868. Laurie Anderson, United States Live (1984) ”Since I tour a lot, especially in Europe, ‘I’ve frequently found myself sitting across the dinner table from people who ask me, ‘How can you live in a country like that?,’” Laurie Anderson … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #868 to #865
Thirty years ago, in the summer of 1988, Edie Brickell and New Bohemians released the album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars. Without their lead singer’s name out in front, the band had spent a couple years gigging around the Deep Ellum … Continue reading One for Friday — Edie Brickell and New Bohemians, “Circle”
These posts are about the songs that just barely failed to cross the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. in 1958, Frank Sinatra expertly divided him … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Mr. Success”
872. Sting, …Nothing Like the Sun (1987) These days, I’m as prone as anyone to treat the performer born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner as a punchline of uncoolness, sitting swaddled in a couture turtleneck on some sprawling, misty English estate. … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #872 to #869
Thirty years ago, in 1988, Transvision Vamp released the album Pop Art. The British band’s debut album, Pop Art was positioned alongside the Primitives’ stellar Lovely as part of a mini-movement of brashly confident retro pop delivered by acts fronted … Continue reading One for Friday — Transvision Vamp, “Tell That Girl to Shut Up”
876. Screaming Trees, Invisible Lantern (1988) “When we did Invisible Lantern, we were probably ready to call it quits,” Van Conner, bassist of Screaming Trees, once acknowledged. “We all had crap jobs, and had no future. You weren’t making any … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #876 to #873
Thirty years ago, in the summer of 1988, the Dream Syndicate released the album Ghost Stories. Although the band was one of the defining acts of the Paisley Underground movement that spun out of Los Angeles in the nineteen-eighties — … Continue reading One for Friday — The Dream Syndicate, “My Old Haunts”
From now on, I don’t want you listenin’ to Guns N’ Roses an’ The Soup Dragons. I want a strict diet of James Brown for the growls, Otis Redding for the moans, Smokey Robinson for the whines, and Aretha for … Continue reading Aretha Franklin, 1942 – 2018
These posts are about the songs that just barely failed to cross the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. Whitney Houston’s mother was a highly lauded … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “It Isn’t, It Wasn’t, It Ain’t Never Gonna Be”
880. Billy Idol, Don’t Stop (1981) The bloke born William Michael Albert Broad was exceedingly comfortable returning to promising material until it finally turned into a hit. Taking the stage name Billy Idol because his school teachers routinely derided his … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #880 to #877
Coffee for Two 