I’m at the gym the other day working out and I’ve got my iPod loaded with classic new wave tracks. When one of those tracks, “Oh Bondage, Up Yours!” by X-Ray Spex comes on, I am immediately teleported back in time, back to December 1980 and January 1981 when I first heard this song on [...]
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On the road with Devo
There I was, sitting down across from Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh, Gerald and Bob Casale, and Alan Meyers. The topic of our discussion was “de-evolution” and the state of music today. And then, I asked them a question that has been nagging me ever since I first slapped Q: Are We Not Men? A: We [...]
Soundtrack for Ice Cream Headache
You know when you hear certain songs how they take on a musical journey back in time to when you first heard them? That happened a lot when I was writing Ice Cream Headache. I had all these songs in my heart and soul; songs that I heard when I was a young boy in [...]
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe…
Woke up with this song in my head. I wonder why.
“I’m feelin’ Radioactive, think I’m gonna meltdown tonight” — Scott Wilk + The Walls
In the mail today! A flashback to those glorious, goofin’, pogo jumping, slam dancing early the 1980s. I saw this band at the Southern Illinois University (SIU) Student Center at the beginning of the 1980 fall semester, (shortly after I saw David and the Happenings perform at an outdoor party in Lewis Park) and the [...]
“Style before Gel” — Damaged Goods
The back story for “Style before Gel” dates back to 1980 when I saw David and the Happenings for the first time at SIU (Southern Illinois University) and three times in Chicago, including one slam-dancing punk rock night at the Space Place, which was the inspiration for this story. David and the Happenings was a [...]
Feeling a little 1990′s today
Do you know the feeling, when you haven’t listened to a particular song for some time, and then, when you do, it’s like you’ve just treated yourself to something special? You might recall the first time you heard the song or remember times when you listened to it all the time. Either way, it gets [...]
Classic Ultravox
A classic Ultravox song, “Passing Strangers” from their 1979 album Vienna. I saw them in concert thirty years ago on Halloween night at SIU (Southern Illinois University).
It’s a John Lennon weekend
Yesterday, when I visited Google I was surprised and then moved when I saw the John Lennon animation. It’s a John Lennon weekend and we’re all remembering the man, the musician, the artist, the father, and the husband who touched so many lives with his music. Even my blog has seen a surge in traffic [...]
iPod Fully Loaded
Remember the days before digitalized music, MP3 players and iPods–when making a compilation tape, whether for a road trip or a friend was an art? It’s like what Rob (John Cusack) says in High Fidelity (2000), “The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than [...]
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