AT FIVE-SEVEN SHE'S TWO INCHES TALLER THAN BLACK THOUGHT

ARTIST: THE ROOTS
ALBUM: N/A
SONG: THE SILENT TREATMENT
DATE: 1994
STATUS: NOT ACQUIRED

The Roots is one of the top five Hip-Hop acts of the 90's. Nobody sounds like them because of their live backing sound, and Black Thought is a supremely effective rapper and front man. This early jam is so smooth and so funky.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ALL THE GREAT SOUL BANDS

ARTIST: TONY TONI TONE
ALBUM: SONS OF SOUL
SONG: LEAVIN'
DATE: APRIL 12, 1994
STATUS: NOT ACQUIRED

Tony, Toni, Tone, was a great little soul band. Real music, real vocals. They were miscast as a New Jack Swing act, and many of there recordings suffer from the flat tinny sound of this style, but they quickly moved into a Proto-Neo-Soul mode that produced gem's like this one.

ALTERNATIVE TO ALTERNATIVE

ARTIST: FAITH NO MORE
ALBUM: ANGEL DUST
SONG: A SMALL VICTORY
DATE: AUGUST 3, 1992
STATUS: ACQUIRED

Faith No More was the genre bending act that seemed determined to never break out into the main stream. They wanted to thrash and rock, but were never afraid to mix in dance and hip hop influences. They created a strange mix much like Tai food.  It's not as popular as Chinese, but those who like it, love it.

ALMOST THE SONG OF THE DECADE

ARTIST: R.E.M.
ALBUM: OUT OF TIME
SONG: LOSING MY RELIGION
DATE: FEBRUARY 19, 1994
STATUS: AQUIRED

There are two R.E.M.s. The one before Out of Time, an emotional punkish rag tag act out of the southern collegiate hinterland of Athens Georgia, and the one after, a full blown artistic machine that could fully recognize any notion it collectively held.

"Losing My Religion's" instrumental exploration would set the metric against which all other R.E.M. work would be compared, before, after, return, etc. The lyrics are wonderfully poetic and impassioned without ever honing in on a narrative.

PICASO AND EINSTEIN DIAL IN

ARTIST: THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
ALBUM: APOLLO 18
SONG(S): FINGERTIPS
DATE: MARCH 24, 1992
STATUS: NOT ACQUIRED

Technology drives innovation, and innovation drives technology. In the early 90's, we had these things called "Compact Discs" or CD's for short. They were like records only they were digital, not analog. These CD's were played in machines that could play an album from beginning to end as they had been forever, or they could play the songs in a random order by pressing a button labeled "shuffle".

As an exploration of the potential of this technology, They Might be Giants recorded 21 mini songs for their 1992 album "Apollo 18". When one pressed "shuffle" there was no predicting what order the songs would come, but by far the weirdest way to play them was beginning to end, something TMBG does regularly in concert.

POSSIBLY THE COOLEST SONG NAME EVER

ARTIST: EVERCLEAR
ALBUM: WORLD OF NOICE
SONG: FIRE MAPLE SONG
DATE: 1993
STATUS: ACQUIRED

For those of you who haven't heard Everclear's first album, World of Noise, do yourself a solid and pick it up. It is what the title says it is.

I don't think "Fire Maple Song" is about anything I can relate to directly, but there's something in his voice that makes me cry. literally makes me cry. I'll just lose it when out running with my head phones on or riding on the bus. Does it every time. Suddenly a door opens connecting my inner and outer worlds. Things I've been keeping separate for so long I don't even know the barriers are there until their gone. Reminds me people I've lost.

ONE OF THE GREAT UNPLUGGED PERFORMANCES

ARTIST: NIRVANA
ALBUM: IN UTERO
SONG: ALL APOLOGIES
DATE: DECEMBER, 1993
STATUS: ACQUIRED

How good was MTV's Unplugged series. Ridiculously good. Hard rockin' (to many) Nirvana flash a rare direct look at the genius behind the howl.