way to get MP3s. President Clinton was acquitted during his impeachment proceedings in the Senate. The Columbine High School massacre took place in April; sadly, we're no closer to eradicating that particular problem. JFK Jr. and his wife died in a tragic plane crash. Woodstock '99 took place and the whole thing went to hell during Limp Bizkit's set. It was also the height of the dotcom boom, as plenty of companies with barely an idea were scoring huge sums of money from investors.
I was living with my buddies Mike and Roger for most of the year, but a huge event happened in late July, when I proposed to my girlfriend (we decided to get married in the summer of 2000). A few months later, we got our own place across town. Right around the same time, coincidentally, I left Opus for a new job at a dotcom called Webnoize, which was run by a friend of mine and covered the intersection of entertainment and technology. I had actually been helping out at Webnoize for a few years, writing album reviews and other features, but when they finally got the money to staff up, they offered me an editor job and I accepted. The internet was exploding and it seemed like a fun chance to take. Plus, I'd be working with friends and hopefully getting in on the ground floor of something cool. I joined the company just in time to fly to LA for their annual conference, which was attended by the major record labels and studios as well as a gazillion dot coms. It was a fun way to head into the new millennium.
The music industry was never bigger than it was in 1999. Recorded music sales were $28.9 billion in '99, primarily on the sale of CDs. But soon sites like Napster took off and the labels were not prepared to deal with them. That was what we were writing about at Webnoize. But in '99, it was a time for the industry to celebrate: Acts like Britney Spears, TLC, the Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin and hell, even Cher (who had the top single of the year with "Believe") were riding high, selling a veritable shitload of albums and concert tickets. What were some crappy-sounding digital files going to do to eat into that monster of an industry?
Nu metal was still big, with Korn, Limp Bizkit and others getting a lot of attention. I never got into it. The Red Hot Chili Peppers had a big hit with their Californication album, although this was the first one I didn't get because I was starting to get bored with them. Santana bounced back with a huge guest-star-filled album, including that song with the dude from Matchbox Twenty that pretty much playing on a loop from the moment it came out.
I was still listening to a lot of so-called alternative rock: Sloan, Frank Black and the Catholics, the Flaming Lips, Sebadoh, Ben Folds Five, Pavement, Guided By Voices, Matthew Sweet, Wilco, The Sheila Divine, Foo Fighters, Luscious Jackson. Concerts attended included: Sloan (twice), Frank Black, Rollins Band, R.E.M. I went to more sporting events that year (hockey, baseball and even a Patriots game) and was doing a fair amount of traveling for work, so that ate into my concertgoing.
The hottest song for me in '99 was Beck's "Sexx Laws," off his excellent Midnite Vultures album, which amped up the funk and R&B sound in a big way. It was 100% fun, all horns and horniness, with Beck at his most self-assured and entertaining. He's done a lot of work since then, but I don't think he's approached the heights that he did in the '90s with Mellow Gold/Odelay/Mutations/Midnite Vultures. If anything, he set the bar too high and hasn't been able to get back there. But that doesn't diminish the greatness of Midnite Vultures and in particular, "Sexx Laws," which kicks all of the ass.
On New Year's Eve, Deb and I decided to stay in and have a few friends over instead of engaging in the insanity of going out to bars. Plus, we wanted to see if anything would happen once the clock struck midnight in terms of technological mayhem. What happened? Find out tomorrow, same Bat time, same Bat station.
Honorable mentions: Beck - "Nicotine and Gravy"; Sloan - "Losing California"; Sloan - "Friendship"; The Sheila Divine - "Hum"; The Sheila Divine - "Like a Criminal"; The Flaming Lips - "Waiting for a Superman"; The Flaming Lips - "Race for the Prize"; Built to Spill - "The Plan"; Gigolo Aunts - "The Big Lie"; Sebadoh - "Flame"; Chris Cornell - "Flutter Girl"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "I Switched You"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "So. Bay"; Pavement - "Spit on a Stranger"; Rage Against the Machine - "Guerilla Radio"; Foo Fighters - "Learn to Fly"; R.E.M. - "The Great Beyond"; Len - "Steal My Sunshine"
1999: Beck - Sexx Laws
The turn of the millennium (or even dare I say the Willennium) was quite the time. Everybody was freaking out about the Y2K bug, which supposedly was going to cause the world's computers to shut down after 12/31/99 changed over to 1/1/00. Napster made its debut in June and before long was in heavy use on college campuses everywhere as kids discovered a free and easy way to get MP3s. President Clinton was acquitted during his impeachment proceedings in the Senate. The Columbine High School massacre took place in April; sadly, we're no closer to eradicating that particular problem. JFK Jr. and his wife died in a tragic plane crash. Woodstock '99 took place and the whole thing went to hell during Limp Bizkit's set. It was also the height of the dotcom boom, as plenty of companies with barely an idea were scoring huge sums of money from investors.
I was living with my buddies Mike and Roger for most of the year, but a huge event happened in late July, when I proposed to my girlfriend (we decided to get married in the summer of 2000). A few months later, we got our own place across town. Right around the same time, coincidentally, I left Opus for a new job at a dotcom called Webnoize, which was run by a friend of mine and covered the intersection of entertainment and technology. I had actually been helping out at Webnoize for a few years, writing album reviews and other features, but when they finally got the money to staff up, they offered me an editor job and I accepted. The internet was exploding and it seemed like a fun chance to take. Plus, I'd be working with friends and hopefully getting in on the ground floor of something cool. I joined the company just in time to fly to LA for their annual conference, which was attended by the major record labels and studios as well as a gazillion dot coms. It was a fun way to head into the new millennium.
The music industry was never bigger than it was in 1999. Recorded music sales were $28.9 billion in '99, primarily on the sale of CDs. But soon sites like Napster took off and the labels were not prepared to deal with them. That was what we were writing about at Webnoize. But in '99, it was a time for the industry to celebrate: Acts like Britney Spears, TLC, the Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin and hell, even Cher (who had the top single of the year with "Believe") were riding high, selling a veritable shitload of albums and concert tickets. What were some crappy-sounding digital files going to do to eat into that monster of an industry?
Nu metal was still big, with Korn, Limp Bizkit and others getting a lot of attention. I never got into it. The Red Hot Chili Peppers had a big hit with their Californication album, although this was the first one I didn't get because I was starting to get bored with them. Santana bounced back with a huge guest-star-filled album, including that song with the dude from Matchbox Twenty that pretty much playing on a loop from the moment it came out.
I was still listening to a lot of so-called alternative rock: Sloan, Frank Black and the Catholics, the Flaming Lips, Sebadoh, Ben Folds Five, Pavement, Guided By Voices, Matthew Sweet, Wilco, The Sheila Divine, Foo Fighters, Luscious Jackson. Concerts attended included: Sloan (twice), Frank Black, Rollins Band, R.E.M. I went to more sporting events that year (hockey, baseball and even a Patriots game) and was doing a fair amount of traveling for work, so that ate into my concertgoing.
The hottest song for me in '99 was Beck's "Sexx Laws," off his excellent Midnite Vultures album, which amped up the funk and R&B sound in a big way. It was 100% fun, all horns and horniness, with Beck at his most self-assured and entertaining. He's done a lot of work since then, but I don't think he's approached the heights that he did in the '90s with Mellow Gold/Odelay/Mutations/Midnite Vultures. If anything, he set the bar too high and hasn't been able to get back there. But that doesn't diminish the greatness of Midnite Vultures and in particular, "Sexx Laws," which kicks all of the ass.
On New Year's Eve, Deb and I decided to stay in and have a few friends over instead of engaging in the insanity of going out to bars. Plus, we wanted to see if anything would happen once the clock struck midnight in terms of technological mayhem. What happened? Find out tomorrow, same Bat time, same Bat station.
Honorable mentions: Beck - "Nicotine and Gravy"; Sloan - "Losing California"; Sloan - "Friendship"; The Sheila Divine - "Hum"; The Sheila Divine - "Like a Criminal"; The Flaming Lips - "Waiting for a Superman"; The Flaming Lips - "Race for the Prize"; Built to Spill - "The Plan"; Gigolo Aunts - "The Big Lie"; Sebadoh - "Flame"; Chris Cornell - "Flutter Girl"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "I Switched You"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "So. Bay"; Pavement - "Spit on a Stranger"; Rage Against the Machine - "Guerilla Radio"; Foo Fighters - "Learn to Fly"; R.E.M. - "The Great Beyond"; Len - "Steal My Sunshine"
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Somethin' Hot
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
1998: The Afghan Whigs - Somethin' Hot
Things were changing in 1998. Big things. A couple of nerds founded a search engine with the weird name Google, but nobody really paid them any attention at the time. Some other nerds started MP3 download sites like MP3.com, introducing the joy of using your crappy dial-up modem to download songs at an excruciatingly slow rate. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa revived interest in baseball with a home run race that shattered records (and later was found to be assisted by certain performance-enhancing substances). And it was discovered that President Bill Clinton had an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky, which led to an even messier impeachment trial later in the year.
As for me, I was still working as an editor at Opus Communications, traveling a fair amount to conferences (including a fun trip to New Orleans) and generally having a good time. I was playing a lot of softball (three weekly leagues) and thanks to my girlfriend, who ran the Boston Marathon in the spring, I started running seriously in the fall, something I've continued to do to this day.
Musically, the year was notable for one-hit wonders: Semisonic, Harvey Danger, Fastball, Natalie Imbruglia, Eagle Eye Cherry, Shawn Mullins, Marcy Playground, New Radicals. It was also big teen pop (Britney Spears, N*SYNC, Backstreet Boys) and mainstream pop-country (Garth Brooks, Leann Rimes, Shania Twain). But for rock fans, it was a big time for rap-rock and nu-metal: Korn, Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit ruled the airwaves and kids wearing wallet chains and oversized JNCO jeans were suddenly everywhere. And the biggest albums of the year were the Titanic soundtrack and releases from Celine Dion, Brooks and Twain. Oh, and Aerosmith had a huge hit with the nauseating "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from the Armageddon soundtrack, but the less said about that, the better.
None of that stuff was my bag. I was listening to a lot of indie rock and old funk and soul. My most-listened-to new albums included Sloan, Frank Black and the Catholics, Beck, Pearl Jam, Pulp, Jerry Cantrell, Page and Plant, Fugazi, Girls Against Boys, Rocket From the Crypt, Rancid, R.E.M., Beastie Boys, The Tragically Hip, Bob Mould, Soul Coughing, PJ Harvey, Buffalo Tom and Sonic Youth. Concerts included Boss Hog, Foo Fighters/Rocket From the Crypt (twice), The Tragically Hip (three times), Girls Against Boys, Cheap Trick, the Afghan Whigs and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
But where it all came together for me was on the Afghan Whigs' album 1965, specifically the lead single "Somethin' Hot." I was already a big Whigs fan for several years and while they were on Sub Pop at the same time as Nirvana et al., they always had a different sound and an appreciation for old R&B (which they often covered as B-sides). On 1965, they fully integrated the soul side with the rock side and channeled into a tour de force celebrating love and lust. Frontman Greg Dulli had explored the darker side of love and self-loathing with the band's previous three excellent records, but on this one, he was seemingly in a better place. The album should have been huge, but the label didn't know what to make of it and it barely made a dent, only hitting #176 on the Billboard album chart. For industry lunkheads who just thought the Whigs were another Seattle band (which is laughable because the band was from Cincinnati but got lumped in with the grunge acts because of its Sub Pop home), they couldn't get their brains around the band's evolving sound. Which is too bad, because "Somethin' Hot" had crossover appeal. I think I saw it once or twice on 120 Minutes; makes you wonder what might have happened if they played it when people were actually awake.
Honorable mentions: The Afghan Whigs - "Uptown Again"; Sloan - "Money City Maniacs"; Sloan - "She Says What She Means"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "Suffering": Frank Black and the Catholics - "I Gotta Move"; Beck - "Cold Brains"; Beck - "Tropicalia"; Queens of the Stone Age - "If Only"; Pearl Jam - "Brain of J"; Pearl Jam - "Do the Evolution"; Pulp - "Party Hard"; Jerry Cantrell - "Cut You In"; The Tragically Hip - "Fireworks"; The Tragically Hip - "Poets"; Girls Against Boys - "Park Avenue"; Rocket From the Crypt - "Eye On You"; PJ Harvey - "A Perfect Day Elise"; Beastie Boys - "Intergalactic"; R.E.M. - "At My Most Beautiful"; Buffalo Tom - "Rachael"; Rancid - "Bloodclot"; Fatboy Slim - "The Rockafeller Skank"; Chef - "Chocolate Salty Balls"; Rob Zombie - "Dragula"
1998: The Afghan Whigs - Somethin' Hot
Things were changing in 1998. Big things. A couple of nerds founded a search engine with the weird name Google, but nobody really paid them any attention at the time. Some other nerds started MP3 download sites like MP3.com, introducing the joy of using your crappy dial-up modem to download songs at an excruciatingly slow rate. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa revived interest in baseball with a home run race that shattered records (and later was found to be assisted by certain performance-enhancing substances). And it was discovered that President Bill Clinton had an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky, which led to an even messier impeachment trial later in the year.
As for me, I was still working as an editor at Opus Communications, traveling a fair amount to conferences (including a fun trip to New Orleans) and generally having a good time. I was playing a lot of softball (three weekly leagues) and thanks to my girlfriend, who ran the Boston Marathon in the spring, I started running seriously in the fall, something I've continued to do to this day.
Musically, the year was notable for one-hit wonders: Semisonic, Harvey Danger, Fastball, Natalie Imbruglia, Eagle Eye Cherry, Shawn Mullins, Marcy Playground, New Radicals. It was also big teen pop (Britney Spears, N*SYNC, Backstreet Boys) and mainstream pop-country (Garth Brooks, Leann Rimes, Shania Twain). But for rock fans, it was a big time for rap-rock and nu-metal: Korn, Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit ruled the airwaves and kids wearing wallet chains and oversized JNCO jeans were suddenly everywhere. And the biggest albums of the year were the Titanic soundtrack and releases from Celine Dion, Brooks and Twain. Oh, and Aerosmith had a huge hit with the nauseating "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from the Armageddon soundtrack, but the less said about that, the better.
None of that stuff was my bag. I was listening to a lot of indie rock and old funk and soul. My most-listened-to new albums included Sloan, Frank Black and the Catholics, Beck, Pearl Jam, Pulp, Jerry Cantrell, Page and Plant, Fugazi, Girls Against Boys, Rocket From the Crypt, Rancid, R.E.M., Beastie Boys, The Tragically Hip, Bob Mould, Soul Coughing, PJ Harvey, Buffalo Tom and Sonic Youth. Concerts included Boss Hog, Foo Fighters/Rocket From the Crypt (twice), The Tragically Hip (three times), Girls Against Boys, Cheap Trick, the Afghan Whigs and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
But where it all came together for me was on the Afghan Whigs' album 1965, specifically the lead single "Somethin' Hot." I was already a big Whigs fan for several years and while they were on Sub Pop at the same time as Nirvana et al., they always had a different sound and an appreciation for old R&B (which they often covered as B-sides). On 1965, they fully integrated the soul side with the rock side and channeled into a tour de force celebrating love and lust. Frontman Greg Dulli had explored the darker side of love and self-loathing with the band's previous three excellent records, but on this one, he was seemingly in a better place. The album should have been huge, but the label didn't know what to make of it and it barely made a dent, only hitting #176 on the Billboard album chart. For industry lunkheads who just thought the Whigs were another Seattle band (which is laughable because the band was from Cincinnati but got lumped in with the grunge acts because of its Sub Pop home), they couldn't get their brains around the band's evolving sound. Which is too bad, because "Somethin' Hot" had crossover appeal. I think I saw it once or twice on 120 Minutes; makes you wonder what might have happened if they played it when people were actually awake.
Honorable mentions: The Afghan Whigs - "Uptown Again"; Sloan - "Money City Maniacs"; Sloan - "She Says What She Means"; Frank Black and the Catholics - "Suffering": Frank Black and the Catholics - "I Gotta Move"; Beck - "Cold Brains"; Beck - "Tropicalia"; Queens of the Stone Age - "If Only"; Pearl Jam - "Brain of J"; Pearl Jam - "Do the Evolution"; Pulp - "Party Hard"; Jerry Cantrell - "Cut You In"; The Tragically Hip - "Fireworks"; The Tragically Hip - "Poets"; Girls Against Boys - "Park Avenue"; Rocket From the Crypt - "Eye On You"; PJ Harvey - "A Perfect Day Elise"; Beastie Boys - "Intergalactic"; R.E.M. - "At My Most Beautiful"; Buffalo Tom - "Rachael"; Rancid - "Bloodclot"; Fatboy Slim - "The Rockafeller Skank"; Chef - "Chocolate Salty Balls"; Rob Zombie - "Dragula"
Friday, May 22, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Song for the Dumped
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
1997: Ben Folds Five - Song for the Dumped
Just like life itself, these wrap-ups go by quick. In the first one, I was 10 going on 11. In this one, it was 1997 and I was 29 going on 30. And a whole lot happened that year, most of it good, at least from my vantage point.
It was a big year for news: Princess Diana died in a fiery car crash, both the Notorious B.I.G. and fashion designer Gianni Versace were murdered, South Park made its debut and Seinfeld began its final season.
I started the year living in Salem, but I quickly grew tired of it. I liked having my own place, but it was a depressing basement apartment with tiny windows and I soon realized it was good to have someone to split the bills with. So when my lease was up in May, I moved in with a couple of buddies of mine in Beverly. It was a great situation: We were renting half a house in a nice neighborhood, I had a lot more room and it was way cheaper. This was also the year I started dating my future wife; we had met the year before at the gym, but didn't go on a date until early August. Things progressed slowly, but by the end of the year, we could both see a future together.
Work was going better and I got a good promotion halfway through the year. And then in the fall, I turned 30. I wasn't really dreading it and I decided the best way to celebrate was to throw a big party at my house. It was a rip-roarer and not the last one, since our softball team regularly ended up there after games...and we regularly had to deal with noise complaints from our neighbors. I feel bad now because I'm old and shit, but at the time, we were just idiots living in a neighborhood full of families. Now when there's noise in our neighborhood, I remember what a jackass I was 20+ years ago...and then I complain anyway (to myself).
The music scene was changing. Boy bands were popping up left and right, and female singer-songwriters were definitely having a resurgence. I started getting into funk and R&B a bit, listening to a lot of old James Brown, P-Funk, and '70s funk comps. But I still liked the rock. The indie scene was getting quirkier as grunge became a thing of the distant past. Among the shows I attended: Wilco, Matthew Sweet, Sebadoh, Soul Coughing, Rollins Band, The Muffs/Chixdiggit, Sloan and Gus Gus/Cornershop. Their first two albums didn't really click with me, but Radiohead's OK Computer really grabbed me in '97. I also got into new releases by Pavement, Foo Fighters, Guided By Voices, Chris Whitley, Morphine, Matthew Sweet, Rollins Band, Cheap Trick, Portishead and Cornershop.
But I'd say the song of the year for me was Ben Folds Five's "Song for the Dumped," which is kinda funny since it was the opposite of my relationship situation at the time. A few years earlier, hell yes. But this song was fun not just because of the lyrics, but musically, it was a fresh combination of banging piano, fuzz bass and drums. Just catchy as hell and a blast to listen to...especially if you weren't one of the dumped.
Honorable mentions: Radiohead - "Paranoid Android"; Radiohead - "Karma Police"; Ben Folds Five - "Battle of Who Could Care Less"; Pavement - "Stereo"; Pavement - "Old to Begin"; Foo Fighters - "Monkeywrench"; Foo Fighters - "Hey, Johnny Park!"; Guided By Voices - "Bulldog Skin"; Guided By Voices - "I am a Tree"; Matthew Sweet - "Where You Get Love"; Morphine - "Early to Bed"; Rollins Band - "Starve"; Cornershop - "Brimful of Asha"; White Town - "Your Woman"; The Cardigans - "Lovefool"; Papas Fritas - "Hey Hey You Say"; Luscious Jackson - "Naked Eye"; Pigeonhed - "Battle Flag"; James Brown - "Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine"; James Brown - "Give It Up or Turn It a Loose"; Ohio Players - "Fire"; Parliament - "P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)"; Parliament - "Bop Gun (Endangered Species)"
1997: Ben Folds Five - Song for the Dumped
Just like life itself, these wrap-ups go by quick. In the first one, I was 10 going on 11. In this one, it was 1997 and I was 29 going on 30. And a whole lot happened that year, most of it good, at least from my vantage point.
It was a big year for news: Princess Diana died in a fiery car crash, both the Notorious B.I.G. and fashion designer Gianni Versace were murdered, South Park made its debut and Seinfeld began its final season.
I started the year living in Salem, but I quickly grew tired of it. I liked having my own place, but it was a depressing basement apartment with tiny windows and I soon realized it was good to have someone to split the bills with. So when my lease was up in May, I moved in with a couple of buddies of mine in Beverly. It was a great situation: We were renting half a house in a nice neighborhood, I had a lot more room and it was way cheaper. This was also the year I started dating my future wife; we had met the year before at the gym, but didn't go on a date until early August. Things progressed slowly, but by the end of the year, we could both see a future together.
Work was going better and I got a good promotion halfway through the year. And then in the fall, I turned 30. I wasn't really dreading it and I decided the best way to celebrate was to throw a big party at my house. It was a rip-roarer and not the last one, since our softball team regularly ended up there after games...and we regularly had to deal with noise complaints from our neighbors. I feel bad now because I'm old and shit, but at the time, we were just idiots living in a neighborhood full of families. Now when there's noise in our neighborhood, I remember what a jackass I was 20+ years ago...and then I complain anyway (to myself).
The music scene was changing. Boy bands were popping up left and right, and female singer-songwriters were definitely having a resurgence. I started getting into funk and R&B a bit, listening to a lot of old James Brown, P-Funk, and '70s funk comps. But I still liked the rock. The indie scene was getting quirkier as grunge became a thing of the distant past. Among the shows I attended: Wilco, Matthew Sweet, Sebadoh, Soul Coughing, Rollins Band, The Muffs/Chixdiggit, Sloan and Gus Gus/Cornershop. Their first two albums didn't really click with me, but Radiohead's OK Computer really grabbed me in '97. I also got into new releases by Pavement, Foo Fighters, Guided By Voices, Chris Whitley, Morphine, Matthew Sweet, Rollins Band, Cheap Trick, Portishead and Cornershop.
But I'd say the song of the year for me was Ben Folds Five's "Song for the Dumped," which is kinda funny since it was the opposite of my relationship situation at the time. A few years earlier, hell yes. But this song was fun not just because of the lyrics, but musically, it was a fresh combination of banging piano, fuzz bass and drums. Just catchy as hell and a blast to listen to...especially if you weren't one of the dumped.
Honorable mentions: Radiohead - "Paranoid Android"; Radiohead - "Karma Police"; Ben Folds Five - "Battle of Who Could Care Less"; Pavement - "Stereo"; Pavement - "Old to Begin"; Foo Fighters - "Monkeywrench"; Foo Fighters - "Hey, Johnny Park!"; Guided By Voices - "Bulldog Skin"; Guided By Voices - "I am a Tree"; Matthew Sweet - "Where You Get Love"; Morphine - "Early to Bed"; Rollins Band - "Starve"; Cornershop - "Brimful of Asha"; White Town - "Your Woman"; The Cardigans - "Lovefool"; Papas Fritas - "Hey Hey You Say"; Luscious Jackson - "Naked Eye"; Pigeonhed - "Battle Flag"; James Brown - "Get Up I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine"; James Brown - "Give It Up or Turn It a Loose"; Ohio Players - "Fire"; Parliament - "P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)"; Parliament - "Bop Gun (Endangered Species)"
Stuck In Thee Garage #322: May 22, 2020
Famous people. They're just like us. Well, not really. Despite what People magazine would have you believe, famous people don't put their pants on one leg at time. They have others put their pants on for them. It's a thing. Anyhoo, I played songs about famous people in hour 2 of Stuck In Thee Garage today. So you can listen to songs about them. Does that make you feel better? Good.
This playlist contains absolutely zero songs about or by Fat Thor:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Jeff Rosenstock - The Beauty of Breathing/NO DREAM
Sleaford Mods - Rich List/All That Glue
The Dears - Instant Nightmare!/Lovers Rock
Catholic Action - Witness/Celebrated By Strangers
Muzz - Bad Feeling/Muzz
The Ninth Wave - Happy Days!/Single
Mark Lanegan - This Game of Love/Straight Songs of Sorrow
Holy Esque - Reverence Falls/CPH
Diet Cig - Stare Into the Sun/Do You Wonder About Me?
Beauty Pill - Prison Song/Please Advise
X - I Gotta Fever/Alphabetland
Flat Worms - Condo Colony/Antarctica
METZ - Slow Decay/Single
Will Johnson - Necessitarianism (Fred Merkle's Blues)/Wire Mountain
Car Seat Headrest - Life Worth Missing/Making a Door Less Open
EOB - Banksters/Earth
Hour 2: Famous People
The Posies - Grant Hart/Amazing Disgrace
The Replacements - Alex Chilton/Pleased to Meet Me
Weezer - Buddy Holly/Weezer
Andrew Jackson Jihad - Temple Grandin/Christmas Island
The Afghan Whigs - Copernicus/In Spades
The New Pornographers - The Mary Martin Show/Mass Romantic
Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell/Norman Fucking Rockwell
Frank Black and Teenage Fanclub - The Jacques Tati/The John Peel Session
Against Me! - Osama Bin Laden as the Crucified Christ/Transgender Dysphoria Blues
Jane's Addiction - Ted, Just Admit It.../Nothing's Shocking
Ozzy Osbourne - Mr. Crowley/Blizzard of Ozz
Hot Snakes - Ben Gurion/Suicide Invoice
IDLES - Danny Nedelko/Joy as an Act of Resistance
Nirvana - Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle/In Utero
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Stagger Lee/Murder Ballads
This playlist contains absolutely zero songs about or by Fat Thor:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Jeff Rosenstock - The Beauty of Breathing/NO DREAM
Sleaford Mods - Rich List/All That Glue
The Dears - Instant Nightmare!/Lovers Rock
Catholic Action - Witness/Celebrated By Strangers
Muzz - Bad Feeling/Muzz
The Ninth Wave - Happy Days!/Single
Mark Lanegan - This Game of Love/Straight Songs of Sorrow
Holy Esque - Reverence Falls/CPH
Diet Cig - Stare Into the Sun/Do You Wonder About Me?
Beauty Pill - Prison Song/Please Advise
X - I Gotta Fever/Alphabetland
Flat Worms - Condo Colony/Antarctica
METZ - Slow Decay/Single
Will Johnson - Necessitarianism (Fred Merkle's Blues)/Wire Mountain
Car Seat Headrest - Life Worth Missing/Making a Door Less Open
EOB - Banksters/Earth
Hour 2: Famous People
The Posies - Grant Hart/Amazing Disgrace
The Replacements - Alex Chilton/Pleased to Meet Me
Weezer - Buddy Holly/Weezer
Andrew Jackson Jihad - Temple Grandin/Christmas Island
The Afghan Whigs - Copernicus/In Spades
The New Pornographers - The Mary Martin Show/Mass Romantic
Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell/Norman Fucking Rockwell
Frank Black and Teenage Fanclub - The Jacques Tati/The John Peel Session
Against Me! - Osama Bin Laden as the Crucified Christ/Transgender Dysphoria Blues
Jane's Addiction - Ted, Just Admit It.../Nothing's Shocking
Ozzy Osbourne - Mr. Crowley/Blizzard of Ozz
Hot Snakes - Ben Gurion/Suicide Invoice
IDLES - Danny Nedelko/Joy as an Act of Resistance
Nirvana - Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle/In Utero
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Stagger Lee/Murder Ballads
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Where It's At
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
1996: Beck - Where It's At
Plenty of highs and lows in '96. The year began with my brother and I taking a road trip to Montreal to see a game at the Montreal Forum before it closed. As it tends to be, the weather was brutally cold while we were there, but there was no snow. Meanwhile, back on the East Coast of the U.S., a massive snowstorm dropped about 2.5 feet of snow on everyone. By the time we got back, the snow was melting and the roads were clear. Seems like a good omen, right?
My father's health had been deteriorating for a while for a number of reasons. By early '96, he was in and out of the hospital, including having to undergo multiple-bypass surgery that somehow he made it through. But he didn't have much left, and while I was moving my stuff to a new apartment in Salem at the end of March, he passed away at the age of 55. It wasn't a surprise and we weren't particularly close, but it still hit me pretty hard.
Other than that massive life event, things were going okay. I wasn't loving my job, but I was getting the hang of it. My new apartment was only 10 minutes from the office in Marblehead, but it created another problem: I was sleeping in and getting to work late. Why was I sleeping in? Because I was partying up a storm. Maybe it was a reaction to my dad's death, but it wasn't really destructive behavior. I was playing sports multiple nights a week (floor hockey, softball, soccer) and going out afterwards. Plus I was dating a bit and going to plenty of shows, so I was busy. I also went to London with a buddy to visit another friend who was working there, so that was pretty fun.
Musically, it was a strange year. Grunge finally ran out of steam, Van Halen went through three singers (Hagar, Roth briefly and then Gary Cherone), KISS reunited the original lineup in makeup, the Sex Pistols played a reunion tour, Tupac was killed and the Ramones broke up. Pop was very much back in fashion, with the top single of the year being none other than "The Macarena" by Los Del Rio. Plenty of familiar names were on the charts as well: Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Tracy Chapman, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Toni Braxton, Alanis Morissette, Whitney Houston, LL Cool J. Metallica changed its image by getting haircuts and releasing an album called Load that was, by all standards, a load.
There were strong new releases from Sloan, the Afghan Whigs, Weezer, Frank Black, Wilco, the Hip, Eels, Sebadoh, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Luscious Jackson, Brainiac, Guided By Voices, Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine and Westerberg. Concerts I attended included Frank Black, Joan Osborne, Garbage, The Tragically Hip (three times), Tracy Bonham, the Buzzcocks, Paul Westerberg and Throwing Muses.
But my favorite album of the year was Beck's Odelay, which was his followup to his breakthrough Mellow Gold from a few years earlier. Beck was known for folky acoustic slacker rock, but on this record, he teamed with the Dust Brothers and released a monster combination of that stuff along with hip hop, noise rock, country and garage rock. The first single, "Where It's At," is catchy as hell and managed to kick the crap out of everything else on the radio or MTV at the time. "Loser" had gotten seriously overplayed since Mellow Gold's release, so this was definitely a fresh new sound for Beck. I blew my chance to see him come through town in the fall because I was waiting for a friend to let me know if he could go, but by the time he said yes, the show was already sold out. Still, "Where It's At" definitely lived up to its name, and it still does.
Honorable mentions: Beck - "Devil's Haircut"; Beck - "The New Pollution"; Sloan - "Everything You've Done Wrong"; Sloan - "G Turns to D"; The Afghan Whigs - "Blame, Etc."; The Afghan Whigs - "Honky's Ladder"; Weezer - "El Scorcho"; Weezer - "Pink Triangle"; Frank Black - "Men In Black"; Frank Black - "Punk Rock City"; The Tragically Hip - "Gift Shop"; The Tragically Hip - "Springtime in Vienna"; Wilco - "Misunderstood"; D Generation - "No Way Out"; Sebadoh - "Ocean"; Sebadoh - "Prince-S"; Pearl Jam - "Hail Hail"; Pearl Jam - "Smile"; R.E.M. - "E-Bow the Letter"; R.E.M. - "Leave"; Chixdiggit! - "(I Feel Like) (Gerry) Cheevers (Stitch Marks on My Heart)"; Soundgarden - "Pretty Noose"; Soundgarden - "Burden In My Hand"; Rage Against the Machine - "Bulls on Parade"; Rage Against the Machine - "Down Rodeo"; Lush - "Ladykillers"; Tupac and Dr. Dre - "California Love"; The Prodigy - "Firestarter"; Alice In Chains - "Over Now"; Alice In Chains - "Heaven Beside You";
1996: Beck - Where It's At
Plenty of highs and lows in '96. The year began with my brother and I taking a road trip to Montreal to see a game at the Montreal Forum before it closed. As it tends to be, the weather was brutally cold while we were there, but there was no snow. Meanwhile, back on the East Coast of the U.S., a massive snowstorm dropped about 2.5 feet of snow on everyone. By the time we got back, the snow was melting and the roads were clear. Seems like a good omen, right?
My father's health had been deteriorating for a while for a number of reasons. By early '96, he was in and out of the hospital, including having to undergo multiple-bypass surgery that somehow he made it through. But he didn't have much left, and while I was moving my stuff to a new apartment in Salem at the end of March, he passed away at the age of 55. It wasn't a surprise and we weren't particularly close, but it still hit me pretty hard.
Other than that massive life event, things were going okay. I wasn't loving my job, but I was getting the hang of it. My new apartment was only 10 minutes from the office in Marblehead, but it created another problem: I was sleeping in and getting to work late. Why was I sleeping in? Because I was partying up a storm. Maybe it was a reaction to my dad's death, but it wasn't really destructive behavior. I was playing sports multiple nights a week (floor hockey, softball, soccer) and going out afterwards. Plus I was dating a bit and going to plenty of shows, so I was busy. I also went to London with a buddy to visit another friend who was working there, so that was pretty fun.
Musically, it was a strange year. Grunge finally ran out of steam, Van Halen went through three singers (Hagar, Roth briefly and then Gary Cherone), KISS reunited the original lineup in makeup, the Sex Pistols played a reunion tour, Tupac was killed and the Ramones broke up. Pop was very much back in fashion, with the top single of the year being none other than "The Macarena" by Los Del Rio. Plenty of familiar names were on the charts as well: Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Tracy Chapman, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Toni Braxton, Alanis Morissette, Whitney Houston, LL Cool J. Metallica changed its image by getting haircuts and releasing an album called Load that was, by all standards, a load.
There were strong new releases from Sloan, the Afghan Whigs, Weezer, Frank Black, Wilco, the Hip, Eels, Sebadoh, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Luscious Jackson, Brainiac, Guided By Voices, Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine and Westerberg. Concerts I attended included Frank Black, Joan Osborne, Garbage, The Tragically Hip (three times), Tracy Bonham, the Buzzcocks, Paul Westerberg and Throwing Muses.
But my favorite album of the year was Beck's Odelay, which was his followup to his breakthrough Mellow Gold from a few years earlier. Beck was known for folky acoustic slacker rock, but on this record, he teamed with the Dust Brothers and released a monster combination of that stuff along with hip hop, noise rock, country and garage rock. The first single, "Where It's At," is catchy as hell and managed to kick the crap out of everything else on the radio or MTV at the time. "Loser" had gotten seriously overplayed since Mellow Gold's release, so this was definitely a fresh new sound for Beck. I blew my chance to see him come through town in the fall because I was waiting for a friend to let me know if he could go, but by the time he said yes, the show was already sold out. Still, "Where It's At" definitely lived up to its name, and it still does.
Honorable mentions: Beck - "Devil's Haircut"; Beck - "The New Pollution"; Sloan - "Everything You've Done Wrong"; Sloan - "G Turns to D"; The Afghan Whigs - "Blame, Etc."; The Afghan Whigs - "Honky's Ladder"; Weezer - "El Scorcho"; Weezer - "Pink Triangle"; Frank Black - "Men In Black"; Frank Black - "Punk Rock City"; The Tragically Hip - "Gift Shop"; The Tragically Hip - "Springtime in Vienna"; Wilco - "Misunderstood"; D Generation - "No Way Out"; Sebadoh - "Ocean"; Sebadoh - "Prince-S"; Pearl Jam - "Hail Hail"; Pearl Jam - "Smile"; R.E.M. - "E-Bow the Letter"; R.E.M. - "Leave"; Chixdiggit! - "(I Feel Like) (Gerry) Cheevers (Stitch Marks on My Heart)"; Soundgarden - "Pretty Noose"; Soundgarden - "Burden In My Hand"; Rage Against the Machine - "Bulls on Parade"; Rage Against the Machine - "Down Rodeo"; Lush - "Ladykillers"; Tupac and Dr. Dre - "California Love"; The Prodigy - "Firestarter"; Alice In Chains - "Over Now"; Alice In Chains - "Heaven Beside You";
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Meet Ze Monsta
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
1995: PJ Harvey - Meet Ze Monsta
Ah, the mid-'90s. Seems like a lifetime ago now. I was 27 for most of 1995, working at the Beverly Times as a reporter until September, when I finally decided to get out of the newspaper biz after six years. I made the jump to Opus Communications, a small healthcare publisher in Marblehead, to write newsletters. The money and hours were better, but it was a big change that took some getting used to; the biggest adjustment was having to sit at a desk all day instead of going out to cover stories. It was still a booming time for newspapers. The World Wide Web was new, but nobody had any idea what it would do to the news industry in a few years.
There were definitely some big news events in '95. The Oklahoma City bombing. O.J. Simpson's murder trial and shocking acquittal. Christopher Reeve was paralyzed after falling off a horse. And Jerry Garcia died of heart failure.
The indie rock revolution was still going strong, but the product was definitely getting diluted. Bands that had been snapped up by major labels a few years earlier were now getting dropped because they didn't light the world on fire like Nirvana did.
Out of the ashes of that band came an unexpected development: Drummer Dave Grohl, a prominent but quiet member of Nirvana in the early '90s, released his debut album as the singer/guitarist of Foo Fighters. He played everything on the album, but quickly put a band together and went on a tour opening for Mike Watt and serving as Watt's backing band. I saw that show, which took place before the FF album came out, and caught the Foos when they came back through Boston on a headlining tour later in the year. Other shows I saw included the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Tragically Hip, Sebadoh, Jennifer Trynin, Sonic Youth, the Amps and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones at different clubs on the same night, and even Alanis Morissette.
It was a good year for female artists. Including the aforementioned Alanis, Amps (Breeders side project for Kim and Kelley Deal) and Trynin, there were strong releases from Bjork, Elastica, Garbage, Bettie Serveert and Aimee Mann. But my favorite album was from PJ Harvey, who had burst on the scene a few years earlier with a pair of blistering guitar-driven albums.
In '95, she released To Bring You My Love, which was a sweeping departure from her previous work, incorporating elaborate instrumentation like strings and organ and pseudo-religious imagery. I saw her in concert and she had adopted a much more theatrical persona, setting aside her guitar (which she plays quite well) and playing the devilish chanteuse instead. It was a captivating performance, to say the least. "Meet Ze Monsta" wasn't released as a single, but it perfectly captures the dark groove of the record. Harvey has proven quite the chameleon over the years since, shifting sounds and personas but never compromising.
Honorable mentions: PJ Harvey - "Down By the Water"; PJ Harvey - "To Bring You My Love"; Foo Fighters - "I'll Stick Around"; Foo Fighters - "Alone + Easy Target"; Mike Watt - "Against the '70s"; Mike Watt - "Piss Bottle Man"; Pavement - "Rattled by the Rush"; Pavement - "Fight This Generation"; Rocket From the Crypt - "Middle/Born in '69"; Rocket From the Crypt - "Young Livers"; Radiohead - "The Bends"; Bjork - "Army of Me"; Rancid - "Roots Radicals"; Rancid - "Time Bomb"; Jennifer Trynin - "Better Than Nothing"; Mad Season - "River of Deceit"; Elastica - "Line Up"; Matthew Sweet - "Sick of Myself"; Mudhoney - "Execution Style"; White Zombie - "More Human Than Human"; Catherine Wheel - "Waydown"; Fugazi - "Bed for the Scraping"; Neil Young - "Act of Love"; Garbage - "Only Happy When It Rains"; Superchunk - "Hyper Enough"; Urge Overkill - "The Break"; Sonic Youth - "The Diamond Sea"; Smashing Pumpkins - "Zero"; Smashing Pumpkins - "Bullet With Butterfly Wings"; Bettie Serveert - "Ray Ray Rain"; Buffalo Tom - "Summer"; Chris Whitley - "Din"; The Pursuit of Happiness - "Save the Whales"; Helium - "Pat's Trick"; The Amps - "Tipp City"; Pearl Jam and Neil Young - "I Got Id"; Pulp - "Common People"; Montell Jordan - "This Is How We Do It"
1995: PJ Harvey - Meet Ze Monsta
Ah, the mid-'90s. Seems like a lifetime ago now. I was 27 for most of 1995, working at the Beverly Times as a reporter until September, when I finally decided to get out of the newspaper biz after six years. I made the jump to Opus Communications, a small healthcare publisher in Marblehead, to write newsletters. The money and hours were better, but it was a big change that took some getting used to; the biggest adjustment was having to sit at a desk all day instead of going out to cover stories. It was still a booming time for newspapers. The World Wide Web was new, but nobody had any idea what it would do to the news industry in a few years.
There were definitely some big news events in '95. The Oklahoma City bombing. O.J. Simpson's murder trial and shocking acquittal. Christopher Reeve was paralyzed after falling off a horse. And Jerry Garcia died of heart failure.
The indie rock revolution was still going strong, but the product was definitely getting diluted. Bands that had been snapped up by major labels a few years earlier were now getting dropped because they didn't light the world on fire like Nirvana did.
Out of the ashes of that band came an unexpected development: Drummer Dave Grohl, a prominent but quiet member of Nirvana in the early '90s, released his debut album as the singer/guitarist of Foo Fighters. He played everything on the album, but quickly put a band together and went on a tour opening for Mike Watt and serving as Watt's backing band. I saw that show, which took place before the FF album came out, and caught the Foos when they came back through Boston on a headlining tour later in the year. Other shows I saw included the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Tragically Hip, Sebadoh, Jennifer Trynin, Sonic Youth, the Amps and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones at different clubs on the same night, and even Alanis Morissette.
It was a good year for female artists. Including the aforementioned Alanis, Amps (Breeders side project for Kim and Kelley Deal) and Trynin, there were strong releases from Bjork, Elastica, Garbage, Bettie Serveert and Aimee Mann. But my favorite album was from PJ Harvey, who had burst on the scene a few years earlier with a pair of blistering guitar-driven albums.
In '95, she released To Bring You My Love, which was a sweeping departure from her previous work, incorporating elaborate instrumentation like strings and organ and pseudo-religious imagery. I saw her in concert and she had adopted a much more theatrical persona, setting aside her guitar (which she plays quite well) and playing the devilish chanteuse instead. It was a captivating performance, to say the least. "Meet Ze Monsta" wasn't released as a single, but it perfectly captures the dark groove of the record. Harvey has proven quite the chameleon over the years since, shifting sounds and personas but never compromising.
Honorable mentions: PJ Harvey - "Down By the Water"; PJ Harvey - "To Bring You My Love"; Foo Fighters - "I'll Stick Around"; Foo Fighters - "Alone + Easy Target"; Mike Watt - "Against the '70s"; Mike Watt - "Piss Bottle Man"; Pavement - "Rattled by the Rush"; Pavement - "Fight This Generation"; Rocket From the Crypt - "Middle/Born in '69"; Rocket From the Crypt - "Young Livers"; Radiohead - "The Bends"; Bjork - "Army of Me"; Rancid - "Roots Radicals"; Rancid - "Time Bomb"; Jennifer Trynin - "Better Than Nothing"; Mad Season - "River of Deceit"; Elastica - "Line Up"; Matthew Sweet - "Sick of Myself"; Mudhoney - "Execution Style"; White Zombie - "More Human Than Human"; Catherine Wheel - "Waydown"; Fugazi - "Bed for the Scraping"; Neil Young - "Act of Love"; Garbage - "Only Happy When It Rains"; Superchunk - "Hyper Enough"; Urge Overkill - "The Break"; Sonic Youth - "The Diamond Sea"; Smashing Pumpkins - "Zero"; Smashing Pumpkins - "Bullet With Butterfly Wings"; Bettie Serveert - "Ray Ray Rain"; Buffalo Tom - "Summer"; Chris Whitley - "Din"; The Pursuit of Happiness - "Save the Whales"; Helium - "Pat's Trick"; The Amps - "Tipp City"; Pearl Jam and Neil Young - "I Got Id"; Pulp - "Common People"; Montell Jordan - "This Is How We Do It"
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Sabotage
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
1994: Beastie Boys - Sabotage
You want crazy news stories, 1994 is here for you. We should have known it was going to be a strange year when just six days in, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked by a goon allegedly hired by her biggest rival's ex-husband. Probably the biggest story of the year was football legend O.J. Simpson allegedly murdering two people (including his ex-wife), leading police on a ridiculous slow-speed chase and then starring in the subsequent high-profile trial. Kurt Cobain killed himself, which while not surprising, was still a bummer. The U.S. hosted the World Cup, Woodstock '94 took place 25 years after the original event, and Major League Baseball players went on strike in early August, wiping out the rest of the season and playoffs.
For me, things were looking up. Two things were directly responsible for that: Moving in with some friends in Beverly and going back to reporting, which meant I didn't have to wake up before the crack of dawn anymore. I didn't mind doing layout and copyediting, but reporting was more fun. I got the courts job at the Beverly Times and it was a blast. My social life improved immediately and things were much more enjoyable in general.
It was another great year for music and I went to a ton of shows: Redd Kross, the Afghan Whigs, Pearl Jam, Cracker, Rollins Band, Thurston Moore, Soundgarden, Buffalo Tom, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Tragically Hip, the Rev. Horton Heat, the Velvet Crush (in Austin while visiting my brother), Sugar, Bad Religion, Hole. I almost went to the free Green Day show on the Esplanade in Boston that quickly turned into a mud-throwing riot; something came up and I wasn't able to make it.
Indie rock was still a big deal, but now we were seeing the major labels desperately looking for the next Nirvana or Pearl Jam. Plenty of copycat acts popped up hoping to capitalize on grunge fever, which meant there was a lot of crappy music getting airplay. Meanwhile, classic rock acts still did well: The Eagles reunited and started charging $100 for tickets for their Hell Freezes Over tour, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page re-teamed to make new music and tour, Aerosmith continued to sell lots of albums with crappy ballads on them.
Pop and hip-hop were big on the charts. Hell, Ace of Base had three of the top 10 singles of the year. Snoop, Coolio, R. Kelly, Warren G and Da Brat all had big hits as well. And somehow the unholy trio of Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting landed the #8 single of the year with "All For Love" from the soundtrack of The Three Musketeers, which starred Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland and Chris O'Donnell, another unholy trio. But as I established earlier, it was a strange year.
I was mainly listening to WFNX for the so-called alternative rock. I pretty much steered clear of any of the metal or classic rock stuff I used to listen to, with the exception of that Page and Plant album and a few others (Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Elvis Costello). Much like the year before, I was into as much new music as I could get my hands on: Sloan, Frank Black, Drive Like Jehu, Pavement, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, New Bomb Turks, Helmet, Liz Phair, Nine Inch Nails, Beck, Weezer, Soundgarden, King's X, Green Day, Meat Puppets, Mark Lanegan, Alice In Chains, Rollins Band, Superchunk, Sonic Youth, Jeff Buckley, Portishead, Luscious Jackson, Dinosaur Jr., Bad Religion, Sugar. It was a great time to be a music fan, even though Cobain's death cast a bit of pall on things in the springtime. I made some good mixtapes that were perfect for driving around that summer.
My favorite song in a year of great songs was the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage," which was aided by a great '70s-themed video that dominated MTV. The Beasties were really mixing things up on their Ill Communication album, moving away from the heavy sampling of their early records and incorporating their own instrumental contributions (as they did on '92's Check Your Head). "Sabotage" is a total banger, featuring a slamming riff, fuzz bass, turntable scratching and Ad-Rock's pissed-off vocals. Released in January, the song was an invigorating and fun ride that set the stage for the rest of the year.
Honorable mentions: Beastie Boys - "Root Down"; Sloan - "Coax Me"; Sloan - "I Hate My Generation"; Frank Black - "Headache"; Drive Like Jehu - "Here Come the Rome Plows"; Helmet - "Wilma's Rainbow"; Helmet - "Milquetoast"; Pavement - "Cut Your Hair"; Pavement - "Gold Soundz"; Rollins Band - "Liar"; R.E.M. - "Bang and Blame"; Pearl Jam - "Corduroy"; Pearl Jam - "Spin the Black Circle"; New Bomb Turks - "Id Slips In"; Liz Phair - "Supernova"; Luscious Jackson - "Citysong"; Orangutang - "Shiny Like Gold"; Beck - "Loser"; Beck - "Beer Can"; Weezer - "Buddy Holly"; King's X - "Dogman"; Soundgarden - "The Day I Tried to Live"; Soundgarden - "My Wave"; Green Day - "Longview"; Meat Puppets - "Backwater"; Alice In Chains - "No Excuses"; Mark Lanegan - "The River Rise"; Superchunk - "The First Part"; Superchunk - "Driveway to Driveway"; Jeff Buckley - "Mojo Pin"; Jeff Buckley - "Eternal Life"; Sugar - "Gift"; Sugar - "Your Favorite Thing"; Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - "Bellbottoms"; Warren G - "Regulate"; Mazzy Star - "Fade Into You"; Blur - "Girls & Boys"; Nirvana - "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"
1994: Beastie Boys - Sabotage
You want crazy news stories, 1994 is here for you. We should have known it was going to be a strange year when just six days in, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked by a goon allegedly hired by her biggest rival's ex-husband. Probably the biggest story of the year was football legend O.J. Simpson allegedly murdering two people (including his ex-wife), leading police on a ridiculous slow-speed chase and then starring in the subsequent high-profile trial. Kurt Cobain killed himself, which while not surprising, was still a bummer. The U.S. hosted the World Cup, Woodstock '94 took place 25 years after the original event, and Major League Baseball players went on strike in early August, wiping out the rest of the season and playoffs.
For me, things were looking up. Two things were directly responsible for that: Moving in with some friends in Beverly and going back to reporting, which meant I didn't have to wake up before the crack of dawn anymore. I didn't mind doing layout and copyediting, but reporting was more fun. I got the courts job at the Beverly Times and it was a blast. My social life improved immediately and things were much more enjoyable in general.
It was another great year for music and I went to a ton of shows: Redd Kross, the Afghan Whigs, Pearl Jam, Cracker, Rollins Band, Thurston Moore, Soundgarden, Buffalo Tom, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Tragically Hip, the Rev. Horton Heat, the Velvet Crush (in Austin while visiting my brother), Sugar, Bad Religion, Hole. I almost went to the free Green Day show on the Esplanade in Boston that quickly turned into a mud-throwing riot; something came up and I wasn't able to make it.
Indie rock was still a big deal, but now we were seeing the major labels desperately looking for the next Nirvana or Pearl Jam. Plenty of copycat acts popped up hoping to capitalize on grunge fever, which meant there was a lot of crappy music getting airplay. Meanwhile, classic rock acts still did well: The Eagles reunited and started charging $100 for tickets for their Hell Freezes Over tour, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page re-teamed to make new music and tour, Aerosmith continued to sell lots of albums with crappy ballads on them.
Pop and hip-hop were big on the charts. Hell, Ace of Base had three of the top 10 singles of the year. Snoop, Coolio, R. Kelly, Warren G and Da Brat all had big hits as well. And somehow the unholy trio of Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting landed the #8 single of the year with "All For Love" from the soundtrack of The Three Musketeers, which starred Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland and Chris O'Donnell, another unholy trio. But as I established earlier, it was a strange year.
I was mainly listening to WFNX for the so-called alternative rock. I pretty much steered clear of any of the metal or classic rock stuff I used to listen to, with the exception of that Page and Plant album and a few others (Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Elvis Costello). Much like the year before, I was into as much new music as I could get my hands on: Sloan, Frank Black, Drive Like Jehu, Pavement, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, New Bomb Turks, Helmet, Liz Phair, Nine Inch Nails, Beck, Weezer, Soundgarden, King's X, Green Day, Meat Puppets, Mark Lanegan, Alice In Chains, Rollins Band, Superchunk, Sonic Youth, Jeff Buckley, Portishead, Luscious Jackson, Dinosaur Jr., Bad Religion, Sugar. It was a great time to be a music fan, even though Cobain's death cast a bit of pall on things in the springtime. I made some good mixtapes that were perfect for driving around that summer.
My favorite song in a year of great songs was the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage," which was aided by a great '70s-themed video that dominated MTV. The Beasties were really mixing things up on their Ill Communication album, moving away from the heavy sampling of their early records and incorporating their own instrumental contributions (as they did on '92's Check Your Head). "Sabotage" is a total banger, featuring a slamming riff, fuzz bass, turntable scratching and Ad-Rock's pissed-off vocals. Released in January, the song was an invigorating and fun ride that set the stage for the rest of the year.
Honorable mentions: Beastie Boys - "Root Down"; Sloan - "Coax Me"; Sloan - "I Hate My Generation"; Frank Black - "Headache"; Drive Like Jehu - "Here Come the Rome Plows"; Helmet - "Wilma's Rainbow"; Helmet - "Milquetoast"; Pavement - "Cut Your Hair"; Pavement - "Gold Soundz"; Rollins Band - "Liar"; R.E.M. - "Bang and Blame"; Pearl Jam - "Corduroy"; Pearl Jam - "Spin the Black Circle"; New Bomb Turks - "Id Slips In"; Liz Phair - "Supernova"; Luscious Jackson - "Citysong"; Orangutang - "Shiny Like Gold"; Beck - "Loser"; Beck - "Beer Can"; Weezer - "Buddy Holly"; King's X - "Dogman"; Soundgarden - "The Day I Tried to Live"; Soundgarden - "My Wave"; Green Day - "Longview"; Meat Puppets - "Backwater"; Alice In Chains - "No Excuses"; Mark Lanegan - "The River Rise"; Superchunk - "The First Part"; Superchunk - "Driveway to Driveway"; Jeff Buckley - "Mojo Pin"; Jeff Buckley - "Eternal Life"; Sugar - "Gift"; Sugar - "Your Favorite Thing"; Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - "Bellbottoms"; Warren G - "Regulate"; Mazzy Star - "Fade Into You"; Blur - "Girls & Boys"; Nirvana - "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"
Monday, May 18, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Cannonball
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
1993: The Breeders - Cannonball
It was another eventful year for me, personally and professionally. On the work front, I moved from the reporting ranks to the copy desk in Beverly, which meant a radical change in my work hours. I had to wake up at 3:45 a.m. to get to work by 5 a.m. and when I was 25, I was most definitely NOT a morning person. I was editing stories on deadline and doing layout on the computer as the newspaper had switched over to pagination (as opposed to the old-school method of cutting and literally pasting stories). When I was offered the new position, I took it because I didn't want to look like a good employee, but I didn't realize how much I'd miss the freedom of being a reporter. It was difficult.
Around the same time, I split up with my girlfriend of four years, which was doubly awkward because not only did we live together, we worked together. It took a few months for me to find a new living situation, which ended up being a rented room in a house in Middleton, a town about 15 minutes from the office. The problem was all my friends were in Beverly and I was currently living in the middle of a field...quite literally the boonies. After I moved there, I was still playing softball and going to concerts and stuff like that, but it was a lonely time. And I was finishing work around 1 p.m., going to the gym to work out afterward and then getting home around 4. Not a fun existence. Did I mention I was starting to develop an ulcer by year's end? Oh, yeah.
In world events, there was the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York (you know, the first attack years before the big one), Michael Jordan quit at the peak of his powers to play baseball and the FBI raided the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. The Blue Jays won yet another World Series, which was pretty cool for me; I mean, I watched Joe Carter's historic World Series-winning home run while sitting alone in my little room, but hey, it was a great sports moment.
One great thing about '93 was the music. There was so much great stuff from the burgeoning wave of indie rock, it was an embarrassment of riches. New albums from Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, PJ Harvey, the Afghan Whigs, the Posies, Urge Overkill, Buffalo Tom, Dinosaur Jr., Liz Phair, Radiohead, Living Colour, Frank Black, Butthole Surfers, Melvins, Swervedriver, Bad Religion, Fugazi, Redd Kross, The Pursuit of Happiness, Blur, Paw, Superchunk, Quicksand...just ridiculous.
From all that great stuff, it's tough to pick a single favorite song, but I'm going to go with "Cannonball" by the Breeders. After the Pixies split up in January '93, Kim Deal turned her side project the Breeders into her full-time gig. And right off the bat, "Cannonball" stood out, both with a video directed by Kim Gordon and Spike Jonze and with the song itself, which starts with a great bass line and moves into a nice crunchy guitar riff. It's catchy and combined with Deal's slacker chick vocals, it stands above a year full of amazing music.
I ended up seeing the Breeders open for Nirvana in November '93, about a week before the latter's classic MTV Unplugged concert was recorded. And a few months after that, we all know what happened to Kurt Cobain.
So yeah, '93 kinda sucked for me, but there were some bright spots. And things were about to get better.
Honorable mentions: Nirvana - "Serve the Servants"; Nirvana - "Heart-Shaped Box"; The Afghan Whigs - "Debonair"; The Afghan Whigs - "Gentlemen"; PJ Harvey - "Rid of Me"; PJ Harvey - "50-ft. Queenie"; Smashing Pumpkins - "Cherub Rock"; Urge Overkill - "Sister Havana"; Buffalo Tom - "I'm Allowed"; Buffalo Tom - "Sodajerk"; Fugazi - "Last Chance for a Slow Dance"; Matthew Sweet - "The Ugly Truth"; Morphine - "Cure for Pain"; The Pursuit of Happiness - "Cigarette Dangles"; Belly - "Feed the Tree"; Dinosaur Jr. - "Start Choppin'"; Radiohead - "Creep"; Brad - "Buttercup"; Living Colour - "Leave It Alone"; Frank Black - "Los Angeles"; Butthole Surfers - "Who Was In My Room Last Night?"; Sugar - "Tilted"; Paw - "Jessie"; Posies - "Dream All Day"; Posies - "Solar Sister"; Aimee Mann - "I Should've Known"; U2 - "Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car"; Pearl Jam - "Animal"; Pearl Jam - "Go"; Snoop Doggy Dogg - "Gin and Juice"; Naughty By Nature - "Hip Hop Hooray"
1993: The Breeders - Cannonball
It was another eventful year for me, personally and professionally. On the work front, I moved from the reporting ranks to the copy desk in Beverly, which meant a radical change in my work hours. I had to wake up at 3:45 a.m. to get to work by 5 a.m. and when I was 25, I was most definitely NOT a morning person. I was editing stories on deadline and doing layout on the computer as the newspaper had switched over to pagination (as opposed to the old-school method of cutting and literally pasting stories). When I was offered the new position, I took it because I didn't want to look like a good employee, but I didn't realize how much I'd miss the freedom of being a reporter. It was difficult.
Around the same time, I split up with my girlfriend of four years, which was doubly awkward because not only did we live together, we worked together. It took a few months for me to find a new living situation, which ended up being a rented room in a house in Middleton, a town about 15 minutes from the office. The problem was all my friends were in Beverly and I was currently living in the middle of a field...quite literally the boonies. After I moved there, I was still playing softball and going to concerts and stuff like that, but it was a lonely time. And I was finishing work around 1 p.m., going to the gym to work out afterward and then getting home around 4. Not a fun existence. Did I mention I was starting to develop an ulcer by year's end? Oh, yeah.
In world events, there was the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York (you know, the first attack years before the big one), Michael Jordan quit at the peak of his powers to play baseball and the FBI raided the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. The Blue Jays won yet another World Series, which was pretty cool for me; I mean, I watched Joe Carter's historic World Series-winning home run while sitting alone in my little room, but hey, it was a great sports moment.
One great thing about '93 was the music. There was so much great stuff from the burgeoning wave of indie rock, it was an embarrassment of riches. New albums from Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, PJ Harvey, the Afghan Whigs, the Posies, Urge Overkill, Buffalo Tom, Dinosaur Jr., Liz Phair, Radiohead, Living Colour, Frank Black, Butthole Surfers, Melvins, Swervedriver, Bad Religion, Fugazi, Redd Kross, The Pursuit of Happiness, Blur, Paw, Superchunk, Quicksand...just ridiculous.
From all that great stuff, it's tough to pick a single favorite song, but I'm going to go with "Cannonball" by the Breeders. After the Pixies split up in January '93, Kim Deal turned her side project the Breeders into her full-time gig. And right off the bat, "Cannonball" stood out, both with a video directed by Kim Gordon and Spike Jonze and with the song itself, which starts with a great bass line and moves into a nice crunchy guitar riff. It's catchy and combined with Deal's slacker chick vocals, it stands above a year full of amazing music.
I ended up seeing the Breeders open for Nirvana in November '93, about a week before the latter's classic MTV Unplugged concert was recorded. And a few months after that, we all know what happened to Kurt Cobain.
So yeah, '93 kinda sucked for me, but there were some bright spots. And things were about to get better.
Honorable mentions: Nirvana - "Serve the Servants"; Nirvana - "Heart-Shaped Box"; The Afghan Whigs - "Debonair"; The Afghan Whigs - "Gentlemen"; PJ Harvey - "Rid of Me"; PJ Harvey - "50-ft. Queenie"; Smashing Pumpkins - "Cherub Rock"; Urge Overkill - "Sister Havana"; Buffalo Tom - "I'm Allowed"; Buffalo Tom - "Sodajerk"; Fugazi - "Last Chance for a Slow Dance"; Matthew Sweet - "The Ugly Truth"; Morphine - "Cure for Pain"; The Pursuit of Happiness - "Cigarette Dangles"; Belly - "Feed the Tree"; Dinosaur Jr. - "Start Choppin'"; Radiohead - "Creep"; Brad - "Buttercup"; Living Colour - "Leave It Alone"; Frank Black - "Los Angeles"; Butthole Surfers - "Who Was In My Room Last Night?"; Sugar - "Tilted"; Paw - "Jessie"; Posies - "Dream All Day"; Posies - "Solar Sister"; Aimee Mann - "I Should've Known"; U2 - "Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car"; Pearl Jam - "Animal"; Pearl Jam - "Go"; Snoop Doggy Dogg - "Gin and Juice"; Naughty By Nature - "Hip Hop Hooray"
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Velvet Roof
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
1992: Buffalo Tom - Velvet Roof
There was a lot going on in '92. The Cold War officially ended, Bill Clinton was elected president, the L.A. Riots raged on and Sinead O'Connor pissed off a lot of Catholics by ripping up a photo of the Pope on SNL.
Meanwhile, I was 24 and still working at the Peabody Times, including a two-week stint covering a murder trial in Lawrence. I had moved in with my girlfriend the previous year and we ended up moving to a new apartment across town in Beverly in the spring of '92. It was a big year for me as a sports fan because the Toronto Blue Jays won their first World Series that fall, becoming the first time a team I rooted for had won anything. I celebrated with the last of a six-pack of Labatt's Blue that I brought back a few weeks earlier from a vacation in Toronto.
The popularity of so-called grunge really became apparent in early '92, as Nirvana's Nevermind album hit #1 on the Billboard album charts in January, unseating Michael Jackson and bringing this new offshoot of alt-rock to the forefront. But it wasn't just Nirvana. Albums from like-minded acts like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and the Red Hot Chili Peppers began selling like grungy hotcakes. Cameron Crowe's movie Singles, which portrayed the romantic adventures of twentysomethings in Seattle amid the city's rock scene, managed to get lucky by featuring concert footage of PJ, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains and the soundtrack became a big hit.
A coincidental byproduct of this newly popular rock genre was the simultaneous disappearance of hair metal from the charts. I distinctly remember seeing the video for Warrant's "Cherry Pie," which was pretty by-the-book by '80s standards but stood out as mind-numbingly idiotic in 1992. Shows like MTV's 120 Minutes became increasingly important to me, while Headbanger's Ball was a non-entity. Which is funny, because bands like Soundgarden had straddled the line between metal and alternative for a few years by that point.
Arena rock shows held less appeal for me and a lot of others. I was going to club shows regularly. I saw Pearl Jam at the tiny Axis club in Boston just a few months before they went on the Lollapalooza tour and really became huge. Similarly, I saw Soundgarden at Avalon, Mudhoney at the Paradise, Alice In Chains/Screaming Trees at the Channel and the Lollapalooza tour at Great Woods in Mansfield. My younger brother was in college at this time and was a DJ at the radio station and subsequently introduced me to a lot of cool bands that weren't getting as much attention: Fugazi, Urge Overkill, Sonic Youth, Pavement, Rollins Band. There were still some so-called mainstream acts that I followed like Neil Young, Lou Reed and the Black Crowes, but I was paying a lot more attention to left-of-center stuff. I didn't walk around wearing flannel and ripped jeans or anything, but I was into it.
As for my favorite song, I'm going with Buffalo Tom's "Velvet Roof." I remember the first time I heard it was when I saw the video on 120 Minutes and it grabbed me from the very first note. I went out and bought the album and have been a fan of the band ever since. They started out as more of a Dinosaur Jr./Husker Du-influenced act but incorporated more rock and folk influences with subsequent albums. I've seen them a bunch of times over the years and that song still gets a club jumping. Never gets old, man.
Honorable mentions: Buffalo Tom - "Taillights Fade"; Sugar - "A Good Idea"; Sugar - "Hoover Dam"; Pavement - "Summer Babe"; Pavement - "In the Mouth a Desert"; The Tragically Hip - "At the Hundredth Meridian"; The Tragically Hip - "Looking For a Place to Happen"; Sloan - "Underwhelmed"; Sloan - "500 Up"; The Afghan Whigs - "Turn On the Water"; Rollins Band - "Low Self Opinion"; Beastie Boys - "So What'cha Want"; Beastie Boys - "Gratitude"; R.E.M. - "Drive"; R.E.M. - "Man on the Moon"; Chris Cornell - "Seasons"; Pearl Jam - "State of Love and Trust"; Screaming Trees - "Nearly Lost You"; The Jayhawks - "Waiting for the Sun"; Alice in Chains - "Got Me Wrong"; Alice in Chains - "Would"; The Black Crowes - "Remedy"; Faith No More - "Midlife Crisis"; Peter Gabriel - "Digging in the Dirt"; Soul Asylum - "Somebody to Shove"; Mudhoney - "Suck You Dry"; Neil Young - "Harvest Moon"; Rage Against the Machine - "Freedom"; Rage Against the Machine - "Killing in the Name"; Nirvana - "Sliver"; Nirvana - "Aneurysm"; The Lemonheads - "Rudderless"; Sonic Youth - "100%"; Lou Reed - "What's Good"; Wreckx-n-Effect - "Rump Shaker"; Prince - "My Name is Prince"; Dr. Dre - "Nuthin' But a G Thang"; Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Under the Bridge"
1992: Buffalo Tom - Velvet Roof
There was a lot going on in '92. The Cold War officially ended, Bill Clinton was elected president, the L.A. Riots raged on and Sinead O'Connor pissed off a lot of Catholics by ripping up a photo of the Pope on SNL.
Meanwhile, I was 24 and still working at the Peabody Times, including a two-week stint covering a murder trial in Lawrence. I had moved in with my girlfriend the previous year and we ended up moving to a new apartment across town in Beverly in the spring of '92. It was a big year for me as a sports fan because the Toronto Blue Jays won their first World Series that fall, becoming the first time a team I rooted for had won anything. I celebrated with the last of a six-pack of Labatt's Blue that I brought back a few weeks earlier from a vacation in Toronto.
The popularity of so-called grunge really became apparent in early '92, as Nirvana's Nevermind album hit #1 on the Billboard album charts in January, unseating Michael Jackson and bringing this new offshoot of alt-rock to the forefront. But it wasn't just Nirvana. Albums from like-minded acts like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and the Red Hot Chili Peppers began selling like grungy hotcakes. Cameron Crowe's movie Singles, which portrayed the romantic adventures of twentysomethings in Seattle amid the city's rock scene, managed to get lucky by featuring concert footage of PJ, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains and the soundtrack became a big hit.
A coincidental byproduct of this newly popular rock genre was the simultaneous disappearance of hair metal from the charts. I distinctly remember seeing the video for Warrant's "Cherry Pie," which was pretty by-the-book by '80s standards but stood out as mind-numbingly idiotic in 1992. Shows like MTV's 120 Minutes became increasingly important to me, while Headbanger's Ball was a non-entity. Which is funny, because bands like Soundgarden had straddled the line between metal and alternative for a few years by that point.
Arena rock shows held less appeal for me and a lot of others. I was going to club shows regularly. I saw Pearl Jam at the tiny Axis club in Boston just a few months before they went on the Lollapalooza tour and really became huge. Similarly, I saw Soundgarden at Avalon, Mudhoney at the Paradise, Alice In Chains/Screaming Trees at the Channel and the Lollapalooza tour at Great Woods in Mansfield. My younger brother was in college at this time and was a DJ at the radio station and subsequently introduced me to a lot of cool bands that weren't getting as much attention: Fugazi, Urge Overkill, Sonic Youth, Pavement, Rollins Band. There were still some so-called mainstream acts that I followed like Neil Young, Lou Reed and the Black Crowes, but I was paying a lot more attention to left-of-center stuff. I didn't walk around wearing flannel and ripped jeans or anything, but I was into it.
As for my favorite song, I'm going with Buffalo Tom's "Velvet Roof." I remember the first time I heard it was when I saw the video on 120 Minutes and it grabbed me from the very first note. I went out and bought the album and have been a fan of the band ever since. They started out as more of a Dinosaur Jr./Husker Du-influenced act but incorporated more rock and folk influences with subsequent albums. I've seen them a bunch of times over the years and that song still gets a club jumping. Never gets old, man.
Honorable mentions: Buffalo Tom - "Taillights Fade"; Sugar - "A Good Idea"; Sugar - "Hoover Dam"; Pavement - "Summer Babe"; Pavement - "In the Mouth a Desert"; The Tragically Hip - "At the Hundredth Meridian"; The Tragically Hip - "Looking For a Place to Happen"; Sloan - "Underwhelmed"; Sloan - "500 Up"; The Afghan Whigs - "Turn On the Water"; Rollins Band - "Low Self Opinion"; Beastie Boys - "So What'cha Want"; Beastie Boys - "Gratitude"; R.E.M. - "Drive"; R.E.M. - "Man on the Moon"; Chris Cornell - "Seasons"; Pearl Jam - "State of Love and Trust"; Screaming Trees - "Nearly Lost You"; The Jayhawks - "Waiting for the Sun"; Alice in Chains - "Got Me Wrong"; Alice in Chains - "Would"; The Black Crowes - "Remedy"; Faith No More - "Midlife Crisis"; Peter Gabriel - "Digging in the Dirt"; Soul Asylum - "Somebody to Shove"; Mudhoney - "Suck You Dry"; Neil Young - "Harvest Moon"; Rage Against the Machine - "Freedom"; Rage Against the Machine - "Killing in the Name"; Nirvana - "Sliver"; Nirvana - "Aneurysm"; The Lemonheads - "Rudderless"; Sonic Youth - "100%"; Lou Reed - "What's Good"; Wreckx-n-Effect - "Rump Shaker"; Prince - "My Name is Prince"; Dr. Dre - "Nuthin' But a G Thang"; Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Under the Bridge"
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Outshined
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
1991: Soundgarden - Outshined
It didn't take long for things to get real in 1991. The Gulf War that started in 1990 escalated in early '91 with the beginning of the ground war in Saudi Arabia. It was a big deal at the time, since we hadn't seen anything like that out in the open (as opposed to the secret wars that had been going on for decades) since the 1970s. There were some high-profile legal events, including the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, who was accused of sexually harassing Anita Hill, and the rape trial of William Kennedy Smith.
I was 23, working as a reporter for the Peabody Times, primarily covering schools. I shared an apartment in Beverly with a co-worker. Concerts included seeing Iron Maiden at the Worcester Centrum, Living Colour at UNH, INXS at the Centrum, An Emotional Fish at the Paradise, George Thorogood and Barrence Whitfield at the Orpheum, the Tragically Hip at the Paradise, Iggy Pop at the Orpheum, and Lenny Kravitz at the Orpheum.
Later in the year, I moved in with my girlfriend. I had originally planned on working a short time in Peabody and then moving on to a bigger paper anywhere else in the country, but the economy had stalled and I grew to enjoy living in this area. Not only did I have gainful employment, we were near the ocean and it was a culturally stimulating area.
In retrospect, the year has been pegged as the breakthrough of alternative rock and/or grunge, but that stuff didn't really kick in until the latter part of '91. The popular retelling has it that Nirvana's Nevermind turned the year on its ear, but it didn't come out until September 24. There was a lot going on, including great albums from U2, Screaming Trees, Dinosaur Jr., the Tragically Hip, the Feelies, R.E.M., Temple of the Dog, Hoodoo Gurus, Fishbone, the Nation of Ulysses, Fugazi, Cypress Hill, Sebadoh, Tribe, Pearl Jam, A Tribe Called Quest, Swervedriver, Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet, and My Bloody Valentine.
But the one that jumped out at me initially was Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger. Earlier in the year, I had picked up the Temple of the Dog album, which Soundgarden's Chris Cornell had put together, so I was familiar with his voice. Still, Badmotorfinger was much heavier and out there than Temple of the Dog, which was made in memory of Cornell's friend Andrew Wood (singer of Mother Love Bone who had died of a heroin overdose just before his band's debut was released). The band melded the heaviness of Black Sabbath with the new aggressiveness of the Seattle scene that was about to explode. The band straddled the line between metal and alternative, and ultimately, helped to push the poppier metal sounds of bands like Warrant and Ratt out of the mainstream.
Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is credited with revolutionizing the rock world, but it didn't hit immediately with me. It took a few months before I realized how good it was. But "Outshined" bowled me over with its heaviness. Even though I had only been listening to it for a few months, it bridged the music I used to love with the music I currently loved. And it set up a whole new world for me to jump into.
Honorable mentions: Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"; Pearl Jam - "Alive"; The Tragically Hip - "Little Bones"; The Tragically Hip - "Twist My Arm"; U2 - "Mysterious Ways"; U2 - "Even Better Than the Real Thing"; R.E.M. - "Losing My Religion"; R.E.M. - "Texarkana"; School of Fish - "Three Strange Days"; Temple of the Dog - "Hunger Strike"; Temple of the Dog - "Say Hello 2 Heaven"; Pearl Jam - "Black"; Pearl Jam - "Once"; Matthew Sweet - "Divine Intervention"; Matthew Sweet - "Girlfriend"; Teenage Fanclub - "What You Do to Me"; Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Give It Away"; Metallica - "Sad But True"; Prince - "Cream"; Prince - "Gett Off"'; Blur - "There's No Other Way"; Big Audio Dynamite - "Rush"; Elvis Costello - "Just Like Candy"; Living Colour - "Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing"; Lenny Kravitz - "Fields of Joy"; Lenny Kravitz - "Always On the Run"; Fishbone - "Sunless Saturday"; Fishbone - "Everyday Sunshine"
1991: Soundgarden - Outshined
It didn't take long for things to get real in 1991. The Gulf War that started in 1990 escalated in early '91 with the beginning of the ground war in Saudi Arabia. It was a big deal at the time, since we hadn't seen anything like that out in the open (as opposed to the secret wars that had been going on for decades) since the 1970s. There were some high-profile legal events, including the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, who was accused of sexually harassing Anita Hill, and the rape trial of William Kennedy Smith.
I was 23, working as a reporter for the Peabody Times, primarily covering schools. I shared an apartment in Beverly with a co-worker. Concerts included seeing Iron Maiden at the Worcester Centrum, Living Colour at UNH, INXS at the Centrum, An Emotional Fish at the Paradise, George Thorogood and Barrence Whitfield at the Orpheum, the Tragically Hip at the Paradise, Iggy Pop at the Orpheum, and Lenny Kravitz at the Orpheum.
Later in the year, I moved in with my girlfriend. I had originally planned on working a short time in Peabody and then moving on to a bigger paper anywhere else in the country, but the economy had stalled and I grew to enjoy living in this area. Not only did I have gainful employment, we were near the ocean and it was a culturally stimulating area.
In retrospect, the year has been pegged as the breakthrough of alternative rock and/or grunge, but that stuff didn't really kick in until the latter part of '91. The popular retelling has it that Nirvana's Nevermind turned the year on its ear, but it didn't come out until September 24. There was a lot going on, including great albums from U2, Screaming Trees, Dinosaur Jr., the Tragically Hip, the Feelies, R.E.M., Temple of the Dog, Hoodoo Gurus, Fishbone, the Nation of Ulysses, Fugazi, Cypress Hill, Sebadoh, Tribe, Pearl Jam, A Tribe Called Quest, Swervedriver, Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet, and My Bloody Valentine.
But the one that jumped out at me initially was Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger. Earlier in the year, I had picked up the Temple of the Dog album, which Soundgarden's Chris Cornell had put together, so I was familiar with his voice. Still, Badmotorfinger was much heavier and out there than Temple of the Dog, which was made in memory of Cornell's friend Andrew Wood (singer of Mother Love Bone who had died of a heroin overdose just before his band's debut was released). The band melded the heaviness of Black Sabbath with the new aggressiveness of the Seattle scene that was about to explode. The band straddled the line between metal and alternative, and ultimately, helped to push the poppier metal sounds of bands like Warrant and Ratt out of the mainstream.
Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is credited with revolutionizing the rock world, but it didn't hit immediately with me. It took a few months before I realized how good it was. But "Outshined" bowled me over with its heaviness. Even though I had only been listening to it for a few months, it bridged the music I used to love with the music I currently loved. And it set up a whole new world for me to jump into.
Honorable mentions: Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"; Pearl Jam - "Alive"; The Tragically Hip - "Little Bones"; The Tragically Hip - "Twist My Arm"; U2 - "Mysterious Ways"; U2 - "Even Better Than the Real Thing"; R.E.M. - "Losing My Religion"; R.E.M. - "Texarkana"; School of Fish - "Three Strange Days"; Temple of the Dog - "Hunger Strike"; Temple of the Dog - "Say Hello 2 Heaven"; Pearl Jam - "Black"; Pearl Jam - "Once"; Matthew Sweet - "Divine Intervention"; Matthew Sweet - "Girlfriend"; Teenage Fanclub - "What You Do to Me"; Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Give It Away"; Metallica - "Sad But True"; Prince - "Cream"; Prince - "Gett Off"'; Blur - "There's No Other Way"; Big Audio Dynamite - "Rush"; Elvis Costello - "Just Like Candy"; Living Colour - "Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing"; Lenny Kravitz - "Fields of Joy"; Lenny Kravitz - "Always On the Run"; Fishbone - "Sunless Saturday"; Fishbone - "Everyday Sunshine"
Friday, May 15, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: Stop!
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
1990: Jane's Addiction - Stop!
On to another decade. The world was definitely changing. The Cold War ended, the Soviet Union began dissolving, Nelson Mandela was finally released from prison, the Persian Gulf War started, Margaret Thatcher resigned as British Prime Minister.
As the calendar switched over to 1990, I was 22, living in Wenham, Mass., and working as a reporter for the Peabody Times. I don't remember if there was some crazy New Year's Eve party or anything, but there was a good crew of young reporters in our 20s among the four dailies in our chain and we would definitely rip it up regularly. We were all single and even though the economy was in a slump and we weren't making much money, we enjoyed ourselves.
The house-sitting situation ended during the summer, so I got an apartment in neighboring Beverly (where the newspaper chain was headquartered) with another reporter. Vinyl was being phased out, so by this time, I was exclusively buying CDs. My dad gave me my first CD player as a graduation present the year before, so I was building up my collection of them.
I started going to a lot of concerts this year: The Smithereens at the Orpheum in Boston, Aerosmith and the Black Crowes in Old Orchard Beach, Robert Plant at Great Woods in Mansfield, James Taylor at Great Woods (wasn't my idea), Little Feat at Old Orchard Beach, Living Colour at the Orpheum, Death Angel at the Channel and the Black Crowes at the same venue.
Musically, I was all over the place as usual. Classic rock was making a big push on local radio, helped by strong new albums from the likes of Robert Plant, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Aerosmith (carrying over from '89), and a greatest hits tour by David Bowie. For new music, I was into releases by Soul Asylum, Mother Love Bone, World Party, Alice in Chains, Digital Underground, the Black Crowes, Midnight Oil, Iggy Pop, Gary Moore, Sinead O'Connor, Adrian Belew, INXS, Hindu Love Gods and the Vaughan Brothers (released not long after the tragic death of Stevie Ray Vaughan).
The pop charts were pretty varied, with hip hop and its approximations by MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Bell Biv DeVoe, Technotronic and Snap!, dance music from Deee-Lite, Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson and Madonna, and poppy schmaltz from the likes of Mariah Carey, Wilson Phillips and Michael Bolton.
I was consuming a lot of stuff, but the hottest band to me was Jane's Addiction, who had released their second album, Ritual de lo Habitual, in August. There was a sense of danger about them, I think mainly because you never knew if frontman Perry Farrell was going to OD at any moment. "Been Caught Stealing" was the big hit, primarily because the video was getting played on MTV constantly, but I liked the rest of the album better. Especially the opening track "Stop!", which just lurched into action after a brief intro. Guitarist Dave Navarro, long before he became a reality show regular, just drenches this album with ridiculous solos. Hot stuff, to be sure.
The album went double-platinum and Farrell followed it up in a big way by developing the Lollapalooza tour, which made its debut in '91 with Jane's and a bunch of other great acts crossing the country. Sadly, the band split up after that tour and didn't reunite until 2003; they still tour and release albums, but they haven't been able to recapture the magic of their first two records.
Still, Jane's Addiction was a good palate cleanser for the sweeping change that hit the rock world in '91.
Honorable mentions: Jane's Addiction - "Ain't No Right"; Jane's Addiction - "Classic Girl"; Living Colour - "Type"; Living Colour - "Elvis Is Dead"; Living Colour - "Love Rears Its Ugly Head"; Neil Young and Crazy Horse - "Fuckin' Up"; Neil Young and Crazy Horse - "Mansion on the Hill"; Robert Plant - "Hurting Kind (I've Got My Eyes On You)"; The Black Crowes - "Twice as Hard"; Mother Love Bone - "Stardog Champion"; Mother Love Bone - "Crown of Thorns"; Alice In Chains - "Man in the Box"; Soul Asylum - "Spinnin'"; World Party - "Way Down Now"; World Party - "Is It Too Late?"; Peter Murphy - "Cuts You Up"; Digital Underground - "The Humpty Dance"; Bell Biv DeVoe - "Poison"; Midnight Oil - "Blue Sky Mine"; Iggy Pop - "Candy"; Sinead O'Connor - "Nothing Compares 2 U"; Gary Moore - "Oh Pretty Woman"; Adrian Belew - "Phone Call From the Moon"; INXS - "Suicide Blonde"; Hindu Love Gods - "Raspberry Beret"; The Vaughan Brothers - "Telephone Song"; Janet Jackson - "Black Cat"; George Michael - "Freedom '90"; The Soup Dragons & Junior Reed - "I'm Free"; EMF - "Unbelievable"; Prince - "Thieves in the Temple"; Billy Idol - "Cradle of Love"'; Biz Markie - "Just a Friend"
1990: Jane's Addiction - Stop!
On to another decade. The world was definitely changing. The Cold War ended, the Soviet Union began dissolving, Nelson Mandela was finally released from prison, the Persian Gulf War started, Margaret Thatcher resigned as British Prime Minister.
As the calendar switched over to 1990, I was 22, living in Wenham, Mass., and working as a reporter for the Peabody Times. I don't remember if there was some crazy New Year's Eve party or anything, but there was a good crew of young reporters in our 20s among the four dailies in our chain and we would definitely rip it up regularly. We were all single and even though the economy was in a slump and we weren't making much money, we enjoyed ourselves.
The house-sitting situation ended during the summer, so I got an apartment in neighboring Beverly (where the newspaper chain was headquartered) with another reporter. Vinyl was being phased out, so by this time, I was exclusively buying CDs. My dad gave me my first CD player as a graduation present the year before, so I was building up my collection of them.
I started going to a lot of concerts this year: The Smithereens at the Orpheum in Boston, Aerosmith and the Black Crowes in Old Orchard Beach, Robert Plant at Great Woods in Mansfield, James Taylor at Great Woods (wasn't my idea), Little Feat at Old Orchard Beach, Living Colour at the Orpheum, Death Angel at the Channel and the Black Crowes at the same venue.
Musically, I was all over the place as usual. Classic rock was making a big push on local radio, helped by strong new albums from the likes of Robert Plant, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Aerosmith (carrying over from '89), and a greatest hits tour by David Bowie. For new music, I was into releases by Soul Asylum, Mother Love Bone, World Party, Alice in Chains, Digital Underground, the Black Crowes, Midnight Oil, Iggy Pop, Gary Moore, Sinead O'Connor, Adrian Belew, INXS, Hindu Love Gods and the Vaughan Brothers (released not long after the tragic death of Stevie Ray Vaughan).
The pop charts were pretty varied, with hip hop and its approximations by MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Bell Biv DeVoe, Technotronic and Snap!, dance music from Deee-Lite, Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson and Madonna, and poppy schmaltz from the likes of Mariah Carey, Wilson Phillips and Michael Bolton.
I was consuming a lot of stuff, but the hottest band to me was Jane's Addiction, who had released their second album, Ritual de lo Habitual, in August. There was a sense of danger about them, I think mainly because you never knew if frontman Perry Farrell was going to OD at any moment. "Been Caught Stealing" was the big hit, primarily because the video was getting played on MTV constantly, but I liked the rest of the album better. Especially the opening track "Stop!", which just lurched into action after a brief intro. Guitarist Dave Navarro, long before he became a reality show regular, just drenches this album with ridiculous solos. Hot stuff, to be sure.
The album went double-platinum and Farrell followed it up in a big way by developing the Lollapalooza tour, which made its debut in '91 with Jane's and a bunch of other great acts crossing the country. Sadly, the band split up after that tour and didn't reunite until 2003; they still tour and release albums, but they haven't been able to recapture the magic of their first two records.
Still, Jane's Addiction was a good palate cleanser for the sweeping change that hit the rock world in '91.
Honorable mentions: Jane's Addiction - "Ain't No Right"; Jane's Addiction - "Classic Girl"; Living Colour - "Type"; Living Colour - "Elvis Is Dead"; Living Colour - "Love Rears Its Ugly Head"; Neil Young and Crazy Horse - "Fuckin' Up"; Neil Young and Crazy Horse - "Mansion on the Hill"; Robert Plant - "Hurting Kind (I've Got My Eyes On You)"; The Black Crowes - "Twice as Hard"; Mother Love Bone - "Stardog Champion"; Mother Love Bone - "Crown of Thorns"; Alice In Chains - "Man in the Box"; Soul Asylum - "Spinnin'"; World Party - "Way Down Now"; World Party - "Is It Too Late?"; Peter Murphy - "Cuts You Up"; Digital Underground - "The Humpty Dance"; Bell Biv DeVoe - "Poison"; Midnight Oil - "Blue Sky Mine"; Iggy Pop - "Candy"; Sinead O'Connor - "Nothing Compares 2 U"; Gary Moore - "Oh Pretty Woman"; Adrian Belew - "Phone Call From the Moon"; INXS - "Suicide Blonde"; Hindu Love Gods - "Raspberry Beret"; The Vaughan Brothers - "Telephone Song"; Janet Jackson - "Black Cat"; George Michael - "Freedom '90"; The Soup Dragons & Junior Reed - "I'm Free"; EMF - "Unbelievable"; Prince - "Thieves in the Temple"; Billy Idol - "Cradle of Love"'; Biz Markie - "Just a Friend"
Stuck In Thee Garage #321: May 15, 2020
The truth is out there, man. Whether they're little green people, barbarous planet conquerors or friendly Reese's Pieces-lovers, aliens are all over our pop culture landscape. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs about aliens in hour 2. The conspiracy is detailed below.
Check out the unredacted playlist, dood:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Catholic Action - Grange Hell (South London in D)/Celebrated By Strangers
METZ - Acid/Single
X - Free/Alphabetland
White Denim - Slow Death/World as a Waiting Room
The Buttertones - Rise and Shine/Jazzhound
Psychic Shark - Desire/Tape Sessions
Car Seat Headrest - Can't Cool Me Down/Making a Door Less Open
EOB - Shangri-La/Earth
Beauty Pill - The Damnedest Thing
Damaged Bug - I Tried/Bug On Yonkers
Brendan Benson - Freak Out/Dear Life
Dead Stars - Drone On/Never Not Here
Diet Cig - Broken Body/Do You Wonder About Me?
Melkbelly - Stone Your Friends/Pith
Peel Dream Magazine - Eyeballs/Agitprop Alterna
Hour 2: Aliens
The Faint - Alien Angel/Egowerk
Beastie Boys - Intergalactic/Hello Nasty
Parliament - Mothership Connection (Star Child)/Mothership Connection
Frank Black - Men In Black/The Cult of Ray
Woolen Men - Alien City/Temporary Monument
Bethlehem Steel - Four Aliens/Bethlehem Steel
Stephen Malkmus - Alien Boy/Jenny and the Ess-Dog
Radiohead - Subterranean Homesick Alien/OK Computer
David Bowie - Starman/The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
Torche - UFO/Songs for Singles
Rollins Band - Alien Blueprint/Weight
Monster Magnet - Space Lord/Powertrip
Neil Young - After the Gold Rush/After the Gold Rush
Smashing Pumpkins - Spaceboy/Siamese Dream
The Breeders - Spacewoman/All Nerve
Check out the unredacted playlist, dood:
Hour 1
Artist - Song/Album
Catholic Action - Grange Hell (South London in D)/Celebrated By Strangers
METZ - Acid/Single
X - Free/Alphabetland
White Denim - Slow Death/World as a Waiting Room
The Buttertones - Rise and Shine/Jazzhound
Psychic Shark - Desire/Tape Sessions
Car Seat Headrest - Can't Cool Me Down/Making a Door Less Open
EOB - Shangri-La/Earth
Beauty Pill - The Damnedest Thing
Damaged Bug - I Tried/Bug On Yonkers
Brendan Benson - Freak Out/Dear Life
Dead Stars - Drone On/Never Not Here
Diet Cig - Broken Body/Do You Wonder About Me?
Melkbelly - Stone Your Friends/Pith
Peel Dream Magazine - Eyeballs/Agitprop Alterna
Hour 2: Aliens
The Faint - Alien Angel/Egowerk
Beastie Boys - Intergalactic/Hello Nasty
Parliament - Mothership Connection (Star Child)/Mothership Connection
Frank Black - Men In Black/The Cult of Ray
Woolen Men - Alien City/Temporary Monument
Bethlehem Steel - Four Aliens/Bethlehem Steel
Stephen Malkmus - Alien Boy/Jenny and the Ess-Dog
Radiohead - Subterranean Homesick Alien/OK Computer
David Bowie - Starman/The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
Torche - UFO/Songs for Singles
Rollins Band - Alien Blueprint/Weight
Monster Magnet - Space Lord/Powertrip
Neil Young - After the Gold Rush/After the Gold Rush
Smashing Pumpkins - Spaceboy/Siamese Dream
The Breeders - Spacewoman/All Nerve
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Ye Olde Hit Parade: See a Little Light
Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).
1989: Bob Mould - See a Little Light
Every so often, there are pivotal years in your life. 1989 was one such year for me. Setting aside the major world events--the beginning of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Tiananmen Square protests, the Exxon Valdez--going on, there were some major events in my life as well.
The first half of the year was spent finishing up my last semester of college. I had things set up quite nicely: Three courses, all on Tuesdays and Thursdays, meaning I was going out a LOT. I hadn't given a whole lot of thought to what I was going to do after graduation. One weekend I was home in April, I started to sketch out a resume to apply for newspaper jobs. I went back to school and got a call a few days later from my editor at the Peabody Times, offering me a full-time gig. Of course, I accepted. A huge weight was off my shoulders, which meant the last six weeks of my college career were spent playing wiffleball and drinking beer.
Another big event that spring was my becoming an American citizen. I had applied nearly two years earlier, but it's a long process. The ceremony took place at a courthouse in Exeter. I had been living in the U.S. for eight years by that point and had no intention of leaving, so it was time.
I graduated from UNH in May and still remember driving away from campus for the last time, with R.E.M.'s "I Remember California" playing on the stereo. I started working at the Times two weeks later and quickly got into the lifestyle. I commuted from New Hampshire for the first few weeks and worked on the weekends at Market Basket, but that was getting pretty tiring. Plus I wanted to get out of my parents' house, so I ended up renting a room at a boarding house in Magnolia, Mass. (basically part of what is now known as Manchester-by-the-Sea). A lot of former Times interns had stayed there and it was pretty affordable, as well as being right on the beach. I spent the summer there before moving in with another reporter who was house-sitting in Wenham for one of the Times editors who had taken his family to China for a year. By the end of the year, I was pretty established and enjoying my new job, even though I was spending a lot of time in the office.
Musically, it was also a pivotal year. The alt-rock revolution was in its early stages and I was totally on board. I was now listening to WFNX more than anything, and that station championed alternative rock from its inception several years earlier. There was so much great new music: Pixies, Beastie Boys, the Cure, the Smithereens, the Tragically Hip, PiL, Nine Inch Nails, Replacements, Elvis Costello, Fine Young Cannibals, XTC, The Cult, Tin Machine, Faith No More, Big Audio Dynamite, B-52s. On the pop side, it was a big year for acts like Milli Vanilli, Paula Abdul, Roxette and the like. I saw R.E.M. for the first time, which was fun.
But my favorite song was by a guy I knew from his previous band, Husker Du: Bob Mould. His first solo album, Workbook, was released in April and garnered a fair amount of radio play because it had more folk influences than his previous work with Husker Du. "See a Little Light" was the first single and the "hit" on radio and MTV, with its optimistic outlook (a bit unusual for Mould, although I didn't know that at the time) and sunny acoustic guitars (also unusual for Mould). In a year full of wins, this song fit right in. The future was bright and a new decade was on the horizon.
Honorable mentions: Neil Young - "Rockin' in the Free World"; The Tragically Hip - "Blow at High Dough"; Faith No More - "Epic"; R.E.M. - "Pop Song '89"; Beastie Boys - "Hey Ladies"; Pixies - "Here Comes Your Man"; The Cult - "Fire Woman"; The Cure - "Fascination Street"; Nine Inch Nails - "Head Like a Hole"; Tin Machine - "Heaven's In Here"; Elvis Costello - "Veronica"; U2 - "Dancing Barefoot"; The Stone Roses - "Fool's Gold"; XTC - "The Mayor of Simpleton"; Tone Loc - "Wild Thing"; Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Higher Ground"; Love and Rockets - "So Alive"; Big Audio Dynamite - "James Brown"; B-52s - "Channel Z"
1989: Bob Mould - See a Little Light
Every so often, there are pivotal years in your life. 1989 was one such year for me. Setting aside the major world events--the beginning of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Tiananmen Square protests, the Exxon Valdez--going on, there were some major events in my life as well.
The first half of the year was spent finishing up my last semester of college. I had things set up quite nicely: Three courses, all on Tuesdays and Thursdays, meaning I was going out a LOT. I hadn't given a whole lot of thought to what I was going to do after graduation. One weekend I was home in April, I started to sketch out a resume to apply for newspaper jobs. I went back to school and got a call a few days later from my editor at the Peabody Times, offering me a full-time gig. Of course, I accepted. A huge weight was off my shoulders, which meant the last six weeks of my college career were spent playing wiffleball and drinking beer.
Another big event that spring was my becoming an American citizen. I had applied nearly two years earlier, but it's a long process. The ceremony took place at a courthouse in Exeter. I had been living in the U.S. for eight years by that point and had no intention of leaving, so it was time.
I graduated from UNH in May and still remember driving away from campus for the last time, with R.E.M.'s "I Remember California" playing on the stereo. I started working at the Times two weeks later and quickly got into the lifestyle. I commuted from New Hampshire for the first few weeks and worked on the weekends at Market Basket, but that was getting pretty tiring. Plus I wanted to get out of my parents' house, so I ended up renting a room at a boarding house in Magnolia, Mass. (basically part of what is now known as Manchester-by-the-Sea). A lot of former Times interns had stayed there and it was pretty affordable, as well as being right on the beach. I spent the summer there before moving in with another reporter who was house-sitting in Wenham for one of the Times editors who had taken his family to China for a year. By the end of the year, I was pretty established and enjoying my new job, even though I was spending a lot of time in the office.
Musically, it was also a pivotal year. The alt-rock revolution was in its early stages and I was totally on board. I was now listening to WFNX more than anything, and that station championed alternative rock from its inception several years earlier. There was so much great new music: Pixies, Beastie Boys, the Cure, the Smithereens, the Tragically Hip, PiL, Nine Inch Nails, Replacements, Elvis Costello, Fine Young Cannibals, XTC, The Cult, Tin Machine, Faith No More, Big Audio Dynamite, B-52s. On the pop side, it was a big year for acts like Milli Vanilli, Paula Abdul, Roxette and the like. I saw R.E.M. for the first time, which was fun.
But my favorite song was by a guy I knew from his previous band, Husker Du: Bob Mould. His first solo album, Workbook, was released in April and garnered a fair amount of radio play because it had more folk influences than his previous work with Husker Du. "See a Little Light" was the first single and the "hit" on radio and MTV, with its optimistic outlook (a bit unusual for Mould, although I didn't know that at the time) and sunny acoustic guitars (also unusual for Mould). In a year full of wins, this song fit right in. The future was bright and a new decade was on the horizon.
Honorable mentions: Neil Young - "Rockin' in the Free World"; The Tragically Hip - "Blow at High Dough"; Faith No More - "Epic"; R.E.M. - "Pop Song '89"; Beastie Boys - "Hey Ladies"; Pixies - "Here Comes Your Man"; The Cult - "Fire Woman"; The Cure - "Fascination Street"; Nine Inch Nails - "Head Like a Hole"; Tin Machine - "Heaven's In Here"; Elvis Costello - "Veronica"; U2 - "Dancing Barefoot"; The Stone Roses - "Fool's Gold"; XTC - "The Mayor of Simpleton"; Tone Loc - "Wild Thing"; Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Higher Ground"; Love and Rockets - "So Alive"; Big Audio Dynamite - "James Brown"; B-52s - "Channel Z"
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