College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 124 – 122
124. Siouxsie and the Banshees, “Cities in Dust” One of the indicators that the nineteen-eighties was a time of very different expectations around bands’ productivity, there was some anxiety around how long it had been since new Siouxsie and the Banshees music had hit record store shelves when “Cities in Dust” was issued as a single, in August of 1985. This was despite the fact that had put out a full-length album and an EP the prior year. A trio of singles had been drawn from those two releases, each of which performed with the usual level of respectability on … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 124 – 122
From the Archive: Hear No Evil
This was written in late March of 1993, putting it near the end of my five years as an undergraduate college student and my three years as a film critic on radio station WWSP-FM. As for the latter experience, the weariness was clearly starting to show, at least when it came to sitting through the steady procession of drab thrillers that followed the runaway success of The Silence of the Lambs. Since I use the Academy Awards as an entryway into the review, it’s worth noting that the four freshly-named acting winners at this point were Al Pacino, Emma Thompson, … Continue reading From the Archive: Hear No Evil
One for Friday: De La Soul, “A Roller Skating Jam Named ‘Saturdays'”
When I reviewed De La Soul’s gratifyingly strong new album, and the Anonymous Nobody, I wrote about my own journey with the group, from initial hesitance to cheerful embrace, a trajectory that spanned from their debut to their sophomore effort. As I noted, 3 Feet High and Rising was one of those records that completely flummoxed me during my college radio years. It got rave reviews and was clearly sparking with creativity, but it also provoked heightened ambivalence in me when I tried to figure out how it might fit onto our station’s airwaves, especially since the playlists were typically … Continue reading One for Friday: De La Soul, “A Roller Skating Jam Named ‘Saturdays’”
The Art of the Sell: “Someday”
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. I’ve cycled back to this Nike ad repeatedly today. I get choked up every time. Bravo. Other entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Art of the Sell” tag. Continue reading The Art of the Sell: “Someday”
The Chicago National League Ball Club
To Ernie Banks, who I never saw play but who I knew was Mr. Cub… To Billy Williams and Ron Santo… To Ferguson Jenkins, who I did see pitch, and who improbably hit a triple in a game I watched in 1983, his last season. I remember that extra base knock being cited in a WGN package as proof that anything could happen, maybe even the Cubs making the postseason… To every last member of that 1984 team, who provided happiness and heartache like I’d never know when they did actually make the postseason… To Ryne Sandberg, still my favorite player… To Jack Brickhouse, who I’m … Continue reading The Chicago National League Ball Club
Beers I Have Known: Revolution Brewing Bottom Up Wit
This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. It’s fun to chase after certain potables at beer festivals, whether established personal favorites or those grand rarities that will perhaps only ever be sipped in the strange rugby scrum of park-bound tipsiness. I think I’m most fond, however, of those completely unexpected discoveries, the instances when no particular hype or corresponding anticipation precedes a head-turning drink. When I attended the ludicrously abundant Great Taste of the Midwest this past August, I had utterly fantastic … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Revolution Brewing Bottom Up Wit
Fly High By My Window At Night
Thanks to the bends of the calendar, it’s been a couple years since Halloween has fallen on a day that this digital space didn’t have regularly scheduled programming. It’s time to revive an old tradition. These are things that have scared me…. Yes, there’s a Stephen King entry. There’s always a Stephen King entry. That’s how I once rolled. “The Mangler” is an exceedingly silly short story. I know that. I knew that at the time I read it. And yet this tale of a demonically possessed industrial laundry press left me highly rattled when I first read it, probably … Continue reading Fly High By My Window At Night
College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 127 – 125
127. Bronski Beat, “Smalltown Boy” There’s probably no way to overstate the importance and the power a song like “Smalltown Boy” carried in 1984. The first single from the London synthpop band Bronski Beat addresses the difficulty of growing up a gay young man in the era, empowered enough to fully understand his own identity, but also cruelly judged and shunned by those around him, their own levels of enlightenment not up to the decidedly simply task of acceptance. “As hard as they would try/ They’d hurt to make you cry/ But you never cried to them/ Just to your … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 127 – 125
From the Archive: Child’s Play 2
At the time we were immersed in the movie review radio show, I was actively rooting for the Child’s Play films. Chucky creator Don Mancini was an early interview subject and he entirely won me over with the his enthusiasm … Continue reading From the Archive: Child’s Play 2
One for Friday: the Mountain Goats, “Cubs in Five”
One of the aspects of John Darnielle’s songwriting I admire most is his eager conviction that anything — absolutely anything — is potential inspiration for him to sit down with his guitar and create a tune that is piercing and true. He’s talked about that in live performances I’ve seen. He’d learn something in a history class and immediately want to rush home and merge his impressions of the particular slice of the past with a couple of well chosen chords. I’d long assumed that his song “Cubs in Five,” which leads the 1995 EP Nine Black Poppies, referenced the … Continue reading One for Friday: the Mountain Goats, “Cubs in Five”
