There was a hefty stack of records in a black metal cabinet. This was my first winter break of college, and I had returned to campus early in order to pitch in around the student-run radio station, operating with the usual short staff that corresponded to those days when classes weren’t in session. Besides keeping all the on-air shifts filled in our shortened programming day, there was a backlog of albums from the late fall and early winter that needed to be sorted through. The major releases had duly made their way to the rotation, so this pile was entirely … Continue reading One for Friday: The Frogs, “Layin’ Down My Love 4 U”

I’m not sure if there’s an official way to discover the songwriting of Stephin Merritt, a route that passes inspection with all the self-appointed keepers of indie cred. If there is, it probably doesn’t start with the 6ths, the side project Merritt developed in the mid-nineteen-nineties after his primary outfit, the Magnetic Fields, was already four or five albums deep into their catalog. Nevertheless, the debut release under this name, Wasps’ Nest, was my first knowing exposure to Merritt’s handicraft, this mixture of sharp and sweet that found Merritt recruiting a small gang of cult favorite singers to intone his … Continue reading One for Friday: The 6ths, “Here in My Heart”

I cannot overemphasize how wondrous it was for me to discover any music that existed outside of the monolithic wall of derivative grunge that dominated alternative radio in the mid-nineties. So if I found my way to a charming bit of understated indie pop, couching somewhat humorous lyrics in a lovely wistfulness–completely different from the anguished bravado that Pearl Jam made the norm–I was certainly going to embrace it. I may not be able to play it on the radio, thanks to our impenetrable playlists, but that’s what my home stereo and all the mix tapes manufactured in its dual … Continue reading One for Friday: Pee Shy, “Little Dudes”

I was never all that adept at following my favorite music performers as they moved from band to band. This was in part because I became a music a fan at the time when there were still really only three steps in a music career: 1. be part of a band, 2. have a solo career and 3. realize you’re too old to be doing that crazy rock ‘n’ roll thing any more. And that unofficial though seemingly mandatory retirement age was actually pretty young. When rock musicians persisted into their forties or, egad, fifties, they were still viewed somewhat … Continue reading One for Friday: Luna, “Cindy Tastes of Barbecue”