Artist - Nine Inch Nails
Album - The Downward Spiral
Song - Piggy
Date - December 1994
Status - Not Acquired
Like your brooding geniuses with a heavy does of self destructive nihilism, then Trent Reznor was the pop idol of your teenage, not giving a shit, "whatever" mall rocking goth heart. Piggy sounds like a song Frank Sinatra would right in the middle of a cold turkey heroine purge. Enjoy!
.... man, tomorrow better be a serious pick me up or I'm not sure we're going to make it to Friday.
Artist - Primus
Album - Suck on This
Song - John the Fisherman
Date - 1990
Status - Not Acquired
Happy Monday. Right now I bet you are sitting behind a desk, staring another 40 hours in the face and wishing you'd run off to Alaska to become a high profile harvester of the sea. You should have listened to Primus. They were way ahead of the reality TV curve. Right now you could be cruising the Bearing Straights in the S.S. Big Brown Beaver as the star of Deadliest Catch. Well hear, live the chaos for the next three thirty eight.
P.S. pretty sure the internet is right and the fourth guy on the boart is Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett. The fifth guy? I don't know, maybe the first mate. Guy's sixth, seventh, eight and ninth, just some dudes out trolling for sea bass.
Artist - Cake
Album - Fashion Nugget
Song - The Distance
Date - 10-15-96
Status - Acquired - Way Acquired
Something about lead singer John McCrea's laid back vocal stylings and ripping guitar riffs...is...well awesome. Plus melodica! Cake songs always have a few odd ball musical tweaks. Great song, maybe an even better video.
Artist - Terence Trent D'Arby
Album - Introducing The Hardline According to Terrence Trent D'Arby
Song - Wishing Well
Date - 1987
State - Not Acquired
Going way back to middle school for this one. We may have all ended up in flannels, but we started out in tight rolled acid wash jeans, and don't you forget it.
In many ways Wishing Well seems very 80's, very produced, very synth, but D'Arby teases something totally unique out of it. Something that's unique, that defines uniqueness.
Dookie is one of those albums no one wants to take seriously, but you just have to. Somehow it feels like a joke, but no, its not a joke, it just doesn't care what other people think.
"She" is a surprisingly earnest call to self-actualization. If there was theme to my teenage years it was that "Darren ole' boy you have to self-actualize". Seriously, bull-shit and $20 words aside, that is what being a teenager is about, going from a child to an adult that we all hope thinks about things for themselves. If banging your head and screaming at a punk rock concert helps get you there, then get on board and self actualize my man.
Artist - Adina Howard
Album - Do You Wanna Ride?
Song - Freak Like Me
Date - 1-25-95
Status - Aquired
Freak like me stands out for two reasons. One would be the Hip-Hop influenced backing track. The trend in R&B had been towards the more up-beat, danceable sounds of New Jack Swing. In comparison Freak's sound is heavily influenced by G-Funk and the work of Doctor Dre. It's slow, its slinky. Its not a song to dance to. Its a song to bob your head (and likely several other body parts) to.
Second, its sexual, aggressively so. Howard, and many other female R&B singers and rappers in the mid 90's actively (and appealing to young men who buy records) adopted blatantly sexual imagery that had previously been the domain of men.
Was this good or bad for relationships between the sexes? That's not really the point? The point is, she's a freak, and she's looking for a freak who can bump-bump to the early morn' and really when you're eighteen its hard to see though that to anything else. Even at 28 and 38 the song still has that affect.
Artest - The The
Album - Dusk
Song - Love is Stronger than Death
Date - June 1993
Status - Not Acquired
Record companies generally like songs about whipping your hair and videos full lithe young women, not songs about death accompanied by videos which graphically depict the onset of death. Not really a foot tapper kind of thing. then in the early 90's weird, self-aware bands with strange names and deep thoughtful songs seamed to find a broader audience at that time. There wasn't anything big and horrible going on in the world. It just seemed like a lot of people where tired of all the smiling and wanted the freedom to be serious even if all there needs had been provided for. The The fits the bill nicely. Love is Stronger than Death is wise, melancholy and honest. Its about the meaning of life, but yeah, you can still tap your foot to it.
