I hadn't heard of cranes til I stumbled across them on Bandcamp the other day. Their new stuff is too light/airy for my tastes, but these Peel Sessions from 1989-1990 that release in a few days-- the two songs up so far.. wow. I LOVE her voice.. the great kinda minimal music behind it, reminds me of Björk a little sometimes, but maybe with SLIGHTLY more edge and more 80s-ish guitar. Check it out, let me know what you think.
August 12th is National Vinyl Record Day (apparently) so I grabbed all the vinyl I could find in my house. It's not a lot. I used to have many crates full. But after many moves, I thinned the collection down to nearly nothing, as I do digital music mostly now (I have no turntable anymore either). But sometimes, I grab a couple. Bought the bottom row here recently. Odd I can't find my copy of Telekon. Pretty sure I still have that one somewhere. I hope so. And wow, I have two copies of Green Thoughts, one signed, one not. Check out that picture disc. I should get better photos of it eventually. It's rad.
As a very young Gen X-er, (Xennial? 🙄) I have a soft spot for "Hair Ballads" or whatever you wanna call the sappy output of otherwise hard-rockin’ bands of the late 80s and early 90s.
I’ve been working on a playlist, but for reasons I can’t quite pin down, there’s some bands/songs that just don’t quite fit in my mental model of hair balladeers.
Journey - Faithfully
Def Leppard - Love Bites
Guns n’ Roses - November Rain
Aerosmith - Crazy
Did all those bands have long hair and generally "hard rock" catalogs of music? Yes.
So why do I feel weird putting "Love Bites" or "November Rain" on a playlist alongside "Fly to the Angels" and "When I See You Smile" ?
Gary Numan released Telekon, my favorite of his records, in 1980. It was the first vinyl I bought as a teen in the 90s. Hearing this intro track and the album that followed was mindblowing. Definitely listen to this whole record if you get a chance.
Here's "This Wreckage", the first song on Telekon, one of the best album opening tracks EVER:
You know, out of all the bands from the ‘80’s I loved, The Cars, still somehow feels fresh.
It’s crazy because this band kinda sneaks up on ya.
Relisten to “Heartbeat City.”.
Or try it for the first time.
I remember my dad and I agreed on nothing but the single, “Drive,” from that album. We were both obssessed and he had excellent taste in music, but hated the “new shit.”
But he loved The Cars.
These songs were on every airwave in the ‘80’s, and everyone owned the album, but no one really loved them, LOVED them, like say, Duran Duran. They weren’t all Miami Vice heartthrob hot.
But unlike most 80’s albums, there was not one dog song on “Heartbeat City.”
This week's #TuneTuesday theme is #MyGenerationMusic. I was born in April of 1980, and there were SEVERAL great albums that came out that year.
But my top choice for that year has to be DEVO.
Devo released their third record Freedom of Choice in May 1980 with the magical song (and my favorite song on the album) 'Gates of Steel' opening up its second side.
I have another one for #TuneTuesday and #SameTitleDifferentSong. This one often comes to mind for me, too. The third one is missing the 'ing' but I'm still counting it, especially since Dave played for Tom and they were friends. I love the SHIT outta all THREE of these songs.
“Hoping for the best but expecting the worst; are you gonna drop the bomb or not?” … is there a lyric that sums up the #GenX experience more than this?
The first way I heard Joe is back in the 90s, because Anthrax covered "Got the Time" (a KILLER cover) in 1990 and as Scott Ian of Anthrax pointed out, Joe's version is FASTER than theirs! This is a PUNK song, man.
And then there's "Steppin' Out". This song is magical and that MELODY, I mean, what even is this song. Was reminded of it again the other day when we were watching 'School Spirits' and it was playing. The synths - MASTERFUL song.
lowkey obsessed with this alvin and the chipmunks soundcloud project where every track is slowed to 16bpm. it’s dark and drippy and haunting and sorta fkd up—extremely my shit
I saw this clip tonight, and I was transported to my senior year of high school. I lip-synced and danced to "Every Little Step" by Bobby Brown for our Christmas talent show in front of my entire school. I wore a tank top, suspenders, spandex shorts, and a hat. I surprised everyone and tied for 1st place! 😆
Pardon me while I brag on @hilljam for a moment but HAVE YOU HEARD the synth programming on this recording of The Boys of Summer??
Besides the incredibly fastidious reproduction of the gorgeous synths, Jamie — somewhat magically — also managed to re-create the guitar parts that are all over the original recording WITH SYNTHESIZERS.