84. The Cranberries, To the Faithful Departed And now we come to what is arguably the “lingering goodwill” portion of the chart, with a couple of albums that a reasonable observer may conclude garnered airplay less on their own individual … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 84 and 83
Not to upset any lingering, devoted fan base the band might have, but I feel obligated to admit that the main reason I have affection for the band the Buck Pets is that I once knew a lovely young woman who appropriated their band name so she would have something to call me. She just liked the way it sounded, I think. When she was on the air, she’d play a song from the album and backsell it by sharing, “That one goes out to my little Buck Pet.” We never figured out what “Buck Pet” really meant, what the … Continue reading One for Friday: Buck Pets, “A Little Murder”
86. Ramones, Greatest Hits Live The Ramones played their final live show on August 6, 1996. Beginning with its very title, they’d made it clear that the 1995 album ¡Adiós Amigos! would be their last, at least barring some major … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 86 and 85
Since I was traveling this past week, the editor kindly kept my workload light at Spectrum Culture (there were other factors too, but there certainly seemed some sympathetic generosity strongly at play). So the only thing that had my name on it was our list of the “13 Best Goth Albums of All Time.” I helped select the titles on the list–which I wish wasn’t ranked, I will note–and got to write the blurbs for two of the bigger albums, including the one that resides in the top spot. Never one who was heavy into goth music, I’ll admit it … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Back at the college radio station, I was always appreciative when I found out the official derivation of a band’s name. This was in part because it was handy information to have when introducing or backselling a band’s songs on the air, providing something interesting to help fill up the time. It was also fairly difficult background to come by for a lot of the artists we played. Even at that late date, there was no shortage of articles tracing how the Rolling Stones selected their moniker, but it was a lot harder to find out where the hell the … Continue reading One for Friday: The Woodentops, “They Can Say What They Want”
88. Pearl Jam, No Code Pearl Jam was probably poised to be the biggest rock band in the U.S. in the mid-nineteen-nineties. After their 1991 debut, Ten, built into a sales juggernaut over the course of a couple years of … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 88 and 87
I only had one new piece go up at Spectrum Culture, but it was a fairly distinctive one. Capitol Records recent reissued four old country albums on vinyl and apparently actively solicited reviews from various outlets. The editor-in-chief sent out an email asking if anyone was interested in reviewing the respective titles, and my many, many hours as a kid (and I’m talking single digits here) sitting in front of my grandparents’ big console stereo listening to Kenny Rogers records made it clear that I needed to participate. I went ahead and claimed The Gambler. Listening to it again, for … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Inadvertently, this is the second time in the last three weeks that I’m featuring a band that Atlantic Records simply didn’t know how to handle. Map of the World was a band from Ann Arbor, Michigan, signed by the major label in the late nineteen-eighties, a time when A&R men roamed college towns with fevered urgency, so sure that the next R.E.M. was lurking out there somewhere. The group–headed up by the sibling team of Khalid and Sophia Hanifim–had exactly one release for the label, a 1989 EP entitled An Inch Equals a Thousand Miles. When it wasn’t embraced automatically … Continue reading One for Friday: Map of the World, “I Fight for My Life”
These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. David Ball had a first pass at a music career in the late nineteen-eighties when the country music singer-songwriter secured a recording contract with RCA Records. A trio of singles in 1988 and 1989 failed to generate anything but the most meager of interest from country radio and the album he recorded was shelved. Jump forward a few years, and Ball gets his … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Thinkin’ Problem”
90. Marilyn Manson, Antichrist Superstar You know, when I counted down Trouser Press‘s picks for the ten best albums of 1981, I made a point of listening to every one of them before I wrote on them. Not with this … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 90 and 89
Coffee for Two 