August, 1991

As everyone knows, "Nevermind" was released in August 1991.
Exactly 20 years ago.
Is there still something to add about this album?
Yes, I do think so. And I'm sure you're pining to know what it meant and still means to me, its role in my... musical education, and... and sooner or later your curiosity will be fulfilled. I'll write a post about it someday.
(omg, 1991... I was 16, my hair was longer than Eddie Vedder's, I weighed almost 20 kilos less than now, and... man, the 90s had just begun!)
Anyway...
in that very same month other milestones of (indie / pop / alt) music saw the light of day.
From my beloved brit bishops Blur and their first album "Leisure", to riot grrrl goddesses Hole ("Pretty on the inside"), from trip-hop fathers Massive Attack (monumental "Blue lines") to seminal "Ten" by Pearl Jam, not forgetting Metallica's "Black album", Cypress Hill, and... er... Spin Doctors.
Talking about singles that colored record shop shelves in that fiery August 1991, here are some.
Even some multi-million selling artists, for once.
Enjoy.

Smashing Pumpkins - Siva* (August 1991)

*: those colors, those blurred images, Billy Corgan's not bald head...
I think my heart stopped for some seconds

PJ Harvey - Dress** (August 1991)

**: Polly's first ever single.

Metallica - Enter sandman (August 1991)


R.E.M. - Near wild heaven*** (August 1991)

***: admit it, you do love "Out of time", as everbody else.
Pop at its best.

Hole - Teenage whore (August 1991)

Crumbs - Crumb #3

Crumb #3: "Fake fur" by Urusei Yatsura

Uuhh.. that's what I call a "crumb" (for the correct definition of "crumb", see this post)!
I've totally forgotten (about) both song and band.

Premise is needed:
if you own a Facebook profile or, in general, are used to hang out at forums, you've most likely noticed that lots of italian (males as well as females) users' avatars are japanese (TV) cartoon characters, the most part coming from the late 70s and 80s.
All of us Italians, 30-heading-for-40 something, were raised up with, no... thanks to japanese TV cartoons.
Even my 67 y.o. father still remembers characters, themes song / opening themes from lots of them.
Try to google "cartoni animati giapponesi": a new world will open itself before your eyes.

A few days ago, while taking advantage of my fake FB profile to take a peek at other people's life, I noticed that a (male) friend of mine chose an image of Lamù as his avatar.
Among utterly forgettable comments I happened to read the original japanese name (I somehow forgot) of the series: Urusei Yatsura.
And suddenly... poof! my mind went immediately back to this scottish combo, and the only one song of theirs I knew.
And so.. here it goes:

Urusei Yatsura - Fake fur (1997)


and... er... this is the italian version's opening theme

Songs by numbers

It's all in the title of the post.
Songs, numbers.
Songs with a number, nothing else, in their titles.


Massive Attack - Three (1994)



Jimmy Eat World - Ten (1999)

Fan made video: don't know whether it captured the spirit of the song or not, but... I liked it.
(and "Clarity" is a great album indeed)

Cranberries - Twenty-one (1994)

I proudly admit it: I loved "No need to argue". Period. And songs like this or "Empty" still give me the shivers.
(I know, I know... this video basically is "Dreams" re-edited. But to me is new, because I've always thought this version was the only one existing. And, anyway, the 4AD atmosphere suits the song like a glove)

The Smashing Pumpkins - Thirty-three (1996)

The view from stage

As I wrote somewhere in this blog already, I was in a band, in the 90s, and we existed from 1994 to 2001. Actually, we kept on rehearsing and putting sketches of songs on tape (and on audio file) until 2004, but we basically ceased to be everyone's favourite active indie pop band (only in my dreams, of course) in 2001, when we played live for the last time.
It was the 21st of July. So it's exactly 10 years now.
I remember it was so windy, just like today (in Sardinia).
Ten years... aargh!!
I definitely need something carelessly happy, and pop, and live, to cheer me up a bit.
Here it goes:

Pulp - Disco 2000 (1995)

speaking of elliott smith

this is one of my favorite songs by him, the ballad of big nothing, off of either/or. no video it seems, so here's a live version with pretty good sound. skip the first minute, cos it's all just applause. (although, click here if you want to hear the recorded version.) enjoy.

Oh, yes! Bright Eyes is Nebraskan!

"What about 90s music from Nebraska?"
That's what I was thinking about yesterday morning, while putting the finishing touch to the "Nebraska" panel.
Because I have this artsy-fartsy project going on (one of the many; most of them pointless and indefinite): simply, I cut out Google Earth aerial views, then I combine them together through collage techniques (on PC).
I suppose millions of PC / interent users have done it alreay before.
Anyway... I've completed only one of the 4 (digital) patchworks / panels that will compose the work, so far (work that, when finished, will adorn that sad and white wall of my living-room).
This panel's called "Nebraska", because all the patches pertain to Fred Astaire's, Hillary Swank's and Marlon Brando's home state.
Getting back to the point: a quick search on Wikipedia revealed that Conor Oberst, Bright Eyes deus ex machina, was born in Omaha, Nebraska's biggest city. I've always seen him as something from the 00's on (I came across Bright Eyes only in 2000, when "Fevers and mirrors" came out), but I just finished listening to 1998 "Letting off the happiness" and it's great!
And there's a track on it that smells like 90s. Like Sparklehorse on a shoegaze trip (with intriguing female backing vocals).
Enjoy.

PS: unforgotten Elliott Smith was born in Omaha, too. But he was kind of "adopted" by Portland, Oregon.

Bright eyes - pull my hair (1998)

PJ Harvey, a girl from England

Tomorrow... no, today, early morning, I'm going to take a plane from Sardinia (Italy; it's the large island on the left, for those who have not been taught geography properly) to Ferrara (centre-north of Italy). And in the evening I'll be there, again a few meters from my love of a life time, Polly Jean Harvey.
Since I'm in a hurry (wake up time is within... 3 hours), and since this blog is all about 90s, here's one of the very few songs taken from PJ's 90s albums she's going to play in Ferrara.
I think I'll write and upload something about the concert anyway, next week.

(suggestion: go to Youtube and search PJ Harvey and "Let England shake"; there's no official TV-friendly video at all. But you'll find 12 short documentaries, the size of a song. 12 songs on "Let England shake", 12 videos about England, its colors and shapes and humanscapes, about english people, their eyes and hands, their past and present, hopes and disillusions and memories, the story of a nation through images of daily simple life)

PJ Harvey - The sky lit up (1998) tour 2011