"She Drives Me Crazy" vs. "Good Thing"

xp

yeah that's my sense also, minus metallica. my point is that the modrock format broke those acts, mainstream rock format generally only begrudgingly played some of those acts (and even w/ the exceptions - aic initially promoted as a serious hair metal act post-g'n'r w/ the first album - they hit their ceiling very quickly, they don't see #1 until after the gold rush), often times w/ some complaint from on-air talent, often times mere months after ad campaigns bragging about how they didn't play those guys. stp are the first post-nevermind alt act to top the mainstream rock chart w/ 'plush', in itself proof the format didn't get in on the ground floor imo, they're knocked off the top by an ac/dc track. pearl jam's first mainstream rock number one 'daughter' is a few months later, it's knocked off the top by an pearl jam track. for these stations 1991 is defined by for unlawful carnal knowledge and 'silent lucidity'. the modern rock format is what promotes lollapalooza and breaks grunge on radio - 'smells like teen spirit' is the #2 track on kroq in 1991, the year before sinead and depeche mode are 1 and 2, the year before that fine young cannibals are at #6. the format was recognizable enough that billboard had a chart but the reason it grew enough that nirvana et al could get a foothold on radio in the first place was due to the success of fyc/cure/sinead/depeche mode in the years immediately prior. i don't have any data but i would be willing to bet there's a concurrent expansion of the format occurring in this modrock->hot 100 window in that period before nirvana (obv it wouldn't compare to the explosion of the format after the year grunge broke etc). basically if 1994/1995 represents modern rock format in its climax community state (which i like both in terms of sales/critical peak by keystone species key artists but also in terms of thinking what happens to the format from 96 onwards, when among other things metallica actually does become part of that et al, as a kind of plagioclimax community) then fyc et al were the pioneer species for that system.

I'm Not The Man I Used To Be is the one

That reading makes sense: modern rock acts create the conditions that kill them. Another 1989 Hot 100 fillip: L&R's "So Alive" hitting the top three.

xpost

To me Roland Gift sounds like no one else (at least 80s-90s)

This was one of the earlier tapes I got, back in fifth grade. but I can't remember a thing about the album other than these two songs though. I think I bought it along with the Escape Club's Wild Wild West.

I always misheard Good Thing's "Then one day she came back/I was so happy that I didn't ask" as "I was so happy I did an act". I was unsure, but pretty confident that this referred to a striptease act. The nude images of Roland Gift wiggling around in my head were not entirely comfortable to me.

snoball otm

both are fine, one doesn't have to be better

I sat near Roland Gift at the movies once and GODDAMN he was fine too

'don't look back' has one of my favorite pre-choruses ever

YES.

And the ease with which the guitar solo goes back to the anchor riff.

Yeah My sense of things modern rock wise is definitely that the college rock crossover to radio was blowing up from 88 to 91 (why else would they create the chart?) and then nirvana managed to strike a nerve with both the modern and mainstream rock youth that basically remade and synergies both formats in their image.

synergized, rather

For all the talk about nirvana killing hair metal there's really should be more acknowledgment of how they also killed off "college rock" over the same time period - that the Our Band Could Be Your Life narrative leaves little room for Midnight Oil.

But just as poison would rise again, indie has certainly reclaimed its late 80s kicks since

I always misheard Good Thing's "Then one day she came back/I was so happy that I didn't ask" as "I was so happy I did an act".

Me too! Though not relating to striptease. Thought he just meant he was putting on an act to hide his emotions.

I agree that the arrangements on TR&TC are clunky and stiff but they work in their clunkiness.

I listened to the Elvis cover and I don't get what people see in it, it's not very good.

It works for me but I'm trying to put myself in the position of hearing the cover for the first time in '86 and wondering what the fuck Gift is trying to do as vocalist.

It sounds like a pretty straight cover but too fast and with a weak arrangement.

i liked "minds" fine when it was the third-to-fouth most played FYC video on VH1, but it feels pretty superfluous as a cover now

especially compared to...THIS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfdIAbHzxmg

can't believe the same guy who directed this video directed "the perfect kiss"

Damon Wayans as roland gift about two minutes into this In Living Color Soul Train parody

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eROqO_XxvjQ

For all the talk about nirvana killing hair metal there's really should be more acknowledgment of how they also killed off "college rock" over the same time period - that the Our Band Could Be Your Life narrative leaves little room for Midnight Oil.

That's why it's always really interesting to me to look at the early 90s modern rock charts. You have all these late 80s acts--or acts that feel very late 80s to me--still hitting, like, #3 for the first few years of the 90s. I feel like a lot of these acts are British, reflecting the anglophile bias of late 80s college rock, and a lot of the songs have kind of disappeared from pop culture at large.

Damon Wayans as roland gift about two minutes into this In Living Color Soul Train parody

― da croupier, Wednesday, July 23, 2014 11:37 AM (54 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol i've been thinking about this for 24 hrs

xpost like Slave To The Grind or Adrenalize, the've been sacrificed to the narrative.

Wayne's World (Feb. 1992) - 121.6m US box office, #1 soundtrack album
Wayne's World 2 (Dec. 1993) - $48.1m US box office, #78 soundtrack album

my appreciation for FYC cratered pretty hard after seeing their SNL appearance and hearing what Roland sounded like outside of the studio

voted "She Drives Me Crazy"

i distinctly remember clumsily trying to imitate the guitarist's playing when "johnny come home" was on TV a lot.

his playing or his dancing?

His playing (which I only heard via the video since I didn't have the record).

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You know it's kind of surprising these guys didn't come back when trip hop was kind of big because their mix of soul, samples and electronics kind of fits in there. I could definitely hear Roland Gift's vocals in say a Mezzanine era Massive Attack track quite well.

Oh yes! Roland Gift would've been a great Massive Attack guest vocalist.

melancholy + 'funky drummer' sample + long held organ chords - this is practically trip-hop already

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrBYsPJ0rkA

When Bruce's "Streets of Philadelphia" came out, it took me forever to figure out what it was reminding me of. Turns out it was this song.

boom - wouldn't have occurred to me and i suspect it's more convergent evolution more than anything else (change the drum sample and you're not far from 'justify my love')(so tempted to try to throw together a 'trip-hop not trip-hop' playlist together now). it's been forever since i listened to it but there has to be at least one track from listen w/o prejudice vol 1 that fits this pattern.

When Bruce's "Streets of Philadelphia" came out, it took me forever to figure out what it was reminding me of. Turns out it was this song.

― Johnny Fever,

whoa mind blown

t's been forever since i listened to it but there has to be at least one track from listen w/o prejudice vol 1 that fits this pattern.

"Waiting For The Day," the third single, which also uses organ and a slightly decelerated "Funky Drummer" sample, not to mention interpolation of "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

You guys remember this? A #3 hit in the UK in '88. Top twenty dance here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N74sYm8a2k8

"I'm Not the Man I Used to Be" sounds like a lost Bee Gees demo.

I enjoy Monie Love's turn on the loopy breakbeat "Monie Love Mix" of She Drives Me Crazy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgPZHX3912M

Just remembered that my 90-min tape of The Raw & The Cooked had Simply Red's Men and Women on the b-side.

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