The Philadelphia Phillies are having a “turn back the clock” 1990s nostalgia night tonight, specifically turning the clock back to 1991, the last year the Phils wore the burgandy pinstripe uniforms that graced their excellent late-’70s/early-’80s team. The team was in the middle of one of the franchise’s typical decade-long runs of sub-mediocrity. The legendary Sil Campusano was touted as a potential “answer” to the void in centerfield. By 1991, fans couldn’t wait to see Campusano and the burgandy pinstripes go.
As part of tonight’s ’90s Nostalgia Night the Campusano-esque Space Hog will perform, probably playing its one minor hit, the one with the Penguin Cafe Orchestra lift, at least 2 times, maybe even 3. I used to wonder if Penguin Cafe Orchestra got a cut of that song’s royalties.
What are your especially nerdy musical associations with the early 1990s?
Short of appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone in a pee-soaked diaper is there anything traditionally less cool Rick Ross could have worn for his big cover shot?
I don’t know jack about Rick Ross. I suspect he makes music that I would chuckle over in a way that shows my complete lack of respect for the cacophonous, impotent complaining that I hear in most modern-day hip-hop music. I would then briefly feel a little guilty for holding such a dismissive opinion of an entire genre of music, including the fine people who dig that stuff.
Presently I feel a little guilty about looking at this photo of a fat, tattooed, bejewled man with his bunched-up briefs rising way too high above his droopy jeans and feeling remorseful that people no longer get shoved face first in toilet bowls for looking this way. He’s probably wearing “bo-bo” sneaks, maybe the 4-stripe adidas knockoffs his Mom picked out of a bin at the grocery store for $3. It’s a disgrace. It’s not cool. It’s not even “I’m so uncool I’m cool!” cool. It’s stupid.
I need to drop about 30 pounds. I need to make sure my belt is doing its job. I need to maintain a modicum of cool as I judge others, as I long for the day that musicians get back to raising the bar for cool fashions and behaviors.
British rocker Graham Parker has reunited with his original band, the Rumour, for their first album together in more than 30 years, Three Chords Good,outNovember 20th on Primary Wave Records.
The Rolling Stone piece contains a track from their upcoming album, which delivers the chunky guitar crunch many of us grew up loving. An update on the documentary on the band that Rumour guitarist and Friend of the Hall Martin Belmont first discussed with us as well as Parker’s upcoming appearance in an upcoming Judd Apatow movie are also covered. I’m psyched.
While Rolling Stone fails to credit the Hall for its small but not insignificant role in the reunion, we can allow ourselves a pat on the back.
My parents had a family picnic this past Saturday. Early on, my sister, my wife, and I drove to the local ACME to pick up some last-minute party things. My sister had Pet Sounds playing in her car, and she asked me if it was possible that the Beach Boys might be better than the Beatles.
I hedged my bets. I acknowledged that the Beach Boys’ rich five-part harmonies can sound richer and more dazzling than the Fabs’ mere three-vocal frontline. But, I said, no one in the Beach Boys could sing loud, nasty rock ‘n’ roll like John Lennon.
My sister is four years younger than me, in her early 30s. I pointed out that the Beach Boys have so many albums, many of them with a lot of crap, but also a lot of great songs that people of our generation didn’t always get to here at first—like “Let Him Run Wild,” “Darlin'” and “Surf’s Up.” All we knew of the Beach Boys growing up consisted of their many ’60s hits on oldies radio, and of course Mr. Mod’s beloved “Kokomo.” On the other hand, the Beatles have fewer albums and, growing up, there was always a Beatles Sunday Brunch or somesuch weekly show on oldies, classic-rock or AOR radio stations. So once you get into the Beatles—as I did in fourth grade—it’s surprisingly easy to get familiar with the entire canon. This breeds familiarity which eventually can breed you-know-what, or at least make it difficult to hear those songs with new ears after x amount of years.
Now, I can think of at least one Townsperson who definitely prefers the Beach Boys. But, just as we once contemplated the ways the Kinks might be preferable in some ways to the Beatles, can we all think of ways that the Beach Boys might be better? Are, in fact, some of the preferable ways related to the weird lurking corners of the post-“Do it Again” era?
Incidentally, it’s no contest as far as my wife is concerned. She like the Beatles better, and thinks they were much more influential and significant. For example, she points out that the Beach Boys didn’t inspire male teenagers all over the world to stop cutting their hair.
Also, isn’t it funny that the battle is always “Beatles vs Stones,” rather than “Beatles vs not-Stones”? Some media narratives die extra-hard, I guess.
Andy Partridge himself brought this video to my attention today, via his Twitter account. (Yes, I agree; it’s a little confusing that the former frontman of XTC uses a Twitter account called “xtcfans.”) I actually remember watching this as a RealPlayer file when it came out around 1999. Anyway, it’s one of the more unique entries of the Apple Venus media blitz. See if you can detect any evidence of the looming Partridge and Moudling split. Enjoy!
Friend of the Hall Martin Newell posted the following call from help on his message board, the Karma Scene, on the off chance that someone may have this item. Townspeople, can you help a brother out?
Hello music lovers,
I need to borrow a good cassette copy of In The Golden Autumn. (August 1983) This is because I need to digitise it to Wav Files for a forthcoming re-release. The actual master tape went missing about twenty years ago..and all I have are MP3s and CDs made from MP3s. But I know there are some reasonable first generation cassette copies out there. ………
Finally: How d’you know that it’s a first gen copy. It will be in a hand coloured thin paper cover, with the little girl depicted in a cornfield.
It’s probably on a plain black cassette with no on-body printing. There may be either FRAU 006 or a simply, 006 written in white chinograph pencil on one side of the tape.# If I find one in the meantime, I’ll post straight up and call off the search.
