Albums In The Day: The Records Of My Life - Pt. 29

R.E.M. - Monster (1994)

R.E.M. has always been a bit of a fuzzy band with me. Yeah, we all know the big hits: "Stand", "The One I Love", "It's The End Of The World As We Know It", "Man On The Moon", "Losing My Religion", "Pop Song 89", "Everybody Hurts", but for some reason I never really got into them until "What's The Frequency Kenneth?" hit the airwaves. In comparison to the rest of the band's canon "Kenneth" is a relatively non-descript single, yet it managed to garner enough of my attention to get the album. After the first couple of listens Monster didn't really do much for me, but what eventually roped me where the tracks "I Don't Sleep, I Dream", "Strange Currencies", and "Bang And Blame". The other tracks on the album aren't too bad either, with the fuzzed out "Let Me In" is purportedly Michael Stipe's tribute to his then-recently deceased friend Kurt Cobain, who he was supposedly working with on a new project when Cobain "committed suicide". (So I'm one of the conspiracy theorists. Sue me.) Monster may be an odd gateway album for getting into R.E.M., but we all have to start somewhere right?

Give It A Try:
"What's The Frequency, Kenneth?"
"Crush With Eyeliner"
"I Don't Sleep, I Dream"
"Strange Currencies"
"Bang And Blame"

Albums In The Day: The Records Of My Life - Pt. 30

Garbage - Garbage (1995)

The first time I heard about Garbage was when somebody in the hallway was singing the lyrics to "Queer", which made me stop and ask just what the heck they were singing. Slowly but surely local news shows started profiling "the band from Madison with a hit called 'Queer'", and here I had yet to actually hear the track nor had an idea of who these guys really were. Eventually I went to the head shop in my hometown since it was the only place that dared carry any good music (the only other option was Wal-Mart) and asked the guy that ran the place if I could check out Garbage's CD. He popped it in, the opening snare hits of "Supervixen" came over the headphones, and initially I thought, "hm, decent beat, decent guitar riffs..." until Shirley Manson's voice first graced my eardrums. I was pretty much whipped from that point forward. I tried not to loiter at the store for too long, but I ended up standing there at the listening station for a good 30 minutes tracking through the rest of the album. Listening to Shirley's voice slink it's way over and through the dark and angular grooves that Butch Vig, Duke Erikson, and Steve Marker laid out for her was too intriguing to turn away from. I bought the album right then and there, and almost wore out the CD listening to "Only Happy When It Rains", "A Stroke Of Luck", "Stupid Girl", "Vow", "Fix Me Now", and "Milk" over and over again. It's fortunate that Marker just happened to be watching 120 Minutes the one time that the video for Shirley's previous band Angelfish had aired in 1994, otherwise we would have never known what a seductively brilliant Scottish woman and three Madison, WI-based producers would have been capable of.

Give It A Try:
"Queer"
"Only Happy When It Rains"
"Stupid Girl"
"Vow"
"Milk"

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The new Kenna, which was originally supposed to come out tomorrow (September 11th), will now not be released until October 16th. WHY?!? *sigh* And so, the wait continues...