An Ear For An Era: 1995

Until the wheels fall off! My computer housing the music is not accepting (or the keyboard is failing to submit) the letters L and O, and the number 9, and the period. So now I'm on my wife's laptop. I hope I can figure out what is wrong with my super old computer or its super old keyboard. Or this will get difficult when I wish to write while the wife is using her computer.

Okay. 1995. This is getting weird. This was supposed to be some sort of historical thing, and now it's invading my life.

Several Wu Tang solo albums came out in '95 as they started taking over the world. Ol' Dirty Bastard's Return to the 36 Chambers is a favorite mostly for its collaborative songs with other Wu Tang members (particularly Raw Hide, featuring Raekwon & Method Man) because he seemed to bring out some real fire in them...ODB on his own is something else entirely to listen to and can get overbearing over a full album, so it hits a good balance. Raekwon's album Only Built for Cuban Linx is a critical favorite but a bit too monotonous for my liking (mostly just Rae and Ghost being badass storytellers). The GZA's Liquid Swords I like a bit more because it has a more full Wu-Tang roster as guests and the production is just fantastic.

Mobb Deep and their album The Infamous is along the same lines and just feels very real and very honest. Aceyalone brought a lot of creativity and spark to proceedings with his debut All Balls Don't Bounce. Similarly, The Pharcyde followed up a ridiculously creative endeavor with another one, Labcabincalifornia. I need to give these dudes more spins, because that was a highly entertaining listen.

Around '94 (I'm not sure if I articulated this in the last entry), I was struggling to find music I liked and followed my sister's lead. And I thank her for welcoming me into that world, even if I never quite found its groove. In 1995, I think that must have been the big trifecta year for my family. We got a PC, a dog, and cable TV (it could have been '96 but I don't know for sure and judging by the music of '95 it seems accurate). Now, of course the dog was the best thing about that. Ringo forever! But cable TV meant MTV finally found its way to me. And my brother got into that popular "alternative rock" scene and MTV helped us bond a little bit over that stuff. Having music videos we liked and would call each other over if they came on. Like this one!

The Presidents of the United States of America "Peaches"

The Presidents of the United States of America were a total bonding band for me and my brother. He had the CD but played it a lot. Together, we came up with an idea for a Weird Al song called "Leeches" ("Millions of leeches, stuck on my knee?" something like that?) and in the ensuing years would continue to appreciate PUSA. So perfect that lead singer Chris Ballew would start a children's music project Caspar Babypants in time for my brother to introduce his son to one of his favorite artists of all time.

My brother was a big fan of the Smashing Pumpkins in this, their heyday. He requested albums by them for gifts and my parents struggled to keep up (I recall a story of my mom trying to work with a music store clerk saying she was looking for a band that was called something like "killing fruit"). All of their singles from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness bring back memories of watching videos with my brother and more or less identifying with their youthful rage. I know we got a midi version of "1979" because those were a thing in these days of the Internet and laughed at how off it sounded. Midioke is what we found, a program that showed lyrics to accompany midi versions of songs. Those were fun. My brother's website had lots of those files if I recall. Back when we had AOL sites. This might have been a little later than 1995. Isn't it weird to think that the song "1979," popular in 1995, is now older than the year 1979 was in 1995? I remember loving the song/video for "Thirty-Three" and it was kind of my own love (less shared with my brother) but of course the pinnacle of this album, of the Pumpkins' popularity in the 90s, and to me the definitive music video of these days was this one. It would be years before I would learn about Georges Melies and his A Trip To The Moon film that this was based on.That knowledge enhanced my enjoyment of both.

The Smashing Pumpkins "Tonight, Tonight"

The other band I equate with my brother and his "alternative rock" tastes and MTV is Oasis and specifically the album (What's the Story) Morning Glory. I remember "Wonderwall" playing all over the place and that was why I thought they sounded like The Beatles. Or like they were trying to sound like The Beatles. I now recognize their songcraft, and I think that was only really the case for their slower songs like that and "Don't Look Back in Anger." Oh, and another funnyish story about this album. My brother's CD player had what looked like a slot to hold a smaller disc than a standard CD. So at Best Buy we saw they had Minidiscs. Remember those?  We bought this album as a minidisc. Smart move. Obviously it did us no good. We theorized taking it back, telling Best Buy that a grandma bought it because she was confused about CDs but I think we just ended up keeping it. I ended up getting a minidisc player a few years later but I don't think I ever put this album on there. I didn't say much about the music. It's Oasis' big one, that's for sure. The hit songs make me nostalgic for those memories. That's about the extent of what I can say about it.

How about the other sides of the Brit pop contest of 1995?

Blur once again had a very solid entry into the competition (definitely at least more consistent than Oasis!) with The Great Escape. Another great mix of all types of pop music from melancholy to giddy.

However...not only did Pulp pull out its second consecutive Brit Pop victory, but a good argument could be made for Different Class being the greatest album of 1995. It's just of a whole different class, if you will. It's the apex of their career. They spent a decade or so perfecting this sound and there's so much confidence and swagger just oozing out of this album that it's infectious. Have I mentioned that I spent a few months after college as a go-go dancer? Well I did. It was for free drinks at a hipster dance night, so no big deal (and I'll probably have more to say about it a ways later in this project) but the way I got the gig was that "Common People" came on and I just went nuts over the song because it's impossible for me not to, and that impressed some guy that was organizing the thing. That song and really the whole album is just so full of energy, a little bit of perversion, and a very earned "epic" feeling that just makes what you're listening to sound like the most important thing in the world.

Pulp "Common People"

Wow, I don't think I had ever seen that video before. A little goofy and not really worthy of the amazing song.

The other album that is a clear candidate for album of the year was The Bends, Radiohead's fantastic follow-up to the not-quite-fantastic Pablo Honey. Looking at my ratings, none of these songs rates below a 3 star rating, which is pretty remarkable. Pretty much means it's perfect. I always have a soft spot for jams like "High and Dry" and of course "Just" but it's such a step in the right direction for the band that the experiments are more hints at how far they would go on the next album OK Computer while still being grounded. I'm not sure which of the two is my favorite Radiohead album but this one so ably straddles the line between experimental Radiohead and grunge-ish/populist-ish/but-not-in-a-bad-way Radiohead. Very guitar based, which I can't say about their later work, but absolutely fearless.

Now let's talk about stuff that I was not aware of in the least at the time, as I was only 11-12 in 1995.

I promised another beloved Magnetic Fields album and Get Lost is certainly that. I'm somewhat torn between this and The Charm of the Highway Strip as my favorite pre-69-Love-Songs Magnetic Fields album...I love Charm as a cohesive unit, a conceptual piece, with plenty of great songs. But Get Lost has my favorite songs of all (and no filler!). I love it for pretty much every song, and feel like if any of these had been on 69 Love Songs they would be highlights. "All The Umbrellas In London" is one of my favorite sad songs...I fell for it during a live performance after the album i, so it was a slowed down version with cellos and whatnot, which just brought out the brilliant lyrics. "If I could live through the night, it'd be all right. It'll make a good song or something." Indeed it did. And then this song, which I like to use as a representative Magnetic Fields song if purposefully introducing someone to the band. Even though introducing people to the Magnetic Fields is usually an accidental occurrence in that any time someone hears them in whatever context they happen to be in, they tend to want to know more.

The Magnetic Fields "Save a Secret for the Moon"

"I know all the saddest people...most of them are dead now" is one of those simple lines that used to catch me off guard and provoke a strange hybrid response of both humor and dread. Something Stephin Merritt excels at, and that line exemplifies it. He also had some other bands, one of which was The 6ths, who released an album called Wasps' Nests (they sure liked to make hard to pronounce names!) this same year. Bringing in guest singers singing against type was a great move and as a collection is very solid Merritt work. "San Diego Zoo" featuring Barbara Manning is a mixtape staple (many Merritt songs are mixtape staples). Listen to this stuff, yo!

I was SO CLOSE to finding punk rock in 1995 but it would be another year or so yet. But that doesn't mean I didn't eventually totally dig Rancid's album ...And Out Come The Wolves. One of those defining punk rock albums of the 90s. I don't care how old I get or what people say about 90s punk rock not being real punk rock. ...And Out Come The Wolves was a defining album for me and is part of what made me a punk rock kid. From the insane bassline of "Maxwell Murder" to the ska backbeat all over the album (very much influenced by The Clash's London Calling) to catchy punk rock songs like "Ruby Soho," this album had it all. Oh, and a good story song about the life of Operation Ivy in "Journey to the End of the East Bay." That caps it off.

Less Than Jake's Pezcore is a pretty seminal album in mid 90s skapunk and listening to it brought back many memories of hanging out in high school and being awesome. Reel Big Fish made their debut with Everything Sucks but I think they would go on to do much better once they had major label backing, as weird as that is to say, as their big album of next year would greatly influence me and my musical tastes for decades to come. On this album they feel like demo versions of the songs. Which when listening with a less nostalgic feel all these years later just kind of makes it feel immature and whiny. Maybe when I hit the big album in the next entry the nostalgia will take more hold.

Honorably Mentioned:

• The end of Freddie Mercury's Queen. I'll miss them!
• My one and only Dismemberment Plan album titled simply "!" (quotation marks included) is fabulous and I should have gotten more at some point I reckon.
• I could almost devote some more space to Fugazi for Red Medicine but I'm going to relegate them to here because their last two are the ones I have personal stories to express. But Red Medicine is the one that was apparently a weird departure at the time. I kind of consider everything Fugazi represents a weird departure so this one stands out slightly less to me. I will say that it wasn't as great for running to as some of their previous albums, so that's saying something. 
• Crap! The Roots' Do You Want More?!!!??! came out in 1994. My itunes was mislabeled 1995 so I can't really write about it except to say yes I do!
• Archers of Loaf's Vee Vee is another excellent record I must say.
• So was Wowee Zowee (what's it with album names with double e's in 1995 indie rock? Just the thing to do?) by Pavement which was my favorite and sounds kind of like their double album even though it kind of fits on one CD. All over the place and has some real gems.
• A couple stray Tupac songs, "Dear Mama" and "California Love."
• I like PJ Harvey's album To Bring You My Love. Kind of a 90s alt rock version of Patti Smith.
• The Suicide Machines/Rudiments split is the first taste of who would be one of my favorite skapunk bands in the 90s. And The Rudiments!
• Citizen Fish was a great skapunk band who seemed to have shared members with Brit punk band Subhumans. Highly political but smart about it, Citizen Fish are one of the few skapunk bands that persist an I can still enjoy on a less-nostalgic level.
• That Bjork album Post is pretty great even if I couldn't get into her music videos at the time. Today I think they're pretty neat!
• I have a soft spot for the early Wilco album A.M. because it was one of my first (due to the property of many of my nostalgic albums, the fact that it was the one I found when browsing for used CDs).
• The Pietasters' Oolooloo used to be one of my favorite ska albums but at this point it just feels way too chauvinistic to be comfortable with. Still lots of catchiness though. But something's not quite right about those dudes.
• Don Caballero's album Don Caballero 2 is fabulous by the way.
• Smoking Popes' Born to Quit is my first Popes album. I expected it to be a little more punk rock after learning of how many bands were influenced by them but I adapted to it. The ultimate romantics.
• Aceyalone's All Balls Don't Bounce was a very welcome addition to the hip hop vocabulary I've been developing. Not the most innovative but definitely up there in creativity.
• My first play of The Amps' only album Pacer. Good pretty-much-the-Breeders album that I need to listen to more.
• In the emo world, the last Jawbreaker album Dear You came up. It's not particularly well received by critics but I'm ok with it. Definitely way more commercial than anything else they did but the lyricism and the cleaned up vocals kind of bring to mind Blake's next project Jets to Brazil. At least here and there.
• Insomniac by Green Day was another one I bonded with my brother over. I only have a couple songs on my computer but we were into it. Which may make it my first punk rock album despite being owned by my brother? Or we'll just call this one coming up next year my first punk rock album. Either way...

Next Time!

1996 was a turning point for me. Kind of. I mean, I didn't get into some of the 1996 stuff until 1997 but it was current when I got into it and it changed my life. So we'll call it like that. What's the stuff of 1996?

Beck! Belle & Sebastian x2! Braid! Super sweet Brainiac album! My first official "guilty pleasure" (The Cardigans)! Cat Power! De La Soul still killin it! Descendents comeback album! DJ Shadow goes all nuts! So does Dr. Octagon in what would eventually lead to The Gorillaz! Eels! Fugees! Ghostface solo! Jay-Z! Nada Surf is Popular! Neutral Milk Hotel is amazing! So is Outkast! RBF! Refused! I get to write about The Roots this time! Au Revoir to Skankin' Pickle. But hello to the likes of Slapstick and Slow Gherkin! A swing revival with the Squirrel Nut Zippers! And how about that Sublime? The Suicide Machines were a favorite. And another gem from that Weezer group. One of the better Wilco albums. 2Pac. And another classic from "Weird Al" Yankovic!

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: 1993

When I was little I was good friends with my next door neighbor Ryan. When we were little we used to brag about arbitrary things. One of these things was how old our siblings were. When I asked how old his older brother was he held up all of his fingers. Ten! That's so old! And then in 1993 I turned ten.

This entry feels like it marks a turning point where it's mostly going to be about memories of music because apparently the music released in 1993 had a lot of influence on pivotal moments in my life over the 10 years or so following.

Technically my first CD was Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell and I really don't know why. I didn't pick it out. I don't have it anymore. I think my parents got it for me but I don't know why they picked it. Not that I was easy. I kept saying I wanted a CD player but all I listened to was Weird Al so they'd ask me what music I would get if I got a CD player and I had no idea. At the time all I wanted was to have the technology. I think part of my now-obsessive relationship with music is to make up for that and prove that I was right, that I really needed that CD player. I think I got it for Christmas 1993? Based on the Meat Loaf release date and the not-sureness of my Alapalooza format (see below) that makes sense that I would have gotten it at the end of the year.

It's a bit fuzzy but I think Alapalooza is the first Weird Al album I got on CD (now I can't remember if I actually had it on tape instead) and it was definitely the first one I got when it was new. It opens up with "Jurassic Park." That movie made me a Michael Crichton fan and I remember going to see it with my mom even though it was PG-13 and I was 10. It was scary!  Let's see, what else about this album? In music class we had an activity where you click PVC pipes together while someone jumps over them to a beat (I'm not sure how to describe it without taking another whole paragraph so deal with it). The teacher said we could bring in music from home to do that to. We brought Alapalooza wanting to do "Jurassic Park" or "Bedrock Anthem" or something but the teacher said they didn't have enough of a beat (or in the latter case, probably too fast of a beat) but said "Traffic Jam" would work. I think we said no deal to that. I liked "Achy Breaky Song" because I agreed that "Achy Breaky Heart" was terrible. I'm going to pretend I think that Pitchfork got its name from this song's line "I'd rather have a pitchfork in my brain." "Bohemian Polka" took some guts but it was pretty fantastic. In addition to the CD, I got a VHS tape called Alapalooza: The Videos and I dug this claymation music video, particularly what happens to Barney:

"Weird Al" Yankovic "Jurassic Park"

A year later was 1994 and I know I got a World Cup '94 soundtrack album. Why am I not talking about this next time? Because all I was going to say was there was a silly song by James called "Goal Goal Goal" that I quite enjoyed at the time. A few years ago I acquired quite a bit of the James catalog and discovered it was a rework of the song "Low, Low, Low" from Laid. "Laid" is a pretty great indie pop rock whatever song too by the way. but "Low, Low, Low" now makes me laugh because I remember "Goal Goal Goal" and its cheesy lines like "He was never ever ever offside." Maybe if I remember (I don't have the World Cup album in my collection anymore so it won't naturally come up here) I'll post the video in the 1994 entry. It's another World Cup year, you know.

I listened to a lot of early 90s ska/punk in the late 90s. My super cool brother got the contemporary popular  albums like Let's Face It by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones so I naturally got the punker back catalog stuff like Don't Know How to Party. I remember thinking the trombonist was super cool (because he was super cool and also because I played trombone). And the hardcore moments they did were (at the time) the hardest music I listened to. But I preferred the ska side of the ska-core. I also had their EP Ska-Core, The Devil, And More which consisted mostly of covers but I still preferred the original song "Someday I Suppose." and the Bob Marley cover "Simmer Down" featuring a vocal turn by said super cool trombonist. The hardcore covers were my unwitting intro to Minor Threat though, which made me appreciate that more when I got it, since I already knew that song.

The other big ska albums that came up were Marbles by King Apparatus (I like King Apparatus because it reminds me of a ska version of Elvis Costello...take that as you will. I think the songwriting style is similar in a way I can't put my finger on) and Big Daddy Multitude by Mustard Plug. Mustard Plug was a band that I grew up with musically, and while Big Daddy Multitude wasn't the one that got me into them, it was the soundtrack to many fun days in high school. Including the song "Mr. Smiley" which we (very loosely) based a movie on back when my friend Bryden and I would make movies on dance nights. It was our tradition as dateless wonders, you see.

Do you have that one album that, for better or worse, takes you back to a very specific person in your past, a very specific location and time? Of course. There are many of those. But the one that hits so hard and so personally that you can't really listen to it? I used to have that with Pablo Honey by Radiohead. Used to? That sounds anti-nostalgia or something. But that one used to hurt and I didn't even rip it onto my computer (that I've had since 2005) until recently when I figured I should put myself through it for the sake of this project. In 2000, the album brought me immense joy to hear. In 2002, it helped me through some lonely times and then became my go-to moping album. Tears were shed over it. In 2004 I couldn't listen to it anymore. And I didn't for about 10 years. Today it turns out I can listen to it pretty objectively as long as I'm occupying myself with something else while it plays. Other than a few songs. Mostly the good songs are the ones that persist. "You." "Stop Whispering." "Thinking About You." "Anyone Can Play Guitar." Etc. About half of the album is pretty forgettable in my opinion and in my experience. But the good-to-great songs are some of the better grungy songs of the day. Still just a small hint of what they would do one day.

It turns out I listened to a good amount of 1993 music in 2003. Another go-to mopey album was Diary by Sunny Day Real Estate. When I got it my other point of reference for emo was Bivouac by Jawbreaker, and I was a little disappointed that Diary wasn't heavier. But now it sounds just perfect to me. I hadn't listened to it in several years but it turns out it stuck with me pretty damn well. Another album I listened to in 2003 when I wasn't moping was Get Fired by The Smoking Popes. I like this one because they hadn't sanded off their rougher edges and it has such a cynical feel throughout. And the original version of this song was empowering to me getting over a breakup and stuff...

The Smoking Popes "Can't Find It"

It was probably around this same time that my future wife was listening to Archers of Loaf. I happened to have "Web in Front" from a random download spree from college and it happened to come on once when she was there and she was very excited because she remembered that song and liked Archers of Loaf quite a bit. Eventually because of this I would get a few Archers of Loaf albums, the first of which was Icky Mettle. I like the whole album for different reasons than "Web in Front," mostly how hard it rocks. But still. This song.

Archers of Loaf "Web in Front"

There was also stuff happening that I don't particularly have memories of. Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins is a pretty good middle ground between Sunny Day Real Estate and My Bloody Valentine. Not that I need to attempt to describe their sound because everyone knows what they sound like. But I made that correlation the other day listening to this so I thought I'd share. I have some stories about The Smashing Pumpkins but they are more related to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness so I'll share those in the 1995 entry.

Vs by Pearl Jam was one I got for my birthday one year, which must have been around this time (probably my 1994 birthday though). It was cool because it was the first time I got music from a friend. So I knew it had to be what I should be listening to as a young person growing up. But it turned out I didn't particularly enjoy it. I liked "Daughter." And "Leash" was amusing because it sure didn't sound like he was saying "Get out of my lucky face." But I just couldn't get into it when there was so much Weird Al to listen to, you know?

I was barely aware of the existence of Nirvana in 1993 but I do remember seeing them on Saturday Night Live playing "Heart Shaped Box." I remember distinctly how Krist Novoselic jumped around for the performance. Looking at wikipedia, that was the same episode Charles Barkley was on. That one cracked me up.

Nirvana "Heart Shaped Box"

I remember this cool guy in my class named Chris liked Nirvana. I just wasn't cool enough to like that kind of music yet. But in retrospect, In Utero is a pretty awesomely bold album. It's dirty and messy enough as it turned out, but I really want to hear the "unlistenable" version Steve Albini came up with. But at the moment all I have is the commercial version. After In Utero comes MTV Unplugged in New York, which seems like the perfect cap on the band's short run.

After the break-up of the Pixies, we got Frank Black's debut solo album Frank Black. I like Frank Black solo stuff for what seems like a completely different reason than why I love the Pixies. It's good in its own way. Let's just say that. But it ain't the Pixies. And their recent reunion album sounds more like Frank Black than the Pixies. Whatever similarities people draw between this and the last Pixies album seem trivial. What they did is over. Last Splash by The Breeders, on the other hand, feels a little bit more magic to me (but still for different reasons than the Pixies). It's the instrumental aspect, I'm more interested in clever sounds than lyrics. The Breeders have more clever sounds than Frank Black I think. Fair enough?

Math rock, the natural progression of crazy instrumentation and hardcore, was coming along nicely, as I have a few Don Caballero singles that rock me very hard and happily, and Polvo's album Today's Active Lifestyles. That one's pure math rock perfection right there. But when it comes to screwing around with the formula for hardcore, Brainiac got it just right in my mind. They would go on to go even crazier, but Smack Bunny Baby is a great jumping off point.

Brainiac "Draag"

Was hip hop the best music being made in the early 90s? It's hard for me to say because I'm a rock kid at my core and these albums listed above are pretty great. But the hip hop continues to just be phenomenal from these days. Obviously De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest continued to kill it. But No Need For Alarm was my original exposure to Del the Funky Homosapien (not counting "Clint Eastwood" of course, when I didn't know who he was) and one of the first hip hop albums I ever bought. I was highly impressed by the lyrical gymnastics and bouncy sound of his vocals. I still am, particularly on this album. He's a good early MC to listen to when getting into hip hop for the first time with how playful/ridiculous the whole thing sounds and it holds up now that I've been exposed to much more hip hop.

The fantastic fusion of hip hop and jazz on Guru's Jazzmatazz, (featuring live jazz musicians!) as well as Digable Planets' Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space). I first heard Digable Planets when I asked my then-girlfriend to tell me what hip hop to listen to as I tried to open my mind to it. I enjoyed and then got sick of "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" and kind of stopped thinking about them until Shabazz Palaces came along a couple years ago and blew my mind. That's when I knew I had to give Butterfly's earlier project another go. I can dig the Digable now, although the amount of positivity is almost too much for me sometimes.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, KRS-One was going hard and solo on Return of the Boom Bap, and of course Wu-Tang Clan's debut album Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers remains one of the most raw, energized, solid-from-front-to-back albums of all time. I tried to have it come on during my 10k the other day but my ipod messed up and it didn't happen. I kind of feel like I would have done better if I had Wu-Tang soundtracking the thing.

Wu-Tang Clan "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'"

I think that's the best place to end things.

Other Stuff:

• The first track to come up was "Shoop" by Salt-n-Pepa. Is there a better way to say "Are you ready for 1993?" than that song? I doubt it.
• Those early Rivers Cuomo recordings from that Alone album are pretty sweet previews of the Weezer to come. Including an early, slower version of "Buddy Holly!"
• The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack! Very enjoyable. My friend in high school was obsessed with Tim Burton (I know he didn't direct this but still) and we very un-ironically loved this movie. But now that makes us seem like Hot Topic kids or something because don't they still love this movie? I assure you, this was before Hot Topic was a thing.
• Another Saturday Night Live performance I kind of remember is Billy Joel playing "River of Dreams."
• Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville is great btw
• Flaming Lips' Transmissions From The Satellite Heart has that big hit song about doing stuff your own unique way "She Don't Use Jelly."
• Mercury Rev is still pretty Flaming Lips like in 1993, maybe with a smattering of Yo La Tengo...but not quite as great as those two bands. Good thing I know how much better they get!
• Fugazi's In On The Kill Taker is another great one from the band that really didn't make anything non-great.
• Mekons' I Love Mekons includes one of my favorite Mekons songs, "I Love Apple." It's a good album that has a few songs with that great 70s punk energy.
• The morning of the evening I wrote this, I listened to some Simpsons stuff from 1993 including the "Monorail" song. And the day of the evening I wrote this was the anniversary of the day that Phil Hartman passed away. That made me sad.
• People born the same year as all this music can now legally drink. Let that one sink in, grandpa/grandma!

Next Time...

You thought I had a lot to say about 1993? There were only 551 tracks for 1993. 1994 has 803. I'm going to have to start editing better! Lots of stuff turns 20 this year.

Ill Communication. Beck. Blur. Built to Spill. An album called Dookie. Jawbox. Jeff Buckley. Big Johnny Cash comeback. Two classic Magnetic Fields records. Wu-Tang solo stuff begins. Lots more skapunk. Nas debuts. The Downward Spiral. A pretty darn good NOFX album. The Notorious B.I.G. Oasis. Outkast. Rodan. Rancid. Weezer. And a classic non-album track by "Weird Al" Yankovic.

And a ton more that I didn't bother typing. This will take a while.

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.

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.