Winona, Winona and Wynona

Undoubtedly, when you think about Winona Ryder your mind can't help focusing on 90s.
Because it's in everything she evokes (evoked): it was in her haircut, in the way she nodded her head, in the position of the camera that made it look like she was less tall than you and she was watching you like a scoutgirl at your front door on a mission to sell as many biscuits as possible (*gasp*, forgot to breathe!..), it's in "Reality bites" as well as in "Edward Scissorhands" (and in her lovestory with Johnny Depp), it's in the way she dressed, it's in her bewildered fawn glance.
(however... er... she always left me unimpressed; my younger sister, instead, was definitely a "winonian")
This clueless post would like to... celebrate Winona Ryder through three classic (to me) 90s videos that simply bear "Winona" in their title or... feature Winona lip-synching.

We start with gross "Wynona's big brown beaver" by Primus* (although leader Les Claypool always denied any reference with the girl from Minnesota).
Second video is "Talk about the Blues" by superb Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Winona sings, Giovanni Ribisi plays guitar, and John C. Reilly is on drums.
Third video is "Winona", by guiltily underrated Drop Nineteens: intense Uk-style shoegaze made in Boston. And that's my favourite by far of the bunch.
Enjoy

(*I hated Primus. It'not (only) their fault. I'll write a post about it)

Primus - Wynona's big brown beaver (1995)


Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Talk about the Blues (1998)


Drop Nineteens - Winona (1992)

It's 90s g(r)eeks!

Slowdive - Souvlaki (1993)

Just came back from a trip to the island of Rhodes, Greece (suffice it to say: you do have to visit that place!).
After strolling along the windy alleys of the Old City for a few minutes, you immediately realize that you've been surrounded by... menus! They are everywhere, trying to enchant the unwary tourist from a restaurant window, or triumphally invading the (narrow) streets in form of a 2x1 metre board, or lasciviously offering their goodies to your hungry eyes from an unsteady lectern.
And all of them promise nothing but one thing: authentic, real, genuine greek food.
And in a whiff you feel comfortable with words like "dolmades", "gyros", "moussaka" (and "tzatziki") and, of course, "souvlaki".
But... could have a 90s geek like me simply eaten that delicious thing without thinking about Slowdive?
This post is for the cold-hearted readers out there who don't know that "Souvlaki" is, also, the 1993 masterpiece by essential Slowdive (and for all the people who thinks that their 90s would have been poorer without that band and that album).

file under: shoegazing, My Bloody Valentine without distortions, music to float to, thank God there had been Creation Records, oh my! Rachel Goswell turned 40 last month.

Slowdive - Alison


Slowdive - Souvlaki Space station


Slowdive - When the sun hits


Slowdive - Machine gun

How to disappear. Not completely

Hello again.
To the millions of (silent, apparently) readers of this blog out there... sorry for disappearing again.
I promise it won't happen any more.
I offer you Lush's "500 (shake baby shake)" as an apology.
There's an alternate video for this song, and it's definitely sooo 90s: a kind of summary of 90s videos mood, something resembling Stone Temple Pilots' "Creep" meets Garbage's "Stupid girl" meets Whale's "Hobo humpin slobo babe" meets Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet with butterfly wings".
Pretty cool indeed.
But tonight I prefer version #1. An image for "carefree happyness"? Miki (Berenyi) singing and nodding her head in time while driving a 500 (yes, "500" is that tiny car's model, symbol of Italy's history and culture. My family owned two of them when I was a kid!).
Enjoy
(Now go and buy "Lovelife"!)

Lush - 500 (shake baby shake) (1996)

fade out again

this is one of my favorite music videos of all time and also one of my favorite radiohead song. great combo there. both video and song are so incredibly beautiful. i get the urge to watch it every now and then, but it's been, i think, over a year now. my brain just went "hang on.. street spirit!" all of a sudden.

so, enjoy. the video is from '96 so, considering, the effects still work. good job there video making people.

Taking songs for real

Just got to know that Lacuna Coil, "Italian gothic metal band from Milan" (as Wikipedia reports. And I'm not going to venture trying out some other definitions: I'm not into metal et similia at all), made an elegant cover of Dubstar's "Stars", a good ten years ago ("Halflife" e.p., 2000).
I'm not a fan of Lacuna Coil, though I respected them much (each time an italian band / artist reaches international success through appreciable music... thumbs up, anyway). But, needless to say, I prefer Dubstar's original version.
And, for the record, Sarah (Blackwood, the charming singer), is one of the thirty? fifty? billion girls / women I fell in love with during my 90s.

Dubstar - Stars (1995)

Birthdays and self-gifts

So it's my birthday, today.
And it's time for a self gift.
Because, you know, the (not-written) rules of this blog are strict and inflexible: "Remember: thou won't write about anything happened before the 1st of January 1990 and after the 31st of December 1999. Rrremember!".
Thus this is one of the rare chances I have to venture out of the 90s.
It's a crime worth committing, I think.
The record is 1988 "Nothing's shocking" by Jane's Addiction.
I'll write an entire post about them sooner or later, that's for sure.
For now, let me just say that: if you want to thoroughly and deeply understand and appreciate the 90s, you definitely shouldn't keep ignoring it.
There are no fillers, no dull songs on that record.
It's so dense, so full of ideas, genres, sheer class and genius.
And there are Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro at their best.
I would have liked to upload "Ocean size" video, but, you know, embedding is not permitted... (however, here's the link)
So here is "Jane says", the most relaxed moment on "Nothing's shocking".
A sublime ballad. With my name in it, too.

Jane's Addiction - Jane says (1988)

Reissues: "Deserter's songs" by Mercury Rev

Mercury Rev - Goddess on a highway (1998)


For those cold hearted people out there who have never listened to Mercury Rev, this is your chance to make up for this shameful lack.
As Pitchfork reports, the "upstate New York orchestral rockers" reissued fundamental 1998 "Deserter's songs" two weeks ago, their most famous and critically acclaimed album, and everyone's favourite.
The (according to NME) "best album of 1998" features all the elements that have been defining Mercury Rev's peculiar sound since "See you on the other side" (1995): "shimmering psychedelic pop, immersive indie-rock, spectacularly engrossing passages of sumptuous instrumentation"*. Mine definition could be... uhm... "evocative orchestral astro dreamy pop with falsettos"??
Rate your music filed it under "Chamber Pop, Indie Pop, Neo-Psychedelia, Dream Pop, Psychedelic Pop".
I've always loved music genre categories...
Anyway...
I strongly suggest you to provide a copy of this gem, and to listen to it over and over, until your heart and blood are warm again.

(*: by Mike Diver for BBC.co.uk. Full review here)


Mercury Rev - Opus 40 (1998)



Mercury Rev - Holes (1998)