also goto the "country caravan" blog

I've been voluntarily listening to 60-70% country music as of the past week, which is probably the first time this has happened to me since I was younger than 10 years old. As a result, I asked Dave to help resurrect the Country Caravan blog, and I'm going to be contributing (or "coun-tributing") some youtube videos and memories there within the next few days...

http://countrycaravanshow.blogspot.com/

goto the "late night noise" blog

Taste My Kids is doing just fine but at the moment not posting so much stuff...

You should check out our sister website the Late Night Noise blog for more good stuff, while we wait for things to pick up over on this side...

http://latenightnoisefm.blogspot.com

jarvis cocker crashes mj worship ceremony (1996)

I'm surprised it took me so long to realize that this has probably been searchable on Youtube for several years... In fact, this was uploaded in April 2009 (on my 29th birthday, strangely enough).. I had only read and heard about the fabled Michael Jackson performance where Jarvis Cocker and another member of Pulp ran onto the stage and danced around for a while. I expected it to be more chaotic, but at least the cameramen were smart enough to follow them for their 30 seconds of glory.

It's actually not a bad MJ performance overall, if you can put up with the immense absurdity of it all... But for those who just wanna get to the good stuff, they enter the stage around 4:40 and are chased out of the picture for good by 5:36...

oh by the way...

This hadn't occurred to me until after re-reading the last post, but I think it was about 2 weeks ago that Taste My Kids turned 10.

Launch date I'm pretty sure was somewhere around August 22, 2000... Okay, now I have to find the first post.............

........ .. and here it is..

August 27, 2000

So what's this Headline News?
"Headline News" is the newest feature on come.to/glu. This is where random articles and thoughts will go. All the things that used to appear in GLUE NEWS will now appear here, except for news about Mister Glue. If there's ever any news dealing with Mister Glue, Bernie, GLU, Jeff Peck, or Police Beat or anything like that, the story will be linked from this section. This next article is not a good example of what to expect in the future.

Bumblebees like to buzz. Dean doesn't take the bus. Fians takes the bus.
Dean gave me a ride to school a lot during my junior year of high school. I think he had a Ferrari. Often times I would miss the bus on purpose just so I could get a ride to school in a luxury sports car. (That last sentence isn't true.) Whenever I didn't miss the bus, Fians was always in the front seat behind the busdriver or the seat in back of that one. The bus driver would always play Hot 97, and Fians would always sing along quietly to every single word. And I guess he had no clue that just about every person on the bus could see Fians lipsynching by looking at the busdriver's rear-view-mirror. Fians is a funny kid.

................................

And now for the true fans, one last walk down memory lane from the 4th Taste My Kids post......


August 30, 2000

In The Wake Of Columbine...: The similarities between Trumbull & Littleton, Part One
Shortly after the incedent in Littleton, CO, several magazines across the country (including Time and Newsweek) tried to locate a similar school to Columbine - one where they thought this type of incedent would next occur. And wouldn't you know it, out of every school in the country, they chose Trumbull High School. But the weirdest thing about this choice is that it was actually an accurate one. With all the bombthreats, stranglings and sodomy surrounding Trumbull's public education system these days, one can't help but wonder how those magazines made such a good guess. Well, our experts here have discovered the logic behind their choice. Upon close examination, one can find many bizarre coincidences between these two seemingly quiet suburbs:
Example One: In Trumbull, there is a street called Walker Road which has two very large speedbumps on it. This resulted in several school children being sent to the hospital after a busdriver misjudged the enormous size of the speedbumps. In Littleton, the local hospital does not own the movie Speed because everyone there hates Keanu Reeves.
Example Two: In Trumbull, there is a retired superintendent named Dr. Merritt. In Littleton, there is a dentist named Dr. Merritt who is putting new tires on his car - one could say he's having his car re-tired!
Example Three: Ken Halaby, the mayor of Trumbull, and Joe Bob Frank Pete, the mayor of Littleton, have both told reporters to "blow themselves" when asked how it felt to be mayor.

Webpage naming update
I was thinking maybe I could take G.L.U. and make it stand for something, but the very good band God Lives Underwater already thought of the best possible combination of words to go with those letters. The best thing I can think of is "Gotta Love Uncles." Either that, or I could just call it regular old "GLU," which is the name of John's techno project, so that doesn't quite work out either. Or maybe I should just start over again and call it "Taste My Kids" or something. I'm gonna start looking through my old notepads for ideas. Okay, bye.

..........................................

For the record, that was the first and last entry of the "In The Wake Of Columbine" series.

10 year anniversary of Pitchfork's Kid A review

It looks as though the majority of Pitchfork's most embarrassing reviews from the 90's and early 00's have been removed from their site completely, which is yet another reason why archive.org is such a marvel. You can't escape archive.org... Believe me, sometimes I wish I could.

At the time, I was a punk bitch virgin to the scene of music criticism in general... SPIN magazine wasn't yet a completely worthless rag.. They were still incredibly corporate, but they did an ok job of hiding it (as long as you ignored the ads). I took time out of every day in September and October 2000 to read ultragrrrl's news blog at SPIN's website, because in those days, I didn't know where else to go. I have vivid memories of her valiant attempt at pretending to not hate Creed... She posted news about some tour, or the release of Human Clay or some shit, which was followed by a single exclamation point in parenthesis, like this: (!) ... only because she was getting paid to.. or wait, maybe she was writing as an intern. Whatever.

Ultragrrrl's blog is also where I learned that Kid A had been leaked in mid-September 2000, which was the first time I ever downloaded an entire album before its release... You never forget your first.

In those days, I also frequented a Radiohead fanpage that I'm having trouble remembering the name of... But it might have been Follow Me Around. So around the time Kid A was released on October 2, 2000, it took within the 2 weeks before and after that date for a "Kid A" section to show up, including a section of links to every online review the webmasters could find. By the end of it, there must have been about 50 of them. Down at the very bottom of the list was a commentary site called "Well Hung At Dawn," which was actually hosted by rollingstone.com, and featured what's now known as the most notorious negative review Kid A received, titled "From Kid A To Zzzzz" where they listed 26 things they hated about the album in alphabetical order. I think R was for "Ripcord," because they were pissed off that Radiohead stopped performing that song live. The review won some online award for music criticism or something. (If anyone reading this can possibly locate either ultragrrrl's SPIN blog, or an archive of Well Hung At Dawn, I would be most appreciative.)

Regarding Pitchfork, the Kid A section of Follow Me Around (or whatever site it was) turned out to be one of my first experiences with Pitchfork. Fall 2000 was my first semester going for my English degree, so I had a lot of writing and reading ahead of me. And somehow, I don't have any real memories of Pitchfork's Kid A review striking me as anything other than an absurdly loltastic shitpile. I think it just confused me more than anything else...

I had forgotten about it until reading Ripfork's dissection recently...

http://ripfork.com/2009/11/brent-dicrescenzos-review-of-kid-a-by-radiohead/

Also courtesy of Archive.Org, Pitchfork's review of a live John Coltrane album recorded in 1961...

http://web.archive.org/web/20070502025237/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/16264-live-at-the-village-vanguard-the-master-takes

...and a flash animation video someone made from it...

next time we make out we're listening to this

There were lost of unintentional omissions from the 90's Jams list, and I'm already noticing 1 or 2 that I wished I had reconsidered.. Actually, there's only really one.. Somehow, "Everyday Struggle" seemed like a better choice than anything by Jay-Z.. This is the song that would've been included...



Although I don't know what Hum song might have fit best, Downward Is Heavenward often comes close to surpassing Siamese Dream in its most breathtaking moments, especially this one...

bobby and the budnicks

I have no other choice but to tag this as "80s metal" even though it's from 1992.. This video helps to explain why Budnick's "Salute Your Shorts" character was so into Steve Vai, which he totally namedropped in at least 5 episodes (a substantial amount since there were only about 25 episodes total.. This is a rough estimate, but in 1 out of every 5 episodes of this show it was not uncommon to hear some reference to 80's metal or Whitesnake or Steve "Stevie" Vai or GNR or etc, etc etc)

proto-jerkin

This is how white people jerked in the mid-90s.

90s jams checkpoint halfway / jerk 4 life

As we're now halfway through the 90s jams list, we gon take a lil brake..

For anyone who wants to check out how well Cee Lo's "Fuck You" has been doing on the charts, after everyone and their grandma all thought this song was gonna shoot to #1 in a week....

http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100#/charts/hot-100?begin=91&order=position

Debuting at #96 this week, Cee Lo Green "Fuck You."
Debuting at #94 this week, YG's "Toot It And Boot It."

The ILX board informed me of this news, and I decided to check out the embarrassingly titled "Toot It And Boot It" which placed 2 positions higher than a song that generated 2 million Youtube views in 1 week.. It turns out the YG track was originally released over a year ago.. And as it turns out, it slays the Cee Lo Green track in every which direction.

90s Jams #46: Jawbox "Savory" (1994)

1994 was a tough year for Dischord. Shudder to Think and Jawbox left the dogmatic punk label for majors. Against the prevailing wisdom, both crafted masterpieces. Sonically, "Savory" reflects Jawbox's tense and uncertain midstream position. It's beautiful and bruising, minimal and massive. The bludgeoning riffs, with their controlled feedback and swerving bass, threaten to judder apart, while the lyrics are jaded koans. But when Robbins raises that cry before the guitars dive-bomb into infernal blues, his fervor is palpable. - Pitchfork http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7850-the-top-200-tracks-of-the-1990s-150-101/3/

I'll take it. I was unable to locate the live version from 120 Minutes which blew me away once upon a time, and was my first experience with "Savory." Also of note: The outstanding collaborative cover version by Far & Deftones...

90s Jams #47: Blur "Coffee + TV" (1999)

While Blur's 1994 masterpiece Parklife is probably the best Britpop album period, as there are hardly any other Britpop albums where where all 16 songs kick THAT much ass, I still am unable to place it in higher regard than 13, their much darker and weirder LP released in the Spring of 1999. That summer, "Coffee + TV" premiered on 120 Minutes and a few days later 3 or 4 of my friends were telling me all about it. By 1999, MTV was barely past the point of placing any importance on Buzz Clips or Breakthrough Videos, so unless you lived in one of those cable areas that actually broadcast MTV2, 120 Minutes was the only way to catch the video. Needless to say, it should've been a much bigger video and song stateside.

Most of 13 foreshadows the more experimental material that Damon Albarn would later contribute to Gorillaz, which can be heard in tracks like "1992," "Trailerpark," "Bugman," "Battle," and in the various other mini-instrumentals often appearing before and after the real songs. Despite popular belief that Graham Coxon had written the song alone, the music in "Coffee + TV" was Damon's, and only the lyrics were Graham's, mostly dealing with addiction and depression. Graham also contributes one of the all time great "anti-guitar-solos," very much in line with the noisy and experimental nature heard throughout the remainder of 13.

I'm not usually a huge fan of live Blur, but this one works because Damon doesn't sing it...

90s Jams #48: Wu-Tang Clan "C.R.E.A.M." (1993)

When they arrived on the scene in 1993, the Wu-Tang Clan were rawer, hungrier, and more revolutionary than any other crew. In fact, they changed the whole concept of what a crew could be, gathering numerous MCs and letting them all develop to the point where each could carry his own solo record. The incorporated a philosophical outlook that built on the realities of black life in project housing, expanded it to a multitheistic view of how to live that drew from Islam, Christianity, Taoism, and Confucianism, and let martial arts films and comic books fill out the pop-culture background. - The Pitchfork 500

Verse 1 is possibly the best on the whole 36 Chambers album.. some of Raekwon's best stuff.

90s Jams #49: Gin Blossoms "Hey Jealousy" (1992)

The Replacements are probably the second most important reason why this was included here, as their influence on "Hey Jealousy" cannot be underestimated. As great as "The 'Mats" were, this was the one big Top 40 rock single throughout the 90's whose quality matched (and arguably surpassed) its most obvious influence. On the surface, it's definitely a hooky, catchy radio hit which fits nicely for summertime driving. But there's a bit more to the story... Six months after the song was released to radio, its songwriter Doug Hopkins was fired from his band due to alcoholism. He smashed his "Hey Jealousy" gold record, and eventually committed suicide. The magnitude of such a dramatic end often causes listeners to take a look back and view from a different perspective.. There's some serious darkness and desperation in this song, not the least of which is one of the song's final lyrics, "Hey jealousy, she took my heart.." partially driven even further by that particular lyric's vocal inflection. Most of the song's lyrics continue along these low depths: "If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago," "Anyway I've got no place to go," "You were the best I ever had..." This stuff goes for the gut.

And hey, there's an Allmusic review for this song also: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:dvfixxykldae

90s Jams #50: Weezer "El Scorcho" (1996)

Years on, Pinkerton's placement among the 90's album rock canon has generated an abundance of cliched critiques regarding what makes it so special, especially the one about how Rivers Cuomo had crossed a rock-star line, avoiding metaphors, straight-up confessing his inner-workings and too-much-info about his personal life. That may be true, but back in October 1996 when "El Scorcho" was a Buzz Clip (trust me, it was, despite that they had already sold 2 million records), adolescents like myself and nearly every other Weezer fan I knew heard the lyrics of the chorus and double-speed bridge-section as something far more universal.

Regarding the video (and I'm pretty sure this is the version that was aired on MTV & not Mark Romanek's original edit) and Weezer's image as a band throughout the first 2 albums, as presented on MTV... Matt Sharp and Pat Wilson fucking killed it in both "El Scorcho" and in "The Good Life." Never content to just stand in front of the camera and play air-guitar, Matt usually had his own storyline regardless as to what the director was asking for.. Pat usually said "fuck this" and did whatever the hell he wanted.. Brian Bell was always the one dude who continued strictly rocking out the whole time Matt and Pat were off doing God-knows-what, which was absolutely essential to maintain a sense of musical continuity. And then of course, Rivers was always playing Scott Stapp... The super fucking serious lead singer. Call me crazy, but is this not the world's most perfect rock band?

90s Jams #51: Pixies "Velouria" (1990)

I recall Rivers Cuomo saying he chose "Velouria" as Weezer's contribution for 1999's outstanding Where Is My Mind Pixies tribute album purposely, because it was his favorite. The Pixies were never short on general 50's and early 60's inspiration, not just in the surf-rock category, but from old sci-fi fantasy movies as well, from the album cover of Bossanova right down to "Velouria's" slightly jokey and creepy (yet tasteful) theramin usage.

90s Jams #52: Jimmy Eat World "Lucky Denver Mint" (1999)

My initial perception of "emo" was explained to me as The Promise Ring. And that's it... I had one band to describe an entire genre. Needless to say, I didn't get it right off the bat. Dashboard Confessional was whiny, annoying and boring, and when I found out that was considered "emo," that made sense to me. So then when I first heard great bands like The Anniversary, The Get Up Kids and Jimmy Eat World, I didn't understand that they were also supposed to fit into the emo thing. A bunch more bands all showed up at once, most of whom sounded like a combination of Weezer, Foo Fighters and Blink 182. I still don't understand what made these bands anything other than straight up alt-rock, other than their fans needing a niche to belong.

Labels aside, the era did produce some outstanding music, Jimmy Eat World's Clarity being one of the best examples. "Lucky Denver Mint" specifically is pretty much driven by 3 core elements: The drums, the vocal harmonies, and its simplicity. It's also overall a very well produced album, and had their not been so many hugely overlooked rock singles in the late 90's, this one could have been much bigger.

90s Jams #53: The Cure "End" (1992)

Rock's all time heaviest album trilogies: Rubber Soul/Revolver/Pepper ... Bends/OKC/KidA ... Right up there with these is surely the immense sequence of Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, Disintegration and Wish. The true masterpiece of these trilogies is usually the 2nd release, as is the case with Disintegration. And although Wish remains one of the great unheralded 90's rock albums, the lightness of "Friday I'm In Love" (while a great single in itself) seemed to taint the rest of the album. Similarly, "High" and "A Letter To Elise" are both great, but "Lovesong" and "Pictures Of You" just hit the mark that much closer.

As is the case with "Friday I'm In Love," their happiest moments were pure joy. But delving into the album tracks on all 3 of these records reveals the true depths of tortured despair... Wish closes with "End," which just might be the darkest and most tortured song The Cure ever recorded, which would really be saying something.

90s Jams #54: Nirvana "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" (1993)

On page 389 of Michael Azerrad's Come As You Are, the author outrageously labels this one as a "throwaway," quoting Cobain as saying "I think it could have been better." I understand the album was very recent at the time this book was published, but was hindsight really necessary to feel the extreme energy this song produces? The riff is no less a monster than any others from Nirvana (or Black Sabbath for that matter), and the pacing of this song is as perfect as it gets... Oh my God, that noise intro.. The pounding drums take off, and never quit from that point onward.. For the verses, the bass continues the riff while the guitar continues ringing outward for the sole purpose of producing feedback, which then accentuates that 2nd guitar overdub, which isn't even playing chords.. just strumming muted strings, creating an abundance of tension in order to lead into the chorus.. Everyone joining in for monster riff while "WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME" is sung on repeat...

During their final year performing live, they almost always opened their sets with this song for a reason. Kick off the party the right way.

This the 2nd time this video has been posted here... Whatever.