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  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #7: Gary Gilmore Girls

    SISTER DOUBLE HAPPINESS  “Don’t Worry” b/w “Wheels A’ Spinning” (Sub Pop Records SP77, October 1990)

    “Hey Loser.  Wanna find some action?  Tired of being left out?  Here at SUB POP we’ve just started a special club for lonely record collectors like yourself:  THE SUB POP SINGLES CLUB.  Every month we’ll send you a limited edition 45.  All you have to do is SEND US YOUR MONEY.  $35.00 for a full year, $20.00 for 6 months.  Your subscription begins the month we receive your $$$.”

    Yes, I was a Sub Pop loser.  I mean, c’mon…it was inevitable, right?  Make an offer like that to a vinyl fetishist working in a little indie store at the height of the grunge boom…fucking BLAMMO, you are going to get your sales on, Seattleites!  At what amounts to roughly $2.92 per single (or $3.33 if you go for the 6-month sub), and with at least 2 tracks per platter, we’re talkin’ ’round $1.46 per track.  Consider that nowadays people are paying 99 cents apiece for these shitty, pathetic, tinny-sounding little downloads with no artwork or sweet colored vinyl to look at.  PFFT!  I’ll take my Singles Club & go home, thanks.  Wish it was still around, I’d still be a member, dammit.

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  • Infatueighties: #79: The Show

    For someone who considers themselves a serious hip-hop fan, there’s surprisingly little hip-hop on this Top 100 list. I think there’s maybe 8 rap songs on this list (now when I decide to do the Nineties list, that might be a different story). That said, the songs that did make it to this list are stone cold classics, and Doug E. Fresh and MC Ricky D.’s The Show certainly qualifies.

    For a song with essentially no chorus, there are tons of hooks here. The scratched “oh my God”s, the dinky keyboard (allegedly played by a very young Teddy Riley of Guy and BLACKstreet fame) playing the “Inspector Gadget” theme, “six minutes, Doug E. Fresh, you’re on”. The kids who turned this song into a classic didn’t seem to mind the lack of a hook. I can clearly remember sitting on the school bus in Southfield, Michigan, reciting this song word for word with 25 other kids. I betcha the kids today can’t do that with a Lil’ Wayne song! (said in crochety old man voice)

    While Slick Rick’s turned into a hip-hop legend (and was far more influential as an emcee than a lot of folks are willing to give him credit for), Doug E. Fresh has sort of turned into a hip-hop journeyman. He’s never released an album worthy of his talents, although a Greatest Hits album is looooooong overdue. He’s probably better known these days for his appearances on every VH-1 pop culture special known to man, as well as for being hip-hop’s only Scientologist (trying hard not to make a face here). Questionable religious practices aside, we’ll always have “The Show”, right?

  • The Sunday Seven 10/12/08: The Train To Happytown

    This was supposed to be the week where the whole guest columnist thing kicked off, but due to…uh, technical difficulties, let’s just say that ain’t happenin’. So you’re back to checking out my music collection this Sunday evening.

    It’s been a good musical week for me.I finally located a copy of Ryan Adams’ “Heartbreaker” at a Best Buy in Virginia, I snagged the new Metallica CD, I saw my buddy Mitch Hood play a kick-ass show, and I relived my teenage years by watching VH-1’s Hip Hop Honors, only minus the pimples and the awkwardness.

    For those of you new to the Sunday Seven, I place my iPod on shuffle and discuss the first seven songs that randomly pop up. I anticipate being able to do this for a while, as said iPod contains over 18,000 songs. However, again, I am entertaining offers for contributors, so if you think you have something interesting to say about your music collection, drop me a line. I’ll shoehorn you in as quickly as possible.

    OK, enough of me blabbing. Let’s put the machine on shuffle and see what comes up:

    Track 1    : I’m the Magnificent by Special Ed (from Youngest in Charge, 1989)

    Edward Archer, the rapper who went by the stage name Special Ed grew up mere blocks from me in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. When he hit with “I Got it Made” at the beginning of ’89, there was a definite sense of hometown pride. “Maginificent” is a remixed version of a song from his debut album. The video was directed by and features Malcolm Jamal Warner, who you probably know as “The Cosby Show”‘s Theo. Speaking of Cosby, Special Ed wound up appearing on several episodes of the sitcom as a rapper that Rudy snuck into a nightclub to see.

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