Flashbacks

Doug: Alive! A four-part flashback on a teen fling with Kiss

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Part Two: The Army

IMG_20160809_164144 (1).jpgAmong the small core group of friends that I’d made after moving to Nashville as a young teen, James was the most adventurous. He always did things first. He had the first girlfriend. (Though I tacitly sat out that race for reasons which would become clear to me a few years later.) He smoked the first cigarette, drank the first beer, heard “Stairway to Heaven” before any of us, thanks to his older brother’s record collection. But he wasn’t a juvenile delinquent or a bad influence in any alarming way. With blonde wavy hair, a crooked grin and a gregarious demeanor, he was basically a good Southern boy. Just a touch more fearless than the cadre of quaking 8th-graders he hung around with. Continue reading →

19 days of songs from the ‘90s: Day 16

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“The Rachel” Edition

Love this song, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen its accompanying video before. Boy, is it goofy! Hey, Sheryl, Rachel Greene called and she wants her hairstyle back. Also: Andy Dick! Molly Shannon! Ellen! Toby… Huss? (Don’t know him.) It doesn’t get much more ‘90s than this.
Sheryl Crow — “A Change Would Do You Good”

19 days of songs from the ‘90s: Day 15

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“Something in My Eye” Edition

IMG_20160811_114452My spouse and I met 17 years ago next month (whoa!) and we dated long-distance for more than four years before I moved to Canada so we could be together permanently. This 1999 hit by Macy Gray was a favourite of ours during that long-distance time, as it kind of summed up our feelings when each of our visits came to its painful end. “I try to say goodbye and I choke/Try to walk away and I stumble/Though I try to hide it, it’s clear/My world crumbles when you are not near.” Damn you, Macy, making me all verklempt with your incisive lyrics and heartfelt emotion! Damn you to heck!
Macy Gray — “I Try”

19 days of songs from the ‘90s: Day 14

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Sublime Soft-Pop

IMG_20160810_151853The Aluminum Group’s 1998 album “Plano” is a quiet charmer that I never tire of hearing. While other releases by this Chicago outfit, fronted by brothers John and Frank Navin, are fine, this one is near perfect. The music is feather-soft, bordering on Holiday Inn lounge fare, but the clever, substantive lyrics grab you and hold you. Favourite track: Any of them, but this one will do for today.
The Aluminum Group — “A Boy in Love”

19 days of songs from the ‘90s: Day 13

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Aussie Make-Up Day

IMG_20160809_153921I considered doing an Australia/New Zealand installment last week for my immensely popular and critically acclaimed “International Favourites” series, but I could only think of three ’90s albums from the region that I really liked and those were all Neil Finn-related. Had I opted to list singles instead, there would have been more variety and “Beautiful Girl” by INXS would have placed high. One of the last North American hits with Michael Hutchence, it’s just a lovely tune, and atypically understated for this group, from its delicate piano intro to the slow-fade organ note at the end. (P.S. Remember the reality show Rock Star: INXS? I watched every single episode. Why, I don’t know, but I still say Jordis was robbed!)

INXS — “Beautiful Girl”

Doug: Alive! A four-part flashback on a teen fling with Kiss

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Part One: The Cover

kissaliveI saw it. It scared me. It changed me.

Such a bizarre and chaotic picture, way more in-your-face than the other less intimidating album covers on that record store wall on that fateful day. Four alien figures, faces painted like characters from a fantastical comic book, posing imposingly amidst a maelstrom of smoke and lights. Heretofore an innocent youth, I laid eyes for the first time on “Alive!” by the pop-metal band Kiss and something stirred inside me. Something… well, wicked I guess is as good a word as any. Even before I heard the songs on the album, (which, being an adolescent boy, I would love of course, but more on that later) that cover gave me a keyhole peek into a new, thrilling, and altogether terrifying world. Not a world of Top 40 pop like I had known previously—the most raucous record in my collection up to that moment was “Jive Talkin’” by the Bee Gees—but a world of loud, vulgar, dangerous rock and roll. Continue reading →

19 days of songs from the ‘90s: Day 12

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Drive the Car Where Now?

To start yourwork week, here’s “Put the Message in the Box,” a rousing track from World Party’s great 1990 album “Goodbye Jumbo.” I find this tune to be incredibly inspirational, if logistically implausible. Driving a car around the world would involve cost-prohibitive overseas shipping as well as an inordinate number of ferries, and would likely require several different sets of the tires to navigate the various terrains. But practicalities tend not to matter when you’re belting the song on the treadmill and getting misty over its message of world unity and love for all mankind. Or so I’m told.
World Party — “Put the Message in the Box”

19 days of songs from the ‘90s: Days 10 and 11

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AJC Flashback Two-fer!

Shortly after I started working for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta’s daily newspaper, in 1993, I was assigned to review a concert by Stone Temple Pilots, who were just then reaching arena-filling popularity. It was a fun show with lots of rock-and-roll pyrotechnics, and the assignment went well enough that I became sort of a reserve concert reviewer for the paper’s Features department, covering shows that the staff critics couldn’t attend for whatever reason.

In the coming years I reviewed a wide variety of live acts, everyone from John Tesh to White Zombie. I cite those two not only because they’re extremes but because you’ll never guess which show was scarier. Sure, the White Zombie audience was aggressive and testosterone-y and I felt a bit intimidated amidst all the moshers in my little Peter Murphy t-shirt. But the John Tesh show was potentially life-threatening. Not the new age music, which was harmless enough, and on a sultry summer evening in Atlanta’s Chastain Park Amphitheatre, verged on pleasant. No, it was the explosive finale that gave the audience a fright to remember.

After Tesh had hit the last keyboard note in his encore and the applause had died down and attendees were making their way to their cars, the park set off fireworks overhead. I don’t know if they exploded too soon or were calibrated to go off in the wrong spot (I’m not a fireworks logistics expert), but soon enough huge flaming embers were raining down on the exiting concertgoers. People sprinted through the parking lot, beer coolers hoisted over their heads, desperate to find cover as apocalyptic fireballs detonated on the pavement and sparked in nearby trees.

As far as I know, no one was hurt, thank goodness. But who knew you needed to wear protective gear to a new age concert? And no way could White Zombie top that ending!

Anyway, I’ll spare you a John Tesh video, but here’s a clip of my favourite STP tune, plus some White Zombie for you to mosh to.
Stone Temple Pilots — Interstate Love Song
White Zombie — More Human Than Human

19 days of songs from the ‘90s: Day 9

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International Favourites Week!
World Party* Mix

dballlightFor the final day of IFW (sad trombone), let’s leave on an upbeat note with a playlist of the most groovetastic ‘90s jams from around the world. Thanks for reading and/or listening! Also, gracias, merci, and danke. (We’ll return tomorrow with our regularly scheduled ‘90s marathon.)

12. Crucified – Army of Lovers (Sweden)
11. Steal My Sunshine – Len (Canada)
10. Sweet Dreams – La Bouche (Germany)
9. Always There – Incognito f. Jocelyn Brown (U.K./U.S.A.)
8. Ride On Time – Black Box (Italy)
7. Sun Is Shining – Bob Marley vs. Funkstar Deluxe (Jamaica/Netherlands)
6. Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) – Us3 (U.K.)
5. Around the World – Daft Punk (France)
4. 3 a.m. Eternal – The KLF (U.K.)
3. Finally – CeCe Peniston (U.S.A.)
2. Music Sounds Better with You – Stardust (France)
1. Groove Is in the Heart – Deee-lite (U.S.A.)
This four-minute slice of unbridled joy gets my vote for best dance track of the ‘90s. If you can’t shake it to this, you’re dead.

*Not the band

19 days of songs from the ‘90s: Day 8

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International Favourites Week!
Europe, excluding the U.K. (Because Brexit!)

IMG_20160804_090614With Ireland in the mix here, the list is sort of a hodgepodge, but there’s no doubt that Europe was getting its electronica on in the ‘90s, laying the groundwork for the EDM wave to come. Even U2 felt the influence, incorporating dance beats into its repertoire on the career high point “Achtung Baby.” The freshest sounds came from France, and none fresher than Air’s cool, spacy, sexy debut.

10. First Band on the Moon – Cardigans (Sweden)
9. A New Stereophonic Sound – Hooverphonic (Belgium)
8. You, My Baby & I – Alex Gopher (France)
7. Dreamland – Black Box (Italy)
6. Sacrebleu – Dimitri From Paris (France)
5. What Makes It Go? – Komeda (Sweden)
4. Homework – Daft Punk (France)
3. Loveless – My Bloody Valentine (Ireland)
2. Achtung Baby – U2 (Ireland)
1. Moon Safari – Air (France)
Top track: Kelly Watch the Stars
As I mentioned yesterday, “Moon Safari” is right up there with Belle and Sebastian’s “If You’re Feeling Sinister” atop my list of all-time favourite albums. “Sinister” boasts the more substantial lyrics, but sometimes the groove is all that matters and Air wins hands down on those occasions.