Friday Playlist

“The New Year’s Resolution” – Spielbergs
I made just one resolution this year, and I already broke it. Such is life.

“Fighting Back” – Voxtrot
Voxtrot had a little moment during the blog rock era in the 2000s. Next month they will release their first album in 19 years. On this lead single they sound like they haven’t missed a beat in their time away.

“Day In The Sun (Gettin’ wit U)” – De La Soul, Q-Tip & Yummy
A magnificent, classic De La track from their new, and presumed, final album.

“Gimme” – Hazel English
A delightful piece of springy jangle pop to help us get through the worst time of the year.

“What’s Right” – Ratboys
Everything is pointing towards the new Ratboys album, out in a month, being excellent.

“No One’s Forgiven” – Flight To London
HOLY 1980s!!!! This lands somewhere between classic Tears for Fears and cheesy, anonymous track from an Eighties movie. And the video is an homage to Genesis’ “Land of Confusion” video, with puppets acting out the group’s frustrations with the modern political world.

“Nothing On Me” – White Lies
Another blast from the past, this track blends post-punk, early electronica, and even some Rush-like elements.

“That’s My DJ” – Esther Rose
Not the kind of song I expected when I saw the title. Here Rose writes a love letter to her new home of Santa Fe, NM and the rave culture there, but does so in a manner that fits her musical style.

“Mother Mother” – Tracy Bonham
Last week’s Alternative Number Ones article (subscription required) landed on this track from June 1996. At first glimpse it is nothing remarkable, a good-enough track (Tom Breihan gave it an 8, I would say 7) that is fun to listen to but I bet most of you had forgotten about it. However there was a notable piece of trivia and cultural explanation that went along with it.

“Mother Mother” was the last track by a female solo artist to top the Billboard Modern Rock chart until Lorde’s “Royals” in Twenty-freaking-thirteen. SEVENTEEN YEARS. How could this possibly happen?!?!?

Well, Breihan writes, it was largely due to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allowed for massive consolidation of ownership of radio stations in this country. As Clear Channel snapped up stations, it forced homogenized playlists upon them. Soon a pop station in Kansas City was playing the exact same music as pop stations in Chicago, Dallas, New York, and LA. And the other pop stations in town were playing the same playlists too. In the Modern Rock space, this meant squeezing out female artists in favor of more aggressive bands fronted by dudes. Thus the late Nineties rise of Nu Metal and other associated nonsense.

Sigh.

If you wonder why radio sucks, look back to 1996. And find a way to support your local independent station, if you are lucky enough to live where one still exists.

“Video Killed The Radio Star” – The Buggles
I, like many of you, was surprised to hear that MTV’s remaining music channels were largely killed off earlier this week.

First off, I didn’t realize there were still MTV music channels. I guess they were buried deep in most cable packages, in those swaths of channels you only end up in accidentally.

Second, I’m not sure anyone really watched them or that they mattered. Their deaths are not a moment like 1996 that will irrevocably alter the media landscape. More a sad footnote. If you ever watch a music video these days it’s almost certainly on YouTube. And MTV itself, with all its dumb reality programming, still exists.

Each of the video channels apparently signed off with this classic, the first video that MTV aired when it debuted on August 1, 1981. RIP.