Nostalgia comes full circle
(Caution: This post is long and potentially boring to anyone who is not me.)
Music has always been an important part of my life. I owe a great deal to my 6th grade music teacher (sadly, whose name I have forgotten) who encouraged each of us to bring our LPs (no CDs back then!) and play them for the class. Cary Groman brought Led Zeppelin's "Zoso" LP (Led Zeppelin IV) and after hearing "Black Dog," I was stunned. Someone else brought Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "Trilogy" and we listened to their electronic version of "Hoedown", the Aaron Copland classic that our teacher had already played for us. I was flabbergasted. I had to have more! Thus began an odyssey which is still going on to this day.
I really cut my teeth on music during the 80's. "80's Music" is seen by some as an oxymoron, but it was a magical period for me. The B-52's, The Go-Go's, The Smiths, OMD, New Order, Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, Flesh for Lulu, Scritti Politti, Echo & the Bunnymen, Thomas Dolby, The (English) Beat, Kraftwerk, Heaven 17, The Cure, Prefab Sprout, Killing Joke, Gang of Four, XTC, Modern English, Jesus & Mary Chain, Cabaret Voltaire, Bauhaus, Love & Rockets, Skinny Puppy and countless others shaped my college experiences, and indeed, my life.
In 1987, I started grad school and took a course in Electronic Music Composition. At that time I was heavily into industrial music--Skinny Puppy, Einstürzende Neubauten, Test Dept., SPK, and the like. In those days we made real tape loops, with the tape threaded around mic stands, chairs, etc., and MIDI was just becoming popular. I stuck with the composition series for an entire year--even though I was working towards an M.S. in Computer Science--and ended up programming in CMusic, spending hours trying to emulate the sounds of bagpipes, as well as make up new sounds. In addition to being able to work some highly-talented individuals such as JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, Ralph Russell, and Ashkelon Sain, that class exposed me to the music of Edgard Varése, Pierre Henry, Pierre Schaeffer, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Morton Subotnick, and Mario Davidovsky, to name a few.
By 1990 I was a DJ on KCSB, first with an industrial show called "Club Angst!" and then soon settled in with a primarily Brit pop show called "In One Ear and Out the Other." My co-DJ Elisa and I were transfixed by British music, and pledged our allegiance to labels such as 4AD, Creation, Fontana, Hut, and One Little Indian. Shoegazer music was our savior, and My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Ride, Moose, Throwing Muses, Jesus & Mary Chain, Chapterhouse, Verve, Lush, Ultra Vivid Scene, Blind Mr. Jones, and Pale Saints were the apostles. Also revered were Catherine Wheel, Kitchens of Distinction, Kingmaker, Swervedriver, The House of Love, The Wolfgang Press, and the like. British Pop could do no wrong, it seemed.
And now we come to the "full circle" part. I can remember buying The House of Love's self-titled CD on Creation and later their "A Spy in the House of Love" CD on Fontana (and of course in those days it was a big deal for me to get the Fontana version which actually had no title, as opposed to the domestic version which had "A Spy in the House of Love" on the spine). The two CDs that came after that didn't do much for me, and I pretty much forgot about them. About a week ago, I couldn't get "Love II" out of my head. So I grabbed their self-titled CD, listened to it in the car, and re-discovered all over again how great they were (and also realized that Love II isn't even on that CD). I decided to do some web research and lo and behold, The House of Love is back together and has a new album out! It's called "Days Run Away" and it's fantastic. (Hear 4 tracks from it here.) It's a big nostalgia trip for me to listen to because it picks up where the first CD left off now that Chadwick and Bickers have patched up their differences (for those who don't know, Guy Chadwick, the lead singer, booted Terry Bickers, the guitarist, while the band was on tour in 1989, and Bickers went on to form the band Levitation, which was actually quite good). I'd still argue that the self-titled CD on Creation is their best, but I'm eager to hear what they come up with next!
Music has always been an important part of my life. I owe a great deal to my 6th grade music teacher (sadly, whose name I have forgotten) who encouraged each of us to bring our LPs (no CDs back then!) and play them for the class. Cary Groman brought Led Zeppelin's "Zoso" LP (Led Zeppelin IV) and after hearing "Black Dog," I was stunned. Someone else brought Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "Trilogy" and we listened to their electronic version of "Hoedown", the Aaron Copland classic that our teacher had already played for us. I was flabbergasted. I had to have more! Thus began an odyssey which is still going on to this day.
I really cut my teeth on music during the 80's. "80's Music" is seen by some as an oxymoron, but it was a magical period for me. The B-52's, The Go-Go's, The Smiths, OMD, New Order, Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, Flesh for Lulu, Scritti Politti, Echo & the Bunnymen, Thomas Dolby, The (English) Beat, Kraftwerk, Heaven 17, The Cure, Prefab Sprout, Killing Joke, Gang of Four, XTC, Modern English, Jesus & Mary Chain, Cabaret Voltaire, Bauhaus, Love & Rockets, Skinny Puppy and countless others shaped my college experiences, and indeed, my life.
In 1987, I started grad school and took a course in Electronic Music Composition. At that time I was heavily into industrial music--Skinny Puppy, Einstürzende Neubauten, Test Dept., SPK, and the like. In those days we made real tape loops, with the tape threaded around mic stands, chairs, etc., and MIDI was just becoming popular. I stuck with the composition series for an entire year--even though I was working towards an M.S. in Computer Science--and ended up programming in CMusic, spending hours trying to emulate the sounds of bagpipes, as well as make up new sounds. In addition to being able to work some highly-talented individuals such as JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, Ralph Russell, and Ashkelon Sain, that class exposed me to the music of Edgard Varése, Pierre Henry, Pierre Schaeffer, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Morton Subotnick, and Mario Davidovsky, to name a few.
By 1990 I was a DJ on KCSB, first with an industrial show called "Club Angst!" and then soon settled in with a primarily Brit pop show called "In One Ear and Out the Other." My co-DJ Elisa and I were transfixed by British music, and pledged our allegiance to labels such as 4AD, Creation, Fontana, Hut, and One Little Indian. Shoegazer music was our savior, and My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Ride, Moose, Throwing Muses, Jesus & Mary Chain, Chapterhouse, Verve, Lush, Ultra Vivid Scene, Blind Mr. Jones, and Pale Saints were the apostles. Also revered were Catherine Wheel, Kitchens of Distinction, Kingmaker, Swervedriver, The House of Love, The Wolfgang Press, and the like. British Pop could do no wrong, it seemed.
And now we come to the "full circle" part. I can remember buying The House of Love's self-titled CD on Creation and later their "A Spy in the House of Love" CD on Fontana (and of course in those days it was a big deal for me to get the Fontana version which actually had no title, as opposed to the domestic version which had "A Spy in the House of Love" on the spine). The two CDs that came after that didn't do much for me, and I pretty much forgot about them. About a week ago, I couldn't get "Love II" out of my head. So I grabbed their self-titled CD, listened to it in the car, and re-discovered all over again how great they were (and also realized that Love II isn't even on that CD). I decided to do some web research and lo and behold, The House of Love is back together and has a new album out! It's called "Days Run Away" and it's fantastic. (Hear 4 tracks from it here.) It's a big nostalgia trip for me to listen to because it picks up where the first CD left off now that Chadwick and Bickers have patched up their differences (for those who don't know, Guy Chadwick, the lead singer, booted Terry Bickers, the guitarist, while the band was on tour in 1989, and Bickers went on to form the band Levitation, which was actually quite good). I'd still argue that the self-titled CD on Creation is their best, but I'm eager to hear what they come up with next!
posted by Dave, Owner of EAR/Rational Music at 4:33 PM
2 Comments:
Go for it Dave! I love what you wrote, and that we were in similar
spheres of influence.
I always feel funny when I hear about artists from the 80's who reform today. The New Order 511 DVD has Bernard saying "we haven't played this song in 25 years", and I remember it!
The original Gang Of Four members are going out on tour for the first time since 1981. The Ramones are passing away. I heard "Electricity"
by OMD on a college radio, and I felt 15 again.
It's good to see you recollections. Keep up the great work.
Hey! I was glancing at your blog. You were a DJ at KCSB in Santa Barbara, CA in 1990!? I used to listen to KCSB-FM all the time. I was a PhD student at UCSB from 85-91 in Speech and Hearing Sciences. Not only that, but I was also a music freak and I had a part-time job at MorningGlory Music in Isla Vista. Small World, indeed! I'm sure our paths must have crossed, especially since we liked the same kinds of music! I could check off all of the 80's bands you liked as being personal faves of my own. In fact, I already own an import copy of the latest New Order "…Siren's call" because damned if I was going to wait until the end of April for a domestic copy! I was also into industrial music, primarily from exposure from two female co-workers at MorningGlory, who played it in-store all the time (I particularly became a fan of Ministry and Nine Inch Nails.) In fact, one of them was a DJ at KCSB as well so you probably knew her, but damned if I can remember her name now. I lived all 6 years in Isla Vista in the Santa Ynez apartments on El Colegio Rd. I look back fondly on those years. Great place to live and the weather was the best.
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