MetaFilter posts tagged with 1990s

Tied to the 90s

liquidindian — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:13:10 -0800

What can we really tell about these tracks’ place in a world where the common consensus has airbrushed the Outhere Brothers and Robson & Jerome into a parallel world? Track one: Parklife by Blur. Track two: Cigarettes and Alcohol by Oasis. So began Polygram's series of Shine compilations, ten double CDs issued between April 1995 and August 1998 - an imperfect document of a timeframe that includes a battle for number one making the news bulletins, and Jarvis Cocker invading Michael Jackson's Brit performance. The Shine Years, by Simon Sweeping The Nation, is recapping the Shine compilation albums chronologically, track by track.

Blame Nirvana

Paid In Full — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 08:18:59 -0800

The 40 Weirdest Post-Nevermind Major Label Albums "As a snapshot of the era, here are the 40 weirdest, most uncompromising, riskiest, and most surprising albums that were released on a major label in the wake of Nevermind's explosion, during the mania's time-frame of 1992 until 1996."

They were your Joey Ramone

Going To Maine — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 07:43:53 -0800

S l e a t e r -K i n n e y 's l a s t e s t s h o w (The "S" is the introduction. Audio here.) Corin Tucker was a member of the riot grrl band Heavens To Betsy (split 7" with Bratmobile, 1993/1994's Calculated, live at CBGB's). Carrie Brownstein was a member of the riot grrl band Excuse 17. (1993's s e l f -t i t l e d album, 1995's Such Friends Are Dangerous, live at CBGB's) Both were students at Evergreen State College (ground zero for American Twee in the 1980s), and both bands played shows together. Tucker and Brownstein began dating and formed a new band named after a local road. '[N]either of them took it very seriously. "In Olympia at the time, there was a very non-monogamous musical community[.]"' For example, Tucker was also briefly part of a group called Heartless Martin with Becca Albee of Excuse 17. (1993 cassette Tonight - or is it Tonigh?) The band recorded four tracks in 1994, though I am uncertain which of the several temporary drummers the band used was playing. Write Me Back, Fucker, Surf Song, You Ain't It, and More Than A Feeling, all released on Villa Villakula Records. In 1995 the band went on tour with Laura Macfarlane on drums. They ended up in Australia and recorded Sl ea t e r -K i nn ey (Wikipedia article), which released on Chainsaw Records. In 1996 the group recorded a second album, Ca ll Th e Do ct or (Wikipedia article), again on Chainsaw Records and again with Laura Macfarlane. (In 2010, Rolling Stone would call this the 49th-best album of the 1990s.) They also kept touring. Janet Weiss was a drummer who since 1993 had been playing in the band Quasi with her ex-husband Sam Coomes. In 1996 they had released the album Early Recordings (two tracks), and in 1997 they released a second album, R&B Transmogrification. (two tracks) While remaining in Quasi, Weiss joined SK for the recording of Dig Me Out (Wikipedia article), their 1997 debut on Kill Rock Stars, and became a permanent member of the band. (Someone who is more of a fan of Quasi might want to give them their own post...) Dig Me Out brought SK to a wider audience than before, and also received marked critical acclaim. In December, Rolling Stone considered it the fifth best album released that year. It has subsequently been placed on a variety of semi-arbitrary critics' lists: In 2005, Spin ranked it as the 74th best album between 1985 and 2005 based on a readers' poll. In 2008, Rolling Stone called the title track the the 44th greatest guitar song of all time. In 2011, Pitchfork called it the 83rd best song of the 1990s. (Random album trivia: the cover art is an homage to The Kink Kontroversy.) While the band released no albums in 1998, they did release a song on the Free to Fight 7" on Candy Ass records and they played a few shows. (Rock Lobster in Olympia, One More Hour in NYC with Laura Macfarlaine back on drums, with Helium in Philly. Quasi released an album, as did Tucker in her new side project, Cadallaca. (E v e r y t r a c k) Brownstein partnered up with Lois Maffeo to record one song as Tommy for a compilation on K Records. In 1999, SK released The Hot Rock (Wikipedia article). It was slower than its predecessors, and seen as a change of direction. The album also had an affilated EP and a music video, directed by Miranda July. The band toured in support of the album and even discussed it briefly with Nardwuar, the human serviette. (Nardwuar previously, previouslier, more previouslier.) Quasi released another album, and Cadallaca released what has been their final E P. Brownstein and Mafeo got together with Peter Momtchiloff to record The Touch 7" as The Tentacles. The 2000 album All Hands On The Bad One (Wikipedia article) was poppier than the other albums, and critics tried to draw a line between it and the previous disc. Arion Berger thought it was a step back, Joshua Klien a step forward, and Howard Hampton just a change in direction. Robert Christgau thought it was a step backwards, but with a shrug: "They could no more make a bad album than the Rolling Stones in 1967." (In a later interview at the New Yorker Festival -see below- Tucker would refer to this praise as "ridiculous".) Pitchfork would call it the 16th best album of 2000. Carrie Brownstein also collaborated with Mary Timony as The Spells and recorded several songs, though they would go unreleased until 2008. In 2001, the September 11 attacks happened, and Tucker gave birth to her son, Marshall. Also, Quasi released another album. In 2002, SK released One Beat. (Wikipedia article). The album was more overtly politcal than past work, with songs specifically criticizing the build up to the Iraq War, and Tucker's desire to protect her son. At Pitchfork, the album won over a previously critical Rob Mitchum, and it was eventually considered 14th best album of the year. Later the website would call it the 72nd best album of the aughts. Metacritic called it the 12th best-reviewed album of 2002. Last year, Tom Breihan fondly remembered SK one-upping a Belle and Sebastian show with a live performance of the whole thing. I have nothing exciting to say about the year 2003, except that Quasi released another album. SK moved to Sub Pop from KRS in 2004, and began recording their next album that November. While they had worked with John Goodmanson as their produced on most of their previous work, this time they were going to work with Dave Fridmann, most famous as the producer of The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev. Fridmann was not that keen on the band's old records. Quoting Brownstein, 'He was pretty critical of our old records and really reticent to say anything positive, actually, about anything we'd done - even the demos we'd sent him. The most positive thing he said before we got there was, "I'm excited to work on this record."' In 2005, SK released The Woods (Wikipedia article). The album drew heavily from classic rock tropes such as guitar solos and large quantities of distortion, and culminated in an eleven-minute guitar jam. Three music videos were produced, and the band came as close to true mainstream success as it may have ever done. (While not the best marker of success, they did play on Letterman.) Metacritic ranked it as the 5th best reviewed album of the year, Rolling Stone called it the 12th best album of the year, and Pitchfork the 19th best. Pitchfork would eventually rank it as the 127th best album of the aughts, behind One Beat. In the wake of the album the band was interviewed by James Surowiecki at the New Yorker Festival, a ten-minute excerpt of which can be heard here. In June of 2006, SK announced that they were going on indefinite hiatus. Before doing so they toured, including stops at Lollapalooza and Coachella. Their final show was at the Crystal Ballroom in August, and the Thermals and Eddie Vedder opened for them. (See top of post.) Also, Quasi released another album. Thanks to their timely break-up and the strong critical appraisal of All Hands On The Bad One, One Beat, and The Woods, Metacritic currently classifies SK as the 4th best band of the aughts. All three women have kept busy. Tucker formed The Corin Tucker Band. They've released two albums: the underrated (my opinion) 1,000 Years, which Tucker described as a "middle-aged mom record", and Kill My Blues, which is more of a return to standard Sleater-Kinney form. You can see Sarah Lund, CTB's drummer, have a drum battle with Weiss here. Weiss has continued to produce albums with Quasi, and joined Stephen Malkmus's band, The Jicks. (Two albums recorded so far.) She's also made a list of 10 ways to be a kick-ass drummer. Brownstein worked for an ad agency (for which Weiss had also once worked), wrote a blog for NPR, and formed Thunderant, a comedy duo with Fred Armisen. The last of these would eventually enter the cultural mainsteam with the TV show Portlandia. (Corin made a guest appearance once.) She also teamed up with Timony, Weiss, and Rebecca Cole to form the "riot grrl supergroup" Wild Flag. They released a se lf -t it led debut in 2011, which Pitchfork ranked as the 49th-best album of 2011.

on Kate Moss, and "taking one for the team"

flex — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 09:10:29 -0800

On Kate Moss, and Taking One for the Team: "So, earlier this week Vanity Fair published a rare interview with Moss, in which the model, who is well-known for her circumspection, is unusually frank about the early years of her career. Moss was still a skinny, gangly teenager when she was plucked from mediocrity in Croydon and catapulted to superstardom. She was barely an adult, almost still a child, when she did her first topless photo shoot, with Corinne Day for The Face. In the interview, she talks about how uncomfortable this made her... This isn't the only the only revelation Moss made during the interview. It also turns out that the famous Calvin Klein campaign she did in 1992 with Mark Wahlberg gave her a nervous breakdown... Conveniently ignoring the fact that when the pictures were taken, Moss wasn't 'the face of the '90s', but a skinny teenage girl who cried because she was made to take her clothes off, Needham continues by saying that Moss' skinny frame 'seemed to encapsulate the euphoria of those long-distant times.'" *summary of the Vanity Fair interview at Vanity Fair *Alex Needham - How a 16-year-old nude Kate Moss ushered in the 90s: "Moss may regret that early shoot, but it took beauty out of the realm of fantasy glamour into something more wonky and fallible" *Kate Moss: the style icon who suffered in silence: "This week, a new coffee-table art book dedicated to Kate Moss is published... it will no doubt be a thing of great beauty, but it won't attract half the fuss that last week's Vanity Fair interview with Moss has." *Was Kate Moss exploited as a young model?: "In 1990 she was just 16 when a nude photoshoot launched her career. But it wasn't a happy time, says the supermodel" photos (may be NSFW for some): *her first topless photo shoot, with Corinne Day for The Face, 1990 *the famous Calvin Klein campaign with Mark Wahlberg, 1992 *Vogue UK shoot by photographer Corinne Day, 1993

Celebrity workout videos

Egg Shen — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 09:33:42 -0800

Aaron Valdez collects celebrity workout videos. New York magazine chose their ten favorites.

The Man in Humpty Hump's Nose

jonp72 — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 09:20:33 -0800

Back in 1993, the hip hop group Digital Underground needed to release a single to promote their 4th album, the Body-Hat Syndrome, in the hopes they could recapture the magic of their two biggest hits, Humpty Dance and Doowutchyalike. Frontman Greg "Shock G" Davis (aka Humpty Hump) needed a gimmick to promote the new single, Return of the Crazy One, so he hired FM Productions in San Francisco (who had also designed flying pigs for Pink Floyd concerts) to create a 12-foot high sculpture of his own head, which would allow him to emerge from a trap door in the nostrils. Fast forward almost twenty years later, until a guy with the web handle johnny payphone finds the giant head abandoned and covered in dust in an Oakland warehouse after a homeless man attempted to live in it for several weeks. No museums have yet expressed interest in the head, but if you have the money, and you can take good care of it, the giant Humpty Hump head could be yours.

The Yummy Fur

LSK — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:39:04 -0800

If you only have three minutes to spend on this post, listen to this song. The Yummy Fur was an unfairly obscure Scottish art-rock group active from 1992-1999. The group is best known for having two band members who currently comprise half of Franz Ferdinand, but that says little about the Yummy Fur proper. The group has a low-fi, angular, sound with mostly-spoken lyrics - the most familiar analogue might be the verses from Pavement's "Stereo" The song linked above is a live performance of "Shoot the Ridiculant". from the group's final release - the 1998 Sexy World. The group's first EP, "Music By Walt Disney But Played By Yuri Gagarin, Thus A Political Record" was released on indie label Slampt in 1995. Four songs from the release. The EP contains ten songs in total, each less than one minute long. Their first two albums, Night Club and Kinky Cinema, each feature many more super-short songs: The second has a whopping 60 songs in 69 minutes! Highlights from Night Club include Kirsty Cooper and Roxy Girls. (Kinky Cinema is available as a free download off Last.fm, so I'll leave you to discover that for yourselves.) The group's third and fourth albums, Male Shadow At Three O' Clock and Sexy World, have longer songs that could've been major indie hits in another universe. Highlights include Department and Vacuum Cleaner off Male Shadow and Deathclub, The Ballad of Piggy Wings, and Shoot the Ridiculant (a different version from the live one at the top of the post) off Sexy World. This post would be incomplete without the amazing single-only track, Policeman. The group reunited in 2010 to perform some tour dates in anticipation of a best-of compilation titled "Piggy Wings" - which was apparently unreleased, as there isn't a track listing or cover image online. Because the group is inactive and not familiar, their releases are nearly impossible to find in record stores. If you can't find a physical release or a download, the next closest thing is a high-quality recording of a live show from WYNC's "No Cover" series, where they perform all the songs that would probably have been on their greatest hits album. The group also recorded a Peel session. Currently, members of The Yummy Fur perform as part of the groups Franz Ferdinand and 1990s. This is only a starting point, and I didn't go into depth on the band's history or other releases. If you're looking for more detail, the official tribute website is remarkably complete. However, it doesn't include audio, and it's hard to find the group's albums even through illegitimate means. Some songs don't have readily available Youtube uploads. Live versions were included where possible to make up for that. (TL;DR: a Scottish indie band for fans of Pavement's "Stereo")

It's Sunday night, I am curled up in my room / The TV light fills my heart like a balloon

nicebookrack — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 22:20:37 -0800

In 1999, 23-year-old singer-songwriter Bree Sharp recorded "David Duchovny," a fangirl ode to the male star of The X-Files. After the demo tape proved popular in Duchovny's trailer, two X-Files assistants created a celebrity-filled music video as a gag for the show Christmas party. A grainy bootleg of the video quickly went pre-Youtube-viral among X-Philes. Twelve years later, a high-definition version of the "David Duchovny" video sees daylight for the first time. Bree Sharp said in an interview with Rolling Stone about "David Duchovny":

"The song is about David, but it's also about the way fantasy and reality can blur. [...] And how giddy, hot and excellent that can be."

THE SINGER The decade-plus since "David Duchovny" has seen Bree Sharp, now 36, build from viral video roots to respectable success as an indie-pop singer. Her 1999 debut album A Cheap and Evil Girl was followed almost immediately by her record label's demise. Undeterred, Sharp self-released two subsequent albums, 2002's More B.S. ("Galaxy Song," "Dirty Magazine") and 2004's live album Live at Fez ("Don't Think Twice," "Waving Goodbye"). Sharp racked up more geek-credit through English adaptations of anime: she worked as a writer for the adapted Magical DoReMi and as the composer of most of the songs in Tokyo Mew Mew / Mew Mew Power (opening theme "Team Up!," "Animal Instinct," among many others), and also contributed the ending theme "This Side of Paradise" for the movie Pokemon: Destiny Deoxys. Sharp joined frequent collaborator Don DiLego in 2009 to form electropop project Beautiful Small Machines, which released its debut EP Robots In Love. After a recent successful Kickstarter campaign, Beautiful Small Machines is working on EP #2, tentatively titled Jetpacks Are Yes! (SPOILER WARNING: it will be geeky.)
In the meantime, amuse yourself with these Bree & BSM-flavored music videos, all various flavors of nerdy:

Paper Planes (2012): a banjofied-cover of MIA's hit song, with choreographed hand-flapping and Bree in assorted Sexy Hipster Glasses.
Simple Joys (4 Roy & Pris) (2009): a Blade Runner-inspired duet with Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran and a feat of amazing music video trippiness, featuring owls, glitter, BDSM birdcages, angsty slow-mo flashbacks,and inexplicably awesome feather eyelashes.
Robots In Love (Live) (2010): On lead vocals and tambourine, Bree.
Superconductor (2009): trigger-warning if you have flash-sensitive epilepsy or are allergic to black-and-white film.
Everything Feels Wrong (2006): flannel and food porn!

THE VIDEO
Two assistants to X-Files creator Chris Carter concocted the video for "David Duchovny": Charles Forsch, who produced, and Will Shivers, who wrote, edited, and directed.
Play Spot-the-Celebrity in "David Duchovny," from credits on YouTube, and here. X-Files Crew executive producer Frank Spotnitz, writer John Shiban, producer Vince Giligan, producer Rob Bowman, director Kim Manners (died 2009), and producer Dan Sackheim, and creator/writer/director/executive producer Chris Carter X-Files Cast William B. Davis / The Cigarette-Smoking Man Mitch Pileggi / FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner Bruce Harwood, Tom Braidwood, and Dean Haglund / The Lone Gunmen Byers, Frohike, and Langly Nicholas Lea / Alex Krycek Chris Owens / Agent Jeffrey Spender Gillian Anderson / Agent Dana Scully Michael McKean / Morris Fletcher Alex Trebek / game show host and guest star Man In Black Celebrities Janeane Garafalo Charles Nelson Reilly (died 2007) Kelly Packard & Brooke Burns from Baywatch Jerry O'Connell Jane Leeves, Peri Gilpin, & Moose ("Eddie," died 2006) from Frasier Erik Estrada Hector Elizondo from Chicago Hope Kevin Nealon Calista Flockhart Whoopi Goldberg & Rosie O'Donnell Melissa Etheridge Jenna Elfman Gary Shandling, star of The Larry Sanders Show, which guest-starred Duchovny as himself with a persistent crush on Sanders Dennis Franz Duchovny's Kalifornia co-star Brad Pitt David Spade Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy the Vampire Slayer George Clooney in a blond wig Pamela Anderson & Natalie Raitano from V.I.P The members of KISS Bebe Neuwirth Vivid Girls / adult film actresses Janine, Julia Ann, & Taylor Hayes (links may be NSFW) and last but certainly not least, Jerry Springer. THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE MONOTONE
David Duchovny currently stars in the Showtime dramedy Californication. At age 51, he continues to be brooding and comely.

Upload with this sort of thing!

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:51:10 -0800

Small, Far Away - The World of Father Ted: Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews revisit Craggy Island 15 years after the premiere of the classic Irish comedy, Father Ted.

DA DA DA DA DA DAAA DA DA - Roundball Rock, The Theme of the NBA in the 1990s

fizzix — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 05:34:23 -0800

One song was synonymous with NBA Basketball throughout the 1990s: Roundball Rock by John Tesh In 1988, John Tesh, then known as Yanni's Keyboardist and the co-host of Entertainment Tonight, was covering Le Tour De France. While in his Parisian hotel room, Tesh spontaneously conceived of the melody of a possible NBA theme song and recorded his first draft on his answering machine [yt]. Beginning in 1989, NBC used Roundball Rock in its 11,000+ broadcasts of NBA basketball (dubbed NBA on NBC) often following a 30-120 second recap of recent storylines (narration provided by a stoic Bob Costas or Marv Albert) including: ('92 Finals - Bulls v. Blazers), ('97 - Bulls v. Hawks), ('93 - Lakers v. Suns),( 2000 - Blazers v. Lakers), ('94 - Supersonics v. Nuggets), promotional trailers ('96), and this April 19, 1997 intro featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Jason Alexander. In 2002, after 13 seasons, NBC's contract with the NBA expired, and ABC/ESPN won the exclusive contract until 2016. ABC/ESPN declined to use to Roundball Rock in their broadcast. Although its loss was lamented lamented by fans (including Conan O'Brien and at least one mefite (a fan's recreation of this scene[YT]), , Roundball Rock remains a part of American pop culture. It has been sampled by Ras Kass [yt] and Nelly , and covered by Deadspin, a Boston Jam Band. It is also the theme song for John Tesh's nationally syndicated radio show and one of Bill Simmons' columns. In 2008, Tesh released a free mp3 to commemorate the NBA Finals and it was briefly reintroduced for the 2008 olympics. In 2009, Tesh remixed the song (with a limited edition, autographed, commemorated poster, natch). In May of that year, he also held a 'Rap Dribble Dance Video Contest' offering fans prizes to create their own version of with dancing, rapping, and dribbling. Harley Morenstein, of the later EpicMealTime, was awarded first place. obligatory bonus: Opening montage of Lil' Penny, Miniature doll of Penny Hardaway,and 1996 Eastern Conf. finals, featuring Mama Said Knock You Out! and Roundball Rock.

Part time virus hunter

madamjujujive — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:09:44 -0800

It arrived at MIT in the middle of the night... 1988 computer virus - (via Dangerous Minds) The Computer on TV, 1955-1986 - various vintage ads and clips 1983: War Games hacking fears TV interview The revolution of the Internet 1993 Internet users guide from 1990 1995 AOL Commercial

An Epic Background, A Pun On The Name, Mix and Shake Well For Best Results

reenum — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:07:30 -0800

You may not know who the Costacos Brothers are. But if you were a sports fan in the US during the 1980's, chances are that you had one of their posters up in your room.

Michael Mann's "Heat"

Trurl — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:18:03 -0800

Although [Michael] Mann has said he was inspired by a true story from Chicago in the late 1960s, the film is no gritty realist number about desperate thievery. Rather, HEAT is a high-gloss creature of its time, utilizing the classic "duel between cop and robber"... to thematize lifestyle issues in the mid-1990s. Specifically I argue that, for all its slickness and emphasis on style and personality, HEAT is a film about work and its increasing personal costs. For the characters in HEAT, work provides excitement* and challenge, but it ultimately excludes any emotional life outside of the demands of the job. *That's the shootout scene

The Jon Brion Show

Iridic — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:13:22 -0800

Live from 1999, it's the unaired pilot for The Jon Brion Show! With special guests Paul F. Tompkins, Grant-Lee Phillips, Mark Oliver "E" Everett, Greg Behrendt, Elliot Smith, Rickie Lee Jones, Robyn Hitchcock, Cheap Trick, and Mary Lynn Rajskub. (Parts 2, 3, 4, 5)

"Oookun oooo uuva engs ooo. Oookun uhtawn ocean."

BeerFilter — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 12:17:27 -0800

Victoria Looseleaf's mesmerizingly WTF facial-stretch video set to Placido Domingo has been making the rounds this weekend. But who is Victoria Looseleaf? In her own words she once described herself as a minor celebrity and THE FUTURE OF TELEVISION. She's a writer and dance critic. She blogs at The Looseleaf Report.

they simply forgot about it

Potomac Avenue — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:28:41 -0800

How a handful of geeks on Usenet defied the USSR. From the French Digital Journalism site OWNI, who are presenting some of their content in English in honor of being down in Texas for SXSW.

Underage Tomfoolery

Potomac Avenue — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 12:26:17 -0800

Tired of the hype around MTV's (and before that, the BBC's) modern teen drama Skins? Miss the 90s? Try Orange Juice in Bishops Garden, a web series, detailing the lives of a group of teenagers as they navigate high school in the year 1994. The show is set and shot in the greater metropolitan Washington DC area and is created by the DC-area filmmaker, Otessa Ghadar. All the (90s indie pop inspired) music from the Series is available on their site as well.

How to be 1990s.

naju — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 10:00:19 -0800

How to be 1990s.

I thought this was a fantasy sequence?

Potomac Avenue — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 12:41:16 -0800

Ten years after it was canceled, cult teen drama TV show The Opposite Sex is on youtube in its entirety. Pilot_Pt.1 2 3 4 5 Ep2. The Virgin Episode 2 3 4 5 Ep 3 The Drug Episode 2 3 4 5 Ep 4. The Homosexual Episode 2 3 4 5 Ep5: The Dance Episode 2 3 4 5 Ep6: The Field Trip 2 3 4 5 Ep7: The Fantasy Episode 2 3 4 Ep8: The Car 2 3 4 5 Theme and music selected by Anna Waronker of That Dog. Starring the pointy bangs of Milo Ventimiglia, better known for being the brooding love interest on a more successful dramedy. Via

"[T]he most important decisions you make are not the things you do – but the things that you decide not to do."

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 01:31:01 -0800

"He’s a minimalist and constantly reducing things to their simplest level. It’s not simplistic. It’s simplified. Steve is a systems designer. He simplifies complexity." John Sculley On Steve Jobs, The Full Interview [via]

I'm Remembering

reenum — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 10:29:36 -0800

I'm Remembering has pics of things that people aged 30-40 will remember from their childhood and adolescence. Who could forget Tiger Handheld games, Hypercolor shirts, Paint With Water books, Surge soda, Scholastic Book Club, Slice cola, Madballs, Ring Pops, and, last but not least, Zack Morris's cellphone?

Friendly Wagers Are Friendly!

incessant — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:16:10 -0800

Pitchfork counts down the top 200 tracks of the 1990's this week. Strippertweets invites you to play pretend Pitchfork editor and predict the songs and order of the top 10 in their Pitchfork Pool. Research for the gambler: Pitchfork thought God Only Knows by the Beach Boys was the best song of the 1960's. OutKast had the number one song (B.O.B.) in Pitchfork's list of the 2000's. The number one album of the 1990's was Radiohead's OK Computer, according to Pitchfork. Aphex Twin apparently had the best video of that decade, they say.

Concept Unification Complete

Potomac Avenue — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 05:12:41 -0800

PizzaCam is a youtube channel of Chuck E. Cheese promotional videos, training tapes and ephemera from 1988-1999. From the official video archives of ShowbizPizza.com a fan site devoted to the history and legacy of the (penultimate) amusement park restaurant. More videos: From live shows to CEC University training (on such diverse subject as new security measures, robot diagnostic checks and how to make the proper pizza) to specially made music videos from jeff lynne, howard jones, rod stewart and dire straights. And of course endless in-store musical productions: 1998 (Austin Powers "Parody"), 1993 (Spring Training), 1991 (Games) (American Pride), 1995 (Adventures in my own body), and 1994 (Fight Song), (Patriotic Bandstand). The Future looks Fun to Me!

where were you in 1992?

Potomac Avenue — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:03:12 -0800

Eric Davidson, lead singer of the New Bomb Turks, has written a book exploring a much-overlooked and oft-imitated genre that he dubs Gunk Punk. We Never Learn came out June 1st 2010. More interviews with Eric at Chunklet and Totally Crushed Out. Pics from the book(NSFW) Vice has accompanying interviews with Billy Childish, the Mummies, and Steve Sherman of the Beguiled. Finally some New Bomb Turks videos, arguably the best example of the scene, to give you some idea of what we're talking about here. Live on a Monday The Look Alive Jive Girl You're On My Mind Sucker Punch Spanish Fly By Night Loose (Stooges) Tatooed Apathetic Boys Hammerless Nail Born Toulouse-Lautrec Job Mr. Suit (Wire)

Too Much Horror Fiction

kittens for breakfast — Sun, 09 May 2010 17:06:46 -0800

Too Much Horror Fiction: "Covering horror literature and its resplendent paperback cover art, mostly from the 1960s through the early 1990s. Mostly."