Artist: The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Album: Strung Out in Heaven
Song: Love
Date: June 23 1998
Status: Acquired
BJM is a band I discovered through the incredible MTV show, 120 Minutes. 120 Minutes played good music, and a variety of music. Two things in short supply during most hours of the day. But you had to be quick. They covered a lot of ground and you may only see a video once or twice.
I was transfixed by the rough simplicity of BJM. The band seemed bent on proving that virtuosity and brillant music are not synonymous. Artistic vision matters more. Plus...Crazy Ass Anton Newcombe story!
Artist: Radiohead
Album: Pablo Honey
Song: Anyone Can Play Guitar
Date: February 1993
Status: Not Acquired
Every wonder what the second single off Pablo Honey was? It was this! While its a quality song, its very of its time. It doesn't transcend time it was made like latter Radiohead work. Instead its the kind of song that becomes your favorite song that no one else who loves this band would ever pick as there favorite and you can have all to yourself.
Artist: Collective Soul
Album: Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid
Song: Shine
Date: March 19, 1994
Five guys and no piano, must be grunge. Collective Soul is one of those bands that got lumped in with grunge in the mid 90's by the record companies. In the record companies defense, "Shine" does sound awfully three cord crunchy compared to other songs delivered by Collective Soul.
The lighting in the video says "Seattle" but the rusted tin barn and the dead kudzu screams "Atlanta"
Artist: Better than Ezra
Album: Deluxe
Song: Good
Date: 1995
Status: Acquired
Better than Ezra was one of many bands whose success followed on the heals of the grunge breakout. It was like record companies rediscovered that people like guitars, and that groups of people would get together, and one guy would bring drums, and another a base, and they'd make noise that people liked. I mean, isn't that what producers are for? Anyway, they scoured the country for these "bands" and Ezra was one of them. Not really an alternative act. More just a band...with instruments, but you know, it was good.
Artist: R.E.M.
Album: Automatic for The People
Song: Man on The Moon
Date: November 21, 1992
Status: Acquired
The R.E.M. of my youth wast the major label R.E.M. It was a different machine than the college rock pseudo-rock act of a half generation before me. Some of the fuzzy energy of that earlier incarnation was traded in for assured exploration.
And there is no telling how many kids were introduced to Andy Kaufman because of this song.
Artist: Fishbone
Album: Give a Monkey a Brain and He'll Swear He's the Center of the Universe
Song: Swim
Date: 1993
Status: Acquired
Fishbone's members were mostly inner city kids who were bussed to suburban schools. You have to think that influenced their sound greatly. An incredible live band who never quite captured their full power on record.
Monster Magnet opened for Nine Inch Nails or Maryellen Manson, I can't remember which one. Either way, that should cement their audience in your mind. They weren't as overtly freaky as Maryellen, who as Alice Cooper said "forgot it was suppose to be fun" or as brilliant musically as Nine Inch Nails, but they were full Satan Blowing Rock! Dopes to Infinity is an excellent album with many a great track.
Artist - Digital Underground
Album - Sex Packets
Song - Humpty Dance
Date - May 4, 1990
Status - Acquired
Shock G is one of the unheralded bizarre geniuses of hip-hop. For those of you who still haven't figured it out, Shock G is Humpty, and Humpty is Shock G. This is pure, unadulterated naughtyness.
Artist - The Sundays
Album - Static & Silence
Song - Summertime
Date - September 1997
Status - Not Acquired
Sometimes its just that simple. A pretty voice, fun bouncy little guitar lick and add a few horns for brightness, then just step back and let it happen. The 90's didn't produce a lot of fun songs, because most of the fun songs of the 80's sucked and were actually horribly depressing if you stop and think about it. Summer time was that rare thing, an unironic song about love that doesn't lay the sugar on too thick. Its just sweet enough.
Artist - Hootie and the Blow Fish
Album - Cracker Rear View
Song - Only Wanna Be With You
Do not hate on Hootie. They were all set to be your favorite bar band that no one else knew, but then every frat boy in America went out and bought their debut album. Not their fault.
But look what they did with the opportunity. They made this video. Yes its total shit, but think about the genius behind the shit video. Hootie grabbed that falling star which is fame and rung every ounce of joy they could out of it. Way to use a marketing exercise to turn your childhood fantasy of playing catch with Dan Marino into a tax deductible expense boys!
Artist - Bare Naked Ladies
Album - Stunt
Song - Call and Answer
Date - July 13, 1999
Status - Acquired
The Ladies tended to bury some a lot of the sadness in their songs, but "Call and Answer" puts it out front and center. The song really emphasizes the beauty of Stephen Page's voice. Such mature work rarely receives broad exposure. Its nice when it does.
Artist - Living Color
Album - Vivid
Song - Cult of Personality
Date - May 3, 1988
Status - Acquired
Living Color is the prototypical metal band. Great power vocals. Dynamic as hell rhythm section, and a brilliant lead guitarist. 'Cult of Personality' is a blistering track. The opening guitar riff just grabs you and the song keeps pounding away for almost five minutes. And the lyrics are great. It would have been to easy to take a pop shot at conservative America given the political climate. Instead the band aims higher and takes apart the basic myth of leadership. A myth that has poisoned the best intentions of reformist movements across the world.
Its rejection of "leaders" and "causes" is proto-slak.
Artist - Spin Doctors
Album - Pocket Full of Kryptonite
Song - What Time is It
Date - 1993
Status - Not Acquired
At one point in your life (college) you convince yourself that all songs are about drugs if you just listen to the lyrics closely enough. Then you realize you are about to graduate and are going to have to sober up and get a job. Life, its a kick in the nuts.
Turns out this song is about trashy politically charged television, but the beat, like all Spin Doctor's songs is funky.
Artist - Outkast
Album - Aquemini
Song - Rosa Park
Date - 3-23-99
Status - Not Acquired
ATLiens may have established Outkast as fully fledged hip-hop stars, and Stankonia may have been their mainstream break through, but Rosa Park and its accompanying video established Outkast as home town hero's in Atlanta.
I know, I know, Big Boi's where a tasteful orange leather Mets outfit, but the song is Atlanta. Futuristic and fabulusly Ghetto.
Artist - MC 900ft Jesus
Album - One Step Ahead of the Spider
Song - If I Only Had A Brain
Date - 1994
Status - Not Acquired
First of all, I'm halfway there with the name. Is that pro-Christian, Anti-Christian...pro-Latino?
270m Jesus lays down a good beat and some clever lyrics, but what takes the whole thing to eleven is the Spike Jones video. The true Spike touch is the shifting scope of the box's inside. A simple effect achieved by using sets that were identical except for the size and smart editing.
Artist- Trio
Album - Trio
Song - Da Da Da ich lieb dich nicht du liebst mich nicht aha aha aha
Date - 1982
Status - Not Acquired
The original release date is well outs side our time frame, but thanks to the astute counter culture marketing power of Volkswagen the song came into our collective conscience.
Not having a life is a virtue. Having no place to go and nothing to do is a non way of sticking it to the man who wants you to go along or at least pull back in rebellion. Rebellion they can do something with but apathy, apathy puts you well outside the bounds of there understanding.
It hurts so good when advertisements peer deep into your soul and nails everything you are.
Artist - Rancid
Album - ...And Out Come the Wolves
Song - Ruby Soho
Date - 1995
Status - Not Acquired
You shouldn't like this. Its kind of pop-punk after all, and did the lead singer walk into the studio after smoking about 80 Marlboro Reds and drinking a gallon bucket of flaming Doctor Peppers the night before or what? And yet, if you reach over and turn up the volume, That's it, a little more. Just a little more, you should feel it more than hear it. That's right. Feels good don't it. Feels like your dad hates it but can't think of a good why. Remember, that's why you liked this song. It gets better as it gets louder.
Artist - Tori Amos
Album - Little Earthquakes
Song - Winter
Date - Nov. 24, 92
Amos' biography (much of it harrowing and/or apocryphal), mixes with her music creates an epic persona. A honest unvarnished persona, but a persona that some what obscures the vast talent it takes to turn biography into art. Art that really matters.
Artist - Beck
Album - Odelay
Song - Jack-Ass
Date - 1997
Status - Acquired
Beck is the music artist of the 90's. Other groups may have been bigger, more transgressive, or a bigger influence on music, but Beck is this lightning rod that pulled the zeitgeist out of the either.
Used to his morphing and mixing of noise rock, folk, hip-hop and funk, or you know, whatever he was doing, Jack-Ass is a stark contrast and suggested the direction Beck's music would take latter.
Artist - Radiohead
Album - OK Computer
Song - Exit Music (For a Film)
Date - 16 June 1997
Status - Acquired
Sometimes the only way to not be destroyed is to not fight. To reject not just the rules, but the game. Perhaps Romeo and Juliet should have taken Radiohead's advice. Stop crying, get out of bed and get out of town.
Artist - Alana Davis
Album - Blame It on Me
Song - 32 Flavors
Date - September 23, 1997
Status - Acquired
The Beatles and Bob Dylan created the concept of the self contained musical unit. Song Writer and Performer in the same entity. Ever sense then we've tended to dismiss artist that didn't write the material that made them famous, and this is unfortunate because it means we've lost some small percentage of appreciation for the visceral. That which is real, that we feel and touch and taste.
I'm a big 60's R&B fan. At the time it was not uncommon to see multiple versions of the same song on the charts at the same time, Otis Redding Covering the Rolling Stones, or Creedence Clearwater doing a Booker T. and the MG's song. The challenge, as those highly competitive artists saw it, was to do a better version of the same material. There's a world of art, philosophy, and enjoyment in a performance, and breaking the convention of the self-contained unit and creating a team of experts can produce great results.
Ani Defranco wrote and record an amazing version of this song, but Alana Davis' recording is also very good and brings an entirely different air to the song. Her cover adds depth and breadth to the song. It expands its meaning.
