There are always going to bands and performers that are inextricably linked with their eras. For me, The Cure represents one side of the nineteen-eighties and R.E.M. is the flip side. Nirvana’s Nevermind dirges are so embedded in the early nineties that it’s almost a shame that the album wasn’t actually called The Waning Days of Bush I or some such thing. Much of this music is still great, and even has some qualities that could be called timeless, but they also speak so clearly for their musical moment that playing them causes calendar pages to flip back like a … Continue reading One for Friday: The Smithereens, “Kiss Your Tears Away”

I suspect there’s a tendency to always see the time when you’re following music most closely–probably those years around high school and college–as a time of particular tumult and transformation. It’s a natural side effect of close scrutiny combined with a passionate connection with the artists. Every shift in a lineup or full-on dissolution of a band is major news, like the borders of a country being redrawn after a war. The whole landscape changes, or at least that’s what it feels like. At around the time I started at the college radio station, both Husker Du and The Smiths … Continue reading One for Friday: Antenna, “23”

When I was at the college radio station, there were several bands I loved, those that seemed to sing my thoughts with every song. Then there were those bands that I admired. They didn’t necessarily hit me in my gut in the same way, but something about their passion, their intensity, their readily apparent ethic in each and every one of their songs stirred me differently. I didn’t become devoted to them in the same way, but I was always glad–even oddly proud–to play their music on the radio. Buffalo Tom was one of tho It’s hardly an unorthodox choice, … Continue reading One for Friday: Buffalo Tom, “Taillights Fade”

I’ve probably seen Ani Difranco live more than any other performer. Basically, it’s built right into the terms of my marriage. Ani came with the package, like a stepchild or a beloved feline. The affection may have faded somewhat over the years–new albums are no longer automatic purchases for our household–but seeing Ani perform live remains an obligatory outing. This isn’t a problem, by the way. She’s a helluva songwriter and a terrific performer, equal parts fierce and adorable with a charisma that amazingly plays best to the back seats and moves forward. She brings herself unguarded to the stage, … Continue reading One for Friday: Ani Difranco, “Most of the Time”

Listen, we’ve all been there, reeling from some disastrous relationship. And for most college radio DJs, there are probably some wounds that are fairly fresh. So I always had a strange admiration for those bands that could tap into those feelings, not just because I could often relate to those songs, but because, on some level, I recognized that it was a great way for those artists to earn some airplay that may have otherwise eluded them. I’m not saying it’s all cold calculation. Many of the bands we played at the station were populated by individuals whose ages were … Continue reading One for Friday: Possum Dixon, “Watch the Girl Destroy Me”

When I search the word “Christmas” on my iTunes, only 43 songs show up, which seems like a fairly modest number given the size of my digital library. Most of those tracks are indeed yuletide offerings, albeit ones that have somewhat darker sensibilities or that otherwise allow me to keep the holiday in my way (or at least Crow’s way). However, there’s also a band in there that bears a name that they may not have chosen if they existed at a time when making sure you weren’t swamped out by other options in a Google search had to be … Continue reading One for Friday: Christmas, “Stupid Kids”

My favorite time of year at my college radio station was winter break. Though we were student-run and largely student-staffed, we were also proudly on the air every day of the year, including Christmas. We labored on with our skeleton crew, many of taking an on-air shift or two every day. It was dead-quiet like no other time of the year. During the summers, there were classes happening in our building, and the campus was infiltrated by a bevy of conferences, camps and other events that caused child prodigies and health nuts to mingle awkwardly with our lingering student population. … Continue reading One for Friday: Trip Shakespeare, “Snow Days”

Pere Ubu was one of those bands I couldn’t quite wrap my head around when I was at the college radio station. This was partially because the station’s music library, my giant encyclopedia of sonic wonders pressed into individual vinyl volumes, wasn’t especially well stocked in efforts by the Cleveland band, especially lacking in those releases that would be considered seminal like The Modern Dance or Dub Housing. But, truth is, I may have been so lacking in background knowledge about the group that they could have been there and I wouldn’t have known to give them a listen. Also, … Continue reading One for Friday: Pere Ubu, “Oh Catherine”

When I started at the college radio station, the 90FM music library was divided into three sections, each designated by one of the first three letters of the alphabet. The A Stacks were filled with the artists that were best-known to broader audiences. This was where U2 records resided, for example (and this was before the library was purged of its classic rock, so everyone from Aerosmith to ZZ Top helped fill out this area). The B Stacks was where the titans of college radio had their records filed, with the likes of Love and Rockets and The Replacements. Everything … Continue reading One for Friday: The Connells, “Fun & Games”

I never paid especially close attention to the producer credits on albums during my college radio days, but there were a few names that I definitely knew. One of those names was Mitch Easter. Easter has a certain venerated status in those circles because of his involvement with the earliest efforts by college radio standard bearers R.E.M. On the little labels that adorned the albums in our station, a wide array of Music Directors had often felt compelled to note Easter’s involvement with a record, and his own band was properly adored by those DJs in the know. There was … Continue reading One for Friday: The Hummingbirds, “Word Gets Around”