To begin with an enormous understatement, it should be obvious by now that I harbor deep nostalgia for those songs that provided the soundtrack to my years in college radio, especially those that accompanied my time as an undergraduate student in central Wisconsin. There’s an added subset to consider: I reserve a special affection for the music that carried me through the bittersweet stretch of time in 1990 that I lovingly refer to a My Summer in Exile. It was the one summer during my years of higher education that I went back home to live instead of staying in … Continue reading One for Friday: Steve Wynn, “Carolyn”

There are all sorts of bands from my college radio days that I remember fondly for a song or two, but don’t give much of a thought to beyond that. This partially due to the fact that many of the bands that can roughly be categorized as “college radio one hit wonders” had a notably short lifespan, fading entirely into the ether without even the benefit of some version of oldies radio to keep reminding listeners of that one moment in the sun when they created a guitar riff, a beat or a killer hook that kids hovering around the … Continue reading One for Friday: The Trash Can Sinatras, “Obscurity Knocks”

It’s now been over three-and-a-half years of quite regular weekly posting since I launched this particular Friday feature, a span that has, by my rough tally, led to just over 180 songs being shared in this space thus far (including the week that I proudly ceded to others). It would seem, given that number and my propensity for featuring tracks from my first year of college, that I would have exhausted every out of print college radio hit bearing a copyright date of 1988 or 1989. Indeed, there are times when a song shuffles up on my trusty iPod and … Continue reading One for Friday: Easterhouse, “Come Out Fighting”

Back when I started this weekly music-sharing endeavor, my friend Lauren, blessed with youth and beauty, commented, “I’m intrigued to find out what type of thing you listened to in college.” She correctly ascertained, perhaps before I did, that the songs posted here would come disproportionately from the thick sliver of years that I spent as a wee, impressionable undergraduate at the student-run radio station at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (go Pointers!). While the bulk of the offerings that can be carbon-dated to the years between 1988 and 1993 offer a fair snapshot of who I was, I’d argue … Continue reading One for Friday: Field Trip, “Run”

Growing up is dumb. Okay, okay, so it has its rewards too: wisdom, accumulating authority, stabilizing emotions and all that junk. Whether that’s due compensation for the virtually inevitable dissipation of passion and energy is a matter of debate. Perhaps nothing crystallizes the supremacy of youth quite like the realm ruled in benevolent partnership by rock ‘n’ roll and pop music. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a great song about yard upkeep or renegotiating mortgages rates, but first kisses and tragic, heated love affairs certainly fit snugly into a three-and-a-half-minute single. That’s one of the reason that teenage … Continue reading One for Friday: Noise Addict, “Boyfriendship”

We probably thought Edie Brickell was going to be one of those artists who’d be around, creating music that was simultaneously breezy and vital for a long, long time. The debut album with backing band New Bohemians (no “the,” please) arrived in August of 1988, weeks before I landed at the college radio station, and the single “What I Am” got ample airplay throughout the fall on its way to becoming an unlikely Top 10 hit on the Billboard charts. For most, that track represents the entirety of the essential Brickell collection. At our station, however, it was actually the … Continue reading One for Friday: Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, “Carmelito”

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”