26 posts tagged “music”
When you look up “hip indie music” in the dictionary, Sonic Youth’s band picture is shown. Their bizarre/catchy song Bull In The Heather off of the Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star album released May 3, 1994 is the focus of today’s Flashback Friday.
The album this track appears on was my first Sonic Youth album, and even then I only had a marginal understanding of the music. I was just starting to get into alternative and independent music, and I felt so.. hip listening to them. Kinda like the kids that listened to Dinosaur Jr., I felt by knowing who Sonic Youth even was added cool points to me. Ahh the simplicity of the teenage years.
From their Last.fm Bio:
Initially inspired by the experimentation of Glenn Branca and The Velvet Underground and the heavy garage rock of The Stooges, they are known for using a variety of unorthodox guitar tunings, and for applying screwdrivers, drumsticks or other preparations to guitars to alter the instruments timbre.
Members of the band have released books of poetry and prose (a beatnik influence is evident in both their writing and lyrics), produced, written and performed in films (such as “1991: The Year Punk Broke”, “Perfect Partner”, “(this is known as) the blues scale” and “last days”). They have staged shows of visual art, and curated the All Tomorrows Parties music festival. They’ve even appeared in and performed a version of the theme song for “The Simpsons”.
In addition to their 21 albums as Sonic Youth there is much material recorded and performed with other artists, solo albums, and side-projects. It can be said that Sonic Youth are an artistic collective just as much as they are a traditional rock/pop band.
Big plus to Thurston Moore himself for uploading their videos to YouTube. Enjoy!
Suzanne Vega’s 99.9F° is today’s Flashback Friday, off of the album of the same name. Suzanne Vega had a few major breakout hits in the late 80’s/early 90’s, including “Luka” and of course the remixed “Tom’s Diner“. FYI - The original Tom’s Diner was a capella!
The track and both the album were phenomenal, but only received lukewarm airplay compared to previously released tracks. Other standout tracks on the album were “Blood Makes Noise” and one of my personal favorites, “In Liverpool“.
A little more about Ms. Vega from Last.fm’s artist bio:
Suzanne Vega (born Suzanne Nadine Vega, 11 July 1959, Santa Monica, California) is an American singer-songwriter noted for her eclectic folk-inspired music. She lived most of her life in New York City, attending the New York City High School of the Performing Arts (the school seen in the feature film musical Fame), where she studied modern dance.
However, Vega realized that her talent in dance was not sufficient to make her living doing it. While attending Columbia studying English, she penned many songs and performed in the Greenwich Village area.
She was discovered in 1984, releasing her eponymous debut the following year. However, it was not until her sophomore effort, Solitude Standing, that Vega hit the big time.
Have a great weekend!
Today’s Flashback Friday comes courtesy of my friends and former roommates, who managed to pull this gem of a track out of my memory. The song is Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen), by Baz Luhrmann off of the Everything For Everybody album, released March 31, 1998.
Baz Luhrmann is probably best known for his directorial skills in such films as Mulan Rouge, however in 1998 he released this collection of songs that included extended version and remixes of other popular songs from several different eras covering everything from Prince’s “When Doves Cry” to Doris Day’s “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.” The most notable song off the album is this track, which got some serious radio and video airplay when released.
The legend says the wording was from a graduation speech at MIT while in truth they were a journalist writing what she would say at such a speech, but either way their insight isn’t lost. The lyrics were actually taken from a column published in The Chicago Tribune in 1997. The song even had a seal of approval from the Bishop of Liverpool who said at the time that he believed ‘Everybody’s Free’ carried an important moral message.
Enjoy the track, and remember to wear your sunscreen!
I thought i’d take a turn from the jaded slacker music of the 90’s to something a little more upbeat, if not completely ridiculous. Today’s Flashback Friday is none other than the three-member Presidents of the United States of America doing their biggest hit, Lump, from their self-titled debut released on July 25, 1995.
PUSA had quite a few hit tracks off the album, including Boll Weavel, Peaches, and one of my personal fav’s, Kitty (on my foot and I wanna touch it). They released two more albums which received lackluster sales but high reviews from critics before breaking up in 1998. The members were involved in several solo projects and collaborations with other artists before finally reuniting in 2000, and launching their own record label in 2004.
Enjoy the video, and have a great weekend!
Today’s Flashback Friday is a happy little tune from Cornershop called “Brimful of Asha” off of the When I Was Born For The 7th Time album, released in 1997.
Cornershop is a rock band from Leicester, UK, consisting of Tjinder Singh (singer, songwriter, and dholaki player), Ben Ayres (guitar, keyboards, and tamboura), Anthony Saffery (sitar, keyboards and harmonium), Nick Simms (drums) and Peter Bengry (percussion).
Their name comes from a term that refers to indian immigrants that move to england, in that they often own street corner stores.
Along with this breakout track from their album, Fatboy Slim remixed the song a year later which shot the track to the top of the charts once again. The band has released a few albums since When I Was Born.. but has failed to receive much radio airplay.
Today’s Flashback Friday is a cover of Bizarre Love Triangle by the Australian based band Frente! off the Marvin The Album LP.
Bizarre Love Triangle was originally written and recorded by the fantastic New Order in the late 80’s, but Frente’s somber, quiet version lets you really appreciate the beautiful lyrics in the song. Gone is the heavy sampled techno beat from the original, replaced only with an Acoustic guitar and frontwoman Angie Hart’s lilting voice.
Formed in 1991, Frente! emerged from a radio playlist of jaded grunge rockers dominating the scene and became something of a hit with their first few singles, including another Frente! fav of mine, Labour of Love, Accidentally Kelly Street, and Ordinary Angels. Their second produced album, Shape, failed to sell and the band soon broke up afterwards.
Today’s Flashback Friday is a track you love to hate, Tubthumping by Chumbawamba. The one-and-only track ever widely played on commercial radio by the band, Tubthumping is a classic modern drinking song.
The band was actually formed as far back as 1982, but their only real commercial success comes from when they signed with EMI, which was ironic especially due to the band’s general hatred for the music label. They even participated in a compilation a few years previously called Fuck EMI.
Chumbawamba has released a few other albums since the 1997 release of Tubthumper, eventually jumping ship at EMI and formed their own label, MUTT Records for UK Distribution. The last the public heard from the band was their performance at London’s Glastonbury Festival in June 2007.
Enjoy!
The Breeders are the spotlight of today’s Flashback Friday, with their standout track from their third album, Last Splash, released August 31, 1993. It’s Cannonball!
The tale of The Breeders is a long and erratic one, initially formed from the talent of the twin sisters Kim and Kelley Deal. Kim Deal was most well known as the bassist in The Pixies, a famous staple of underground rock in the 80’s. When The Pixies disbanded, Kim reformed The Breeders and called in her sister Kelley to replace the departing Tanya Donelly who was forming her own band, later known as Belly. (Shout out to Smokin)
A drug bust for Kim Deal and other reasons led to a lack of a follow up effort for Last Splash. Over the years they’ve contributed a few songs to soundtracks, one of the standouts being their cover of Wicked Little Town from Hedwig and the Angy Inch, and even appeared in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode.
I’ve professed my love for the Wino before (a few times, actually), and today satire newspaper/website The Onion has an article about her troubled life, and the warning signs that we should have all seen.
And so I present The Onion’s “The Troubled Life of Amy Winehouse“:
Friends and family have been in the news recently urging British pop singer Amy Winehouse to quit using drugs, saying that she has a problem. What have the warning signs been?
- Follow-up single to “Rehab” was “Big Fat Lid of Black Tar Heroin”
- Beehive hairdo occasionally drops baggies, spoons, poppy plantations
- Always in good mood or bad mood
- Keith Richards seen leaving her flat looking defeated
- Constantly screams “God, I love taking drugs!”
- Before a show at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, Winehouse refused to go on until the stage had been cleared of all the four-headed snakes and ghosts of her ancestors
- Her music thus far is pretty cool
My favorite line: “until the stage had been cleared of all the four-headed snakes and ghosts of her ancestors.” Brilliant. Effing brilliant.
Today’s Flashback Friday is “My Sister” by Juliana Hatfield, off the 1993 album Become What You Are. Juliana is somewhat known as the Princess of Alternative music, appearing at several indie concerts and MTV’s 120 Minutes and Alternative Nation. She was widely known in the independent and underground music scene in its time, and was featured on the Reality Bites soundtrack with her other popular tune “Spin The Bottle.”
I’m mildly familiar with her music, but only because of the many nights watching her videos on MTV as a teenager. This particular track was one of her most popular and received the most airplay, mostly because of the first line “I love my sister, she’s such a bitch” which plays against the poppy happy tone of the track. The video, while not all that spectacular, reminds me of the format of many similar bands in the genre.
Enjoy!
