Well, that snuck up on me. When I sat down to clear New Girl off the DVR, I didn’t even realize I’d be watching the last adventures of the former occupants of apartment 4D. For the last 6 years, New … Continue reading Goodbye, New Girl
Sometimes a band comes along at just the right moment. Sometimes it’s a great band with a deep catalog. Sometimes it’s a not-as-great band cashing in on – or even creating – a fad. Sometimes a band briefly punches way above its creative and commercial weight class. This is a survey of some of my favorite of these bands throughout the 90s. “Right Here, Right Now” (1990) Jesus Jones I’m fudging a bit here on the term “One Hit Wonder.” Jesus Jones actually scored two top 10 U.S. hits off their sophomore album, Doubt. I think it’s fair to say they’ll … Continue reading Scene Spotlight: ’90s One Hit Wonders
If you were going on a road trip, this is the CD mix I would be really pushy about making you listen to on the way: “Red Sea, White Sea” There are two schools of thought on how to start a road mix. (Probably way more than that, but I can think of two.) Either start with something calm to ease yourself into the drive, or start with something upbeat and a little adventurous. I take option B. Any good road trip is a little adventure, which is something Shearwater singer/songwriter Jonathan Meiburg knows something about – and which informs … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Shearwater
Kate Bush released her debut, The Kick Inside, as a 19 year-old. This always amazes me for a lot of reasons – most obviously, just wow, really? 19? It’s a totally self-assured in performance and conception for someone so young. Bush has one of of those voices that’s as idiosyncratic as it is powerful and she could easily be self-conscious about unleashing the whole range of her vocalizations. She could have had some industry hack write some safe pop songs for her and she still would have stood a good chance of pop stardom as a teenager. The thing is, … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Kate Bush
7 Songs From The Sundays That Got Me Through The ’90s The Sundays debuted in 1990 with the album Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. “Here’s Where The Story Ends” got regular airplay on local alternative station KUKQ 1060 AM and immediately hooked me. I have to real quick pour one out for KUKQ, which for a brief period in the early 90’s was the place to discover music for Phoenix’s disaffected teenagers. For me, “alternative music” as a legitimate genre designation died in 1996 when it went off the air. I heard this song recently in an “easy listening” mix at the … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: The Sundays
I think one of the most interesting things you’ll ever hear is someone picking up a guitar for the very first time and plucking out a few notes. There’s something pure about it; not knowing there are rules about which note should follow which note, or which ones should be played together. I like to think it taps into a primordial idea of music, which is just hearing sounds and wondering why some of them just sound right or wrong, and what is right and wrong anyway? As the Residents would have you believe, they don’t even make music. Despite … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: The Residents
The history of Ween, long story short, is that two junior high school buddies started dicking around with a DAT, named themselves – in a fit of junior high school inspiration – after a combination of “wuss” and “penis,” and somehow ended up with a record deal. I think the the evolution of a typical band can be broken into three phases: first, the “raw” phase, where the band is still finding their sound. Some bands do their best work in this phase, sometimes because they just don’t know any better. Second, let’s call it the “classic” phase, where the … Continue reading Artist Spotlight: Ween
