Tagged: flashbackthursday

Fact: I can not find any of Belly's videos on Youtube, and the quality on this one is terrible. "Gepetto" was the song that finally made this band click for me, and I was really hoping to post that one, but it looks like the internet gods are against me. More than a decade on, it seems like their sound is back in vogue, which is great because they were one of my favorites while I was in high school, and I didn't think they really hit their stride until the release of [...]

"Negative" was the third single off of Mansun's second album, Six , released in 1998. While the band had just one minor hit here in the States (with "Wide Open Space"), this record solidified the band's standing as one of the biggest bands of the time in their homeland. Two different versions of this record were released, with the US and UK getting drastically different artwork, mixes, and sequencing, but "Negative" was one of the pieces that remained the same on both versions. After this [...]

Things have been busy lately -- that's my one and only excuse for not keeping up with the blog. Good news is that I returned from SXSW with a lot of new bands to write about, but that will have to wait until next week. Since I am in the studio with Simon Says No right now, I thought it would be appropriate to post a video from an act that has a lot of influence over them, My Bloody Valentine.

Myspace Holy shit, look at that hair! I have a mildly amusing story about Echo & the Bunnymen from a few years ago when I lived in Boston. Always being a big fan, they're one band that I wish I had the chance to see, so when Boy Kill Boy were coming through town supporting them, I immediately made sure to go. In the end, I didn't stay for Echo because like most bands that reform, some of the magic is gone -- it's just not [...]

The best song off of one of the best math rock albums at the peak of the genre. This song is such no-brainer -- easily one of the best songs ever. I know this band got so much shit for jumping to a major from Dischord for this album, but the critics were silenced after For Your Own Special Sweetheart dropped. The video may be a little dated, but I could listen to this song over and over for days and not get sick of it. [...]

It wasn't until '94 that I discovered The Charlatans with their Up to Our Hips album, but like many Brit bands of the time, I was hooked from that day on. This was the first song I heard from them and it remains one of my favorites. Some of you may be skeptics, but You Cross My Path , which was released last year, is actually quite good.

Unlike other bands of their era, Helium really does not get their due. They fall somewhere between slacker indie and spaced-out shoegaze, made all the more alluring, but the equally hot/mysterious Mary Timony. It's not that the band was better than their peers, but they were a lot more compelling. Pavement just didn't care, Guided By Voices were drunks, and Polvo were pain in the ass artists. This video is off of the band's '94 debut EP Pirate Prude, and some may remember it being made fun of on Beavis and [...]

Myspace Later this spring, the Manic Street Preachers will release their ninth studio album, tentatively titled Journal for Plague Lovers . Billed as sort of a follow-up to The Holy Bible , the album will only feature lyrics written by Richey Edwards, whose whereabouts are still unknown. The album is produced by Steve Albini. To look back on The Holy Bible , the album most often cited by fans as the band's best, this is the video [...]

There was a time when Radiohead made music that really mattered and when they could really hold my interested, but that hasn't been for more than ten years. I know people swear by Kid A and their later output, but really, I don't get it. I like my fair share of weird music, but you can't be weird just for the sake of it. I'll start paying attention again when the guitars come back.

The amount of bands I was exposed to by 120 Minutes is a fairly long list, but the most enduring has been Sonic Youth. It was worth it to stay up late on a school night when I knew I'd be seeing almost two hours of videos I would not see anywhere else. It was in '91 when I first caught "Dirty Boots," and over the years I would see many videos from the band, but it was this track that will always stick with me. Off of the band's [...]

Elastica had it made with this album and it's too bad that they followed it up several years after the fact with a total letdown. I can't really complain because that first album was brilliant and a decade and a half on, "Stutter" is still one of my favorite songs. The band broke up in 2001 and Justine Frischmann stayed active in music, collaborating with then flatmate of early demos of Arular. She also produced demos for White Rose Movement. She moved to Boulder, CO in '05 to study at a [...]

There are a few songs where the time and place that I first heard them are permanently ingrained in my brain. With the Stone Roses' "She Bangs the Drums," it was early on a Monday morning on 120 Minutes, I was perhaps 13 or 14, and I had to wake up for school in a few hours. Each Monday was a struggle to stay awake for me, but it was worth it -- I always had a playlist of new songs stuck in my head. Although I was a few years late [...]

Myspace Throughout their career, Ash has been an amazingly consistent band, but their peak was definitely 1977 , a record that still feels like a greatest hits collection. While most people may say that "Girl From Mars" or "Angel Interceptor" is the definitive track on this album, my Ash moment has always been "Goldfinger," a song that balances the band's energetic side with a more mature edge.

Myspace Remember back when I used to do "Flashback Tuesday" ? Well, this is me trying to bring it back. This time around, no history lessons...it will just be short and sweet with a video I've (almost) forgotten about. Pulp was never a band that I was in love with, but I do have just about everything they've done. Their early career is underrated, Different Class is overrated, and This is Hardcore is their masterpiece. [...]