13. The Sugarcubes, Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week! In 1989, CMJ, the chief trade journal for college radio, released a handsome trade paperback to commemorate their tenth anniversary. Distributed to all of the subscribing stations, the book was a … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 13
Oh, the French. My first piece for Spectrum Culture this week was a review of the new film from director Catherine Breillat, who’s been playing around with classic fairy tales of late. This time, it’s the tale of Sleeping Beauty that she transforms, merging it with at least one other fable. Naturally, there’s some gratuitousness topless bathing in it. I also turned in a record review that was a little late, but not as shamefully late as the book review I recently sent it. That hasn’t run yet. I’ll sheepishly share that story when it does. Continue reading Spectrum Check
One of the unique results of complete immersion in the music of college radio is a skewed perspective on which songs and bands have become long-term staples. I’m constantly having to remind myself that certain songs that were huge smash hits in our little corner of the world aren’t as universally known as some Madonna song from roughly the same period of time. That’s compounded when it comes to the bands that I was actually a little perplexed at the time as to why they weren’t enjoying greater commercial success. Rock radio was fairly robust in the late-eighties and early-nineties … Continue reading One for Friday: Meat Puppets, “No Longer Gone”
14. Camper Van Beethoven, Key Lime Pie There were a handful of albums that predated my arrival at the radio station by only a year or two that I was especially regretful about. I would have loved to reach … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 14
Just a couple things from me went up this week. I reviewed the new album from Memory Tapes, which was very strong. It’s actually one of those albums that makes wish I had a radio shift since most of the songs on it would be perfect to drop in the middle of a set to enliven it. I also tapped out another very positive review, this time for the movie Terri, which contains what I think is John C. Reilly’s best performance to date. Strangely, I wasn’t supposed to receive this movie. The promotional folks said they weren’t sending out … Continue reading Spectrum Check
By American legal definition, I was barely an adult when the song “I’m an Adult Now” was released, which naturally made me the perfect target for its rapturous celebration of all things reckless and young. Well, that’s not quite true. When the song was first released in 1986, I was stick a couple years away when I could jump pell mell into all sorts of mature decisions, like voting, getting married or, scariest of all, joining the military. When its rerecorded version was released on the Love Junk album in the fall of 1988, with the attention-getting imprimatur of producer … Continue reading One for Friday: The Pursuit of Happiness, “I’m an Adult Now”
15. The B-52’s, Cosmic Thing My knowledge of the B-52’s was limited enough in the summer of 1989, when their album Cosmic Thing hit the station, that I didn’t realize how difficult it probably was for the band to buckle … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 15
This week, I was all over the site, beginning with a movie review of a offbeat new documentary about, at least in part, the collision between man and nature in the American south. It’s a movie built on so much abstraction that it was a challenge to write about. It was also tough to write about the new New York Times documentary, though for different reasons. It’s a fairly straightforward work and picking out what does and doesn’t work with it was correspondingly straightforward. However, I have such an investment in trumpeting the continued valued of traditional mass media, that … Continue reading Spectrum Check
I know where I was and I know where Jackson Browne was on Independence Day in 1989. This was the first summer I spent as a dedicated employee of the college radio station in Stevens Point, filling airshifts on an almost daily basis. By the timeframe that covered the end of June and the beginning of July, my cohorts and I were starting to get a little anxious and needing some breaks from keeping our slice of the left end of the day operational. Luckily, that stretch of days corresponded nicely with Summerfest, the annual music, comedy and beer drinking … Continue reading One for Friday: Jackson Browne, “For America”
16. Robyn Hitchcock ‘n’ the Egyptians, Queen Elvis While I already had immense respect and appreciation for him, I wouldn’t have named Robyn Hitchcock as my favorite performer when Queen Elvis was released. When this record hit the station in early 1989, it was simply another strong outing from a college radio stalwart in an unusually bountiful winter and spring. By this time, Hitchcock’s talents were already well-established, first as the main creative force behind the cult hero punk outfit the Soft Boys and then with a fairly prolific solo career throughout the eighties. He made his major label debut … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1989, 16
Coffee for Two 