Poster Children

The Baseball Project, “¡Hola America!”

Baseball Project, yes, yes, very good, love ’em AS OF THIS WRITING THE MARINERS ARE IN THE LEAD IN THE AL WEST AND WOULD BE THE AL’s #2 SEED IF THE PLAYOFFS STARTED TODAY WOOOOOO

Poster Children, “Evidence”

There was a very good scene in Champaign-Urbana in the late 80s/early 90s, with Hum being probably the best known these days, but at the time the Poster Children probably were a little more famous. It’s hard for me to tell for sure, of course, but I seem to remember more buzz around them. They ended up on Reprise before Hum was on a major label, got some MTV play, and generally were pretty prominent for a little while for an indie rock band. I hardly see any mention of them any more, though, and honestly had kind of forgotten them myself. Probably should remind myself about their records, I’m enjoying this track.

Poster Children, “Clock Street”

Unlike a lot of rock bands putting out records in the early 90s, the Poster Children were not signed in the wake of Nevermind. They found their way onto Sire for their 1990 album Daisychain Reaction, putting them ahead of that particular game. Nevertheless, Nirvana’s success put them in a good spot for their followup album, Tool of the Man. It’s more Pixies than Nirvana, with a bit too much brightness to really break through in that scene. But, listening 17 years on, this stuff sounds fresher than a lot of grunge does these days.

Poster Children, “0 For 1”

There was a decent sized indie rock scene in Champaign-Urbana in the late 80s/early 90s, with Hum, the excellent and forgotten Steakdaddy Six, Honcho Overload, and the Poster Children all emerging to varying levels of success. Of that group, the Poster Children had the most success at the time, signing to Sire and producing a string of well-received albums. Hum is probably the one with the best enduring reputation (especially given a comeback), but the Poster Children still hold up today as well-executed indie rock.

Six songs today!

Amon Tobin, “Precursor”

One of the big trends of rap beats was taking old soul music and speeding it up so that it sounds like the Chipmunks. Here, Amon Tobin sounds like he’s doing kind of the same thing, only with cartoon sound effects. Why not?

Arsonists, “Underground Vandal”

Beautiful drum loop on this song.

Negativland, “Fruitcakes, Suka-Brand Coffee, Power Failure, Citizens Band Parakeet etc.”

Negativland hosted a show called Over The Edge on Berkley’s KPFA, providing an outlet for surreal radio strangeness. I actually caught the show once while going to camp in Berkeley, and it was a mess but also entertaining. They also put out a set of (lightly) edited shows on CD, and I have a bunch of those. This is from Volume 6, the Wilsaphone Stupid Show, which was pieced together out of old found audio and family recordings from David “The Weatherman” Wills. What you hear on this, um, song is pretty representative of Over the Edge in general.

As we head into August, I’m probably going to start throwing in the occasional special now. Focus on an artist, random Bandcamp albums, I dunno. We’ll see. Today, though, the usual.

NxWorries, “Intro”

NxWorries is Knxwledge and Anderson Paak, putting out one album so far along with an EP. I think it’s great, and I wish you had a real track to listen to here.

The Beatles, “Birthday”

Well, now we get to discover if I have anything to add to the millions of words already written about the most famous of bands. I have a scattering of memories associated with the Beatles, and I suppose I’ll just dole those out as the Beatles come up.