Anything On Your Mind?
We’ve reached 1995, my last year of college, a significant year for me. First and most notably, Megan and I had our first date, a Shudder to Think show. She hasn’t been rid of me since! And, of course, I graduated from school. My plan for most of my time in college was to go get a graduate degree. I hadn’t really examined that thought very deeply, but as my senior year ground on and I realized I was pretty burned out on school, it became increasingly clear that that wasn’t really going to be in the cards. I definitely was just hanging in there with my final classes. I did apply to some grad schools, but without really any realistic chance of getting into the schools I applied to. As my default plan fell apart, I didn’t really have another plan in place. I hadn’t taken part in an job fairs or anything similar to try and find a job for after graduation.
The result was that I moved back home. I found a job, bagging groceries and collecting carts from the parking lot, and started searching for a job in software. When a good friend learned that I was working as a “courtesy clerk”, she got me hired at the Internet service provider where she was, which was a big step forward, inasmuch as it was an office job and it paid more. My primary duties were tech support for the fine people of Spokane who were muddling their way through configuring dial-up Internet access without really having the requisite knowledge. A lot of people were using Windows 3.1, and nothing was easy in that operating system. Windows 95 was, if anything, worse. Mostly, people were happy to talk to an actual person to help them through things, and they just wanted it to work. The barrier was often just basic terminology: if someone doesn’t know what a scroll bar or menu is, it was awfully challenging to get them to go through all the necessary steps. But they were trying, and it was pretty easy to be patient with people who were just baffled and wanted help. It wasn’t really their fault that they were out of their depth.
The guys (it was always guys) who were difficult were the ones who thought they knew how everything worked but they still couldn’t get things going. Office lore included the guy who, between two steps dictated to them on the phone, was silently modifying a configuration file to add some options that he knew “should” be there, and never actually said that he was doing it. Those options, of course, were preventing things from working. Or there was the guy who “knew” that his machine could run Windows 95, despite it not being close to the minimum requirements, and was upset with us when we explained that it was never going to work properly. Things like that. Anyway, when I wasn’t on the phone or in the server room trying to figure out which modem was misbehaving, I was goofing off with my coworkers or writing little utilities to help us keep the service running. It was a lot of fun, even if it was clearly a temporary gig for me. What’s funny is that among that group of a half-dozen or so people working at an ISP in Spokane, WA, you had a future director at Google, a future director at Amazon, and a future VP at Meta. Pretty impressive talent, all things considered.
That’s how my year wrapped up - still looking for a permanent gig but having a good time with my temporary job. I spent a lot of time at 4,000 Holes looking for new music (as well as at Hastings Entertainment when I couldn’t find something there), in addition to discovering the joy of ordering CDs on the Internet. The first CD I ever bought on the Internet was Bim Skala Bim’s How’s It Goin’, a record I’ll probably write about once we reach 1990. Looking at the chart for 1995, I have 15 of these, but I should have a couple more, probably. I think that’s my best showing so far? Half of this year I not only could visit the excellent record stores of Pittsburgh, but I had access to WRCT’s library, so I’m sure that was helping me here. I’m curious as we go through my college years if we’re going to see high numbers.
What Are You Listening To From 1995, Josh?
A sampling of albums from 1995 that I still listen to regularly.
In looking at the list of 1995 albums in my library, I’ve talked about a lot of these bands recently, such as Pond, Flop, Gaunt, Fluf, Guzzard, J Church, and others. I think I’ve also already talked up the Flaming Lips’ excellent 1995 release, Clouds Taste Metallic.
You’d Prefer An Astronaut, Hum
One of the problems with going backwards through time is that you encounter records in the wrong order. It’s tougher to tell the story of bands in reverse, and I suppose it would be fixed if I could resist temptation to write about them until we encounter their early work, but I’m also trying to highlight the records from each year I still listen to. This is an entirely self-inflicted wound, and it’s not one I’m going to fix at this point, having written…what, 16 blogs in this direction?
I’m also going to complain about “indie rock”, at least as it was applied in the 90s. It was sort of a catch-all for rock bands signed to small labels. But also it tried to connote a sound? Like “alternative rock”, it didn’t really tell you that much. How useful is a moniker if you can apply it to Hum as well as, I don’t know, Unrest? Anyway, “indie rock” band Hum arrived on RCA with this record, and they played just absolutely huge guitars. It’s not shoegaze, it’s honestly something more akin to grunge (but without some of the other aesthetic markers), or actually similar to what Torche would play much later. They were extremely good at it, and I think this is their best record. They would put out another one in 1998, disappear for 22 years, and then come back in 2020 with another very good record.
Hum was part of a surprisingly fertile scene in Champaign, Illinois, along with people like the Poster Children, Steakdaddy Six, and Honcho Overload. I almost wrote up Steakdaddy Six for the last entry, and I might get to a Poster Children record as well. It’s fun to see these smaller scenes have a cluster of excellent bands at the same time.
A Gesture of Kindness, Karl Hendricks Trio
There are records that we all have an emotional attachment to, albums that we love much more than maybe the record “objectively” deserves. Which is, of course, nonsense. We all love what we love! But, put a better way, there are records where our opinions far exceed the general consensus. The two bands for me where that probably applies the most are J Church and Karl Hendricks Trio. I’ve written plenty about J Church, but less about Karl Hendricks Trio. The short version is that they were playing in Pittsburgh during the time I was living there, and opened for a lot of the bands that came through. Karl also worked at my favorite record store and I would frequently ask his opinion of various records or just ask him what was new that he liked. As a result, Karl had a material hand in shaping my musical preferences, through his always-on-point recommendations as well as how many times I saw him play live. His records are precious to me as a result. If I had to pick a favorite, it’s probably this one, so I’m going to present it here to you all. I love this record and band dearly.
Viva Last Blues, Palace
Will Oldham has released a lot of music, under a lot of aliases, ranging from his own name, various iterations of Palace, as Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and others. Keeping track of him is a pain in the ass, as he is prolific and also goes by a lot of names. Sort through all that stuff, though, and I think this is his best record. That’s not an uncommon opinion, mind you, I’m not going way out on a limb here or anything. But if you haven’t heard any of his work, here you go - great songs, great performance, and a great recording by Steve Albini.
Let’s Talk New Releases
Records come out every week, and there’s no way to stay on top of them. This isn’t a comprehensive look at everything, just a few things that have caught my ears out of recent releases. Any impressions here are very early!
It’s been a minute since I’ve done new releases, so let’s have some here now.
Florida Water Blues, Twisted Teens
The second album from Twisted Teens this year is getting some serious buzz. It’s kind of fun seeing it as I was on-board from the EU EP (thank you See/Saw!), so I feel like I was in on the ground floor for the band. It’s nice! I’m so out of the loop so much of the time. It’s basically cowpunk, executed with flair and rawness. Sometimes you can’t really point to exactly what a band does well, but they just have it. Twisted Teens have it.
Realized, Hot Load
Drunken Sailor Records is killing it right now, with this record coming on the heels of that excellent Gimic LP. This record is just aggressive punk rock at a few different tempos, all done really well. It’s a relentless record, but with enough variation that you don’t feel like you’re drowning in it.
Too Much Heaven, Bug Bath
“Casino Lights (Polvo Riff)”, the album opener, is basically irresistible for me. And yeah, that’s totally a Polvo riff. The record proceeds from there, sounding like a throwback 90s record with the big guitars and everything. But there are plenty of surprises at hand, such as the fun vocals on “Through With This” or the squalling riff leading into the vamp that is “Holdout”. Lots of variation here and this is a record that instantly hit me just right.
Five Random Songs
Yes, it’s the “classic” five random songs format. It’s been told before on this blog many times, but basically, on an old forum, people would post the last five songs their shuffle pulled up. I liked it, so I made it into a blog. And now, here we are.
“Malformed Ligature”, Full of Hell
Ostensibly a grindcore band, by this 2024 release, Full of Hell was really pulling from most types of extreme metal. Grind, sure, but they’ll sneak in some doom parts, some death metal, the occasional bit of industrial, some noise, just whatever they choose to do. The fact that they release collaboration albums all the time with all kinds of people probably helps broaden their musical palette. So, overall, they just sound like Full of Hell, and even that evolves a lot over time.
“Engines of Difference”, Man or Astro-Man?
Hey, I just wrote about this album!
“Anything You Want”, Glassing
This is from Glassing’s 2024 record, From The Other Side of the Mirror, and I guess we’re in 2024 now. Is this post-metal? Kind of sludgy? Genres are stupid.
“The Gleaming Armament of Marching Genitalia”, The Flaming Lips
This is from Christmas on Mars, a score for a movie that the Flaming Lips made. I’ve never seen it, and the album doesn’t really make that much sense on their own.
“Woeful Redemption”, Heaving Earth
Fuck yeah.
Josh, What Are You Doing Here?
I’m just writing about music. A structure like this blog helps me get my thoughts out, and it’s a way for me to explore my own music collection through various lenses. My sincere hope is that some folks out there find some new music they love. That’s all I’m up to. Sincere thanks to everybody who sends me feedback, with news that they’ve found a new favorite especially fun for me. There’s no monetization, no metrics, no ads, no promos, no nothing. Just some static web pages, some links, and my scribbling. If you want to support it, just shoot me a note! Thanks for reading.
Some Better Places To Learn About Music
Check these folks out, you’ll learn more for sure. In no particular order: To The Teeth, Wolf’s Week/Plague Rages, The Devil’s Mouth, Burning Ambulance, Lamniformes Cuneiform, Hex Records, See/Saw, Starkweather, Treble Magazine, The Quietus, Stereogum.