Many props to those who mentioned the Alarm, XTC, TMBG, Hoodoo Gurus, Matthew Sweet, the Replacements, the Jayhawks, and Mother Love Bone. Having spent time in the 80's in college as a dj at an alternative station, I got to hear all those bands and see most of them. Some acts that I always wondered why they didn't make it or make it bigger: Rattail Grenadier, a punk band out of Indiana with several albums and at least one quasi-national tour, John Hiatt, I just don't understand this one, Alison Krauss, well known among those who like bluegrass but it seems as though no one else has ever heard of her, Fishbone, who together with Primus put on a three plus hour show for 400 fans and then actually kicked back and went to one of the local bars with us after the show, and Queensryche, who put on one of the best concerts I ever saw on the Operation Livecrime tour and whose studio stuff has also been really impressive.
Tim -- offering more thanks for the trip down memory lane
A wife with a copy of CIV III and her third different bar exam in as many years is a bad combination. "Verhoeven's _Starship Troopers_: Based on the back cover of the book by Robert Heinlein."
I realize it probably sounds more glamorous than it actually was, but I would love to have been/be a DJ at a college rock station.
More so back in those days than now. Not as much interesting music coming out. There's still good stuff coming out, but it seemed back when I was in College that there was a cool new album every week or so. My Friday afternoon stop after work was The Great Escape (Comic Shop) and then Ear-X-Tacy (Muisc Shop) that was right next to it. All the one-stop shopping my meager income could handle.
Actually being a jock was fabulous since I was working at what was then one of the only commercially licensed college radio stations in the midwest. And yes, having that commercial license from the FCC rather than a college license was a huge difference because it meant that we had an incredibly disproportionate influence on record labels because we were commercial which meant shitloads of free stuff including concert tickets and interviews with anybody who played within about a 100 mile radius of central Indiana. During an average shift, our playlist was simply incredible. It ran the gamut from pre-Document REM to Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rollins Band to Voice of the Beehive, Melissa Etheridge to Warren Zevon (and not Werewolves of Fucking London), and two bands I forgot to mention in my previous post, Dead Milkmen to The Brandos.
Just don't ever ask me about being in management at that college radio station and the several conversations that I got to have with the FCC about jocks playing, shall we say, less than appropriate music during the middle of the day (ie Big Black - Songs about Fucking).
Tim
A wife with a copy of CIV III and her third different bar exam in as many years is a bad combination. "Verhoeven's _Starship Troopers_: Based on the back cover of the book by Robert Heinlein."
Loved Zevon's "Sentimental Hygiene" which was essentially an R.E.M. album with Warren on lead vocals instead of Michael Stipe. I actually got into this before I did R.E.M.
Imagine my surprise when I was reading the liner notes a few years later!
Too bad we can't pick up that station in Louisville, but I do search around for it when travelling up North. It's around 92-94 on the dial isn't it?
We do have a pretty good adult alternative/jazz public radio station here. They had a pretty interesting 2001 greatest songs of all time as voted by listeners and dj's. If you want to check it out, it's at wfpk.org
I really liked Big Wreck. They had two songs on the radio, but "That Song" was great. I don't know if I would classify The Replacements as a coulda, woulda shoulda, they are still one of the most influential bands ever.
"I could be home right now, drinking this monster eggnog my brother makes with lighter fluid" Charles DuMar, Better Off Dead
True, the Replacements are very influential, but I still wouldn't say they "made" it. Most people have still never even heard of them. Unfortunately, a lot of influential artists just get mention from their better-known, more-profitable "offspring."
I've heard of Big Wreck, but never heard any of their songs that I can remember. I'll have to check 'em out.
One of my favorite newer bands is the Union Underground. I still can't figure out why these guys haven't broken out big yet. They had a $5 concert in my town with two local bands for cryin out loud, and this was after not only playing Ozzfest's second stage, but being second only to Mudvayne ON that stage. Before that, they toured with Manson.
Still, they don't get exposure for jack around here, and few people have ever heard of them. They SHOULD make it. Hopefully, they will. I haven't met one person that didn't like the band after I forced them to listen to em.
No matter how bad things may get, just imagine what would happen if Vince Russo was booking again, and you will feel better.
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