An Ear For An Era: 1991

I remember for 1991 in my class we made calendars. I don't remember what we did for the images, if we drew stuff or glued pictures or what, but I remember that the cover had the year written like this:

19

91

I liked that. It was a palindrome but the specific thing I liked was that it read the same reading left to right as top down. I believe this was an original thought on my part, noticing that numeric pattern. Which is something I'm still very obsessed with.

What, music? What music?

Before I talk about the important developments in the musical landscape (there were some very important developments in 1991!) I am going to start with an album I actually listened to when it was new as an 8 year old in 1991. I think this is the first instance of this. Most of the Weird Al stuff for me was catching up on a back catalog (until next year's Off The Deep End) so this is the first actual stuff from its specific time that I listened to at that specific time.

At my parents' house in 1991 the only room we could get Fox in (because we didn't have cable) was my parents' room upstairs. That wasn't relevant to us in any way until 1990 when my family became obsessed with The Simpsons. It was our thing. We'd go upstairs and watch The Simpsons. I think it was on Tuesday or Thursday maybe back then? But our whole family would gather on their bed and watch this hilarious show that we all loved. My earliest memory of watching the show was the episode where they went to the family psychiatrist and had that exercise where they were all shocking each other. I remember how hard I laughed at that!

But Brandon, this is a music project! And 1991! Why are you talking about a show you started watching in 1990? Because, didn't you see, before that I said this was the first album I listened to contemporarily? I remember the episode of The Simpsons where it was all exciting because they were going to have a music video (or several?) at the end of the episode. This turned out to be part of The Simpsons Sing The Blues. My brother actually had this tape, not me. But we sure listened to it a lot. And I memorized all the songs. Especially the raps. "Do The Bartman" and this one, with this music video. "I go, 'WHOA!' Homer goes, 'D'oh! Now you can't go to the boat show!"

The Simpsons "Deep Deep Trouble"

I also had a couple Simpsons songs from the show thanks to the Songs in the Key of Springfield collection. One of them has been in my head a lot since listening, "Happy Birthday, Lisa," featuring an uncredited Michael Jackson. Silly as it is. Dangerous is also the last Michael Jackson album I own, so we will say goodbye to the king of pop here. I'm not a huge fan of this album but there are some memorable jams. And I have a memory of my friend playing the intro to "Black or White" for me because he found it amusing. But anyway, Dangerous doesn't seem to have aged as well as Thriller or Off the Wall because two separate people I subjected to it were not enjoying it. Sad.

As Dangerous played on, my brother-in-law-to-be had been all obsessed with Wu-Tang Clan and asked me my favorite hip hop albums, so I brought up Black Star. All this to say that he wanted my thesis on 1991 to be that nothing in 1991 was as good as Black Star. I'm not going to agree with that necessarily, because 1991 was a hell of a year for hip hop in particular. As I still don't have the confidence to fully explain what's so great about all of these releases, I am going to write frustratingly short summaries about what I think of all of these knowing that others have it covered.

Del Tha Funkee Homosapien's debut album I Wish My Brother George Was Here was an early favorite of mine, as Del was an early favorite of mine when I first got into hip hop (Bartman notwithstanding) in the late 90s/early 2000s. Del's delivery is just spot on and catchy and "Mistadobalina" is one of my favorite tracks of 1991. Some songs are very silly lyrically, but that's why we love Del, right? I might have more to say about him in regards to his next album which was better.

De La Soul's second album De La Soul Is Dead is new to me. This was the first time I ever listened to it. Fantastic album but I can't say much about it. The Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest has this effortlessness about it, effortlessly perfect with so much talent and jams upon jams upon jams. Organized Konfusion is brilliant too. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince's Homebase is kind of novelty-ish comparatively but it was fun that my wife knew the songs and rapped along (she is the one I got the album from). Public Enemy was getting extra hardcore and bombastic in the face of most hip hop artists taking laid back approaches and it really made me pay attention to what they were saying.

And finally, I got the Main Source album Breaking Atoms because it features Nas on a track and it's his first feature. He does kind of kill it in his debut, but I was quite impressed with the lyricism on the whole album. So that's a quick run down of all the amazing hip hop I listened to from 1991. Wow.

Main Source "Just Hangin' Out"

Another contemporary track of 1991 that I remember because my sister dug it was "To Be With You" by Mr. Big. I just remember for her birthday or something that was what she wanted. And this was a hit song. I can't deny this song and its catchiness. Who can?

I also remember when "Tears in Heaven" by Eric Clapton was popular because I remember listening to Casey Kasem (probably trying to record "Bohemian Rhapsody" because of its resurgence thanks to Wayne's World...which means the song was still popular in 1992) and he read some touching dedication on the air. Funny the things we remember. Also funny? Somehow I accidentally put "Tears In Heaven" on my list of jogging songs for 1991 so I had to run to this song.

Let's talk about ska and punk now. Third wave ska and skapunk were really ramping up in 1991, developing something I'd become obsessed with in 1997. Skankin' Pickle's debut Skafunkrastapunk was one of my favorite albums for a good portion of high school. I was absolutely obsessed with this band and this album was my introduction to them. The goofiest songs about Hulk Hogan, shaved heads, and not judging a man by the hair on his butt. Dancing around at my friend's house to "Ska," including knowing the one part where they yell "Skankin' Pickle!" and man, those trombone solos Gerry pulled off! How did he play so high? Also: two trombones in one ska band, what more do you need?? It's also interesting to listen to because super seriously anti-racism activist Mike Park's first official word on the subject is this line from "It's Not Too Late"

What's the deal with the deal with racism?

I don't know, I don't know

I don't know...

I don't know.

Okay!

Of course he had some better lines following that up, but that is amusing to me. And then he says the line "Why can't all the bands sound like Fishbone today?" So I'll talk about Fishbone now. I personally don't quite enjoy The Reality of My Surroundings as much as other Fishbone albums (seems over produced or something on some tracks) but it still has a lot of passion and creativity going into it. I also know I've seen their performance from Saturday Night Live and it was songs from this album, so they must have been pretty popular then. Before skapunk even got popular!

Speaking of popular punk, pop punk giants The Mr. T Experience put out one of my favorite songs by them so here it is:

The Mr. T Experience "Love American Style"

Now to kind of try to segue to the other side of the underground. My Bloody Valentine. Loveless. Perfection is noise. Noise is love. What are they singing? What is happening? How is it so catchy? It's pop music, isn't it? Buried under distortion? I cannot get enough of it. Even if I can't put coherent thoughts about it on this blog.

Another one that's pretty impossible to overstate its beauty despite not knowing how exactly to state its beauty is Spiderland by Slint. This means we can have math rock in the near future! It's actually pretty subdued, which was kind of a problem when I first listened to this band (on a recommendation after someone found out I liked math rock by Don Caballero and others), because I was hoping for intense dynamics and Slint mostly keeps their cards close to the chest. But when they come out to play...watch out.

The Pixies followed up their still-pretty-good Bossanova with their still-even-better-but-still-nothing-on-Doolittle-Etc Trompe Le Monde. While the nutso guitar creativity kind of started to subside, the passion and energy on this album is infectious. I was going to play "U-Mass" by default because it's one of my favorite Pixies songs showcasing Black Francis' amazing yowl and illustrates that energy perfectly, but instead I'm going to play this other song that has a different kind of infectiousness. A Jesus And Mary Chain cover but the energy and excitement of the delivery of it is awesome. And the video's pretty neat too.

Pixies "Head On"

So long, Pixies. You did many great things in a short period of time. You changed rock & roll for the better. For the way better.

And thanks to the Pixies, we have Nirvana. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a rush when "Smells Like Teen Spirit" came on. I could hear the sound of the overhyped revolution that they kicked off when they kicked off Michael Jackson from the album charts. I don't like calling them grunge because that's what Pearl Jam and their offspring did. This was harder yet catchier than any of that. Everything about Nevermind is stacked for changing the musical landscape. Energy, tons of great catchy songs, substantial lyrics. No one else could have pulled this off. I want to write off this album as overrated but it really is full of fantastic songs. Good job, guys!

And thanks to Nirvana, we have Pearl Jam (and thanks to Pearl Jam, we have lots of terrible music to look forward to in the 90s!). But Ten was a pretty good album. I try not to hold Creed et al against Pearl Jam. How were they to know?

And Also...

• It started with my first Jim O'Rourke! Whoa!
• I don't have much new to say about Fugazi but Steady Diet of Nothing is a very solid and great album. "Long Division" is one of my favorites.
• I think Why Do Birds Sing? is one of the better Violent Femmes albums..."Girl Trouble" sounds like a classic Femmes track that could have been on their debut and "American Music" is one of my favorite Femmes tracks as well.
• The debut Magnetic Fields album!! We are really getting into the indie thing now. Distant Plastic Trees isn't anywhere near what they would go on to achieve and I don't feel that the vocalist conveys Merritt's lyrics quite right, but "100,000 Fireflies" is still a beautiful song.
• Elvis Costello's Mighty Like A Rose is one of the last ones I got in my back catalog procurement project and I therefore haven't listened to it as much as others. Still, I quite like the dripping cynicism of "The Other Side of Summer" quite a bit.
• If Bart Simpson rapping isn't enough to tell you that rap was getting super popular in a very novelty version, how about this? "Ninja Rap" by Vanilla Ice. I loved the Ninja Turtles! Go Ninja Go Ninja Go!
• Goat by The Jesus Lizard kind of blows away all the other "hard edged" music I heard from 1991 with an intensity that makes everything else look silly.
• Drive Like Jehu was great though.
• Nation of Ulysses! Anarchy! Punk! Insanity!
• First Smoking Popes tracks...they were pretty immature in the early days weren't they?
• R.E.M. were now the R.E.M. I knew and didn't care about in the 90s. The pop rock band that did "Shiny Happy People" and "Losing My Religion." The sound of VH1!

Next Time...

Where were you in '92?

Hip Hop's renaissance continues: Beastie Boys Check Your Head, Eric B & Rakim are back on my radar, Gang Starr has an album, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, The Pharcyde

Punk Etc: Bikini Kill! Fifteen, Green Day exists now, Another Nation of Ulysses album, NOFX, Skankin' Pickle Fever, 

Indie Or Whatever It Is At This Point: Early Don Caballero!!! And Flaming Lips! The Jawbreaker album that changed my world, Magnetic Fields become a force, Pavement enter the scene, Pulp has an album, Where do I put Rage Against The Machine? Them already? Another Sonic Youth favorite, 

Old People: Neil Young is back, and so is Tom Waits (in a big way! love this album!)

And another classic by: Weird Al.

An Ear For An Era: 1990

Another decade begins. I actually didn't have much of note from 1990. It was another case of the late 80s sounding more like what I think of the 90s than 1990, which sounds more like an extension of the late 80s. If that makes any sense. Like a regression or something. Still though, some stuff was pushing stuff forward. That's what I'm bothering to talk about here. Bah. Words.

Punk rock of 1990. The seeds of the popular punk rock of the mid-to-late-90s continued to be sowed. The self-titled album by Social Distortion is one I didn't actually have back in high school, but I did have their live album (to be released later) and considered myself a fan of several of these songs. This one kind of toes the line between punk and mainstream rock, was released on Epic Records, but it's got a lot of heart. And dig that Johnny Cash cover!

"You're not a punk and I'm telling everyone" "Save your breath, I never was one." Sorry Jawbreaker, but I'm going to file you under punk rock for now because Unfun has lots of <3 about="" album.="" album="" and="" call="" emo="" first="" i="" if="" jawbreaker="" ll="" minute="" my="" or="" post-hardcore="" prefer="" punk="" rock="" s="" something="" songs="" there="" this="" ultimately="" very="" was="" while="" you="">Bivouac
. Then I got Unfun and did not like it at all. It just seemed sloppy by comparison. But in retrospect I have come to quite enjoy a few of the songs on this album. It has most of the aspects I love about Jawbreaker, just in condensed formats.

Jawbreaker, "Down"

I guess I'll keep Fugazi in the "punk rock" section of this. Repeater is the definitive statement of the early works of Fugazi. +3 songs, which I have on vinyl as a 7" by the way! It's a pretty accessible album as far as Fugazi goes. I know it helped make a convert of my friend's little brother, as my friend proudly told me he caught him singing the title track. "Merchandise" is a good summary of the band's position on commercialism in music (and they lived up to that standard forever! Even when I finally saw them in 2001 it was a $6 show with no merch!), there are some great instrumentals featuring the rhythm section, plenty of energy, and what is possibly my favorite Fugazi song of their whole catalog... (here is an insane live version I found...I believe from the Instrument documentary)

Fugazi "Shut the Door"

How about that alternative scene that defined the 90s like how that new wave scene defined the 80s and that disco scene defined the 60s?

I feel like Goo is Sonic Youth's most popular album but I have no idea what that's based on. About as poppy as you get from Sonic Youth I think, which is not very. But "Kool Thing" features Chuck D, so that's pretty damn cool. I think it's the playfulness that gives me that impression. After Daydream Nation it's kind of refreshing to just have faster, simpler songs with almost a punk rock vocal delivery. Not that that's a particularly apt description of the full album, but it fits the mood that I get from it in general with songs like "Mary-Christ" and "My Friend Goo."

I picked up the Treepeople album Guilt Regret Embarrassment the first time I visited Seattle. I had looked for Treepeople all over in Denver but had no luck. I'd been kind of a fan of Built to Spill so I wanted the earlier incarnation. It's definitely a harder edged version of BTS and suits the pre-grunge or whatever era this was. Very lo-fi and rocking. But the melody in there, such as the one in this song, is what keeps me coming back.

Treepeople "Every Time When I Fall Down & My Head Hits the Floor Hard"

They Might Be Giants will go here for whatever reason. Completely different from their surroundings but that may make them the most alternative of all! Flood was their big album (lots of big popular albums this year!) with their big hits. I can't get enough of those big hits, "Particle Man" and "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" and someday when I have a kid I'm totally going to make him/her listen to "Whistling in the Dark" because as I said earlier, that's the kind of nerdy I want my child to be. (Here they are on MTV performing it...technically in 1989. MTV must have been actually pretty awesome back then if they had this!)

They Might Be Giants "Whistling In The Dark"

The Breeders' album Pod kind of showcased Kim Deal's songwriting skills as she was kind of overlooked by the Pixies. Plus they covered "Happiness is a Warm Gun!" But what I really love about The Breeders are the harmonies the Deal sisters create. And I'll have more to say about Last Splash in 1993.

The Pixies' quality didn't exactly drop off a cliff after Doolittle. Bossanova still has a lot of creativity going into it, plenty of three-star songs, and a few that have lots of energy. It's just not quite there though. I don't know if they were trying to get more popular or what. It feels like a retread of ideas from the earlier albums though without being as quirky or dynamic. Almost going through the motions. Especially toward the end of the album, it just starts to wear off. I feel like I'm being overly critical but they raised the bar so much that it's going to be disappointing when they slide under it.

Speaking of influences on Nirvana, the few Daniel Johnston songs I have from 1990 are among his best. "Some Things Last A Long Time" is very sweet and simple, but the most sweet and simple track is this one. I had some good friends dance at their wedding to a cover of this song and it was just perfect. This is the polar opposite of the cynicism and sarcasm of the coming 90s.

Daniel Johnston "True Love Will Find You In The End"

Other stuff about things:

• The Vandals' Fear of a Punk Planet took me back to high school a little bit. Closer to the Vandals that I actually listened to then.
• Strangely the only hip hop I had of 1990 was two Public Enemy songs off Fear of a Black Planet. One is "911 is a Joke," which is an ok Flava Flav song. The other is the gigantic song that reminds me of Do The Right Thing, "Fight The Power." Great song there.
• I have a bunch of songs from some sort of post hardcore band called Pitchfork. Not bad. I wonder what rating they would get on Pitchfork.
• A song called "Pizza Power!" TMNT!
• Some Simpsons songs came up. I was a gigantic Simpsons fan. The whole family was. I'll say more about it when we get to that Simpsons Sing The Blues album in 1991.
• I kind of got bored listening to Sinead O'Connor's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got (probably just because I was driving on a sunny day and would have rather listened to something upbeat) but that "Nothing Compares 2 U" cover is pretty phenomenal.
• Some more Mr. T. Experience...Making Things With Light isn't quite there for me but it's not bad either.
• Boom Chicka Boom is considered one of those lesser Johnny Cash albums, but it includes a song Elvis Costello wrote for him, "Hidden Shame," so that's rad. 

Next Time:

The 90s kick into high gear! Or whatever! That golden age of hip hop in the 90s I've heard of has to be this age, with albums from De La Soul, Del the Funky Homosapien, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Gang Starr, Main Source, Organized Konfusion, and A Tribe Called Quest. Also another quality Elvis Costello album, Punk rock keeps going different directions with Fifteen, Fugazi, that Jawbreaker album I mentioned earlier, The Jesus Lizard, Nation of Ulysses, Skankin' Pickle!, and Slint... Fishbone has a big popular album, and good ol' Magnetic Fields make their first appearance! Oh and My Bloody Valentine. And some album called Nevermind. At 465, 1991 is the highest number of songs for any year so far (although that number gets way bigger as we move along)

An Ear For An Era: 1989

Another decade gone. I apologize for this entry, I finished the year up almost a week ago so it won't be particularly fresh. Probably lots of vague liking of things in the extras section this time.

Since I neglected the old guard last time, I'll start with them this time.

Bob Dylan is back! He ever left! I hear Oh Mercy is one of his best albums and was his best in a long time upon its release. I believe it. It's quite great. I don't remember too much of it this much later, but I do know that "Most of the Time" holds a personal place in my heart and it's such a great sad song that puts more meaning into the word "most" than I've heard before.

Elvis Costello took things into an interesting direction with Spike. I'm not sure what the title means but that's kind of how I feel about the album: favorites and least favorites. My opinion spikes in either direction when I listen to it. It starts off really strong with some dark clownish songs, lynching songs, and looks at ugliness. In addition to a truly great pop song co-written with Paul McCartney "Veronica," which just breaks my heart. And some great ballads scattered about. Then there are some attempts at funk that I just don't feel at all. They just don't sound natural. And I really don't like "Baby Plays Around," which just seems beneath Costello's considerable lyrical abilities. But when it's on, this album is really on. When Margaret Thatcher died recently of course it brought to mind "Tramp The Dirt Down," a great song about the great pain that she brought to England.

I'll randomly stick Weird Al right here. The UHF Soundtrack And Other Stuff has a lot of stuff on it. I think it might have been the first Weird Al album I got on CD instead of tape, which made it one of the first ones into this digital music collection. It also means I brought it on a lot of car trips with my family and made them listen to it a lot. I know I got my sister to like it because of her love of hamsters and gerbils with "Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters from a Planet Near Mars." I remember my dad wondering about the polka song on this one because it's all Rolling Stones songs. And "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota" was an obvious good choice for road trips because it's about a road trip. Everything I've said so far was not from the movie. All "other stuff." I loved that movie though and the bits such as "Spatula City" and "Gandhi II" were classic bits. I actually saw the movie years after getting the album so I didn't know what was going to show up in the actual movie. Sorry Rachel, no radioactive hamsters in the movie.

How about that new wave? We're down to very few artists in the genre but the remaining ones are the ones that are still considered highly influential.

Depeche Mode's Violator is probably their biggest album. I would assume so. Because it has what are probably their biggest hits. "Enjoy The Silence" is great and everyone knows it. "Personal Jesus" has been covered a lot and such. Just the darkness of the whole album is great and proves that new wave still had plenty to say.

Disintigration is the best album ever! So says Kyle from South Park as well as The Impossibles on an EP. It might actually be the best album The Cure put out. Not my personal favorite (I'm unapologetically pro-pop-version-of-The-Cure) but I still find a lot of value in this album, particularly upon repeat listens. "Last Dance" holds another personal spot in my heart, "Pictures of You" is another great pop song contained in a 7 1/2 minute goth jam, and it's just one big embrace of the darkness with lots of extended instrumental breaks. Music!

My only Public Image Ltd album is one I got back in my punk rock days because I'd finally heard about this other band from Johnny Rotten. It's called 9 and it really speaks to how few albums I used to have. I remembered the album fairly well even though I know when I got it I was a bit underwhelmed by it. I appreciate it a bit more now but I bet there are better PIL albums out there. But just remembering it so vividly made me realize that I knew it better than most albums I now profess to like. A piece of me misses limiting my musical scope so much that I'd give everything enough time to marinate and form attachments to me rather than the way too many albums I now own that I could never keep up with.

Of course post punk/punk/college rock/whatever were pushing things forward from the new wave and Fugazi is where I'll awkwardly start this conversation. The second half of 13 Songs, the Margin Walker EP, shows them already expanding to two guitars, keeping the energy high, and just being Fugazi. I also have a recording of a concert from 1989 and they had already developed such a strong cohesiveness together, like a living organism just playing off instinct and working together, it's just natural.

So punk. And pop-punk, before it was a dirty word. The Lookout! brand of pop punk was in full effect as The Mr. T. Experience put out the EP Big Black Bugs Bleed Blue Blood. I first got this album because it was such a good value of so many songs for the regular price of a CD. 31 Songs! But it turns out that was mostly bonus content and originally BBBBBB was just an EP. I got way into the two or three MTX albums I had in high school. Catchy pop music that I could get away with liking because it was punk rock. And you know, better than the actual pop music on the radio!

On the grittier, gutterier side of punk was Crimpshrine, whose Duct Tape Soup also brings me back. Listening to it this time I realized that there is something strangely romantic about this band. Political and dirty sounding and not trying to appease any commercial viability yet some part of them embraced some traditional values, particularly in the field of romance. Particularly "Closed Doors, Closed Minds," which argues that romance and love are giving, not taking away, that they shouldn't be taken as a threat, etc. The more I listen to it the more concern I have about what it's really getting at. There's reasons women would take such actions with offense and they kind of gloss over any concerns. It's weird. And then "Pretty Mess," which used to be one of my favorite songs, I am now realizing that it sounds like a man loves this woman in a way that he wants to help fix/rescue her in some ultimate male fantasy. Weird because Jeff Ott turned out to be one of the most PC personalities in punk rock. But that's Fifteen, not Crimpshrine.

And of course Operation Ivy. Finally I talk about OPIV! Here is my story of first hearing this band. My brother had that early Green Day album where they covered "Knowledge" but I all I knew is that I didn't know nothing about the origin of that song. Then some time passed. I got more into ska punk and whatnot and heard their name dropped all the time as an influence on every damn band I listened to (and I knew of a tribute album as well). I talked about this mythical band with my friends because this was before the Internet made it super easy to hear about a band and hear their music immediately. Finally one day we were at Wherehouse Music (or as we called it because of its unfortunate spelling "whorehouse music") and they had those listening station things and my friend Dustin finally decided to check out this Operation Ivy band and while I was listening to Five Iron Frenzy or some such thing he took a listen to them. And he had a reaction similar to my initial reaction: These are cheap recordings! It sounds like crap! And they don't have horns! What kind of ska band doesn't have horns?? I think he might have gotten it anyway and given it enough time because for whatever reason I ended up getting it as well and became pretty obsessed with it. Mostly for the punk side of the equation probably. Today it makes me laugh that I thought the recording quality sounded crappy because that's what punk is supposed to sound like. In fact, it was probably just a couple years after that that I started complaining about stuff sounding "overproduced." But anyway, the music. The energy is what did it for me. No wonder that's the name of the album. And we liked that Tim from Rancid had this other band. We loved the message of Unity and all that. And it really got me into punk rock and its ethos and this song kind of explained everything to me about why I liked the music that I liked and didn't like the radio stuff:

Operation Ivy "Artificial Life"

Ok speaking of life changing music, Pixies. Doolittle. Need I say more? I'm gonna. Their other truly great album. Maybe my favorite? As it stands, I think I'm ready to call it for Doolittle. The energy is just up there. The screaming is there. "Monkey Gone To Heaven" is one of the weirdest universally loved songs out there. Kim's bass really comes across as well. And "Wave of Mutilation," can't deny that one is a classic. I remember meeting this cool girl in high school and knowing each other was cool because we were the only two in our group of friends that seemed to know the words to "Hey" and we felt the need to go through the whole first verse to show off how bizarre this thing was that we both had memorized. I think Doolittle was my first Pixies album and when I got it I told my buddy what albums I had gotten and we were both impressed at me because it was the first time I had gone to the record store and come home with a couple albums, neither of which could be described as punk or ska. This is the album to branch out to, and it really showed me the possibilities of music beyond my narrow perception. This could therefore be considered the album that set it off for me. Got me exploring the vast world of music. This could be the album that is to blame for me having over 40,000 songs on my hard drive, which is the reason I felt it necessary to do this project in the first place. Doolittle! Oh, and it's also cool because the whole thing kicks off with this song is about Luis Buñuel and surrealism.

Pixies "Debaser"

There were also some B sides from this year that were quite good, most notably Kim song "Into the White" and a sweet "UK Surf" version of "Wave of Mutilation." All very fantastic.

And to show off the influence as much as possible, my iPod decided to follow this up immediately with Bleach by Nirvana. I don't have enough to say about this to justify not putting it down there but I do like that "About A Girl" song but it's not as good as real Pixies songs.

And finally on to hip hop! 1989 was a breath of fresh air after all the politically charged angry hip hop I came across from 1988. Mostly because of De La Soul, whose 3 Feet High And Rising sounds like a game changer. Positivity, the D.A.I.S.Y. age, tons of internal rhymes and intelligence and goofiness and three rappers playing off each other so flawlessly, it just all works. And according to my hip hop head friend, it's one of their lesser albums! (confession: I only had this album for a long time, until the giveaway thing they did).

By comparison, Young MC seemed pretty old school for 1989. His style was pretty similar to the earlier 80s stuff. He could rap really fast (which today is heard all over the place, but in this context it was pretty damn impressive) and of course "Bust A Move" is a jam.

And The Beastie Boys just destroyed on Paul's Boutique. Such a dense album! So much to pick up on that even doing this I made myself listen to it twice. Just to pick up on more of it. And now I already forget what I was going to say about it. It's...good...and the Dust Brothers just like, did such an awesome job and it had rapping that was all good and stuff.

Extras Section:

• Allroy's Revenge seems like a good step up for All. More energetic, kinda starting to develop their own identity outside The Descendents.
• Stone Roses are good ok?
• Lou Reed's New York is another classic.
• Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire." Reminds me of car trips and trying to sing along.
• "Like A Prayer" might be my favorite Madonna song.
• Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 is one hot pop album that reminds me of Justin Timberlake (not because of the super bowl thing but it does seem very appropriate that they were singing together) in its high energy, unapologetically pop music that still has an edge and is meant to be played loud. Yeah!
• Yo La Tengo really hit their signature sound with President Yo La Tengo, which includes a trademark 10+ minute jam.
• Math rock is alive!!! Slint put out Tweez which is not quite Spiderland but it's definitely laying the foundation to one of my favorite obscure genres of hardcore/post rock/whatever.
• The Vandals put out a country album called Slippery When Ill and then years later put out a version of mostly the same songs called The Vandals Sing Really Bad Original Country Tunes. I got it because I like their Christmas album but didn't really care for these country tunes. I thought it'd be funny but a lot of it is just kind of offensive. I just can't tell if these guys are being satirical sometimes. Or at least the level of satire. I can't find the line but they seem to cross it.

Next Time:

Onto the 90s! That "college rock" will give way to grunge which will give way to terrible music which won't be represented here. Stuff will happen. Specifically for 1990 here's what will happen:

The Breeders, Fugazi keeps destroying it, Jawbreaker, lots more Mr T Experience, Pixies try and follow up Doolittle (and don't do too bad a job at it!), Social Distortion, a very popular Sonic Youth album, a very popular They Might Be Giants album, and Treepeople (pre-Built to Spill!). I actually don't have all that much mustic from 1990 but 1991 is going to be nuts.