A few days back, I had the sudden urge to create a playlist of some of my favorite "rockers" from the 90's. After all, that time period was when I was at my most impressionable as a music fan, and while some mixes you're aiming to have a eclectic range of emotions, full of peaks and falls, sometimes you just wanna rock the F out. From start to finish. From first track to last.
So that was my goal and I wanted to keep it to a very specific time period, primarily mid to late 90's. "Public Witness Program" from Fugazi's "In On A Kill Taker" for example always gets me going. (And is arguably the band's most catchy, commercial sounding song, despite their consistent stance of being anti-commercial.) I started culling tracks from another blog entry I started working on about some of the most influential records on me personally. If I have Fugazi on there, got to have a little Jawbox too. Well then that also means I've got to grab a Smile track. Couldn't forget Pond, one of Sub Pop's best hidden secrets to this day. And then some of the later bands like Errortype: 11 and Rival Schools (I know, I'm mildly cheating the 90's thing with them. They formed in 99, the track I chose is 2001, but I'm letting that slide because it's awesome.) And yeah, the Soundgarden track is from '89, but let's face it, we all heard it in the 90's!
But here was my initial dilemma. When it comes to the perfect mix, order means everything. You have to have the right flow, the right sequence to place these tracks in for maximum effect. And this is usually a time consuming process that takes multiple attempts and several tests. It's a rarity to get your perfect playlist in the first try. Possible, just not probable. But I just couldn't crack this one. I think initially it was because every single song was a rocker. If I had a mellow track, I could use it to break to flow, manipulate the mood, etc. So after a handful of failed attempts to find the right order, I jumped in my car, picked this playlist and hit the "shuffle" option. Maybe I'd hear a combo of 2 or 3 tracks in a row that worked well enough and that'd inspire me.
And would you believe it, the following playlist was exactly the order that the random play option picked! It just worked perfectly as soon as I stopped thinking about it and left it up to fate to decide what order to put it in. Ever do that? Put your trust and faith solely in the "shuffle" play option? It's glorious when it works. So, here's my 90's Rockers Mix, complete with You Tube links so you can check out the tunes for yourself if you don't already know 'em.
1. Jackpot Plus! by Jawbox from "For Your Own Special Sweetheart" (You Tube Link)
2. Glass Sparkles In Their Hair by Pond from "The Practice Of Joy Before Death" (You Tube Link)
3. Staring At The Sun by Smile from "Maquee" (You Tube Link)
4. Public Witness Program by Fugazi from "In On A Kill Taker" (You Tube Link)
5. Papercut by Sense Field from "Killed For Less" (You Tube Link)
6. Take A Bow by Errortype: 11 from "Some Six" (You Tube Link)
7. Energy Dome by Snapcase from "Designs For Automotion" (You Tube Link)
8. Stars by Hum from "You'd Prefer An Astronaut" (You Tube Link)
9. Used For Glue by Rival Schools from "United By Fate" (You Tube Link)
10. Hands All Over by Soundgarden from "Louder Than Love" (You Tube Link)
11. Round by Sunny Day Real Estate from "Diary" (You Tube Link)
12. Hang Out by Thurston Moore from "Psychic Hearts" (You Tube Link)
13. Hit Liquor by Shudder To Think from "Pony Express Record" (You Tube Link)
14. Possum Kingdom by Toadies from "Rubberneck" (You Tube Link)
15. The Mouth Of Babes by Smashing Pumpkins from the "Zero EP" (You Tube Link)
And I'm sticking by that! Sure I could probably mess with it a bit more, and who knows? It clocks in at about 56 minutes which means I have plenty of space to add more tracks to it. (I'm sure I will update this at some point with Sprinkler and Six Finger Satellite and Handsome.) But I like that this all came together by chance. Life is simpler when we leave it up to chance sometimes. These songs all remind me of a much simpler time when I didn't worry so much about every freakin' single thing.
Here's what I mean - last weekend, I went apple picking with my friends Axelle and Neil and we were supposed to meet some of their neighbors there. We got there and the irony being that none of us could get decent cell phone reception, something that no horror fan would ever buy in a modern horror film... and yet it actually does happen! Anyways, Axelle was trying hard to keep calling to coordinate with her neighbor friend while Neil and I waited under a shaded tree. He said to me, "Remember before cell phones? We'd all just show up where we're supposed to, walk around and somehow we always managed to find each other."
That reminded me essentially of the entire time period that I discovered every song above. In my band days, whenever we were driving to do a gig in Pennsylvania or some part of New Jersey, we had no cell phones or GPS. We were oblivious to the task and yet somehow, magically, we'd always find our way to the venue or place we were supposed to play. Part of what made that unknown ride safer was the comfort of the music we listened to on the way there. That's what all of these above songs reminds me of. Driving on random parkways in States I was unfamiliar with, with my best friends hoping that we'd show up to some venue or bar we'd never been at and that someone, anyone would be waiting to watch us perform.
So even though this mix was originally intended to be a "rocker" to get me pumped, it in actuality just reminds me of a simpler time.
Where we left everything up to fate.
And just like the way I determined the order, I left it up to fate.
