I was a kid who favored albums over singles, operating with a snobbish certainty that the truest test of an artist’s mettle was whether or not they could come up with two long vinyl sides of new music on a fairly regular basis. That was somewhat of a reflection of the time as 45s were increasingly difficult to come by except for those prone to combing the teeny, isolated part of the record store devoted to underground punk. Even though the Billboard Top 40 had an indisputable cachet, albums were the consensus measure of which performers were truly important. Sure, … Continue reading One for Friday: The Wedding Present, “Pleasant Valley Sunday”

I remember Poi Dog Pondering’s debut album arriving at the college radio station amidst a lot of expectation. This was back when the number of outlets available to promote a new record were far more limited than in the case now, so I’m not quite sure how we got it in our heads that this was a release immediately worthy of my attention. It may have been as simple as the band’s unique gestation. Athens, Georgia and Minneapolis, Minnesota were well-represented on our airwaves, but we weren’t playing a lot from groups that got their start in Hawaii. They did … Continue reading One for Friday: Poi Dog Pondering, “Spending the Day in the Shirt You Wore”

I think all of us toiling together in college radio had our favorite obscure performers, those who didn’t burn up any charts, including those our our own station, but whose every new release filled us with excitement. Often, these weren’t necessarily even performers who we felt had created masterpieces previously, but who instead always seemed to have the chance to create a absolutely fantastic album lurking within them. My whole time as a student DJ at 90FM, I was dead certain that Sam Phillips had an absolutely fantastic album lurking within her. The fact that it technically came out after … Continue reading One for Friday: Sam Phillips, “Baby I Can’t Please You”