For five years I lived in central New York -- Ithaca, to be exact -- which inaugurated a new phase in my musical listening education: the wonders of American college radio. WICB, beamed out of Ithaca College on the other hill (I was at Cornell), was something of a lifeline. (At Cornell I swear everyone played Spin Doctors' "Two Princes" 24-7; I think the band actually played at a frat house on campus once a semester.) WICB was chiefly responsible for saving me from lite jazz and afflicting me with a lifelong love for Guided by Voices, Yo La Tengo, Pavement, Superchunk -- much of early Matador, actually, surely one of the greatest record-label runs of the last two decades. (The other musical path came via the Nonesuch compilation Late in the 20th Century, but that's another story.)
Spin Doctors aside, though, the concert scene wasn't really terrible, considering that Ithaca was almost five hours northwest of NYC and therefore awfully out of the way. I did get to see Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, and Murray Perahia the same year (Cornell could attract more of the classical music superstars); jazz musicians like Branford Marsalis, Chick Corea, and Joe Henderson also came through.
Pop music was another matter, however: Matthew Sweet and 10,000 Maniacs were great, but the other bands (Squeeze, Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians, The Black Crowes, Spyro Gyra, Aztec Camera) I watched because I had nothing better to do. I think Ithaca College got the more interesting lineups, including the most bizarre touring combo -- Blue Oyster Cult / Violent Femmes / Fishbone -- I've ever watched in my life. I don't think I've ever seen so many bikers and scrawny Long Island indie kids in the same room ever.
For every Liz Phair or Dinosaur Jr or Bettie Serveert or Nirvana, however, there were bands like Nuclear Valdez, Too Much Joy, Young Fresh Fellows, Mary's Danish, Single Gun Theory, Bim Skala Bim, and Urban Dance Squad, all of which produced some killer songs on college radio (and possibly a video or two) but then sank with nary a trace.
This month's playlist is taken from those five years in Ithaca (actually, just 1990-1993) -- all from bands whose albums you can probably find in your local CD store's clearance bins, or for less than a buck on Amazon.com, if at all. Which is a shame, because these are fantastic songs that should have been massive hits. I don't really know what else happened to these bands; they have a fan here in San Francisco by way of Ithaca, though.
In chronological order:
1. The Cavedogs, "Tayter Country." From the 1990 album Joyrides for Shut-Ins.
2. Gear Daddies, "Stupid Boy." In another world this would have successfully rode the big No Depression wave, but apparently not. From the 1990 album Billy's Live Bait.
3. Animal Logic, "I Won't Be Sleeping Anymore." This had the most impressive pedigree: Stewart Copeland, Stanley Clarke and Deborah Holland. From the 1991 album II.
4. Dots Will Echo, "Sandra." Produced by Will Ackerman, of all people, and released on a subsidiary of Windham Hill. From their eponymous 1991 album.
5. Sun-60, "Middle of My Life." Catchy pop number. From their eponymous 1991 album.
6. Trip Shakespeare, "Bachelorette." Semisonic rose from the ashes of this band; call it commercial vindication. From the 1991 album Lulu.
7. Waterlillies, "Sunshine Like You." Kind of like a cross between Lush and Cocteau Twins. From the 1991 album Envoluptuousity.
8. Downy Mildew, "An Oncoming Train." Those guitars are most reminiscent of 10,000 Maniacs, but the lead singer's voice is something else. From the 1992 album An Oncoming Train.
9. Rise Robots Rise, "All Sewn Up." I can only imagine that the A&R folks simply didn't know how to market this band -- dark psychedelic R&Bish triphop that sounded like nothing else back then. From their 1992 eponymous album.
10. The Story, "So Much Mine." That's Jonatha Brooke singing there. From the 1993 album The Angel in the House.
And once again, folks: please don't leave the radio playing if you're away from your desk -- it sucks up bandwidth and I would have to take the songs off before the end of the month!
Posted by the wily filipino at November 1, 2006 12:07 AMaw... what a throwback. i wish i had a cassette deck still so that i can listen to "There goes the Wondertruck." I really thought Mary's Danish kicked ass. Brings me back to Transvision Vamp too... What about the Lightening Seeds? or the Mighty Mighty Lemondrops?
Posted by: special k on November 1, 2006 12:06 PMI haven't thought about those bands in years!
My favorite Lightning Seeds song was "All I Want" -- though Susanna Hoffs, of all people, has a cover that's probably better than the original. (Not to be confused with Toad The Wet Sprocket's "All I Want.")
(Speaking of which, the Gin Blossoms are playing the Independent this weekend. "Together we can drive around this town / And let the cops chase us around.")
Posted by: the wily filipino on November 1, 2006 02:10 PM"In Tayter Valley where the Tayter people sing,
They're singing for their Tayter king..."
Thanks for reminding me of the Cavedogs.
Posted by: david on November 2, 2006 05:59 PMDude, speaking of 1993. I saw Justin Chin perform many of times during his intitial performance art dabblings, blood and semen drinking and other insanity. Are you teaching him? I did a little.
Posted by: brown on November 7, 2006 10:10 AMI'm probably assigning one of the stories in "Burden of Ashes" -- "The Beginning of My Worthlessness," I think it's called. The collection's intermittently interesting (god I hope he's not reading this).
On tap next semester: Barb's second book, Gene Yang's "American Born Chinese," Aimee Phan's "We Should Never Meet," and Kip Fulbeck's "Paper Bullets."
Try teaching bits of "Bite Hard," his first collection, esp. "Chinese Restaurant." He has a good piece on his anal surgery about Gnomes in his azz. I was such a J.C. groupie and he inlfuenced my intial dabling in noise and poetry...yuck. Poetry is like Morrissey quip on reggae, "vile."
---
BTW my early 90s years...pretty much black dude. Pharcyde anyone?
Yo mama's got a glass eye with a fish in it!
I guess I was a mix of whatever my brother was listening to and music I was discovering on my own. This includes Sa-fire... wait.. was that late 80's? With Stevie B. and Debbie Deb and Timmy T? And then there was all of Pirate Radio in LA! That was my intro course to Def Leppard, Scorpions, Guns N' Roses, Whitesnake, etc.
I do remember listening to a lot of Tribe back then and of course De La... and "ruffneck"!! Ah!! I love MC Lyte! I guess I was all over the place!
Posted by: special k on November 8, 2006 07:58 PMMe it was the Cyde, Beasties, Funkdoobiest, Cypress Hill, Dub, Drum and Bass, House, Rave, Jungle, some industrial stuff. Went to so many shows its a blur. Then the UK invasion stuff, britpop and otherwise. NO Gin Blossoms for me, that's just a bad as Counting Crows!
Posted by: brown on November 8, 2006 11:16 PMOh no no no -- I wouldn't have gone to see the Gin Blossoms, no sir. (Though "Hey Jealousy" isn't a bad single.) But the Counting Crows are in a special circle of badness all their own; they'll be triple-billing concerts in hell with Third Eye Blind and Maroon 5, I bet.
College radio in Ithaca was pretty indie-white, so I had zero exposure to hiphop. And then I arrive in Daly City and am plunged right into it -- cause, y'know, hiphop is the sound of the Filipino community.
No offense! I realize your sitch. The indie element in Lansing is the reason I left the radio station out here. Nothing but emo songs and me playing (having to!) "White and Nerdy" and Ani DiFranco.
I remember many of stoned nights at UC Berkeley parties (the best drugs) dancing to Dre's "The Chronic"...by no means, like Swing, was I a hip hop head...that was when I went to State in 94...but really I was more a Acid Jazz(!!!???) and yuck (i hate the term) a "trip hop" Tricky and Massive Attack fan.
It's all about Jamiroquai pal.
Posted by: brown on November 9, 2006 01:37 PM