I could be retroactively ascribing insight to my band of college radio cohorts, but I do believe there were times when we knew–really knew–a band was going to be amount to little more than one great song. The Liverpudlian band the Farm had other successes besides “Groovy Train,” especially in their native land. Hell, the follow-up single, “All Together Now,” actually charted higher everywhere, including on the stateside Modern Rock lists. But even now I hear that track and I’m struck by the weary idle of its gleaming pop, like it was pulled together by a compromise committee in order … Continue reading One for Friday: The Farm, “Groovy Train”

Usually, I reserve this weekly feature to pine nostalgically over some song that held special prominence during my college radio days or maybe to wax rhapsodic over a track I discovered in the wilds of the interweb, exposing me to an artist who’d evading my notice up until the digital windfall came my way. Today’s offering theoretically qualifies as the former, although I can’t say that stumbling upon this particular song from Canadian singer-songwriter Bonnie Dobson made me into an obsessively hunt for more of the sweet, sentimental folk music she plied back in the late-sixties and early-seventies, when this … Continue reading One for Friday: Bonnie Dobson, “Good Morning Rain”

Thinking back on it now, I suspect that Spooner was the first hometown band I ever heard on the radio. Growing up in and around Madison, Wisconsin meant I wasn’t exactly in the midst of a thriving music scene, but I still felt that our broadcasters could have done a little better job throwing some support towards the guitar-slinging local heroes. You never know when the next Oh-Needers might be out there. There were the occasional token local showcase programs–typically relegated to the Sunday night timeframe when the stations were fairly certain that practically no one was listening–but as far … Continue reading One for Friday: Spooner, “Mean Old World”