Tag Archives: writing soundtracks

Thirty Years On: May/June 1996

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Coming up: Filling in the hours and looking beyond

Thirty Years On: April 1996

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Coming up: Summer moods and unexpected changes

Thirty Years On: March 1996

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Coming up: The birth of the writing nook.

Thirty Years On: January-February 1996

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twenty Years On: November-December 2006

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twenty Years On: March-April 2006

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Coming up: getting into the groove

Forty Years On: Favorite Music from 1986 Part X

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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.

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Next up: winding up the year

Forty Years On: Favorite Music from 1986 Part IX

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My obsession with college radio had now expanded to the point where I wasn’t just reading The Trouser Press Record Guide over and over (I’m pretty sure I had my own copy of it at this point) or looking through the bins at Strawberries and Musicland; I was frequenting the indie shops down in the Pioneer Valley that catered to the college crowds down there. I was also starting to tape episodes of Night Flight and 120 Minutes more often. By October, WMUA was finally back on the air and I would be listening to it in the evenings when I really should have been doing my homework (or later, sleeping).

It was also around this time that I started learning about alternative lifestyles as well. I mean sure, I’d known about them for quite some time, mainly as stereotypes on TV shows and movies and comics, but thanks to the music I listened to and the magazines I’d started picking up, I learned that there was so much more out there. As a kid stuck in a small and somewhat conservative backwoods town in central Massachusetts, all of this was eye-opening and mind-expanding. I didn’t have to be stuck as the stereotypical nerd with the spiky hair and dorky clothes. I could be whatever the hell I wanted to be. And now that I’d been introduced to a new circle of friends that accepted that way of thinking, I found myself wanting to explore further.

Spoons, Bridges Over Borders, released October 1986. This Canadian band was alas on the downswing by the time this album came out — they’d been popular in their own country as an early 80s new wave band, but their detour into rock came with diminishing returns. That said, however, this was a surprisingly solid record and the title track got a bit of play on 120 Minutes, which is where I’d heard of them. I picked this one up used at Al Bums not that long after.

Colin Newman, Commercial Suicide, released October 1986. The co-lead singer of Wire’s fourth solo album recorded during their multi-year hiatus is aptly named (and very cheeky and on brand for him), as it’s more melodic and less experimental than his previous albums. It’s a hint of what the new and reformed Wire will sound like in just a short time. I remember seeing this one in the bins but never got around to picking it up (mainly as I wouldn’t become a Wire fan until 1987) until my freshman year in college.

Timbuk 3, Greetings from Timbuk 3, released October 1986. Here’s a perfect example of a full-on alternative band that somehow had a huge charting song only for them to become a one-hit wonder. It’s a perfect example of Gen-X wit: a super poppy and upbeat track hiding the much darker apocalyptic words. I remember WMDK really latching onto this album and playing several tracks off it.

General Public, Hand to Mouth, released October 1986. The one thing I remember about this album is that its full-page ad campaigns were everywhere in the music magazines. It alas did not have a charting single like 1984’s All the Rage did with “Tenderness”, and Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger went their separate ways.

Big Audio Dynamite, No. 10, Upping St., released October 1986. The follow-up to the brilliant This Is Big Audio Dynamite surprisingly did better in the UK charts, even despite it being a darker-edged and less sample-heavy record. “C’mon Every Beatbox” got a lot of play even on US rock radio and MTV. A month later I’d hear the deep cut “Dial a Hitman” on WMUA — a quirky track featuring a spoken word outro featuring Matt Dillon and Laurence Fishburne! — which would give me all the more reason to pick up the cassette.

Pop Will Eat Itself, Poppiecock EP, released October 1986. I’m pretty sure this is when I first heard about PWEI as they’d been mentioned in passing in Smash Hits regarding the short-lived Grebo movement in the UK (a weird Midlands subculture leaning heavily on greasy biker chic). The bands were either surprisingly good (like PWEI and The Wonder Stuff) or shockingly terrible (like Zodiac Mindwarp).

Ultravox, U-Vox, released October 1986. This band had pretty much come and gone in the US after the minor hit “Reap the Wild Wind”, but they remained a favorite in the UK. I remember this one coming out then disappearing pretty quick, with “All Fall Down” getting just a little bit of play on WRSI and WMDK.

a-ha, Scoundrel Days, released 6 October 1986. As expected, following up with the ridiculously popular Hunting High and Low was going to be hard, especially when they expected yet another bright and poppy “Take On Me”. This ended up being a much quieter and darker album that didn’t do as well in the US other than the minor single “Cry Wolf”. Which is too bad, because the single “Manhattan Skyline” is an absolutely gorgeous ballad that should have gotten a hell of a lot more airplay.

Slayer, Reign in Blood, released 7 October 1986. I remember this one coming out because it caused so much distress with its imagery and lyrics, but also because it had blown so many minds for its sheer force and creativity as a thrash metal album. The other thing I remember is that the first time I heard it was actually on a friend’s walkman…as we were leaving catechism class. Heh.

Talking Heads, True Stories, released 7 October 1986. This was such a polarizing record for fans and critics because of its place as a sort-of-soundtrack for the film of the same name and the lack of experimental new-wave/no-wave sound they’d long been known for. The songs were tight and radio friendly, including the ubiquitous “Wild Wild Life”. (Personally I like “Love for Sale” a lot more.) In retrospect it does kind of work as a stepping stone between the intriguing Little Creatures and the world music influences of Naked.

Wang Chung, Mosaic, released 14 October 1986. Yes, the album with “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”, but this is definitely not a filler album with That One Hit. It’s got several enjoyable and pop friendly tunes like “Hypnotize Me” and “Let’s Go”. Someone gave this one to me for my birthday, I think?

The Smiths, “Ask” single, released 20 October 1986. The Manchester foursome once again come up trumps with yet another brilliant standalone single, a simple love song with the usual self-effacing Morrissey wit with the catchiest of beats.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Liverpool, released 20 October 1986. The band’s second album is almost always forgotten about, but I find this one a vast improvement. It’s tighter and darker-edged, and far more digestible than the overdone Pleasuredome. The critics enjoyed it, but the fans (and apparently Holly Johnson himself) didn’t, and they’d break up soon after its release. I picked this one up on cassette on a whim after hearing the storming “Warriors of the Wasteland”, and for the next several months it would get repeat plays on my walkman late at night. It would also be part of my expanding writing session soundtrack.

Iggy Pop, Blah Blah Blah, released 23 October 1986. This was another example of an album that was a critical favorite but a miss everywhere else. It’s Iggy at his most radio-friendly — something he’d do again a few years later with the breakthrough Brick by Brick — with the hit cover of Johnny O’Keefe’s “Real Wild Child (Wild One)” and “Cry for Love”.

The Police, Every Breath You Take: The Singles, released 25 October 1986. The reunion that should have been but wasn’t, this trio gathered several of their biggest hits on this tight collection along with the rerecorded version of “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” as the lead-off single. This was a band I knew well thanks to heavy radio play and a copy of Synchronicity, so this was a great collection that got a lot of play for me. [It’s probably for the best that their original plan of rerecording all their hits fell through due to Stewart Copeland suffering an injury, as this version of “Close” has not aged well at all, whereas the original remains much more timeless.]

Howard Jones, One to One, released 25 October 1986. Another album that couldn’t quite catch up to its previous release (in this case, the brilliant Dream Into Action), it nonetheless features Jones writing smart and enjoyable synthpop. This was another purchase through the RCA record club for me.

The Stranglers, Dreamtime, released 27 October 1986. This band is a good example of a group that softened up as they went along; their early punk and post-punk albums and singles were hard and crunchy but by the early 80s their sound grew more melodic and emotive. “Always the Sun” is a great example of that, and it got repeat play on 120 Minutes around this time.

Kate Bush, “Experiment IV” single, released 27 October 1986. A new teaser single for her upcoming greatest hits collection, I remember seeing the video for this on Night Flight — they’d done a video retrospective of her music. I’d been a passive fan since the classic single “Running Up That Hill” (which was a surprise hit in the States in 1985, predating its new life via an appearance on Stranger Things by several decades). They’d made a big thing out of this video due to its appearance of several famous British actors like Dawn French, Hugh Laurie and Richard Vernon.

XTC, Skylarking, released 27 October 1986. As mentioned, “Dear God” was still resigned to the b-side of “Grass” at this time, but despite that, this album was successful from the get-go, receiving several high-score reviews from critics and fans alike. It got a significant amount of play both on college radio and AOR in my neck of the woods with tracks like “Grass”, “Earn Enough for Us” and the dreamlike “Another Satellite” (a personal favorite of mine).

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Next up: The crossover — full-on nonconformity! Sort of.

Forty Years On: Favorite Music from 1986 Part VIII

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I started off my high school sophomore year with a plan to change my outlook. I was now the only sibling at home (all my older siblings were in college or adulting at that point), so it felt a bit weird to have the house mostly to myself for hours at a time. This meant that I finally had a bit of relative privacy and time to figure out who I was without all the interruption and outside influence.

This of course meant staying up far too late, hanging out in my bedroom and listening to music after my parents went to bed. This meant exploring avenues of creative writing. This meant immersing myself in music magazines I bought at the local smoke shop downtown. And this also meant videotaping various episodes of Night Flight and 120 Minutes and watching them Monday afternoon.

I would also get a new job: a hall monitor at the local YMCA. For a few hours during the week I’d walk the halls, mopping and sweeping the floors, gathering up equipment left behind, and babysitting the little kids before and after their swim classes. [Most of them were perfect angels but there was one or two who would screw around for ages.] Did I utilize that time to do a bit of light homework, reading my music magazines, trying out a few writing ideas, and goofing off with friends who stopped by? Of course! It was a simple job but it was harmless and sometimes kind of fun. I’d take the job again in the summer and fall of 1987 until I was ‘hired’ at the local radio station.

As expected, Q3 starts out with a ton of great releases, so this one’s going to be another long one!

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Shriekback, Big Night Music, released September 1986. I’d heard of them in passing and noted their listing in Trouser Press, and I believe this was the first album of theirs that I’d be aware of, and WMDK would play “Gunning for the Buddha” now and again. I owned this one as a dub first until I found a cheap vinyl copy in the bargain bins somewhere.

Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians, Element of Light, released September 1986. “Raymond Chandler Evening” is one of my all-time favorite RH songs, and I adore the music video as well (I would learn via 120 Minutes later on that it was a tribute to the 1927 dadaist film Ghosts Before Breakfast). RH was getting considerable press in the music magazines at this time as an alternative musician, and this album went over quite well with critics and fans alike. Surprisingly, I would not own this one for a few more years.

The Mighty Lemon Drops, Happy Head, released September 1986. Another band beloved by critics and signed to Sire — a label known for its stellar alternative and punk catalog, thanks mostly to the brilliant Seymour Stein — this album was fodder for 120 Minutes and AOR stations like WMDK. I owned this one on vinyl via another bargain bin dive.

It’s Immaterial, Life’s Hard and Then You Die, released September 1986. I vaguely remembered “Ed’s Funky Diner” on WMDK, but it would be another couple of years until I owned this record when I found it and a few other gems at the downtown Salvation Army store.

Cocteau Twins, Love’s Easy Tears EP, released September 1986. I think this might actually be the first time I’d heard of this band, having seen this EP on cassette at that other record store at Hampshire Mall (the one whose name I no longer remember, alas), but I wouldn’t actually hear them for another couple of years. Come 1988 I’d have this one dubbed on a cassette with their other 1985-86 EPs which would end up getting major play on my walkman.

The Chameleons UK, Strange Times, released September 1986. I distinctly remember hearing “Swamp Thing” on WMDK a couple of times and really loving it, only to completely forget it for a few years until I heard it again on the same station and finally picked up the cassette. By the time I was in college, this album would get a lot of repeat play on my headphones. It’s a banger album that is worth checking out.

Skinny Puppy, Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse, released 5 September 1986. I distinctly remember seeing the video for “Dig It” on 120 Minutes over the next several months, and in retrospect I think this was the song that actually introduced me to the industrial genre. I dubbed this one from a friend (the same one I dubbed multiple Cocteau Twins albums from) in 1988. Also in retrospect, it’s definitely because of “Dig It” that I ended up being a huge Nine Inch Nails fan a few years later.

The B-52’s, Bouncing Off the Satellites, released 8 September 1986. I remember this one coming out and WMDK playing various tracks off it, but it not doing well on the radio or the charts, due to it having been in limbo for over a year, partly because of Ricky Wilson’s passing. It’s not their strongest record, but it certainly set the stage for their chart-topping follow-up three years later.

Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Blood & Chocolate, released 15 September 1986. Costello’s output had grown sporadic and introspective at this point, and his second album of the year was similar to King of America in that it felt more like something he did for himself than for anyone else. None of the singles were hits, although “Tokyo Storm Warning” would show up on AOR stations now and again.

Love and Rockets, Express, released 15 September 1986. Now this album, on the other hand, was unexpectedly popular on both sides of the Atlantic for college radio listeners! While their previous album, 1985’s dreamlike Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven, was a minor favorite in the UK (it would remain an import in the US until its reissue in 1988) preceded by their debut single, a crunchy and distorted cover of The Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion”. That single would be appended to the US edition of Express as a selling point, and it did amazingly well. I bought this one (not long after its release) in the oddest of places: a local flea market my dad and I would frequent on Sundays. Best eight dollars I’d ever spent, I played the hell out of this record for a good couple of years, and it remains one of my favorites of 1986.

This Mortal Coil, Filigree & Shadow, released 20 September 1986. This collective came to my attention at 1am while listening to WMUA in November of that year, when they played the funereal “Inch-Blue”/”I Want to Live” at the top of the hour. What was this…?? It wasn’t the punk or the post-punk I’d been fascinated by on college radio, and its dark ambience blew my mind. I’d always been fascinated by music that made me visualize listening in a darkened room or a forest at night, and this was like being in a deserted cathedral. By early 1987 I’d find this one on cassette at Al Bum’s in Amherst (the better to relisten at 1am, of course) and it became one of my favorites for the next couple of years. It introduced me to 4AD’s early years and I was hooked on nearly everything that label released. [No big surprise that it became a frequent soundtrack for my writing.]

Throwing Muses, Throwing Muses, released 20 September 1986. This too was a 4AD release, and to my surprise it was also a somewhat local band! The Muses were the first American band (from Rhode Island) to be signed to the label (Pixies, another local band, would be signed soon after), this got some minor play on WMDK and WRSI. Their early work is a bit hard to take in if you’re not used to it, but they fast became a favorite band of mine.

Billy Idol, Whiplash Smile, released 20 September 1986. Meanwhile, The Punk With The Sneer finally returned after a nearly three year absence with an album that became a huge hit on MTV even despite the critics feeling he’d lost his drive by embracing synthesizers. I was hooked on the groovy single “To Be a Lover” (originally a great Stax single from 1968) and bought the cassette through my RCA Record Club membership, and it got considerable play during the afternoons. It’s a surprisingly solid record that proved he wasn’t just a face on a pop video.

Billy Bragg, Talking with the Taxman About Poetry, released 22 September 1986. Bragg had been around for a few years by this point and beloved by fans and critics, but this was the first album where he had a full band behind him. “Greetings to the New Brunette” got a lot of play on WMDK and even a bit on MTV, also getting repeat plays on 120 Minutes. I’d soon be a fan and collector in a few months.

The Fall, Bend Sinister, released 29 September 1986. This was probably the first time I’d heard of this band, although I wouldn’t really hear anything by them for a while longer (unless they were played on college radio and I wasn’t paying attention). I distinctly remember noticing in Trouser Press that they had a ridiculously long discography, most of it import and thus out of my budget.

New Order, Brotherhood, released 29 September 1986. I wouldn’t own this one for around another year, but I do distinctly remember seeing a highly glowing review in a music magazine I’d started picking up called Only Music — a spin-off from Spin magazine that focused only on music news and releases. This quickly became my favorite New Order album once I finally picked it up.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, The Pacific Age, released 29 September 1986. This was another one I’d picked up in the bargain bin, this time at Al Bum’s if I’m not mistaken, partly because I really liked the single “(Forever) Live and Die”. I was well aware of the band because of their ubiquitous “If You Leave” single from Pretty in Pink as well as their Crush album that had gotten a bit of play as well with its single “So in Love”. This was the album that made me a fan of them. And also taught me the British spelling of ‘maneuver’.

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Next up: Further down the college rock rabbit hole…

Forty Years On: Favorite Music from 1986 Part V

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It was finally summertime, and I’m pretty certain that this was right about the time I finally got myself a summer job. Mind you, there’s not much out there for a teenager when you live in a small New England town with no public transportation, other than maybe the local supermarkets, but you take what you can get. I worked for one for a good few months so I could make some extra money to put into my super sad bank account, pocketing just a bit for weekly things like candy and soda, music magazines and the occasional album I wanted. I only worked for them for one summer if I recall.

On my off hours, though? My radio was always on in my bedroom, listening to the commercial stations during the day and WMDK in the evenings, then listening to my cassettes as I fell asleep at night. This was probably around the time I would stay up overly late, partly because I could and partly because it was my own way of enjoying myself without my family crowding around me. I did a lot of late night writing then.

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Easterhouse, Contenders, released June 1986. Before I started watching 120 Minutes with any regularity, I’d stumble upon some of MTV’s more adventurous playlists, and this band would show up every now and again. [They were signed to a major label in the US, so that would most likely explain them showing up at all.] I may have heard them on WMDK as well, come to think of it. They were a British band with a very vocal leftist political lean, and I think they were probably the first ones where I’d noticed that kind of thing — a band loudly and proudly wearing their beliefs like that.

Abecedarians, Eureka EP, released June 1986. I’m not entirely sure when I first saw the video for “Soil”, perhaps on late night MTV or Night Flight, but it was a song I’d heard once and immediately thought: I must own this. It would take me a good couple of years to actually find the damn thing, most likely at Al Bum’s down in Amherst. They were an LA post-punk trio that sounded nothing like any other band I’d heard of.

The Woodentops, Giant, released June 1986. If I recall, I’m pretty sure it was this song that was on an early episode of 120 Minutes that caught my attention to both the show and the band. WMDK had said a few really good things about their lo-fi acoustic grooves, and I immediately fell in love with “Give It Time”. This was another album I picked up almost immediately, this time on vinyl at Strawberries, and gave it a lot of plays that summer and fall.

The Housemartins, London 0 Hull 4, released June 1986. Somehow, “Happy Hour” got a bit of play on commercial radio as a very minor favorite in my area, but it was the constant praises they got by the music presses that intrigued me. I believe I had a dub of this sometime in 1987 or 1988. Who knew that just a few years later, that tall and lanky Norman Cook would be one of the hugest techno DJs of the 90s?

The Mekons, The Edge of the World, released June 1986. I remember reading about this band in the Trouser Press Record Guide and hearing good things in the press, but it wasn’t until this album that I finally got to hear them on WMDK. It would be quite a few more years until I’d get around to actually owning any of their work!

Love Tractor, This Ain’t No Outer Space Ship, released June 1986. I’d hear this band for the first time in mid-November of that year when I started listening to WMUA again once it came back on the air for the fall semester. This is when I decided that, like my current wave of radio-sourced mixtapes, I’d dub a tape side’s worth of music, with the sole purpose of familiarizing myself with this genre I was now obsessed with. “Night Club Scene” appealed to me because they reminded me of the early REM years (which makes sense as they were from the same Athens GA scene). I eventually found this album on cassette and played the hell out of it for a good couple of years in the afternoons while doing my homework or writing my stories. It still remains a favorite from this year.

Erasure, Wonderland, released 2 June 1986. I remember seeing ads for this album on the back pages of several music magazines, and many critics lauding their infectious sound and their pedigree (keyboardist Vince Clarke was an original member of both Depeche Mode and Yazoo). I’d hear a few songs by them but they didn’t quite gel with me until a few years later in 1988 when I “borrowed” a copy of The Innocents from the radio station I’d worked at.

Genesis, Invisible Touch, released 9 June 1986. Yes, I was still buying rock albums at this time! I’d really liked the first couple of singles from this album and picked it up on tape not long after it dropped, and it became a favorite of mine. Surprisingly it got a lot of play while I worked on the IWN, partly because of the gloomy “Domino” medley on side two.

The Smiths, The Queen Is Dead, released 16 June 1986. I wouldn’t hear this album probably for another year, but I was well aware of how many fans and critics thought this was the most brilliant album of the year. And it truly is one of their best albums, a huge step up from their first two much darker albums and several singles. Come my junior and senior year I’d have this one playing all the time on my Walkman, up to and including those summers I worked for the DPW.

Agent Orange, This Is the Voice, released 27 June 1986. I wouldn’t hear this band for another year when “Fire in the Rain” showed up on the Enigma Variations 2 compilation in the summer of 1987, but I was well aware of what many called the ‘skate-punk’ sound; fast and hard and often surprisingly melodic. This band was more melodic than most, but that track became one of my favorites that summer.

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Next Up: In which I finally get my hands on a life-altering album.