tunequest

Hard to believe, I know, considering that Radiohead recently valted to the top of my last.fm profile and that the band has consistently been in the top 5 in my iTunes library in terms of number of songs, average ratings and total play counts. But it's true, I was late to the Radiohead party. For about five years after they band hit with Creep, I was unimpressed. ...

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I came of musical age during the so-called alternative era, when "alternative" was more of an actual alternative to the mainstream rock/pop of the early 90s. However, due to my relatively young age and relative cultural backwater, the movement was well on its way to mainstream-ization by the time it swung through my burg. The year was 1993 and at the tender age of 14 I ...

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One minute and 44 seconds worth to be precise. And the subject of this perfection is The Breeders' Fortunately Gone from their 1990 debut record, Pod. The song is a paragon of simplicity, with a gentle, upbeat, bobbing rhythm and seductively playful singing that doesn't hesitate to draw you in. My only complaint is its length. It is so perfect, yet so tantalizingly short, that I can't help ...

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Well, not that new. It's from 2002/2003. but it is new to me and that is exciting. I was comfortable with the notion that the band was gone and its member had moved on to other projects and lives. Sarah has her solo project; Archie's doing the producer thing; etc. but when researching for my previous velocity girl post, I discovered the wonderful news and it rocks ...

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The opportunity was once afforded to me to acquire a copy of the infamous pre-released version of Radiohead's Hail to the Thief. I had already become familiar with the released version of the album, so I was curious to hear the evolution from the unfinished form. Expecting a lo-fi rough-cut, I was surprised to find that this alleged early version was rather polished. There's only a handful ...

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Free Download: Anatomy of a Gutless Wonder Anatomy of a Gutless Wonder was one of the last songs released by Velocity Girl before the group's break up in late 1996. It's only available as the b-side to the 7" single Nothing from the group's final album gilded stars and zealous hearts. I picked it up (along with the Your Smiling Face single) directly from subpop.com in my ...

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so all the pearl jam i've been listening to lately is leading to a kind of renaissance for the group as far as i'm concerned. my fandom was huge in high school, basically through the release of no code. i was involved with some tape trading over the internet and regularly participated on an early mailing list dedicated to the band (which i had to telnet to ...

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Mudhoney's My Brother the Cow, I think, is a fitting bookend to the "grunge" era. And though I didn't get into Mudhoney until the waning days of the movement, in retrospect it seems as though it was the most quintessentially grunge of all the big bands to come out of Seattle during that time. Nirvana was more pop friendly; Pearl Jam leaned toward hard rock; Alice ...

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I picked up the latest Sonic youth recently but hadn't gotten around to listening to it until this evening. Because of my tunequest rule of "no repeats," I won't be able hear it again until the next year or I complete the project, whichever comes first. It's safe to say that when I pass either of those milestones, I'll be itching to hear it again, along ...

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