Hey gang! Sorry to let you down, but both blogs are going on a brief vacation for a few weeks. This next week is probably going to busy, between Day Job stuff and preparing for an actual trip (we’re heading back to New England to visit friends and family).
We’ll be back fresh and ready to go in November! Until then, don’t eat too much Halloween candy!
See you soon!
I usually make a good handful of mixtapes/compilations every year, but I’m falling behind. The last one I made was late July, just before we headed out on our last vacation. Considering we’ll be heading out on another one in a few weeks, perhaps it’s time to make another one.
Here’s a few favorite tracks of mine that have been getting some serious play lately that may just end up on my new mixtapes!
One of the things I’m looking forward to on the Blogging the Beatles 2 series is listening to George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass album, because it’s one of his best. It’s at least four or five years’ worth of tracks that were nixed for Beatle work. Indeed, after awhile he just decided not to offer and kept them for himself.
One of my favorite tracks from the album is “Beware of Darkness” which is a perfect example of George’s best songwriting. It’s got a hauntingly beautiful melody, but it also showcases his penchant for using slightly off-kilter chord progressions. They made sense and blended quite nicely, but they weren’t the chords you were expecting. It often felt like he was trying to bypass the tried-and-true pop motifs of the day, and yet write a song that still contained a musical flow that was pleasant to the ears. [I often think of Blur’s “Coffee & TV” as a similar example of unexpected-yet-logical chord progressions. There were a lot of alternative songs in the 90s that took this strange route, much to my delight.]
And as before, I plan on trying to play along on my guitar while I’m relistening an relearning these songs. Suffice it to say, I still feel like I’m extremely out of practice. It’s not a good sign that a few of my guitars sometimes have a fine layer of dust on them. And if George is going to tempt me with his B-A-G7-G#m-C#m (there’s a lot of wacky barre chords in there, folks), then there’s a hell of a lot more I need to learn. Especially if I want to try it with my acoustics.
This is going to be an interesting exercise, to say the least.
On a final note, here’s an excellent cover of the same track by Concrete Blonde, from their debut self-titled album. It’s a bluesier, heavier version, but it retains the dark hints of tension found in the original, and it’s one of my favorite covers.
Others have commented: it’s going to be the Beatles’ solo years next! This one’s gonna be a long series, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be featuring it on specific days…maybe offering it every other Wednesday or something. We shall see. This may take some time for me to build up a backlog, as there are quite a few releases to plow through — and I’m not going to include the multiple reissues that have taken place over the years. One last note: I’ve already decided this is going to be chronological, just like the previous series, so this means we’ll be visiting all four solo discographies at the same time. I will also be featuring multiple releases per post, or else I’ll be posting until 2019!
Until then, I’ll be providing the usual music posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Thanks for joining in!
Not the one I worked at, but very similar in size and shape.
As of 23rd of last month, it’ll have been twenty years since I started that job at HMV Records at the Solomon Pond Mall down in Marlborough. How do I know the exact date? Simple: I had a one-day training day at their Harvard Square store and the very first thing they had me do is price and security-tag a few hundred copies of Weezer’s Pinkerton and Sheryl Crow’s self-titled album, which was being released the next day.
That would end up being my primary responsibility (not including the occasional register jockeying) for nearly four years until I left in autumn 2000. I’d also go to various shows in the Boston area, go to a few band meet-and-greets, and my music collection would expand to the point that I’d have to move it downstairs due to its size.
My music purchasing during my days in Boston were quite scattershot, as I would rarely have the money, but somehow I managed to dig through the used record shops on a consistent basis. I’d buy a lot old albums in dollar bins, pick up cheap promo cassettes, and find good deals on new and used cds. I’d borrow albums from friends and dub them onto cassette, just like I did in the late 80s. My knowledge of releases was pretty much based on what I heard on the radio and read in the Boston Phoenix.
But when I was hired in September of 1996 to HMV, all that changed. I was hired as the lone shipping/receiving clerk, partly because I was the oldest of the hires (I was 25 at the time, and everyone else was at least five or six years younger), and partly because I was such a huge music nerd. I’m convinced I was hired because they could count on me to provide good customer service and upsell like no tomorrow.
The music of those four years influenced and inspired me deeply, as this was when I’d started taking my writing seriously. A lot of what I listened to between late 1996 and late 2000 would end up being part of the soundtrack to The Phoenix Effect and later on the trilogy.
One of the things that I’d set off to do early on in the job was to listen to as much music as I could. I didn’t exactly need to buy the albums…I would open up a cd and play it in the back room, or borrow one of the store promo copies and give it a listen. I’d also scour all the music magazines we sold. That way when I was on the sales floor, I’d be able to help customers quickly and easily. Each week I’d make a list of all the new and upcoming releases on a whiteboard near the door so all my coworkers would know what to expect.
My listening habits expanded to include all kinds of genres, ones I hadn’t paid much attention to in the past. I still listened mainly to alternative rock, but I also listened to everything from electronica to classical to new age to prog rock and everything in between.
I also immersed myself in a hell of a lot of imports, as there were quite a few bands out there who weren’t getting any attention stateside but I thought were phenomenal.
I don’t think I have an actual count, but between 1996 and 2000, I’m pretty sure my music collection went from maybe a hundred cds, a few hundred tapes and about five hundred or so vinyl records to maybe around five thousand titles by the time I left the store. [This was accumulated all over the place, really — the store as well as new and used bins elsewhere.]
And that’s not counting the years after that, when I made it a habit to stop at Newbury Comics in Amherst every Wednesday (alongside my comic book run, which I’d started during my HMV years), which expanded my music collection even further.
It’s been twenty years and my music collection is still growing. I’m still checking out new music and different styles to this day. As of this posting, the number of mp3s I own is in six digits. [This is single songs, mind you, not full albums. And there’s also A’s collection in there as well.] That’s about thirty-five years of collecting, borrowing, ripping, and downloading. I try to keep myself under control and set a decent cap on how much to spend (and reminding myself I don’t necessarily need to buy everything on its drop date), and I usually do pretty good with it.
But yeah…if it wasn’t for that job, one that I loved and still think about from time to time, my collection would probably be a bit smaller.
Probably not by much, though.
The always excellent Johnny Marr, who I’ll be seeing in October!
I’ve been tempted to do another “blogging a band” series like I did with the Beatles a while back. The original one was a lot of fun, as I was not only able to give the songs and albums a good solid listen, I was able to better understand their place in musical history — both their own, and within the larger scene. And as a bonus, I was also able to learn a lot of new songs on my guitar!
I probably don’t know any band nearly as well as I know the Beatles, but I do own a lot of complete (or nearly complete) discographies of plenty of bands, or they’re easily available for streaming somewhere if I don’t. I’ll be relearning their oeuvre right alongside you!
So, what do you think? Here’s a shortlist so far of favorite 80s/90s bands I could possibly do:
–U2
–The Smiths
–The Cure
–Wire
–Blur
–Depeche Mode (continuing the by-the-decade theme)
I was also thinking of maybe continuing the Beatles theme by going through their solo output, either separately or all together chronologically.
Any votes/suggestions?
Somehow I fell down another retro rabbit hole and have been listening to the Sirius XM Classic Rock Party station over the last few days. I’m fifteen again and listening to WAAF and WAQY in my messy bedroom, cranking up the 80s stylings of Twisted Sister, Billy Idol and Whitesnake alongside the classic 60s/70s hits of the Stones, Yes, and BROOOCE.
This was the music I grew up with. I was too young to understand punk and post-punk back in the early 80s (at least not until that fateful evening in early 1986), and as much as I enjoyed the pop of American Top 40 and American Bandstand, it was the music of rock stations that stuck with me most. I was a nerdy, spotty kid that was completely obsessed with music and radio and would be just as happy sitting alone in front of my boombox as I would be outside roaming the neighborhood on my BMX with my buddies. This was Diver Down and Pyromania playing on my sister’s boombox while we played touch football in the backyard. This was me completely blown away by 90125 and Synchronicity and So. This was my growing obsessions with other bands aside from the Beatles. This was our state capital’s own honored rockers in the forms of Aerosmith, the J Geils Band and Boston. This was where I learned to appreciate bands before my time like Jimi Hendrix and Cream and The Rolling Stones.
Decades later and here I am, hitting middle age and living on the opposite coast, listening to the still-epic “Born to Run”, still impressed by the guitar solo freakout of the back half of “Freebird”, still feel that “Layla” is a decent song but is about 3 minutes too long. Living in a city where Janis and Jerry lived, where Steve Miller recorded the sound of the foghorn going past the Marina for the opening of his Sailor album, where the classic Frampton Comes Alive! was recorded just three miles away at a long-departed ballroom in Japantown. Where Journey the Doobies and the Dead and the Airplane lived and recorded and became local heroes.
The playlist has its moments of amusing embarrassment. All that LA glam metal of the 80s is still goofy, doofy, simplistic fun, just like I remember it. All the prog rock of the 70s is still full of nerdy math and fantastical imagery. All the arena rock bands are still full of that bombast. Some of it’s kind of corny now, but you can’t help but have fun listening to it. The playlist is also going to be a lot of the same heavy-rotation classics that you can’t escape, even after all these years. It may even have its share of “oh, that song!” moments.
Sure, most of it’s a good three or four decades old now, but it’s still a hell of a lot of fun to listen to.
More new tunage that’s been on rotation here in Spare Oom…hope you enjoy this little musical interlude! 🙂
You know already that I have music playing nearly 24/7 in my life. While I’m working, while I’m writing, even when we’re in bed reading and falling asleep. My life has a soundtrack and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
So, what do I listen to, anyway? Good question! I’m always open to listening to stations from different parts of the globe if they’re available online, and I’ve found some really interesting stations while on vacations. Here, though, are my usual haunts!
Internet Stations
It depends on what I’m in the mood for. Lately I’ve been listening to Sirius XM, specifically the 1st Wave (80s alternative), Lithium (90s alternative), XMU (more obscure indie rock) and Alt Nation (current indie) stations. These channels tend to be a bit more adventurous with their playlist, though they do tend to stick with certain heavy rotation tracks as well.
Or I might listen to RadioBDC, an internet station run by former WFNX deejays and hosted by Boston.com. They’ve retained the commercial alternative sound that ‘FNX was known for, but they also infuse their playlist with a lot of local sounds.
College Stations
Yes, even after all this time, I’m still a college radio listener. I tend to switch from one to the other to keep things interesting, as some stations are more obscure with their playlist than others. Sadly my favorite college station of my youth, WAMH, has pretty much become an NPR feed station…but there are numerous other stations I still listen to.
KSCU out of Santa Clara University is my go-to for the local college radio sound. [Santa Clara, as you probably know from our NFL team’s recent move, is down near San Jose.] They keep a somewhat thin deejay schedule, but they do have some great shows (the 80s Underground is a great Wednesday afternoon treat, and they post their show as a two-part podcast later that day). Their ‘robo-deejay’ plays an interesting mix as well when no one’s on the air.
UC Berkeley’s KALX is quite eclectic in its schedule, but there’s always something interesting playing. Same with Stanford University’s KZSU. I still connect with Boston College’s WZBC every now and again, for the same reason.
Local Sounds
Our commercial stations here in the Bay Area can sometimes be a bit thin on the excitement and thick on the heavy rotation, but that doesn’t keep me from tuning in while driving. A number of stations have changed over the last decade since we’ve been here, but a lot of them are still fun to listen to.
Radio Alice is our Adult Alternative station, where the playlist is a bit laid back — it’s something you’d probably have playing quietly in the background at work, natch — but it’s just alternative enough that it keeps my interest. KFOG is a bit more alternapop (and their newest deejay is a recent transplant, one Matt Pinfield) and tends to be our go-to station. Live 105 is our most commercial alternative station, complete with nutty morning chat (which I can do with or without) but a very cool playlist.
Night Music
Since we moved out here, nearly every night we put on the local classical station, KDFC, and listen to a symphony or two as we read and eventually nod off. The night deejay tends to have a bit of a silly sense of humor, as he’ll often have a theme for his show. One night he played all string quartets and called it “there’s always room for cello”. They also do replays of live recordings of our local symphony — sometimes playing events that we’d been at just a few days previous! And each Christmas they’ll play SF Ballet’s wonderful performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker.
And of course, there’s my mp3 collection, which is still expanding on a somewhat weekly basis. But that’s another post entirely…
You know how it is with commercial radio stations. Just before a commercial break they’ll tease an upcoming track from one of your favorite bands from the past, and guaranteed, it will always be that same damn song you’ll hear every single time. Even if the band has twelve albums to their name, including one that dropped just two weeks previous, they’ll still play that one damn song. [This is why Led Zeppelin’s “Fool in the Rain” is one of my least favorite songs of theirs, because that’s the de facto Zep track for every classic rock station.]
Continuing my 90s theme, here’s a few bands from that decade that are actually worth checking out past their one claim to fame.
Hum, You’d Prefer an Astronaut, rel 11 April 1995. This album kind of got lost in the shuffle of mid-90s grunge pop and everything else, but it’s an excellent album full of crunchy riffs and great melodies. They followed this up with a further album, Downward Is Heavenward (released 27 January 1998) which unfortunately also got lost in the shuffle, but is just as great. [You may even want to go deeper and look for their two pre-major label albums from the early 90s.] And yes, I will admit that “Stars” is still a kickass track, even if it gets all the attention.
Eve 6, Eve 6, rel 28 April 1998. We all know the hit “Inside Out” (you know, that “put my tender/heart in a blender” track of theirs), but they’ve released three further albums over the years (including a reunion album) that are just as great. Second album Horrorscope (rel 25 July 2000) featured singles “Promise” and “Here’s to the Night” (the latter of which got minor airplay on MTV); third album It’s All in Your Head (rel 22 July 2003) featured “At Least We’re Dreaming” and “Think Twice”; fourth album Speak in Code (24 April 2012) featured “Victoria” and “Curtain”.
The Verve Pipe, Villains, rel 26 Mar 1996. EVERYONE knows “The Freshmen”…even lead singer Brian Vander Ark has accepted that’s his calling card at this point. But have you heard the rest of that album? If not, I strongly urge you to do that RIGHT NOW. While this hit plays to their softer side, there’s a much deeper and darker sound to Villains that you need to hear. “Cup of Tea” is the creepier cousin to that song; “Photograph” has a badass bassline; and the title track “Villains” is the most sinister track on the album. Even the album tracks are solid: the lovely “Penny is Poison”, and trippy album closer “Veneer” is the best song ever about driving through upstate Michigan while high as a kite.
But that’s not all — go do yourself a favor and check out their follow-up albums, The Verve Pipe (29 July 1999) and Underneath (25 September 2001), as well as their recent album Overboard (17 June 2014) and their numerous single releases they’ve been putting out over the last two years. Yeah, you could say I’m quite a big fan of these guys!
Dishwalla, Pet Your Friends, rel 21 November 1995. Another 90s band I love to pieces. Yes, this is that “tell me all your thoughts on God/’cause I’m on my way to see her” song. Singer JR Richards is a stellar songwriter who digs quite deep when it comes to emotional, soul-searching songs, but he’s not afraid to belt it out either. After this first album (which also includes the funky “Charlie Brown’s Parents” and the slinky “Haze”), they went on a long and grueling tour that kept them busy until the recording of And You Think You Know What Life’s About (rel 11 August 1998) — and the days on the road were evident on the harder, crunchier tracks here. Unfortunately the album fell through the cracks thanks to a major distributor shake-up at the time (PolyGram and Universal merged, and unceremoniously, a hell of a lot of great bands were either dropped or lost all their backing in the process), but this is by far their most cohesive and solid album. “Once in a While” was a minor hit, but the elegiac album track “Until I Wake Up” became a fan favorite that JR Richards still performs to this day. Third album Opaline (23 April 2002) saw the band on a new label and easing back to their lighter side, with great tracks like “Somewhere in the Middle” and the lovely “Angels or Devils”. Their last self-titled album (15 May 2005) and the last recording to feature JR before he left to go solo, is just as good, with tracks like “Collide”. There’s a rumor that a new Dishwalla album might surface this year or next as well!
Lit, A Place in the Sun, rel 23 February 1999. Yeah, that track, the worst-hangover-ever one. What happened to these guys, anyway? Like most of the 90s pop-punk bands, their star faded but they never quite went away. After a minor follow-up hit with “Zip Lock” (check out the brief cameo of a streaking Blink-182 in the video!) and a quick appearance on the soundtrack for the animated movie Titan AE with “Over My Head” (a movie that was sadly much maligned but in all honesty I quite enjoyed it), Lit released their follow-up Atomic (16 October 2001) with the single “Lipstick and Bruises” and a self-titled album (22 June 2004) with the single “Looks Like They Were Right” before sticking to the local live circuit for a number of years. They’d surface one more time with The View from the Bottom (19 June 2012) and “You Tonight”. They’re back in the studio working on a new album at this time.
Bush, Sixteen Stone, rel 6 December 1994. That first album of theirs was insanely huge, enough that they had hits well into early 1996 with the singles “Glycerine”, “Everything Zen”, “Comedown” and “Little Things”. They were somewhat unfairly written off, being too British to fit in with American grunge, but too grunge to be lopped in with the (now waning) Britpop movement…but MTV loved them just the same. They finally followed up with the wonderfully weird second album Razorblade Suitcase (19 November 1996) with another wave of great singles: “Swallowed”, “Greedy Fly”, “Cold Contagious” and “Personal Holloway”. An even weirder remix album popped up at the end of the following year with Deconstructed (11 November 1997), and then….nothing for a good couple of years.
By the time of their next album, The Science of Things (26 October 1999), their sound seemed a bit dated — or more to the point, alt.rock stations by that time had shifted to alternative metal and rap metal, and the more commercial alt.rock stations had shifted to the calmer sounds of Collective Soul and so on. They had a few minor hits like “The Chemicals Between Us” and “Letting the Cables Sleep”, but their time in the spotlight had waned considerably. They managed one last album, Golden State (23 October 2001) with another minor hit, “The People That We Love”, but by 2002 they’d broken up.
Lead singer Gavin Rossdale (having gotten in the headlines for marrying No Doubt lead singer Gwen Stefani) released an album in 2004 with his band Institute, and followed that up with a self-titled solo album in 2008, but that was pretty much it until 2011, when Rossdale reignited the band and released The Sea of Memories (13 September 2011) with two more radio hits, “The Afterlife” and “The Sound of Winter”. After a successful tour he returned once more with Man on the Run (21 October 2014) and another great single, “The Only Way Out”. And they’ve just released a new single a few months ago, “People at War”, which may hint at yet another new album in the works.
I could of course go on, but I think this is enough to get y’all started. No go scour the used record bins and find some of these tasty albums!
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