Sunday, January 23, 2011

Seattle, anyone?

As everyone knows, there was a time when "Seattle" was the most spoken word in the world, even more than "Tetris", "Gangsta", and "Winona Ryder". It seemed like the city formerly famous for Hendrix and for the first revolving restaurant ever could have spawned cool bands... endlessly; and even though a grunge scene (in my opionion) actually never existed and bands were so different from each other, the impression was of a... family, where bigger names (do I really have to list Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc...?) devotedly used to mention their (musically talking) brothers / fathers in interviews, and to involve them in side projects or simply invite them on stage. Sort of.
That's why you could have the lucky chance to get to know Mother Love Bone, Mudhoney, Green River, Melvins, Meat Puppets, etc, you would have otherwise ignored.
Among the bands who savoured the flavour of popularity only from a distance there's Love Battery. As Wikipedia sumptuously sums, they blend "intense swirling psychedelic guitar work, pulsating rhythms, driving beats and heartfelt vocals". I totally agree (and now I know how to use the verb "to swirl"), and their 1992 "Dayglo" is a stunning proof, so marvellously dense.
Guiltily underrated band (this is a formula I'm going to use frequently in this blog...).

(Wikipedia tells they derived their sound "from '60s garage/psych, '70s punk rock, '80s post punk and '90s grunge". In this song there's something else, too... UK shoegaze perhaps?)

Love Battery - Out of focus (1992)

LOVE BATTERY ---Out Of Focus
- Watch more Videos at Vodpod.



Saturday, January 22, 2011

magazine covers

check out this awesome page, with a couple of magazine covers from the 90s. awesome stuff!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Aging rockers

A few days ago we rented "The rocker", a 2008 movie starring Rainn Wilson, Christina Applegate and many others (quite unknown here in Italy. Jane Lynch aside, probably, thanks to her role as the evil gym teacher Sue Sylvester in "Glee" ). It deals with... er... never giving up on following your dreams to become a rockstar?
(mm... am I totally sure I didn't watch "Camp Rock", instead?)
If you haven't seen it yet, here is some spoiler: drummer is dumped by the band he founded, Vesuvius, a jiffy before they make it big. About twenty years after he joins a band of teenagers called A.D.D., leading them to stardom, and finally gets his revenge on Vesuvius (culminating in an epic clash on stage).
Uh, two members of Vesuvius are Bradley Cooper and Will Arnett (aka Gob in "Arrested development". The series, not the rural-rap combo); something more than a cameo, but their Izzy Stradlin meets Nikki Sixx meets Miley Cyrus outfits are marvellous.
Honestly funny comedy. Seen far worse movies than this one.
A-ny-way,
I wouldn't dare to put "The rocker" in my "movies that changed my life" list at all, and the music A.D.D. play is something halfway between the Snow Patrol and Kelly Clarkson, but... how I miss playing in a band (I had one in the 90s, you know)!! And how I miss the days when being skinny (in a Damon Albarn-ish way) and able to play some chords was (almost) everything you needed (yes, I have some problem with accepting my current weight).
Even though the message was delivered through a careless comedy, it lead me into thoughts about aging and teenage dreams and... playing music naked, of course.
And so, in my list of resolutions for 2011 I officially squeeze: "play again on stage with a band; an entire own song at least".
Since the singer of A.D.D.* resembles Ash's Tim Wheeler to me and since we (my 90s band) used to pluck their "Girl from Mars" during soundchecks, here you are:

Ash - Girl from Mars (1996)


* as I just learned from Wikipedia, Teddy Geiger is "an American singer-songwriter and occasional actor", basically unknown here in Italy. I apologize to his fans and parents for not recognizing him.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Crumbs - Crumb #2

Crumb #2: "Positive bleeding" by Urge Overkill

Faithful to the definition of "Crumb" I coined (could I be more arrogant?) I didn't search any further information about Urge Overkill.
I rely on my defective memories only.
So: mm... a trio, from Usa, I suppose, the singer's (real?) name was Nash Kato, I listened to their "Saturation" album (1993? 1994?) half a dozen times (it was a friend of mine's), at a certain point there was so much hype on them that a music magazine (can't remember which... NME? Spin?) claimed their "Stull" e.p. would have become the most influential record of the century, they toured with Nirvana (if I don't get wrong, I'm not that sure), they gained sudden and colossal visibility outside "indie world boundaries" after appearing in "Pulp Fiction" soundtrack with their Nick Cave-ish cover of "Girl, you'll be a woman soon".
Needless to say, this single had been my "favourite song to sing in the shower" for weeks.

Urge Overkill - Positive bleeding (1993)

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

smashing fantastic

this is the fantastic song "today" by the smashing pumpkins, released as a single and on the album siamese dream from 93. i've loved this song since first i heard it, which was actually on mtv 120 minutes sometime in 95. i remember cos it was at my then boyfriend's house. my parents didn't want to pay for extra channels back then so i just had the ones that were for free, which was 3 and no music. thank god for video recorders!

the album, siamese dream, is on my list of the best albums of all time, a list that's been in the making for as long as i can remember, and doesn't seem to ever make the light of day. we'll see.

enjoy the 90s when it was at its best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHUd896Sur0 (embedding disabled by request)

Saturday, January 1, 2011

this is 2011

well, not really. at least not on this blog. rest assured, we're very much still in the 90s here. although i will lend an ear to 2003 with the second video here which is death cab for cutie's fantastic song "the new year". this first video is not a video, just a song, but the song is so good that it won't matter. it's the breeders' "new year" from my favorite album of theirs, last splash, from 93. you will hear more about the breeders later on on this blog.

for now, happy new year!





So this is the new year.
And I don't feel any different.
The clanking of crystal
Explosions off in the distance

So this is the new year
And I have no resolutions
For self assigned penance
For problems with easy solutions

So everybody put your best suit or dress on
Let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once
Lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
As thirty dialogs bleed into one

I wish the world was flat like the old days
Then I could travel just by folding a map
No more airplanes, or speed trains, or freeways
There'd be no distance that could hold us back.
death cab for cutie

This a post about Christmas

(Could we rob ourselves of a Christmas post? Of course not, dear fellows)

I have to admit it... I didn't remember any remarkable 90s original song about Christmas, Santas, reindeers, unwearable sweaters from your favourite auntie...
So there went my investigation.
And I discovered that Low recorded some "Christmas e.p." in 1999 ("Just like Christmas", "Taking down the tree" ), The Wedding Present boast a song called "No Christmas", The Flaming Lips sang "Christmas at the zoo" in 1995, while Stina Nordenstam whispered "Soon after Christmas" in 1991.
Uh... and there's intense "She came home for Christmas" by Mew and soft and dreamy "Christmas song" by Mogwai (taken from their 1999 "EP").
But...
Since Christmas usually pushes me into gloomy thoughts and forces me to ingage in a review of the past year (and of my entire life, too), I desperately need a gift to cheer me up a bit.
I choose "Merry Xmas" by Marlene Kuntz, essential and crucial italian indie band of the 90s (I will surely write a post about them).

In late, merry Christmas and happy New Year everybody.

Marlene Kuntz - Merry Xmas (1994)


(here are some lyrics:
"talk to me, please, don't go, no!
I think I can't stand them..."

"I'm here, with my heart in my mouth and it's about Christmas.
But all those people there... i'd rather stay here")