Do Not Mock the Powers of Hell (August 1997)

 

In the year between this tape and the previous, I had taken two night classes, one in Algebra and one in Trigonometry. And I really enjoyed them both. I tried to take a Calculus class in the mornings before work, but it was too difficult to do both. So I sat down and realized what I wanted to do was go back to school and get a math degree, for the purposes of becoming a math teacher.

I had never liked Math before. I had an English degree specifically so I could avoid Math. A succession of teachers in high school had convinced me I wasn’t any good at it (I failed Trig in high school.) It turned out I liked it and was good at it and wanted to help others avoid the trap I’d gotten into.

If you’re counting, in five years I had worked in four different jobs. I had never been completely satisfied in any of them. Some people know from the start what they want to do with their lives. Some people discover it later on. Some folks have no preference, and are satisfied with whatever they happen to come into. I’ve never known. I’ve never had that calling that lets you know what you want to do with your life. But here, in 1997, I wanted to be a math teacher.

So I quit Publication Services, which by that time I had grown to hate (once again, not the actual work, but the management’s attitude made it miserable), and went back to school. I started at Parkland College to get some basic things out of the way and realized at once how much I missed college. I really enjoyed being in school again and learning things.

—–

Here’s where the story originally ended. Once I started back at school, time and money were at a premium. This is the last tape I made, and for a long time it was the final entry in the series that started back in 1985.

It’s no longer the end of the story, however.

R.E.M. – Leave Garbage – Only Happy When It Rains Mono Puff – Unsupervised, I Hit My Head Luscious Jackson – Naked Eye Matthew Sweet – We’re the Same Cake – I Will Survive Weezer – Buddy Holly Suzanne Vega – Caramel Lush – Ladykillers Patti Rothberg – Treat Me Like Dirt Toad The Wet Sprocket – Something’s Always Wrong Cracker – Nostalgia	Foo Fighters – This Is a Call They Might Be Giants – Till My Head Falls Off Depeche Mode – Barrel Of A Gun No Doubt – Don’t Speak The Jesus and Mary Chain – My Girl The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The Impression That I Get Bad Religion – Drunk Sincerity Belly – Red Veruca Salt – All Hail Me Fountains of Wayne – Leave The Biker The Cardigans – Lovefool Nada Surf – Popular Oasis – Champagne Supernova

Another long gap, but this time the results afterwards are considerably fresher. There’s not nearly as much coasting as there has been, and a whole lot of new faces. I originally ended on a high note.

• R.E.M. – Leave

New Adventures in Hi-Fi is probably the last worthwhile R.E.M. album and it still has a fair amount of dull stuff on it. But the good parts are really good, and this track is the best. It grabs and just doesn’t let go.

• Garbage – Only Happy When It Rains

My friend Brady wanted to pay Shirley Manson to beat him up.

• Mono Puff – Unsupervised, I Hit My Head

A side project for John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants, and there’s no mistaking that. This first album, Unsupervised, is light and fun. The followup, It’s Fun to Steal is a little denser and not quite as easy a listen, but still has moments. Worth checking out if you’re a fan, but then again, if you’re a fan, you probably already have.

• Luscious Jackson – Naked Eye

I like this song and I have wanted to love Fever In, Fever Out ever since I got it, but it just…misses. I don’t know how.

• Matthew Sweet – We’re the Same
• Toad The Wet Sprocket – Something’s Always Wrong
• Cracker – Nostalgia
• Foo Fighters – This Is a Call
• Belly – Red
• Veruca Salt – All Hail Me
• Oasis – Champagne Supernova

With the exception of Toad the Wet Sprocket, sounding VERY tired here, even the standbys are doing well. Three tracks into Kerosene Hat and I still haven’t touched “Low”, which tells you how good that album is. “Red” is an awesome song and just about anything I pulled off of King would be great.

• Cake – I Will Survive
• Patti Rothberg – Treat Me Like Dirt
• Fountains of Wayne – Leave The Biker

By this time The Planet had gone considerably downhill. Blues Traveller was the headliner there until that fateful day when I guess Eddie Vedder pulled the station manager out of a burning building, prompting their “all Pearl Jam” format. They literally played at least one Pearl Jam song per hour (sometimes they would mix it up with a little Temple of the Dog or Stone Temple Pilots.) Another radio station started up with the awful name of “The Web” and they played some pretty good stuff. That’s where I first heard these three bands. Fountains of Wayne and Cake (my first Cake song was actually “Italian Leather Sofa” which almost made it here instead) continue to be favorites of mine, while Patti’s album was okay, but not nearly as good as this standout track.

Soon they too weren’t that great and they were eventually bought out and turned into “Extreme Radio,” which meant no ovaries allowed.

• Weezer – Buddy Holly

I like the blue album fine enough, but I never would have thought Weezer would make it as far as they have.

• Suzanne Vega – Caramel

She sure do take her time, don’t she? Suzanne Vega’s Nine Objects of Desire is an album best described as “sumptuous” and this is a fantastic song.

• Lush – Ladykillers

Lush are back! Well, actually they never made it onto a tape despite my really liking Gala and Spooky. At this point they dropped the shoegaze and moved into straight-up pop territory, and this is a solid tune.

• They Might Be Giants – Till My Head Falls Off

Factory Showroom is not my favorite TMBG album, though it’s grown on me. It’s the point where I feel they really stopped experimenting as much and went from doing a variety of styles to doing a variety of parodies. The high points on this album are muted by a lot of really ho-hum songs.

• Depeche Mode – Barrel Of A Gun

This is not a good album. Little killer, LOTS of filler. It’s the beginning of the end for them.

• No Doubt – Don’t Speak

I know what you are thinking, but there is a REASON this song was overplayed. It’s really good. It’s a good tune, and it’s delivered perfectly. So suck it, haters.

• The Jesus and Mary Chain – My Girl

The end of the line for the JAMC, and it’s sad to see them go out on a chump note like this. Yeah, it’s unexpected, and yeah they do a decent job with it, but this is clearly me throwing them a bone, hoping the next album will be better. It wasn’t.

• The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The Impression That I Get

As examples of the brief ska phase for radio go, I could have done a lot worse (for example, I could have included Reel Big Fish.) There’s nothing wrong with this song other than it being part of a short-term fad, which is no fault of its own.

• Bad Religion – Drunk Sincerity

I could listen to this song over and over, and I have.

• The Cardigans – Lovefool

I can do a pretty good impression of this one-hit wonder’s singer, but of course nobody knows who the hell I’m talking about these days.

• Nada Surf – Popular

A gimmicky song, but still a good one, and even though this particular album isn’t overly special, they would eventually go on to create some really solid stuff.

On the way back from Chicago ComiCon, a comic book convention, Chris was reading a copy of Champions #16 he had bought in which someone makes a smartass comment to Ghost Rider about his flaming skull head. The title is Ghost Rider’s response. We thought it was really funny. The picture on the front is that slightly edited panel. The picture on the back is a dog wearing a costume.

Click on the player below to listen to this mix!

(xspf player courtesy Lacy Morrow and Fabricio Zuardi.)

An Object at Rest Cannot Be Stopped! (April 1996)

 

Eighteen months passed between the last tape and this one, for a lot of reasons. Prior to getting married I had led an often solitary life, happily squirreled away in my room with my computer and my CDs. Naturally, this was no longer something I was doing so much of. My other previous method for taking in music was driving around in the car, which wasn’t as big an activity in the much smaller city I now lived in. There was also a simple logistical factor: in our new apartment, the CD player was in a separate room from the computer, so sitting down and listening to a CD like I had done before just didn’t happen that much. So I wasn’t listening to as much music as before, and hence wasn’t making tapes.

We were, however, spending a lot of time with our friends. I was still playing Magic a lot, as well as getting back into role-playing games some with Chris and Christine. Those two got married during that time, as did a few other couples we hung out with.

Getting more involved in this life came at the expense of our previous one. We hadn’t been gone from Baton Rouge for long, but as the people there graduated and dissipated throughout the country our connections to them got more and more thin. We occasionally saw Jeff when we went back to Louisiana, and Anna and Kurt we stayed in touch with, but others faded away. Trips back home were also more of a problem now. In addition to just being difficult to arrange and a tough 14-hour drive to make, my mom started to show increasing signs of Alzheimer’s, and was very hard to be around.

Things had improved for me at work, briefly, but soon PS was causing problems. I liked what I did, and I liked most of the people I directly worked with, but the management there was incredibly inept. Because of this, the place had a lot of good, talented, professional people, none of whom stayed for very long. Also, I saw no future for myself there, and I really wanted a plan for the future. Everyone around me had some career goal they were working towards — professor, doctor, lawyer — and I was still doing the kind of “first job out of college” stuff I should have already gotten away from. This was causing no small amount of stress for me.

At this point I started to notice that despite a lifelong hatred of all things mathematical, I was actually pretty good at math and liked it. So I decided to start taking some math classes at night. I had no idea at the time where this would lead.

Everclear – Santa Monica Green Day – When I Come Around R.E.M. – Crush With Eyeliner Bad Religion – Stranger Than Fiction Tracy Chapman – Give Me One Reason Foo Fighters – Big Me Velocity Girl – Pop Loser Peter Gabriel – Steam Sponge – Molly Counting Crows – Rain King Natalie Merchant – Wonder Dusty Springfield – Son of a Preacher Man The Breeders – Divine Hammer Meat Puppets – Coming Down

Björk – It’s Oh So Quiet Matthew Sweet – Sick of Myself Veruca Salt – Number One Blind The Jesus and Mary Chain – Something I Can’t Have Hindu Love Gods – Battleship Chains They Might Be Giants – No One Knows My Plan Toad The Wet Sprocket – Nanci Bush – Everything Zen Cracker – Movie Star Velvet Crush – Hold Me Up The Offspring – Self Esteem Belly – Now They’ll Sleep Jonathan Richman – Cappuccino Bar Oasis – Don’t Look Back In Anger

The surprising thing about this tape is how, after an eighteen-month break, it doesn’t seem much different at all. Sure, a lot of the early-90s grunge and gloom is gone, but there’s some stuff here that I look at and go, “Huh? They’re STILL around?”

• Everclear – Santa Monica

I have to say, I didn’t care much for their other stuff, but I love this song, and it still grabs me to this day.

• Green Day – When I Come Around

While it’s possible that their role now as a “serious” band is a bit overstated, I would never have imagined that Green Day would still be putting out good stuff. Dookie is full of little pop gems like this, all wearing Doc Martens and pretending they regularly listen to Black Flag.

• R.E.M. – Crush With Eyeliner
• Velocity Girl – Pop Loser
• The Breeders – Divine Hammer
• Meat Puppets – Coming Down
• Matthew Sweet – Sick of Myself
• Veruca Salt – Number One Blind
• The Jesus and Mary Chain – Something I Can’t Have
• Toad The Wet Sprocket – Nanci
• Cracker – Movie Star
• Velvet Crush – Hold Me Up
• The Offspring – Self Esteem

Some of the holdovers from the previous tape. Admittedly, there’s some good stuff here, but I just have to wonder: a year and a half later I was still listening to The Offspring?

• Bad Religion – Stranger Than Fiction

Speaking of pseudopunk, I have no idea how I discovered this band, but I really dig this whole album, and the follow-up, The Gray Race isn’t bad either.

• Tracy Chapman – Give Me One Reason

Okay, so…not a bad song. And certainly not the dreariness of past stuff. But I had no idea at the time that this song would be such a crossover hit, allowing just about any radio station to play it into the ground, which they did. Plus, it’s about six miles long. Plus — and this is the real head-scratcher — between Bad Religion and the Foo Fighters?

• Foo Fighters – Big Me

I admit it, I have a weak spot for these guys. I realize they do a lot of very generic rawk, and that half of the first album I can’t listen to because all it is is screaming, but they’re just so affable!

• Peter Gabriel – Steam

The Gabe is back, Actually, he had come back in 1992, but I guess I didn’t get this album until four years later? I don’t know.

• Sponge – Molly

Was this song just a Midwestern thing, or was it big everywhere else too? It’s not a bad song but here’s the thing…I remember the album cover had candy corn all over it, and that’s kind of an appropriate image. You know how you eat candy corn and then suddenly you’re like, “Ugh! Why am I eating this?” Yeah.

• Counting Crows – Rain King

Really, Dave?

• Natalie Merchant – Wonder

I like 10,000 Maniacs, and I like this song and the other single off Natalie’s first solo album, but the rest of it just flies past my ears.

• Dusty Springfield – Son of a Preacher Man

Yes, from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. Dusty brings some class to the place, don’t you think?

• Björk – It’s Oh So Quiet

I’m not much of a Bjork fan, truth be told. A little of her goes a long way for me, But this is one of the most fun and charming songs ever done, and it’s helped out in a big way by a great video.

• Hindu Love Gods – Battleship Chains

Chris was a big Warren Zevon fan and I heard this over at his place. The Hindu Love Gods are Warren plus 3/4 of R.E.M., so it’s no surprise I took to them. This song is originally by the Georgia Satellites, remember them?

• They Might Be Giants – No One Knows My Plan

They Might Be Giants make another sporadic appearance. I don’t know why they weren’t a regular staple.

• Bush – Everything Zen

I don’t think so.

• Belly – Now They’ll Sleep

Everything Belly’s first album is, their second album is all that and more! King is one of my all-time favorite albums, and I love every single second of it. It kills me that I see it so often in used CD stores — how can anyone not love this album!? But if you don’t own it and have such a store in your area, buy it. You will not be disappointed.

• Jonathan Richman – Cappuccino Bar

Remember “When She Kisses Me?” from Up All Night, Talking, back in 1992? This is from that same album. I like the song, but why is it here? I have no idea.

• Oasis – Don’t Look Back In Anger

I know that right now it’s very fashionable to not only not like Oasis but to never have liked Oasis, but I’m here to say: I liked and still like Oasis. I have no problem with bands who wear their influences loudly on their sleeves, and I think they put out some great pop music.

The title came from the cartoon “The Tick” which we were big fans of. It is spoken by The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight and it contains True Wisdom. I am very proud of the cover for this one. I took a bunch of clip art and turned it into what I think is a quite nice collage!

Click on the player below to listen to this mix!

(xspf player courtesy Lacy Morrow and Fabricio Zuardi.)

Are You Calling Duane Barry a Liar? (October 1994)

 

Our basement apartment eventually became pretty unbearable. It was dark, the ceilings were low, it was always cold. We called it “the cave”. Also, the family upstairs was unbelievably noisy. They ran on a NordicTrack non-stop and blared the stereo while they were doing it. The TV seemed permanently switched to the “explosion channel” and was located right above our bed. We had to park in front of their house and often didn’t have a space there because the girlfriend of one of the sons would take that space with her car. So we began looking for another place and eventually moved across town to an apartment in Urbana.

By that time we had made friends with Chris and his girlfriend Christine. They introduced us to a game called “Magic: the Gathering” that we got into with them. Chris and Christine were into a lot of the same things as me – games, science fiction, comics, so I became very good friends with them. Our new apartment turned out to be right next door to theirs, which was very convenient.

Meanwhile, Micro-Pace was destroying me and one day when I couldn’t take any more, I walked out of the place. (In fact, the day I walked out was the day we first met Christine.) I had never walked out of a job before, and it was a terrifying thing, but I just couldn’t bear it any longer. Fortunately I was able to get another job rather quickly, and I abandoned the world of computers that I had gotten sick of to enter the world of book production at Publication Services, where I was estimating the cost of producing a book based on the submitted manuscript. This job was a lot more interesting to me, and I made some friends there, including Brady, whose girlfriend Melanie was in the English department with Becky.

Brady also played Magic and soon we had a ritual of going over to Brady and Melanie’s apartment on Friday nights to watch “The X-Files” and play Magic afterwards. It was a really fun time. Champaign-Urbana was starting to feel more like a home to us.

Machines of Loving Grace – Perfect Tan (Bikini Atoll) R.E.M. – Star 69 The Offspring – Come Out And Play Brenda Kahn – She’s In Love Hootie And The Blowfish – Hold My Hand Belly – Gepetto Counting Crows – Round Here The Breeders – I Just Wanna Get Along Matthew Sweet – Ugly Truth Rock Nirvana – All Apologies Meat Puppets – Backwater Velvet Crush – Atmosphere The Jesus and Mary Chain – Girlfriend The Cranberries – Linger

Tool – Intolerance Pearl Jam – Jeremy Depeche Mode – Condemnation Velocity Girl – Crazy Town Toad the Wet Sprocket – Fall Down Gin Blossoms – Mrs. Rita Green Day – Basket Case Juliana Hatfield – Spin the Bottle Frente – Bizarre Love Triangle Veruca Salt – Seether Cracker – Get Off This Ultra Vivid Scene – How Sweet Sugar – Hoover Dam

More of the same, again mostly sponsored by The Planet. I know I’m coming off as very harsh towards this music but honestly, with very few exceptions, this is stuff I never listen to anymore. I don’t even have many of these CDs anymore.

• Machines of Loving Grace – Perfect Tan (Bikini Atoll)
• Brenda Kahn – She’s In Love
• Counting Crows – Round Here
• Matthew Sweet – Ugly Truth Rock
• Velvet Crush – Atmosphere
• The Cranberries – Linger
• Depeche Mode – Condemnation
• Gin Blossoms – Mrs. Rita
• Juliana Hatfield – Spin the Bottle

Don’t get me wrong. There’s some stuff in there I like, specifically Matthew Sweet and the Matthew Sweet-produced Velvet Crush tune. Brenda Kahn is good and that Gin Blossoms song isn’t bad. But wow…at some point I thought I’d want to hear “Linger” yet again?

• Nirvana – All Apologies
• Tool – Intolerance
• Pearl Jam – Jeremy
• Sugar – Hoover Dam

A lot of passengers are getting off the train here, including these guys. In Utero was stillborn for me (ha!), Vs. was forgettable, and Sugar’s follow-up, File Under: Easy Listening was almost embarrassing. Will shedding a lot of the growlers mean that the next tape will finally have some joy in it?

• R.E.M. – Star 69

Not to be outdone, R.E.M. decided to hop on the noise-train as well with Monster, a muddy, jagged, supposedly-Nirvana-influenced album which would eventually come to be recognized as the universal sign of the used CD store. Seriously, although the album went quadruple platinum, selling four million copies, five million can be found in secondhand CD stores across the country right now. I admit that Monster took a while to grow on me (and I do like this song), though it would not rank in my listing of the top ten first nine albums of theirs.

• The Offspring – Come Out And Play
• Green Day – Basket Case

Welcome to “punk rock” a la 1994! It’s not punk, it’s barely rock, but I’ll give it this: it’s fun.

• Hootie And The Blowfish – Hold My Hand

Yes, yes, roll your eyes. Truth be told, I borrowed this CD to include the song, no idea who from.

• Belly – Gepetto
• The Breeders – I Just Wanna Get Along

Two very bright spots here. Belly is just pure wonderful pop. And The Breeders give us one of the all-time great lines: “If you’re so special, why aren’t you dead?”

• Meat Puppets – Backwater

I suppose with the success of Nirvana (and the killing of that particular golden goose) there was a frenzy to see which other “punk” acts could be given some attention now, which is why the Meat Puppets finally found themselves on the radio. Like many others, I bought Too High to Die because of this song. Like many others, mine now inhabits a used CD bin.

• The Jesus and Mary Chain – Girlfriend

Leave it to the JAMC, as soon as the rest of the world wants to sound like them, they pick up acoustic guitars and write slow and dull songs. Stoned and Dethroned isn’t a bad album, but it’s not the kind of album you pull of the shelf and go, “Say, this is what I want to hear!” so much as “Man, I hardly remember this one!”

• Velocity Girl – Crazy Town

When trying to figure out how I discovered Velocity Girl, the only thing I can think of is that I spent so much time in used CD shops (see above) that I must have decided to give them a whirl.

• Toad the Wet Sprocket – Fall Down

These guys are back with something of a downer of an album. I liked Fear a lot, but Dulcinea left me cold, and attempts by friends to get me into their other stuff all failed. I think Toad is one of those bands where I’m really okay having only a single album of theirs.

• Frente – Bizarre Love Triangle

If Frente had given us nothing else except this heartfelt, wonderful cover of the New Order song (one that really shows the humanity in the dance band’s lyrics), we’d still have a lot to thank them for. Which is good for them, because that’s all they gave us.

• Veruca Salt – Seether

With all the testosterone fueling pop music at the time, it’s easy to overlook the number of all- or mostly-female bands that also got a fair amount of attention. Veruca Salt was one of the more promising ones, with a solid sound and intelligent lyrics, and this is one of the few CDs from this time that I occasionally find myself wanting to listen to.

• Cracker – Get Off This

I never really got into Camper Van Beethoven, despite attempts by Kelley to do so. I liked some of their songs and had tried out an album or two, but something about it just didn’t take hold for me. Cracker, on the other hand, which some would probably call CVB’s illegitimate redneck cousin, hit the right notes, and Kerosene Hat is just a phenomenal album.

• Ultra Vivid Scene – How Sweet

Out of all the bands we’re saying goodbye to, this one hurts the most. The third UVS album was so disappointing, and interviews with Kurt Ralske at the time had him saying how much he hated Joy: 1967-1990, which I loved so much. It was bad enough to get a disappointing album in the wake of a beloved one, but to then have the beloved one dismissed was just heartbreaking.

The regular Friday night X-Files/Magic date counted as our major social event at the time, and the tape’s title came from an X-Files episode. For some reason we thought it was a funny line at the time. The front and back covers are pretty obvious.

Click on the player below to listen to this mix!

(xspf player courtesy Lacy Morrow and Fabricio Zuardi.)

A Hand Big Enough to Slap the World (January 1993)

 

Kyle graduated from LSU in May of ’92, and I was looking to get away from that apartment complex anyway, so Kurt and I ended up moving in together around that time. We managed to find a place that wasn’t so close to campus that we were surrounded by fratboys and living on a football player street, but was close enough for the carless Kurt to get to school. We ended up in Place DuPlantier apartments on Lee Drive. Rent there was more than we should have paid, but it turned out to be a pretty good apartment. It was great living with Kurt, who was the best roommate I ever had. We had a lot in common, including a lot of the same habits, which led to a messy apartment but very few arguments.

My work was becoming more frustrating as I was starting to learn the joy of working tech support. I had the usual stupid user stories and headaches, and the usual clueless boss (not my immediate boss, but the head of the department) who made things extra difficult. I started to get dreams of becoming a network administrator in the private sector, and the huge dollars and respect that would garner me. It got to the point where a ringing phone would send my blood pressure up, even at home, because I had been conditioned to expect some annoying problem on the other end.

However, in other respects things were going great. Jeff and I were becoming really good friends and Becky and I had gotten more and more serious, to the point where by the time this tape was made, we were engaged.

Pixies – Trompe Le Monde Nine Inch Nails – Wish Pearl Jam – Alive Red Hot Chili Peppers – Give It Away Live – Pain Lies on the Riverside Suzanne Vega – 99.9 F° Nirvana – Lithium Sugar – Helpless Velvet Crush – Ash And Earth Dada – Dim Toad The Wet Sprocket – Hold Her Down Soul Asylum – Runaway Train Ultra Vivid Scene – Poison

Poi Dog Pondering – Lackluster The Lemonheads – Confetti The Jesus and Mary Chain – Rollercoaster Eugenius – Oomalama They Might Be Giants – I Palindrome I Spin Doctors – Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong The Judy Bats – Our Story Juliana Hatfield – Lost and Saved Teenage Fanclub – December T-Bone Burnett – Primitives The Sundays – Love Shriekback – Beatles Zebra Crossing? Spiritualized – Step Into the Breeze R.E.M. – Nightswimming

This tape is a lot less lazy, with a bunch of new stuff and some returning favorites.

• Pixies – Trompe Le Monde
• Pearl Jam – Alive
• Live – Pain Lies on the Riverside
• Nirvana – Lithium
• Ultra Vivid Scene – Poison
• The Jesus and Mary Chain – Rollercoaster
• The Judy Bats – Our Story
• Teenage Fanclub – December
• T-Bone Burnett – Primitives

It’s the end of the road for Live, The Judy Bats, Teenage Fanclub, and T-Bone. I love this Ultra Vivid Scene song but I’m not sure why I never grabbed more from the first album.

• Nine Inch Nails – Wish

Trent Reznor took his sweet time following up his debut album, and therefore when Broken turned out to be slightly more than an EP, it was hard not to be disappointed. In fact, we coined the term “Broken” to describe any CD that annoyingly clocked in at under 45 minutes. I liked this song, but the rest didn’t do a lot for me, and neither did The Downward Spiral a few years later. What I’m saying is, Nine Inch Nails and I part ways here.

• Red Hot Chili Peppers – Give It Away

This is the funnest song ever.

• Suzanne Vega – 99.9 F°

It’s been ten tapes and six years since we last saw Suzanne Vega. She had an album in between, but I had kind of lost track of her. This new album, of which this is the title track, knocked my socks off, and made me fall in love with her all over again.

• Sugar – Helpless

Bob Mould’s back in his “Sugar” incarnation. I dug the hell out of this album and was just as excited about more to come from this group as Bob seemed in interviews.

• Velvet Crush – Ash And Earth

I have no idea where I heard about these guys, but I remember scouring every record store looking for the CD until I finally had to get Parasite to special order it for me. And then I wasn’t sure what I had, as it was too fuzzy to be Material Issue but not moody enough to be The Jesus and Mary Chain. It took me a while to acclimate to the sound.

• Dada – Dim

What I remember most about this CD: it stunk. I don’t mean that figuratively, though I don’t own it any more and let’s face it, this is not a good song. I mean the CD itself had this horrible stench to it.

• Toad The Wet Sprocket – Hold Her Down

Out of all the poppy songs on this album, I chose a song about rape. Go, me!

• Soul Asylum – Runaway Train

I know, I know. I too bought this album for some reason, and I too eventually sold it back. I still like this song well enough, though.

• Poi Dog Pondering – Lackluster

For some reason I always associate these guys with Kelley, but here they are debuting way after we broke up, so obviously I got them from someone else. This album is a lot of fun, even if it does often stray into tie-dye-and-hacky-sack territory.

• The Lemonheads – Confetti

I had enjoyed Favorite Spanish Dishes and Lovey, so when It’s a Shame About Ray came out, I bought it right away. The loyalty of me and other fans was repaid when, a few months later, the album was reissued with a bonus track, their cover of “Mrs. Robinson”. Thanks! Evan Dando and company catch a lot of flack still, but this album is still a great slice of pop.

• Eugenius – Oomalama

Anyone remember these guys? I believe they were originally called Captain America, but a little-known comic book company had something to say about that, so they changed their name. When I was recreating these tapes on mp3 I had a hard time finding this track. Some may say the effort was not worth it.

• They Might Be Giants – I Palindrome I

They Might Be Giants appeared before, and I had been listening to them since, but they never quite made the cut for some reason. Even though this song from Apollo 18 makes it, and there’s more where that came from, they will once again vanish for several tapes.

• Spin Doctors – Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong

Guys, I am so, so sorry.

If I had no scruples, this track would be thrown down the memory hole and replaced with something else, say…”Renee Remains the Same” by Material Issue, or “Our Swingin’ Pad” by Jonathan Richman, or “De-Luxe” by Lush. But no, I am a man of honor and this is what’s on the tape. I assume that I liked it at some point, but I honestly can’t remember this song…this band not irritating the hell out of me. This is the absolute nadir of the series as far as I am concerned, and I know a few things coming up.

• Juliana Hatfield – Lost and Saved

I don’t know anything about the behind-the-scenes antics of all these musicians, but I just assumed that every guy Juliana Hatfield sang about was Evan Dando. I don’t know if that’s true or not. Juliana was (and is, I think) immensely talented but always seemed to be holding back, like she was afraid of doing too well. She should have been much more huge than she was.

• The Sundays – Love

Remember this band? I didn’t think much of their second album, including the cover of “Wild Horses” that was in heavy rotation. This song was the only thing I salvaged before selling it back.

• Shriekback – Beatles Zebra Crossing?

It had only been four years since Go Bang!, but that album combined with the fact that the last one had been a pretty limp compilation had convinced me that this band was done. So I was surprised not only when Sacred City was released, but also that it wasn’t bad!

• Spiritualized – Step Into the Breeze

One of the bands that Spacemen 3 self-destructed into, Spiritualized kept up the theme of “like this chord? I hope so…it’s all you get for the next six minutes.” This is the band that finally convinced me that of all drugs, I liked the music that heroin inspired the best.

• R.E.M. – Nightswimming

Everybody loves Automatic For the People except me. I suppose I did at the time, but with the benefit of hindsight I now recognize it as the beginning of the end for R.E.M. This song I love, but the rest of the album is now just dreck to me (and even with this song, I wish I could hear a version without the piano and strings. Why do you pay a guy like Peter Buck and then slather goddamn strings over everything?)

Not much to explain here; it’s pretty self-explanatory. I was angry about something or other. A lot of people were bugging me, I suppose, and I needed a hand big enough to slap the world. The cover is a literal interpretation.

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.)