COLLEGE RADIO

In the literal sense.  The local college had (and probably still has, but I’m old and grumpy and set in my ways now, so I only listen to my Donny and Marie vinyl collection) a station when I was in high school with no set format whatsoever, which made it pretty entertaining.  They also had a pretty small transmitter so, even though I lived on top of a hill, I couldn’t always get the signal, and I was only 20 miles away.

Some of the deejays brought in their own instruments and made an unholy racket.  Others played pretentious avant garde shit.  Others thought they were funny and played c&w or Lawrence Welk-type music, or maybe they weren’t funny and actually enjoyed it.  That who stupid concept of liking things ironically was just becoming a thing, so a lot of real bad soft rock & pop 70s music was played on a regular basis.  A few of the people spinning records there were just as obsessive as me, though, and they were always looking for new stuff to share.  Most of them forgot to speak in between songs, unfortunately, so I had to call in a lot to see what the hell they were playing.

Some of the stuff I heard there for the first time:

- Mojo Nixon’s first few records
- “Boy on the Roof” by The Outnumbered (awesome song)
- “People Who Died” by Jim Carroll
- “Tainted Love” by Coil (oh yeah, that’s some creepy shit)
- “Let’s Go Back to Viet Nam” by The Forgotten Rebels
- “Otto” “Willpower” and “Within Your Reach” by the Replacements
- my beloved Felt
- “Take the Skinheads Bowling” by CVB
- “Slip it In” by Black Flag
- “Bitchin’ Camaro” by Dead Milkmen
- “Cheer” by Descendents
- some early Scruffy the Cat (not that they ever had a late period)
- “Public Image” by PiL
- Siouxsie, Wire, Yo La Tengo, Cramps, Cure, OMD

It was a few years after this heady heyday that I also heard Low for the first time on this station. 

And then I became a hermit and started wearing tin foil hats to keep all of that shit out of my brain.


The End.

YOU CAN'T HATE YOURSELF FOREVER

POST-PUNK 101

A pretty excellent overview of what came to be known as "post-punk", including this insightful and 100% accurate explanation as to why it went pretty much unnoticed in the US:

"In our deeply pluralistic modern world, where virtually everything the last century whelped up is only a mouse click away, it’s difficult to recall that circa 1980, Rolling Stone (and other mainstream American journals) was still hoping that if they ignored new British music it might go away. So almost all of the astounding achievements of this movement passed virtually unnoticed by the contemporary American media, unless you were paying particularly close attention to college radio, poorly distributed fanzines, or the English music weeklies."

I remember Rolling Stone writing scathing reviews of Cure and Bunnymen albums back in the early 80s, while still clinging onto the dead-end idea that Jackson Browne, Stevie Nicks and the festering corpse of The Beatles would always be the future of ROCK & ROLL.  Now that history has been rewritten for the umpteenth time, all of the albums that were slagged off by RS back in the day now have 4 and 5 star reviews in their album guide.  Funny shit.

http://observer.com/2016/10/post-punk-101-what-is-post-punk/

A SUBTLE METAPHOR

ALL THE WAYS I MEASURE THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US

GET A FEEL FOR FELT

I think I’ve talked about these guys before, but I’m still spending too much time wondering why some obscure UK bands get comprehensive remastered reissue campaigns, while others are left in the dust. You know, like Catherine Wheel.

There seems to be no real solidified conventional wisdom on when these guys were at their peak, so I’ll make the decision.  Their whole damn career was pretty good, but the keyboard-heavy mid and late period albums needed more guitar.  Losing Deebank hurt their sound.  Skip the first single (“Index”), but then hop on board for all of the early singles and the first wave of albums, especially the first two.  If you’re looking to dip your toes in, go with THE SPLENDOUR OF FEAR and CRUMBLING THE ANTISEPTIC BEAUTY and then add the compilation GOLD MINE TRASH (my own introduction to the band, thanks to a hipster I knew in high school – he had the cassette version, with the handful of bonus instrumental tracks).  After that, it’s your move.  GOLD MINE includes “Primitive Painters”, which will always be the band’s crowning glory. It all came together there.

This was a band custom-made for trolling through indie and import record stores in the mid 80s, since I don’t recall most of it ever getting an American release.  Of course, you can buy it all of MP3s these days, but I’m not sure if it’s been remastered.  A box set would’ve been the way to go, but what’re you gonna do?

KILLED FOR WHAT HE BELIEVES

WAITING FOR THE SEASON OF MINOR DEAD MEN TO BEGIN

WAITING ROOM

ABOVE & BELOW

SENSE OF UNEASE

a sort of grace

and he is

tired of empty rooms,
and he is tired of falling
down stairs

he is tired

he is bleeding

one or the other

find him there on his

scarred and dirty floor

offer him your hand

let him feel the

warmth of your breasts

let him die

consider the obvious

burden of compassion

RIVER THROUGH THE DESERT

NEW WORK @ IN BETWEEN HANGOVERS

https://inbetweenhangovers.wordpress.com/2017/11/02/breathedont-breathe-by-john-sweet/

ODILON REDON!!!!!!!!!

BECAUSE NOTHING WILL CHANGE AFTER YOU'RE DEAD

THE FINE ART OF NOTHING FROM NOTHING

IN LIMBO

Still over at Amazon for now, I believe, but soon to be available through Lulu.  It looks like new copies are going for $7.99 (a freakin' bargain), or you can buy a used copy for $10, if that's the kind of kinky shit you're into.  I don't judge.  Weirdo.

http://flutterpress2009.blogspot.com/2016/04/new-release-approximate-wilderness-by.html

MIXED MESSAGE

ILLUSION OF HOPE

IN THE SCHEME OF THINGS