An Ear For An Era: 1997

Happy 200th post on this log, log and log readers!

I made a mistake of not pre-writing any of this when it was still fresh. Recently I've taken to working on this here written essay portion of my assignment in pieces so fresh stuff will have fresh thoughts and opinions and writings representing it. But not this time. Most of the 1997 stuff is a nostalgia trip though and not really anything too fresh to add other than how I feel now about the old 1997 feelings.

I really just wanted to finish 1997 as quickly as I could so I could listen to this new Spoon album. And The New Pornographers. And some other 2014 hits I've acquired recently.

Okay, where was I? I hadn't started yet? Good. I'll start from the top then.

1997 is an enigma. It was the year when I switched, a huge year personally. Every once in a while I count back to 1997 to see how long I've been entrenched in underground/my-own-thing music. The very brief time I spent in the mid 90s listening to the radio and MTV and more or less identifying with it as "my music" ended and I finally found MY music. So now I've been intimately involved with music in this way for 17 years. This number used to give me pride; now it makes me feel old. But I have this working theory about the '7s being the peaks of the decade and I'm not sure if I can say that about '97 even though it was huge for me. I'll come back to that at the end.
It's also been weird hitting 1997 in this project because as I listen to the stuff I am having a hard time figuring out how music has evolved since then. I'm sure it has but since I've experienced it first hand from here on out it just feels like trends have come and gone but there hasn't been a lot of growth. I mean, where do you go from OK Computer and "Autumn Sweater?" I guess you go to Kid A and "Black Flowers" but even so, it's hard to trace actual evolution over the musical landscape as a whole. I guess we'll just see what we get.

Let's just start with that then, the big one. The one that could make a case for my theory of '7s being tops. OK Computer was world changing music from Radiohead. I don't really have much I can say about it that hasn't been said much more eloquently by the critical consensus. At the time I remember being merely intrigued by the band and its music videos but I actually didn't get OK Computer until Amnesiac came out a few years later. I think Best Buy had some sort of buy-one-get-one deal on Radiohead albums or something so I finally got into it. Talk about an album! Sure, the singles sound good on their own but this is something you just put on track one, do nothing but listen until it's done, and then reluctantly leave to do something else (or just repeat as needed).

Radiohead "Paranoid Android"

On the last day of classes in 1997 before summer vacation I went to a party thing at my friend's house. A boy-girl party and I think some spin-the-bottle happened and I ended up with my first girlfriend (which lasted maybe a week?). But for some reason my strongest memory was after the girls left and the dudes were hanging out watching MTV and this music video came on:

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones "The Impression That I Get"

I remember making declarations to my friends that this music was the best stuff because they used a trombone in such a cool way (I played trombone in concert band). I didn't know what ska was. I think I had heard the song/seen the video before maybe with my brother but watching it at this point switched something in my brain. I made some sort of conscious decision watching this video at this time that I had to have more. I needed more awesome rock music with trombones in it! Now, as previously mentioned, I didn't personally even get this CD. My brother did. So I only heard bits and pieces of it, mostly the singles. I remember VH1 would play the "Rascal King" video every night at midnight on the dot so I would tune in before bed (it was summer vacation!) and watch that video every night. This all led to Reel Big Fish obsession and new friends from band class once we started 9th grade in the fall.

One friend in particular, Paul, was the other trombone player and he seemed to have a head start on this whole ska thing. He introduced me to quite a few bands, most significantly I'd say being Mustard Plug. He had their album Evildoers Beware! which I ended up getting as one of my earliest "underground" purchases. Today it's an album I can't listen to objectively. It's just so damn catchy and it puts me in a good mood. Now I'll try to get through a quick summary of the other albums that do the same thing. Hang-Ups by Goldfinger surprised me because even though I loved it at the time I can admit they aren't the greatest. But the front half is so energetic and ska-centric that I can see why I loved it so much. The Hippos kind of sounded just like Reel Big Fish which was just fine for me. Buck-O-Nine reminds me of some other friends I kind of got into ska...there were some mild nostalgic feelings coming up when 28 Teeth came on. Link 80 was a little more hardcore than I preferred at the time, but 17 Reasons... was still a good transitional record into hardcore sounds. The EP they put out later in the year (and the last Link 80 album with Nick Traina as vocalist) entitled Killing Katie (get it? Kill Link 80?) I preferred because it was more varied and had lighter ska-flavored songs and a cover of "For What It's Worth." Sad story, that of Nick Traina. I read the book his mom (Danielle Steele of all people) wrote about him. Labelmates and still one of my favorite of the ska bunch MU330 started maturing with Crab Rangoon, which involved some very serious topics such as molestation in the Catholic church and cancer, which I didn't particularly like at the time but I would later realize was maybe my favorite album by them.  I dug Bruce Lee Band pretty much immediately because they were Mike Park's band and I loved Skankin' Pickle and Asian Man Records pretty deeply. And he was playing with Less Than Jake as his backing band at the time! And finally, a good band that transitioned me into other things (and was the main remaining "ska" band I listened to after moving on), The Impossibles had a good combo of ska/punk energy and Weezer-esque earnestness. The lyrics were very clever and while the majority of the songs had ska guitar I could almost exclude them from the skapunk category of the rest of these bands. Kind of a growing up kind of band.

When I got more deep into the ska-punk thing I started realizing I should listen to punk too if I could only find a band that stuck with me and didn't have a ska element. Ironically, I had already gotten into something that was sort of punk-related in The Offspring's Ixnay on the Hombre. I must have gotten it right before the ska switch because I liked that song "All I Want" and I just associated the album with the whole "alternative" thing. I actually got quite into this album briefly and then kind of dropped it. Years later I would realize that Jello Biafra does the opening "disclaimer" track. Which gave me a little bit more respect for The Offspring and a little less respect for Jello Biafra.

Beyond the punk rock already covered (apparently I liked old punk from the start!) we sure liked local heroes Pinhead Circus. The songs "Detailed Instructions for the Self Involved" and "Carefree Metal Days" were our anthems. We also saw the band Bigwig opening for someone (or someone opening for them) and liked them mostly on the strength of their cover of the theme from Cheers. My friends may not have particularly gotten into the Mr. T Experience but I sure did. Revenge is Sweet, And So Are You is one of my favorite pop punk albums because of its great wordplay and earnestness in a combination that not many can accomplish. Also I remember watching this music video on Punk TV, a TV show on public access I was obsessed with around this time (mostly because they also played ska but MTX was a good first step into the punk world).

The Mr. T Experience "And I Will Be With You"

I remember being a rebel but still watching MTV (slowly weaning myself off!) and there was a show where a panel of random dumb people rated music videos, giving the winner some sort of heavy rotation on the network. I think it was down to The Toasters' "Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down" and Daft Punk's "Around the World." I had mixed feelings, because I wanted The Toasters to win because they were awesome but the dumb people didn't know anything about ska and I didn't think they deserved it. I was very judgy. Anyway, Daft Punk won (probably) because that "Around the World" video is quite the video and it's quite the song. But at the time I did not care for Daft Punk. I was not there when James Murphy played Daft Punk for the rock kids.

Daft Punk "Around the World"

Techno or whatever you would call it was getting pretty big at the same time as ska. So it was automatically the enemy of course. They don't use real instruments and ska uses MORE instruments! So much more real! I had some friends that weren't so closed minded; I remember listening to a friend's tape that he was somehow involved in (I don't know what he did, some sort of remixing or something?) so he was into it. And now I can appreciate these artists but I still have a hard time differentiating the different genres of electronic music. But Daft Punk was great. And so were The Chemical Brothers. The beats on Dig Your Own Hole are pretty undeniable.

After the punk stuff I got into the melodic almost-emo sounds of bands like Hot Water Music. Fuel for the Hate Game was their first full length and my introduction to them (even though I didn't get it until probably around 2000). There's just so much bearded passion going on, it is a strange experience to listen to Hot Water Music. So rough around the edges, such a bumpy ride with the vocals yet comforting as an overall experience. Similarly, Tuesday just takes me back. The first post-Slapstick band to put out material, their only full length was Freewheelin' and it's all they needed to do to solidify themselves in the cannon of great melodic pop punk bands of the era. Of course, bandleader Dan Andriano would soon join Alkaline Trio. And of course the early Alkaline Trio releases (the "Sundials" 7" and the song "97") just showed the brilliance they would further develop for a few more years before I would disown them once they left Asian Man Records. But those early years, oh man!

But of all the earnest/melodic pop-punk that got lumped in with emo of 1998, The Smoking Popes absolutely nailed it with their final album (before reuniting years later) Destination Failure. Anyone that is ever going through a painful breakup, has ever felt the doubt deep inside needs to listen to this album. Anyone that has held out hope needs to listen to "Megan." Anyone that has lost that hope needs to listen to "I Was Right." Any anyone who is anyone needs to listen to this song to experience the gamut of emotions from loss to betrayal to hope to self doubt to a little bit more hope.

The Smoking Popes "Pretty Pathetic"

I Can Feel The Heart Beating As One is one of those albums of a now-veteran indie rock band settling into its groove. Confidence abounds. At this point they know who they are but still aren't afraid to experiment with different sounds (as they still demonstrate on every new album they put out to this day), vary wildly from track to track without losing a cohesive sound, and just sound like comfort in their longer, jammier songs, building a setting, a place that you just want to hang out in for a while. And then "Autumn Sweater" comes on. That's just one of those songs, you know?

Yo La Tengo "Autumn Sweater"

Another "indie" band that just hit its groove in this time was Built to Spill. Perfect From Now On is a perfect title for the album that saw them confidently move on from the poppier tracks of their previous material and into an artsy, longer-song, "perfect" sound that now really defines the band. It was never my favorite BTS album but that's probably just because I haven't spent more time with it. There's really nothing wrong with this album, it's just slightly more difficult. 

Electro-Shock For President was the last we would ever hear from the brilliant Brainiac. All the ideas going into an EP just concentrated the creativity onto 6 tracks, making it unbelievably brilliant. And all the more tragic that Tim Taylor left us in 1997. I can only imagine where they would have gone from here. 

Brainiac "Fresh New Eyes"

Modest Mouse was on top of the indie world (nearing breakthrough status they'd hit very soon) in 1997. I don't actually own the album The Lonesome Crowded West but the few songs I have from that one are among my favorites. I absolutely need to get that record! Plus the 7" songs from that year from the same compilation I've referenced before are more of my favorites. "Baby Blue Sedan" was one of my ex-girlfriend's favorite songs and "Other People's Lives" spoke to the world of the Internet that we would all soon experience first hand. 

Pavement was still a great band as demonstrated by Brighten The Corners, an album that includes my introduction to the band, a song called "Stereo." I liked the ironic detachment of it all. In around 2000 my brother was getting into this band because he'd just gone off to college and introduced me to them. I was still pretty punk rock but could dig what they were doing. But actually, my actual introduction to Pavement was when they were on a show I loved in 1997 or so, Space Ghost Coast to Coast. I still love that show. The precursor to all the Adult Swim shows of varying quality, SGC2C spoke to me like nothing else. And the fact that years later I discovered that the random band that played on an episode, introduced as The Beatles and played a noisy, somewhat off-putting set turned out to be super hip indie band Pavement, my appreciation for the show just multiplied. Great stuff!

Pavement "Land of the Hot Knives" and the Space Ghost theme

Speaking of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, its spinoff program Cartoon Planet was another thing that defined me in these days. My screen name for many things, skankinwithbrak, says it all. Ska and Brak. Brak from Cartoon Planet. I know it was a more kid friendly version of Space Ghost but as a 14-year-old I just embraced it. The first of two albums, Musical Bar-B-Que was an album I remember singing (particularly the Brak songs of course) with my friends, and that was also an early version of being completely myself without caring what people thought and people embracing that about me. We made friends with some girls for the first time and as much as it would seem to make sense to hide this immaturity we embraced it and they seemed to love that about us. It was a great time in my life. And then my slightly-ironic love of those songs kind of got confused when my family got into it. I think I had hoped they would find it obnoxious and they totally called my bluff by getting into it themselves. When it stopped being rebellious and different it got annoying and I couldn't listen to it with my family anymore. But now it's cool. If I have a child someday I'll probably try to get them into it. Here's a song from the happy times, one that I remember singing for our female friends and them loving it (it didn't get me a girlfriend though, if you can imagine that!)

Cartoon Planet "Crazy Lovesick Fool"

So. Aside from all the silly jokester music and ska and punk, does '97 qualify as one of the "7s" I have a working theory about? The best year of the decade? "Indie" rock may be able to make a case for itself with Radiohead, Built to Spill, Yo La Tengo, Brainiac, Blonde Redhead, and others putting out arguably their best material. Ben Folds Five and Cornershop also broke through with some genius albums as well. Hip hop was following a different trajectory and starting to get crappy but Notorioius B.I.G., Wu-Tang, Del, and Jurassic Five represented a great development in the genre. But aside from a few choice records, it might not be on the level of a '92 in hip hop.

What an odd year.

Other Comments:

• Oddly I didn't even know about Del The Funky Homosapien's album Future Development for quite some time. I thought there was a big gap between No Need for Alarm and Both Sides of the Brain. Eventually I discovered its existence and couldn't find it anywhere. Now I have it and it's as good as I hoped, a good bridge between those two albums.
• Early Beulah is quite good but I'll have more to say about them in upcoming entries.
• Early Cursive is a whole different band. Very emo or something.
• Early Piebald is decent too.
• Other "alternative rock" at the time: The Foo Fighters! There were some great singles off that The Colour and the Shape album, particularly "Everlong."
• Time Out of Mind by Bob Dylan is one of the best late-period albums by someone like that.
• Still dig the Man or Astro-Man with Made From Technetium.
• Les Savy Fav was starting out promisingly.
• Rest in peace Notorious B.I.G.! I dug the album Life After Death but Puffy/Puff Daddy/P Diddy/Diddy/whatever-he-is-now handled it very awkwardly and was a big reason I didn't like rap music at the time. 
• I remember liking the Smashing Pumpkins song "The End is the Beginning is the End" from whatever Batman soundtrack that was. Must have been my waning days of MTV and that stuff.
• Same with The Verve and the song "Bittersweet Symphony." Particularly the video!
• of Montreal had some early music in 1997. They were only 10 years from their masterpiece. I'll see how that evolution moves along with music itself!
• I need to listen to the self-titled album by OOIOO more because that's the kind of weirdness I can get behind.
• I should have more to say about Elliott Smith's Either/Or. It's just a beautiful record that I haven't listened to enough. But "Say Yes" is a song I cannot get enough of.
• Early Jim O'Rourke is great! Bad Timing is an album I got a while ago and couldn't really get behind at first. More or less a bunch of 10 minute acoustic guitar solos, but in the right frame of mind you can hear the innovation happening and the future of his contributions to the musical landscape.
• Samiam might have been my bridge into "melodic punk rock with heart" that I used to confuse with emo. But "She Found You" is still a song I love.
• Stephin Merritt's side projects reigned supreme in 1997. The Gothic Archies and Future Bible Heroes both put out albums. They are decent but not quite on the level of the great Magnetic Fields material.
• I should get that Jurassic 5 EP they put out in 1997 because the three songs I have are stone cold classics.
• Cornershop was gold beyond their big hit "Brimful of Asha." When I Was Born for the 7th Time is a great album up and down.
• That Murder City Devils album (self-titled) is fantastic too!
• And Sleater-Kinney! Dig Me Out might be one of their best.
• Wu-Tang Forever! I agree with ODB, they should have won the Grammy because Wu-Tang is for the children.
• Ben Folds Five! Too much to talk about, right?? "Brick" was the breakout sad song hit and they kept me around with goofier upbeat songs like "Kate" and "Song for the Dumped."
• Self-titled Blur? Woohoo!
• I need to give Blonde Redhead's Fake Can Be Just as Good more spins. A great transitional record from one of my all-time favorites.

Next Time!

Air! Alkaline Trio for real this time! A left turn from the Beastie Boys! Beck, yo! BLACK STAR ONE OF THE GREATEST ALBUMS IN HIP HOP! The Broadways were one of my favorites though! Fatboy Slim! More Fugazi! Jets to Brazil at last! Lauryn Hill! Neutral Milk Hotel! Outkast still rules the world! Pulp! Refused with one of the greatest albums ever! Slow Gherkin! Suicide Machines! And more!

An Ear For An Era: 1994

All of these things turn 20 this year.

There are too many things to write about. Expect very little detail because it's overwhelming and I can't get it all in here. But I'll try my best. Tons of music important to my life and tons of music that was just so influential to all of music. Tons of debuts of super important musicians. And silly things that I personally love.

How about USA against Ghana, huh? Here's that silly video I promised last time because soccer and stuff:

James "Goal Goal Goal"

That's the album cover for the CD I had. Now I know I had a CD player in 1994 because I got this CD and World Cup USA and stuff. I remember being in Florida for vacation that summer and watching lots of world cup games there. I rooted for Italy and Roberto Baggio especially that year and got way into it, and then Baggio blew it in the final shootout. Scandalous! I remember Alexi Lalas and Cobi Jones were the star American players according to our Sports Illustrated For Kids. I think I even got a Cobi Jones autograph at a Rapids game when they played LA once. I wonder if that's still around anywhere...This year I'll be rooting for various teams. USA of course, and I like The Netherlands. And Mexico is impressing me greatly. And we'll see how this first round shakes out.

Oh, were we talking about music?

1994 was a landmark year for 90s punk rock. The stuff I'd listen to in '98 and surrounding years. The Bouncing Souls' The Good The Bad And The Argyle had its share of goofy songs and covers and I can still enjoy listening to it. Dixie by Avail is totally solid. The Choice of a New Generation by Fifteen still saw them be likeable and a punk rock band as opposed to a vehicle for political ranting. Let's Go by Rancid had "Radio" so that wins. And 22 more tracks in real punk rock fashion. And the quintessential 90s punk album in my view was Punk in Drublic by NOFX. Slightly less juvenile than their previous material but still full of jackassery, the energy of this CD made it the perfect driving around with friends CD. Just blast it. Countless classic songs, some leftist political leanings, and some silly things to keep it fun. 

NOFX "The Brews"

And of course the big one. Dookie. Green Day exploded onto the pop world with their pop punk masterpiece. I'm not ashamed to call it that. They were in the right place to make an impact and they did it. Just what the culture ordered. Dookie would be an album my brother would get, and it would have an indirect impact on my personal change from listening to my sister's music (Hootie and the Blowfish or whatever) to listening to my brother's "alternative" music, which was closer to where I'd end up when I discovered my own music.

And with punk came ska. Well I liked the ska side first. MU330 was one of my favorite bands and here's their debut album Press! They would get much more mature as the years went on, but the goofy songs like "Stuff" kept me quite amused back then. Sing Along With Skankin' Pickle was a little less goofy as they no longer had King Goof, Mike Mattingly. I don't know what happened with that split but his band Neosoreskin had all the goofiness with just the amount of resentment that makes it uncomfortable. I hit some early Less Than Jake stuff from the Losers, Kings, and Things We Don't Understand collection. Very horn based back then. 

Later I would evolve to "indie rock" or whatever. Built to Spill's There's Nothing Wrong With Love was the first album I got that I defined with that term, even if I didn't know what it meant. But that's an album that has stuck with me more for its cutesy indie pop songwriting ("Big Dipper," "Car," "Twin Falls") than their guitar virtuosity would define them more as their career continued. But damn, those are some great lyrics! The Magnetic Fields became a favorite toward the end of college (and continue to be so now). It seems they put out two albums in 1994. The Charm of the Highway Strip is one of my favorite Magnetic Fields releases with its charming concept of train songs and countryish approaches. Leaps and bounds beyond their earlier work.

The Magnetic Fields "Born On A Train"

Their other album from 1994, Holiday, happened to come on pretty quickly after Charm, and it's lovely of course. Particularly "Take Ecstasy With Me." Yup. Good stuff.

Where do I talk about Rodan? Does this work? Their only album Rusty is excellent for many different reasons. The main reason there are so many reasons is that it's all over the place in six tracks. Soft songs, hardcore songs, lots of mathy stuff...it jumps around a lot. And I love it for that. Brainiac can go into a similar category, so this will be that paragraph. Bonsai Superstar is an album it took me a while to track down (after becoming a 1341N14C fan back in college) but it became one of my favorites. And Jawbox, that For Your Own Special Sweetheart is an underrated gem. 

And I gotta talk about Pavement a little bit because Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain might be their finest album. "Cut Your Hair" is a fun song to listen to and sing along to, but "Gold Soundz" is the one you really want to sing along to. But "Range Life" sounds strangely the most earnest for someone that was such an icon of such an ironic movement. And closer "Fillmore Jive" just builds perfectly into the chaotic mess that I was wanting to hear the whole time. 

And now the rest of the world that I was only sort of aware of in 1994. Alternative was becoming quite the thing in 1994. Beck's big breakout song "Loser" was a "slacker anthem" or whatever so go slackers. Who knew Beck would still be doing stuff and have maturity and stuff 20 damn years later? 

Lots of friends liked Weezer and their Blue Album but I never got into it until much later. I don't know why not. I'm sure I would have liked them. But by the time I really heard them (other than the "Buddy Holly" video, which I more enjoyed for its non-Weezer aspects) I was way into punk rock and found them too poppy for my tastes. Good thing I'd eventually give them another chance, because it is one solid pop rock album. Bush was popular too. 

Okay and there's the Brit pop showdown! In one corner, Parklife by Blur. Fabulous record right there, much better in my opinion than Definitely Maybe by Oasis in another corner. Lots of energy but they would probably do better on Morning Glory. And the winner? His 'n' Hers by Pulp, who wasn't even in a corner but managed to win the Brit Pop Showdown of '94! Without even putting out their best effort yet!

Pulp "Have You Seen Her Lately?"

And hip hop was completely turned on its head in 1994, for better or worse. While I found the early 90s to be dominated (from my collection's perspective at least) by alternative hip hop goofballs, 1994 had some albums that would just change the course of the genre completely. Outkast's debut Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik is a lot of fun (but more commercial and less experimental than what they would go on to do). The Notorious B.I.G. changed everything on Ready To Die. The most vivid depiction yet (in my collection) of what inner city life looked like, the desperation, the pressure, it just paints a beautiful picture of suffering. It's a shame he left so soon. 

The Notorious B.I.G. "Things Done Changed"

And this was followed up immediately in the playlist by Illmatic by Nas, which I need to listen to more but it's more of that realness. Then Method Man's first solo album (the first Wu-Tang solo album) Tical came around and solidified it.

Finally, a comeback. Johnny Cash. Rick Rubin. American Recordings. Just a man and his guitar, the way it's always been meant to be. It's so fantastic how he was able to resurrect his career just by finding someone that knew what to do with his talent. And there he was, covering Leonard Cohen! And having songs written for him by the likes of Tom Waits and Danzig!

Johnny Cash "Thirteen"

That's a good place to stop. Except I have a couple more things. Another comeback! The Beatles released a "new song" in 1994 and I remember it happening! But I still don't really find "Free As A Bird" as exceptional as most Beatles songs. But how exciting it was that it was coming out at the time! I think I saw it on 20/20 or something.

And I have to close on Jeff Buckley because this is the only album we get. Grace. Beautiful vocals. Rock and roll. I could post the famous "Hallelujah" cover but you probably know that. And I want to make it clear that this album is more than just that. Buckley's short career is more than just that. "Last Goodbye" would be clever but maybe too clever.  Let's just do this song and call it done. I like it because it places so much focus squarely on the vocals.

Jeff Buckley "Lilac Wine"

Done.

Other things to note, there are many:

• The Rollins Band song "Liar" used to make me laugh in its ridiculousness.
• Elliott Smith early stuff! "Drive All Over Town" is great.
• I wish I had more to say about Let Love In by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, other than the fact that it's probably my favorite Nick Cave album and I just realized that when I was listening to it for this thing.
• Man or Astro-man?'s closing theme music from Space Ghost Coast to Coast came on, which means I would soon discover Space Ghost and it would be the best thing ever for a while. And I would also soon discover Man or Astro-man? who are the spaciest, surfiest instrumental rock n roll partiers around.
• Portishead is a good band that I probably should be way into but it just kind of washed over me.
• I never got way into Nine Inch Nails but The Downward Spiral feels important. It has that "Closer" song and "Hurt."
• New Times was an early Violent Femmes purchase I made based on it being available at a used CD store. I have a soft spot for it and can't judge it objectively.
• Without A Sound is the only "mid period" Dinosaur Jr album I have, but I like it quite a bit. Not as much as the early period or late period stuff though.
• Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star is a better Sonic Youth album.
• I think I've said most of what I'm going to say about the Beastie Boys but still. Ill Communication. Plus this talk of Weezer, Dinosaur Jr, and this album (it includes "Sabotage") tells me we were in that great music video era of Spike Jonze and the like. I almost had MTV at this point. Almost.
• Not to say the hardcore rap of Biggie/Nas/Etc totally shut out the jazzy hip hop...Gang Starr's Hard To Earn may be their finest effort, and I loved Guru's guest spot on Digable Planets' Blowout Comb. 
• Brutal Youth is one of the first Elvis Costello albums I got and of course it's wonderful.
• My wife really liked Warren G. Who knew??

Next Time...

I figure out a better way to tackle these giant lists. 

Hip hop: Aceyalone keeps things light, Wu-Tang solo artists go nuts, Mobb Deep, more Pharcyde, The Roots

Punk/ska: AFI was still a punk band, Blue Meanies, Citizen Fish, D-Plan, Don Cab, Fugazi goes slightly different, Jawbreaker goes mainstreamish, Pezcore, Pietasters, Rancid, RBF

Alternative?: Another Kim Deal band, Archers of Loaf, Bjork, another favorite Magnetic Fields album of course, PUSA! Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins

Another brit pop battle between Blur, Oasis, and Pulp

Curios: Elvis Costello's covers album, the final Queen album with Freddie Mercury

And more...

An Ear For An Era: 1992

I think I remember watching the olympics in 1992. Not sure what else happened. The gulf war happened. And growing up and whatnot. Lots of music came out. Eventually, I would discover lots of it. And here I am, rediscovering or whatever. But again, let's start with "Weird Al" Yankovic.

Off The Deep End represents a transition to me. 1992 must have been around the time I was really getting into Weird Al because most of his music was pre-existing when I did so. But then my friend Bryden had his brand new album. I think it took me a while to get this one personally. Just listened to it at his house. I think it was the first Weird Album I got on CD too as opposed to tape. So what of the content? Well, the famous "Smells Like Nirvana" was my first exposure to Nirvana. Which is a fine way to be introduced to them I think. "Trigger Happy" was a song I listened to a lot last time the gun control debate got all fired up. "I Can't Watch This" tells me that MC Hammer must have been popular around this time, which gives me some context for the less cool hip hop of the time. Overall though it's kind of an average Weird Al CD. With some great standouts.

Another quick hip hop rundown!
Beastie Boys Check Your Head. I guess this had them playing their own instruments for the first time since the early days so that was the big deal there. There's no insano production on this, a few showy instrumental tracks, and a lot of fun attitude. Like they are known for. Yep. Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde may have been my favorite hip hop album of 1992 because it's so gleefully weird. Like...bizarre! Is it wack? Is that was Del was rapping about when he rapped about wack MCs? Whatever, I dig it a lot.

The Pharcyde "Officer"

Gang Starr's Daily Operation had one of the greatest DJs ever in Premier. So did Pete Rock & CL Smooth. Mecca & The Soul Brother. My buddy raves about this album and for good reason. The beats are pretty amazing and overall it just kind of reminds me of the natural progression from Paid in Full. Speaking of them, I hit another Eric B & Rakim album Don't Sweat The Technique. Rakim hits a little harder this time and got political. Like on "Casualties of War" about PTSD. There was a war going on, wasn't there? A little one called Desert Storm. The several tracks across different genres addressing this reminds me of that war. As a pre-political 9-year-old I didn't know much about it and today it seems quaint compared to the more recent Iraq war, but it sucked for many people.

So that takes us to punk rock, which also had a lot to say about Desert Storm. Fifteen's album Swain's First Bike Ride feels like the new hippie movement or something to me. Tons of songs about loving your neighbor, nonviolent revolution, etc. Very idealistic. Bikini Kill's first record (I have it in the format of "The C.D. Version Of The First Two Records" but this was the self-titled EP) had a lot to say in the era of malls and whatever else stereotypical girls were doing in this time, making "Double Dare Ya" that much more poignant. Back to Desert Storm, Skankin' Pickle was still the goofiest band around and had "The Hussein Skank" on Skankin' Pickle Fever. Not a very political take on the war. They had a few political songs but continue to be remembered for the goofy stuff like "Pseudo Punk," "Whatever Happened," and of course "I Missed The Bus," which is a way better song about missing the bus than Kris Kross.

And Green Day! Those guys. I got Kerplunk after Insomniac was popular. I think I had a gift card to Best Buy so I got that one. I remember getting it because it was a Green Day album my brother didn't already have. In retrospect I can say that it is proof that they've always done catchy punk pop songs and people couldn't justifiably call them sellouts for Dookie. At the time though I mostly just got amused by the joke song "Dominated Love Slave" and liked the cover of "My Generation."

Plays Pretty For Baby by Nation of Ulysses is a very strong, hard album that seems like the midpoint in the path from Gang of Four to Refused. Maybe closer to the side of Refused. Anarchy, hardcore, post stuff, passion. I can't find "Last Train To Cool" on youtube but seek it out. Seek out this whole album. I don't know if I'm in the minority, but I put Plays Pretty For Baby over 13 Point Program in my NoU rankings.

Enough serious punk rock, NOFX were (are still?) the kings of jackass punk rock. White Trash, Two Heebs & A Bean takes me right back to high school. There are some decent straight up punk rock tracks (but Punk in Drublic is better for that purpose) but mostly this album is memorable for its jackass tracks. "Bob" about a guy going straight because his liver is shot, set to a ska beat. A Louis Armstrong style cover of "Straight Edge" by Minor Threat (so dripping with irony). Etc. Etc. And this song, which is probably the snarkiest thing they did.

NOFX "Please Play This Song On The Radio"

What about the super serious punk rockers? Or emo rockers? Bivouac was always my go-to Jawbreaker CD. I never got 24 Hour Revenge Therapy so Bivouac was mine. Very solid, some feel good tracks and some feel bad tracks. I also got it in the midst of a breakup. So kind of my go-to emo album as well.

OK how about Pavement? They made their big debut here. Slanted & Enchanted is a brilliant indie rock album that is so 90s indie rock. My brother got me into them soon after he went to college. Full of great mixtape fodder like this one.

Pavement "Here"

I think diRty is one of my favorite Sonic Youth albums as far as catchy noise goes. It's a catchy one, that's for sure. Were they getting popular around this time? Asking for a friend.

Pulp was really starting to get to be a great band around this time. That is a baseless accusation about their earlier work. I did enjoy the earlier songs I have. But here's where "Death Comes To Town" (and remix "Death Goes To The Disco") come in. A song I was told to put on a dance mix back in '04 or so and have been obsessed with ever since. Separations is the album. Those are bonus tracks though. Separations is great too though.

Pulp "Death Goes To The Disco"

What about those veterans? I've already written so much about them but they had to go and keep putting out solid stuff!

Neil Young's Harvest Moon is one of his best, maybe his best of the 90s. I need to give it more spins. But opening track "Unknown Legend" holds a special place in my heart because Tunde Adebimpe from TV On The Radio sang it in the movie Rachel Getting Married and my wife is from a small town too.

Tom Waits' Bone Machine. My one thing about this album is that it shares its name with a Pixies track. Not sure if that's a coincidence or what. But the album! So great! I can't even figure out how to write about it! But for someone who has put out so much gold, this one manages to stand out as one of his best.

Sorry about all the super short paragraphs about brilliant albums. It's getting late.

Other Stuff:

• Friday I'm in Love. Apparently The Cure were still at it, making giant hits and stuff.
• R.E.M. continued to push boring 90s rock forward. "Everybody Hurts" is so ridiculously sad it's almost funny though.
• A sound clip from Army of Darkness came up. Crazy that that was 1992. I didn't get into it until around '97 but one of my all time favorite movies!
• Thanks to Going Simpsonic With The Simpsons, I know that the softball episode aired in 1992. A long time favorite.
• There's Rage Against The Machine, doing their thing being pissed off about war as well.
• I have some Don Caballero material from 1992 thanks to the Singles Breaking Up collection but I don't yet have much to say about it. Quintessential math rock.
• "Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta" speaks to me as a white collar white male working in a corporate environment. Thanks, Office Space!
• Somewhere Between Heaven & Hell was my first Social Distortion studio album back in the day. It confused me because I thought it'd be more punk rock. Still enjoyable to this day though.
• My first instance of the Flaming Lips! Good spacey indie rock that would be developed and developed more and more.

Next Time...

I might be a minute. I just got some more new stuff that I need to listen to at least a couple times to fully appreciate. Tune-Yards, Cloud Nothings, Lykke Li, The People Under The Stairs...artists that will eventually come up in this thing but it'll be a while still. Here's what's 1993 though:

Indie: My wife got me into Archers of Loaf. Thanks, Wife! Brainiac rules too. Mercury Rev is great. Polvo. Smoking Popes actual album! 

What do you mean "alternative?": An iconic Breeders album. The Flaming Lips break out!Nirvana bows out. Some band called Radiohead debuts (I might have a thing or two to say about this album on a personal level). Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, whatever. Frank Black goes solo! 

Punk?: Fugazi is still amazing. Man or Astroman? I do love Mekons. Mighty Mighty BossTones! And Mustard Plug (ska punk is really rolling!). Emo is extra emo with Sunny Day Real Estate. 

Hip Hop Still Golden: De La Soul continues. So does Del. Digable Planets debut! Did you know A Tribe Called Quest released a landmark album on the same day as Wu-Tang Clan?? Guru is already going jazz? I didn't realize he did that so early in his career! KRS One goes solo. 

Speaking of solo: Liz Phair

And you know the rest: Weird Al.