You’ll Never See Jesus Doing This (January, 2005)

 

As I said before, there aren’t many changes, story-wise, from here on out. For me, January of 2005 wasn’t overly different from January of 2004.

I apologize for this anti-climactic turn of events.

This mix (and the previous one) appears on my blog here.

U2 – Vertigo Sahara Hotnights – Hot Night Crash All-American Rejects – Swing Swing Jonathan Rundman – Smart Girls The Mountain Goats – Letter From Belgium The Killers – All These Things That I’ve Done Elliot Smith – Memory Lane Audio Ninja – Fault Jimmy Eat World – Jenny Dressy Bessy – Just Once More The Secret Machines – Nowhere Again Nellie McKay – David Snow Patrol – Spitting Games Goldenboy – Sing Another Song For The Winterlong Zero 7 – In The Waiting Line Sleeping Flies – Feel Like Movin’ On John Vanderslice – Up Above The Sea Rogue Wave – Kicking The Heart Out Rufus Wainwright – Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk

The Trash Can Sinatras – Welcome Back Fountains Of Wayne – Mexican Wine The Elected – Don’t Get Your Hopes Up The Von Bondies – Cmon Cmon Paul Oakenfold – Ready Steady Go The Delays – Hey Now Girl Smoosh – Massive Cure The Postal Service – Sleeping In The Jayhawks – Save it for a Rainy Day Me First and the Gimme Gimmes – Mona Lisa Green Day – Boulevard of Broken Dreams Cake – Wheels Franz Ferdinand – The Dark Of The Matinée Dogs Die in Hot Cars – Apples & Oranges They Might Be Giants – Experimental Film Flunk – Blind My Mind Olympic Hopefuls – Holiday The Raveonettes – Remember The Arcade Fire – Wake Up Matthew Sweet – Tomorrow

There’s a LOT of KEXP stuff here. More importantly, there’s some stuff here that went on to become some of my favorite music of the decade.

• U2 – Vertigo

Yes, yes, I’m a sucker for some of U2′s more egregious pop.

• Sahara Hotnights – Hot Night Crash

I don’t think I heard of this band from KEXP. I started following music blogs at this point and it’s possible I heard about them from one of those.

• All-American Rejects – Swing Swing

Heard on the radio, downloaded. I don’t much like this song anymore.

• Jonathan Rundman – Smart Girls

We were getting Paste magazine at this point, but I had grown tired of its singer-songwriter-folk-rock angle. This song, though, from one of their sampler CDs, amused me.

• The Mountain Goats – Letter From Belgium

Another KEXP band that eventually became a favorite. This album, We Shall All Be Healed, is one of my favorites.

• The Killers – All These Things That I’ve Done

I like this song a lot, but nothing else of theirs has done a damn thing for me.

• Elliot Smith – Memory Lane

I really don’t have much patience for the Tweemo of Elliot Smith and his ilk, but I like this song well enough.

• Audio Ninja – Fault

Remember my friend Dan? This is his band! He wrote this and is singing it! At the time they were called Audio Ninja, but they later became Social X-Ray. I’m not just including this because he’s a pal; I really dig the song.

• Jimmy Eat World – Jenny

As much as I love Bleed American (and, to a lesser extent, Clarity), their follow-ups just lost me. This is actually an earlier song, I think.

• Dressy Bessy – Just Once More
• Snow Patrol – Spitting Games
• Fountains Of Wayne – Mexican Wine
• The Postal Service – Sleeping In
• They Might Be Giants – Experimental Film
• The Raveonettes – Remember

Nothing much to say about these. They’re followups from previous albums or bands.

• The Secret Machines – Nowhere Again

I know I heard this song on a music blog and loved it. I sampled a few other songs of theirs and this was the only one I really liked. Eventually I would just grab songs and not worry about if there were any others by that band I liked.

• Nellie McKay – David

Nellie McKay’s debut double album would have made a great single album. There’s a lot of clever stuff on it, but a lot of it is not nearly as clever as it seems to think. I don’t think either of us was much blown away by the follow-up, another double album.

• Goldenboy – Sing Another Song For The Winterlong

Dan introduced us to these guys, and we ended up seeing them perform in Northampton. The album this is from, Underneath the Radio is pretty good, if you like this tune.

• Zero 7 – In The Waiting Line

Another one from the Garden State soundtrack.

• Sleeping Flies – Feel Like Movin’ On
• Rogue Wave – Kicking The Heart Out
• The Elected – Don’t Get Your Hopes Up
• The Von Bondies – Cmon Cmon
• The Delays – Hey Now Girl
• The Jayhawks – Save it for a Rainy Day
• Me First and the Gimme Gimmes – Mona Lisa
• Dogs Die in Hot Cars – Apples & Oranges
• Flunk – Blind My Mind
• Olympic Hopefuls – Holiday

These are all KEXP bands.

• John Vanderslice – Up Above The Sea

This WOULD have been just another KEXP band, except for the album he was about to release.

• Rufus Wainwright – Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk

Becky got hipped to this, and I like a lot of it fine, but most of it is a bit too showtuney to me, meaning that it sounds like songs excerpted from musicals, which I can take some of, but not one after another.

• The Trash Can Sinatras – Welcome Back

I loved the TCS’s Cake album way back when, but hadn’t followed them much since then, having found the followup to be disappointing. This release, Weightlifting, was much praised as a return to form for the band, but once again I was just not blown away.

• Paul Oakenfold – Ready Steady Go

From the Collateral soundtrack, yeah.

• Smoosh – Massive Cure

I had heard about Smoosh somewhere, this crazy band made up from two little girls who rocked the hell out of it. The music did not disappoint.

• Green Day – Boulevard of Broken Dreams

I was just as surprised as anyone when I started hearing that Green Day was a band we were now supposed to take seriously, but damn if I wasn’t impressed by American Idiot.

• Cake – Wheels

Cake finally followed up the amazing Comfort Eagle with Pressure Chief which, perhaps inevitably, was a bit of a disappointment. A lot of the energy seemed to be missing, though the songs aren’t bad.

• Franz Ferdinand – The Dark Of The Matinée

I listened to this song about a dozen times trying to figure out if I liked it or not. I eventually decided I did. The rest of the album wasn’t bad, but wore out its welcome pretty quickly.

• The Arcade Fire – Wake Up

It took me a few listens to really appreciate this album, but once I did, it blew me away. This is possibly my vote for best album of the decade.

• Matthew Sweet – Tomorrow

And here’s Matthew Sweet, still plugging away. The guy may not be as notable as he used to, but he can still put out a fine pop song.

Here’s the story of the title. We were out at karaoke night, looking for a song to sing. We came across a song called something like, “You Can’t Surprise Jesus” and Becky said, “You’ll never see Jesus doing this:” and then made a “surprised” face. We laughed ourselves silly. It’s possible we’d been drinking.

This is another early cover, which explains the no-frills nature of it, but I actually like the front. The back is boring, though.

Click on the player below to listen to this mix!

(xspf player courtesy Lacy Morrow and Fabricio Zuardi.)

Up All Night, Talking (May 1992)

 

Fortunately for me, not long after my graduation a job landed right in my lap, and in early 1992 I went to work for the State of Louisiana, doing computer tech support and network administration. It seemed like a dream come true – I got to mess around with computers all day long and got to learn all kinds of new things about them. For a while it was a lot of fun and really interesting. With my first real job I was able to afford a new car, and soon I bought my first car. So I had a new(ish) apartment, a new job, new girl, new car, I was really moving on in the world.

Becky and I continued to get closer, and I was still hanging out a lot with Anna and Kurt, but I was also spending a lot of time at a bar called The Chimes, with Jeff and Martin and Doug. We drank pitchers of Abita Amber and dreamed about having a band which was first called “Buttered Hand” and later “Burlap Cat”. These were some of the less bizarre names we came up with in these sessions. That project never got very far.

In retrospect, I was now sort of living the life I’d fantasized about back in the summer of ’86. Here I was, with my friends, at our usual hangout. We had our girlfriends and our own places to take them to, we talked about a band, griped about our classes or work, and basically lived as normal adults. Strange how we couldn’t seem to find that just out of high school.

Teenage Fanclub – The Concept The Cure – High The Jesus and Mary Chain – Far Gone and Out Ultra Vivid Scene – Staring at the Sun The La’s – Feelin’ Dramarama – Haven’t Got A Clue Straitjacket Fits – Missing Presumed Drowned Head Candy – Soul Grinder Live – Operation Spirit Red Hot Chili Peppers – The Power Of Equality Nirvana – In Bloom Pearl Jam – Even Flow Pixies – Motorway to Roswell

Material Issue – Valerie Loves Me Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – Grey Cell Green Toad the Wet Sprocket – Is It For Me Power of Dreams – Talk Uncle Green – I Don’t Wanna Know About It Voice of the Beehive – Say It The Trash Can Sinatras – Only Tongue Can Tell Michelle Shocked – Come a Long Way The Judy Bats – She’s Sad She Said R.E.M. – Near Wild Heaven Trout Fishing in America – Lost in Her Lips Crash Test Dummies – Here on Earth T-Bone Burnett – Humans From Earth (alt) Jonathan Richman – When She Kisses Me Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – Times Like This

There’s a fair amount of going through the motions here, with only a few standout tracks.

• Teenage Fanclub – The Concept

No idea how I found out about Teenage Fanclub, but their Bandwagonesque album is so right up my alley I’m amazed I never went any further with them. I’m also surprised this song made the Cool New Music Tape cut, being that it’s forty years long, with 28 of those years being guitar solo — not at all my usual thing.

• The Cure – High

The Cure are back but don’t take their jackets; they’re not staying. Wish just didn’t grab me, as it seemed way too fluffy and cutesy even for The Cure (as this song attests, I think). I didn’t keep it long. I also didn’t succumb to the omnipresent single, “Friday I’m In Love”.

• The Jesus and Mary Chain – Far Gone and Out
• Ultra Vivid Scene – Staring at the Sun
• The La’s – Feelin’
• Dramarama – Haven’t Got A Clue
• Straitjacket Fits – Missing Presumed Drowned
• Head Candy – Soul Grinder
• Nirvana – In Bloom
• Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – Grey Cell Green
• Toad the Wet Sprocket – Is It For Me
• Power of Dreams – Talk
• Voice of the Beehive – Say It
• The Trash Can Sinatras – Only Tongue Can Tell
• R.E.M. – Near Wild Heaven
• Trout Fishing in America – Lost in Her Lips
• Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – Times Like This

Despite now having a real job and being fabulously wealthy, this is a lot of repeats, though the Jesus and Mary Chain track is from a new album. At some point I found the followup to Melt by Straightjacket Fits. It was called Blow, and it did. “Soul Grinder” is not a good song, but I like the guitary bits.

• Live – Operation Spirit

Last time I referred to Crash Test Dummies as one of the most insufferable bands in history, but if these guys aren’t the champs, they’re at least way up there. Let’s look at the full title of this song:

• Live – Operation Spirit (The Tyranny of Tradition)

Yeeeaaaahhhhhh.

• Red Hot Chili Peppers – The Power Of Equality

I had been exposed to the Chili Peppers in the past, of course, but they never really clicked with me. This was partly because they were a bit too “California” for my tastes, but also because, being so very white, the funk that fuels them so much just didn’t do anything for me. But I guess by this time they had watered down their sound enough and I had loosened up enough that suddenly we were overlapping, and I could really appreciate the fun behind this album. It’s only this moment, though, as the albums after this left me cold again.

• Pearl Jam – Even Flow

On April 11, 1992, Pearl Jam was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, which Becky and I were regular viewers of. Neither one of us was familiar with the band, but Eddie Vedder’s intense performance of “Alive” had me (and practically everyone else I knew) out buying Ten the next day. I was too old for the grunge movement to be any kind of anthemic thing for me, and its founding fathers didn’t really keep my interest as long as they seemed to for many others. But I have to admit, Ten has held up fairly well.

• Pixies – Motorway to Roswell

I have a short story loosely based on (more “inspired by”, really) this song, but I’ve never written it down. It’s not that great of a story, honestly.

• Material Issue – Valerie Loves Me

In true power-pop fashion, Valerie isn’t aware this guy exists.

• Uncle Green – I Don’t Wanna Know About It

Not a great song, and the rest of the album is worse. Shortly after this they got on a major label and their debut there — Book of Bad Dreams — is awful. Shame, because there’s a really good band in there.

• Michelle Shocked – Come a Long Way

Michelle is back but this new album, Arkansas Traveler, just never did it for me. I stopped following her after this, which is my loss; she’s still putting out good music.

• The Judy Bats – She’s Sad She Said

This is the weirdest damn band. They have the sound of one of those small bands from England in which every song mentions some bit of local geography that you’re just supposed to know about. Thing is, they’re from the American South, and instead of England, they refer to bits of culture there. I love the first verse of this song.

• Crash Test Dummies – Here on Earth

This song is very difficult to listen to now. Don’t worry, this is it for them. There will be no “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”.

• T-Bone Burnett – Humans From Earth (alt)

One of the items in my collection of soundtracks to movies I never saw is the Until the End of the World soundtrack, which features this version of a track that’s also on his album, The Criminal Under My Own Hat (which was purchased based on this song). I like this starker version of the song better.

• Jonathan Richman – When She Kisses Me

Hey look who’s back! Jonathan played at a club in Baton Rouge and I fell in love with him all over again and stated buying his solo CDs which, for some reason, I had ignored before.

This was a poke at Jeff, who had told me that he and a certain girl had been “Up all night…you know…talking.” I thought it was funny at the time. The cover is a remixed version of a 1950s romance comic book.

Click on the player below to listen to this mix!

(xspf player courtesy Lacy Morrow and Fabricio Zuardi.)

Me and the Soviet Union (December 1991)

 

Just before I moved out of my apartment in the summer of ’91 I decided to call a girl I’d met in one of my creative writing classes, Becky. I finally got my courage up to ask her out, but before I could do so, she mentioned a new boyfriend she had. However, shortly after that the boyfriend was no more, and I decided to ask her out. We started dating on August 14th.

Things were great – Becky wasn’t like most of the other girls I had dated. She was less prone to self-destructive behavior stemming from a terrible family life. In a lot of ways, although she was younger than me, I found her very intimidating. Still, we got along very well and were fairly serious in a short amount of time. Through her I expanded my circle of friends to include Jeff, Sean and Joanna, Deshae, Martin, and Doug. Most of these were people I had sort of known before, but she knew a lot better.

I tried to get into writing some more at this time, since I was still toying with the idea of going to graduate school for an MFA in Creative Writing, but that plan was slipping further and further away the more I realized I just wasn’t interested in doing it. Problem was, I didn’t know what I was interested in. So I graduated from LSU in December of 1991 with a degree in English and absolutely no idea where I would go from there.

Dramarama – Until The Next Time Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – Kill Your Television The Trash Can Sinatras – Obscurity Knocks Toad the Wet Sprocket – Butterflies Ultra Vivid Scene – Three Stars The Lightning Seeds – The Nearly Man The Charlatans – The Only One I Know The Soup Dragons – Mother Universe [Remix] Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine – Midnight on the Murder Mile U2 – Mysterious Ways Bob Mould – Out Of Your Life Head Candy – Mona Lisa Overdrive Pixies – Subbacultcha Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit

The Jesus and Mary Chain – Head On Voice of the Beehive – Adonis Blue Uncle Green – I Don’t Know (I Just Wish) R.E.M. – Half A World Away The Lemonheads – Ride With Me Power of Dreams – Maire I Don’t Love You Material Issue – Very First Lie Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – Woyaho The La’s – There She Goes Trout Fishing in America – Sleepytime Cartoon Crash Test Dummies – Comin’ Back Soon The Sundays – Can’t Be Sure The Stone Roses – Waterfall Straitjacket Fits – Down in Splendour

This isn’t a bad followup to the previous, and still has a good variety.

• Dramarama – Until The Next Time

I don’t remember how I got into these guys, but Vinyl is a whole lot of fun. I have a memory of this song: the power had flickered off in the middle of the night and come back on, and my CD player just started playing what was in it. I slept through it until, suddenly in my ear was “BANG AND HERE WE GO!”

This was also the time when bands were playing with the CD format. There’s a hidden track on this album called “Steve is Here” which is about a minute long. Except instead of being one minute-long track, it’s 60 one-second long tracks. You won’t know this unless either you’re watching the track counter on the player go up or, in my case, you’re got six disks in the player on shuffle and keep hearing it load a list, play one second of sound, and then load a different disc.

• Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – Kill Your Television

More of the fun music coming out of England at the time. There really was something in the water over there.

• The Trash Can Sinatras – Obscurity Knocks
• Ultra Vivid Scene – Three Stars
• The Lightning Seeds – The Nearly Man
• The Charlatans – The Only One I Know
• Bob Mould – Out Of Your Life
• R.E.M. – Half A World Away
• The Lemonheads – Ride With Me
• Material Issue – Very First Lie
• Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – Woyaho
• The Sundays – Can’t Be Sure
• The Stone Roses – Waterfall

These are the holdover from previously. It’s the end for the Lightning Seeds and The Stone Roses, and The Sundays are going to take a break. Bob Mould is leaving us as well, but he’ll be back soon.

• Toad the Wet Sprocket – Butterflies

These were the new indie darling, and for good reason: Fear is a damn fine album (this track sort of belies the jangle-pop rest of it.) I’ll eventually use three tracks off of it but not “Walk on the Ocean” or “All I Want”, the two biggest songs from it.

• The Soup Dragons – Mother Universe [Remix]
• Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine – Midnight on the Murder Mile

“Mother Universe” is another track from the Indie Top 20 CD I got so much mileage out of on Dead Fly in My Nehi. Speaking of which, I said before that only one of the bands was one I would continue to follow? Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine is that band. I have 101 Damnations and still love it (and its title) and I used to have 30 Something but I don’t know what happened to it.

• U2 – Mysterious Ways

I managed to make it through their early career, their serious phase, and their first bombastic phase without paying much attention to U2, (and, fair enough, I owned and liked The Joshua Tree) but they finally hit paydirt for me with Achtung Baby, despite it being a little bit of all of that rolled into one. Nevertheless, this is one of only two songs by U2 that will make it onto these tapes.

• Head Candy – Mona Lisa Overdrive

Not a great song by not a great band that nobody but me has ever heard of, but hey, they had the comic character “The Vision” on their CD cover and a song named after a William Gibson book, so I gave them a shot. Something tells me these guys listened to a little Blue Oyster Cult.

• Pixies – Subbacultcha

Yes, I didn’t get into the Pixies until Trompe le Monde, which is the album the true fans all hate, mostly because it got people like me into the band. I’ve since bought their other ones and I like about half of each one, but honestly, I can do without the songs that are just Black Francis screaming, and this album has less of that than the others.

Jeff and I used to try to turn this into a “Subway” sandwich shop ad. “SHE WAS HAVING A TURKEY SUB I WAS HAVING A TURKEY SUB WAY DOWN DOWN DOWN IN THIS…Subbawaya!”

• Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit

Speaking of screamy bands, in 1991 you were obligated to own this, since it was of course Changing Everything. And it did…in hindsight, not exactly for the better. Things are about to get a lot more dour and miserable in the American music scene, folks.

• The Jesus and Mary Chain – Head On

I don’t know why it took me this long to get to THE song off Automatic (it’s the fifth track I’ve pulled off it.)

• Voice of the Beehive – Adonis Blue

Voice of the Beehive are back with their second album, Honey Lingers (it was going to be called something else that sort of rhymes, but their label balked.) It’s okay, but it didn’t consistently grab me as much as the first one did.

• Uncle Green – I Don’t Know (I Just Wish)

Speaking of disappointing follow-ups, Uncle Green’s What an Experiment His Head Was is just…well, it’s not good, people.

• Power of Dreams – Maire I Don’t Love You

Remember Rob? I briefly got in touch with him again at this time. He was living uptown in New Orleans and doing something that got him promotional CDs. This was one of two he gave me, and I liked it pretty well, though I eventually got rid of it. In fact, when compiling these mp3s I figured this one would be impossible to find but it turned out my library had a copy of it.

• The La’s – There She Goes

I have a very vivid memory of dropping Becky off at her dorm one night and this song coming on after it and me just feeling this overwhelming sense of joy.

• Trout Fishing in America – Sleepytime Cartoon

Becky had a friend in Shreveport named Deshae. They were such good friends, in fact, and Deshae was such a great person, that I felt like I really wanted to make a great impression on her. This was a band that Deshae and her friends really dug, and they’re great fun. It’s two guys, and they just make this nice, fun music. When they tour, they tend to do two shows: a kid’s show during the day and an adults show at night. (They play many of the same songs.) We saw them a couple of times and always enjoyed it.

• Crash Test Dummies – Comin’ Back Soon

This is a clever song in its way but oh my god this is one of the most insufferable bands in history.

• Straitjacket Fits – Down in Splendour

The other CD Rob gave me. I love this song and could just listen to it on endless repeat. The rest of the album, Melt is similarly moody and haunting.

On August 19, 1991 there was a coup in the Soviet Union that failed, basically putting the final nail in the coffin of the USSR. A few days earlier I got a new girlfriend. I had told someone, “A lot has happened in the past week for me and the Soviet Union.” The cover design is a rather literal interpretation.

Click on the player below to listen to this mix!

(xspf player courtesy Lacy Morrow and Fabricio Zuardi.)

Dead Fly in My Nehi (July 1991)

 

And the beat went on. My betrayal of Kelley’s trust culminated in me cheating on her with, of all people, Katie. Had she known this at the time she would have gone ballistic, as she hated to hear anything about Katie (which I suppose is understandable, up to a point). In addition, I was trying to make plans for graduate school (I would graduate in December) and Kelley and I both noticed they didn’t include her. So we called it quits. When I think about it, I’m kind of surprised we lasted as long as we did, because we really didn’t have a whole lot in common. Breaking up made a lot more sense than us ever being together, actually.

Predictably, as soon as it was all over and I was free to tango with whomever I want, all the women I’d been cheating on Kelley with disappeared. I even wanted to try to get together with Katie again, but that was a lost cause. I went back to her place once and we were just sitting around talking and suddenly I felt incredibly uncomfortable and realized I hardly knew this person. I bolted first chance I could.

That was the bad stuff. On the other hand, this is possibly one of the best tapes I ever made and has a lot of good memories associated with it. It was summer, I was driving for Domino’s again so I was making some money, I had that weird giddy feeling you get after you break up with someone, and things seemed good, actually. I was hanging out a lot with Anna and Kurt, and also Kyle (who I had met through BBS) and Chris, and we had a really good time. We were playing a lot of role-playing games, like Talislanta and Champions, along with other games like Illuminati! and Talisman. It was a great, fun summer, and Anna and Kurt and I still have a lot of in-jokes from this time.

Towards the end of this period, Kyle’s roommate suddenly lost her mind and moved out, leaving Kyle in the lurch for a roommate. My rent was going up on my smaller place, so I decided to move into Tiger Plaza with him, changing my address to a different street named after a different football player.

DiVinyls – I Touch Myself Ultra Vivid Scene – Lynn-Marie #2 The Shamen – ProGen Bob Mould – Stop Your Crying Inspiral Carpets – This is How it Feels R.E.M. – Losing My Religion Uncle Green – A Word Of Advice World Party – Take It Up Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – Black and Blue James McMurtry – Terry The La’s – Timeless Melody The Replacements – Bent Out of Shape Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine – Sheriff Fatman

EMF – Unbelievable Nine Inch Nails – Down in It The Jesus and Mary Chain – Here Comes Alice Birdland – Sleep With Me The Sundays – I Kicked A Boy New Fast Automatic Daffodils – Big The Lemonheads – Different Drum The Stone Roses – Made of Stone The Lightning Seeds – Sweet Dreams The Charlatans – White Shirt Ride – Taste Material Issue – Diane McCarthy – Get A Knife Between Your Teeth The Trash Can Sinatras – Circling the Circumference

This is a great tape with only a few missteps on it.

• DiVinyls – I Touch Myself

I’ll hear nothing bad about this song! Seriously, this song is hilarious; I especially like the part where, in case you doubt her sincerity, she assures you, “I honestly do!”

• Ultra Vivid Scene – Lynn-Marie #2

As soon as I fell in love with Ultra Vivid Scene’s second album, I knew I had to have the first, self-titled one as well. I put in a special order at the indie record shop and soon fell in love with that album as well. Could Kurt Ralske and Co. do anything I didn’t love?

• The Shamen – ProGen
• Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine – Sheriff Fatman
• Birdland – Sleep With Me
• New Fast Automatic Daffodils – Big
• McCarthy – Get A Knife Between Your Teeth

On some fateful day in 1991 I wandered into Paradise Records (which we called Parasite) and purchased the Melody Maker Indie Top 20, volume 9 (a descendent of the Indie Top 20 Records that had served me so well back in my radio station days.) It was a goldmine of great British music. England was going through its whole “Madchester” scene and a lot of really catchy, fun music was being produced. There are no fewer than five tracks on this tape from this one CD alone. Only one of these bands became one I would stick with, but I loved all these tunes.

One I’m surprised didn’t make the cut was “Monster in the House” by Finitribe. One day we were listening to the Indie Top 20 CD and Anna and I were singing along to this song. Chris asked us to stop because, “I can’t hear the lyrics.” The punchline is: there are only two lines in the song, repeated over and over, so we told him, “The lyrics are ‘A thing like this could warp his mind for life!’ and ‘Just who the hell do you think you are?’ Now you know them.”

• Bob Mould – Stop Your Crying
• Uncle Green – A Word Of Advice
• World Party – Take It Up
• The Replacements – Bent Out of Shape
• Nine Inch Nails – Down in It
• The Jesus and Mary Chain – Here Comes Alice
• The Sundays – I Kicked A Boy
• The Stone Roses – Made of Stone
• The Lightning Seeds – Sweet Dreams

Much fewer holdovers here, and only a couple that have been around for a while. I had definitely gotten out of the rut I was in! It’s the end of the line for The Replacements, though, and probably a bit too late.

• Inspiral Carpets – This is How it Feels
• The La’s – Timeless Melody
• EMF – Unbelievable
• The Charlatans – White Shirt
• Ride – Taste
• The Trash Can Sinatras – Circling the Circumference

Complimenting the sounds from the Melody Maker disc were a bunch of new British bands I had also discovered. Laugh if you will at EMF here, but you know you love that song. This stuff sounds like pure, undistilled summer to me.

• R.E.M. – Losing My Religion

A bit of a downer, sure, but listening to this song, you knew it was going to be huge. And it actually doesn’t completely not work in the context of the rest of the tunes here.

• Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – Black and Blue

This one from these folks’ more-or-less ignored second album also works pretty well.

• James McMurtry – Terry

But this one? God knows I love me some James McMurtry but wow, does this song bring the whole party to a crashing halt. It’s a good song but boy, is it out of place. What was I thinking?

• The Lemonheads – Different Drum

My first exposure to this band that would, before too long, blow up huge, was their EP, Favorite Spanish Dishes, which featured this cover (as well as covers of “Step By Step” by New Kids on the Block and “Skulls” by Danzig. It’s well worth finding.) The screams that you hear around the middle were a thing running throughout the EP.

• Material Issue – Diane

And THIS bit of Britpop — ha! Fooled you! They’re from the US, but their British-tinged brand of full-force power pop melds completely with the stuff from this second British invasion.

My beverage of choice at this time was Lemon Nehi, and one day I was cleaning up and discovered a half-drunk bottle that now had a dead fly floating in it. Why did this prompt the title of a tape? I have no idea, but the title is kind of funny. For the cover, I went a bit literal, while the back cover is a character sheet from the Champions RPG, based on my character from those days, Killerwatt, the electrical alien.

Click on the player below to listen to this mix!

(xspf player courtesy Lacy Morrow and Fabricio Zuardi.)