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)

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

Oh, my lover!

The first time we met was in 1992, and it was true love at first sight.
And we've never parted since then.
I can say I somehow grew with her. I couldn't imagine my 90s (and my 00s) without her fierce glance and her ruby lips (and her smile often turning into a grin); I loved and still love the way she looks so real whether she shouts out her power and majesty in a fake leopard-skin coat or she drags you in the darkest corners of her heart with a shivering falsetto, dressed like a contemporary Emily Bronte.
She is PJ Harvey, and today, 14th of February, her new album "Let England shake" is out.
If this blog survives, I'm going to write much more about her; so, for now, to salute her new work, celebrate Valentine's Day (do we really need it? No, of course) and give a hint of what took place yesterday here in Italy , here's "Mansize".

I'm coming up man-sized
skinned alive
I want to fit
I've got to get
man-sized
I'm heading on
handsome
Got my leather boots on

PJ Harvey - Mansize (1993)