Monday, June 12, 2006

A Brief Pause From Football


I got a meme from Debbie:

1.What has been the best year for you musically? (meaning..lots of great albums...concerts...etc) And tell why it was.

1990: My first Reading Festival (Inspiral Carpets, Pixies, The Cramps, Billy Bragg, The Fall, The Wedding Present, Wire, Nick Cave, and The Buzzcocks, to name a few). Albums I will never part with (or wish that I hadn't) from that year: The Caution Horses, Ritual de lo Habitual, Fear of a Black Planet, Superfuzz Bigmuff, The Internationale, The Las, etc. I think I also really liked the Gay Bikers on Acid's "Cancer Planet Mission" but I can't remember as I got the tape stuck in my last car two days after I bought it (the car, not the tape). I also got to see the Fall and Pop Will Eat Itself at the UEA, and a bunch of tiny but fun bands at the Norwich Arts Centre. Two World Cup football songs as well: "World in Motion" by New Order and "Ciccolina" by Pop Will Eat Itself.

Why was it a good year? I was a teenager with a bit of cash in my pocket.

2.What album evokes the most memories for you?

Erm, if it is memories we are after rather than favorites I have a few; "Love" (The Cult; early teen years), "The Stone Roses" (the Stone Roses; late teen years), "Elastica" (Elastica; "Line Up" was the first song I ever played on the radio), and "The Invisible Band" (Travis; makes me think of Country Mouse).

3.Are there any songs that make you think of something or someone?

I cannot hear "9 to 5" without seeing Country Mouse joyfully getting her groove on.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow I don't know ANY of these groups. How uncool am I? I need to google these and hear some of this (I assume) cool music.


Ahhh! A World cup break is nice

Wisdom Weasel said...

I don't know if they are cool, but they seemed that way in 1990.

I forgot to mention that Donny Sanderson and myself made a brief cameo in one of late, great John Peel's home videos he was shooting from the stage during Bragg's set.

Anonymous said...

So If I google John Peel will something embarassing come up?Perhaps

Wisdom Weasel said...

Not that sort of video. For a vicar's wife you have a filthy mind.

We were on our way to the chip stall to get some dinner while Billy was droning on about "proportional representation".

Anonymous said...

1. Autumn 1990 - Autumn 91: First Bragg gig at Norwich Waterfront, REM at Cambridge Corn Exchange, The Wedding Present and Lloyd Cole at UEA. Left home, went to art school. Nirvana, The Sugarcubes, Bragg, My Bloody Valentine and Carter USM at Birmingham Hummingbird. The Wedding Present again in Wolverhampton - missed the last train home and had to sleep in a bus shelter, Morrissey, The Cure, The Jesus and Mary Chain and James at NEC. Billy Bragg again at The Venue in New Cross. He makes me a Marmite sandwich afterwards. Spent all my grant on albums - Screamadelica, Fear of a Black Planet, Blue Lines, Goo, Bossanova and that odd thing by Deeelite...

2. Doolittle by Pixies, Talking with the Taxman about Poetry by BB, Rank by The Smiths. Every beat is sacred...

3. 'Weather With You' by Crowded House - names omitted to protect the innocent.


Weasel - I seem to recall you had a very unhealthy fixation with Freddie Mercury in your young teen years...

Listmaker said...

debbie, i've been thinking about this one but haven't quite gotten there.

one of the highights of wedding weekend was seeing how jealous mondale got when he heard jim's billy bragg's stories.

Wisdom Weasel said...

You were saying something about unhealthy fixations, Mr. "Pet Shop Boys Are My Life" 13 year old cousin man?

Anonymous said...

Weasel- I wasn't thinking what you think I was thinking. Also Ilike the sound of "Vicar's wife" better than "Pastor's wife"

Listo- I look forward to reading your answers:)

Anonymous said...

I think PSB stands up quite well - only a skip away from New Order thence the whole post-punk thang. I bought PLENTY worse than that!

Lucky my sis never got into kd lang. Genghis would have exploded.

Wisdom Weasel said...

I was always torn between Uncle Jeff's 70s metal collection and the more eclectic sounds of the indie music the older kids used to play at Wymondham. Then Queen went all crap with all the "Its a kinda magic" shit so I veered over to the Smiths and Echo & the Bunnymen.

I do remember getting teased unmercifully by my mates at 13 when they saw I had written "David Bowie" and "Queen" under musical likes on my French exchange bio; teasing that oddly continues to this day from Country Mouse.

And the Pet Shop Boys were rather good; I do recall you being just a touch evangelical about them over the trifle at a family gathering once, however.

country mouse said...

1. 1993/94: We found a tape at the barn in Otter Creek called "Tape From Peter." It was a mixed tape that was left by some hobo/fisherman/ruffian who passed through one night. The songs on that tape became my circle's theme music throughout our high school years. Partly because of the music and partly because of the mystery surrounding who this Peter fellow was. The Band, Eric Burdon, Supertramp's "Take the Long Way Home."
It was a good year because our sole purpose in life was to have fun hanging out with our friends and driving around the park loop road. We were very lucky to grow up in a place as beautiful as Acadia.

3."Rocky Racoon" - I'll forever see a drunken Stevie Smith, wearing a trench coat and a viking helmet, being drop off by the cops, stumbling into the "Love Shack" belting out his favorite Beatles tune.

Anonymous said...

"Evangelical over the trifle"? Sounds both blasphemous and unhygenic. I almost certainly did then.

Your American readership might appreciate this for clarity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_trifle

Anonymous said...

Weasel wrote:

"I don't know if they are cool..."

Billy Bragg, The Pixies, The Fall, Inspiral Carpets, The Cramps, The Wedding Present, Wire...etc. not cool?

Trust me, Weas (and msdee), they're cool and if not cool, then damn fine.

T. Oklahoma Bandwagon said...

Hay-Zeus – you're playing right into my hand, here. I've been going back and forth with email pals over the past few days in the wake of a radio show I heard on WERU last Wednesday, hosted by this Belfast blogger. The topic – 50 Most Important CDs/LPs of the last 25 years. I haven't yet posted this discussion topic yet, but hope to soon. Until then …

1.What has been the best year for you musically? (meaning..lots of great albums...concerts...etc) And tell why it was.

Gotta be mid-1992 through mid-1993; If not, mid-1995 through mid-1996.

a. 1992-93 – albums: Pearl Jam's Ten, Nirvana's Nevermind, RHCP "Blood Sugar Sex Magic," Beastie Boys "Check your head," Pavement's "Slanted and Enchanted," Sugar's "Copper Blue," Smashing Pumpkins' "Siamese Dream," Soundgarden's "Badmotorfinger," Dinosaur Jr.'s "Green Mind," Alice in Chains' "Dirt", etc.

Live music during this span: Lollapalooza '92 (PJ, RHCP, SG, J&MC, Ministry) and '93 (AiC, Primus, Fishbone, etc.); U2's Zoo TV, Outside Broadcast ('92); Alice in Chains' at The Channel, in Boston (with Screaming Trees opening); GD at RFK, '93.

b. 1995-96 – albums: Elastica, Moby's "Everything is Wrong"; Pavement's "Wowee Zowee"; Yo La Tengo's "Painful"; Sonic Youth's everything; Jon Spencer Blues Explosion "Orange"; Morphine "Cure for Pain," "Yes"; Sebadoh's "Bakesale"; Sublime; U2's "Pop"; much Bob Mould/Sugar/Husker Du; Guided By Voices, "Bee Thousand" "Alien Lanes"; B-Boys "Ill Communication"; Green Day "Dookie"; Porno for Pyros; Fugazi, "In on the Kill Taker", etc.

Live: Yo La Tengo, Black Cat, DC; Morphine, Black Cat, DC; JSBX, 9:30 Club, DC; Bob Mould, 9:30 Club, DC; Fugazi, Fort Reno Park, DC; Mighty Mighty Bosstones, 9:30 Club; Mike Watt, Paradise, Boston; Pavement, Avalon, Boston;

2.What album evokes the most memories for you?

Gotta split this one up, too, due to vivid v. fuzzy "memories."

1. Vivid – thank the youth. Led Zeppelin, "4" – I was youngish, but there seems to have been an entire summer when either this or Aerosmith's Greatest Hits was in the boom box … can't place the year … 1984 or 85, maybe. The place: "The Lake," in New Hampshire. I'd name the lake and provide more background, but the image is better preserved if left in vague terms. If you've seen the last scene from Whit Stilman's "Barcelona," you ought to be able to empathize.

Or

2. Fuzzy – "Singles," soundtrack. This combined with Beastie Boys, "Check your Head"; Red Hot C.P.s, "Blood Sugar Sex Magic"; Smashing Pumpkins' "Siamese Dream"; and Pearl Jam's "Ten" provide a really clear picture of the place I lived and frolicked from September 1992 through May 1993, i.e. my third year of college. The memories are fuzzy because … well, it was my third year of college.

3. Are there any songs that make you think of something or someone?

Of course …

Keeping things ecumenical, as it were, I'll just say that country song "Devil Went Down to Georgia," which reminds me of my buddy Steve-o. During said 1992-93 period, he was the lone country fan among a bunch of either indie rock/alt rock types or hip-hop pop-shite lovers. Nonetheless, once per party, Steve-o would hijack the stereo and put in his Devil Went Down to Georgia song and/or that "I Got Friends in Low Places" song. For what it's worth, by the end of the fall semester, he had everyone else in the place singing right along with him … usually after 1-15 watery, domestic lagers.

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