An Ear For An Era: 1988

1988 meant I was 5 years old, I could bike, I could read, and I didn't particularly concern myself with music. But it was happening, man! Lots of good stuff I would appreciate later in life! Indie/college/alternative was still in a good place even though the first hints of its takeover-in-a-lesser-form-in-the-90s could be spotted. You know, the 90s when the popular stuff was called "alternative" but then what was it an alternative to at that point? When it got confusing. And other stuff was going on. I'll start with Weird Al.

I think Even Worse may have been my first Weird Al tape. I have vivid memories of purchasing the tape at a store and they didn't take off the security tag so we had to use my dad's pocket knife to bust it out. I think there was a crack in the tape case because of it. I made a music video with my friend for "Fat" where we put pillows under our shirts and basically acted out as many parts as we could. "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long" has always been a favorite. And all the puns on "I Think I'm A Clone Now" are just too much great to handle. He has a lot of great puns on the album as a whole but "Clone" takes it to the next level with such gems as "I guess you could say I'm really beside myself," and "Born in a science lab late one night without a mother or a father, just a test tube and a womb with a view."

Ok just had to get that out of the way. Even Worse is probably in my top 3 Weird Al albums after all!

Hip hop took something of a turn around this time, didn't it? Not that BDP was all innocent and peaceful and clean, but the dirty got dirtier based on what I have. Ice-T with his sex jams (at least he clarifies "Safe sex that is...but that's another song"). Slick Rick was very clever on The Great Adventures of Slick Rick.

But who really owned it was Public Enemy. It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is one of those statement albums. Chuck D with his righteous anger and intelligence, Flava Flav still being somewhat tolerable, Terminator X just driving everything hard. Something about the angry intelligence makes it much more terrifying for white America because assuming we're paying attention we know he's right.

Public Enemy "Prophets of Rage"

Similarly, NWA's Straight Outta Compton had a good angry feel to it and Dr. Dre made some great beats early on for sure. The anger towards the man is a little more directed at cops than the overall system but effective regardless. Ultramagnetic MCs' Critical Beatdown is a good one but it seems to be laid out much more simply than the people really pushing things forward. Great rhymes and styles but in an old school simplicity that makes it seem a little behind in context.

Punk rock. Last year it was The Descendents and this year it's All. I have an appreciation for All that they did, particularly for the Fort Collins, CO scene, but the first actual All album I bought in high school was Allroy For Prez. Which was an EP. I didn't particularly care for just how darn soft it was at the time. Now I'm ok with it though.

The Pogues' If I Should Fall From Grace With God is one that coincidentally enough came up St. Patrick's Day weekend. It touches on a lot more different styles than Red Roses For Me, the other Pogues album I have. It pulls in influences to a point where some of the songs aren't even all that perfect for St. Patrick's Day! There's my favorite Christmas song ("Fairytale of New York"), ballads like "Lullaby Of London," and one of my favorites, a Spanish influenced drinking/partying song called "Fiesta."

Is this the place to place Big Black? I guess for now at least I'll put Touch & Go and Dischord stuff under punk rock. I'd wanted to get this album for years and finally did eventually (I think shortly before I got to see their big reunion show at that Touch & Go Anniversary Block Party thing I flew out to Chicago for). I feel like they got even harder and angrier as they went on and wrapped things up. Their whole discography is this pure rage, pre-NIN industrial with the crunchiest attainable guitar sound by the best guitar rock sound engineer in the biz.

Big Black "L Dopa"

Fugazi has begun! Of course I have their first two EPs in the form of the 13 Songs CD, but I set the years correctly and got to hear the Fugazi EP as originally released (the first 7 of 13 songs). So we have "Waiting Room," one of their best known songs. We have the earliest example (in my collection at least) of the hardcore scene tackling the problem of sexism in "Suggestion." We have basically some very seasoned veterans joining forces to form a band with seemingly no learning curve. Playing organically together to create something amazing on their very first EP.

Fugazi "Bad Mouth"

I also hit my first actual album by The Ex, that great underrated Dutch punk/chaos band that has been around since the 70s (and still going strong today!). Aural Guerilla is the sound of a great political punk band evolving for a decade and not sitting still. I just love the high distortion on the guitar and vocals and the swirling chaotic (sorry for using that again but it's the most apt description I've got!) drumming going on here.

College rock!

What I said in the intro about seeing the first hints of the popularity of alternative rock showing up was mostly because of R.E.M.'s Green. Kind of a breakthrough for them (they would later become one of the biggest bands of the 90s). And it has the song "Stand" which would later receive the "Weird Al" parody treatment and while "Weird Al" is very hip to the new sounds, he probably wouldn't have parodied a song that wasn't a gigantic hit. That's my frame of reference right now.

Besides that, the underground that would remain somewhat underground was reaching new highs.

I seem to be responding a lot more personally to Dinosaur Jr's 1988 album Bug more than 1987's You're Living All Over Me. Not sure why. But I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Bug. It seemed more passionate or something. Maybe it was just the circumstances of how it came up or something. Or maybe it's actually better.

Sonic Youth put out their most highly regarded album that has since entered the library of congress, and that was Daydream Nation. I don't know what I can say about this but I feel like I need to say a lot about it. They were young then. Creating something impossibly mature but in a really playful way. Putting mature skills to use in creating something that just sounds fresh and fun and somewhat loose. The authoritative vocals from Kim & Thurston, the way their guitars interplayed, the noise noise noise, the LOUD, the quiet, the uneasiness and scream and distortion! Every song a shove but also a suite, it's everything.

Sonic Youth "Candle"

I honestly cannot reach a final decision about my favorite Pixies album. Doolittle was my first and holds a dear place in my heart, but Surfer Rosa has always been hot on its heels and a part of me seems to think/know it is the superior of the two. Maybe. Something about it feels a bit rawer. Probably songs like "Something Against You." The screaming is powerful here. And Joey Santiago's guitar is a bit more vicious on this album, such as on "Vamos" when he comes up with so many different squawks to make his guitar make on a very forward moving beat (I remember being blown away when I saw them on their initial reunion tour by how much of the Pixies' uniqueness could be attributed to Santiago's inventiveness on the guitar). And it has a Kim Deal song! And the songs that are softer, acoustic style? Two of the greatest songs they ever recorded. There's the ever popular "Where Is My Mind?" and then there's my favorite track, one that has guided me through long distance relationship hatred (not hatred but obsession and anger and hell):

Pixies "Cactus"

I'll call it right there. Done.

In other comments...

• Thomas Dolby. Aliens Ate My Buick. A nerd of nerds, one of the last great new wave albums maybe? Mostly it's nerdy funk.
• I feel like I'm past talking about classic rock and that's kind of how I place The Traveling Wilburys. So I'll put this here. Roy Orbison is very missed. So is George Harrison now. That Vol. 1 is a good album. It just kind of sounds like a bunch of legends having a great time.
• I dig Camper Van Beethoven.
• Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man actually sounds ok in the context of other late 80s music. Meaning the over-production I noticed when I first listened to it out of context is less noticeable when lots of the surrounding music is also over-produced. And "Take This Waltz" is another damn gem from this genius songwriter.
• The debut from My Bloody Valentine is pretty astonishing for a debut.
• Operation Ivy's Hectic EP is a part of the version of Energy I have on CD so it's kind of like it's here. I think I'll hold off and write about them in full when I hit Energy though.
• Lincoln is probably one of They Might Be Giants' stronger efforts.
• Fishbone album! Truth and Soul shows a band that is clearly in the minority of black bands in punk rock fighting against the pressures that come from that.

So what's next?

1989. We wrap up the 80s. But I have a lot to chew through so this may take a while (473, my highest song count yet!)

Hip Hop: Beastie Boys return. De La Soul shows up. So does Young MC! (looks much more positive this year)

College/Whatever: Disintegration is the best album ever! Depeche Mode keeps new wave alive a little bit longer. Early Nirvana! The other greatest Pixies album! My only Public Image Ltd album! Stone Roses. More Yo La Tengo.

Old People: Bob Dylan returns with a great album! So does Elvis Costello! And Lou Reed! Queen. 

Punk: Crimpshrine! Fugazi delivers the second half of 13 songs with the Margin Walker EP. The Mr. T. Experience. Operation Ivy for real this time. Slint means math rock is a thing! Vandals go country.

Popular: Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814. 

An Ear For An Era: 1987

Those '7 years, man. Always a big deal it seems. The culmination of a decade and the promise of the following decade. I didn't think 1987 would be that way, but here it is. "College" rock and hip hop were in a very '7 way in 1987.

But let's get the boring mainstream stuff out of the way first.

One of the biggest album of all of the 80s was Guns N Roses' Appetite for Destruction. This happened to come on when my metalhead friend was in the car and he had to laugh a bit about it. So quaint in the metal scheme of things. I don't really care for most of the album but the hits are pretty undeniable. Welcome to the Jungle. Paradise City. Sweet Child O Mine.

And then U2. Boring. I like their singles ok kind of, but yeah. The Joshua Tree came on and it was all boring and stuff. Were they interesting ever? Was it all lost by 1987?

Just like in 1982, there were giant albums from the two pop giants. Michael Jackson put out Bad, which had a good number of hits itself (but there's no following Thriller), including one of my favorites "Man in the Mirror." Prince put out Sign 'O' The Times, a massive double album that I only have in vinyl format. But I have a couple singles, including my favorite "I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man."

Ok now to get to the interesting stuff. Not that Prince & MJ were ever not interesting. But looking to the future was hip hop, which was rapidly growing up. Boogie Down Productions' Criminal Minded came up and I was like "KRS One already??" because he has this flow about him, it's astonishing and so fast and beyond all the hip hop previously encountered in this project. It's like, an actual flow! The only problematic things are "The P is Free" (which kind of seems like it glorifies taking advantage of people's crack addictions in a very misogynistic way) and the whole bridge wars thing. When I read about the bridge wars to put some of these songs into context, it turns out it was really stupid because BDP kept saying "I can't believe you think hip hop started in Queens! You're so wrong!" and then Queens was saying "we didn't say that" and then BDP said "I can't believe you said hip hop started in Queens!" etc. I like Scott La Rock's DJing in a 1980s hip hop manner. He was pushing things forward.

But then I heard something that felt even more forward. An album that must have been one of the most influential albums for all the great early 90s golden era hip hop that I'm looking forward to exploring, I'm of course talking about Paid in Full by Eric B. & Rakim. Rakim's vocals just have this sound to them, something that just feels good. The laid back flow way beyond everything else. And Eric B. was sampling different things, soul things. In jazzy ways to complement Rakim's flow.

Eric B. & Rakim "As The Rhyme Goes On"

Ok now for my wheelhouse. I put "college" rock up there meaning indie rock as it was referred at the time. But I also consider all the post hardcore (mostly DC) developments to be a part of this even though I have no idea if Dag Nasty was played on college radio stations. But Wig Out At Denko's is some sort of indie classic. To me it sounds like a somewhat more technically advanced Descendents. The energy is similar and I think that's what I like about it. We're also approaching Fugazi but one of the essential pitstops on the way to that is Embrace, Ian's short-lived emo project. I only have a few songs off their album but "No More Pain" is kind of the quintessential example of early emo to play for people that don't get it. Guy Picciotto's band of this era was Happy Go Licky, who didn't officially record anything in a studio but a live show was recorded.

You know, I talked about the Descendents above so here is an awkward segue into The Descendents' (original) swan song, All. Kind of their most mature album, say an Enjoy! without (as many) fart jokes. Not that it took itself particularly seriously. Yes, there are some of their better pop songs on here ("Coolidge," "Clean Sheets," "Pep Talk") but there are their most experimental pieces as well. Jokey experimental pieces. Like "Van" about doing stuff in a van. "Impressions" about a journey. "Ice Man" about a crazy Ice Man that cometh! The almost 7 minute "Schizophrenia." And the manifesto.

The Descendents "All-O-Gistics"

Qua quaaaaaaaaaaa qua qua...

And Dinosaur Jr! You're Living All Over Me! Can we get more classic college rock than that? And by that I mean they are both classic and they are influenced by classic rock. But with such youth and vigor, because that's how it was back then. Those dudes were young once, it turns out.

In the same vein of people that are now old but have been doing great work forever...Yo La Tengo. New Wave Hot Dogs is the earliest instance of YLT I have in my collection and it's quite good. Lots of the atmospheric things they are now known for can be seen here, just in smaller bursts. None of their patented long songs just yet.

I was missing a good chunk of Sonic Youth records between their self-titled debut and Sister, because now they are suddenly at the top of their game. Melodic when they needed to be, insane when they needed to be, they were shaping the future man! The underground would never be the same. I'll share this track mostly because it's Ash Wednesday.

Sonic Youth "(I Got A) Catholic Block"

But the biggest college/alternative/indie/whatever album of all of 1987, the biggest deal at least, was an EP by an up and coming band called the Pixies. This blog will be obsessed with the Pixies for the next few entries and then they will disappear. So playful, such great screaming, such odd guitar licks, it was all there on their very first EP Come On Pilgrim. Even if all of that has disappeared on their recent EPs.

Pixies "I've Been Tired"

Should I put The Smiths down here? It looks like The Smiths broke up here, and this part is about the ends of journeys. 8 songs on that Louder Than Bombs collection are from 1987, the last hurrah. Including one of my favorite Smiths songs because it's pretty relatable, "Half a Person."

Another one of those bands were still around still doing very good work was The Cure, who put out one of their stronger efforts (in my opinion), Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. It's got some of my favorite hit songs of theirs ("Just Like Heaven" in particular), it's got a lot of Cure-sounding songs, and it has my favorite Cure song that doesn't sound so much like The Cure. Save this one for a special mixtape.

The Cure "Catch"

I guess that'll do it.

Also I may mention...

• Sinead O'Connor's The Lion And The Cobra played and it feels like a big influence on lots of the great female singer songwriters of the past 20ish years, such as Fiona Apple, Feist, Jesca Hoop, etc. that I dig because of how much creativity they push into a genre I would have otherwise assumed was just someone strumming a guitar.
• Fat Boys are very definitely a novelty act in 1987 with half-cover songs, a song with The Beach Boys, and a Chubby Checker featuring "The Twist (Yo, Twist!)"
• Operation Ivy had some undergroundish EPs in 1987 but I'll hold off talking about them until we at least get to the Hectic EP.
• One of Johnny Cash's lesser known lesser albums, Johnny Cash is Coming to Town, came up and I dig it because he covered an Elvis Costello song on it. And some cheesy love songs and other cheesy things.
• I also had the distinct pleasure of listening to the other half of The Pixies' "Purple Tape," which Come on Pilgrim was derived from. Mostly it's just interesting to hear early versions of songs that would make their major upcoming albums.
• R.E.M. was doing pretty good and starting to blow up thanks to their hit "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"
• And just to clean up the last of the pre-Fugazi stuff in time for Fugazi, Rites of Spring had a 7" come out (even though they had been broken up a couple years) and it was fabulous.
• Big Black! Headache and Heartbeat!

What's Next??

1988 in punk/whatever: FUGAZI FUGAZI FUGAZI! Descendents turn into All! Big Black goes all out! An actual album by The Ex! Operation Ivy! Pogues! Shudder to Think! 

1988 in indie/whatever: Camper van Beethoven make their (here) debut! More Dinosaur Jr! Fishbone! Do My Bloody Valentine go here? One of the Two Best Pixies Albums! The Best Sonic Youth Album! 

1988 in singers or whatever: More Leonard Cohen! Traveling Wilburys! 

1988 in hippity hop: NWA! Ice T! (stuff's about to get profane!) Public Enemy! Slick Rick! Ultramagnetic MCs! 

...And another classic album from "Weird Al" Yankovic.