THAT'S RIGHT....

ARTIST: NAZ FT. R. KELLY
ALBUM: N/A
SONG: STREET DREAMS RE:MIX
DATE: 1996
STATUS: ACQURED

Naz was the realest MC. Somehow he walked the line of dishing out gangster fantasies and morality tales. In this Remix (and in the 90's it seams like every rap song was closely followed by a remix) R. Kelly provides the hook. Kelly was a rather generic R&B act at this time but he hints at the crazy genius that would follow on albums like "In the Closet" when he tosses in the line "That's right"

SO MANY HEADLINES

ARTIST: HOLE
ALBUM: CELEBRITY SKIN
SONG: CELEBRITY SKIN
DATE: SEPTEMBER 1, 1998
STATUS: ACQUIRED

To much tabloid bounce back gets in the way of appreciating Live Through This, and even more so Celebrity Skin.  Live Through This is a great album, but it does sound very heavily influenced by Nirvana. There's nothing wrong with that. A lot of bands wanted to sound like Nirvana, and Love brought an intense energy to the role of lead singer that separated the band from other acts. Celebrity Skin is a little more pop, and seems to represent an emergence of Love's own view point.

NEO SOUL

ARTIST: ERYKAH BADU
ALBUM: BADUIZUM
SONG: ON & ON
DATE: JANUARY 24, 1997
STATUS: ACQUIRED

Soul in the early 90's was New Jack. Flat and tiny. Heavy on the dance beat. Following close on its heals was hip-hop soul. Thick heavy beats and big church voices like Mary J. Blige. Then followed Neo Soul. More earthy with a greater emphasis on real instruments, or at least mixes that sounded more like real bands.

Ms. Badu was the leading edge of this sound. Her songs were soaked in a mix of new age and afro centric mysticism. On & On's mysticism is reflected in the down home southern retelling of the Cinderella story of the video.

OLD COUNTRY IS ALWAYS COOL

ARTIST: JOHNNY CASH
ALBUM: UNCHAINED
SONG: I;VE BEEN EVERYWHERE
DATE: 1996
STATUS: NOT ACQUIRED

Country, real country, made for coal miners and cotton pickers, by coal miners and cotton pickers, was supplanted by new country in the nineties. New country is a pop abomination of Australians and Garth Brooks pretending to be from Tennessee and singing odes to ignorance and stupidity which reassure the dumb that dumb is the place to be. But enough hate for Friday.

Fortunately Rick Rubens got together with Johnny Cash to bring real country back into the light, and Johnny Cash, the man in black rode back into America's consciousness. We're all better for it. Unchained is better remembered for Cash's cover of "Rusty Cage" by Soundgarden. "I've Been Everywhere" wraps up the album in a tone that rarely heard on Cash's American recordings, the fun crowd pleaser that got people up on their feet and stomping around. Originally an Australian song (so Australians actually know a little about real county) written by Geoff Mack, the American version obviously uses the names of American cities in place of Australian cities.

DANCE HALL BREAK

ARTIST: PATRA
ALBUM: QUEEN OF THE PACK
SONG: QUEEN OF THE PACK
DATE: 1993
STATUS: ACQUIRED

So, where did they get the dancers for this video? Am I missing something, is this a cultural thing I don't get? I mean, I get the hip grinding and the booty shaking, even at burning Caribbean sun intensity levels of Jamaica, but did they cast this video at the Claremont?

Patra had a nice run of hits on BET and Rap and R&B radio stations. Here early work was more austerely Dance Hall. As here career progressed the singles became more and more American in tone.

ALTERNATIVE TO ALTERNATIVE

ARTIST: SEBADOH
ALBUM: BAKESALE
SONG: REBOUND
DATE: APRIL 23, 1994
STATUS: NOT ACQUIRED

Not exactly a side project of Dinosaur Jr. Bassist, Lou Barlow, and definitely a higher priority than Barlow's other project, Folk Implosion, Sebadoh was more of an ongoing chess game that its members frequently fiddled with to produce punkier and popier songs than their other projects. "Rebound" is a great mid nineties Lo-Fi rocker.

GEEK SHEEK REVOLUTION

ARTIST: RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
ALBUM: RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
SONG: BULLET IN YOUR HEAD
DATE: NOVEMBER 3, 1992
STATUS: ACQUIRED

Rage never fits easily into any compilation. They care too much and they rock too mighty. Then again, what makes for good political rock, maybe doesn't make for great politics, which is an entirely different level of confusion.  When does patronizing an artist transgress into endorsement. Its too easy to turn poetic lyrics into simplistic ideologies, and to infer simplistic ideologies from poetic lyrics. 

In any event, Rage is right on this count, its better to be educated and prepared to fire the mental bullets than to have them fired at you.