September 2004 Playlist

Track Three - I hated this record when it came out. Listened to it twice and then put it away. It was only when I revisited it after Check Your Head came out (and I started to open up my musical tastes and actually be able to recognize some of the samples on this record) that it started to make sense to me. I love the positivity on this record. It's the Beasties on their own terms. Listening to this record made me want to start my own record label and champion the artists that I liked, just like Grand Royal. This album is also notable for me as it started my on my lifetime addiction to all things that are old school Adidas and shaped my fashion taste in college. I always tell everyone that this is my generation's Sgt. Peppers.
Key Lyric: Ride wave of fate / It don't ride me / Hey your very proud to be an MC / And the man upstairs / Well I hope that he cares / If I had a penny for my thoughts / I'd be a millionaire

Track Four - A funny looking guy by the name of Jon Brown (aka Jellybean) moved into the room beside me in my freshman dorm and was a total anglophile. One day, he played this to me and it fucking blew my mind. This song was unlike anything I had ever heard before. The guitar was mesmerizing, and I really liked the big drum loop-like backbeat. I was all wrapped up in grunge in 1993, I just had no idea that bands made music like this. I loved the drum intro to this song (which due to time constraints, had to be chopped off here). After this, I wanted to hear what every band in Britain sounded like.
Key Lyric: Seems like there's a hole / In my dreams / Or so it seems

Track Five: Not so long ago, I proclaimed The La's the best band of my generation. That's probably not true. I think what I meant to say is that they are the best pop band of our generation. Lee Mavers just writes perfect songs. For me, a perfect song has to have a "la la la" in it somewhere. Noel Gallagher always said that he respected songwriters like Paul Weller and Richard Ashcroft, but Lee Mavers was so good it scared the shit out of him.
Key Lyric: And I just can't contain / This feelin' that remains

Track Six: More proof at just how lame I really am. I didn't start really listening to Ride until last year. I knew of alot of their songs, but never really had any of their CD's. To me, this seems like the perfect song to play at a festival, with it's big "la la la la la" chorus. This also starts a pattern of another trait I seem to like in songs that I don't get sick of. Big, weepy string sections.
Key Lyric: The sun will blind my eyes / I love you anyways

Track Seven: When I came home from college for the summer after my freshman year, my old friends slowly started backing away from me when I was listening to bands like The Sundays. This was another band Jellybean turned me on to and one of the first UK bands I really liked. Harriet Wheeler has one of the most beautiful voices ever and I could listen to it all day. I've listened to this record countless times, mostly on long road trips. It makes time fly by. I love the acoustic and electric guitars and the interplay between the two. I didn't get to see the Sundays live until they toured behind Static and Silence. It was worth the wait.
Key Lyric: And you keep following the funeral pyre / it's not difficult to see that you're / beautiful and young, with liberty and money / don't go!

Track Eight: Probably the first "alternative" band I started listening to. Daniel Mabe, who was on the high school tennis team with me, made me listen to this album one day before practice. He played me Velvet Roof and I drove to Winston Salem and bought the CD after practice. This record reminds me of my freshman year at college. I bought a Let Me Come Over t shirt from one of the local CD stores and wore it all the time. I still have it even though I haven't worn it since the last millenium. I can't bring myself to part with it even though it's old and falling apart. I saw lots of good times in that shirt.
Key Lyric: Your voice is small on my voice mail system / A million miles away / But if I turned it off / I would not hear the little things you say

Track Nine: I am a completist when it comes to artists I like. After I heard Fade Into You and devoured that album, I went down to CD Alley and picked this one up right away. This song blew my mind when I heard it. It has a lot more personality than the other Mazzy Star records, it's less psychedelic. In college, this was my closer. When I got a girl back to my place and put this on, it was OVER!
Key Lyric: Surely don't stay long / I'm missing you now

Track Ten: I found this band (and this album) through Kurt Cobain. He talked about them incessantly. Dropped their name in tons of interviews. And when Spin famously named Bandwagonesque as their album of the year in 1991, I was sold. I love the buildup of feedback that opens this song. It crescendo's and then, Bam! We're off to the races. Although I chose to learn how to DJ over learning how to play guitar, I always thought that if I started a band, they would sound like TFC. When I saw TFC at the Bowery Ballroom 2 years ago (which was incidentally the first time I had seen them since they toured behind this record) I was in the front row screaming "Star Sign!!!" for the entire show until they relented and played it as the last song. I fucking went nuts. It was so best.
Key Lyric: Well do you know where you belong? / And is your star sign ever wrong?

Track Eleven: In college, I co-hosted a show on the university radio station called Across The Pond (which played all British music) with Ed Bellafiore. A New England was the show's theme song. Ed was a maniacal Billy Bragg fan, particularly of the Peel Session record this song is from. He would always play Billy Bragg stuff on his shift. The more I heard, the more I liked it. I was in full on Brit pop mode at the time, and I loved any band that sang in an English accent, so BB easily clicked with my tastes. Ed always said this was the best breakup/you-like-some-girl-but-she-doesn't-like-you record ever, and it was. Needless to say, I listened to this a lot in college.
Key Lyric: Is there a flag that flies above your heart / And is my name writ there upon it? / Wedding cake and toothache / Equals love and pain

Track Twelve: I remember the first time I saw the Mozzer. It was on MTV and he played live in studio. I knew who he as because I had just read a Spin review of this record, but I had no idea what his music sounded like. He performed Your The One For Me Fatty on MTV and I was kinda confused. What a weird song. I also remember seeing the video for Tomorrow on 120 Minutes in the basement TV lounge of my freshman dorm. Again, I was unimpressed. Then, one day I heard this song and fell in love immediately. The surging, crunchy guitar and the clean, crisp vocals on top, it sounded like heaven. He just sounded smarter than anyone else I'd ever heard. I listened to this record constantly my senior year of college. Everyone else thought I was a freak. They were all pumping the DMB and calling me weird.
Key Lyric: And here I am / And here I am / Oh, well, you don't need to look so pleased!

Track Thirteen: I would have to nominate James as one of the most under-rated bands EVER. Just a great pop band and this is one of their finest moments. I love the acoustic guitar in this song and how it just propels everything forward, it's so powerful. It makes you feel like you're running a sprint. The phrasing of the spoken word lyrics are phenomenal. I've sold at least 4 copies of this record just by playing this song for people. This song is guaranteed to put me in a good mood (despite the dark tale contained within). It just makes me happy. I'm getting goose bumps right now just listening to it.
Key Lyric: There's four new colors in the rainbow / An old man's taking polaroids / But all he captures is endless rain, endless rain, endless rain

Track Fourteen: Tha Archers of Loaf will forever remind me of college. Back in my swarthy days as an undergad, I almost got into a fight at the Gavin Convention with this guy who tried to tell me that Rocket From The Crypt was the greatest indie band on the planet. Your kid, who was fucking trashed at the time due to multiple Jaeger shots, went all out to represent for the North Cackalack. Cooler heads prevailed, but everyone loves to remind me about that. I fucking loved this band. They had this dark underbelly of anger that was hidden under their poppy exterior (as evidenced by the band kicking in at the 14 second mark of this track). I probably saw these guys 14 times in my last three years of college. I would go anywhere to see them. My first love if you will. This track is a searing commentary on the major label system that, to this point, was completely ignoring the big hooks they were writing. Unfortunately, shortly after this Elektra bought Alias and the Archers had their shot at glory and released their worst record.
Key Lyric: Strike up the band, turn off the radio / Calling out to the A&R, A&R / So full of shit, let's write some hits / Here come the A&R, A&R

Track Fifteen: Again, proving how lame I am, I didn't get into Jeff Buckley until literally two weeks before he died. My first job in the industry was working for the company that managed Andy Wallace and this record was kinda viewed as the Holy Grail of the company in terms of relevance. There were multiple copies of this record laying around, so I took one home and made a minidisc of it and loved every minute of it. Right around the release of OK Computer, I remember Thom saying listening to Jeff Buckley gave him the confidence to sing in falsetto. I'm not sure I can say anything else about this song that hasn't been said.
Key Lyric: Just hear this and then I'll go / you gave me more to live for / more than you'll ever know

Track Sixteen: Even though not my favorite Luna record, this is my favorite Luna song. It's my official soundtrack to summer. This song makes me think of riding down the highway in a convertible on a great day with the top down. I bought this record after being seduced by Penthouse. The hook in this song makes me want to play air guitar. Somehow, I am confident that it's a riff even I could play. I haven't gone to see Luna live in 4 years because I would literally cry if I went to see them and they didn't play this song. In fact, I think this was the last time I saw them, and it wasn't getting any better than that.
Key Lyric: The sky is painted / deep shades of Blue / I hope for happiness / I think of you

Track Seventeen: Can you believe it took us 16 tracks before we got to our first Oasis song? I loved this song from the minute I heard it (Noel needs to get back to the falsetto backing vocals thing like he does here and again on Champagne Supernova), especially after I found out it was about Richard Ashcroft. Again, prevelant string section. I will never get sick of this song. And for all my newer readers, be sure to check out the story behind the time I met Oasis. I used to love it when Noel played this as part of his acoustic sets at their gigs.
Key Lyric: Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say / Chained to all the places that he never wished to stay

Track Eighteen: Jarvis and Co. are another criminally under-rated band, the runts of the Britpop litter. However, I always respected Jarvis for his intelligent lyrics. It really set his band apart from everyone else. This song isn't even my favorite tune from this record, but at times, I get sick of Common People and Disco 2000. However, this little tale about getting naked never wears on me.
Key Lyric: I'd give my whole life to see it / Just you / stood there / only in your underwear

Track Nineteen: Christ, picking one song off of my favorite record is not easy. I still get a new favorite track every time I listen to it (except for Fake Plastic Trees, I'm over that song). Ultimately, it came down to this track or Planet Telex, and the Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others-like fade up intro on this track won out. A beautiful song about a relationship that just isn't working and the promise of an uncertain future, a subject I know alot about and have been dealing with alot lately. The bridge just before the last verse chokes me up every time. Also, at the end, when Thom screams "This is killing me!", you have no doubt that it actually is.
Key Lyric: What are we coming to? / I'm gonna melt down

Track Twenty: This is another band that Ed turned me on to. I listened to this record for weeks on end when I first heard it. As a college senior spending most of my time drunk or just fucked up in general and worrying about my future, it really hit home for me. I get sad every time I listen to this record, because Richard Ashcroft will never write an album like this again. It's a shame. This was the first of the Verve's many proto-country ballads. I'll always remember this song because I was listening to it on repeat as I drove home after graduating college, about to move to NYC 48 hours later, knowing that my life would never be the same again.
Key Lyric: Tell me if it's true / That I need you / You are changing / I've seen this road before down on this floor / It is hurting me

Be sure to tune in next monday for Volume Two, which will address 1996 to the present. If anyone wants a copy of this mix, leave a comment below and I'll drop you a line.