While America never fell in love with a-ha for more than 15 minutes, they had an impressive career around the world. This, their third disc, is prob. my fave for it's the last true new wave disc from them. "Touchy" should get any erasure fan's feet going and "The Living Daylights" is pure power pop at it's spit-shine finest, but it's the slower stuff that lures me into the blue of "Stay on These Roads". Songs like the title track and "You'll End Up Crying" are still, ten years after their release, constants in my mix tapes.

the eels: "electro-shock blues":

The person at Dreamworks who greenlighted this album should be shot. It's the album most likely to lose money that I've actually paid for. Non-commercial doesn't even begin to describe the way this album plays out. It's fucking depressing. I love it. Esoteric and humane at the same time, you can cry when you listen to it, and the tears can be spread both for E and yourself. Keep the bleach and the razor blades away from me. I'll be busy listening to an album that deserves being heard as a whole.

Green Day: "Nimrod":

Before you start cursing me as a sellout, let me explain. I'll be the first to admit that I was a Green-Day-a-phobic when they first came out. Punk doesn't belong on the pop charts. Punk can't be popular because to be popular means to compromise ideals. I was surprised at how much I liked "Insomniac, but I still couldn't bring myself to buy "Nimrod" until "Good Riddance" wouldn't get out of my head, and then I did it through (egads) a mail order. Two weeks on, the album is becoming a companion. It's not a big, boisterous "OI!", but rather a loud, introspective "Fuck You!", a directed anger and and a logical guide of where to begin sorting things out. And goddammit, it's a whole hell of a lot of fun to slam to, more so than 99% of any of the versions of any Sex Pistols song in existance. The fact that Billie Joe has stuck with his band and not killed himself with PIL-type tunage shows more strength that a Ministry "Filth Pig". Anyone who downs this disc hasn't listened to it, much less a Jello Biafra or Henry Rollins spoken-word disc. Green Day is modern punk, not the new punk, but modern punk. Anyone who disagrees can go "oi" themselves.

Ambersunshower: "Walter T. Smith": This one of those discs you can quietly groove with for hours before you realize you're singing along.

Billy Joel: "The Nylon Curtain": I've recently gotten my record player hooked up again, and I've been mining the musical caves of my past. It escapes logic how this, my first and favourite Billy Joel album, has managed to never be upgraded to cd. I bought it for "Pressure", and that still remains a fave, but the years since I bought this then-current record have made me appreciate everything from punk to classical. "The Nylon Curtain" opens my eyes as to how such a thing could've happened: It's both positive and negative, angry and hopeful, lyric-wise aggressive and yet completely lacking a solid, dancable beat. Music for the musing masses, without a doubt, and I gladly count myself amongst them.

Beck: "Steropathetic Soulmanure": Wierd, but in a good way. No money, no honey. Strange. We played Pac-Man. Odd. Nomoneynohoney. Strange. The truth of youth will lead you back home again. Will you want to leave? Odd.

Howard Jones: "People": His first studio album in like six years is well worth the wait. I listened to this album for THREE HOURS straight on my way up to Ct to see him, then did it again on the trip home. It's just that good.

"The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" soundtrack:: This is the ultimate faggot's cd. You'll cry if you're in that sort of mindset, you'll dance if you're bouncy, but you'll never not find something that will suit your mood.

Fastball: "All the Pain Money Can Buy": They made up their minds, and they started listening, and they said, "Damn, this pretty catchy".

Phranc:

"Positivly Phranc": I've been on a big accoustic kick lately, and this is the disc I keep turning to. Folk-punk before Ani made it cool, Phranc dishes out the same kind of honest anger, but she does it with a more consistant vibrancy.

kd Lang: "Ingenue": Simply a classic disc, quiet but entertaining, subdued and somehow emotionally complex, it has held up incredibly in the six years since it's release, unlike, say "All You Can Eat", which while under-rated, is still no "Inguenue". I fell in love with kd the first time I heard her sing "Crying" with that old master of the Wilburys, Roy Orbison, but this disc is what put her on my all-time faves list. Alternately somber and footloose, she sets a tone that's almost depressed, but in an adult-kind of way.

KMFDM: "Rules": Wonderful industrial noise: angry, all-consuming and fulfilling, KMFDM gives your ears a good solid fucking like few bands do. The lyrics are between unintelligible and (what's printed) is, in the beat tradition, left open to interpretation. Yet dammitall, it manages to be danceable and catchy. I mean, these guys have been remixed by Giorgio Moroder and are proud of this fact

Dexy's Midnight Runners: "Too-Rye-Ay":True Irish pop, before U2 made it serious and Horner made it schmaltzy. You know "Come On Eileen", but there's at least three tunes that are just as fast and loose, plus a few slower tunes that slip into your psyche and won't let go.

The Subhumans: "The Day the Country Died": White boy punk? Yeppers. Standard issue suburban bitching? It's in there. Nasal cockney screaming? Oh darling, this disc has it in droves. "No" is my fave track, but "Mickey Mouse" gets my Doc Martin's stomping. And who could find fault with the title track but the trendies that it's aimed at (who prob. won't understand it anyways).

Depeche Mode: "Home/Useless": This has the distinction of being the first single to appear on my "most enamoured" list, as well as the first balled since Sarah McLaughlin's "I Will Remember You" to really touch me. "Home" is a heartache of a song, a "Somebody" for the growing up Gen Xers. The 4 videos are incredible for those of us who avoid MTV, and the extended single includes some way cool remixes.

David Bowie: "Outside": You think you know Bowie? You call yourself a Bowie fan? Unless you're one of the pitiful 80 large who bought this disc, you don't know Bowie. The tour (with NIN, BTW) might've sucked rocks (He apologized for Chicago show, where I saw him), but this album is gleaming industrial, all doom and gloom, pounding bass and shrieking walls of sound. Sir David trounces Trent with his own tools, and adds the spit shine of a Legendary Pink Dots album.

David Bowie: "Sound and Vision": This is the definitive Bowie set released to date. Sure, it doesn't really go beyond 1980, but a lot of people (myself NOT among them) hate anything he did from "Let's Dance" on. At any rate, this set appeals to everyone: Bowie fans revel in the cool versions found only here (esp. the spartan demo for "Major Tom" and the live, last-of-Ziggy "Rock and Roll Suicide"), pop fans dig the familiar tunage (ch-ch-ch-changes anyone?), classic rock fans love the vintage stuff with it's genre-busting range of everything from Skynard to Sabbath-lite, and the new Bowie fans are young music historians hearing a bit of the almost 30 year history of Bowie: the true chameleon of rock.

Honky Tonk Angels (various artists): This is a cheapo-priced double disc set. The first disc is kinda half-hits by the old hags of country, but the second disc is a worthy comp in it's own right. Varying from touching ("No Charge") to biting satire (Harper Vally PTA) to songs that literally sound as if they were released last week for the Shawn Colvin/Jewel/new-vouge Joni Mitchell set (Girls Ride Horses Too), this disc is a dandy companion for any mode of mind.

Portishead:Dummy: I've just picked this album up, but it's a definate staple. If you like Mazzy Star, old, depressing Cure, Single Gun Thoery or even Kate Bush, you'll dig this. Special thanx to Lasher for making me buy this disc.

Marilyn Manson: AntiChrist Superstar: Yeah, I know, you're supposed to ignore or adore Manson, but this album is less of a shock than "Portrait" was, and their concerts are killer-good (I've been close enough to get spit on by Manson himself). Ignore the hype. Two and a half years from it's release, this album still hits my player on a regular basis. If you're a NIN fan, then judge his next album by this and "Wish". If you're a lyric lover, then check these guys out. For every offensive quote you see on the news laying blame for the local suicide, there's a nugget of minor wisdom in this mature album by rock's current bad bois (special thanx for the gif: www.luetke.com).

Pete Wylie:Sinful: This is one of the best never-made-it-to-the remotest-parts-of-the-mainstream albums I own. This guy is somewhere between The eels and Shawn Colvin, yet he put this album out 8 years ago. If anyone has any info on anything else he's done, I'd love to hear it

George Michael: Faith: I never cease to be amazed at how timeless this album is. "I Want Your Sex" still retains it's slinky, slutty, funky goove; few songs are better premonitions of fulfilled lusts than this, even 10 years on. "Hard Day" has been eclipsed as white-boy commercial funk by Jamiroquai and 99% of the jungle and hard hop mixers out there, and no radio station worth it's air time plays white male crooners in these late '90's, but songs like "Monkey", "Father Figure" and "A Last Request" give reasons for a return to the sound that Mr. Michael perfected.

George Michael:Listen Without Predjudice, Vol. 1:The name of this says it all. Whether you think of George as a VH-1 mainstay, a failed Dreamworks comeback artist, faggot pervert with a bit more than time on his hands or 1/2 of Wham!, this is a difficult album to fully grip, but one that I can listen to over and over.

Tricked Out: This Moonshine Music comp disc has some great hardhop beats and is a killer disc to space with, all mixed by Omar Santana. Blow the bass beats on this bad boi!

Crowded House: Temple of Low Men: The most coherent album I've ever heard. These tunes have made me listen better, look out better and sing louder without care. One of my all time faves, and one of the most under-rated albums of all time.

Fugazi:13 Songs: This album is what punk wanted to become when it grew up.

Transformers: The Movie soundtrack: Get over the name and just enjoy the tunage. I just got a tape from "BotCon" and it just reminded me what a great collection this was. "Dare" has always been a great song to bring me out a funk.

Shawn Colvin: A Few Small Repairs: My choice as best disc of '96. "Trouble" is my fave tune, but the whole album reeks of greatness, from beginning to end. Shawn will make you laugh, cry and wish you'd never been born, but then give you fire for the fight.

Danny Wilson: Meet Danny Wilson: A rolling good way to spend an evening alone, it doesn't quite have the high points of "Bebopnmoptop", but it is a much more consistant album, and besides, "Mary's Prayer" should be a VH-1 staple, dammitall.

Jamiroquai: Travelling Without Moving: Who put Stevie Wonder's soul into this white boy? This album makes me feel likes it's 1976 and the whole world is groovin to the future, an ugly one, but Jamiroquai is keeping track.

Short Cuts soundtrack: The movie lets you see Huey Lewis' weenie, the soundtrack is a subdued "Cathedral" of emotions, highlighted by the jazz of Annie Ross' "To Hell With Love"

I know it's corny and all, but a quick mention to "An Evening with John Denver". This disc is one of the one's I'd never give up, coz it's so honest, so sweet, and has taken me thru some tough times. This disc is the reason why I've replaced "sugary" with "saccharin" in my vocabulary. Thanks to an old friend, Eileen, for showing me the difference on that mountain in Hartford. I cried my way up that hill and laughed my way down, thanks to you and John Denver.

And Howard is currently my god 'coz of....

"People" is damned wonderful, and worth every moment of the wait. The most positive album in years is also one of the most interesting, from an audiophile's perspective. Buy it, or don't bitch about the music scene sucking.

DAY 1:

Disc Jockey (East Town Mall): Fat, jolly, 10 year old girl hustling by me drawling "Mawmma, mawmma, let's got to the kuntri CD's" doesn't bode well. Sure enough: No Pansy Division. Last time I was in here, I was given a free Chris Countrell (forgive my spelling) tape single. I noticed it came from a box marked something to the effect of "Free to all 80's hangovers and burnout metalheads" and was depressed for minutes. I would've been completely disheartened if not for the 88-cent Mucky Pup tape I bought.

Camelot Music (East Town Mall): Huge, dangerous looking bargain bin tempts me as I walk in the door, but I resist, instead diving into the "sale", "drastically reduced" computer software. Trudge over to the "P" section after realizing that they weren't really on sale. Nada on the Pansy Division, although there was a really cute guy looking at the new Pearl Jam album.

DAY 2:

Camelot Music (West Town Mall): Super nice guy who recognizes me from putting in job application (though I still haven't recieved a call) offers to help me. But alas, there is no Pansy Division to be found.

Blockbuster Music (Kingston Pike, by UT campus): No Pansy Division, but a huge bargain bin, where I find a New Order (nee Joy Division minus suicidal-before-Kurt-made-it-cool Ian, for you neophytes) Peel Sessions disc. They're not hiring, but the cute, and the extremely, um, well, GAY guy that I ask really seems disappointed about it. I make a mental note to shop here again.

DAY 3:

Wal-Mart (Alcoa Highway, by the airport): I don't really expect to find Pansy Division here, but I look anyway. I buy Hanson out of frustration. I listen to it for days on end, lose all credibility I had with myself, then justify myself with "It's fun, and they write and play all their own stuff. Plus, it's produced by the Dust Bros.".

Day 4:

A return trip to Camelot @ West Town gets me nowhere, so I hop over to...

Cat's Music (Kingston Pike, by the mall): BAM!! I pick up the one Pansy Disc they have: "More Lovin' from our Oven". It replaces Hanson in the car, and I swear, my Camaro drinks a quart of oil to celebrate.

This week I would've gone to check out some new stores, but I blew a huge wad (take that as you will) at the Electric Ballroom. I went back to the Camelot, the bastards still didn't have any Pansy Division, and they still haven't hired anyone.

Tally to date: 1 for 8, but I will still continue the search. Cat's had just the one disc, and there's still so many music retailers out there...

3-21: I've been too broke to even walk into a CD store. But I broke down this weekend and hit the Disc Exchange on Kingston. I picked up a used copy of "Undressed" for $7. Love it, esp. the regular version of "Bunnies". I'll add more as I find an apartment, get financially secure and go on a music binge (I'm soooo over-due)

4-9: I blew $50 at Disc Exchange, including $12 on a Pansy disc. I got the worst attitude from this fat, balding jerk behind the counter, who also tried to sell me Shawn Colvin's "Live '88" as an entirely new album before one of his store-mates shot him down. Hint to Disc Exchange: It helps if your clerks have a passion for music, not just for running their magic pen over my purchases. I bought Pansy Div, Ambersunshower, Marilyn Manson & Billy Holiday and made a crack about my varied tastes. I got nothing in response. Oh forgive me, God's of Music that Disc Exchange may be, for I have sinned, I made a joke, and my penance shall be: I will never step foot inside your store again. Just to prove it, I went over to the Foothills mall, picked up some Rollins Band and a Hanson extended single and finally went home happy.

I finally (after a mindless 3 week wait) got my copy of "Pile Up" from Bottomz Up. The disc is wonderful, in particular "Smells Like Queer Spirit".

There's only one more disc out there, and with my next paycheck, "Deflowered" shall be mine... After that, it'll be time to break out my record player and start collecting the vinyl singles....

All of this has been made possible by the number 11, by the letter A and by the sexy folks at Geocities. Get a free home page and make it good, cuz their not too fussy and need good people.