Well, thanks for visiting here--I would imagine you've given up on me by now. I really am in the homestretch and that's probably why I'm slowing down. I'm one of those people who finds it easier to start projects than finish them. Also, I haven't been around the house as much.
A few days ago, I listened to these CDs:
Faith No More : Album of the Year
Just an inch between striking out and striking rich/If that's the risk, why not take it, take it, take it
This is the last FNM album in my collection. Fittingly, also the last new album they released (later, post break-up, came the "best-of" compilation Who Cares a Lot?). I think they chose wisely to break up after this. It's a great legacy to leave the world--this terriffic, mature album with some truly sublime moments. Though most rabid fans would choose Angel Dust as the best FNM album, this one is definitely my favorite.
Opium Taylor : boy-white city
Little things won't make me stable/I'd rather die than live so fatal/I'm gonna kill one or two of you someday/we'll rise like heat and float away
I always felt that Opium Taylor was more successful onstage than on record. I followed them from gig to gig in Lincoln with puppy-dog-like loyalty. I must have been the only groupie in the world who never slept with any of the band members (not for lack of interest on my part, but that's ancient history). Now the principals of OT have formed the holy ghost and Liars, both better than OT ever was. Good for them.
Sideshow : lip read confusion
Sorry, I can't understand a goddam word Bernie sings
This is as close to a legendary, old-school band as Nebraska will ever get. I remember seeing an early version, the legendary-in-their-own-right Peer Puppet, playing a lunchtime concert at my high school around 1985. From that moment, punk rock was a real, tangible, exciting thing to me. Even at that young age (he went to my high school), Paul Tisdale was unquestionably The Drum God, with no comparison, anywhere. Having lost a member somewhere down the line, Peer Puppet became Sideshow, which became even more brilliant as the years went by. They founded what was often humorously referred to as "Dinge Rock." When "Grunge" came out in the early nineties as the "new" thing, Lincolnites protested that bands like Sideshow and Mercy Rule had been playing that sound in small clubs for several years already. Indeed, one Lincoln band member told me that Nirvana ripped off one of their basslines for "Polly," after that band had played with a pre-Nevermind Nirvana at a small club in Lincoln. Sideshow finally broke up in the late nineties after more than ten years together. Now, freakishly enough, the Nebraska music scene is garnering some national attention, and Sideshow is mentioned again and again as a major influence. At least they are remembered.
Pearl Jam : Ten
I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star/In somebody else's sky, but why/Why, why can't it be, why can't it be mine
This reminds me of Lollapalloza 1992, which I saw twice. Looking back, the lineup seems rather incredible: Lush, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Ministry, Ice Cube, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. At the beginning of the tour, when I saw it in Denver, Pearl Jam hadn't yet really emerged as the giant they would later become. Ministry represented the old guard, supporting their last good album, Psalm 69. Ice Cube wasn't yet a movie star, and Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger had unknowingly paved the way for "grunge" to become an international phenomenon. And let's remember that at that time, the Red Hot Chili Peppers weren't yet completely a joke, having just released their best album, Bloodsugarsexmagick. They still attracted way too many frat boys for my taste. By the end of the tour, when I saw it in Minneapolis, "The Seattle Sound" had completely exploded, making Pearl Jam one of the hottest bands on the planet, and Singles hadn't even come out yet. Anyway, this is a good album.
Jane's Addiction : Ritual de lo Habitual
I am skin and bones, I am pointy nose; but it motherfuckin' makes me try.
Unlike a lot of folks of my generation, I don't have particularly strong feelings for JA. I like "Jane Says" a lot, and I do have two of their albums. But, I dunno, Perry is a skinny freak who takes himself too seriously and Dave Navarro is a misogynist fuckhead. That said, the first couple of Lollapaloozas were cool, so I thank Perry for that. And Dave is a mean guitar player, who at least seems to have a decent sense of humor. Jane's deserves it's place as an important part of rock history, I just don't feel any need to worship them.
