Even back in the late eighties, we knew Julian Cope was one of the relentlessly weird ones. And I’m not even sure he’d done all that much to earn that reputation by that point. Certainly, some amount of trepidation could be stirred up with his music, first with the post-punk band The Teardrop Explodes and then his solo career, which still felt relatively new at that point. The music was slick pop, but delivered in a way that was angular, aggressive and practically oozing serpentine showmanship. He had the veneer of a dangerous man who happened to have a way … Continue reading One for Friday: Julian Cope, “Five O’Clock World”

Typically this space is devoted to songs that embedded themselves into my music fan psyche when I was working at the college radio station during my time as an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. However, I had another tour of duty with student-run radio, serving as the advisor and General Manager for several years at WPRK-FM at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. When I started the job, it was a major transition in many respects, not the least of which was the relocation from America’s Dairyland to the Sunshine State. The first time we … Continue reading One for Friday: Superchunk, “Florida’s on Fire”

Where do I even begin with Shane MacGowan? The former and eventually reinstated lead singer of the Pogues always seemed like a likely casualty of himself, burning out from hard living that was exacerbated by live performance venue green rooms well stocked with beer and liquor. Through the late nineteen-eighties and early nineties, whenever the band got a prime showcase to perform, say on Saturday Night Live, MacGowan wavered on stage like a slender bamboo pole in a brisk wind. By all indications he lived his life according to the credo suggested by the title of a 1942 Louis Jordan … Continue reading One for Friday: Shane MacGowan and the Popes, “That Woman’s Got Me Drinking”

It’s interesting the way that certain performers hold onto their fame forever, even after death, and how some completely fade away, even if their music survives. Dying young has made so many rock ‘n’ roll stars into permanent icons–Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain–and yet there are those who rarely get a mention, the untimely ends somehow escaping romanticized sadness. Michael Hutchence of INXS was only thirty-seven when he died, just a few years after becoming a full-fledged sex symbol when his band’s album Kick turned into a huge blockbuster. What’s more, his death was ruled a suicide, … Continue reading One for Friday: Max Q, “Way of the World”