dumpster diving

I love music. There should be a 12 step program for how much i love to discover and seek out new bands and oddities. I used to have to hoof it to a record store (yeah, i am that old) and dig thru the $.99 bin to find tapes of any consequence. I remember taking a bag of quarters up to Hastings in Albuquerque and having a feild day with their 2 for one deals. As if it were yesterday, I recall a particular day I found three special tapes at the bottom of the bin. The facination based purely on the cover art of course, there was no tape preview as there is today at places like the Barnes and Nobel or even that catchy new internet. You went on gut. You played a certain game of Cat and Mouse as it were. Well, this cat litterally piled up the tapes in the metal bin and dove into the bottom to capture three of my best loved tapes....the ones that led me to the ones that led me to the ones that shaped my world. Seven degrees of my musical prowess.

So during this time in my life ( i believe it to have been 91 cuz i wasn't driving yet) I was experiencing a musical renessaince. Pretty much ending my short lived facination with all things hairband and thank god NKOTB.... I loved what is now referred to as "old school hip hop" .....I was watching In Living Color and memorizing all the FLy Girls dance moves (thank you young J.Lo). I had all the important tracks from BelBivDevoe, Jodeci, NWA, Boys to Men, Crystal Waters, MCHammer, Rob Bass (fave by far).........and the like. I was preppy without being uptight - My uptight didn't come into play until late 93 with a church revival yada yada yada I digress. Anyway, I had always been , in my humble opinion, musically brave. I Liked top 40 and popular bands you could find on the radio but like a lyrical gatway drug, I dabbled in many unknown, often times odd sounds: Dead Millkmen, Linda Perry, Dead Kennedy's. Also sounds that i knew where great but no one my age at the time was particularly hip to (or was and didn't mention it to me): Bob Segar, Indigo Girls, CCR, the who, But I was hooked, always retreating back to synth-pop or new wave or the truly rich emotional pre goth sound in my self time. I wasn't afraid to share my love of it by any stretch....I was in Drama Club. I was a thespian, we were expected to like The Cure and Morrissey. :) But the Z-cavvarichi's and running man wasn't enough for my heroin like addiction for pulsating drum pads and lyrics spewing of emotional wrekage.

So like a secret tracking device was pulling me into the metal bin, my eyes caught sight of a tape.

Camoflauge: The Method of Silence. Little did i know, this all but out of touch with the current musical trend German band would hold a number one spot in my tape deck 3 minutes after i purchased it until it started to warp from being played so much. I had been tiring of my DM Violator tape (now that sounds so stupid, how could i have been so fickle?--well I knew every word and note) I had a mix tape made from the radio of all the 'pppp-Poison' I could handle. This tape slid in and oozed out my speakers like Kismet. We were meant to be. This album was made in 89 bigger in Europe (most great sounds are) and sounded a bit like a DepecheMode/Erasure rip off. But i loved it. It was a throwback to my youthier youth. The lyrics were deep (i was 14 remember) and they made me want to write poetry (which i did) Hell I was EMO before there was an EMO! You could hear their accent mangling the English but through it was a sound I identified with. One I first came into contact with in the mid 80's with bands like new order and joy division. This tape reminded me how much I loved new wave and it got my ears ready for the upcoming sounds of Cause n Effect and Big Audio Dynamite II and on and on…………

The next tape was Squeeze: Singles 45’s and under. I looked around the record store like a scared kid about to partake in a 5 finger discount…..Shirley finding this classic in the cheap bin was a mistake! I, of course had heard squeeze years prior, but I never HEARD Squeeze. This was a reunion of their early stuff. Amazing English bandmates Glenn Tillbrook and Chris Difford should be applauded for their talents. I am forever grateful to these blokes, they were the some of the for runners of Nerd songwriting and Nerd Performance that, I believe, paved the way for Weezer and Ben Folds Five and my Favorite: Jason Mraz. With catchy, thoughtful lyrics using witty wordplay -you, as an active listener, really feel these guys and can relate……as if you are sharing a pint together. I believe these intelligent fellas didn’t get enough accolades stateside.



Now, anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE Howard Jones. I love almost all things 80’s…but what you don’t know is although I obviously enjoyed his early hits brought across the radio to us by casey casem on Saturday mornings, I really started feeling the connection when I found the tape, Cross That Line that featured a snappy little radio hit, “everlasting love” I had been happy was part of the collection, but what I didn’t know was that the rest of the album was thought provoking and enchanting. It proved to me that classical music can be found as a background inspiration to the better type of synth pop. This tape was deep and engrossing, with melodic heartfelt accompaniments and lyrics set to haunting acoustics. Some songs are sad, a good sad, that you can relate to. I remember feeling like I couldn’t wait to REALLY fall in love and hoped that I felt being human as deeply as Howard Jones exemplified through his songs. I return to this album often when I am feeling sad and need a shoulder to cry on. Pulls at my heartstrings for sure, in a good way. It reminds me that everyone has ups and downs. Humanity is the great common denominator! :)