Anyways Mayonnaise...
I like music...and I love good music. But 'good music' can mean something totally different from one person to another. Can there really be 'bad' music if someone still buys the record, or cheers at the live show? I don't like the Killers...their music is ok, but I just don't like them. But do I look down on people who do like their stuff? 5-10 years ago, I would probably have answered yes...but today, I say to each their own. Music is a powerful thing, and if like something, if it hits you where it matters...then who am I to say your taste is shit? If you like the Killers and think they're the next big thing (as so many magazines would like us to believe...which reminds me, what ever happened to the Strokes?) then I'm happy for you, its cool...but to me, they're one or two steps away from being as cheesy as the Darkness. Meh.
I first fell in love with music when I was a small kid. My parents listened to a lot of music, and my Dad has a very respectable vinyl collection (which will one day be mine...I called dibs) and I remember going through those records in the basement and bringing the same two up each time, much to my parents chagrin...The Beatles 'red' and 'blue' greatest hits albums. My parents liked the Beatles, but they weren't big fans...but I was. I was too young to know what love was, why I was a walrus or why Lucy was in the sky with diamonds...but to me, it was just...
I also remember thinking that Freddie Mercury looked like the toughest dude on earth on the cover of one of the Queen albums that my Dad had (the one with Radio Gaga)...with his moustache and wife beater...only to later find out years later he was as gay as they come. I don't even know if my dad knew he was gay...
But this was all my parents music...so after a while, I sort of lost interest...all those family vacations down south, spending hours in the car, listening to the same ELO mix tape over and over and over and over again (I know the words to so many of their songs), or having to sit through my parents and their friends listening to 'Lady in Red' 1000 times totally killed music for me for a while. Then...I was introduced to Public Enemy. 'Fear of a Black Planet' isn't the first album you'd think a white kid from an upper-mid class family living in suburbia would connect with...but it literally changed my life. 'SHIT...these guys are angry!' I thought. 'Is it really this hard to be a black man in America?' And those beats! It was probaby my first real introduction to the issue of race...but beyond that, I think I connected with it so much because I was a young kid, almost a teenager, who felt like there were too many rules...and I wanted to rebel...and this was the music that made me feel like it was ok to be angry, because there were good reasons to be angry (even though I wasn't black). And of course, because my parents hated it! I listened to rap for a while...everything from Ice T & N.W.A. to Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff and Digital Underground. Back then, there was no such thing as 'hip hop' culture...Nike was just starting to put out the Air Jordans and Air Max...British Knights were cool...and people were wearing Hypercolor T-shirts...but you could wear a Bulls jacket, or a Raiders hat backwards and you felt like you were 'representing'.
And then...I still remember Alex Nantel walking into the end of the year party in grade 8 (I think) and telling everyone about this tape he had by a band called Nirvana...he had sported the t-shirt a few times at school, but I had no idea who they really were. He put the tape on, and the rest, as they say, is history...
From that moment, I went from benig a punk who listened to rap...to a punk. Don't get me wrong, I never sported a mohawk...never got a tatoo or piercing...never got one of those red flannel coats and I still wore rugby shits, did my homeword and had short hair...but I had the punk ethos tatooed on my heart and on my brain. All this weird, wild and wonderful music started getting played on the radio and on Much Music...and it seemed as if it was all for us! Bands that really rocked...who did drugs, partied and were "cool", but who also played benifit concerts for rape victims in Kosovo, were anti coporate, anti establishment, anti war, pro choice and told the jocks in the crowd to behave or get the fuck out of the arena...they were on the cover of Rollingstone and were playing to 60,000 people in Brazil! They were stars! People with principals (or so we were led to believe) who didn't really care how many records they sold or how many people came to the shows. The 'losers' and 'outsiders' were finally getting their moment...and I was 13-14 years old and they were talking to me...because, lets face it...I was a bit of a loser.
Of course, like anything, there was an expiration date on all this rebellion...and sometime in 1994 things started to change. The next wave of bands weren't as cool as the pioneers who came before. Bands were starting to be manufactured...just put some ripped jeans and a lumberjack coat on them, turn the feedback nob up to 11 and tell them to sing like Eddie or Layne. Alternative Rock mutated and became 8 different sub genre's...and the bands that got the dance rolling were starting to fall by the wayside. Death, Drugs and Disillusionment. Record executives started to think they knew what the kids (and their parents) really wanted...and soon the 'pop' sensation was starting up again and alternative was back to being an alternative to the mainstream instead of the mainstream. The moment had passed. Sure...what happened in 1991 (and leading up to 1991...Sonic Youth, R.E.M. and so on) was a special thing and it did change the music industry for the better, opening doors (and bank vaults) to bands and artists that might have never gotten a sniff at major label money...and broadening the horizons of kids like me who might otherwise have turned into little yuppies. There have been a few 'aftershocks' in the years since (the 'the' band craze...where all the bands had 'the' in their name and they all had hair and clothes that was styled to look like it hadn't been styled) but nothing compared to the sea change that hit like a freight train in the 90's.
So it was a fantastic surprise to be surfing the net the other day and come across a myspace page for a band I loved, loved, loved...Transistor Sound & Lighting Co. These 3 guys from Winnepeg made only one album (that I know of)...and, biased as I may be, it still ranks up there as one of THE great grunge/alternative/lo-fi albums of the era. Every song is a gem...a kaleidoscope of beautiful alternative fuzzy feedback coated angst and out of tune singing. From what I read on the site, very few people actually bought this album...and it is no longer in print...so these 3 songs might be turn out to be a cruel tease for all of you in 'net' land...but I'll share them anyways......mayonnaise.
(There probably is a better way to do this...but I am new at all this text huperlink stuff...so this is the best I could do. If anyone knows of a better way (or if I'm doing something wrong) let me know.)
Sasparilla ~ Transistor Sound & Lighting Co.
Prince Vince ~ Transistor Sound & Lighting Co.
Anyways Mayonnaise ~ Transistor Sound & Lighting Co.
The Beatles ~ Daniel Johnson
I first fell in love with music when I was a small kid. My parents listened to a lot of music, and my Dad has a very respectable vinyl collection (which will one day be mine...I called dibs) and I remember going through those records in the basement and bringing the same two up each time, much to my parents chagrin...The Beatles 'red' and 'blue' greatest hits albums. My parents liked the Beatles, but they weren't big fans...but I was. I was too young to know what love was, why I was a walrus or why Lucy was in the sky with diamonds...but to me, it was just...
I also remember thinking that Freddie Mercury looked like the toughest dude on earth on the cover of one of the Queen albums that my Dad had (the one with Radio Gaga)...with his moustache and wife beater...only to later find out years later he was as gay as they come. I don't even know if my dad knew he was gay...
But this was all my parents music...so after a while, I sort of lost interest...all those family vacations down south, spending hours in the car, listening to the same ELO mix tape over and over and over and over again (I know the words to so many of their songs), or having to sit through my parents and their friends listening to 'Lady in Red' 1000 times totally killed music for me for a while. Then...I was introduced to Public Enemy. 'Fear of a Black Planet' isn't the first album you'd think a white kid from an upper-mid class family living in suburbia would connect with...but it literally changed my life. 'SHIT...these guys are angry!' I thought. 'Is it really this hard to be a black man in America?' And those beats! It was probaby my first real introduction to the issue of race...but beyond that, I think I connected with it so much because I was a young kid, almost a teenager, who felt like there were too many rules...and I wanted to rebel...and this was the music that made me feel like it was ok to be angry, because there were good reasons to be angry (even though I wasn't black). And of course, because my parents hated it! I listened to rap for a while...everything from Ice T & N.W.A. to Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff and Digital Underground. Back then, there was no such thing as 'hip hop' culture...Nike was just starting to put out the Air Jordans and Air Max...British Knights were cool...and people were wearing Hypercolor T-shirts...but you could wear a Bulls jacket, or a Raiders hat backwards and you felt like you were 'representing'.
And then...I still remember Alex Nantel walking into the end of the year party in grade 8 (I think) and telling everyone about this tape he had by a band called Nirvana...he had sported the t-shirt a few times at school, but I had no idea who they really were. He put the tape on, and the rest, as they say, is history...
From that moment, I went from benig a punk who listened to rap...to a punk. Don't get me wrong, I never sported a mohawk...never got a tatoo or piercing...never got one of those red flannel coats and I still wore rugby shits, did my homeword and had short hair...but I had the punk ethos tatooed on my heart and on my brain. All this weird, wild and wonderful music started getting played on the radio and on Much Music...and it seemed as if it was all for us! Bands that really rocked...who did drugs, partied and were "cool", but who also played benifit concerts for rape victims in Kosovo, were anti coporate, anti establishment, anti war, pro choice and told the jocks in the crowd to behave or get the fuck out of the arena...they were on the cover of Rollingstone and were playing to 60,000 people in Brazil! They were stars! People with principals (or so we were led to believe) who didn't really care how many records they sold or how many people came to the shows. The 'losers' and 'outsiders' were finally getting their moment...and I was 13-14 years old and they were talking to me...because, lets face it...I was a bit of a loser.
Of course, like anything, there was an expiration date on all this rebellion...and sometime in 1994 things started to change. The next wave of bands weren't as cool as the pioneers who came before. Bands were starting to be manufactured...just put some ripped jeans and a lumberjack coat on them, turn the feedback nob up to 11 and tell them to sing like Eddie or Layne. Alternative Rock mutated and became 8 different sub genre's...and the bands that got the dance rolling were starting to fall by the wayside. Death, Drugs and Disillusionment. Record executives started to think they knew what the kids (and their parents) really wanted...and soon the 'pop' sensation was starting up again and alternative was back to being an alternative to the mainstream instead of the mainstream. The moment had passed. Sure...what happened in 1991 (and leading up to 1991...Sonic Youth, R.E.M. and so on) was a special thing and it did change the music industry for the better, opening doors (and bank vaults) to bands and artists that might have never gotten a sniff at major label money...and broadening the horizons of kids like me who might otherwise have turned into little yuppies. There have been a few 'aftershocks' in the years since (the 'the' band craze...where all the bands had 'the' in their name and they all had hair and clothes that was styled to look like it hadn't been styled) but nothing compared to the sea change that hit like a freight train in the 90's.
So it was a fantastic surprise to be surfing the net the other day and come across a myspace page for a band I loved, loved, loved...Transistor Sound & Lighting Co. These 3 guys from Winnepeg made only one album (that I know of)...and, biased as I may be, it still ranks up there as one of THE great grunge/alternative/lo-fi albums of the era. Every song is a gem...a kaleidoscope of beautiful alternative fuzzy feedback coated angst and out of tune singing. From what I read on the site, very few people actually bought this album...and it is no longer in print...so these 3 songs might be turn out to be a cruel tease for all of you in 'net' land...but I'll share them anyways......mayonnaise.
(There probably is a better way to do this...but I am new at all this text huperlink stuff...so this is the best I could do. If anyone knows of a better way (or if I'm doing something wrong) let me know.)
Sasparilla ~ Transistor Sound & Lighting Co.
Prince Vince ~ Transistor Sound & Lighting Co.
Anyways Mayonnaise ~ Transistor Sound & Lighting Co.
The Beatles ~ Daniel Johnson
posted by neil at 2:16 AM
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