Videodrone #15: Well, Did You Evah!

Videodrone is a weekly feature looking at music videos from the last half century. 

Well, Did You Evah! (1990)

There have always been tribute albums, where various artists pay homage to their favorite influences, but it wasn't until the late '80s/early '90s that tribute albums were also used as fundraisers. One of the early ones was Red Hot + Blue, the first compilation in the Red Hot Organization's Benefit Series, which raised nearly $1 million for AIDS activist group ACT UP.

The album featured contemporary artists covering the work of composer Cole Porter. Released in September 1990, the album was accompanied by an ABC special featuring videos for each of the song. In my alt-rock-centric world, U2's moody electronic cover of "Night and Day" got plenty of radio airplay but there were plenty of other interesting takes on the album.

One notable cover was "Well, Did You Evah!," a whimsical number originally written for the 1939 musical DuBarry Was a Lady and later performed by Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby in the 1956 movie High Society. On Red Hot + Blue, it was performed by Deborah Harry and Iggy Pop. The video was directed by Alex Cox, who helmed '80s punk-influenced movies Repo Man and Sid and Nancy.

The video is a hoot, with Harry and Iggy clearly having a blast as they cavort through various NYC locales, bringing punk attitude to a petting zoo, shopping at a bodega, robbing a bank and hanging out around a garbage can fire. Both were in their early 40s and still fairly young at the time, although both artists still record and tour to this day. They're clearly enjoying each other's company and that attitude comes across on screen.

It was an interesting time for Iggy. He was riding a renewed wave of popularity due to his recently released album Brick by Brick, which featured another duet, this time on "Candy" with Kate Pierson of the B-52's. Normally long-haired and shirtless in videos and performance, Iggy sports shorter hair and suits in this video.

As great as "Well, Did You Evah!" was, it was only released as a single in the U.K., where it reached #42 on the U.K. singles chart. I don't recall ever seeing the video on MTV or hearing it on the radio, but damn, it's a great version.

Stuck In Thee Garage #573: March 28, 2025

The longer things go, the weirder things get. Life in 2025 is so insane it makes 1990 look like a quaint, archaic fever dream. This week on Stuck In Thee Garage, I played songs from 1990 in hour 2, and it was a blast. But don't tell the guy it was funny.

 This playlist is funny how?

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

The Drowns - Take Me Back/View from the Bottom (2025 Jack Endino remaster)

Rough Francis - Summer Sun/Fall EP

The Men - Get My Soul/Buyer Beware

Daniel Kleederman - Compromised Positions/Another Life

Cameron Keiber - Forever 25/Nurser

Bob Mould - When Your Heart is Broken/Here We Go Crazy

Escape-ism - Black Gold/Charge of the Love Brigade

Throwing Muses - You're Clouds/Moonlight Concessions

Hunger Anthem - Patron/Lift

Kinski - Gang of 3/Stumbledown Terrace

Art D'Ecco - The Traveller/Serene Demon

The Murder Capital - The Fall/Blindness

Dax Riggs - Pagan Moon/7 Songs for Spiders

Lambrini Girls - You're Not from Around Here/Who Let the Dogs Out

Charm School - Breaking the Waves/Debt Forever

Split System - The Drain/Vol. 2

S.C.A.B. - The Plaza/Rose Colored Glasses EP

Hour 2: 1990

Public Enemy - Burn Hollywood Burn (feat. Ice Cube and Big Daddy Kane)/Fear of a Black Planet

Sonic Youth - Kool Thing/Goo

Living Colour - Someone Like You/Time's Up

Digital Underground - The Humpty Dance/Sex Packets

Peter Murphy - Cuts You Up/Deep

Sinead O'Connor - I Am Stretched on Your Grave/I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

Pixies - Is She Weird/Bossanova

The Breeders - Hellbound/Pod

Concrete Blonde - The Sky is a Poisonous Garden/Bloodletting

Bob Mould - It's Too Late/Black Sheets of Rain

Fugazi - Turnover/Repeater

World Party - Way Down Now/Goodbye Jumbo

Buffalo Tom - Crawl/Birdbrain

Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Mansion on the Hill/Ragged Glory

Crank up the playlist on your Discman HERE, pal!

Unsung: Pump Up the Volume

Unsung is a feature in which I take a look at a pop culture phenomenon (be it music, TV, literary, whatever) that has been forgotten or underappreciated. In this installment, I look at Pump Up the Volume, the 1990 Christian Slater movie about a pirate radio DJ.

As the 1980s were ending, there was a definite shift happening in the music world and pop culture in general. Alternative or college rock was starting to gain some traction in the mainstream music world, with bands like U2 and R.E.M. emerging as superstars by the decade's end. There was still plenty of lame stuff on the charts, but the fact that a band like Love and Rockets could have the #3 song on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989 was a sign that things were indeed changing.

On the silver screen, John Hughes made a big impression in the '80s for his bittersweet comedies, there was also a glut of dumb teen party movies. But things were changing there as well, with Cameron Crowe's great 1989 dramedy Say Anything being a leading example. Canadian director Allan Moyle, who had made the iconic 1980 new wave comedy Times Square, wrote a script about a teenager who runs his own pirate radio station, based on a high school classmate of his who would distribute anonymous pamphlets with commentaries on life and school issues. The classmate later killed himself; his struggles informed the script, which a producer convinced him to direct.

Originally called Lean On Me, the film was picked up by New Line Cinema, which was notable for making independent movies at the time, including the Nightmare on Elm Street series but also John Waters' controversial films and Alex Cox's Sid & Nancy. While the studio supported Moyle's vision, there were still some moves to make it more mainstream, like changing the title to Pump Up the Volume, the name of a dance song that was a big hit for M/A/R/R/S in 1987.

Moyle initially wanted John Cusack to star as Mark Hunter, the meek high school student who revealed another side of his personality as DJ Hard Harry, but Cusack refused because he was finished playing high school kids. They ended up going with Christian Slater, who was a hot commodity after starring in 1989's Heathers as a fairly twisted character that was sort of a high school version of Jack Nicholson. He was also having some issues offscreen, with two drunk driving arrests in 1988 and 1989, the second of which saw him crash his car into some telephone poles after leading police on a car chase; he spent 10 days in jail. Samantha Mathis played Nora, who becomes obsessed with figuring out the identity of the mysterious DJ.

Set in a suburb of Phoenix, the movie finds Slater playing a shy loner in school during the day who then unleashes his angst at night when he broadcasts a radio show from his parents' basement. He plays punk rock and hip hop, goes on animated rants about corruption and how corporations and adults suck, and adds to the shock factor by pretending to masturbate. Eventually, he builds a following among his classmates, who don't know his identity but are picking up what he's putting down. Harry struggles with the fact that a student who called into his show later killed himself and he encourages his listeners to deal with their problems. As students start circulating bootleg tapes of Harry's show, parents and faculty become convinced it's causing the school's problems and call the police. The movie's third act gets a little ridiculous, with seemingly every student in the school gathering to follow Harry's every word and the FCC sending a small army of vehicles out to trace the show's location.

While pirate radio never became a huge thing in the U.S., eventually podcasts, YouTube and social media became similar ways for people to create their own content and get their thoughts out to a wider audience. The movie was also ahead of its time with its eclectic soundtrack, which featured Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" as the station's theme song but also provided a pre-Lollapalooza vibe with songs from Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, Pixies, Bad Brains and Henry Rollins, Peter Murphy, Above the Law, Cowboy Junkies, Ivan Neville and Concrete Blonde (covering "Everybody Knows"). Included in the film are Beastie Boys, Ice-T, Stan Ridgway, Was (Not Was), Descendents, Richard Hell and Urban Dance Squad. 

The film was a dud at the box office when it was released in August 1990, grossing only $1.6 million on its opening weekend and a total of $11.5 million in North America. Part of the problem may have been its R rating, which kept its target audience from seeing it in the theater. The studio also didn't a good job distributing and marketing the movie.

It garnered a cult following when it was released to home video. Thanks to rights issues primarily to do with the music licensing, Pump Up the Volume's soundtrack isn't available for streaming. The movie is currently not available for streaming, either, although it has popped up on Max from time to time (I watched it a few years ago). It's available on Blu-ray, though. It's also up on YouTube in a series of clips if you want to watch it that way.

Indie movies also began to have more success in the years that followed Pump Up the Volume's release, with auteurs like Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater and Wes Anderson making their mark, among many others.

After Pump Up the Volume, Moyle went on to direct The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag and Empire Records in the '90s, but nothing since. A musical theater adaptation of Pump Up the Volume was supposed to premiere in April 2020, but didn't happen because of the COVID pandemic. Slater had box office success in the '90s, including appearances in True Romance, Interview with the Vampire and Broken Arrow, but since 2000, he has had more work on TV, most notably in Mr. Robot. Mathis similarly became a popular '90s movie actress and continues to work on TV and in movies.

I remember when Pump Up the Volume came out but never saw it in the theater. My interest in it was piqued a few years later when my brother made me a cassette of the soundtrack album. Eventually, I saw it on cable. It's not perfect, but I appreciate the spirit and the effort.

Day After Day #342: The Only One I Know

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

The Only One I Know (1990)

By 1990, MTV was still primarily known for playing music videos. The Real World wouldn't debut for two more years, and after that, reality TV began to gradually take over the network. But in '90, you could still watch videos on MTV pretty much around the clock, although like radio, the station was heavily formatted and played a tight rotation of the same songs repeatedly. 

I was still watching a lot of MTV in 1990, but I was more interested in the specialty shows that would air late at night. Specifically, I would make sure to tune in to 120 Minutes on Sunday nights to see the latest alternative rock videos; often, you could see videos for songs that weren't being played on the radio yet. 

In addition to American bands that I was pretty familiar with, I liked to see what was coming out of the U.K. Bands like Ride, the Stone Roses and the House of Love were doing some interesting stuff, as was a band called the Charlatans. Retro sounds were popular on both sides of the pond; the burgeoning Madchester scene was embracing soul and R&B from the '60s and '70s and when you listen to the Charlatans' breakout single "The Only One I Know," you can definitely hear those influences.

The Charlatans were formed in Birmingham in 1988 by bassist Martin Blunt, who brought in Rob Collins (keyboards), Jon Brookes (drums), Jon Day (guitar) and Baz Ketley (vocals). After Ketley left, he was replaced by Tim Burgess, who had played in a band called the Electric Crayons. Right from the start, the band was heavily influenced by '60s soul and garage music, including the Spencer Davis Group, Stax Records acts and the Doors, as well as more recent bands like the Stranglers and Joy Division.

The band's first single, "Indian Rope," was an indie hit, which led the Charlatans to sign with the Beggars Banquet offshoot Situation Two just before the release of their next single, "The Only One I Know." The song featured a combination of nods to their influences: a few lines taken from the Byrds' song "Everybody's Been Burned," an organ riff from Deep Purple's 1968 cover of "Hush," a guitar part from the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On."

The lyrics themselves were written by Burgess about a teenager wondering why their feelings towards someone else aren't reciprocated.

"The only one I know/Has come to take me away/The only one I know/Is mine when she stitches me/The only one I see/Has found an aching in me/The only one I see/Has turned her tongue into me/Everyone has been burned before/Everybody knows the pain."

The song was released on the band's 1990 debut Some Friendly. It hit #9 on the U.K. Singles Chart and #5 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The album went to #1 in the U.K. and #73 in the U.S.

"The only one I know/Never cries, never opens her eyes/The only one I know/Wide awake and then she's away/The only one I see/Is mine when she walks down our street/The only one I see/Has carved her way into me."

The Charlatans had originally planned to release "Polar Bear" as their second single but were talked out of it by their label and others who recommended "The Only One I Know" instead. The song's sweeping groove was led by the organ, which despite the retro vibe, made it sound very different from pretty much everything else coming out at the time. 

Much like fellow up-and-comers Nirvana and Dinosaur Jr., the Charlatans were challenged by another band from the 1960s with the same name. Nirvana ended up settling out of court with a British band from the '60s called Nirvana. Dinosaur Jr. started out in 1985 as Dinosaur and released two albums before they faced a legal challenge from a band called Dinosaurs that featured former members of the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company; they added the "Jr." to their name, while Dinosaurs split up in the late '80s. And the Charlatans became known as Charlatans UK in the U.S. after a '60s act called the Charlatans laid claim to the name.

Along with the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, the Charlatans became a key part of the Madchester and baggy (aka trippy dance music) scenes in the U.K. in the early '90s. Baker left in 1991 and was replaced by Mark Collins on guitar. Their next album, 1992's Between 10th and 11th, didn't reach the U.K. top 20, but the lead single "Weirdo" was a hit. Later that year, Collins was charged with armed robbery after a friend robbed a store while he waited in a car outside; he claimed he didn't know about the robbery until after it happened and pleaded to a lesser charge, serving four months in prison as a result.

The next two Charlatans albums were successful in the U.K., hitting #8 and #1, respectively. The band was working on its fifth album in 1996 when Collins was killed in a traffic accident. They decided to keep going and added Primal Scream keyboardist Martin Duffy to fill in. The band has continued on, releasing nine albums since 1997 and touring regularly. Brookes died in 2013 at the age of 44 from a brain tumor; Peter Salisbury has served as the band's touring drummer since 2010.

Day After Day #320: Annie's Gone

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Annie's Gone (1990)

Punk rock can take you in some interesting directions. Jeff (lead vocals, guitar) and Steven (bass, vocals) McDonald were punk pioneers as kids, forming the Tourists in 1978 in Hawthorne, California, when Steven was still in middle school. Timing is everything, since their first gig was opening for Black Flag. The early lineup of the band included Greg Hetson, who would later play with Circle Jerks and Bad Religion, and Ron Reyes, who left to join Black Flag.

The group changed its name to Red Cross, releasing a six-song debut EP in 1980 and their first full-length album, Born Innocent, in 1982. The album was full of pop culture references to Linda Blair, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and Lita Ford, and covers of a song from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and a Charles Manson song. After the International Red Cross threatened to sue, the band changed the spelling of their name to Redd Kross. 

Two years later, Redd Kross recorded Teen Babes from Monsanto, a sped-up power pop EP of covers of songs by the Stooges, Kiss, the Rolling Stones and David Bowie. Lead guitarist Robert Hecker joined the band as they went on tour. They released a full-length album called Neurotica in 1987, combining punk with garage and power pop sounds.

By the time the band's third album, Third Eye, came out in 1990, the McDonald brothers were in their mid-20s and were music veterans. Their sound had evolved into pure power pop, very different from the early days of the band. The lead single, "Annie's Gone," is ridiculously catchy.

"I heard the other day/That she went and gone away/She was always sort of out of step/She couldn't ever be/Something that you couldn't see/She was always there right in your face/Annie's gone/Annie's gone/Annie's gone/It's so dark/It's so dark around here now/Can't believe she's gone away/Can't believe she's gone to stay/But it's true/Annie's gone."

The song got some airplay on college and alternative radio, hitting #16 on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart.

"I guess she couldn't play/By the rules she had no say/And she did her in this way today/I know I feel like this sometimes/Feel like giving up my mind/But it's all I have and it is mine/Annie's gone/Annie's gone/Annie's gone/It's so dark/It's so dark around here now/Can't believe she's gone away/Can't believe she's gone to stay/But it's true/Annie's gone."

The video features the band playing with Jack Irons (Red Hot Chili Peppers) on drums and also includes actress Ann Magnuson. 

Also in 1990, the McDonalds appeared in the movie The Spirit of '76, a comedy spoofing '70s culture that was directed by Lucas Reiner (son of Carl, brother of Rob) and starring David Cassidy, Leif Garrett and Olivia d'Abo. Roman Coppola co-wrote the script and Sofia Coppola designed the costumes (she also appears on the Third Eye album cover nude, wearing a mask). The McDonalds played teen stoners in 1976 who help time travelers from 2176 get back to their time. There are a lot of familiar faces in the movie, including Tommy Chong, Carl Reiner and Moon Zappa; it only had a limited release and grossed a total of $52,310 at the box office.

By the time 1993's Phaseshifter came out, Redd Kross' combination of hard rock riffs and bubblegum pop smarts was tailor made for the guitar-crazy grunge era. Videos for "Jimmy's Fantasy" and "Lady in the Front Row" got play on MTV's 120 Minutes. The band had added new members in Eddie Kurdziel, Gere Ferrelly and Brian Retzell and toured heavily for a year; I saw them play a kickass show at the Paradise in Boston on that tour.

Redd Kross didn't release their next album until 1997's Show World, which got good reviews but didn't sell as well as the previous release. The band went on hiatus after the tour; in 1999, Kurdziel died of a drug overdose at the age of 38. Steven McDonald stayed busy, producing and playing on albums by The Format and fun., and playing in the band on the first Tenacious D album. He joined Sparks in 2006 for a tour and album, and later joined the Melvins in 2015.

Redd Kross resurfaced in 2012 on Merge Records with the excellent album Researching the Blues and then released Beyond the Door in 2019. Earlier this year, the band issued another strong album called Redd Kross. It's been a long, strange trip for the McDonald brothers, but they're clearly having a good time doing what they want.

Day After Day #285: Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) (1990)

Concrete Blonde is one of those bands that I always liked but never really dug into. I knew the songs I heard on the radio by them and I always appreciated Johnette Napolitano's vocals, but that was the extent of my Concrete Blonde knowledge. I did see them play a song when I attended a live taping of Late Night with David Letterman in 1992 as well.

The band was formed in Hollywood in 1982 with Napolitano on vocals and bass and James Mankey, former bassist of Sparks, on guitar, later adding drummer Michael Murphy. The band was originally called Dreamers and then Dream 6, but when they signed to I.R.S. Records in 1986, labelmate Michael Stipe suggested the name Concrete Blonde. Harry Rushakoff took over on drums for the first album. They got some attention with "Still in Hollywood" from their self-titled debut and "God is a Bullet" from their second album Free.

It was their third album, 1990's Bloodletting, that was the band's breakout thanks to "Joey," a ballad that hit #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and #19 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was everywhere, so much so that I got sick of hearing it at the time. The band was joined by Paul Thompson of Roxy Music on drums, filling in for Rushakoff, who was in treatment for drug addiction.

But the first song on the album, "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)," really captures the gothic mood of the collection and also makes it a perfect song for Halloween. Between Napolitano's chilling vocals and Mankey's sinister guitar riff, the song evokes the right amount of creep.

"There's a crack in the mirror and a bloodstain on the bed/There's a crack in the mirror and a bloodstain on the bed/Oh, you were a vampire and baby, I'm a walking dead/Oh, you were a vampire and baby, I'm a walking dead."

This leads into a gang vocal chorus: "I got the ways and means to New Orleans/I'm going down by the river where it's warm and green/I'm gonna have a drink and walk around/I got a lot to think about, oh yeah."

The song slinks along as Napolitano figures out her vampire problem.

"They used to dance in the garden/In the middle of the night/Dancin' out in the garden/In the middle of the night/Oh, you were a vampire and I may never see the light/Oh, you were a vampire and I may never see the light."

The album went gold, hitting #49 on the Billboard 200 and #4 in Canada. A 2010 reissue of the album included a French version of the title track, which adds heavier guitar and mixes French and English lyrics.

Concrete Blonde contributed a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" to the Pump Up the Volume soundtrack, and then followed up with 1992's Walking in London and 1993's Mexican Moon, but the albums didn't sell well and the band broke up in '94. Napolitano and Mankey reunited in 1997, teaming up with the band Los Illegals for an album and tour. Concrete Blonde reunited again in 2001 and released two more albums over the following few years.

Day After Day #282: Vapour Trail

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Vapour Trail (1990)

Sometimes you just miss things the first time around. I fully admit to being clueless about the greatness of English shoegaze greats Ride when they first emerged in the early '90s. I heard them on WFNX, but they just didn't click with me the way other bands like R.E.M., U2, Jane's Addiction and others did. 

It wasn't until the early 2000s that I really started paying attention to Ride; I downloaded a cool live bootleg of the band in its prime from an MP3 blog and really enjoyed it. Then in 2012, my good buddy Jay, proprietor of the late great Clicky Clicky Music Blog, wrangled a tribute compilation to Ride's debut album Nowhere in which Boston indie acts each covered a song. It was pretty goddamn great and stoked my interest in Ride even more; you can listen to it here.

Ride was formed in Oxford, England in 1988 by singer-guitarists Andy Bell and Mark Gardener, drummer Laurence "Loz" Colbert and bassist Steve Queralt. Bell cited seeing the Smiths play live as his inspiration for forming the band. The group made a demo tape that caught the ear of Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain, which then led to former JAMC manager Alan McGee taking an interest in Ride. After they opened for the Soup Dragons in 1989, McGee signed Ride to his label, Creation Records.

Ride released three EPs in 1990: Ride, Play and Fall, all of which making it into the top 75 of the U.K. charts. The first two EPs were combined as Smile and released in the U.S. in July 1990, while the four songs on Fall were incorporated into the CD version of the band's debut album, Nowhere, in October 1990. Ride's noisy guitar-driven sound was classified as shoegaze in the British press, although the band didn't like the label. 

The last track on Nowhere (although the CD versions added three songs from the Fall EP at the end), "Vapour Trail" was released as a single in the U.S. in April 1991. Written by Bell, the song featured a shimmering and distinctive guitar riff played on two Rickenbacker 12-string guitars while Colbert's powerful drumming propels the proceedings along. There are only two verses in "Vapour Trail" in the first half of the song; the last half is instrumental, closing with a string section.

"First you look so strong, then you fade away/The sun will blind my eyes, I love you anyway/Thirsty for your smile, I watch you for a while/You are a vapour trail in a deep blue sky/Tremble with a sight, glitter in your eye/You seem to come and go, I never seem to know/And all my time is yours as much as mine/We never have enough time to show our love."

The song is widely considered the band's best. Nowhere went to #11 on the U.K. Albums chart, although its popularity in the U.S. was restricted to college and alternative stations. 

Ride released its second album, Going Blank Again, in February 1992, and had a top 10 hit in the U.K. with "Leave Them All Behind." The followup single didn't fare as well and after a difficult American tour, the band took a break. The band's third album, Carnival of Light, came out in June 1994 but it was not well-received by critics. The recording of Ride's fourth album, Tarantula, found the group pursuing a different sound; Gardener and Bell had begun squabbling and Gardener walked out during mixing sessions for the album. The band announced its breakup right before Tarantula was released in March 1996.

After the breakup, Bell formed a new band called Hurricane No. 1 and released two albums before joining Oasis on bass. Gardener and Colbert formed a band called the Animalhouse that didn't last long before Gardener began a solo career. In the meantime, all four Ride members participated in a 2001 documentary about Sonic Youth and recorded a 30-minute improvised jam that was later released on CD. 

In 2014, Ride announced it was reuniting, playing festivals in Europe and North America. Eventually the band decided to record a new album, releasing Weather Diaries in 2017. The album was strong and Ride supported it with another tour. I saw them on the reunion tour and in 2017. Two more albums have followed, including Interplay this past March.

Better late than never, I say. Nowhere is an amazing album and "Vapour Trail" is an amazing song. (Check out Senor Breitling's tribute comp, Nofuckingwhere, which features a sharp version of the song by Eldridge Rodriguez.)

Day After Day #263: I Don't Know Why I Love You

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

I Don't Know Why I Love You (1990)

Sometimes success is the worst thing that can happen to a band. Take the English alt-rock act The House of Love. They formed in London in 1986, had a few hit singles in the U.K., released their debut and signed to a major label. But by the time they released their second album, the band was already beset with infighting, substance abuse and general disarray. Within a few years, they would split up.

Singer-guitarist Guy Chadwick started the band after seeing the Jesus and Mary Chain in concert. He wanted a band that sounded like the Velvet Underground and soon had recruited drummer Pete Evans, guitarist Terry Bickers, German singer-guitarist Andrea Heukamp and bassist Chris Groothuizen. The band signed to Creation Records, released a debut single and began touring with Felt and Zodiac Mindwarp. Heukamp quit the band at the end of 1987 because she didn't enjoy touring, but she appeared on the cover of a Germany-only compilation of the band's early recordings informally called The German Album.

The band's debut found them having many disagreements with producer Pat Collier, but the lead single "Christine" went to #1 on the U.K. indie chart when it was released in May 1988. The group's drug use and internal problems had begun to increase during this time. After the indie success of the first album in Europe, the group signed with Fontana Records (and Polygram in the U.S.) and began recording a follow-up. The sessions were full of problems, with the band going through four different producers and multiple studios over the course of two years. Bickers was unhappy with the new record deal and was dealing with manic depression, while Chadwick's drug and alcohol use was on the rise. The two eventually stopped talking to each other.

The album, also called The House of Love (they didn't like naming albums, apparently), came out in February 1990. The first single, "Never," was released against the band's wishes but stalled at #41 on the U.K. Singles Chart.

The second single, "I Don't Know Why I Love You," met a similar fate when it was first released in November 1989, despite BBC's Radio 1 naming it Single of the Week. The song was released in the U.S. in 1990 and caught on with alternative radio (I remember hearing it on WFNX and WBCN in the Boston area), hitting #2 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and got Buzz Bin play on MTV.

The chiming guitars of Bickers and Chadwick ring out as the latter's deadpan vocals remind one of the Church or Echo and the Bunnymen.

"I don't know why I love you, your face is a hammer in my head/I remember every word you said, I just don't know why I love you/I don't know why I care, I never even liked your hair/I feel like a seventh heir, but I don't know why I love you/Television turns me on/When the summer's hot and the spirit's long/How can I get close to you/When you got no mercy, no you got no mercy/No you got no."

Bickers' lead guitar work is really outstanding, providing little flourishes here and there but never overwhelming the song.

"I don't know why I love you, your face is a foreign food/I really don't know if I should, I just don't know why I love you/I don't know why I care, I duck and I weave and I fight/I work just to treat you right, God, I don't know why I love you."

By the time U.S. listeners were hearing the song, Bickers was already out of the band after getting fired in the midst of a 60-date U.K. tour in late '89. He was replaced by Simon Walker of My White Bedroom. The House of Love released a compilation album called A Spy in the House of Love in late 1990. But by the time the band released its next album, Babe Rainbow, in 1992, grunge was all-consuming in the U.S. and the Stone Roses were dominating in the U.K. The album failed to chart, despite getting good reviews. The band toured with Ocean Colour Scene and Catherine Wheel, but couldn't get any traction. By the end of '92, two lead guitarists had come and gone.

House of Love's next album was 1993's Audience with the Mind, but it also flopped commercially. Meanwhile, drummer Evans retired, leaving only Chadwick and Groothuizen. The group split later that year.

Chadwick and Bickers reconciled years later and reformed the House of Love in 2003, also bringing back Evans. In 2005, the band released Days Run Away and toured throughout Europe. Another album with that lineup (including bassist Matt Jury) was released in 2013, touring occasionally in the years that followed; they did a short tour in 2018 for the 30th anniversary of their debut album. 

Chadwick announced a completely new band lineup in 2020 with the intention of touring the U.S., although that was delayed a few years because of COVID. A new album was released in 2022. Also that year, original member Andrea Heukamp died at 57. 

Although they never lived up to their expectations, the House of Love left behind some memorable music and have been acknowledged as an influence by shoegaze acts like Ride and Slowdive. And songs like "I Don't Know Why I Love You" certainly capture that moment in time quite well.

Day After Day #252: The Humpty Dance

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

The Humpty Dance (1990)

In 1990, the world was changing. The Cold War was ending, new wars in the Middle East were beginning and some nerds were making progress on something called the World Wide Web. It was also a creative time for hip hop. Public Enemy was reinventing the genre with a crucial vitality, the Beastie Boys and De La Soul were forging new ground with literally hundreds of samples, and there were powerful statements being made by Eric B. and Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest and Ice Cube. Meanwhile, Digital Underground was bringing the fun and inventiveness of Parliament Funkadelic to hip hop.

Formed in 1987 in Oakland by Gregory "Shock G" Jacobs, the group took a decidedly nonserious view of things. The group's debut was 1990's Sex Packets, a concept album about "GSRA" (aka Genetic Suppression Relief Antidotes), a government-designed drug that comes in a condom-shaped packet that provides the user with a satisfying sexual experience. The second single was "The Humpty Dance," which featured Shock G as his alter ego Humpty Hump, rapping about his sexual prowess. Humpty's back story was he was a singer who burned his nose in an accident with a deep fryer, which led him to wear a fake Groucho Marx nose and a raccoon hat. 

"All right, stop whatcha doin' 'cause I'm about to ruin/The image and the style that ya used to/I look funny, but yo, I'm makin' money, see/So yo, world I hope you're ready for me/Now gather round, I'm the new fool in town/And my sound's laid down by the Underground/I drink up all the Henessesey that ya go on ya shelf/So let me just introduce myself/My name is Humpty, pronounced with an Umpty/Yo ladies, oh, how I like to funk thee/And all the rappers in the top 10/Please allow me to bump thee/I'm steppin' tall, y'all and just like Humpty Dumpty/You're gonna fall when the stereos pump me."

Digital Underground leaned on the lascivious influence of George Clinton and P-Funk, not just through samples but in attitude. The song's swirling beat was created through a combination of samples of P-Funk and Sly and the Family Stone, while the vocal sample in the chorus ("Do me baby") was taken from the Parliament song "Let's Play House" (see below).

"I like to rhyme, I like my beats funky/I'm spunky, I like my oatmeal lumpy/I'm sick with dis, straight gangsta mack/But sometimes I get ridiculous/I'll eat up all your crackers and your licorice/Uh, yo fat girl, come here, are ya ticklish?/Yeah I called ya fat, look at me, I'm skinny/It never stopped me from getting busy/I'm a freak, I like the girls with the boom/I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom, I'm crazy/Allow me to amaze thee/They say I'm ugly but it just don't faze me/I'm still gettin' in the girls pants/And I even got my own dance/The Humpty Dance is your chance to do the hump."

The song went to #11 on the Billboard Hot 100, #1 on the Rap Singles chart and #7 on the R&B chart. The video was an immediate hit as well, with the charismatic Humpty Hump delivering the goods (and featuring a young Tupac Shakur as one of the group's hype crew). In an interview with Vibe, Shock G said the song was based on his uncle Tony Red, more for his confident attitude with the ladies than anything else.

Digital Underground released five more albums, the most recent one in 2008, but nothing nearly as prominent as Sex Packets. I picked it up on cassette not long after it came out, inspired by the funk groove. DU had many members come and go, but Shock G and Money-B were on every album. Sadly, Shock G died in 2021 of an accidental drug overdose at age 57. Apparently, the group continues to tour without him, which makes zero sense to me.

Day After Day #227: Groove is in the Heart

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Groove is in the Heart (1990)

I tend to write about a lot of alternative/indie rock, but I've always listened to a wide variety of music. Even when I was in my metalhead years, I could still appreciate a good pop song by Duran Duran or Janet Jackson. In 1990, I was still listening to hard rock, but also starting to broaden my interests by picking up albums by De La Soul, Digital Underground and Public Enemy.

As the '90s began, the '60s nostalgia of the previous few years was morphing into '70s nostalgia, which made the debut of Deee-Lite perfectly timed. The group was formed in 1986 in New York City by Lady Miss Kier (aka Kierin Kirby) on vocals and Supa DJ Dmitry (Dmitry Brill), playing at various New York clubs. The two bonded over a love of techno and funk and would play at hip hop and house clubs, and at gay and straight bars. Deee-Lite attracted very diverse crowds and opened for De La Soul and the Jungle Brothers. 

In 1988, they were joined by DJ Towa Tei, who sent a demo tape and liked the same music as Kier and Dmitry. The began to work on an album, with Kier writing all the lyrics and melodies while Dmitry played guitar, keyboard and bass and Towa found samples. Funk legend Bootsy Collins joined the group during the recording sessions and introduced a lot of old-school funk sounds into the mix. 

For their debut single, "Groove is in the Heart," the group piled on the samples: a bass line from Herbie Hancock's "Bring Down the Birds," drums and whistle from Vernon Burch's "Get Up" and sound effects from Ray Barreto's "Right On." These were the Wild West days of sampling, when anything went. De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising and the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique had just come out, with hundreds of samples on each. Eventually, artists would have to pay to use samples, but in 1990, it was still a free-for-all. 

In addition to all the samples (which included Eva Gabor from the Green Acres theme song), the song also included three former Parliament Funkadelic members: Collins on bass, Maceo Parker on sax and Fred Wesley on trombone. And then they got Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest, which was about to blow up, to provide a kickass rap. There were a lot of moving parts, but they all fit together perfectly. And then there were Kier's confident, trippy vocals.

"The chills that you spill up my back keep me filled/With satisfaction when we're done/Satisfaction of what's to come/I couldn't ask for another/No, I couldn't ask for another/Your groove I do deeply dig/No walls, only the bridge/My supper dish, my succotash wish/I couldn't ask for another/No, I couldn't ask for another/Groove is in the heart/Groove is in the hear/Groove is in the heart/Groove is in the heart."

The video was an immediate hit, bringing that house music vibe that combined funk, disco and hip hop and practically commanded you to hit the dance floor. The look is psychedelic, with Kier and the others dancing against a background that could have fit in on "Laugh In" (look it up). All the dancers in the video were friends of the group from various NYC dance clubs. MTV played it constantly and honestly, I never got sick of it. In addition to Deee-Lite, the video prominently features Bootsy and Q-Tip, who drops 16 bars of hotness in the middle of the song.

"Some looks in this torse/Hot, got a deal, you wanna know/Delightful, truly delightful/Makin' it, doin' it, 'specially at a show/Feelin' kinda high like a Hendrix haze/Music makes motion, moves like a maze/All inside of me, heart especially/Hilt of the rhythm, where I wanna be/Flowin', glowin' with electric eyes/You dip to the dive, baby yo, realize/Baby, you see the funky side of me/Baby, you'll see that rhythm is the key/Get, get wit it, wit it, can't think, quit it, quit it/Stomp on the stoop when I hear a funk loop/Playin' Pied Piper, follow what's true/Baby, just sing about the groove!"

"Groove is in the Heart" was a huge hit at dance clubs, but it also went to #1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart and #4 on the Hot 100 singles chart. The U.K. single was heavily edited, removing Collins and Q-Tip entirely from the song. The group's debut album, World Clique, went gold; follow-up singles included "Power of Love" and "Good Beat," but they didn't come close to the impact of "Groove is in the Heart," which has been included on many lists of the top songs of the '90s. 

The group's follow-up album, 1992's Infinity Within, didn't do as well as the debut, but it had two top 10 dance hits with "Runaway" and "Pussycat Meow." A third album, Dewdrops in the Garden, was released in 1994. Towa, who didn't like touring, left the group. Kier and Dmitry later ended their relationship and the group split up in 1995. Kier is still making music as a singer-songwriter and DJ, while Dmitry is also still active as a DJ. Towa released several albums as a solo artist and was in the Japanese group METAFIVE. Q-Tip went on to become one of the best rappers and hip hop producers of all time, both with A Tribe Called Quest and solo. And Bootsy, of course, remained Bootsy, which is very important.

Day After Day #72: The Emperor's New Clothes

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

The Emperor's New Clothes (1990)

If there's one thing about Sinead O'Connor that is indisputable, it's that she had an amazing voice. When she burst onto the music scene in 1987 with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra, it was that voice and her shaved head that got plenty of attention. She was nominated for a Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Mandinka," and performed on the award show, but she had her first big controversy when she painted Public Enemy's logo on her head to protest that the first Best Rap Performance award was given off-screen. 

As successful as her first album was, O'Connor's second album, 1990's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, really blew up. Rightfully so, all the focus was on her monster cover of Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U," which went to #1 on just about every singles chart in the freakin' world. The video, which is basically a tight shot of her face as she sings the song, was ubiquitous and won three MTV Video Music Awards. 

The album also went to #1 on most album charts and went double platinum in the U.S. It was nominated for four Grammy awards and won Best Alternative Music Performance, but O'Connor refused to accept the nominations or the award.

The second single off the album was "The Emperor's New Clothes," a guitar-driven track in which an empowered O'Connor sings about dealing with being a young mother and the judgment she faced from the public. Even as the lyrics are heavy, she delivers them in an upbeat tone.

"He thinks I just became famous/And that's what messed me up/But he's wrong/How could I possibly know what I want/When I was only 21?/There's millions of people/To offer advice and say how I should be/But they're twisted/And they will never be any influence on me/But you will always be/You will always be."

The song was a radio hit, getting to #1 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart and #3 on the Canadian singles chart, but only hitting #60 on the Billboard Hot 100. Still, it was a strong follow-up to "Nothing Compares 2 U" that showed Sinead could still rock if she wanted to.

"Maybe it sounds mean/But I really don't think so/You asked for the truth and I told you."

Of course, O'Connor's success and high profile led to a series of controversies. She refused to play on Saturday Night Live in 1990 because the host was Andrew Dice Clay, who she said was disrespectful to women. Later that year, she caught flak for saying she wouldn't perform if the U.S. national anthem was played before one of her concerts. But the height of the tempest was when she finally appeared on SNL in 1992 and protested the Catholic Church by ripping up a photo of the Pope. She said later she felt the Church was responsible for child abuse and for some of the abuse she received as a child. O'Connor drew protests from various groups and celebrities, and she was booed at a tribute concert for Bob Dylan a few weeks later. Nine years later, Pope John Paul II publicly acknowledged child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. 

O'Connor's career was up and down after that. She made a lot of guest appearances and continued to release albums, but nothing came close to the early success she had. She went through a lot of personal crises, including multiple short-lived marriages and the death of her 17-year-old son. She passed away last July at the age of 56 of natural causes.

Sinead lived a life of turmoil and turbulence, but none of that diminishes her brilliance.

Day After Day #9: Brothers Gonna Work It Out

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Brothers Gonna Work It Out

I grew up a fan of rock music. Although I listened to a lot of pop and R&B as a kid, it wasn't until I was around 12 and listening to rock radio that I started to really become serious about music, especially guitar-based music. I remember hearing "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang around 1980 and thinking it was cool, but my attention quickly turned to the likes of Zeppelin, Rush and Black Sabbath. In the mid-'80s as the likes of Run DMC and Beastie Boys emerged, I enjoyed them but I held off from buying any of their albums. I watched a lot of MTV and hip hop was getting more and more exposure, but I still resisted. 

By 1990, CDs had become the music format of choice. I still had a ton of vinyl, but it was obvious by the summer of '89 that CDs were taking over. For a lot of people, that meant buying music on CD that they already owned on vinyl or cassette. My dad gave me my first CD player (and a pair of huge-ass speakers) as a present when I graduated from college in May 1989, so I started buying CDs. But I didn't want to repeat myself, so for the most part, I bought CDs of albums I didn't previously own. 

As CDs started to dominate, the prices for pre-recorded cassettes dropped. My thing had always been to buy music on vinyl (and later CD) and then record it on blank cassette for listening in the car or on my Walkman. But when I noticed tapes were cheaper, sometimes I would buy cassettes of artists I wasn't entirely sure about. These were the days when you couldn't just go online and listen to an entire album before you bought it. You maybe heard a song or two and based the purchase on that. In the spring of 1990, Lechmere was a popular department store in Massachusetts. I would go regularly to the Lechmere at the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers and get cheap CDs and sometimes tapes.

Public Enemy had stoked a fair amount of controversy the previous summer with the kickass "Fight the Power" off the soundtrack to Spike Lee's even more controversial film Do the Right Thing. I didn't see the movie in the theaters but rented it on VHS not long after and in addition to enjoying the hell out of it, the movie made me want to check out more PE music. I knew "Don't Believe the Hype" from their previous album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, but that was about it. So I went down to Lechmere and got three tapes for $20: PE's new album Fear of a Black Planet, De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising and Digital Underground's Sex Packets ("The Humpty Dance" was a total banger, of course). All three albums were great, but it was PE that really opened my eyes and ears.

Public Enemy's third album, Fear of a Black Planet was unapologetically Afrocentric and in your face, both lyrically and sonically. The counterpoint of Chuck D, with his booming stentorian raps, and rapper/hype man Flavor Flav, with a much more flamboyant rap style and demeanor, was striking. What really stood out to me was DJ Terminator X and the Bomb Squad (Chuck D, Eric Sadler, and Keith and Hank Shocklee), who produced the album and provided impressive musical backing: turning samples, sound effects and beats into a wall of noise that could rival any rock band. This was before hip hop artists were forced to pay for samples, so there were literally hundreds of them on this album; much like De La Soul and the Beasties, this would have to be settled in court later. 

PE's second single off the album, "911 is a Joke," became an unexpected hit on MTV, criticizing the late emergency response services in black neighborhoods. Flav was the main vocalist on it and was featured in the video as an accident victim waiting for an ambulance crew to arrive. The album is full of bangers: "Welcome to the Terrordome," "Burn Hollywood Burn," "Fight the Power," "Can't Do Nuttin' for Ya Man," the title track, but for me, "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" is the standout. Chuck and Flav trading verses, a killer guitar sample from Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" and Bobby Byrd from James Brown's "Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved," all backed by a monster groove. The song features Chuck and Flav exhorting the African-American community to work together to fight injustice. Just a beast of a song, through and through.

Fear of a Black Planet was PE's peak. Chuck and Flav teamed with Anthrax to redo PE's 1988 song "Bring the Noise" and it became an MTV hit and inspired a lot more rap-rock teamups in the years to come. PE released another strong album the following year, Apocalypse '91...The Enemy Strikes Black, but a few years later, Terminator X broke his leg in a motorcycle accident and eventually left the group. PE have continued making albums throughout the last 25 years, but to me, they haven't touched the earlier material. Although by all accounts, PE still brings it live. Chuck and Flav still have a strong media presence. Chuck toured with the Prophets of Rage, which featured members of Rage Against the Machine as well as B-Real of Cypress Hill, and Flav became a reality TV star on various shows and lately has been popping up everywhere, from Taylor Swift concerts to singing the national anthem at ballgames.

But if you want PE at the peak of their powers, it's Fear of a Black Planet.

Completely Conspicuous 586: Repeater

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite music of 1990. Listen to the episode or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

- Our top 5 albums of '90

- Phil's #5: Jane's Addiction with a sprawling classic

- Jay's #5: Sophomore release from Living Colour explored a lot of different styles

- Phil's #4: Sinead O'Connor blows up with her second album

- Her SNL appearance in '92 caused serious controversy

- Sinead is alive and well

- Jay's #4: Kim Deal goes out on her own with the Breeders

- Phil's #3: Phish comes into their own with second album

- The jammier acts played the Northeast college scene in the late '80s/early '90s

- Jay's #3: Public Enemy blasts through with a strident, political album

- Phil's #2: Sonic Youth streamlines their sound on their major label debut

- Jay's #1: Fugazi continues sticking it to The Man on their first full-length album

- Phil's #1 and Jay's #2: Neil Young and Crazy Horse crank up the amps and embrace feedback

- Phil saw this tour with Sonic Youth and Social Distortion opening

- He might be making the best current music of his peers

- Favorite songs: "Fuckin' Up" (Phil), "Merchandise" (Jay)

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Completely Conspicuous 585: All Shook Down

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite music of 1990. Listen to the episode below or download directly (right click and "save as").

Show notes:

- Recorded in person at CompCon World HQ

- In '90, Jay turned 23 and Phil turned 21

- Phil's short career in foodservice

- Jay was a newspaper reporter in Peabody, Mass.

- Controversies over 2 Live Crew, Milli Vanilli and Madonna

- Lots of scenes happening: Alternative, New Jack Swing, Madchester, Seattle

- The era of the Jock Jam

- Albums that didn't make Phil's top 5: Uncle Tupelo, Allman Brothers, Pretenders, Living Colour, Breeders, Alice in Chains, Mother Love Bone, Pixies, World Party, Happy Mondays, Ride, Mazzy Star, Sundays, Cowboy Junkies, Replacements, INXS, Social Distortion, Bob Mould, Black Crowes

- Questions around the November Rain video (which came out in '91)

- Jay's non-top 5s: Afghan Whigs, Flaming Lips, Midnight Oil, Mark Lanegan, Robert Plant

- To be continued

 

Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review!

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

Stuck In Thee Garage #339: September 18, 2020

Thirty years is a long time in a car. Life was so different in 1990, it's hard to imagine where we've ended up this far down the road. Sometimes it's better just to look back and forget all the horribleness. I played songs from 1990 in hour 2 of Stuck In Thee Garage today.

This playlist will get your ass to Mars:

Hour 1

Artist - Song/Album

Throwing Muses - Frosting/Sun Racket

Bully - What I Wanted/SUGAREGG

Sweeping Promises - Cross Me Out/Hunger for a Way Out

Ian Isiah -  Princess Pouty/AUNTIE

Chicano Batman - Pink Elephant/Invisible People

Run the Jewels - Out of Sight (ft. 2 Chainz)/RTJ4

The Cribs - Run Into You/Night Network

Kestrels - Everything Is New/Dream or Don't Dream

Lo Tom - No Margin of Error/LP2

Emerald Comets - Picking Two Stars/Strangelands

No Joy - Birthmark/Motherhood

Phoebe Bridgers - Chinese Satellite/Punisher

Jehnny Beth - We Will Sin Together/To Live Is to Love

Guided By Voices - Citizen's Blitz/Mirrored Aztec

The Dears - No Place on Earth/Lovers Rock

No Age - Feeler/Goons Be Gone

Joyce Manor - Leather Jacket/Songs From Northern Torrance

 

Hour 2: 1990

Bell Biv Devoe - Poison/Poison

Digital Underground - The Humpty Dance/Sex Packets

Public Enemy - Brothers Gonna Work It Out/Fear of a Black Planet

Living Colour - Pride/Time's Up

Jane's Addiction - No One's Leaving/Ritual De Lo Habitual

Fugazi - Sieve-Fisted Find/Repeater

Sonic Youth - Disappearer/Goo

Pixies - Dig For Fire/Bossanova

The Breeders - Iris/Pod

The Pursuit of Happiness - My Neighbourhood/Brave New Waves

Ride - Taste/Nowhere

World Party - Is It Too Late?/Goodbye Jumbo

The Replacements - When It Began/All Shook Down

Buffalo Tom - Caress/Birdbrain

Mark Lanegan - Where Did You Sleep Last Night/The Winding Sheet