I'm a fan of Paste magazine. I was a subscriber when they used to have a print offering (which came with a CD of recently released songs). I am now on their e-mailing list and check out their online articles with some frequency.Paste has a good feel to it. Highly knowledgeable writers for the most part, though there are times halfway through an article that I realize that the author was born when I was in college and therefore may not see things through the same lens. Still, always a decent approach and highly informative. That's good for a music geek like... some of you.
Tons of music. Also, movies, television, games, beer, pop culture, and even politics, but tons of music. Their music reviews aren't as esoterically harsh as Pitchfork, nor as Grammy-style clueless as Rolling Stone. Nor are their politics as pointedly extreme as RS's... though in some cases the writers at Paste bleed somewhat heartily.
Anyway, this week they have a new music piece on 1989, which happens to have been 30 years ago, and the albums which hit the shelves of your local record store that year. Record stores... you remember... those mom and pop ones like Tracks in Norfolk (RIP) and Birdland in Virginia Beach (alive and kicking). Or Tower Records in big cities. Places where Rob and I would peruse the shelves very deliberately and make choices insightfully sublime and just awful in equal measure.1989... the three bad brothers you know so well were freshmen becoming sophomores after pledging a certain fraternity; some among our gang here were young teens in the tri-state area and the space coast; and Mr. KQ was raising kids and looking forward to slowing his pace as retirement crept closer. The music we respectively cued up on compact disc or cassette or tuned in via the FM dial... well, here it is.
The article is worth reading in full (linked above), and you can say whatever you want about opinion-based best-of lists found on the dork web, but the list simply took me back to a simpler, more ignorant, and more blissful, if not drunker, time:
PASTE - The Best Albums of 1989
30. The Blue Nile: Hats
29. Andrew Hill: Eternal Spirit
28. The Ocean Blue: The Ocean Blue 27. New Order: Technique
26. Lou Reed: New York
25. The Mighty Lemon Drops: Laughter
24. Yo La Tengo: President Yo La Tengo
23. Galaxie 500: On Fire
22. Neil Young: Freedom
21. Elvis Costello: Spike
20. Indigo Girls: Indigo Girls
19. Bob Mould: Workbook
18. The Replacements: Don’t Tell A Soul
17. The B-52’s: Cosmic Thing
16. XTC: Oranges and Lemons
15. Bonnie Raitt: Nick Of Time
14. Camper Van Beethoven: Key Lime Pie
13. Janet Jackson: Rhythm Nation 1814 12. Bob Dylan: Oh Mercy
11. Nirvana: Bleach
10. Fugazi: 13 Songs
9. Nine Inch Nails: Pretty Hate Machine
8. Tom Petty: Full Moon Fever
7. Kate Bush: The Sensual World
6. The Stone Roses: The Stone Roses
5. The Cure: Disintegration
4. Beastie Boys: Paul’s Boutique
3. Madonna: Like a Prayer
2. The Pixies: Doolittle
1. De La Soul: Three Feet High and Rising
Debate it if you will, and you certainly can. That "See a Little Light" is coming in two spots behind "Love Shack" is going to confound at least one of our opinionated gang. I'm as pleased by Key Lime Pie's inclusion as I am Mother's Milk's omission. Madonna seems out of place, the Petty album is annoyingly ubiquitous but still mostly underrated, and 13 Songs was an amalgamation of two EP's, one from 1988, so it questionably counts (but should be heard when you're feeling angsty).
We talk about it ad nauseum in this space, but it still amuses to see Paul's Boutique get props left and right this millennium after being summarily ignored in 1989. Some stuff isn't appreciated in its time. Like Dazed and Confused. And "Arrested Development"... the television show, not Mr. Wendal. And the Cauc Hop.
Three Feet High and Rising, at #1, is curiously absent from Spotify, but I'll have to give it a re-listen on my private stock of Moving Pictures Experts Group Audio Layer 3 files... and YouTube videos like this:
The Cult: Sonic Temple
Red Hot Chili Peppers: Mother's Milk
Faith No More: The Real Thing
Hoodoo Gurus: Magnum Cum LouderThe Connells: Fun and Games
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: In Step
The Pogues: Peace and Love
Drivin' 'n' Cryin': Mystery Road
Mötley Crüe: Dr. Feelgood
Big Audio Dynamite: Megatop Phoenix
3rd Bass: The Cactus Album
The Jesus and Mary Chain: Automatic
Biz Markie: The Biz Never Sleeps
Random Idiots: Bloodfinger
Paul McCartney: Flowers in the Dirt
The Smithereens: 11
Phish: Junta
Kirsty MacColl: Kite
10,000 Maniacs: Blind Man's Zoo
Fine Young Cannibals: The Raw and the Cooked
There was a lot lot LOT of dreck that year as well, of course. '89 releases from the likes of Starship, Warrant, Milli Vanilli, Richard Marx, Barry Manilow, Wang Chung, Cher, Michael Bolton, Mr. Big, David Hasselhoff, Bee Gees, and good ol' Kenny G. Plus bloaty, post-peak efforts from the Dead, the Stones, Mellencamp, Prince, Bowie, Peter Gabriel and Queen.
But there was far more that I loved. And such articles and ensuing discussions just make me want to play some of the old music.
To wit:
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35 comments:
That's a pretty strong year. I'll even allow the impugning of 'Built to Last', though I did by a sealed, still in long box, copy of it at Goodwill a few years back. Surprisingly, I haven't been tempted to break the seal.
Lots of good hip hop missing from these lists. Done by the Forces of Nature, Ghetto Music, It’s a Big Daddy Thing, As Nasty As They Wanna Be and probably lots more.
I almost remarked that it was a strong year for white people music.
Wife and I had company over last w/e. Somehow, somebody said “Did you know Richard Marx is married to Daisy Fuentes?” Turns our none of us knew that! We then tried to figure out why Richard Marx was famous. Most of us knew 1-2 tunes of his. I started scanning thru his Greatest Hits album quickly on Sonos. Very quickly, to be honest. It is a shit sandwich full of “oh my God, I remember that turd of a song” kinda moments. Shame on America for letting that happen.
Is America’s shame for making him a pop star or letting him marry Daisy Fuentes?
I was focused on the former, but now that you bring it up, I have some issues with the latter as well.
Ease up, TR. Maybe Richard Marx doesn't have the most enduring catalog, but he may be a fine husband. He appears to be willing to make fun of himself, so he can't be all bad. And whenever you're ready to accept his music, he'll be right there waiting for you.
proud work moment for me. just got to tell a whole group of peers and employees that my favorite movie is dumb n dumber and got to complete the scene when someone asked me, 'what's the soup du jour'?
TR, it don’t mean nothin, the things that you say.
I do love me some Daisy Fuentes.
Richard Marx’s first wife was the blonde from Dirty Dancing who, more importantly, was the female lead in Toto’s video for Rosanna which allowed Steve Porcaro & Rosanna Arquette to get their root chakras aligned.
Also noteworthy is that Richard Marx’s dad was a jazz pianist named Dick Marx.
Dick Marx and his band The Spot. Dick Marx reminds me of one of my favorite freshman hall stories but I can’t tell it online.
Biden grew hair!
Who is Marianne Williamson, what kind of accent does she have, and why is she up there?
Maddow is insufferable. Chuck Todd’s hairline is catastrophic.
Rodrigo Duterte makes Donald Trump look like Abraham Lincoln.
Mornin! Just getting caught up here...I second Whit's Daisy Fuentes comment. Looooved her. And that is some wonderful Richard Marx trivia from you folks. Some might say it don't mean nothing, but I say otherwise.
I have been screaming about the Chuck Todd hairline for eons now. Just shave it man.
And I just heard someone in our office say, "I'm juggling a lot of balls".
Wow, Daisy still looking HOTT-AH! Unlike her husband's music, she's held up well. And he's had more plastic surgery than Joan Rivers, God rest her soul.
While I'm on this incredible tear, I thought I'd share with you all that a fellow swim parent and known bible banger (not that there's anything wrong with that, unless of course you try and lay it on my kid when he's in your car or at your house or give him a bible yada yada) received a call from me yesterday respectfully asking to cease & desist aforementioned practices. It was very diplomatic, started well and ended well. I'm proud of myself for handling it as I did. It was so good it won't even be awkward when I see he and his wife tonight at a meet. Of course I did have to endure a 20-min chat about God, heaven, John 3:16, and a few other golden oldies. Again, not that there's anything wrong with that...I'm good w/God or someone/something. I know, this could have been a post but...it's Friday.
whit going all geopolitical and danimal dropping john 3:16. didn't see any of that coming.
Just to clarify, he was spitting Biblical verses on your kid during a carpool? And you gently told him not to? And said carpool was canceled? Yeah, you did the right thing. Kudos for being measured. That is not a forte of mine.
I enjoy driving the carpools. Hearing my kids talk to their peers/buddies is pretty funny. I drove my 9 y/o and a baseball teammate to a game last week and they loudly (and badly) sang aloud to Twenty One Pilots’ Chlorine. In four years they’ll be “too cool” to do that. But not last week.
I agree with TR. There's something great about when the kids ignore the fact that there's a parent in the car and let their youthful silliness shine through.
I wonder how many kids have discovered religion because some eager beaver carpool parent used their time with a captive audience to proselytize.
Tr...I am generally conflict averse. Seeing that these folks will be in our lives for the next 8 years through swim, I made the conscious decision to play it cool. You dig?
looking to get my sales manager a good bottle of tequila. he's a herradura anejo fan. anyone have any advice for a nice sipping tequila?
You made your number?
we did. killed it. biggest month in the history of the business. now we gotta do it all again next month.
Nice work, Robbie. I credit you.
Richard Marx playing down here in Virginia Beach August 24. Good seats almost definitely still available.
I'd come up for that.
yes, it was all my doing. i just surf the internet and make proclamations. i have the easiest job on the team.
any minute now with the tequila recommendations, then?
I can’t do tequila since a youthful indiscretion ruined it for me, but my brother recommends Fortaleza.
When in doubt, ask Cosmo
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/food-cocktails/g27155058/best-tequila-brands/
I like Espolon, Avion, and Herradura.
But since you’re going high end, you can do better than my prefs. I will say that tequila brands have the best bottles in liquor. Super fancy like sombreros or Mexican shirts. Get one of them cool lookin numbers.
new pornographers (much better than the old pornographers) in dc november 5. i'm in.
Neko Case could be Mrs. Lester III if she wanted it. Which she would not.
Speaking of which, I got married for the first time 21 years ago today. Rob was there.
Happy Anniversary, Whit. I guess?
I’ve got no Tequila recs for you, Rob. I enjoy tequila but not in a classy enough fashion to reliably recommend a truly good bottle.
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