If It's Too Loud...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. I think it's been a little over a year since I've done a Forgotten Friday, but recently I re-discovered Consonant, and I simply couldn't resist bringing them back to all of our attentions. We throw the term "supergroup" around quite liberally here, but check out the line-up for Consonant. Formed in 2001, this marked Clint Conley's return to making music since the dissolution of Mission of Burma in 1983. Also included is Chris Brokaw (Come, The Lemonheads), Winston Braman (Fuzzy), and Matt Kadane (Bedhead). That pedigree alone should get Consonant a lot more attention, not to mention that this helped inspire Mission of Burma's brilliant r...

Steve Burns, mostly of Blue's Clues fame (a show, by the way, that Ken and I are both far too old to remember yet too young to have kids who remember Burns on it), pushed all the wholesome nostalgia buttons this week in a viral video directed at his childhood fans that grew up. There have been three humans sitting in the Thinking Chair over the years, and an effort to cash in on streaming subscriptions, all of them hung out together in a special. Steve Burns is not Blue's Clues for me anymore. Burns is instead an indie rocker who put out an amazing album 20 years ago that not nearly enough people heard, Songs for Dustmites . So the story goes, Burns was in some bands in high school and college, and his demos somehow ended up with members of the Flaming Lips, who helped craft them into the loud, crunchy, poppy songs those of us lucky enough to discover it would come to love. "Mighty Little Man," "Troposphere," "What I Do On a Saturday"... all ...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. Back in 2006 or so, I was bored at home. I wished I had something to go out and do, but I didn't know of anything, which means I was just sitting around on MySpace. I stumbled across a post that Awesome Color was playing Ralph's in Worcester, about half an hour from where I was living at the time. I had never heard of them, but the ad for the show mentioned they were on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label. That was good enough for me, and I headed down to check them out. And what a band they turned out to be. First, all three members adopted "Awesome" as a stage last name. A lot more straightforward than other bands on Ecstatic Peace, Awesome ...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. I've become a huge fan of Spotify's daily Time Capsule playlist. It's always a good thing to put on when I just can't pick, especially on a long drive. I typically get a good mix of alternative and hip hop classics of my youth, although they do give me the same three Beastie Boys songs too often or try to trick me into listening to the Grateful Dead sometimes. Every so often I find a forgotten gem, which is what happened with Magnapop recently. Magnapop formed in Atlanta in 1989. Since then they've consistently featured the songwriter pair of Ruthie Morris and Linda Hopper. They first came to my attention with 1996's Rubbing Doesn't Help ,...

If you've never seen Todd Haynes's fantastic 1998 film Velvet Goldmine , you truly owe it to yourself to do so. It's basically a David Bowie biopic without licensing. Once you watch the film, you're going to need to check out the soundtrack. In addition to the classic songs of the period, it also included a song by Wyde Ratttz. Wylde Ratttz stood in for The Stooges, and consisted of Ron Asheton (The Stooges), Mark Arm (Mudhoney), Mike Watt (Minutemen), Don Fleming, Jim Dunbar, Sean Ono Lennon, and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley. They did a cover of The Stooges's classic "T.V. Eye" that made me desperate to hear more. Alas, there was no more. Until yesterday. Apparently the band got together to for a second session that included originals and a cover of The Pretty Things. You shouldn't even be reading this any more. This is pure gold, and I can't believe this has been sat on for over twenty years. This is a supergroup to end ...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. Allow me to break from our normal format for Forgotten Fridays where I bring up a beloved if forgotten indie album, usually from the 90's. I don't typically use this for top 40 music, but every so often I'll say something like "Hey, remember when that French toddler had a hit song about how hard it was to be a baby?" and everyone looks at me like a rambling drunk. This has happened so many times I finally looked it up to make sure it wasn't just my poor memory. It wasn't. Back in 1992, a French record company gave a record contract to a four year old. Jordy Lemoine, recording under just the name Jordy, had the number one song in Fr...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. Chopper One is the band that features original Weezer guitarist Jason Cropper, who left the band during the recording of The Blue Album  and was replaced by Brian Bell. He is also credited as a co-writer on "My Name is Jonas." After leaving Weezer, Cropper formed Chopper One with his wife, Amy Wellner Cropper. In 1997 the band released Now Playing , their debut and final album, which featured the minor hit, "Touch My Fuzz." After Chopper One, Cropper did time in Fliptop and 22 Jacks. He sang the theme song for the massively underrated Andy Richter Controls the Universe , and has done some producing and recording for other bands. When it was ...

Listening to Tool in 2001: This is making me smarter Listening to Tool in 2019: This is making me much dumber — pixelatedboat aka “mr tweets” (@pixelatedboat) August 5, 2019 I remember not initially being into Tool when I learned of them in high school. Fully immersed in my R.E.M./Toad the Wet Sprocket-style alt-rock combined with a burgeoning love of electronica meant that I typically only hit up the WAAF-style stuff when I had exhausted the other radio stations. Furthermore, with basically no interest in metal, there was nothing significant to lure me in. “But Jeff, Tool is different ,” friends would tell me. Yeah, there were the heavier topics from Undertow and all, but allegedly Ænima was this sort of transcendent conceptual masterpiece that I really needed to reconsider even if I was sick of hearing “46&2” all the time. I don’t remember when the switch flipped for me exactly, but something definitely changed at some stage and I became a fan. Maybe it was the nods to...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. Bill Janovitz has a handful of solo albums out. Way back in 1996 saw the release of his first solo album, Lonesome Billy. The songs on Lonesome Billy were mostly songs written for Buffalo Tom but didn't quite fit in. It's easy to see why. While the album's opener, "Girl's Club," has some of Buffalo Tom's trademark noise mixed into their 90's alt-rock sound, the very next song, "Think of All," is purely a folk/country song. Looking back, a lot of this sound has worked its way into Buffalo Tom, but in 1996 this was almost a complete departure. "Shoulder" sounds like it could be a demo for a Buffalo Tom song, but...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. Flash Flash Flash , the debut album from Boston's The Explosion, made me feel old back when it was released. I graduated college that year, and a brand new punk band (especially one as thrashy and "skate punk" as The Explosion), seemed like something I should have outgrown. I hadn't, and I loved this album. Somehow they slipped my mind until it was just announced that they'd be opening some shows on Bad Religion's summer tour. Of course, not Boston... The Explosion surprisingly hold up. The songs are driven at a throttling speed, but still keep some semblance of a tune and melody. It's definitely not hardcore, and it's definite...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. I just realized we have yet to do a Forgotten Friday yet this year, so here we go with an old favorite from my college radio days... At Home with the Groovebox  was released by Grand Royal back in 2000. All artists recorded songs with the Roland MC-505 Groovebox. According to Wikipedia, the Roland MC-505 is "...  a combination of a  MIDI controller , a  music sequencer  and a  drum machine." Since this was released on the Beastie Boys label, it's filled with artists either on Grand Royal or friendly with the Beastie Boys. As you can imagine, the results vary wildly, but all are pretty interesting.  One of the better contribut...

When the line up for this year's The Thing in the Spring was released, I paid close attention to the bands playing the free Sunday show, naturally. That's when I stumbled upon Sweater Mouth's 2017 release Tiny Holler . According to the Bandcamp description, " sweater mouth is grace glasson's rural bedroomy lofi folk project." That might be the most apt self description I've ever seen. Sweater Mouth perfectly captures current folk with the mostly 90's lo-fi bedroom recordings feel. Tiny Holler is filled with these great quiet lo-fi folk songs that have their own unique vibe. I wouldn't quite call them "quirky," but they are the slightest bit off beat in the best possible way. You can listen to "RRD" below. You can currently download Tiny Holler  for free via Bandcamp . For more on Sweater Mouth, be sure to check out their Facebook . tiny holler by sweater mouth

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. 1998 was my first ever time at CMJ New Music Marathon, and my first ever show was a Virgin Records showcase with Gomez, Placebo, and Whale. Whale went on first. Singer Cia Berg was onstage with just one other member of the band playing keys. They performed their first song that way, and it being 1998 and all, it seemed pretty much right. A ton of electronica leaning bands in 1998 did live performances that way. It was pleasant and all, but I braced myself for a pretty dull 30-45 minutes. Then, a bunch of 80's metal looking dudes ran onto the stage, put on instruments, and rocked out the rest of Whale's set. I had this in mind while listening to Whale...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. This might be the most forgotten release we've done on Forgotten Fridays. Schtum have virtually no web presence. No Facebook, Twitter, or even Wikipedia page. The most I can find about them is that they were from Northern Ireland, were managed by Paul McLoone of The Undertones, and broke up while touring America. That's it. I've been able to find more about singer Christian McNeil, so apparently moved out to the Boston area and sang with Sea Monsters and Orchestra Morphine, even winning a Boston Music Award for Best Male Vocalist in 2011. I remember Schtum's "Skydiver" being played a bunch on the Boston meathead radio station back in 1...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. I really miss these cover song compilations from the 90's. Back in 1992,  Freedom Of Choice (Yesterday's New Wave Hits As Performed By Today's Stars)  was put together to as a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood. As the title says, it's "Yesterday's New Wave Hits As Performed By Today's Stars." Well, by stars they mean indie rock stars, and this one does have some of 1992's finest indie rockers contributing. It also has a bunch of artists I've never heard of outside of this compilation, but I'll focus on what I find to be the highlights.  I'm always going to lean towards any contribution from Sonic Youth. Here they...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. I absolutely loved all the tribute albums back in the 90's. This might be one of my absolute favorites. In 1997, Boston label Cherrydisc put out an all Boston tribute to Van Halen. As the title states, some of the covers are much less faithful than others. In fact, legend has it that The Elevator Drops submitted a cover that turned out to not be a Van Halen song. No one realized it until the very last minute and it got pulled. That's how much the people behind this compilation knew about the Van Halen catalog. We get not one but two versions of "Eruption." The first is The Reverend Ed Broms performing the guitar masturbation classic on a churc...

I should preface this by saying that there are a handful of albums that kind of define my love for music, and this is one of them. It's probably not entirely correct to call this album "forgotten," per se, since there are certain songs like "Bang On" that soundtracked movies for close to a decade after this album was released. But when it came out in 1998, it was the height of the whole "electronica" thing in the United States, and while acts like The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers were hitting it big, purer electronic acts like Orbital weren't getting quite a foothold and the sort of DJ/producer culture wasn't quite resonating the same way. Then came this album. I'm sure it was "History Repeating" that got my attention, since I've always loved Bond themes and Shirley Bassey is a legend and this song is incredible in its own right. But what sets Decksanddrumsandrockandroll apart is just the whole package effortlessl...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. I recently discovered I could use the Google to look up old top 30 lists for my old college radio station, so there went a huge amount of productivity. It brought back this insane flood of memories of bands and albums I adored but had forgotten about. But then I saw the name Frogpond, which did not sound familiar at all. Their album Safe Ride Home  was up in the top three albums of the week way back in 1999, but the name didn't sound familiar at all. I decided to do some research. Frogpond formed in 1994 in Warrensburg, Missouri. They took local opening slots for Everclear and the Toadies. Mike Mills became a fan and Frogpond played R.E.M.'s tour wrap p...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. We go back and remind you of their existence, and help decide if they were any good. Oh, the mid 1990's. It was the glory days of the compilation album, where labels would just throw a bunch of bands on a cd, knowing that as long as you liked two or three of the bands, you'd but the entire album since there was no way you'd ever have any other way to get a copy of the exclusive songs. One of their favorite ways to put one of these together was a tribute album. You'd get a bunch of bands that would usually never be associated together, often covering an artist you'd never expect.  One of these tribute albums was Twisted Willie , which is a mostly alternative tribute to Willie Nelson. Including Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings ...

Forgotten Fridays is an occasional feature here at If It’s Too Loud... where we go back and find the lost records of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on countless mix tapes, and then forgot they existed. Once a week we go back and remind you, and help decide if they were any good. Gigolo Aunts are such a Boston band to me that I always forget that they started out in New York. In 1981. The band was formed by four middle school students under the name Sniper. In 1986 they changed their name to Gigolo Aunts, and in 1987 moved to Boston. Having some of the standard indie band issues (labels folding, self-releasing singles, etc), Gigolo Aunts released Flippin' Out  on RCA in 1993. Unlike many albums I listened to incessantly in college, Flippin' Out  remains an absolute masterpiece. The opening track, "Cope," is roughly 1000 times noisier than I remember Gigolo Aunts ever being recorded. The album is a perfect snapshot of the indi...