90s fantastic

as you may have noticed, i've started a new blog next to this one. it's called 90s geeks - surviving in the future, and it's a music and culture blog. sergio jumped on the train and is also contributing material, which is awesome. please check it out. and if you feel you've got something to contribute, let me know and i'll let you get on board. thanks!

the record collection mixtapes pt 3

when i started this project back in march i knew it would be a somewhat neglected project, cos let's face it, i'm a bad blogger. i'm the kind of blogger that would never ever have any readers had it not been for rss feeds. i'm lazy, yes, but more than that i'm always having a hard time getting things out of my brain and onto paper, or onto screen as it is. i'm just not very prolific. i do have my moments, but mostly, i just can't seem to get much out of me.

that, and the fact that i don't really have the time.

so, 9 months after the last post in this series, here's the next. it's time for an album by one of my favorite bands, alice in chains. there's 5 of them in my collection and at first i thought i'd write a 5 times alice in chains post, but then 9 months went passed so that was probably a bad idea. thinking small here.



the album is facelift from 1990 and it's a good one over-all. not my favorite alice in chains album, but still one i've listened to a bit. the things i really love about the band isn't quite there yet on this album. the darker feel and the slightly heavier and slower sound that came with later productions. it's there a little, you can hear it on the song "confusion" and it's lurking behind a few of the other songs. what the album does have is layne staley and his fantastic voice and intensity. and lyrics. (and drug abuse, but that's another story.)

although alice in chains really is more of a heavy metal band than a grunge band - just listen to the intro guitar to "we die young", the opening track on this album, or to the fact that they have a lot of guitar solos - they're often bundled together with nirvana, soundgarden, pearl jam and the likes, which i guess has more to do with the fact that they were playing in seattle in the same time-period than their sound. not that i mind, i'm a big fan of grunge music, i just think it's a bit misleading.

"we die young" is, as mentioned, quite heavy metaly, as is "put you down" and "real thing". "man in the box" was the hit single of the album which i'm not sure as to why, i don't think it's their strongest. "bleed the freak" and "i can't remember" are much stronger and better songs. "i know something (about you)" is flirting with funk with a quite catchy result.

as for picking a track on this album. i'm torn. i want to pick "confusion" cos it sounds like the alice in chains i love and it's such a cheery little song;

i want to set you free, recognize my disease
love, sex, pain, confusion, suffering
you're there crying, i feel not a thing
drilling my way deeper in you head
sinking, draining, drowning, bleeding, dead

i also want to pick "it ain't like that" for the same reasons. at the same time, there's so much more to come of that alice in chains that it feels unfair not to pick a song more representative of facelife. so i'm picking "love, hate, love", a dark suggestive song riddled with dysfunction, so often a theme in layne staley's lyrics.

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cross-posted on 90s geeks - surviving in the future.

nobody's daughter

i just wrote a post over at pretending to be japanese about the new album hole is releasing soon. i know!

hole!

crazy. so go here and read it.

girl power soundtrack

i have no idea if this is gonna work, but i put together a little playlist on spotify for you, that goes together with my previous post. (you have to have a spotify account to listen to it.) click the image. here goes nothing.



spotify's selection isn't the greatest so this playlist lacks essential songs, but short of burning you a mixed cd, it's the best i can do. enjoy!

girl power

reading the krs mail order freaks* blog i stumbled upon this book i really want to read, "girl power - the nineties revolution in music" by marisa meltzer [amazon here, adlibris here]. the aforementioned blog linked to a review of said book by a very young american fashion blogger (who, after doing a little digging i found out, seems to have made a little stir in the fashion world by, i guess, being young, which seemed fun. or maybe not. i mean, why do fashion people care so much? but that's a whole different story and doesn't really have anything to do with this book or it being reviewed. i digress.). this review made me so happy! how wonderful to be a 13-year-old girl and discover so much great music and so many awesome women at the same time! she writes

For me, personally? The book was seriously eye-opening. Despite my having not listened to a vast majority of the music mentioned in the book, I was frowny-sad-face upon reading about how Riot Grrrl faded.. /../ Never before had I felt that feminism was something I could be so much a part of. It sounds like I'm talking about being part of the Riot Grrrl movement itself, but really, just the history of it, and the fact that it even existed, makes me very excited, and proud, to be a girl, and to be who I am.

that last part makes me so happy, i cannot tell you. cos it's a fucking harsh reality now for girls growing up. despite progress and enlightenment in various arenas, such as equality, since i grew up, there's still so much ugliness and, i think, more ugliness than before because of the misuse of technology and the shallowness of all things. very few of my peers growing up even had the words plastic surgery in their vocabulary. so there you go. moving on.

i, of course, want to read this book purely out of nostalgic reasons. well, almost purely. i also want to read it and go "i knew that. i knew that. i had that t-shirt, i bought that cd in '95" and so on. to boost my ego a bit, but mostly to be nostalgic. i still do discover things here and there about my beloved decade of the past, this is true, but when it comes to women musicians in the indie rock scene of the 1990s, most of them are in my brain already. and, considering what tobi vail** herself said about this book in her review, i doubt there will be much to discover. i choose to stay somewhat shallow here - my and my geekiness - even though tobi makes great points in her review about the writing of history/herstory and how awkward it is to her because she was in the middle of it and also how it can become so focused on the consumer part and not on the activist part. just go read it yourself!

the krs blog also linked to flavorwire where author marisa meltzer, because of the release of her book, had been asked to list 10 essential female artists of the 90s, and i must say, i'm really pleased at what she listed. veruca salt, that dog., juliana hatfield [yeah!], elastica, breeders, hole, liz phair [hell yeah!], sleater-kinney, kim gordon and bikini kill. all excellent choices in my book. there was some nagging in the comments about why L7 wasn't on it, and why liz phair was, and where the hell is p.j. harvey and tori amos, OMG WHERE IS TORI AMOS, and so on. i'm sorry, but chill out! this is one person's opinion and clearly other people will think differently. there is no such thing as the truth.

that being said, i must defend her addition of veruca salt and liz phair. it's suggested that if liz phair is in it then jewel or tracy bonham might as well be in it. clearly this person hasn't paid much attention to liz's early work. actually i'm going to quote our friend the fashion blogger here, cos even she gets it;

At the same time, reading about Liz Phair's lyrics and behavior also surprised me, as the songs I hear now that are so blatantly and graphicly about sex are sung by men, and women have to keep quiet

liz's exile in guyville is essential listening if there ever was such a thing! [read this.] as for veruca salt, in hindsight they've proven not very influential and sort of strangely became viewed as a one- or two-hit-wonder depending on who you're asking ["seether" and/or "vulcano girls"]. for me, listening to them early on, they just struck me from the beginning as being really great, and i'm sure many others agree. i'd hate to sound important, but everybody that was into indie rock at the time knew the words to "seether". when hole hosted 120 minutes in '95 they played veruca salt's "number one blind" and i fell in love right there, recording it onto tape from the speakers on the tv (hey, that's how we did it in the 90s!) and then buying their debut and loving it. i still listen to veruca salt. besides, marisa herself defends her addition by saying

Is it okay to love a band just for one song? I think when you make a song as perfect for karaoke as “Seether,” it totally is.

so, i ordered the book and if you're lucky i'll tell you what i think after i've read it.

wow. this post got so much longer than i thought it would.

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EDIT: oh, yeah, i forgot. i loved what marisa said about liz phair on the list;

She sang, “Every time I see your face/ I get all wet between my legs,” and all the girls were like, “FINALLY!”

that settles it.

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* krs = kill rock stars, awesome record label that's been around since the early 90's that carries a lot of great indie and favors feminist and queer artists. has released a lot of riot grrl stuff.

** tobi vail is an awesome woman, musician, feminist and activist who's been in deep with the riot grrl movement and all that great stuff that happened in and around olympia in the late 80s that became so influential for the 90s indie rock. she was in the go team and in bikini kill. read more about her here and here.

over it

great new video and song from dinosaur jr from their new soon to be released album farm. it seems to have leaked, but i haven't heard it yet. though according to madeleine, it's excellent.

seeing this video made me realize i'm not at all freaking out about growing old anymore. isn't that something :)

breeders love

this is one of my favorite songs with the breeders, and also a great video.



also, we had snow today! the world sure looks prettier with snow. and check out pretendingtobejapanese.com i write there too now and then.

phair love

i love liz phair. this video is sooo 90s it's crazy.

some more cranes songs

here's some proper videos by cranes. alison shaw has such a beautiful voice, and i love how the sound is so dreamy. cranes is the perfect band to listen to when it's dark and you hide under your covers and you can't sleep.



"beautiful friend" from loved (1994). here's also another great song from that album, "shining road".



"tomorrow's tears" from wings of joy (1991). also from that album is "adoration", yet a beautiful song, found here.



"inescapable" that was a bonus track/ep released during the wings of joy era.



"jewel" from forever (1993), although the video/single version of the song sounds a bit different than it does on the record. according to allmusic it's because robert smith remixed it. not surprising considering the cure brought cranes as their opening act on their '92 world tour.



"everywhere", also from forever.

cranes still releases albums, the last of which is self-titled and came out in october of this year. but i haven't heard it yet. i'm mostly in love with the music they made in the 90s and there's a huge nostalgia button that gets pushed in me whenever i hear their songs. a lot of their greatest songs can be found on their 2-cd ep collection, vols 1-2, so pick it up.

listening to margot

indiana-based margot and the nuclear so and so's album not animal is quite a cute affair. i found it on radiobutt (here, to download) where it's compared with neutral milk hotel, the decemberists, arcade fire and broken social scene, and i don't know. the 3 latter i don't listen too much to so i'm sure that's in order, but i wouldn't say they're too much alike neutral milk hotel. neutral milk hotel are way more noicy than these guys. margot is softer and sweeter. i even hear a bit of coldplay here and there in them. the album doesn't make me go WOW, but it's good.

something that made me go WOW, though, was neutral milk hotel's 1998 masterpiece in the aeroplane over the sea. it's definitely on my top ten favorite albums list (a list i haven't compiled in its entirety yet)! it's great in so many layers, it just has to be listened to repeatedly to fully be understood.

here's one of my favorite songs from it, called holland, 1945. the video is someone else's - there doesn't seem to be any videos made by the band - though it's strong and does get the message across.





EDIT: here's someone who's put his love for in the aeroplane over the sea in words more eloquently than me.

helium

how come no one, until now, bothered telling me about the band helium?

judging from what little i've found to listen to it has most of what i love about 90s music; the shoegazing aspect, feedback noice, lovely vocals. (oh, and it says on wikipedia that juliana hatfield's brother jason was in an early line-up of the band, before they changed their name to helium. cool, right?)

they released two albums and a few eps on matador before they split up in 1998, but singer mary timony continued to make music solo and in other constellations. this is one road i'm going to explore.

have a listen:

helium - xxx (1994)



helium - superball (1995)



helium - pat's trick (1995)



helium - honeycomb (1995)



helium - leon's space song (1997)

when i grow up

i hope you've seen i put a save bitch banner up to the left, but in case you use a feeder and never actually see my pretty little display of fun info and links, here's one more, just for you! (it almost fits too!)



i read bitch magazine as often as i can get my hands on it, which is not always cos they don't sell it in too many places here (pressbyrån centralen!) and i'm not as organized as i may seem (ahem), but i do love it. so i support it! cos the thing is, they have problems with funding and we all know what it's like in the world of publication; small, narrow magazines get put out of business while big, "broad" magazines thrive. this is why all magazines are the same.

don't tell me you haven't noticed.

so i'm putting my 5 cents in. buy the magazine, or give them a few bucks, ok? thanks!

now.

for something equally important. you know what i got in the mail today? this!



juliana hatfield's brand new memoir! it's called when i grow up and it's pretty! here, see for your self! [här på adlibris.se] now, i'm off to read it. see you when i'm done! (look! it's in the ny times.)

a.m. notes

i baked. a tried a new recipe. hybrid rye and wheat buns. they turned out great, and delicious! especially with cheese and marmalade. so i had my midnight snack and was supposed to go to bed after that, but, well. here we are.

read about the bechdel rule today, on bitch ph.d. it goes like this;

The rule is that movies should have 1) at least two women, 2) who talk to each other, 3) about something other than a man.

sounds like a good useful instrument to make gender stereotyping and the practice to marginalize women clearer. cos you think, hey, of course a lot of movies will pass this rule. yeah, well, try it and you'll see. really, it's ridiculous. we're in the 21st century and it's not a given that two women in a movie actually talk to each other about something other than men.

i did see one film that passes the rule this weekend, the hours. i don't know why i haven't seen it before, i've even had the dvd sitting on my shelf for at least six months, but no. however, it was awesome! i loved it. beautiful, depressing - i mean in a good way, actually taking depression and being suicidal seriously - great characters. i haven't read enough of virginia woolf, i should really do that. also, nicole kidman's acting is awesome, i mean the acting over all in this film is great, but nicole's is just mind-blowing. she's SO good.

i got a package of ordered cds today, from the swedish a west side fabrication label. a great indie label! last week when i got into a nostalgic mood after buying and listening to this compilation from the label, i realized i was in love with backfish and so i ordered what the label had by them. good idea, cos all of it was really good! and i also have a crush on the label's mail-order now cos besides being quick and not expensive they sent me 5 singles extra, for free! all 5 was by other small bands from the same period as what i had ordered, so rather than just sending promotional stuff by their new bands (which i guess some label do) they must have thought "she seems to like the 90s, let's give her more 90s and maybe she'll like it too and order more!". and what do you know, i think it worked. i will definitely order more from them.

give it a listen! here's backfish's video fashion mania, not one of their better songs from what i think. there're also a few listenable pieces here.

now i'm waiting for the other packages to arrive, with even more new music. at least for my ears. i can't wait! i want it now!

i was saved by music

i struck gold! when searching for old swedish indie band suredo, that i remember having a really great song by on an old mixed tape i got from a guy i was acquainted with in high school*, i found this place; i was saved by music. it has a lot of downloads, amongst them suredo's two album and an ep by them, and lots of compilations. all in all, lots of great music! shoegazer, power pop, indie. you really need to check it out.

*this guy, martin, actually made something of himself; he's boy omega and he's not half bad :)

acid test

here's yet another reason to why i love 4AD so much. (as if throwing muses, belly, pixies, the amps, red house painters, birthday party, lush, lisa germano, breeders, kristin hersh, mountain goats, that dog and tanya donnelly weren't enough!) emma pollock - of the delgados for the ones who remember. the song is acid test, and i just ordered her album, she's awesome!




man, i love the 90s.

more non-france

i want the new issue of mojo. not because i'm a regular mojo-reader but because it's about nirvana and sub pop, two decades later, and that it comes with a sub pop compilation cd. why else?

it's a mystery how i seem to be something less than myself

juliana's not been lazy with her posts on myspace about her songs.

12. daniel (off of beautiful creature)
13. little pieces (off of become what you are)
14. outsider (off of only everything)

if there's still any of you who has yet to discover the sheer greatness of juliana hatfield, rest assured that i will never give up trying to get you hooked. i'll just keep on nagging about her, so you might as well do it and get it over with right now. there are songs over at her myspace (those she's written about, or at least a few of them), or why not see some of the 90-licious videos?

feel the pain

more dinosaur jr for you; here's a favorite video. enjoy.

dinosaur jr

yesterday i got the delicious piece of news that dinosaur jr was playing a free, secret, concert at the local skate park in town today (thanks madde!). there's some sort of skate tournament going on that i wasn't aware of earlier. the gig was especially nice cos before i had decided not to go see them in copenhagen this evening, since i can't really afford it.

now i can check them off the list of bands i haven't seen live. awesome :)

it's also a nice feeling to have seen lou barlow live twice, with two different bands, in the last month and a half. how about that for 90s retro?

dinosaur jr earlier this afternoon in malmö

what matters?

one of my all-time favorite novels is high fidelity by nick hornby. the movie is also awesome. i love the novel for several reasons.

first of all i really like the language, and the tone of it. the flow of it is fantastic. you're really there, you can see the racks of records you want to go through so badly, and the awkwardness gets under your skin.

second of all, i really dig the characters. they are really real, like it says on the back of the penguin edition "oh god, i know people just like that!", we really do. rob becomes your best buddy, or worst, and you fall in love with him, or with dick. barry is.. well, he's jack black, essentially, which is one reason the movie version works so well.

third, it really appeals to the geek in me; top ten lists, obscure musical facts, pop-cultural references, anal filing systems, obsessive behavior, the focus on mixed tapes.

at one place in the book (p.91) rob ponders on something he's been talking to the others about in relation to his underlying women problem, namely what really matters, what you like or what you are like, and says that

"..the truth was that these things matter, and it's no good pretending that any relationship has a future if your record collections disagree violently, or if your favorite films wouldn't even speak to each other if they met at a party."

those of you who's read the book or watched the movie knows what it eventually resolves to, but whatever that is i still think this is an interesting dilemma, cos even though it's superficial and even mis-guiding to judge people on what they like, it does, after all, matter. at least to me. certainly not as much as it does to barry with his questionnaire, but still.

however, there are morons with impeccable taste, just like there are awesome persons without taste (i call them radio listeners). i think it matters what people are like, but generally i do prefer them to have good taste.

that's what i think. what do you think? i put the poll to the right up just to find out, so please click it. thanks.

oh, and for the love of god, if you haven't read the book, make sure you do that first, but fast, you only have a week before my poll closes.