CONGRATULATIONS, YOU MADE IT THROUGH THE WEEK

ARTIST: NIRVANA
ALBUM: NEVERMIND
SONG: LITHIUM
DATE: JULY 21, 1992
STATUS: ACQUIRED

You get a Nirvana for being such a troooper.

DRINK AND SK8

ARTIST: BECK
ALBUM: MELLOW GOLD
SONG: PAY NO MIND (SNOOZER)
DATE: APRIL 1994
STATUS: ACQUIRED

Pay no mind is sort of Beck's version of a Don McLean. 2013 is slowly composting into dirt, and that's a good thing. It may be messy, but that's life and death.

EITHER WAY, YOUR IN THE WRONG PLACE

ARTIST: SONIC YOUTH
ALBUM: EXPERIMENTAL JET SET, TRASH AND NO STAR
SONG: BULL IN THE HEATHER
DATE: APRIL 1994
STATUS: NOT ACQUIRED

I'm not really going to try and explain this, but its probably about what you think its about. Anyway that's not the point. The point is, Sonic Youth doesn't need your crap. There, all the holiday wishes are done. Now we just have to drink our way to a New Year's resolution.

THE ROAD WINDS THROUGH THE COUNTRY, BUT ITS MADE BY MACHINES

ARTIST - STEVE EARLE
ALBUM - TRANSCENDENTAL BLUES
SONG - TRANSCENDENTAL BLUES
DATE - JUNE 6, 2000
STATUS - ACQUIRED

Get a little spiritual with it. Either you're sitting with your feet up by the fire reflecting on your blessings, or staring out the window wondering exactly what happened. Either way, don't be to hard on yourself or congratulate your self to much. We're all traveling to the same place though we may take different roads.

NOPE, ITS THE OTHER ONE.

ARTIST: TONE-LOC
ALBUM: LOCEED AFTER DARK
SONG: FUNKY COLD MADINA
DATE: MARCH 18, 1989
STATUS: ACQUIRED

Tone Loc brings us a thick green beverage and a dope beat to keep the gift wrapping smooth. Christmas is for the family, Christmas Eve is for cocktails! Dance like its your 8th grade winter social and you have no idea what this song is about people!

JUST TRYIN' TO SCURY UP A LITTLE

ARTIST: COUNTING CROWS
ALBUM: THIS DESERT LIFE
SONG: HANGINAROUND
DATE: NOVEMBER 2, 1999
STATUS: ACQUIRED

Sometimes, usually in your mid 20's, you realize you just can't keep doing what you've been doing, even if you've had a lot of fun doing it. Best get out while the gettings good.

PROVENANCE

ARTIST: BUSH
ALBUM: SIXTEEN STONE
SONG: COMEDOWN
DATE: 1994
STATUS: ACQUIRED

A weird thing happened in the mid 90's, American rock was so dominant that even the English bands started to sound like grunge. Bush was perhaps the most prominent British band to be discovered with a distinctly crunchy sound that fit on American Alternative Radio.

"Comedown" as a video bears all the marks of being the third single of an album. Simple and straight forward with a funny hook.

HUM ALONG

ARTIST: POE
ALBUM: HELLO
SONG: TRIGGER HAPPY JACK
DATE: 1995
STATUS: NOT ACQUIRED

I saw the singer / song writer Poe live in concert in the summer of 1995 or 1996. She had a cello player in her band, because hey it was the mid '90s and Tori Amous was playing a harpsichord, so whatever get some cool instruments in there.

When I first heard "Trigger Happy Jack" on the radio, the DJ lead into it by saying "go ahead and hum along, if you can". Its many textures cut through the diverse radio of the day. I don't remember seeing the video ever, but now that I do I'm struck by how the visuals cut against the meaning of the lyrics. The song is about a woman drawn to a damaged boyfriend. Instead of demonstrating co-dependents, the video shows a woman who keeps men as playthings.

PROPS TO SEN DOG

ARTIST: CYPRESS HILL
ALBUM: CYPRESS HILL
SONG: THE PHUNKY FEEL ONE
DATE: JULY 11, 1991
STATUS: ACQUIRED

Cypress Hill was cast as a Gangster Rap act, and with songs like "How I Could Just Kill a Man" it was and apt label, but that label obscures something truly bazaar about their work that separates them from lesser acts and smoother cohorts like Dr. Dre. Not only is B-Real's delivery high and nasal, but the back beats are truly twisted. This track, released as a single after their break through hit "How I Could Just Kill a Man" features the rhyming styles of Sen Dog more than most Cypress Hill tracks.

NEVER CROSS FAYE DUNAWAY

ARTIST: TOM PETTY AND THE HEART BREAKERS
ALBUM: INTO THE GREAT WIDE OPEN
SONG: INTO THE GREAT WIDE OPEN
DATE: SEPTEMBER 9, 1991
STATUS: ACQUIRED

I once read in an Engilish rock magazine that Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers are remembered more for the music than their lyrics. Maybe that was true if you where born in 1967, but the Petty I and so many others born in the late 70's know is one of America's premier sing/song writer story tellers, and "Into the Great Wide Open" is a classic. It's a simple story told well. Its classic Petty, and the straight forward story telling lives up to the simple straight forward music of the Heart Breakers.

EARLY MEMORIES

ARTIST: INXS
ALBUM: KICK
SONG: DEVIL INSIDE
DATE: FEBRUARY 1988
STATUS: ACQUIRED

INXS carries through with a danceability that 90's acts would avoid but that was completely in keeping with early rock. Dance and authenticity aren't often associated, but INXS in the death throws of the go-go 80's some how managed to mix the two. The Devil Inside walks the line of embracing our inner lotharios and warning of the consequences, and though much of the aesthetic they espoused would be thrown aside in the decade to come, the conflict embedded in this song would continue to be a central theme. Anyway, go out and have a good time. Its Friday, and no one needs you until Monday.

AN ODE TO THE SMALL NICETIES: CHARLIE IS AN EXCELLENT DRIVE

ARTIST: GEGGY TAH
ALBUM: SACRED COW
SONG: WHOEVER YOU ARE
DATE: 1996
STATUS: ACQUIRED

Lets set aside that this was a quixotic band and that the horn solo was as promised awesome, as a an architecture student they had me at sans serif font and retro sixties film stock. everything fades to brown or sexy grey after a point. Geggy Tah was signed to David Burns Luka Bop label, which was a sure sign that they would never make it moderate, which also meant they would be mine, all mine and no one elses'.

Fun fact, the hook to this song is foreshadowed in Geggy Tah's debute album Grand Opening on the track LA loyah or something.

STOMACH PUMP

ARTIST: REAL BIG FISH
ALBUM: TURN THE RADIO OFF
SONG: SELL OUT
DATE: AUGUST 13TH 1996
STATUS: NOT ACQUIRED

It was summer semester 1997 and I was driving three friends and six handles of bourbon to Boone North Carolina in a 1982 Volvo because it was summer semester and we'd never been to Boone. We were vikings only we brought booze and not swords. Boone General Hospital had a record number of twelve our virus reports that Sunday morning.

SoCal Pop Punk represented the first response to Grunge's dominance. They rebelled against caring to much and being mature. Somewhere around Asheville, I threw the CD out the window. The mountains do strange things to people in the middle of a serious bender. Real Big Fish carries on because they don't care, and they have a huge horn section.

SPARKLE

ARTIST: CRACKER
ALBUM: KEROSENE HAT
SONG: LOSER
DATE: 1993
STATUS: ACQUIRED

Growing up as a kid in the 80's we knew all current music sucked. It wasn't Pearl Jam or Nirvana that pulled me out of that bias, but Cracker. David Lowery's special mix of pessimistic literate optimism played well to my own contrarian tendencies. Among the hippies I was the square, among the squares I was the wild haired nature boy. Loser is a cover of a Grateful Dead song. The hook is replete with confidence and arrogance, but the speaker's authenticity is ever doubtful except for one thing. Life is a bad deal in the country and a bad deal in the town. That's original sin.

PURIFY YOURSELF IN THE WATERS OF LAKE MINNETONKA

ARTIST: PRINCE AND THE NEW POWER GENERATION
ALBUM: DIAMONDS AND PEARLS
SONG: GET OFF
DATE: JULY 29, 1991


Prince & The N.P.G. - Gett Off by jackyabody

Prince came to us as a legend. Get Off gives us Prince's version of rap, which was filtered through James Brown. Plus, amazing ass Prince guitar work.