I’m not quite sure what the appropriate way to begin this post would be. I probably should have made an outline or something beforehand. Since I didn’t, I apologize in advance for the scattered, and most likely disconnected manner in which this post will turn out.
Now that the preface is out of the way, here is the meat. I am a bit of an audiophile. I have been since I was pretty young. When I was very young (kindergartenesque) I used to fall asleep listening to the radio. Back then I was listening to Power 99 and KISN 97. These two stations played pop/rock music in Salt Lake City in the 80’s. I was into Madonna, Debbie Gibson, Michael Jackson, Christopher Cross, you get the idea. I collected 8 tracks, vynil, cassette tapes, CDS and now .mp3s.
My taste in music has, of course, changed over the years. When I was in 6th or 7th grade, much to my parents’ chagrin, I was introduced to the 90’s “alternative” genre. It started when I discovered a radio station called KJQN or “KJQ.” When I first started listening, the station didn’t come in very clearly in south Salt Lake valley, where I was living at the time. So it was always a little bit staticky. For me putting up with the static was well worth being able to hear songs like Gary Neuman’s “Cars,” and “Our house in the middle of the street,” by Madness. Not to mention, all of my favorite Depeche Mode, Cure and English Beat songs. Later KJQ became X-96, “alternative” became mainstream, and hip hop came into vogue. I never really got into the hair bands. I think mostly it was because of this one fat kid that I hated in elementary school, who always wore a Warrant, “cherry pie” shirt. That, coupled with the unspoken standing dispute (90’s version of a “beef”) that existed between Kurt Cobain, who I idolized, and Axl Rose, who I despised. What kind of name is Axl, anyway? Axel, ok. But Axl? Wannabe toughguy with an ego the size of the arenas he played in, that was Axl.
Back to the subject… Over the years I have broadened out quite a bit in taste (although I still can’t stand the hairband arena stuff), and have amassed a fairly eclectic stack of tracks. From time to time, people inquire about some of the tunes in my collection. I don’t consider myself an expert or uberknowledgable in obscure music, by any means. But I do have a passion for for the stuff. So, in the off chance that one, or even possibly some reader(s) of my ramblings has/have dovetailing, or even slightly overlapping taste in music, with me, I had this idea. “What is the idea?”, you may be wondering (if you are still reading). Well, I thought that I would occasionally write a “La Musica Coolica” post (the name is lacking, I know), in which I will link to a streaming track of my choice that I felt inspired to share. I had this idea today while straphanging on the A line, with someone’s handbag constantly jabbing me in the leg. As the annoy-o-meter was rising and rising, “Personal Space Invader” started playing in my headphones. It was like poetry. It is like the anthem of the rush hour subway rider. So I decided that I would make my first Musica Coolica post about that song.
You may remember Sugar Ray. Although they have all but fallen off of the map, front man Mark McGrath still shows up now and then. The song “Personal Space Invader” is a track off of their album 14:59. The title of this album was commentary on all of the critics claims that “Fly,” a song from their previous album, which had received heavy rotation would render the band a one-hit wonder. “14:59” was to say that the 15 minutes of fame had not yet expired. Clever. The song, “Personal Space Invader” is not completely characteristic of the normal Sugar Ray sound. In fact, it is reminiscent of Modernized DEVO. Speaking of DEVO, I want to say a little more about them in a minute. Even though the hook is a lot like DEVO, especially how they kind of get all fake computery, the chorus has plenty of heavy guitar and good melody. For these reasons, I dig it. Here is the link to Sugar Ray’s “Personal Space Invader.” It is encoded as a streaming .m3u file, in hopes to preempt any sort of proprietary issues. I’m not sure that it will work in Safari, or on a Mac at all (let me know if it does). Give it a listen.
As an almost completely off-topic side note: A couple of weekends ago, when we were at the MOMA for the VanGogh exhibit. We wandered through a couple of other exhibits. One of them dealt with music in the 6o’s and early 70’s. They had this DEVO video playing that cracked me up. It is a cover of “Secret Agent Man,” filmed in 1975. The best part is the keyboard player’s dancing. He is wearing a baby mask, and at 1:38 he does the most hilarious moves with his arms. I embedded it below if you want to check it.