No, this blog is not dead; I'm just swamped with work and other things besides as some of you probably know. In the last year or so -- and here's a confession of a kind of blog incivility -- I've only been able to keep up regularly with three or four blogs (you know who you are, blogger party people), but in the last few months I haven't even been able to read them either!
I've been to a couple of great shows recently (in particular, John Zorn and Ikue Mori at the Jazzschool), but haven't found the time to write about it.
1. The Poeta, whose second book of poems will be tackled by my Asian American Culture classes in the spring, has new poems posted online, at melancholia's tremulous dreadlocks and at ActionYes.
2. Gura's book out in December.
3. Special K and 40 post their Geary Street Project photos.
4. Plus some good news for once: I'm in good company.
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!