By the time November rolled around, I found myself thinking less like a clueless mid-teen reacting to everything around me and taking more chances with my creative and personal lives. The ideas within the IWN were taking a much darker and more experimental road, and I’d started writing my first screenplay, coming-of-age comedy inspired by John Hughes. I was also trying out new ideas with a plan of not holding back nearly as much as I had. I felt like I was less of a dork with braces and finally coming into my own as a creative person in training. I had to start somewhere, right? Why not now?

November was also the month when I first made not one but two radio-sourced mixtapes by recording a full side of music while listening to WMUA, the college station of UMass Amherst. Those two mixes (both later titled The Crossover I and II) got a lot of repeat play during the day when I couldn’t always get the station in clearly. [It was around this time that the guy at Radio Shack suggested I purchase a six-foot extending antenna, which I duly bought and used for several years (and radios).] I’d make a few more commercial station ‘radio tapes’ well into 1987, but that would soon come to a close once my obsession grew.

Killing Joke, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, released November 1986. I remember this one getting a bit of flak because it was so slickly produced, the songs weren’t as powerful as their previous work, and it sounded very…well, 80s. It didn’t do too well, but I do remember “Sanity” and “Adorations” getting a fair bit of play on 120 Minutes.

A Certain Ratio, Force, released November 1986. I remember WMDK being a bit excited about this album coming out, as it was their first album in four years (not including the collection The Old & the New which had come out earlier in the year). They’re not your typical British post-punk band; they’re more like post-punk-meets-funk, and the critics loved it.

The Mission UK, God’s Own Medicine, released November 1986. The first album from Wayne Hussey’s new band after leaving The Sisters of Mercy, and you can hear a few similarities between the two groups, though The Mission would be more melodic and less doom-and-gloom. “Wasteland” got a fair bit of play on 120 Minutes and on college radio. They’d be a favorite on Boston’s alternative station WFNX over the next few years.

He Said, Hail, released November 1986. Graham Lewis, the bassist/vocalist from Wire, also had his own solo project at this time (one of many during their hiatus) although it would be a few years before I’d finally get around to picking them up, starting with 1989’s Take Care.

Fishbone, In Your Face, released November 1986. This funk-metal band had a strong fan following for ages, so when their first album finally came out it was an immediate favorite. Even from the album cover you could tell that they didn’t always take themselves entirely all that seriously, and this album shows it: while there are certainly some serious tracks here, there are also quite a few fun jams as well.

Clan of Xymox, Medusa, released November 1986. This is a curious 4AD band that I knew of thanks to seeing them in the bins at Al Bum’s and later at Main Street Records, but I never quite got around to picking up their albums until 1989’s Twist of Shadows. I’d pick this one up on one of my jaunts to the many used shops in Boston during my college years, and “Agonised By Love” became one of my favorites of theirs.

Lone Justice, Shelter, released November 1986. This was a band that straddled the lines between alternative, country and folk, and did surprisingly well not just on AOR but also on pop radio. “Shelter” was the big hit for them and got a decent amount of play all over the place.

Wire, Snakedrill EP, released November 1986. Speaking of…after disappearing at the start of the decade to focus on solo projects, this influential foursome reconvened and began what they would call their “beat combo” era with this teaser EP, with a new album coming in the new year. It’s a fascinating release as all four songs sound completely different from each other despite having a similar style. “A Serious of Snakes” is radio-friendly and catchy as hell even despite its oblique lyrics; “Drill” is their showpiece focusing on lyrical and musical repetition; “Advantage in Height” reminds fans of their first post-punk wave; and “Up to the Sun (A Vivid Riot of Red)” sees the band at their most experimental. This EP would be reissued as bonus tracks on the cassette and CD of their album that would drop in April.

Game Theory, The Big Shot Chronicles, released November 1986. Another band listed in Trouser Press Record Guide that caught my attention, this power pop band were critic favorites and would show up on WMDK quite frequently.

China Crisis, What Price Paradise, released November 1986. This British band showed up on an episode of Night Flight as a band with success in their home country but very little visibility in the States despite being signed to Virgin Records. I’d hear “Arizona Sky” and “It’s Everything” on WMDK around this time, both great singles that really could have fit in perfectly on American pop radio, and I’d soon find this record in the bins at Al Bums.

They Might Be Giants, They Might Be Giants, released 4 November 1986. It’s safe to say I’ve been a TMBG fan since album number one, and I absolutely adore this record for its silliness and relentless oddball creativity. So much so that this garnered a follow-up record review in my school paper! “Don’t Let’s Start” got a lot of play on 120 Minutes, AOR and college radio, as would “(She Was a) Hotel Detective”. [And I would learn later that they were sort-of-once-local, having grown up in Lincoln MA, thus the title of their follow-up in 1988.] I bought this cassette at Strawberries if I’m not mistaken, and it got a ton of play over the next several years, so much so that I can still quote several songs, heh.

‘Til Tuesday, Welcome Home, released 4 November 1986. The follow-up to their mega-huge Voices Carry album may not have been as popular, but as a Boston band they definitely got their fair share of play on local rock radio with the singles “What About Love” and “Coming Up Close”. The latter became one of my favorite tracks of theirs, a song that perfectly encapsulates the closing-down of the year feel of late autumn in New England.

Kraftwerk, Electric Café, released 10 November 1986. Their first new album in five years, this was big news, especially since they were the godfathers of early synth music, which was now at the peak of its current wave. I remember Night Flight and even PBS doing a retrospective on them at this time, and releasing the video for “Musique Non Stop”, which at the time had cutting-edge CGI facial animation work.

Cocteau Twins with Harold Budd, The Moon and the Melodies, released 10 November 1986. This was part of the wave of CT albums and EPs I’d dub from a friend in early 1989 that would end up getting constant repeat plays on my Walkman over the next few years. It’s my favorite of their discography, even despite it being more of an experimental side-project, but its dreamlike ambience is absolutely breathtaking.

Kate Bush, The Whole Story, released 10 November 1986. I picked this one up at Strawberries soon after it dropped, partly because I’d really liked “Running Up That Hill” and partly because of the video feature I’d seen on Night Flight. I’d known how different her music could be from other alternative and pop music, but this felt like it was in a different yet parallel universe. I’d be a longtime fan from here on in.

The The, Infected, released 17 November 1986. This too was something that caught my interest via Night Flight when they premiered the movie Matt Johnson made to promote this album. Like the film, the album is dark, dense and unforgiving and yet with a sense of redemption at the end. Nothing is held back: songs about sex, obsession, war, desolation, politics, death, and going to the brink. I was absolutely floored and immediately bought the cassette at that little record corner inside the department store in Amherst, the same place I’d bought Flaunt It. One lasting memory I have is of a friend borrowing this then giving it back the next day saying “It’s okay, but why do I want to hear songs about ‘piss-stinking shopping centers’?”

Duran Duran, Notorious, released 18 November 1986. After the almost-dissolution of the group and its loss of two core members, Simon, Nick and Andy reconvened with an album with a much slicker production and stylish songwriting. It definitely lost some of their older fans, and I wasn’t the biggest fan of the title track, but the sexy slinkiness of the “Skin Trade” single kept me interested. It’s more of a transitional album than a solid one, but it’s worth checking out.

Bad Brains, I Against I, released 21 November 1986. I remember 120 Minutes making a big thing out of this release as this was the hardcore band’s first album in over three years with a change in sound, moving closer towards funk and metal, and would become their biggest and most popular record. [You can kind of hear a style that Living Colour would adapt themselves a few years later.] I also remember seeing ads for it in the music magazines, and would occasionally hear tracks from it on WMUA and later on WAMH.

The Other Ones, The Other Ones, released 24 November 1986. I gravitated towards this album thanks to the excellent single “We Are What We Are”, which spoke to me at a time when I was still trying to figure myself out. Although it only scraped by to number 53 on the Billboard Top 100, I was entranced by its simple message: we only want to be ourselves / we’re just like everybody else. As a teenager this clarified so much: I needed to get out of my own head and be who I wanted to be instead of constantly overthinking it like I always did. And that I surely wasn’t the only one feeling this way. Despite its slick 80s pop style, this album was just quirky and different enough that I fell in love with it, and it got a ton of play in my room for a good couple of years.

*

Next up: winding up the year