While Bloodflowers was a great album, it wasn’t my favorite of their latter years. I think part of it was that it came out at a time when my time at the record store was coming to a close, but it was also that it simply just didn’t resonate with me as deeply as some past albums had. Still, this sparked off a slow but steady stream of increased visibility. They were constantly on tour at the start of the decade, and followed it up with a number of collections and appearances.
The band released the Greatest Hits collection in late 2001 as a contractual obligation to the Fiction label. It features many of their best known tracks, chosen by Robert Smith himself, and also two new tracks: the poppy “Cut Here” (the title an anagram of the band name) and the perky “Just Say Yes” featuring Saffron from Republica. It’s by no means a must-have collection, but it’s a good place to start, and also a good mix for those not interested in a discography deep dive. The expanded version features a second album’s worth of the same songs, this time recorded acoustically.
Smith kept himself busy by appearing on a few albums, many of which are definitely worth checking out. He provided vocals on the great track “Perfect Blue Sky” on Junkie XL’s Radio JXL: A Broadcast from the Computer Hell Cabin — an expansive two-cd collection of upbeat radio-friendly electronic tracks and expanded house instrumentals. This album is one of my favorites of 2003 and also features vocals from Saffron, Dave Gahan, Gary Numan, Chuck D, Terry Hall, and more. It also features the groovy reimagining of Elvis’ “A Little Less Conversation” which had showed up in 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven. It’s a record worth picking up.
Also in 2003, he featured on…a Blink-182 album?? Sure, why not? The punk pop trio called The Cure one of their influences, and he features on the track “All of This”.
Then in spring of 2004, he featured on the second album by tweaker, drummer Chris Vrenna’s collective project. The album 2am wakeup call is about Vrenna’s wife’s insomnia so much of the record is dark and moody…but not necessarily gloomy. I listened to this album incessantly for most of that year, not just in the Belfry during my writing sessions (I was writing The Balance of Light at the time) but during my commutes to work. I highly recommend checking this record out.
Backing up a few months, The Cure also released the box set Join the Dots: B-Sides & Rarities 1978-2001. It’s a four-disc collection that proves that these oddities weren’t just throwaways or one-offs. Their b-sides, like “Just One Kiss”, “Breathe” and “The Big Hand”, could be just as amazing and memorable as their album tracks and singles, and even their soundtrack and compilation offerings like “Burn” (from The Crow soundtrack) and the cover of Depeche Mode’s “World in My Eyes” (from For the Masses) are great. It’s worth checking these out.
But wait! There’s one more thing! One that often gets overlooked!
They also did the theme song for the French animated series Dragon Hunters by taking their track “Taking Off” (which would show up soon on their next record) and repurposing it into this fun and boppy theme. This one doesn’t show up on any greatest hits, reissues or box sets (at least not yet anyway), but it’s easy to find online.
I’ve been going through some music from 1999 the last couple of days and finding a bunch of albums and songs I used to listen to quite a bit then that I haven’t listened to in ages, and some I’ve even completely forgotten about. This was during the back half of my tenure at HMV, and by this time I’d been tasked with ordering the imports and, if I could get away with it, some of the obscure indie titles that I figured someone aside from me might like. A lot of these got considerable play down in the Belfry during my writing sessions.
Medal, Drop Your Weapon, 24 May 1999. This Oxford quintet’s music had that sort of epic moodiness that was at odds with a lot of what was big at the time, but their sound was perfect for my writing sessions, especially the slow groove of “Possibility”. Well worth checking out if you can find it.
Arab Strap, Cherubs EP, 1 September 1999. I kind of liked the lead track off this, but it was the slow and sludgy “Pulled” that drew my interest. Sure, it’s seven-plus minutes long and takes its own sweet time getting somewhere (and even then the tempo subtly shifts all over the place), but it’s the two-minute wall of noise coda that makes the entire song. Considering that I’m a huge fan of the quiet/LOUD style, this fit perfectly in my wheelhouse.
Days of the New, Days of the New II, 31 August 1999. Remember this guy, Travis Meeks? Promising musician with a growly semi-acoustic grunge sound? They had a minor hit with “Touch Peel and Stand” from the first album but the second record kind of got passed over. Thing is, this second record was absolutely amazing. Really tight musicianship and songwriting, and definitely more adventurous. Sadly his group imploded (apparently his backing band quit in frustration and started their own group, Tantric, who had a few minor hits in the early 00s. I listened to this one a hell of a lot that summer.
Tin Star, The Thrill Kisser, 9 February 1999. How the heck did I latch onto this…? I think the BMG rep handed a promo to me and thought I’d like it, and yes, like it I did! Not quite electronica, not quite indie, but a hybrid of both with a heaping dollop of British eccentricity added into the mix, it’s cool, funky, and a really great record. This got a ton of play in the Belfry for a good couple of years.
Kill Holiday, Somewhere Between the Wrong Is Right, 23 February 1999. I’d heard “In Closing (Memorial Day)” on The River one night driving home from work and immediately ordered the album on my following shift! Y’all know how much I do love an epic final track with a slow build (and again with the quiet/LOUD thing). One of my favorite indie releases of that year.
Trashmonk, Mona Lisa Overdrive, 25 March 1999. Ever wonder what Nick Laird-Clowes did after The Dream Academy? Well, he dropped this one really weird album named after a William Gibson book that sounded nothing like his former band. Sometimes experimental, sometimes groovy, sometimes hauntingly beautiful, it’s definitely worth checking out if you can find it.
Lamb, Fear of Fours, 17 May 1999. More experimental and much darker than their debut (and nearly all the songs contain quirky time signatures outside of 4/4), it’s the one that captured my attention to the point that they became one of my favorite bands of the late 90s/early 00s.
Rico, Sanctuary Medicines, 16 August 1999. This Glaswegian industrial musician could probably be compared to Nine Inch Nails but without the dire levels of nihilism. I don’t even remember how I came across this one aside from the fact that I really dug the whole industrial metal sound and that it wasn’t trying so damn hard to fit into the goth stereotypes like some other bands.
Handsome Boy Modeling School, So…How’s Your Girl?, 19 October 1999. Only Prince Paul and Dan the Automator could get away with naming their band after an episode-long joke from Chris Elliott’s bonkers TV show Get a Life…and loosely basing AN ENTIRE ALBUM on said episode. But it’s a damn fine record and one of the best of the year on many critics’ lists. It’s a super fun record worth owning.
The All Seeing I, Pickled Eggs & Sherbet, 20 September 1999. Another ‘where the heck did I hear about this’ import and the only album from this electronica collective, though this sounds more like a quirky British indie band instead if you didn’t know their background. It’s extremely eccentric and I have no idea what they were trying to prove with it, but it’s a fascinating listen.
Unlike last year, where I was just too preoccupied with Real Life and other things and hadn’t allowed myself to really get to know the new music I was acquiring, I’m making a concerted effort to pay attention to what’s coming out these days, and I’m quite happy to say that I’m finding a lot of really good stuff out there!
These two mixtapes were basically holdovers from late 2023 where I’d started a list of songs but hadn’t gotten around to completing it and arranging the tracklist flow. I’m quite happy with how they came out, however, and I hope you enjoy them as well!
From the Open Skies:In My Blue World 2, created 14 January 2024. No, I have not written the sequel to In My Blue World just yet! I only have a very rough two-page outline of an idea, but I think it’s worth working on as a future project later on in the year! All I’ll say that it involves our heroes facing off a new foe with a much stronger and creepier ability to siphon magic for their own nefarious uses! And what better way to prep for a future novel project than creating a mixtape soundtrack for it? [Note: for those of you playing along, the title here is borrowed from another ELO song, heh.]
Walk in Silence XXVIII, created 30 January 2024.First of all, I can’t believe I’m already up to twenty-eight volumes of this series!! (Then again, I’ve been making them since 1988, so…) This, Listen in Silence and Untitled have pretty much become my own NOW That’s What I Call… compilations that just won’t quit. This one came out surprisingly well and I’m finding myself returning to it more and more.
While going through some of my mp3s the other day I was thinking about the music that inspired some of the novels I’d written. They weren’t completely inspired by just one song of course, but there was that one track that was pretty much the stepping stone that got the project started in earnest. It got me thinking about some of my other projects and how they got their (musical) start.
The Phoenix Effect / The Bridgetown Trilogy. Poe’s ‘band version’ of her single “Hello” dropped probably a couple of weeks before I started writing The Phoenix Effect in March 1997. I’d had a vague idea of the story I wanted to write for at least a few months, but it was this song that made me realize I was ready to do it. The song itself is very Johnny Mnemonic in its theme — and I had a soft spot for that enjoyable but extremely flawed film — and I realized that movie had a similar mood I was aiming for with this new project. Darker, edgier, angrier. Those weren’t words you’d use to describe my previous writing, to be honest, but I was willing to give it a go. This single got my creative blood pumping enough that it ended up as the first track on the first Songs from the Eden Cycle mixtape.
Two Thousand. This trunked novel was to be my Gen-X ‘becoming an adult without a direction’ story that never quite panned out, based on several related ideas: a close circle of friends regularly meeting up at a bench in Back Bay; a trio of musicians starting a local indie band; the frustrations of following your dreams versus going into the workplace and which obviously paid the rent. The Wolfgang Press’ cover of Three Dog Night’s “Mama Told Me Not to Come” was on their brilliant album Queer, which got played incessantly in The Shoebox apartment while I worked on this. I felt it was the perfect theme song for the project.
Can’t Find My Way Home. I’d come up with the idea for this time travel idea during my time at HMV, when I’d first heard this phenomenal cover of the Blind Faith tune. That gorgeous intro played by Johnny Marr screamed ‘opening theme song’ in my head. It took a few years for me to come up with a story behind it, and it’s gone through various versions and has been trunked multiple times. I’ve recently had a few ideas on a new approach to the story, however, so perhaps this may surface one last time…
Love Like Blood. My trunked vampire novel (it’s there for a good reason in that it’s terrible despite a lot of really good ideas) had been started back in 2004 when I’d been frustrated by my inability to finish The Balance of Light, and I’d been reading a few vampire novels at the time, so I figured, why the hell not? Let’s give it a try, something to focus on so I can at least keep working? This Killing Joke song wasn’t just the opening theme of the novel (the first chapter has a band playing it live at the Paradise in Boston) but it was to set the mood with its ridiculous take on goth tropes. [I haven’t read it in years, so now I’m curious to see how bad it is and if it’s salvageable. I’m in no rush, however.]
Meet the Lidwells!I’ve mentioned before that a lot of MtL borrows from ideas that I’d used in Two Thousand (hey, I wasn’t going to be using them, so…). One of the biggest moments I’d planned in TT was a pivotal ‘make or break’ scene for the lead character and his band, in which they did a blistering cover of this final track off The La’s self-titled album. Years later when I started MtL, I knew that I’d be using that same idea for a pivotal scene, this time pinpointing The Lidwells’ highest career moment they’d ever achieved. It’s the scene near the end of the novel where Thomas Lidwell describes the band performing a live version of their song “Listening” that becomes his all-time favorite moment in the band’s career.
In My Blue World.This one’s a bit obvious, but yes, it was indeed this song that came to mind when I first started writing the novel. At the time I’d just been on an ELO kick and was playing several of their albums when I was planning out the novel itself, but once I started it, I knew this was going to be the opening theme song. For those playing along, in my head there’s a crossfade right at the end of the first scene where Zuze appears for the first time, and the theme song fades in with the movie credits!
Theadia. My space opera was kicked off by this Fuzzbox deep cut off of their second album Big Bang!, one of my favorites despite its 80s pop cheesiness. I just knew that the story was going to revolve around our two nerdy heroes who are trying to save the universe but would really rather be hanging out with close friends and having a good time. I wanted this novel to not be hard sf or steeped in Doctorow levels of tech geekdom. This was the album — and the song — that I put on when I started writing the novel in the last few days of my stay at the former day job at the bank, to remind me that despite how desperate things might become in the story, these two will always find time to be true to themselves. I’m really looking forward to getting this one out as well!
Queen Ophelia’s War. I’d said before that I wrote this novel with the plan of Dialing It Back, just like I had with Diwa & Kaffi. It has its moments of tension and conflict, sure, but I wanted to write something that could also be seen as pastoral as well. And to do that I realized that I also wanted a mixtape that would be similar in feel to what it felt like when I used to listen to Cocteau Twins when I was a teenager. The mood of both the novel and the mixtape then was about the wonders of the unknown and the willingness to get lost in them for a while. Thus putting “Blue Bell Knoll” as the first track on its mixtape!
May was the month of Best Laid Plans, I suppose. With D moving back home for the summer, we agreed that it would be a great idea if I held onto her PC until she came back in autumn. That would give me the impetus to work on True Faith when I had time off from work. That wouldn’t happen until the end of the month, however. In the meantime, I’d moved my pallet bed from the window across the room and put my desk up next to it, just like I had in college, and made it a point to work there as much as possible. I think it was also about this time that Z had started making plans to move out at the end of the summer to San Francisco. This meant that I would either need to find a new roommate or make alternate plans once again, and it wasn’t something I wanted to think of right now.
In the meantime, life went on at the theater and at home. I’d started a collection of movie posters that I’d snag after the run was over and put up on my own wall. I also decided that maybe I should thin out my music collection a bit and see if I can get some extra money from it. Alas, that went about how you’d expect — far less cash than I’d hoped — but every little bit helped.
But damn it all, I did not want to move back home. I wanted to stay in Boston. I needed to stay in Boston, one way or another.
The Apples in Stereo, Fun Trick Noisemaker, released 2 May 1995. I think it was about this time I’d heard about the Elephant 6 Recording Company — a lose collective of several bands including this one with a love for 60 bubblegum pop — and they’d amassed a cult following with this album and others.
Soundtrack, Rob Roy, released 2 May 1995. One of many movies out this year focused on British history (real and otherwise) that were all quite enjoyable. I really liked the soundtrack for this one and would eventually get it on cassette.
Tracy Bonham, The Liverpool Sessions EP, released 7 May 1995. An Oregonian taking up residence in the Boston area thanks to Brett Milano from The Boston Phoenix, she had a sizeable following in the area and WFNX had her on constant rotation with “Dandelion” and an early version of “The One”. This EP would help her get signed to a major the following year.
Filter, Short Bus, released 8 May 1995. a Nine Inch Nails-adjacent band (singer-guitarist Richard Patrick was NIN’s touring guitarist for a few years), they may not have been as desperately dark as them but they certainly were just as loud and aggressive. The single “Hey Man, Nice Shot” was a huge hit despite its creepy inspiration, and continued to have a measure of success for years afterwards.
Supergrass, I Should Coco, released 15 May 1995. On a much lighter note, we had these three goofballs recording irresistibly fun and very British pop and had a major hit with their single “Alright”, which still gets a lot of play to this day. It’s a super fun album, and the rest of their discography is just as amazing.
Pulp, “Common People” single, released 22 May 1995. A teaser single for this band’s upcoming album, it became their most famous song and in my opinion one of the best “fuck rich people” songs ever written. The band has created a brilliant song with a super catchy and upbeat sound counterpointing Jarvis Cocker’s snide lyrics. One of the best songs of the 90s.
Soundtrack, Braveheart, released 23 May 1995. Another movie steeped in British history (real and otherwise), it gave Mel Gibson a much needed career boost, even if the story played fast and loose with actual facts. The soundtrack was highly acclaimed and still gets the occasional play on classical stations!
Low, Long Division, released 23 May 1995. One of their best early albums, although it took me a few years to catch up to that fact! This may not have gotten all that much airplay on stations like WFNX, but the college stations loved it.
Moonpools and Caterpillars, Lucky Dumpling, released 23 May 1995. I always got the song “Hear” mixed up with Letters to Cleo, and perhaps that’s why this band didn’t quite get the levels of success that LtC did, but it’s a fun album full of bubblegummy alternapop worth checking out.
Everclear, Sparkle and Fade, released 23 May 1995. This breakthrough for the band, their first on a major label, contained some of their best and well known songs like “Santa Monica” (which still gets radio play these days). Art Alexakis’ ‘therapy on public display’ lyric style might be a bit much for some, but it’s a great album despite that.
Soundtrack, Johnny Mnemonic, released 26 May 1995. Believe it or not, this movie was a huge influence on my writing True Faith. Sort of based on a William Gibson short story, directed by visual artist Robert Longo and cast with several unexpected names like Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, Ice-T, Henry Rollins and Takeshi Kitano, it’s a glorious mess but it’s also a hell of a lot of fun and is surprisingly creative in its own way. It’s a really great soundtrack as well.
God Lives Underwater, God Lives Underwater EP, released 31 May 1995. This band’s single “No More Love” played at the end credits of the above movie, which definitely helped get their name out there. This band was a fascinating industrial/synth/alt-metal band that sounded more like KMFDM than Ministry and while they were only around for a few years, their discography is full of great and impressively creative sounds.
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Next up: In which the Great Transcription Project begins, and Bridgetown gets a major upgrade.
Life continued apace at the Brighton Ave apartment, though I’m pretty sure the connection between Z and I would get strained at times. Between him practicing his keyboard at all hours of the night (he was also an extremely loud foot-tapper when he played, so there was also that thunk thunk thunk when he really got into the groove), and my barely making enough money to pay for a lot of the bills and the occasional actual food cooked in the apartment, we’d irritate each other quite often. Not enough for any loud arguments, because I’d do my usual hide-in-the-bedroom when things got stressful.
I mean, at the time I’d like to think I wasn’t feeling depressed or desperate like I had at the Shoebox apartment, and I was in a slightly better mood with a steady job and a girlfriend, but to be honest things could have been a lot better. I knew they could, I was just too damn broke and in debt to achieve it.
Which is pretty much why around this time I started hyperfocusing on my writing. Not on the daily just yet, but getting there. The first thing I had to do was remain focused on whatever project I was working on instead of sliding all over the place at whim.
Plus, March provided me with one hell of a great soundtrack.
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Annie Lennox, Medusa, released 6 March 1995. Annie’s second solo album is one of covers, and this too ended up a big hit for her, especially with the lovely version of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” which also ended up playing during the closing credits of the Sandra Bullock film The Net — one of many computer-themed movies that would come out that summer, many of which would partly inspire the AI subplot of True Faith.
Radiohead, The Bends, released 13 March 1995. The last thing this band wanted to do was record another “Creep” so they headed in an all new direction with this stellar record that really is worth all the accolades it’s received over the years. It’s full of tension, irritation, delicacy and tenderness, an album with equal parts anger and love. Highly recommended. I got this one via Columbia House at some point and played the hell out of it for several years afterwards, it becoming a major mainstay in the Belfry writing sessions.
Matthew Sweet, 100% Fun, released 14 March 1995. After the dense and odd Altered Beast, Sweet returned with a sunshiney pop album that’s full of fun and addictive melodies. “Sick of Myself” was the big radio hit at the time.
Goo Goo Dolls, A Boy Named Goo, released 14 March 1995. A few years before their major breakthrough “Iris”, this album gave them the ability to open that door and head on through. It’s a great album that carries a hint of their former punkish roots but also hints at the stellar songwriting they’d be known for in the future.
Mad Season, Above, released 14 March 1995. A sort-of supergroup with Layne Staley from Alice in Chains and Mike McCready from Pearl Jam, their one album could have been a by the numbers PNW grunge album but instead they took the tenderest and most introspective parts of their own bands and created a lovely record worth owning. Highly recommended.
Collective Soul, Collective Soul, released 14 March 1995. Hardly anyone expected this band’s second album to hit the heights that it did, considering their first album was good but not entirely memorable. This album, on the other hand, just kept on kicking out one hit single after the next, with “December”, “Gel”, “Smashing Young Man”, “Where the River Flows” and “The World I Know”. This too would end up getting major Belfry writing session play in the early years. It’s well worth checking out.
Moby, Everything Is Wrong, released 14 March 1995. Moby had been known in the electronic genre a bit of an oddball who made shockingly lush music that could easily be used as movie scores, and this was the record that captured many people’s attention.
Garbage, “Vow” single, released 20 March 1995. I of course knew who Butch Vig was due to his several high-status album productions like Nevermind, and I’d expected his own band to be just as great, and I was not let down. This single introduced many people to their unique sound — not quite grunge, not quite commercial alternative, but just as heavy and hella sexy.
Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, brainbloodvolume, released 21 March 1995. This band’s final album is often overlooked and forgotten as their previous album Are You Normal hadn’t done all that well either, but this became one of my favorite albums of that summer when I’d found a promo copy on cassette. It’s an album worth listening to at top volume, as it’s absolutely overflowing with energy and spirit. Every time I heard “All I Ask of Myself Is That I Hold Together” on WFNX I’d crank it up. Well worth a listen.
Our Lady Peace, Naveed, released 21 March 1995. This band, like fellow Canadians Moist, wouldn’t get that much attention around this time, but this one’s a great opening salvo for the group. Their own brand of alternative rock was twitchy yet introspective at the same time.
Joan Osborne, Relish, released 21 March 1995. Joan’s debut owes a lot to the Laurel Canyon folk and rock of the 70s, but she manages to update that sound into something fresh and fun, inserting an element of Bonnie Raitt-like blues into the mix. You’ll still hear “One of Us” on the radio, but the lovely “St. Theresa” and the sexy “Right Hand Man” is also worth checking out.
Morphine, Yes, released 21 March 1995. This band drops another album full of their unique sound of sparse and bassy blues rock, and it was a big hit on the Boston stations, especially with the single “Honey White”.
Elastica, Elastica, released 24 March 1995. Yes, I’m still annoyed all these years later that they shamelessly stole from Wire’s “Three Girl Rhumba” for their biggest hit. Primarily because “Connection” got so much airplay and the first several times I heard it my reaction was ‘wow, they’re playing an obscure Wire tra–oh, wait.” That said, this is a surprisingly catchy and fun album that actually was worth all the attention it got.
Silverchair, Frogstomp, released 27 March 1995. I believe this was first band that gave me the feeling that I’d waited far too long to start a music career, heh. For a teenage trio, this album is frighteningly intense and superbly crafted from start to finish. They of course ended up on my ‘will buy anything from them’ list.
Soundtrack, Tank Girl, released 28 March 1995. I was excited about this movie, considering I was quite aware of Jamie Hewlett’s bonkers comic book about a trigger-happy punk girl living in the outback and hanging with mutant kangaroos. It was ‘what if the apocalypse was bizarre and hilarious instead of all doom and gloom?’ Sadly the movie didn’t quite capture it, having been severely watered down to be palatable to the normies, but it was a lot of fun and I sat through it several times after work. The soundtrack is amazing, however, featuring fantastic tracks from Bjork, Bush, Portishead, Belly, and a goofy cover of “Let’s Do it (Let’s Fall in Love)” with Joan Jett and Paul Westerberg.
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Coming up: Coming to a close, making some decisions.
Z and I got along okay as far as roommates go who start out as complete strangers. We had our own quirks and bad habits that annoyed each other, and he wasn’t entirely happy that I was constantly broke, but other than that we were fine. We did our own things and rarely did stuff together. My only real annoyance was that he was a musician who wouldn’t practice with headphones; he had to play with speakers. Which, y’know, fine, but some nights he’d practice until 1am when I had to wake up early the next day. And his practice style was to play the same passage repeatedly, sometimes for a good hour or so, to nail it.
Still, I had my own room, my stereo, and my own things to keep me company. Things are a bit fuzzy for me around this time as my memories of this time conflict a little with what job I had at the time and what was going on. I’m pretty sure I was in floating mode, taking it day by day. D was back to school and living at 6 Arlington — my old dorm from my own senior year a few years previous — and when I wasn’t at the apartment I was there. I had the temp jobs and the occasional tryout for other positions — I tried my hand at transcription for a few weeks, which was an interesting job but definitely not in my wheelhouse. I know Brighams asked if I wanted a fill-in shift as I’d left on good terms, but I chose not to as I wanted to move on.
The Cranberries, No Need to Argue, released 3 October 1994. The second album from this band was peppier than the first and scored a hit with the weirdly popular “Zombie”, but I preferred the lovely “Ode to My Family” instead.
Lucas, Lucacentric, released 4 October 1994. For a brief time I had cable at the new apartment and would watch MuchMusic for hours on end — it was like watching MTV only better! This track popped up on the station and I absolutely loved the Michel Gondry video. It’s a fun and silly track.
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Question the Answers, released 4 October 1994. These local boys brought yet another fun and energetic album to the alternative airwaves, with the great “Kinder Words” single.
Korn, Korn, released 11 October 1994. I was totally not into the alternative metal scene at the time, but I was kind of fascinated by this group which got play on MTV now and again. Their first album didn’t quite reach the heights that, say, Tool’s Undertow did, but they did introduce the janky drop-tuned sludge metal to the masses and had a huge following for the rest of the decade.
Pizzicato Five, Made in USA, released 11 October 1994. I adored this record! It helped of course that this was music that I could hear as a soundtrack for an anime in my head — and their music was so poppy and positive that it definitely helped lift my spirits. [Note: I’m pretty sure the release date is wrong on this because I’m 100% positive that I listened to this while still living in the Shoebox. It’s possibly off by a few months.]
Laika, Silver Apples of the Moon, released 17 October 1994. A band I’d hear on WFNX off and on and was always fascinated by, but never quite got around to picking anything up from them until a few years later. Their quirky mix of not-quite-electronic, not-quite-indie grooves were super fun.
Jamiroquai, The Return of the Space Cowboy, released 17 October 1994. I remember hearing him this early, usually on WFNX’s late-night electronic and dance shows (and this fun video on MuchMusic), and I was of course fascinated by how much he channeled Stevie Wonder. I didn’t pick his stuff up for a few years either, but I always kept notice.
Sophie B Hawkins, Whaler, released 18 October 1994. I’d hear “As I Lay Me Down” quite a bit around this time — this was one of those songs you’d hear on commercial radio as well as in various movies around this time.
Heather Nova, Oyster, released 24 October 1994. She could sort of be seen as a one-hit wonder in terms of US charts, as “Walk This World” was a hit here, but she’s been around for years and doing really well in Europe and elsewhere. I’d hear this one on alt-rock and commercial radio a lot around this time.
The London Suede, Dog Man Star, released 25 October 1994. It took me quite some time to get used to this album as it’s quite the departure from their more glam-rock debut, moving towards darker moods and introspective lyrics. I did appreciate that they named it after the Stan Brakhage film, though!
Dead Can Dance, Toward the Within, released 25 October 1994. One of my favorite 4AD bands, I very nearly went to see them when they played live at Berklee but was too broke to afford tickets. They came out with this live album which would get some minor airplay but would much later be appreciated on stations like KEXP.
Lords of Acid, Voodoo-U, released 25 October 1994. I was fascinated by this band: I knew they were all about the sex and the punk-techno hybrid sound, but I never quite got around to picking them up until my HMV years sometime later. This one would become a favorite of mine later on during my Belfry writing sessions.
Dionne Farris, Wild Seed – Wild Flower, released 25 October 1994. Another summery single that got a lot of play, “I Know” was a fun and funky track that had crossover potential both on alt-rock and commercial radio. It’s one of my favorite tracks of the 90s, and the rest of the album is a fun listen as well.
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Next Up: Unexpected reunions, sad goodbyes and frozen evenings
By the time summer arrived, I’d started spending more time with D at her apartment because a) it was air-conditioned whereas the Shoebox was a sweltering hotbox, and b) my day job was right across the street. We were that couple, spending far too much time together mainly because most of our friends were out of town and constantly joined at the hip. We were both broke and spent as little money as possible, sometimes to our own detriment to our health. We had our fun times and our down times. And we talked a lot about this science fiction project that had been dogging me for months now.
And it was here late in the afternoon on the 18th of June that I suddenly had a moment of clarity: I knew how to start that project now! We’d been talking off and on about the various versions of new age religions that fascinated us — whether they were earth-based like Wicca or universe-based like astral souls, I realized that there was a lot to mine here. Not so much with appropriation, mind you, but inspiration to come up with my own version. It was that afternoon that I’d come up with an opening scene: one of my characters appears out of nothingness in her apartment, head spinning dangerously, having just returned from some magical traveling through space and time. And this woman had returned because she knew that something big, something life-changing, was about to take place that affected the world. And it had to do with people of Earth finally reconnecting with alien ancestors.
I knew what I wanted to do with this novel now.
This would be the beginning of True Faith, a novel D and I would co-write over the next two years. Most of the writing would be done by me though she would write certain scenes featuring a certain character, and she’d also become a sounding board for all the new ideas that were bursting forth now. We soon had an idea for an extended universe complete with vague ideas for several related novels.
True Faith was never finished, spanning only seven or eight lengthy chapters, several outtakes and a lot of scribbled notes, but it would set the stage for what would be a complete rethink and revision of this universe two years later when I started The Phoenix Effect. The two novels are not related in any way other than the basic idea of alien contact via spiritual means, but I’d like to think that was where the Mendaihu Universe finally went from its planning stages to actual writing.
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Stone Temple Pilots, Purple, released 7 June 1994. I’d been a passing STP fan, but after hearing the absolutely amazing “Big Empty” single on the soundtrack for The Crow, I had to check this one out. I bought this one used at Nuggets and it soon became one of my all-time favorite records of the year. I think it’s their best record, full of great songwriting and excellent playing, and several of its songs were radio favorites. This one would get major play during my Belfry years as well.
Velocity Girl, ¡Simpático!, released 14 June 1994. This band from DC would get a lot of play on WFNX, and their lighter take on the grunge scene, leaning more towards indie pop than hard rock, was a favorite for the indie crowds in Boston. I’d hear “Sorry Again” on that station a lot that summer.
Lush, Split, released 14 June 1994. It took me a while to get around to buying this one due to being so broke, but I do remember listening to it down at Strawberries when they’d opened a store on Boylston Street not that far from the library. This one feels a lot gloomier than their previous records, more introspective and dreamlike, and while that may have caused it not to get as much play or attention, it did in fact grab my attention with the slow but gorgeous “Desire Lines” which has become one of my favorite songs of theirs.
Everything But the Girl, Amplified Heart, released 17 June 1994. This was an album that didn’t get too much attention right away, as it was another of their quiet semi-acoustic records with some good but not exciting tracks. That would change a year or so later when Todd Terry remixed “Missing” and gave them a surprisingly huges hit. I’d hear both versions sometime later after I moved back home and worked once more at the local radio station.
Ride, Carnival of Light, released 20 June 1994. Another band I loved but never got around to picking up for years other than 1992’s Going Blank Again, this one contains a great cover of The Creation’s “How Does It Feel to Feel”, making it just as noisy and psychedelic as the original.
Guided By Voices, Bee Thousand, released 21 June 1994. It took me years to finally get around to getting this band’s output, considering Robert Pollard drops new GBV every other month or so, but I do remember hearing “I Am a Scientist” on WFNX and liking it a lot. I also remember this was the breakthrough album that gained them countless new followers.
Various Artists, Kiss My Ass: Classic KISS Regrooved, released 21 June 1994. An odd yet exciting tribute album featuring bands as diverse as Anthrax, Garth Brooks, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Extreme, and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. The latter band of course getting all the local play on both WFNX and WBCN!
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Coming up: Terrible band names, musical silliness and a pop album with unexpected longevity.
By the end of spring, D had finished off her semester and was going to live in an apartment that was literally just across the street from Brigham’s where I worked. And given that the summer of 1994 was going to be a very hot, sticky and humid one, we realized that it might be a better idea for both of us to hang out in the air-conditioned one instead of the sweltering Shoebox.
In the meantime, we both started talking about what to do with my Nocturne idea. We were both budding writers and I appreciated that she understood where I was willing to go with this story. At the time I still wanted it to be centered around the rebel “Vigil” group I’d come up with — essentially the science fictional version of my IWN characters — but I wasn’t sure exactly how to start the damn thing. I had a few ideas, but none of them seemed to work. We spent a few weeks in May beating it back and forth, doing a bit of world building and kicking ideas about. In the meantime I’d focus mostly on Two Thousand until something came of it.
Oh, and May was also when I met comedian Steven Wright, who’d walked into Brigham’s one night and ordered a milkshake and some food to go. I remember this because the place was dead due to the fact that the long-awaited television miniseries of Stephen King’s The Stand had premiered that night and everyone was at home watching it, and he could pop into our restaurant in relative peace. Being that we were both Emersonians, I recognized him but mainly talked about the college with him. [Side note: a few years earlier, when I lived with L on Beacon Street, I learned he lived the next building over. Small world!]
Sonic Youth, Experimental Jet Set, Trash & No Star, released 3 May 1994. I was never the biggest SY fan, but I did like “Bull in the Heather” quite a bit, and it was a huge hit on WFNX. I still hear it every now and again!
G Love and Special Sauce, G Love and Special Sauce, released 10 May 1994. WFNX also loved this band…it wasn’t quite funk, but it wasn’t quite folk or rock either, but a mix of all sorts of things. That first album is just full of goofy fun summery funk songs, and well worth listening.
The The, Solitude EP, released 10 May 1994 (US). This was primarily released in the states due to the remake of his well-known track “This Is the Day” as if played on a cheap Casio keyboard, and heard on the Threesome soundtrack earlier in the year. It’s essentially the British version of the four-tracker of the same name plus 1991’s Shades of Blue EP (which featured the great “Jealous of Youth” single).
Indigo Girls, Swamp Ophelia, released 10 May 1994. I’ve been a longtime fan of this duo since the self-titled 1989 album, and while it took me a while to get around to buying this record I loved hearing the wonderful “Least Complicated” single on WFNX.
Weezer, Weezer (aka the Blue Album), released 10 May 1994. I remember this band was just so HUGE from the very first single. Both WFNX and WBCN played the hell out of most of the tracks from this album, because it was just a refreshing take on power pop with a slight Gen-X slacker edge, but without the heavy cynicism of most indie bands of the time. It was more goofy than ironic, and I think that’s why it did so well. It took me a few singles to get around to buying it though…”Say It Ain’t So” is what sold it for me.
The Future Sound of London, Lifeforms, released 20 May 1994. Speaking of WFNX…for most of the early 90s they had a weekend evening show in which they’d play a few hours of great electronic music, and this band was one of their favorites. As I was too broke to be picky, I never quite got around to picking up this one until I found the CD used years later, but I remember liking the single mix of the title track.
Beastie Boys, Ill Communication, 23 May 1994. They’d come a long way from their meathead rap of the mid-80s, and this was the album that shot them into the stratosphere with several singles like “Sure Shot” and the listen-only-at-high-volume “Sabotage”. It’s similar to Check Your Head in that there’s a lot of actual instrument playing here, but while that album is scattershot and experimental, this one is a lot more exciting and enjoyable.
Toad the Wet Sprocket, Dulcinea, 24 May 1994. I’d been a fan of this band since hearing “One Little Girl” back in my freshman year in college, and I’d always look for their records. I owned most of them on vinyl except this one which I found used on CD. It wasn’t quite the winner chartwise but there are a lot of great tunes on it!
Frank Black, Teenager of the Year, released 24 May 1994. His second solo record isn’t quite as wild and diverse as his self-titled first album, but it does share a lot of the same weird humor that he’s always been known for, such as the happy-yet-sad “Headache” and “Two Reelers”, a song about being a Three Stooges fan. D and I loved doing his “happy dance” from this video whenever we wanted to crack each other up.
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Up next: a sudden spark of inspiration finally kicks my science fiction novel into high gear!
Tt just so happened that the day after I’d unceremoniously quit the Longwood Coop, I’d decided to drown my sorrows and frustrations by taking the Green Line T for a ride out to Riverside Station and back, just to get my mind off things. And of course, my mom happened to call the store for some now-forgotten reason, so as was normal in my youth, my parents found out about my misadventures before I could even get myself home!
Thankfully I wasn’t unemployed for too long. Boston being what it was at the time, I could find a job somewhere if I didn’t mind doing retail, or something completely not in my expected career path. As a GenXer in the 90s, you took what you could get, whatever it might be. Better to be paid than miserable, yeah? So thus starts my next job at Brigham’s Ice Cream on Cambridge Street, just up the road from the Charles Street T stop on the Red Line. An easy walkable commute, and the not exactly allowable ability to ‘forage’ so I wasn’t always broke and hungry.
On the writing end of things, I found myself finally pushing forward with the Two Thousand project, my attempt at the Gen-X-ennui-avec-excellent-soundtrack story. Hell, I was even writing more poetry again! Just fragments at the time, but the point of that exercise was to write something, just to get myself going again. More importantly I was also playing around with a few more ideas regarding the Nocturne idea, having recently rented Gall Force 2: Destruction, the second in the series. There was something about this series that resonated with me: the idea of resurrection, reincarnation, and the creation of life starting elsewhere sounded like a really fascinating idea to me.
It was also around this time that I started looking into new age spirituality. Not entirely to an obsessive degree, but as a way to think of my life so far from a completely different angle. I looked into Wicca among other things and took it semi-seriously; for me it wasn’t a way out or an escape, but merely an anchor to get me back on the path I needed to take. My new girlfriend and I both got into it to an extent, but neither of us were heavy practitioners; we were merely thinking of alternate ways to look at life.
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Mixtape, Crazy Little Thing Called WAUGH!!! Vol 5, created April 1994. The fifth mix in the WAUGH!! series continues with the ‘sourced from other people’s record collections’ theme with the occasional oddball single or b-side I enjoyed. I didn’t listen to this one all that much but it did contain a special bit: ten minutes of peeping baby frogs recorded by my sister from the swamp across from my family’s house! Heh.
Mixtape, Two Thousand OST, created April 1994. Signs are always good that it’s going to be a successful writing project, or at least one I’d focus on for a length of time, when I make a mixtape for it! In this case, I took a bunch of my favorite 90s tracks of the time and threw them together as an ultimate GenX mixtape to inspire the story. There’s also a single side of classic rock here: this was a side story in which the lead character’s band is known to do oddball cover songs during their live shows. I would eventually trunk this novel, but the mixtape is still worth it!
The Offspring, Smash, released 8 April 1994. This SoCal punk band had been around for ages, but this was their breakthrough, so huge that it helped label Epitaph gain some much-needed funds to expand their own catalog. “Come Out and Play” was on super heavy rotation on WFNX, and soon came the follow-up radio hits “Gotta Get Away” and “Self Esteem”. Three years later they’d jump to major label Columbia and stay there for the next several years.
Oasis, “Supersonic” single, released 11 April 1994. The Gallagher brothers entered the Britpop scene with this swaggering single and they were an immediate hit on both sides of the Atlantic. I wouldn’t get into them for another few singles, but this is definitely a hell of a fine debut.
Gigolo Aunts, Flippin’ Out, released 12 April 1994. This power pop band was a favorite of the Boston indie crowds, and “Cope” got a significant amount of airplay on both WFNX and WBCN. The album cover is known for featuring a pre-fame Chloe Sevigny, who was a friend of the band.
Hole, Live Through This, released 12 April 1994. A hell of a fine record and one that seemed to hit a little too close to the mark, as it was released just days after her husband Kurt Cobain had died by suicide. It does stand on its own, however, with several great tracks on it that got significant airplay on indie radio.
Pulp, His ‘n’ Hers, released 18 April 1994. A pre-“Common People” minor hit for the band in the UK, they did get a hint of play here but not nearly as much as they deserved. This was their first on a much larger label (Island) which helped them get heard.
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Let Love In, released 19 April 1994. I’m pretty sure I skipped this album for the time being as I just couldn’t get myself prepped for the dark and brooding Cave at this point in my life, but the soon to be ubiquitous “Red Right Hand” surfaced here and has been one of his most well known songs to date.
Blur, Parklife, released 25 April 1994. This, on the other hand, was an album I was looking forward to! After the moodiness of Modern Life is Rubbish, this new record was loud, perky, and full of humor and classic British quirkiness. It’s one of their best.
The Smithereens, A Date with the Smithereens, released 26 April 1994. This was an album that sadly got overlooked and forgotten due to several events: getting dropped from Capitol, the inability to get Butch Vig to produce them, and not quite fitting in with the grunge scene. And yet it’s a great record full of their trademark guitar rock and blues, well worth checking out.
Live, Throwing Copper, released 26 April 1994. This record was a long time in coming, their last album having dropped over two years previous, and many wondered if they were going to continue their tight yet now-aging earnest guitar pop sound. Fans and critics were both surprised by the outcome: heavy guitars, heavy subject matter, and an in-your-face sound that showed just how powerful they’d become as a band. It’s an amazing record with several radio hits including “I Alone”, “Selling the Drama”, “All Over You”, “Lightning Crashes” and the epic closer “White, Discussion”. This one got a lot of listens during my writing sessions for Nocturne.
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Coming up: a hot summer begins and a sweltering apartment inspires an important change in a story idea.
Walk In Silence 