every sunday night throughout high school, i tried to listen to a birmingham, alabama radio show called the edge, hosted by a strange dj whose name was coyote j. i found out about a lot of obscure music from this show, but one that always stuck with me was the essence. i could never find their cds anywhere, as they were uk imports, and the internet was not yet easily accessible. about ten years after i had first been looking for this album, i finally acquired the original midnight music release on both cd and vinyl. and i love it as much now as i did then. on the surface, the band sounds a lot like the cure (hans diener even sounds quite a bit like robert smith at times). but i think somehow they take that sound and make it their own. while this whole album is great and i wish i could put it all up here, one song in particular always stood out in my memory: how you make me hate .

this is another album that i wish i could put up in its entirety. and i also wish that it was put out on cd. as much as i love vinyl, i also love the crisp clarity of a compact disc. also, i've almost worn this record out and would probably cop another copy if it wasn't very out of print. unfortunately, car vs. driver had formed, broken up, re-formed, and broken up again before i lived in atlanta, so i never got to see them play live. but i did once see the actual cover art in person at a house show and later met the lead singer and the drummer (who is constantly the drummer for some band here). i have been listening to this album for almost ten years, and singing along to without a day still helps me feel better when i need it every time i listen to it. their complete discography collection, titled the completeist, is finally out now!

in 1993, i went on a trip to denver to see the pope. i really just wanted to go to denver and get out of alabama for a bit. while walking around downtown denver, i saw record stores like i had never seen before. in one store, i picked up a copy of flipside magazine because it had a ween interview. but inside it was a flexi record containing a song called china latina from cell's then-forthcoming second album, living room. i'm still not quite sure what it was, but i fell in love with the song and have almost worn the flexi out. a different version is on the album, which i never bought until many years later. the lyrics were changed a bit, and "nah na-na-nas" were added. many more years later, i found out that this version was on a cd single and quickly acquired it. i'm so happy to finally hear this song without any rice krispies sounds.

i own almost everything scared of chaka has put out, aside from a few 7-inches and comps, and i love all of it. in fact, they could become a bigger part of this site in the future. out of all of their lightning-fast songs, goodsky is one of my favorites. even after years of listening to it, i still don't know what all of the lyrics are (as with most of their songs). but it doesn't really matter because it just has a tune that is fun to sing along to. at first, i really didn't like the re-recorded and sped-up version on masonic youth. it quickly grew on me, but i think i still prefer this version. also, part of why i even bought seven stories tall was because i wanted a crisp digital version of this song. imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be recorded from the vinyl. at any rate, this song rules.

i have owned this since shortly after it came out (first on vinyl and later on cd) but knew nothing about table or its members. i only knew of them because of bobby is fred zine, from whom i once got a sampler tape containing table and a band called spavid. this album is a collection of songs from various records and may be a complete discography (only 8 songs). it was one of those albums that quickly grew on me and remained in frequent rotation thru the years. again, i wish i could put this whole album online because i think each song is great in its own right. rarely do i like songs in which the vocals are primarily spoken, but unwind is one of the few exceptions. buy this album if you ever find it. (a far cry from fischerspooner, warren fischer was the bass player in table.)

i once saw blueprint play in a friend's garage, and that was the first time i had heard of them or jimmy eat world. shortly after that, static prevails first hit stores. and much later, jimmy even took over the world for a while. unfortunately, blueprint never found the same success and just kind of faded away, but they left behind some great songs. i think that i acquired this record accidentally, as i seem to remember borrowing it from somebody but apparently forgot to return it. many years later, i can't exactly remember. even tho' i still listen to their ep every so often, in-between angels is probably my personal favorite song of theirs. i like the way it just tells a story without any real distinction between verse and chorus.

this shudder to think song is essentially one note and one phrase for the entire four minutes, but it's somehow genius at the same time. i vaguely remember seeing the video late one sunday night on 120 minutes (back when it was actually good and played videos that weren't in regular rotation), in which the band was in a warehouse elevator and the singer kept singing into the camera. this is another album that i've meant to buy for years and finally have, but is the rest of it as good as x-french tee shirt ? yes. upon first listen, everything just sounded wrong. but after that, it became an album that i can't stop listening to.

wow, i had forgotten about this song until i found it again on an old tape of the edge. luckily, i managed to track down a copy of the single before it was gone for good. i don't know much about the popguns, but i have tracked down a few more cds of theirs solely based on how much i love crazy . cherry red (who also reissued the essence cds) apparently has released a compilation of the "best of the midnight years," but this song doesn't seem to be on it. i don't know whose idea that was, but if this isn't one of their best songs, the songs on that disc must be totally and completely amazing. this song can also be found on à plus de cent, which was released five years later. unfortunately, it is about as hard to find as this single. at any rate, i could listen to this song on repeat for hours, but i would probably get tinnitus.

this is another song i first heard on the edge, along with quite a few others. i don't know if a video was ever made for this, but i think it may have been a minor hit. and i do remember the one where mc 900ft jesus was packed in a box and shipped to somebody. i guess i never really got into the rest of his music (not even the rest of this album), but the city sleeps won me over immediately. sure, a story about a pyromaniac spoken in a half-whisper might be kind of creepy, but the way it works with the music makes it more relaxing than anything. i somehow never get tired of this song. (however, the remixes on the single are kind of disappointing; don't bother seeking it out unless you're a hardcore fan.)

before this drop nineteens album came out, i got a sampler cassette for it in the mail. unfortunately, it didn't really inspire me to buy the album, even tho' i did like the songs. in fact, i didn't buy it until many years later when i came across it in a used cd store. and that was only because the song 7/8 had stuck with me all that time. from that sampler, i had put it on a mix tape for a friend but then pretty much forgot about it. this song is almost as chaotic as "free jazz," and i still don't know what 99% of the lyrics are. (i think at one point, they sing about someone's dick being frozen and broken off?) but like scared of chaka, it doesn't really matter what they're saying; it's how they yell it.

the teen idols have had about fifteen lineup changes since they began and before they got signed to honest don's. and i think i've seen at least four perform live. even with as many songs as they must have now, shadowman has always been my personal favorite, and it was recorded by one of the original lineups. i don't know why this song was only on a nashville compilation 7-inch (which had no other good bands on it) for ten years and why they only just recently re-recorded it (especially when the original mix is so bad, but the song is so good). this song still gets stuck in my head fairly often. and unfortunately, its story was once my life — you know, dorky guy has crush on hot girl who already has a beefcake boyfriend. yeah, boo-hoo. (by the way, they finally broke up — the band, i mean.)

decatur, alabama once had a store called "unclaimed baggage." they sold any imaginable item that someone would take with them on a trip — clothes, glasses, hats, cassettes, cds, et cetera. many of their tapes were from countries other than the united states, and they were usually less than a dollar. this was one that i picked up at the store before it moved to scottsboro. i have no idea what the lyrics say, but the first song on this tape still gets stuck in my head from time to time. after many years, i now know that the name of this awesome song is al zaar by sa'ad juma'ah (thanks to esther at maqam music).