Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Someone mentioned Blancmange's "Living on the Ceiling" online earlier, and it got me thinking about another one of my compilations...this was an interesting one to make, and the first multiple-tape compilation that wasn't a year's end best-of. It's a curious mixture of old and new. The Untitled title was originally due to not being able to come up with a neat title like Listen/Walk in Silence, but it ended up fitting...it kind of reminded me of The Beatles in a way because of its length and randomness.

tape brand: Memorex dbs90. The brand was prevalent at most of the local stores that sold them, probably because they were relatively cheap and sold in bricks of five or six, if I'm not mistaken.
compilation made: Summer 1989, during my first tenure at the Athol DPW.
listened to: Pretty much everywhere. It got some serious listening while we made our rounds mowing the cemeteries in and around town.
mindset: I'd just graduated high school and was now biding my time, waiting to head off to college in Boston. Most of these tracks originated from stuff I'd taped off the radio (in particular, WAMH and WMDK), with a few tracks from sides C and D coming from episodes of 120 Minutes. A few tracks were borrowed from head58's collection, and the rest were from mine. In short, this was a mixture of a compilation, and stuff I wanted on one tape (or stuff I didn't otherwise own) that I'd be bringing along.
writing: Mainly Belief in Fate and a lot of poetry at this time...pretty much my introspective period.

SIDE A
1. Blue Clocks Green, "Hemingway"
Known as both a beloved and reviled song on college radio due to its low quality and goofiness. Heard extensively on WAMH in 1988-89.
2. Love And Rockets, "So Alive"
A great summer single and LnR's biggest hit in the US, hitting #3 on Billboard's Hot 100, and #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks. It predated the self-titled fourth album by two months, and got some serious airplay on a bunch of different rock stations.
3. The Damned, "Alone Again Or"
A great Damned track off a somewhat iffy album, it's a wonderful cover of a classic Love track. I'd gotten this from their Light at the End of the Tunnel compilation, but I believe it was also a single Chris and I had found at the radio station the year previous.
4. The Godfathers, "She Gives Me Love"
I loved the Godfathers back in the day, because they played an excellent mix of old-school punk and British psychedelia. This was the first single off the second album, More Songs About Love and Hate.
5. The Replacements, "Within Your Reach"
Taken from the Say Anything... soundtrack, another album that got heavy play on my walkman. I remember hearing this in the movie and wanting to write a song very much like it.
6. Public Image Ltd, "Warrior"
Say what you will about PiL's late 80s pop output, they had some great tracks like this one. I wasn't the biggest fan of 9 (I liked 1987's Happy? a lot more), but it had great singles. I'd actually heard this first on the Slaves of New York soundtrack.
7. Joy Division, "Day of the Lords"
I didn't get into Joy Division until 1988's Substance (mainly because their albums were hard to find for quite some time), and this track from Unknown Pleasures was one that stuck with me.
8. The Icicle Works, "Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)"
Another old-school track, this one from 1984. I think this one got planted here because I'd found the album on cassette in a bargain bin around this time. One of those "oh yeah, I remember this song" tracks.
9. Tin Machine, "Under the God"
A lot of Bowie fans diss the Tin Machine era, though I'm not exactly sure why. Personally, I thought it was a great step for him, considering his last few albums had been pretty lightweight and uninspiring, even despite the hit singles. I quite enjoyed the video for this track, a mosh pit gone seriously out of hand.
10. Wire, "Eardrum Buzz"
Ah, Wire. After two great albums, they came out with a rather weird collection of singles and "live re-recordings" of previous tracks. It took me awhile to latch onto It's Beginning to and Back Again (a runner-up title for this comp, btw), but I did like this track. I remember one of my classmates asking me what the hell was up with this band and the earshirt.
11. Pixies, "Gigantic"
Grabbed this one off WAMH in 1988, this was the first Pixies track I'd heard. It got a lot of airplay out in the Valley, and rightly so, considering a few of them had gone to UMass Amherst just a few years previous.

SIDE B
1. Throwing Muses, "Santa Claus"
This was found at the radio station on a groovy promo album from Warner Brothers called Winter Warnerland, and I believe it was also the b-side to their recent single "Dizzy". One of the tracks that got me into the Muses, actually.
2. Ciccone Youth, "Tuff Titty Rap/Into the Groove(y)"
The odd-yet-makes-sense pairing of Mike Watt and Sonic Youth released exactly one album, which brought out this weird yet fun cover of a classic Madonna song. Another track heavily played by WAMH at the time.
3. Blancmange, "Living On the Ceiling"
Another retro track, I'd found it at our local library, of all places. They had a few hits in the UK and didn't do much here, but the video made the rounds back in 1983 on the fledgling MTV.
4. EBN OZN, "Aeiou Sometimes Y"
And while we're here, another retro track from the early MTV years! Chris had picked this album up in a dollar bin somewhere, so I couldn't pass it up. The album itself is pretty cheesy synthpop (including a twitch-inducing cover of "Rockin' Robin"!), but this one has risen to cult status.
5. Depeche Mode, "Everything Counts (Live)"
The lead single from the live 101 album and documentary. I believe I had a dub of the album from Chris until I finally ordered my own copy from Columbia House. You'd expect a synth band to be a bit flimsy live, but DM actually has a great live show, because they started out as a live band. It helped that Alan Wilder introduced them to the sampler in 1983, of course!
6. Fine Young Cannibals, "Suspicious Minds"
One of their first singles, and a great Elvis cover, complete with Jimmy Somerville doing backup vocals. I finally got to hear this one after buying their second album (The Raw and the Cooked, which had come out earlier in the year) and following up with the first one.
7. The Go-Betweens, "Was There Anything I Could Do?"
Not one of the prettiest bands out there at the time (although violinist Amanda Brown was kinda cute), but Grant McLennan and Robert Forster were brilliant songwriters, and 16 Lovers Lane from 1988 is an absolutely wonderful album worth owning. I wrote a song inspired by this track, although I've never recorded it.
8. Clan Of Xymox, "Muscoviet Musquito"
One of the tracks from 4AD's Lonely Is an Eyesore compilation from 1987, this was the first Xymox track I'd heard, and immediately loved their sound. They weren't quite goth, but weren't quite synthpop either. By the time their Twist of Shadows album came out later in 1989, I was a huge fan.
9. The Nails, "88 Lines About 44 Women"
A classic new wave track that everyone should know. I first heard this through Chris and a few others, who'd heard it on WAMH, and somehow managed to find a 12" promo of it. I always thought the last name (Amaranta) was spelled Ameranda for some reason and I liked how it sounded, so one of my Belief in Fate characters had that as a middle name. I linked to my favorite YouTube version, which interprets the the song as anime characters.
10. Bow Wow Wow, "I Want Candy"
Another retro/early days of MTV track that surfaced on a radio show on WAMH, so I included it here.
11. Sting, "Spread a Little Happiness"
Chris and I were quite amused by this track from the Brimstone & Treacle soundtrack, and I thought it would make a wonderful end track for side B. We played this song to an empty room the night of my senior prom, when he and I were cleaning it up, and proceeded to do a softshoe on the Town Hall floor.

SIDE C
1. Swans, "Saved"
Interesting track, this. Considering that their earlier output was loud, sludgy and brutal, their Burning World was a 180 into quiet, calm guitar work. Not their strongest song, but one of my favorites of theirs.
2. Morrissey, "Interesting Drug"
The second of his post-Viva Hate non-album singles, this one always seemed a bit of a throwaway, but it was catchy. I'm amused that the band line-up in the video is Andy Rourke, Mike Joyce, and Craig Gannon--1986 Smiths minus Johnny Marr, basically. See if you can hear him sneezing just as the song fades out!
3. fIREHOSE, "Time With You"
One of my favorite tracks from Mike Watt, it's got a countrified groove and some killer riffs. This one I picked up straight from an episode of 120 Minutes.
4. Eurythmics, "Thorn In My Side"
I'd just recently gotten dubs of the earlier Eurythmics albums from a friend, and ended up really liking Revenge, the album just before Savage (which is my favorite of theirs). I think I picked this one off 120 as well, probably same episode.
5. The Darling Buds, "Let's Go Round There"
I thought this band was a bit of a Primitives knockoff at first, but they definitely grew on me, especially with their second album Crawdaddy. In retrospect, this kind of hints at the Britpop wave that would hit a year or so later.
6. Pixies, "Here Comes Your Man"
Another Pixies sighting! This was the second single from their sophomore album, and the track that pretty much put them on the popular alt.rock map. Even the band thought it was a bit of a sellout song, which is probably why the lipsyncing in the video is so hilarious.
7. The Wolfgang Press, "Raintime"
I knew about the Wolfgang Press from their track on Lonely Is an Eyesore, but this was the one that made me realize they were actually a pretty groovy band sometimes. Another track lifted off an episode of 120.
8. Husker Du, "Makes No Sense At All"
Probably their best known song, or at least the one non-fans know. They used to play this quite a bit on 120, which is where I got this one from. I love how the video is for both sides of the single--the b-side being a cover of the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme, as a nod to a fellow Minnesotan!
9. The Feelies, "Away"
I'd heard of the Feelies before but never really heard them until the Only Life album, which I bought from Columbia House soon after it came out, basically on this track alone. It's a great folksy, REM-like album with a lot of fun guitar work. The video was directed by Jonathan Demme, who used the band in multiple places, including the high school reunion band in Something Wild.
10. Julian Cope, "Charlotte Anne"
Julian Cope is a very strange chap, but My Nation Underground is a surprisingly pop-friendly album, and this is an irresistibly catchy song. Another song first heard on 120 but bought soon after.
11. Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians, "Swirling"
Quite possibly my favorite Robyn Hitchcock song from my favorite album of his. It's an absolutely gorgeous track. It's funny how some tracks just hit you during a particular listening: I heard this on WRSI once when I was at an antiques store with my dad that summer, and it had just stopped raining. The cool post-rain breeze, the grayness of the sky, the darkness of the wet road, the colors of the trees across the way...everything just sort of fell into place, the song providing a perfect soundtrack of that moment.
12. The English Beat, "March of the Swivelheads"
You probably know this song from the link--it's used in Ferris Bueller's Day Off when Ferris is trying to beat Jeannie home at the end of the day. It's actually a remix of the band's "Rotating Head" and it's a great track. Lifted this from WAMH.

SIDE D
1. Aztec Camera, "Oblivious"
I think I first heard this track during the early days of MTV, but never got around to picking it up until much later. Their albums were notoriously hard to find, which is surprising considering they were released by Sire. Always a fun summery track.
2. China Crisis, "Arizona Sky"
WMDK and WRSI used to play this now and again, and I think it was the only place I'd ever heard it. China Crisis never did much here stateside, but they had some pretty neat jazz-pop tracks like this one.
3. Camper Van Beethoven, "Take the Skinheads Bowling"
Ah yes...a cult classic that makes no sense at all, and a lo-fi video to boot. Another band I didn't get into until much later, but I always liked this song, silly as it is.
4. Talk Talk, "Talk Talk"
Another retro track from the early 80s. I think a lot of people wrote this band off as they weren't as pretty and poppy as the other New Romantic bands out there, but in the long run, they came out with some shockingly intellectual and creative records and still have a following. I love the piano work in the middle eight in this track.
5. Wire, "Ambitious"
I'd known about Wire but didn't really hear them until I heard a few tracks on the Enigma Variations 2 album from 1987, which featured "Ahead" from The Ideal Copy. I bought that one soon after buying 1988's A Bell is a Cup.. and loved the crunchy alt.pop. This is another great track from Ideal that got a lot of plays on my walkman.
6. U2, "God Part II"
A great track from Rattle & Hum that doesn't get the props it deserves. It's sort of a follow-up to John Lennon's scathing "God" from his Plastic Ono Band album, and a great driving track. Of course, flanging drums is always a good thing, too.
7. Pixies, "Monkey Gone to Heaven"
The first single from Doolittle, I picked up the album within a few weeks of its release. I find this a stronger track than "Here Comes Your Man".
8. Underworld, "Underneath The Radar"
Post-Freur but pre-electronica, Underworld came out with 2 synthpop albums in the 80s that didn't quite go anywhere, though this track did feature on a few TV shows (including Miami Vice). They hid for a few years and surprised everyone when they became techno wizards.
9. Julian Cope, "World Shut Your Mouth"
Probably Cope's best-known song, it's lifted off his other pop-styled album Saint Julian, which got a lot of play on WRSI and WMDK.
10. The Pogues, "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah"
A great Pogues single-only track from late 1988 (I think I lifted it from the Lost Angels soundtrack, if I'm not mistaken), it's a great tribute to old-school Motown pop.
11. X, "Hungry Wolf"
The compilation version is the live take from Live at the Whisky a Go-Go album, but this is probably my favorite track of theirs, and a hell of a lot of fun to play on bass.
12. Easterhouse, "Come Out Fighting"
...and time to end a compilation on a positive note, I chose Easterhouse's biggest hit, which ended up getting some commercial airplay even here in the states. It's not really indicative of their earlier, more British working-class style, but it's a good song nonetheless.


This would end up being the last compilation I'd make before heading off to college, and in effect, the last compilation of my high school years. The sounds would change that autumn, as I'd be listening to the more commercial WFNX instead of the college and AOR stations, though I'd remain loyal to alternative rock for the most part. I think this is why I always think of 1989 as the end of the "college rock" era, at least from my perspective.

Once again, a long list of songs for your amusement/enjoyment and my retrospect. 1989 was a rather interesting year of change. I'd been going out with Tracey for a few months and it looked to be a really solid relationship so far, and that brought me out of the self-imposed funk I'd felt earlier my senior year. I seem to remember actually feeling a little frustrated by not being the doom-and-gloom proto-emo kid anymore, as I'd kinda grown used to it, to the point where I believed it alone fueled my creativity at that point. Yeah, silly, I know, but still...

There was also the first semester of college to deal with. That itself was kind of strange, in that it felt more like being dropped into the middle of Boston to fend for myself--the school part of it I could handle, it was the change in atmosphere, mindset and setting that hit me. Thankfully my discovery of WFNX (and to my roommate's chagrin, since he was against anything remotelly commercial, even if it was good), I was able to follow up on my alternative music.

Pixies, "Here Comes Your Man"
Doolittle came out just about the time I was wrapping up my senior year in high school, and though it's not my favorite of theirs (that's reserved for Bossanova, this track (and its silly video) is probably my choice from it.
The Cure, "Disintegration", "Homesick", "Untitled"
These three tracks finish off the Disintegration album and are the ones I like most. I remember listening to these tracks while sitting on my parents' porch (reading All Quiet on the Western Front, of all things), just after the last day of head58's first Fiasco party at his grandfather's cabin. A very much "end of summer" type of feeling.
The Replacements, "I'll Be You"
Say what you will about post-Tim 'Mats, I really like this song. I'm sure I'm the only one that remembers this song was used in a 1989 TV movie called Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again (it's about 3:30 in).
The Godfathers, "She Gives Me Love"
The Godfathers's second album More Songs About Love and Hate may not have been as huge as their first one, but it had a lot of great tracks like this one.
Ministry, "Burning Inside"
They had a video for this one? Of course, I missed a lot of videos post-1989 since I didn't have cable during my college years. The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste was kind of a strange album to me, as I was used to their previous one. This one felt more commercial--in its own way, of course. This was a great track to play along with on my bass, though.
Nine Inch Nails, "Down In It"
Pretty Hate Machine was a defining moment in my freshman year in college--it was probably the first album that really grabbed at my anger and depression at the time. Anger at my roommate, and depression that I was missing Tracey something fierce. It was probably one of the most played cassettes in my collection that year. I distinctly remember listening to it riding on the commuter train out to Fitchburg with a severe chip on my shoulder. Say what you will about the more-played "Head Like a Hole", "Down In It" was it for me. "Terrible Lie" was the big F-You to my roommate, and "Something I Can Never Have" was the distance from Tracey at the time. So yeah...soundtrack to my life at the end of 1989.
Morrissey, "Ouija Board, Ouija Board"
Out of the singles that Morrissey released that year, this is my favorite, even though a lot of critics say it's the weakest.
Robyn Hitchcock, "One Long Pair of Eyes", "Swirling", "Madonna of the Wasps"
A lot of critics love 1988's Globe of Frogs, but personally I LOVE Queen Elvis. This one's got a lot of great tracks on it, very autumnal-sounding. I remember hearing "Swirling" on WRSI one Sunday autumn afternoon when my dad and I were at an antique store in Winchester NH, and I felt it kind of fit the mood...another "end of summer" feeling.
XTC, "Mayor of Simpleton"
Oranges & Lemons got a lot of play on my tape deck for most of the year. Great album, and this was the big hit off it. If anything, this was an album that put me in a good mood during this time.
Wire, "Eardrum Buzz"
It's Beginning to and Back Again is a very odd album for Wire...it wasn't so much new stuff as it was a hodgepodge of new stuff (like this) and reinterpreted older stuff. I only had this on cassette (I didn't pick up a cd player until well after the album was out), so I never got to hear the other single, "In Vivo" (which I feel in retrospect is a much stronger track), until a few years later when it popped up on the A List compilation.
Love and Rockets, "So Alive"
The BIG hit (it actually hit #1 on certain charts!) of theirs that everyone knows. I love the slinkiness of the song.
Bob Mould, "Wishing Well"
Workbook was another tape that got a lot of play on train rides home. I'm not sure if h58 got me into this album or if I picked it up on my own, but this is the track that won me over.
The The, "The Beat(en) Generation"
Not my favorite The The track, but it definitely surprised me when this came out, especially when I heard Johnny Marr was on it. Mind Bomb ended up getting a lot of play on my walkman that summer when I mowed cemeteries for the DPW.
Colorblind James Experience, "Considering a Move to Memphis"
This weird yet goofy little ditty had some big airplay on WAMH. One of those tracks you hear on the radio and sort of stare at it with a look of "uh...oookay...?" but somehow you learn to like it. To this day whenever someone mentions pieroshkis or Memphis, I think of this song.
Sigue Sigue Sputnik, "Success"
How do you react when you hear that one of your favorite weird 80s bands teams up with the dreaded Stock Aitken Waterman production team? I really did want to hate this song for that reason...but damn it, it was catchy enough to like. Dress for Excess wasn't the best follow-up to Flaunt It (and it did take three years!), but it had its moments, like "Is This the Future", the hauntingly beautiful closing track I could totally see being played in a space opera anime.
Fuzzbox, "International Rescue"
Speaking of favorite weird bands from '86, Fuzzbox followed up their punky sorta-self-titled album with Big Bang...and upon first listen, I was totally let down. How could they go from snarky punks("Love is the Slug") to Jem and the Holograms("Pink Sunshine")?!?? But somehow I was still drawn into it...it was poppy to a J-Pop degree, and soon became one of my favorites of the year. They even managed to get extra credit for doing a great cover of "Walking on Thin Ice"...a Yoko Ono song!
Max Q, "Way of the World"
Michael Hutchence's side project yielded only one album and this was the single. A rather interesting take on politics of the time.
He Said, "Could You...?"
Graham Lewis from Wire released Watch Take Care when I wasn't looking, and I actually enjoyed this one more than Wire's IBTABA. Very moody and sparse, and very unlike the stuff he did with Wire at the time.
Xymox, "Obsession"
Twist of Shadows has always been one of those "oh yeah, forgot about that album!" sort of releases, but it's always been a big favorite of mine, and in the top 10 of 1989. They grew out of their gloomy 4AD sound somewhat, went a little poppier, but it's an awesome album, well worth picking up. "Imagination" was the other single.
Jorge Ben, "Umbabarauma"
It's a track from the 70s, but David Byrne released it on one of his Brazil Classics compilations, and it's got one hell of a funky riff. WAMH played this a lot, as did 120 Minutes.
Public Image Ltd, "Disappointed"
To be honest, an ironically titled song from 9, which I didn't like nearly as much as their previous one, Happy?. It's kind of grown on me, though. I saw that tour PiL did with the Sugarcubes and New Order, and it was a rather interesting, if slightly boring, show. Personally I liked "Warrior" better.
Severed Heads, "All Saints Day"
A band I'd only heard of but never heard until I bought their Rotund for Success album and it quickly became one of my favorites. It's weird and lo-fi electronica, but it's got some absolutely great tracks on it like this one.
Tin Machine, "Under the God"
Say what you will about Bowie's side project, I really liked this album--it was SO much better than his last few albums which were bordering on snoozefests. Another tape that got a lot of play during my DPW tenure.
Dinosaur Jr., "Just Like Heaven"
Hee! This video still cracks me up. Great trashy cover of the big Cure hit.
The B-52s, "Channel Z"
I'm really not a big fan of Cosmic Thing--I've heard "Love Shack" enough in one lifetime, thankyewverymuch--but I've always liked this track.
Red Flag, "Russian Radio"
These guys were definitely Depeche Mode clones, more so than Camouflage ever was, but this is a great track nonetheless.
Ciccone Youth, "Into the Groove(y)"
I'd never been a big fan of Sonic Youth, but this album changed that. Originally a late 1988 album but rereleased in 1989, this track got quite a bit of play on WAMH.
Michael Penn, "Brave New World"
March was such an unexpectedly great album that came from nowhere. WFNX used to play this track a lot and it's my favorite from it. One of those almost nonsensical "Subterranean Homesick Blues" sort of tracks, really.
The Smithereens, "A Girl Like You"
Never dawned on me until the third or fourth listen of this song that the lyrics are basically the plot to Say Anything, which this was originally written for. Another great Smithereens track!
Bill Pritchard, "Tommy & Co."
Very few people remember this one, but it's from one of my other favorite albums of '89. Folksy and poppy with quite a bit of moody-bastardness thrown in, I listened to this album quite a bit deep into 1990.