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.
