Thirty Years On: May/June 1996

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The summer of 1996 was full of unexpected changes. The biggest one being the one other time I ever ragequit a job. The radio station gig ended one sunny morning when I was due to head over for a shift, only to be told that my hours would be cut to a few on the weekends. [For some weird reason, radio has always been like that across the board, and it sucks.] My evangelical boss didn’t just cut my hours but said I’d only been hired until she could get someone else for weekday mornings, then also refused to help me sign up for unemployment benefits (she claimed I’d never worked full time when I often worked over 32 per week). The day I quit, my replacement was there looking a bit sheepish with the boss nowhere to be found. I handed over the key and never went back.

Thankfully, my mom managed to get me a temporary part-time position at the bank she worked at, scanning older signature cards into their recently built-up database. I held that job for maybe a few months at most, just something to put in my account and help pay off my debts until something better came along. [That, of course, would arrive in early September, thanks again to my mom seeing an ad in the paper for ‘something I might enjoy’. More on that soon enough.]

This is also right about the time I really took a shine to the local road trips. I still didn’t own a car at this time, and would borrow my mom’s car for the afternoon until I had to pick her up at the end of her shift. After a few weeks I realized, hey, why not drive around town, maybe head up to the Four Corner Store in New Hampshire, just for the hell of it? I didn’t have to wait for my local friend to be available at this point, I could just…do it on my own. By the end of summer, I was constantly borrowing someone’s car to head up to Toadstool Books in Keene, or wherever. I realized I was no longer stalled out at home, doing nothing but listening to music, attempting to take my writing seriously, and wishing I was elsewhere. Even if it was just a small round trip on the back roads of New England, it was much better than nothing.

Ash, 1977, released 6 May 1996. WHMP was a big fan of this Irish band and played the “Goldfinger” single quite a bit at the time. I liked that they were grunge-adjacent, yet based firmly in the 90s Britpop scene, a mix of both genres that I enjoyed.

Butthole Surfers, Electriclarryland, released 6 May 1996. I of course knew about this band since my high school days, but I don’t think anyone, even the band, expected “Pepper” to be as big of a hit as it was. It’s their most radio-friendly song (and that’s saying something), and somehow most stations had to work around the band name, often referring them to as “BH Surfers” or just “the Surfers”.

The Cure, Wild Mood Swings, released 7 May 1996. After a four-year wait between albums (not including their live albums), they somehow managed to split the fanbase with what is either an enjoyable and brightly produced album or an overly long and directionless mess. Unfortunately I was in the latter crowd, as it felt like the band had completely lost their way. Mind you, it does have a few great songs like “Strange Attraction” and “Gone!” but it still feels like a swing and a miss for me.

Soundtrack, Mission: Impossible, released 14 May 1996. The new Tom Cruise action flick — one of many in the 90s that mined the TV shows of old and updated them with gritty realism — was surprisingly enjoyable and well made, and the two other guys from U2 updated its well-known Lalo Schifrin theme song into something groovy and electronic.

Manic Street Preachers, Everything Must Go, released 20 May 1996. The band had just gotten over the shocking disappearance of their guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards, and had decided to soldier on as a trio. What could have been a hard road turned into a brilliant release — figuratively and literally — and earned them the Mercury Prize in 1997. The title track remains one of their best and most loved songs, and they’ve had a very successful career in the UK since then.

The Wallflowers, Bringing Down the Horse, released 21 May 1996. After a debut that fell flat, the band came back swinging with a massively successful second record full of radio hits that still get played like “One Headlight”, “6th Avenue Heartache” and “3 Marlenas”. They may not have reached the same heights afterwards, but singer Jakob Dylan still releases new stuff under the name.

Soundgarden, Down On the Upside, released 21 May 1996. The heavy grunge band’s last album before breaking up, it was a surprisingly strong release considering they’d had to follow up the massively successful Superunknown. There are several super strong songs here like “Burden in My Hand” and “Blow Up the Outside World”, not to mention the amusing “Ty Cobb”.

Duncan Sheik, Duncan Sheik, released 4 June 1996. I’ve been mentioning this album lately, but it really is a fascinating release and a shockingly impressive debut. Again: it could have been a one-hit wonder, this time with his catchy mid-tempo “Barely Breathing” that crossed over to several genre stations, but one listen to the entire record and you realize just how brilliant of a songwriter he is. The dreamy “She Runs Away”, the mercurial “In the Absence of Sun”, the pondering “Days Go By”…the entire record is highly recommended and one of my favorite albums of the 90s.

Squirrel Nut Zippers, Hot, released 4 June 1996. You couldn’t escape the kitschy swing-jazz holler of “Hell” that summer — yes, another 90s one-hit wonder — but the album is good silly fun. They, alongside Brian Setzer and others, managed to revive the whole retro swing craze in the late 90s.

Belle and Sebastian, Tigermilk, released 6 June 1996. The birth of 90s twee chamber pop as we know it, this Scottish collective literally wrote and recorded this album as a school project for a class in music business, and yet it garnered such a huge following (thanks to BBC DJs John Peel and Mark Radcliffe) that they became a full-fledged band and began a long and successful career.

Beck, Odelay, released 18 June 1996. How do you follow up with the massively successful stoner-rap weirdness of “Loser” and Mellow Gold? By teaming up with The Dust Brothers and recording an absolutely smashing tour de force that still gets high praise years later as one of his best works. From the groovy “Devils Haircut” to the funky “Where It’s At” to the jazzy “The New Pollution”, this album might be all over the place but it works amazingly well.

Primitive Radio Gods, Rocket, released 18 June 1996. Yet another one-hit wonder with the quirky song with the unforgettable title “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand” (which appears absolutely nowhere in the song itself but was borrowed from Canadian singer Bruce Cockburn), the band did not plan for it to be such a massive and memorable hit even despite its clever and quotable lyrics and an appearance on the soundtrack to the Jim Carrey movie The Cable Guy. They might have disappeared from public view, but they’re actually still around and self-releasing their works online.

Screaming Trees, Dust, released 25 June 1996. It seemed that several of the grunge bands of the early 90s were splitting up around this time for one reason or another — some reasons sadder than others, unfortunately — but Screaming Trees tried to soldier on. They were dropped by their label after this record, which didn’t come close to the same heights as their earlier records, but they did have a minor radio hit with the bluesy “All I Know” which got a lot of play on WHMP. They’d eventually split in 2000.

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Coming up: Filling in the hours and looking beyond

Thirty Years On: April 1996

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I’d like to think that by April 1996 I’d gotten settled enough back at home. I’d come to the conclusion that my plan to move back to Boston might take a lot longer than expected (what with my crippling debt and all) so I chose instead to refocus on what I could change at that point. I’d gotten the frustrations of 1995 out of my system and started looking forward. Eventually I’d get there.

April 1996 was also the first time I actually had a significant tax return! Well, it was $200, but that was big money for someone who formerly had to scrounge for a few weeks to save that much. And I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it: buy myself a PC.

Granted, it was a used PC bought at a chop shop that had Windows 3.1 and came with a monochrome CRT monitor, but that’s all I needed. The only games I’d play on it were Solitaire and FreeCell anyway! No, this was a long-term investment, one I’d be using constantly for my writing from here on in. I set it up on my desk in the bedroom and it stayed there maybe for about two months before I decided in early fall to move it downstairs into the basement. [Part of the decision for the move was that the PC’s fan was rather loud and would keep my family awake if I worked at night, but the main reason for it was the desire to find a writing spot where I wouldn’t be interrupted or have everyone looking over my shoulder. And where else but in the same place my dad had his work area?]

By the end of April I’d transcribed some of those recent exercise story ideas and expanded on a few more just to see where they went. I may have tried working on True Faith a bit more as well. I had no idea that I’d be working down there for nearly nine years more, but that was the beginning of it all. That was where I started taking my writing even more seriously. In another year I’d be starting in on The Phoenix Effect, which would of course be revised and rewritten as the Bridgetown Trilogy.

Cracker, The Golden Age, released 2 April 1996. Even though alternative radio had pretty much latched onto “Low” (from 1993’s Kerosene Hat) as their one hit wonder, David Lowery’s project continued on providing us with catchy yet slightly offbeat tunes such as “I Hate My Generation” which got a decent amount of play on WHMP.

Beastie Boys, The In Sound from Way Out!, released 2 April 1996. After the huge success of 1994’s Ill Communication, the band took an unexpected left turn into…groovy funk? By now we’d known that they weren’t just meathead rappers but proficient instrumentalists, but this album was such an unexpected release that it barely got any notice other than fans and those digging their jazzy side.

Semisonic, Great Divide, released 9 April 1996. Before their huge success with 1998’s Feeling Strangely Fine and “Closing Time”, they dropped their first official album that got just a little bit of play with songs like “FNT” and “Across the Great Divide”. WHMP really liked this record.

Various Artists, Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks, released 9 April 1996. This was a super fun compilation aimed squarely at us Gen X-ers who grew up watching these animated tunes during our Saturday cartoon binge. It’s full of great stuff by Blind Melon (“3 Is a Magic Number”), Better Than Ezra (“Conjunction Junction”), Pavement (“No More Kings”), and my personal favorite which I’ve posted above.

Local H, As Good As Dead, released 16 April 1996. Yet another 90s band that could conceivably be seen as a one hit wonder (this is that “copacetic” song, natch) if it wasn’t for the fact that they’re still around and recording really great noise rock, still as a duo. They’re definitely a band worth checking out.

Rage Against the Machine, Evil Empire, released 16 April 1996. I admit I was not a Rage fan for a good number of years. To me they were merely okay…I appreciated what they were about but it did nothing for me personally. I eventually came around in 1999 with their Battle of Los Angeles album. Meanwhile, you could not escape hearing tracks from this album on WHMP and WFNX like “People of the Sun” and “Bulls on Parade”.

Geggy Tah, Sacred Cow, released 23 April 1996. Now this was definitely a 90s one hit wonder, but it’s so goofy and positive and such an earworm that it’s worth hearing. Who knew that a song about a good driving experience could be such a fun hit?

Spoon, Telephono, released 23 April 1996. Well before their rise to indie fame in the early 00s, this band dropped their first album that became a favorite with their fans and the hip indie crowd. To me they were a band I’d constantly hear about but never actually hear on the radio. I may have heard one or two tracks from this on WHMP or WAMH, but not very often.

Orbital, In Sides, released 29 April 1996. I fell in love with the single “The Box” as soon as I saw its brilliant video (featuring the always amazing Tilda Swinton as a time-traveling alien). I’d dub this album onto cassette in a few months when I started at HMV, and eventually buy it used a short time later. It’s my favorite Orbital album as it hits that sweet spot of electronica that I can chill to. I highly recommend it.

Dave Matthews Band, Crash, released 30 April 1996. Most alternative radio stations absolutely loved 1994’s Under the Table and Dreaming, so when this new album dropped, it was a huge success not just on radio but on MTV as well. It’s got so many of his biggest and most memorable tracks on it like the quirky opener “So Much to Say” (I love singing along to this one!), the lovely “Crash Into Me”, the weird “Too Much” and the memorable deep cut “Tripping Billies”. It’s my favorite DMB album, actually! This is right up there with The Verve Pipe’s Villains and Collective Soul’s self-titled as part of that mid-90s “commercialternative” sound (as I call it) that seamlessly crossed barriers from alt rock to pop/rock radio with records that would become long-standing hits.

Soundtrack, The Craft, released 30 April 1996. I went to see this movie at the Sony in Leominster that I formerly worked at and was pleasantly surprised that they’d actually done their homework in regards to witchcraft. Sure, it’s your classic standard 90s horror flick complete with a hip soundtrack, but it was good fun nonetheless. And like a lot of 90s horror flick soundtracks, it’s full of current bands doing fantastic covers, like Our Lady Peace doing the Beatles, Heather Nova doing Peter Gabriel’s “I Have the Touch” and Love Spit Love doing The Smiths’ “How Soon Is Now” (soon to be appropriated by the similarly witch-themed TV show Charmed). It’s a fun soundtrack worth checking out.

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Coming up: Summer moods and unexpected changes

Thirty Years On: March 1996

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By this time I’d been working not-quite-fulltime at the radio station, doing the morning shifts from 5:30am to noon, and also on Sunday afternoons to prep the religious programming on the AM station that still ran from dawn to dusk. I was on my own for the most part until the GM came in and nitpicked any slight errors I’d made. Let’s just say that she was one of those evangelicals that threw stones first and leave it at that, shall we? Anyway, it wasn’t the most exciting of jobs and as before, I was never on air, but it gave me time to play around with a few ideas. I revived my poetry and lyric writing, something I hadn’t done for a good year or so. I watched Sailor Moon on the station TV in the morning (this was when anime was finally becoming more popular and mainstream in the US instead of a niche thing). I read books and comics I’d been buying recently. I drew maps and comic ideas. Anything to get my mind moving instead of spiraling into self-pity.

This is when I’d come up with the idea of priming the creative pump, so to speak. While I was getting caught up on the Great Transcription Project, I was also playing around with various ideas longhand. We had scrap paper galore in the studio and I used it to let my mind come up with ideas. They didn’t have to go anywhere, it was just an exercise to get myself back into creative shape. I came up with about a dozen story ideas, none of which went anywhere in the long run, but the exercise did its job: I felt the creative spark reignite, and I was ready to start writing again.

I should also state that at this point, my then-gf (and cowriter on True Faith) and I had broken up though we did stay in touch, very occasionally meeting up with a few mutual friends to do things. I also met up with a few people via online New Age chatrooms and had a brief friendship with someone who gave me a lot of positive insight on my ideas that would eventually become a part of The Phoenix Effect in the future. So it wasn’t as if I’d cut myself off from the world; it was more that I felt a bit lost and trying to find my footing. These weren’t the most fulfilling of connections, but they were needed at the time and helped me stay out of that funk I’d been in a few months previous.

Lush, Lovelife, released 5 March 1996. The band’s last album before breaking up, it was also their most radio-friendly and popular, especially with the single “Ladykillers”. They still attained most of their dreampop/shoegaze sound, but it felt forced and overly polished to me, however.

Various Artists, WHORE: Tribute to Wire, released 5 March 1996. Around this time I’d started listening to my old standby college radio station, WAMH at Amherst College. I had to get used to the fact that they weren’t playing the post-punk-influenced alternative stuff I’d fallen in love with back in the 80s but was now fully immersed in indie rock that I was only vaguely resonating with. They’d play a few tracks off this one now and again, especially Band of Susan’s cover of the brilliant “Ahead”.

Stereolab, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, released 11 March 1996. I bought this one via Columbia House as I’d always liked them but never quite got around to ever buying anything from them! I’d heard “The Noise of Carpet” on 120 Minutes and that sold them for me. I still get the track stuck in my head now and again.

Cocteau Twins, Milk & Kisses, released 15 March 1996. Believe it or not, I wouldn’t own this for a good year or so! I was more of an early-era, pre-Heaven Or Las Vegas fan and felt their later work lacked the dreamlike sound I loved so much. It would end up being their final album as they would break up soon after.

The Beatles, Anthology 2, released 18 March 1996. I remember the ‘new’ Beatles single, “Real Love”, was supposed to drop on Valentines Day or thereabouts but got delayed, instead dropping a week or so before the second volume of the Anthology series. This one fascinates me, as it dials back the live and interstitial content that was prevalent on the first volume and focuses on the interesting alternate takes, like the trippy first take of “Tomorrow Never Knows”. At this point there was still a rumor that a third ‘new’ song would be on the third volume, but alas, time and technology kept that from happening.

Barenaked Ladies, Born On a Pirate Ship, released 19 March 1996. Before the hugely popular Stunt from 1998, this album opened the door much wider for this beloved Canadian band, with the single “The Old Apartment” getting major airplay on the radio over the next year or so.

Love and Rockets, Sweet FA, released 19 March 1996. Story goes that they’d recorded a significant portion of this album project when a fire consumed the studio they’d been working in. Guitars were burnt to a crisp (thus the album cover) and friend Genesis P-Orridge suffered injuries because of it, but in the end they soldiered on and came out with a sleek album that wasn’t quite a return to their psych rock origins or the techno of their previous album, and “Sweet Lover Hangover” became a radio favorite.

Tracy Bonham, The Burdens of Being Upright, released 19 March 1996. She’d become a local favorite in Boston with her indie-released The Liverpool Sessions EP, and for her major label debut she came out with guns blazing and several songs that became favorites on the local alternative stations like the blistering opener “Mother Mother”, the catchy “The One” and the oddball singalong “Sharks Can’t Sleep”. She’s still active as a musician and putting out her own works.

Superdrag, Regretfully Yours, released 26 March 1996. This band could be seen as a one hit wonder with its clever “Sucked Out” (a song about selling out, natch), but there’s a lot more going on with this band than just being a whiny Gen-Xer. They’re actually quite an excellent powerpop band worth checking out, and their amazing about-face with 1998’s Head Trip in Every Key (done specifically as an anti-“Sucked Out” album which did its job by having the label drop them soon after) is highly recommended.

Stone Temple Pilots, Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, released 26 March 1996. STP, on the other hand, seemed to be on the verge of self-immolation, as the first hints of Scott Weiland’s self-destructiveness came to the fore. This is a druggy haze of an album because of that. It’s not my favorite of theirs and a bit of a hard listen because it feels so sloppy, especially after the wonderful Purple from 1994, but it does have its finer moments like the above single that got a lot of play at the time.

Guided By Voices, Under the Bushes Under the Stars, released 26 March 1996. This is their ninth(?) album so I kind of gave up on trying to catch up with their work, but they finally resonated with me with the lovely “Official Ironmen Rally Song” single that got a lot of play not only on WAMH but on WHMP as well. I did get this song down on one of my radio source tapes somewhere, but it would be quite a few years more before I finally downloaded this album.

The Verve Pipe, Villains, released 26 March 1996. I immediately fell in love with this album not because of the ridiculously popular single “The Freshmen” but because of their other radio/video tracks “Photograph” and “Cup of Tea”, both of which would show up on one of my favorite mixtapes later in the year. It really is an amazing album, and Brian Vander Ark’s songwriting is at its highest here. I bought this one via Columbia House and played the hell out of it over the next several years, as it became one of my all-time favorite 90s records and became a frequent go-to for my writing sessions, especially when working on The Phoenix Effect and the Bridgetown Trilogy. I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.

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Coming up: The birth of the writing nook.

Thirty Years On: January-February 1996

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I remember how I started 1996: two friends and I had gone out to see Jumanji at a local theater on New Years Eve — and that, by the way, was also when I saw the teaser trailer for Independence Day for the first time and thought ‘HOLY CRAP I need to see this’ — and followed it up by heading over to someone’s house to play pool in the basement. Between the three of us, the past year had sucked major ass in varying ways. You’ve already heard the story of how I’d moved back in with my family after failing to stay in Boston. Suffice it to say, we’d been so thankful to get the hell out of 1995 that we ended up completely missing the clock ticking midnight until about a half hour after the fact. We just wanted it to be over.

I’d been lucky in that I was able to transfer from my job at Sony Theater in Somerville to the one in Leominster (although borrowing a car could be tricky), though that would only last a few months and end in late fall when I somehow had landed a job at the very same local radio station I’d worked at back in 1988. Same responsibilities: monitor the satellite feed, take the readings, play the local commercials, and play with/feed the cat that had been somewhat adopted by the station owners. And still get yelled at by the station manager when I messed up the most minor thing ever. I spent most of those slow hours working on the office PC continuing my Great Transcription Project, typing out (and in effect reliving) most of the juvenilia I’d written from my high school days up to the present. And maybe working on True Faith when I had a moment, though that one was suffering from writer’s block and massive rewrites. And somewhere in all of that, I’d get out of the massive debt I was in.

But on a somewhat positive note, I’d managed to reconnect with that high school friend who also lived in town, and we often went on road trips, mainly to drive around, smoke, listen to a lot of music, and make half-assed plans to move out to Ohio where one of our mutual friends lived at the time.

It wasn’t the best of times, but it was certainly a step in the right direction.

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Cibo Matto, Viva! La Woman, released 16 January 1996. This was an early Columbia House purchase when I chose to rejoin, partly because I thought this was a good way to keep in touch with the music I liked. I didn’t listen to it nearly as much as I thought I would but I did like the “Sugar Water” single a lot.

Radiohead, “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” single, released 22 January 1996. The last single from their brilliant 1995 album The Bends — an album said friend and I would constantly listen to in the car — and the ssong seemed to perfectly encapsulate our moods at the time: it absolutely sucked that we were stuck where we were but we looked forward to the positive moments.

Tori Amos, Boys for Pele, released 23 January 1996. Tori’s music had always had that element of odd quirkiness, but this particular record really went in a strange direction, not to mention that it’s a super long one as well. Still, I did appreciate what she was doing and actually liked this one quite a bit.

Stabbing Westward, Wither Blister Burn & Peel, released 23 January 1996. I’d been a passive fan of their first album, but this was the one that really captured my interest. WHMP — the alternative station out of Northampton that we both listened to at the time — played “What Do I Have to Do?” quite heavily, enough that I ended up getting this one through Columbia House as well. This would soon become a frequent writing session album in a few months, once I finally owned my own PC and moved it down to the basement.

Ministry, Filth Pig, released 30 January 1996. I was at odds with this album, because it didn’t quite feel like the Ministry I used to love. It felt like they’d stayed in the ‘less industrial, more metal’ direction they’d explored with Psalm 69. I never played this one all that much, but I did appreciate their oddball cover of Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay”.

Voice of the Beehive, Sex & Misery, released 12 February 1996. This was their last album, but it was a great way to go! They’d gone from jangle pop to Britpop-infused rhythms to sugary dance rock here, and it’s super fun. “Scary Kisses” got a lot of play on WHMP at the time.

Gin Blossoms, Congratulations I’m Sorry, released 13 February 1996. After their extremely popular debut, they came extremely close to knocking it out of the park a second time with this sophomore album. It wasn’t as popular, but it does contain the big single “Follow You Down” which still gets played a lot. I was always a bigger fan of the other single “Day Job” which seems to be forgotten these days.

Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Come Find Yourself, released 20 February 1996. There were a lot of one hit wonders in the mid 90s, and this was a big one, partly because of its clever use of sampling multiple Quentin Tarantino movies. It’s actually a fun album, and they’d show up a few years later with a banger track on the Titan AE soundtrack.

Goldfinger, Goldfinger, released 21 February 1996. I’d say partial thanks to the success of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, the pop-punk-ska hybrid did really well around this time, with several bands coming up with radio hits, like “Here in Your Bedroom”. They had a couple of really great albums in the 90s that I owned.

Brainiac, Hissing Prigs in Static Couture, released 26 February 1996. This was a favorite of the friend I mentioned above, and my reaction was: what if Ween decided to sound like Jon Spencer Blues Explosion? Weird half-assed punk infused with blues and heavily filtered through distortion. It’s not an easy listen, but it is a fascinating one.

The Refreshments, Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy, released 27 February 1996. Yet another one hit wonder with the extremely catchy singalong-able “Banditos”. This one got a lot of play in the late 90s and probably still shows up on (ugh I’m old) “songs from the 80s, 90s and today” stations. Silly light-hearted fun.

Cowboy Junkies, Lay It Down, released 27 February 1996. This band had somewhat fallen off the radar for a few years after their brilliant Trinity Session album, and this was a surprising switch to a more radio-friendly Adult Alternative sound, and “A Common Disaster” was an unexpected hit for them.

Bad Religion, The Gray Race, released 27 February 1996. How do you follow up with an unexpectedly popular album like Stranger Than Fiction? By staying true to your goals like Gregg Graffin would, coming out with another banger punk album. It only got some minor airplay with “A Walk” and some of the band felt they phoned it in, but despite that it’s a fan favorite.

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Coming up: future plans, writing goals, unexpected inspirations, and the start of the solo road trips

Twenty Years On: November-December 2006

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I survived my first year on the west coast with minimal damage and frustration, which is always a plus, and I even managed to complete the first draft of Love Like Blood on New Year’s Eve! I knew going in that 2006 was going to be a year of transition, focusing mostly on reorganizing my life, habits, and mindset. I did kind of feel like I didn’t get nearly as much done as I’d hoped (I really wanted to get back to work on The Balance of Light but was still blocked on that one), but I at least made the effort to get something done. The day job had its ups and downs, and working during the holiday season was a test of wills and patience, but I made it through.

What would 2007 bring…? Good question. I would work on Love Like Blood revision, maybe occasionally return to the trilogy, screw around with my music collection, and transfer out of the CD/IRA department and into the EDI/epayables department by the end of the year. That job definitely had its ups and downs, enjoyments and frustrations, and it’s the longest one I ever held (I would leave in 2020, y’all know the reasons by now). And by the end of 2008 I’d finally start the extremely slow and arduous campaign of reviving the trilogy once and for all.

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The Sisters of Mercy, First and Last and Always, Floodland and Vision Thing reissues, released 6 November 2006. Remastered and including several b-sides, I was happy to finally have these albums on cd, having owned them on cassette for years. I had a lot of fun revisiting these albums and reminding myself just how great they were.

Foo Fighters, Skin and Bones, released 7 November 2006. Dave Grohl and Co released this exceptional acoustic live record that took several of their hits and gave them new life. “Times Like These” in particular got a ton of airplay as it translated really well as a folk tune.

Depeche Mode, The Best Of Volume 1, released 8 November 2006. One of many greatest hits compilations from this band (and no, there were never any further volumes), this one featured all the hits you’d expect, plus the new single “Martyr” that got considerable play on the radio. In mid-December they’d follow U2’s path and release The Complete Depeche Mode on iTunes.

The Charlatans UK, Forever: The Singles, released 13 November 2006. Yet another best-of, this time from a band that often gets overlooked by those talking about Britpop. I always liked this band and listened to their debut Some Friendly constantly during my college years. This is a really good best-to-date mix to try out.

Chris Cornell, “You Know My Name” single from Casino Royale, released 13 November 2006. The James Bond franchise gets a fresh reboot with Daniel Craig in the lead role and starting off with an official take on the first Fleming Bond book. The theme song got a lot of play on alternative radio, but weirdly enough it was not included on the soundtrack.

The Beatles, Love, released 20 November 2006. The long-awaited soundtrack to the Cirque du Soleil show in Vegas and the first time any Beatles songs would be remixed and mashed-up under the expert hands of George Martin (his last work with them) and his son Giles. Some tracks feel more like incidental soundscapes, while others like the “Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows” mashup take you in unexpected directions. It might not be for everyone, but it was extremely well received by Beatle fans, and the show itself lasted until 2024.

Hooverphonic, Singles 96-06, released 27 November 2006. Yet another best-of, this one from one of my favorite electronic bands that I will always download no matter what they release even before I’ve heard a note. This is a really great cross-section of their work worth checking out.

Incubus, Light Grenades, released 28 November 2006. This one always gets forgotten because of their previous three albums being such huge heavy alt-rock favorites, but at the time the single “Anna Molly” got a significant amount of play.

Sonic Youth, The Destroyed Room: B-Sides and Rarities, released 12 December 2006. In a month that’s nearly all best-ofs and reissues in my music library, this one stands out as a compilation from a band that rarely released such things at the time. It’s more of an odds-and-ends but it does feature the full scale twenty-five minute LP version of “The Diamond Sea” that goes on six minutes longer than the CD version.

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Whew! Now that I got that year out of the way, I’d like to start next week by going back ten years further to visit 1996. See you then!

Twenty Years On: October 2006

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Looking back, I think I was still feeling a bit lost and directionless as far as creativity went. I did have a few ideas here and there, but for the most part I was still focusing mostly on Real Life Stuff, considering I was so out of my element in multiple ways. I did entertain brief thoughts about doing some freelance writing, though in retrospect that ended up being more of a pipe dream than anything. [I did try my best at figuring out how to follow through, but the more I worked on it the less I felt interested and fascinated by it. Like I’ve said since then: I think I’d have been good at it, but I wouldn’t have found it fulfilling at all. And it’s probably for the best, as the country’s economy would tank within a year or two.] It took some time, but I would continue focusing on my fiction writing instead.

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The Killers, Sam’s Town, released 2 October 2006. It was pretty hard for them to follow up their absolutely brilliant 2004 debut Hot Fuss, and result felt less about Vegas glam and more about rural Nevada. It’s a great album on its own, but it wasn’t the big hit they needed, and that did end up derailing them for a bit.

Beck, The Information, released 3 October 2006. Considering Beck’s penchant for switching up sounds and styles with every album — the catchy Odelay to the moody Mutations to the disco Midnite Vultures to the lovely and sad Sea Change to the experimental Guero — this wasn’t quite a return to Odelay but more like a mix of the best all five of those albums. There’s some oddball stuff here like “Nausea” but then there’s the excellent earworm “Think I’m in Love”. It’s kind of a forgotten album but it’s so worth it.

Cold War Kids, Robbers and Cowards, released 10 October 2006. I really didn’t like this song at first but it grew on me, especially a few years down the line when I started hearing more of their singles and deep cuts like “Out of the Wilderness” and “Bulldozer” off 2011’s Mine Is Yours.

My Chemical Romance, The Black Parade, released 24 October 2006. Yes, that song that you could not escape no matter how hard you tried. I’ve mentioned previously that their 2004 breakthrough Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge grew on me the more I heard it. Pompous and overblown? Sure, but it’s also catchy as hell and a lot of fun if you don’t take it all that seriously. This was a rare iTunes download for me and I actually quite liked the album.

Lady Sovereign, Public Warning, released 31 October 2006. Another find via the International Music Feed cable channel, this London rapper took pages from Eminem’s goofier side and released tracks that weren’t just fun and funny (“Random” takes a hilarious jab at Nelly’s weird accent, for instance), they were clever and catchy as well. She only put out one further album after this (2009’s Jigsaw) but allegedly she’s staging a comeback this year…?

U2 & Green Day, “The Saints Are Coming” single, released 31 October 2006. Originally a punk track from the Scottish band Skids (featuring a pre-Big Country Stuart Adamson), these two bands covered it to raise money for those in New Orleans affected by Hurricane Katrina. As it happened, it was released just in time for the first NFL game played at the Louisiana Superdome since it had been heavily damaged during the hurricane. It became a huge international hit.

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Coming up: winding up the year and looking forward

Twenty Years On: September 2006

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Coming up close to the year end, and in retrospect I can kind of see why not a lot of it remains stuck in my mind. A lot of my time was spent getting used to living in a big city on the opposite coast and starting a job I’d never done before, all while I focused on writing a vampire novel (Love Like Blood) that would end up getting trunked and still feeling frustrated by my inability to finish the Bridgetown Trilogy. And getting used to married life at that! Real Life definitely got in the way of my writing projects, and it would take me quite some time to get back on that particular horse.

Audioslave, Revelations, released 5 September 2006. The third and final album from this group may not have gotten nearly as much notice as their previous two, but at the time it did get a lot of positive reaction. Cornell would return to his solo career while the Rage members drifted through side projects and occasional rumors of reunion.

Barenaked Ladies, Barenaked Ladies Are Me, released 12 September 2006. The first BNL album after leaving Reprise, the group recorded so many songs that they ended up saving half of them for a follow up (2007’s Barenaked Ladies Are Men). While they no longer reached the popularity they’d achieved in the late 90s and early 00s, they’re still recording and still have their loyal fanbase.

Plain White T’s, Every Second Counts, released 12 September 2006. Yes, this is the album that contains the unexpectedly popular acoustic track “Hey There Delilah” that still gets played everywhere. I much preferred the single “Hate (I Really Don’t Like You)” and still quote it now and again.

Ima Robot, Monument to the Masses, release 12 September 2006. This goofball band from LA was a favorite of A’s for quite some time, and “Creeps Me Out” is a really fun single. You might know lead singer Alex Ebert better as his alter ego Edward Sharpe, whose band the Magnetic Zeroes had a quite overplayed hit with the stomp-clap alternafolk track “Home”.

Teddybears, Soft Machine, released 12 September 2006. This strange Swedish alternative band popped up on Sirius XM and Live 105 with the singles “Cobrastyle” and “Punkrocker”, the latter of which features Iggy Pop straight-faced singing the corniest lyrics about punk.

Mutemath, Mutemath, released 26 September 2006. This became one of our favorite bands after discovering them on the Sirius XM during our visit back east in October, and picked up that album at Newbury Comics while we were there. A vastly underrated and highly creative band that brings together stylish alternative rock with elements of jazz and funk and turns it into something amazing. We’d get to see them live (for free!) in Golden Gate Park a few years later! I highly recommend checking out all of their works, including their highly entertaining music videos!

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Coming up: Year end doldrums, contemplations and whatnot

Twenty Years On: July-August 2006

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If I recall, 2006 was a bit of an oddball year in terms of alternative rock. It was definitely splintering at this point, for good or ill, and you either loved what was coming out of it or you were left scratching your head wondering what was going on. I felt a little bit of both to be honest, because I was so used to the full immersion and now felt left out. It was finally moving away from the darker gloom of the post-punk era, while the more radio-friendly music was heading towards points unknown (or alternately, becoming even more mainstream). It took me a while to resonate with the new sounds out there.

Meanwhile in Real Life Stuff, my temp job at the bank was winding down, and I would soon become a full-time worker in their CD/IRA phone bank department. Same building, same hours, slightly better pay. It wasn’t the best thing I wanted and I wasn’t thrilled by the later hours, but it was what I had on hand that I could stick with for the time being. Even then I’d decided to see it as a ‘permanent until further notice’ job. I’d be there for a relatively short time, however, until I was offered a position in a different department. I’ve never been the biggest fan of phone bank work, but I did at least learn a few interesting things.

Muse, Black Holes and Revelations, released 3 July 2006. How do you follow up the huge success of a breakthrough album like 2003’s Absolution? By being even more grandiose and over the top! It’s a great but slightly weird album that contained a few radio hits, but its big one was album closer “Knights of Cydonia” with its bonkers music video that’s equal parts spaghetti western and psychotic fever dream.

TV On the Radio, Return to Cookie Mountain, released 6 July 2006. Their second album was a bit of a head-scratcher for me. I felt it lacked the darker moods of their previous album (2004’s excellent Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes) was just…weird. Although I’d eventually warm up to it, especially the first single “Wolf Like Me” which still gets airplay on KEXP now and again.

Thom Yorke, The Eraser, released 11 July 2006. The Radiohead singer’s first solo album in between their long hiatus between 2003’s Hail to the Thief and 2007’s In Rainbows feels like it retains the band’s new experimental direction they’d taken in the 00s, yet melodic enough to capture the interest of their fanbase.

The Knife, Silent Shout, released 27 July 2006. I remember getting this one as a free CD when I subscribed to Under the Radar, a music magazine that had captured my interest at the time. They were definitely a Pitchfork band: one that got a lot of hipster notice yet rarely got any kind of airplay at all anywhere, yet it got a really good review in UtR so I thought I’d give it a go. I liked that there was a hint of that sterile industrial sound I enjoyed, yet strange enough to retain my interest. The singer Karin Dreijer is known for fronting Fever Ray these days.

Midlake, The Trials of Van Occupanther, released 25 July 2006. I think I heard this one first on Pandora or Launchcast, specifically the song “Roscoe”, and was immediately taken at how much they sounded like 70s era Fleetwood Mac to me. This was one of those rare CDs I special ordered at the Barnes & Noble down the street.

The Cure, Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me / The Head On the Door / The Top Deluxe Editions, released 8 August 2006. One of my favorite 80s bands finally follows up with their deluxe reissues with three more titles, this time focusing on the 1984-1987 era when their popularity skyrocketed. All three feature home demos and live recordings as extra tracks.

Kasabian, Empire, released 26 August 2006. It took me a little while to get used to this band, but once I was on board I remained a huge fan. After the loud and dissonant self-titled first album from 2005, this one felt more approachable and melodic. I believe I bought this one at Newbury Comics when we went back east for a visit in October. By that time I’d pretty much given up on buying albums on their drop date. As much as I missed doing, that, I had to move on. [That would of course change once I started downloading everything!]

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Coming up: More reissues, more weirdness

Twenty Years On: May-June 2006

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Six months into living in a new apartment in a new city in a new state on the opposite coast and we were still getting used to it. The furthest we’d gone outside of town at that point was probably down to Serramonte Mall in Daly City to buy home furnishings at Target, or me driving A down to SFO for one of her occasional work-related trips. Even driving to the west side of town felt weird, as we did once or twice to check out the beach or down to the SF Zoo. I was still getting used to navigating the roads when we drove around, trying to find the best way to the various neighborhoods when we weren’t taking public transit. We’d get used to it eventually, taking day trips north to Santa Rosa and Petaluma or south to Half Moon Bay. We’d even make the looooong trip up to Sacramento for the state fair now and again!

I was still feeling a bit lost and distracted creatively. I wasn’t writing too many poems or lyrics, my then current WIP (Love Like Blood) was moving in fits and starts, and I was heavily distracted by the internets. About this time I’d made the ill-advised foray into political blog reading and occasional online ranting, which lasted about a year and ended up being a lot of insufferable whining and echo-chambering that I’ve since taken offline. [I would soon realize that that particular avenue would serve no purpose to me other than raise my blood pressure.]

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Brian Vander Ark, Angel, Put Your Face On, released 1 May 2006. The Verve Pipe singer is looking a little scruffy here. His band had gone on hiatus, and over the next few years he’d put out multiple solo records that were more acoustic and ballady, but continued to prove that he never lost his stellar songwriting chops.

Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam, released 2 May 2006. After four years, a protracted Ticketmaster fight and a b-sides compilation, the group reconvened on the quasi-indie label J Records (really a subsidiary of BMG at the time) and released an album that sounded a lot like their early grungier years. It’s not one that gets a lot of play these days, but at the time “World Wide Suicide” and “Wasted” got a fair bit of play on Live 105.

Snow Patrol, Eyes Open, released 9 May 2006. I always get this one confused with 2003’s Final Straw because they sound very similar in tone, and both contain some of their most popular songs. This one, however, contains the evergreen “Chasing Cars” that is possibly their biggest hit in the US, and got a significant bump when it was used on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy (a show which handily used the Miami Vice rules of mood soundtrack).

Gnarls Barkley, St Elsewhere, released 9 May 2006. The project of CeeLo Green and Danger Mouse offered a huge hit with the song “Crazy” which still gets play everywhere (including supermarkets). CeeLo had been known as a member of the hip-hop group Goodie Mob and had previously put out a few soul-tinged solo records, but this album gave him some major publicity, enough that he’s shown up on hit songs ever since.

Hot Chip, The Warning, released 22 May 2006. A band I knew of, thanks to the music magazines and blogs I was reading at the time, but also one that very rarely got play anywhere except online. I’d eventually hear the ridiculously fun and catchy “Over and Over” and both A and I would become loyal fans. We even got to see them at Outside Lands some years later!

Soundtrack, Ergo Proxy opus01, released 25 May 2006. I don’t exactly remember when I first heard of this anime TV series, but I’m pretty sure it was from seeing trailers for it when we rented Funimation anime through Netflix. “Kiri” by Monoral is one of my top favorite opening themes.

Paramore, The Summer Tic EP, released 19 June 2006. I’ll be painfully honest, when their debut All We Know Is Falling came out in 2005, I let them pass by as yet another hard-rock-with-angry-female-singer band (as there were many out there at the time, and I totally blame Evanescence and their inescapable “Bring Me to Life”), but it didn’t take me long to change my mind when I realized just how fun they were. This EP was a sort of thank-you to fans while on the Warped Tour, and contained the brilliant cover of Failure’s “Stuck On You”, a band who deeply influenced singer Hayley Williams. Interestingly, she shows up on the band’s 2026 album Location Lost!

Silversun Pickups, Carnavas, released 25 June 2006. While a lot of newer bands weren’t really capturing my attention, this one did due to its unique sound and style. “Lazy Eye” was boppy and catchy and I of course loved the quiet/LOUD dynamic of it. They’d become a consistent favorite band of ours.

Grant-Lee Phillips, nineteeneighties, released 27 June 2006. The former Grant Lee Buffalo leader’s solo record of 80s covers could have been a throwaway, but Phillips shines by using tracks that translate incredibly well with his acoustic work and forlorn vocal style. This one got a lot of play on my mp3 player that summer.

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Coming up: Odd indie albums, reissues, and overwrought bombast

Twenty Years On: March-April 2006

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Even though I’d mentioned previously that I’d disconnected myself from my music listening habits, that isn’t necessarily to say that I quit cold turkey. For a brief while longer I was still listening to Yahoo’s LaunchCast (though that would be going away soon enough, like every other decent internet app in those days), still keeping tabs on new releases, and following various music blogs. And for a few years there we even had cable and would catch up with what was on the charts with VH1 and MTV.

I’d figured out a few places to buy music at the time… there was the Barnes & Noble down the street where I’d buy a few cds and dvds, the Virgin Megastore on Market (where I only went in once before it too closed like the Tower further down Bay Street), and of course the grand vastness that was Amoeba Records in the Haight, which would pretty much be my go-to from there on in. But this was around the time I started downloading more than buying physical, mainly due to storage space, and finding it easier to listen via mp3 player.

Mogwai, Mr Beast, released 6 March 2006. While I didn’t always find the time to listen closely to this band at times, I’d been a fan for a few years by then and always picked up or downloaded whatever came out. This one felt kind of like a transitional album, moving away from their longer and heavier work towards more melodic.

Goldfrapp, Supernature, released 7 March 2006. The same with Alison Goldfrapp; I’d loved her last couple of albums but I never got a chance to latch onto this one, which was very much in the style of her previous record Black Cherry; groovy, sexy, catchy, yet always just a little bit odd.

Band of Horses, Everything All the Time, released 21 March 2006. This was a band that caught my attention with the music magazines I was reading at the time, and I grew to really like their stuff. They were always in that indie folk subgenre that decidedly wasn’t the Stomp Clap Fireside Singalong genre that was getting a ton of airplay at the time.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Show Your Bones, released 22 March 2006. Their second album after the mega-selling debut Fever to Tell from three years previous, the lead single “Gold Lion” was a welcome return and still gets play now and again.

Daft Punk, Musique Vol 1: 1993-2005, released 4 April 2006. I’ll admit I was never the biggest Daft Punk fan — the whole indie disco/electronica think that didn’t really connect with me — but I figured that since I did actually like “Harder Better Faster Stronger” and “Around the World”, why not buy their greatest hits collection? Eventually I was won over.

The Vines, Vision Valley, released 4 March 2006. While I loved Highly Evolved from 2002 (and Winning Days from 2004 to a lesser degree), I was on the fence about this one, and I think it was because they’d started getting a bit samey in their sound. Still, I’d pick their stuff up in hopes that something would catch my interest. Sometimes it would, like 2011’s Future Primitive.

The Beatles, The Capitol Albums, Vol 2, released 11 April 2006. The second in a two-volume series which gathered most all of the numerous US album releases, complete with their distinctive alternate mixes both in mono and stereo — Beatles ’65‘s deep morass of reverb, for instance — this was of course a collection I had to pick up as this was how I’d known the albums all these years.

The Radio Dept., Pet Grief, released 12 April 2006. This was a band I’d known about via the music magazines I read, but it wasn’t until I heard “The Worst Taste in Music” somewhere, possibly on one of the many music blogs I was following at the time, that I finally grew to really like them.

Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs, Under the Covers, Vol 1, released 18 April 2006. Two singers steeped in jangle pop and 70s music influence putting out an album of covers? Sign me up! They’d eventually put out three stellar volumes over the years, all of them full of wonderful tracks that perfectly fit their style. Their cover of The Bee Gees’ “Run to Me” is a joy.

The Swell Season, The Swell Season, released 21 April 2006. This was an interesting side project for Glen Hansard of The Frames — who I knew from way back when he was in the movie The Commitments, named after his favorite book by Josef Skvorecky (and one that I’d read in college). “Falling Slowly” had been a minor favorite but would become a surprise hit in 2007 when featured in the movie Once and would win an Academy Award. They’ve put out a handful of albums since and they’re well worth checking out.

Secret Machines, Ten Silver Drops, relaesed 25 April 2006. This was their follow-up to the brilliant Now Here Is Nowhere from 2004 (one of my favorites of that year), and also the last album to feature guitarist Ben Curtis before he left to form School of Seven Bells. I remember giving this one quite a lot of play during my writing years at Arkham West, especially when I felt the occasional urge to attempt reviving the Bridgetown Trilogy.

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Coming up: getting into the groove