Today I’m thinking it’s time for me to get my brain back on track in terms of what day of the week it is.
Part of the issue is my Day Job schedule. The schedule itself is not the problem per se, it’s that it’s allowed me to lose track of my sense of time. I rarely work Sundays but I’ll often have a midweek day off, so the work week will be Monday-Tuesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday with some of the hours varying, just for example.
There were also other personal reasons why I let a lot of that fall by the wayside, and I allowed it on purpose: when you’ve got IRL things going on, sometimes it’s best not to adhere to a strict schedule and just take it day by day. Which is what I’ve been doing for a while now.
Thing is, I’ve been doing that for a little longer than necessary. [And yes, it’s included hitting all the new music releases on Friday, which is why I’m posting it here. One byproduct of passively letting the days go by is that I lose focus on the new music I’ve been enjoying. And I’ve already blogged about that.]
So what to do about it?
One thing I need to do is follow my whiteboard schedule more often. Right now it’s more of a suggestion than an assignment board, and that’s by design, but I feel like I’m ready to take on those assignments again. And these are simple enough: daily words at 750words.com, update one of the blogs, and get some considerable work done on my main project (which at this time is Theadia). I’m not asking for much. I’m just looking to get moving again.
What will come of this? Who knows? They’re not Best Laid Plans heading straight for a crash and burn. It’s simply a tighter and more regular regimen, that’s all. And hopefully that will help me remember what day of the goldang week it is again!
Unfortunately I am falling behind on a lot of my writing work lately, so I’m going to be taking a few weeks off to catch up. It happens from time to time…whether it’s the Day Job sapping my energy or other non-writing things taking precedence now and again, I just run out of space on the schedule. It’s not my favorite feeling, to be honest, and sometimes I have to sacrifice things here and there. It’s not always to catch up, either…sometimes it’s just to give myself a mental and physical break to rest.
I was reading some random posts on Threads the other day and someone mentioned how when some people talk about ‘the 90s’ (specifically about music), a lot of what they mention really started in the 80s, like Jane’s Addiction and their amazing 1988 album Nothing’s Shocking.
To which I responded: “I always say the truly formative alt rock years were really ’84-’89. It just happened to reach wider popularity in ’91.”
Which of course made me think that I really need to get my act together and finally write and complete that Walk in Silence book project. I think at this point it would be less a historical book and more of a personal memoir in which I write about the important albums and singles that influenced and inspired me during that time. And I’ve kind of been doing a very abbreviated version of it with my daily 750Words, so perhaps I’m a bit further ahead on this than I think I am…?
Oh hey there! I’m going to be taking a short hiatus from the blogging to get some work done on Queen Ophelia’s War, as I’m falling behind and seriously need to get caught up. Not sure how long this will be, but hopefully not for too long. Maybe a month or so? At least until I’ve gotten myself into a better writing schedule for it.
I’m also limiting my footprint on the birdsite these days so if you want to find me online, I’ll most likely be popping up every now and again on BlueSky instead. [I have a few invite codes if anyone is not yet on there and might be interested!]
The Great Transcription Project was coming along quite nicely, because part of it was to get me used to sitting down in front of that computer and getting something done. That was the important part. Some days I’d do my older poetry, some days I’d do parts of the IWN or Belief in Fate or one of my other ancient projects that never got all that far. And this would inspire me to sit down and actually work on writing True Faith, even if it was a few paragraphs or a short scene.
Then I heard about the state film bureau’s screenplay contest! I’d known about this in the past via one of my siblings, but I figured, why the hell not? If anything would help me invest a considerable amount of time in this writing career I wanted, this would. And it would also give me a strict deadline: I had to get it done before July 31st. Which meant that I had exactly one month to write an entire screenplay. It just so happened that in all my juvenilia I was transcribing, I did in fact have one finished that I could revive and revise! It was One Step Closer to You, a John Hughes-esque enemies-to-lovers romp I’d written in 1987 right after finishing the IWN. And considering that I’d just gotten a college degree in this sort of thing, I dove in and worked on it every moment I wasn’t at the day job. And I got it done under deadline with three days to go! I spent that last weekend at my sister’s house, printed it out, and mailed it in that weekend.
Mind you, the end result isn’t exactly perfect and it definitely did not win any prizes, but it did prove a few things: a) I can definitely work under pressure with a deadline if I put my mind to it, b) I can definitely write every single day because it was something I love doing, and c) this proved that it wasn’t that I was a terrible student, it really was that unless I could hyperfocus on something I truly enjoyed, my patience and interest would wane considerably. [And as a side note, one of the revised scenes in the story had the main male character working at a local radio station, which I’d based on my time at WCAT…which I’d be returning to soon enough, though I obviously didn’t know that at the time.]
Yeah, this writing racket was definitely something I could see myself doing long term…
Foo Fighters, Foo Fighters, released 4 July 1995. When it was announced that the former Nirvana drummer was starting a band, most people weren’t expecting to hear wonderfully crafted and ridiculously catchy tunes that had only a distant passing similarity to the former group. Dave Grohl’s first record hit all the right buttons for several people and he’s been nailing it ever since.
Shaggy, Boombastic, released 11 July 1995. Proving that he wasn’t just a one hit wonder with “Oh Carolina”, he returned with one of his most popular songs that still gets play to this day. [Side note: when A and I went to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe in London, Puck happened to burst into this song, causing Oberon to burst into laughter. It was a perfectly hilarious moment.]
Buffalo Tom, Sleepy Eyed, released 11 July 1995. The beloved Boston band returned with yet another great album. While it wasn’t as huge as Let Me Come Over or Red Letter Day (partly because they wanted to return to their more stripped-down roots), it’s nonetheless a fun album, and singles “Summer” and “Tangerine” were both radio favorites.
Ramones, ¡Adios Amigos!, released 18 July 1995. The kings of American punk — the band that inspired several UK punk bands — came to an end with this final album, and it was a hell of a great way to go as it’s one of their strongest later albums. They went on one final tour after this and I’m glad to say I was able to see them for it at Avalon in Boston. [And yes, every single song they performed started with the classic Ramone ‘1-2-3-4’ count-in.]
311, 311, released 25 July 1995. After two excellent albums that just couldn’t break through to the charts or even significant radio play, this third album smashed all expectations by being their best yet, with several songs getting major play on radio and on MTV. It’s still one of their biggest sellers, and it’s worth checking out.
The Presidents of the United States of America, The Presidents of the United States of America, released 25 July 1995. Meanwhile, these goofballs (who, by the way, opened up for Ramones on that show I just mentioned!) instantly reminded me of the Boston band Morphine: a trio of a drummer and two guys who played unconventional guitars. Only these three had their tongue firmly in cheek singing about Lumps, Peaches, Kitties, and Dune Buggies (and a nutty cover of the MC5 to top it off!) and giving themselves the most improbable name in alternative rock. It’s a bonkers debut full of silly humor and insanely catchy earworms. Definitely worth a listen.
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Up next: when all good (and not so good) things come to an end
A new year, a new focus: one way or another, I was going to get my shit together and make it work.
As it happened, those blurred months of job-hopping came to an end with not one but two offers: a part-time job working the media programming at the New England Aquarium, or a full-time job working at the Loew’s Theater in Somerville. Both were tempting, both paid about the same, and both had all but hired me by the middle of January…but out of financial desperation, I had to turn down the aquarium job and take the theater job instead. And the last thing I wanted was to hold down two different jobs to make ends meet, thus killing any writing time I might have.
It ended up being the best decision, actually. While I still remained relatively broke and in debt, there was a lot more job security, the commute wasn’t all that bad…and yeah, there was the fact that I could cop a free daily lunch or dinner out of it. I ate a hell of a lot of hot dogs, popcorn, soda and candy those months that I was there. Not exactly healthy…but it was better than skipping dinners and going hungry, right? And there was an added bonus: all the new release movies I could possibly watch, for free! I made it a point to see as many of the releases that I could on the pretense that I could tell our indecisive customers whether they’d like it or not, but primarily to get some heavy hands-on learning of visual and aural storytelling, the kind that I desperately needed if I was going to get my writing off the ground.
Meanwhile, I was still focusing on my writing True Faith. At this point I’d write some of it longhand and transcribe it later on when I had use of D’s computer whenever we got together. That gave me the impetus to not only write more, but to write consistently. Not just every once in a while, but as often as I possibly could. And I came up with a writing motto:
Just fucking DO it. Just shut the fuck up and WRITE.
If anyone could kick me in the arse and get me writing and get out of my habit of indecisiveness and distraction, it was going to have to be myself. I wrote this on two index cards, taped one of them above my desk, and taped the other one next to my bed. The two places I’d see them most.
Various Artists, This Is Fort Apache, released 3 January 1995. A compilation of bands that have recorded at the famed studio in Cambridge. This would include local favorites Cold Water Flat, The Lemonheads, Buffalo Tom, and Juliana Hatfield, as well as international favorites like Billy Bragg and Radiohead. You’ll still see this one floating around in the discount bins, but it really is a great mix worth owning.
Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Rapture, released 14 January 1995. The band’s last album before breaking up was even more poppy and cheerful than 1991’s Superstition, but it’s definitely a positive way to close out a long and incredible career.
Morrissey, “Boxers” single, released 16 January 1995. His standalone singles by this point were becoming more infrequent and a bit less exciting, and while this one was a fan favorite, it failed to capture the interest of the US fans.
Silverchair, “Pure Massacre” single, released 16 January 1995. After their shockingly catchy and spirited debut single “Tomorrow” released late in 1994, this band of teenagers (singer Daniel Johns was 16 when this single dropped) surprised everyone by following through with yet another strong single that could equal all the other heavy alternative bands like Stone Temple Pilots and Alice in Chains.
Throwing Muses, University, released 16 January 1995. The newest Muses album may have been their last on Sire/Reprise in the States, but it’s one of their strongest and most consistent albums to that date. Despite high placement in the alternative charts, however, it would be their last on a major label.
The Wolfgang Press, Funky Little Demons, released 23 January 1995. Sadly, this 4AD band was also seeing the end of a label signing, as well as the end of their run. Granted, they’d been a band for over a decade and felt the need to go their separate ways. This album doesn’t quite hit the high points that the excellent Queer did in 1992/93, but it does reflect the same kind of quirky grooviness they’d evolved towards.
The The, “I Saw the Light” single, released 23 January 1995. Matt Johnson’s newest record since 1993’s moody Dusk was quite unexpected: an album of Hank Williams covers…? Sure, why not? The teaser single was a great rocking cover of “I Saw the Light” with an equally great and vertiginous video.
Leftfield, Leftism, released 30 January 1995. I first heard “Original” on WFNX on the T Orange Line up to Sullivan Square while heading up to the theater at the start of my new job. I was fascinated by the techno aspect of it, but I was really drawn to Toni Halliday’s voice, who I hadn’t heard since her Curve days. An album worth checking out.
So what happened during the summer of 1994? That’s a good question. Not too much excitement, really. Living day to day, working at Brigham’s slinging scoops and making frappes, and working on True Faith. One thing that comes to mind is that I started reading again.
As much as I loved hanging out in bookstores, I would usually only get magazines and music reference books. I was just too involved in the visual, renting and watching movies because of my college years, not to mention my lack of patience and focus in actually sitting down and reading. D suggested I start reading Stephen King’s The Stand since we’d watched the miniseries by this time (she’d taped it for later viewing). Yeah, I know…going from being a non-reader to investing time in a Giant Doorstop, and the Complete and Uncut Edition at that? But it was a great idea because King can be a very visual writer in his worldbuilding and prose style, and that was the same style I was trying to create. The Stand was an unexpected yet vital influence on the Mendaihu Universe in that respect; I was fascinated by how vast the story universe was, and that inspired me to do the same. I spent the next year or so devouring several of his novels, finally realizing how much I did enjoy reading once I allowed myself to.
Meanwhile, D and I had realized we both enjoyed parody songs and came up with our own, focusing on parodying alternative rock under the name Mercy Buckets. We even had an album cover idea: on the walk to her apartment, we’d pass by an alleyway that had a sign with the misspelled words “Do not throw any thrash here.” In stark black and white, we’d be captured pogoing and headbanging in front of it. Our proudest moment was a parody of Hole’s “Miss World” written about Dan Quayle running for president. Yes, we were nerds.
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The Smashing Pumpkins, “Rocket” single, released 1 July 1994. This wasn’t my favorite track off Siamese Dream, but this single featured a great b-side that WFNX picked up on: a live-in-studio cover of Depeche Mode’s “Never Let Me Down Again”. The track would show up a few years later on the For the Masses DM tribute album, but this is where it first appeared.
The Prodigy, Music for the Jilted Generation, released 4 July 1994. A few years before the ubiquitous “Firestarter” song and video, this group was known then for their noisy yet exciting techno that always fired up the dance floor. This was their second album and “Voodoo People” would get minor airplay on WFNX during their weekend techno shows.
Hootie and the Blowfish, Cracked Rear View, released 5 July 1994. I know WFNX wouldn’t dare to touch this band at all, but WBCN played the hell out of them. I’d switch to that station when I was in the mood for more commercial rock stuff, and you couldn’t go an hour without hearing at least one or two tracks from this record. Terrible band name aside, this is actually a pretty decent album!
Des’ree, I Ain’t Movin’, released 5 July 1994. I would hear “You Gotta Be” everywhere I went that summer. And it really is a great track, full of lovely melody and positive and inspiring vibes. I’d also hear it a lot into the next year when I started the movie theater job as part of their in-between movie music.
311, Grassroots, released 12 July 1994. The band’s second album didn’t quite get all the attention it should have, but it did have a minor hit with “Homebrew” which would get play on WNFX and WBCN now and again.
Harry Connick Jr, She, released 12 July 1994. “(I Could Only) Whisper Your Name” was another pop gem that I’d hear everywhere. More known for his jazzy covers of old pop standards, this was an album of fresh new songs for him and was an unexpected success.
Seal, Seal (II), released 19 July 1994. I loved the first album (“Crazy” remains one of my all-time favorite songs of the 90s), but this second record is the one that pushed him further into the mainstream with its many great singles, including “Don’t Cry”, “Prayer for the Dying” and “Kiss from a Rose”, which would be used the following summer in the movie Batman Forever. This remains my favorite album of his and I highly recommend it.
Satchel, EDC, released 26 July 1994. Shawn Smith certainly got around in the 90s and 00s. He formed this band with a coworker from Tower Records, formed the band Brad with Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard soon after, formed Pigeonhed in the late 90s and had a minor hit with the remix of “Battleflag”, and showed up as a guest member on several albums and songs with bands from the Pacific Northwest. This one almost fell under the radar, but I’d heard a track or two from it and eventually found a used copy that I’d play during writing sessions now and again.
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Next up: Summer’s end, making future plans and planning future moves
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!
As I’d mentioned earlier, JA played matchmaker between me and D in March of 1994. It was a strange whirlwind of a relationship and, as I’ve also mentioned in the past, we inspired both the best and the worst in each other. In retrospect we probably could have been great friends if we hadn’t hooked up. I see now that my then circle of friends weren’t the best fit for me but I was just too emotionally desperate for connection to find anyone else. Both D and JA might have had the best of intentions, but they’d also frequently pushed me out of my comfort zone when it was obvious that I needed to be there for my own mental and emotional sanity. My friendship with them was very similar to one I’d had back in the late 80s with two neighborhood kids that were also not the best influences for me but they were all I had. It was like living that constant discomfort all over again. [And this is why I’ve never completely dissed social media: nearly all my closest and dearest friends are elsewhere in the world and I’m blessed and happy that I can easily talk to them at any time.]
I’d also started that new project while Nocturne continued to simmer on a backburner. Two Thousand was to be my Gen-X coming of age story, grown out of my college friendships and how distinct our generation was from previous ones. It was full of Gen-X tropes: snark, nihilism, music, frustration, and absurdist humor. It focused on a self-inserted character name Stephen (my fallback name for years) trying to figure out what the hell he wanted to do with his life now that he was no longer a student; his circle of friends is splintering off into Real Life Day Jobs and Points Elsewhere and he’s not sure how to process that. He’s also a musician trying to keep his band from falling apart, and frustrated at how fucking hard it is to be creative and still afford to live in a city like Boston. [Stephen’s band Billow would get a cameo years later in my novel Meet the Lidwells.]
Luna, Bewitched, released 1 March 1994. Dean Wareham’s first couple of albums under this moniker sounded very similar to his previous band Galaxie 500: very quiet, almost delicate, and nearly lo-fi. By this album they’d gotten bolder and stronger in sound, but they never quite lost their delicateness.
Beck, Mellow Gold, released 1 March 1994. Beck’s big breakthrough was a huge hit, thanks to having signed to Geffen and getting a giant promotional push with “Loser”. This can pretty much be considered his first professional-sounding record as it’s cleaner and beefier than his previous indie releases, many self-produced.
Blur, “Girls and Boys” single, released 7 March 1994. My favorite Britpop band dropped a teaser single for their next album, Parklife, and it’s one of their finest moments. Addictive, danceable, and a track you need to listen to loud. Definitely a change from their moodier and lighter Modern Life Is Rubbish, that’s for sure.
Failure, Magnified, released 8 March 1994. I loved their first album Comfort, even though they’d been dismissed as Nirvana wannabees, and this one had also been unjustly ignored by most radio stations as well (partly due to the release of the next two albums listed below), even though they’d dropped a video for the single “Undone”. They’d finally achieve critical success a few years later with Fantastic Planet, but at a steep cost. I always recommend anything from this band, to be honest!
Soundgarden, Superunknown, released 8 March 1994. This album won me over immediately. This is one of those ‘they’d done their homework’ albums for me: they had a clear vision and refused to let anything stop them from achieving it, and the result is a damn fine album of brilliant alternative rock. This wasn’t grunge anymore; this was alt-rock meets epic metal with a dusting of their psychedelia roots. Highly recommended.
Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral, released 8 March 1994. I’ve posted about this one recently, in that I haven’t sat down and listened to it from start to finish for quite a few years, but at the time of its release it was on extremely heavy rotation on my Walkman. It resonated heavily with my feelings of frustration and uselessness and I was fine with letting myself simmer in those moods for a bit while this blared through my headphones.
Morrissey, Vauxhall and I, 14 March 1994. On the other side of the mood spectrum was everyone’s favorite Mancunian curmudgeon recording…somewhat of a lighthearted and fun record? It’s true, when he’s in a great mood he can be quite chipper, even silly at times, and this was a fun change of pace when I was too exhausted to continue dealing with my growly moods.
Alison Moyet, Essex, released 21 March 1994. Alf has consistently been a brilliant singer and songwriter, and “Whispering Your Name” remains one of my favorite tracks of hers. She embraces more of the British dance beats with this album, which may have helped her win more fans in the clubs.
Collective Soul, Hints, Allegations & Things Left Unsaid, released 22 March 1994. Sure, they were Grunge Lite with hints of hippie jam band leanings, but they were catchy as hell and this album was super enjoyable. [Noted, if you want to know what I might have looked like hair and fashionwise in the early 90s, see singer Ed Roland. Heh.]
Phish, Hoist, released 29 March 1994. These semi-local guys from Vermont had always had a strong following in New England, even though you’d rarely hear them on the radio. “Down with Disease” did get a bit of play though, and even got a rare music video out of them as well. WBCN used to play this band when they were feeling more adventurous.
Soundtrack, The Crow, released 29 March 1994. I saw this movie in the huge Loews theater that used to be on the ground floor of the Revere Hotel in Boston. I’d been a fan of the original comic book and while it didn’t quite live up to my high expectations, it was nonetheless an enjoyable film. The soundtrack was amazing, featuring songs from The Cure, Nine Inch Nails, Violent Femmes, Stone Temple Pilots and more, and this too got a lot of play on my Walkman.
Pink Floyd, The Division Bell, released 30 March 1994. It took me a few years to get around to buying this record, but I loved hearing the lovely and moody “High Hopes” on WBCN. I felt it wasn’t quite as cohesive as A Momentary Lapse of Reason, which I absolutely loved, but I’ve grown to enjoy it.
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Somewhere in all of this, I ragequit a job. Not the best of ideas and I dug my own hole here, but I’d had enough. It had all come to a head one morning when we’d gotten a huge shipment in and the floor manager for the book section had gotten pissed at me that I hadn’t gotten to his stuff yet. My immediate manager — the one who thought I was simple — literally pulled a weak ‘yeah, what’s wrong with you?’ while giving me a look of better you than me. That was the breaking point and I quit within the hour.
Not the best of ideas when you’re already skint and barely making enough to feed yourself. I let myself cool down for a day or so, and started looking for another job. I’d find it a week or so later at a Brigham’s Ice Cream on Cambridge Street. A closer commute, about the same pay, and I could surreptitiously ‘forage’ (heh) as a way to subvert that ‘affording to feed myself’ problem I’d been having lately. Not the most glamorous of jobs…but one that put me in a better frame of mind.
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Coming up: A creative nudge and a return to…reading?
The other day I found a chronology spreadsheet that mentions this era and puts a few personal things in their proper order, and I see that I didn’t meet up with D until March of 1994, which makes sense. [I hear you: why the hells do you have a spreadsheet of your past? What kind of weirdo are you? Well, a) I’m a writer, and b) it was initially built up for the Walk In Silence book project and thus laid out what I wrote at the time as well as personal and public events that went on at the time. Simple as that.] It does clarify things a bit, as I know my final months at the Shoebox were just as exciting as they were tense.
ANYWAY. Things were about to change pretty soon, but not just yet. February of 1994 wasn’t entirely without incident, as I’d been focusing on multiple writing projects: more examination of Nocturne and the possibility of finally working on the long-delayed Two Thousand project. Now as then, I didn’t always start from the beginning but wrote and gathered up several notes over several days (or months, or years) to see what I could make of them. At least something was going in the right direction!
Green Day, Dookie, released 1 February 1994. The breakthrough heard ’round the world dropped almost quietly and unassumingly with the “Longview” single. It was immediately picked up by WFNX and WBCN and you’d hear it several times over the course of a week. WFNX was a bit more adventurous and would pull out some of the deep cuts as well. A few months later they’d storm the Hatch Shell and cause chaos throughout the city.
Pavement, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, released 2 February 1994. I wanted to like this band but something about their deliberatelly half-assed slacker delivery didn’t quite gel with me. Still, “Cut Your Hair” was just as ubiquitous as Green Day on the airwaves.
Cake, Motorcade of Generosity, released 7 February 1994. I wouldn’t get into this band until their 1996 album Fashion Nugget, but I do remember hearing “Rock and Roll Lifestyle” on WFNX every now and again.
The Greenberry Woods, Rapple Dapple, released 8 February 1994. This band came and went rather quickly but I remember really liking the “Trampoline” single at the time. I bought the cassette for this at Tower and would listen to it at the Shoebox during my downtime.
The London Suede, “Stay Together” single, released 14 February 1994. A single-only release that often gets overlooked, but it shows where the band was headed, already evolving away from their glam swagger and more towards heady indie rock. I remember hearing it every now and again but it really didn’t do much here in the States.
Soundgarden, “Spoonman” single, released 15 February 1994. I’d been a passive fan of this band since first hearing them my freshman year, but even with this song I could tell they were taking a detour into a style that was less prog-meets-grunge and heading into darker post-punk territory. Its super-tight production and dense tension made everyone eager for the album that would come the next month.
Stabbing Westward, Ungod, released 15 February 1994. I initially lumped this band in with the industrial-alternative genre that was certainly out there but not quite making a dent, no matter how loud they might be. And this band was LOUD. “Nothing” got considerable airplay and the album would eventually become a favorite, leading them towards more popularity in the latter half of the decade.
Low, I Could Live in Hope, released 18 February 1994. This amazing duo’s debut dropped almost without notice in the early half of the year, hidden amongst the louder and more dissonant grunge and hard rock. They were hard to pin down but they had loyal fans from the beginning.
The Grays, Ro Sham Bo, released 22 February 1994. Jason Falkner’s group after leaving Jellyfish was with Jon Brion and it was unfortunately a one-and-done project, but it’s one hell of a fine indie pop gem. It’s out of print and hard to find, but it’s definitely worth checking out if you can find it.
Nine Inch Nails, “March of the Pigs” single, 25 February 1994. Speaking of teaser singles, this was Trent Reznor’s first since the dense and angry Broken and Fixed EPs and a handful of disturbing related music videos. And it’s one hell of an introduction to his next project, considering that it was both a bit more listenable than the EPs and a bit more terrifying in its moods.
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Coming up: Disconnects and reconnects, unknowns and spirals
Walk In Silence 