Take our ink-stained hands and join us at the OldStand, where Jon McMillan goes to remind everyone what an honest-to-goodness music magazine is supposed to look like.
We’ve suffered through some half-assed list issues here at the OldStand, but RS 602 (“New Faces ’91″) has a compelling mixture of the thoughtful, the prescient, and the ridiculous. On the plus side: David Fricke’s trip inside the acid-fried mind of Ministry’s Alain Jourgensen, the patron saint of Chicago’s Wax Trax records, and a primer on independent labels which, in the days before the internet, might have been a suburban kid’s first exposure to Matador, Sub Pop, Creation, and Flying Nun.
As with any exercise in picking the “next big thing,” there are some hits and some misses. The Charlatans UK (lead singer Tim Burgess looks “like New Kid on the Block Jordan Night on ecstasy”) and De La Soul are still active 17 years later, and it’s hard to argue with the Chris Isaak pick. Even the obligatory artists-recommend-artists section has a few gems, including Brian Eno on My Bloody Valentine: “[Soon] sets a new standard for pop … it’s the vaguest piece of music ever to have been a hit.”
And then there’s New Faces cover boys Extreme. Allow me to transcribe:
“There are lines you draw, Paul, no matter what you do,” Bettencourt is saying. “We could sell a million records, but if it’s all twelve-year-old girls who think that one of us is pretty, what the fuck kind of audience is that to have? Of course you want to be rich, but how far would you go, you know? Would you suck dick to do it?”
“Thaaat’s debatable!” barks Cherone happily.
Bettencourt and Geary shoot irritated glances at Cherone, then get back to the topic at hand.
“Seriously, what’s the most important thing to you?” asks Geary. “Maintaining your integrity? What I’m saying is, if you’ve got your bottom line, then shut up. You want your cake and eat it, too.”
The two continue to hammer away at each other; apparently neither realizes that although they’re approaching the argument from different angles, they’re both making the same point.
“I recently read this thing,” Geary says. “The guitar players in Warrant were in Guitar Player, and I notice that they’re struggling for respect from their peers. That’s a big major problem for them. They have all the money, and they’ve got success, and…”
“I’m just making a point,” says Geary. “Warrant is saying, ‘Jeez, I got a million dollars, but I don’t have any integrity,’ and you’re saying you’d rather have what you have than what they have.”
“Okay, then be quiet,” says Bettencourt sullenly.
More than words, indeed!
And it gets even more embarrassing, with a not-nearly-ironic-enough pullout fashion spread featuring dueling MCs Hammer and Van Winkle and a shitload of Z Cavaricci (Hammer: “Contrary to the Media, Vanilla Ice and I have actually been friends for about three years”). Now, I don’t know much about fashion, but I do know that in 2-4 years, when the coming early-90s nostalgia apocalypse comes, we will all look like idiots. Except, apparently, for Vanilla Ice, who will look like Frank Sinatra.
Please Hammer, don’t…do whatever it is you’re doing right now.
LEFT: Best. Bar Mitzvah playlist. Ever.
In case you can’t read the fine print, this guy apparently made $1.8 million selling cow-themed sweatshirts. Hooray for America!
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a DiVinyls sighting.
A who’s who of the independent scene — back when that word meant something.
As someone who lived through the Hypercolor era, let me preempt you by saying: no, these are not cool.
TMNT II, on the other hand, was extremely cool.
See, even Billy Idol gets it!
Reebok Pump clothing line = Bad Idea Jeans.
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De La!
LOL @ fashion in the days immediately pre-grunge (although here in Seattle that would have been 1986).
Another Hypercolor factoid: it was THE big push for the Seattle company Generra (in 1990 you couldn’t walk a block without seeing some kid in an oversized sweatshirt emblazoned with a 500-point Generra logo). Hypercolor’s uncoolness and resulting lack of sales basically put Generra out of business.
Not to worry though, a mere two years later everyone would be wearing flannel shirts and ripped jeans. Or maybe it was TO worry. I don’t remember.
My parents wouldn’t let me get anything cool like Hyper Color, Z Cavariccis, Umbro soccer shorts, or a single pierced ear(left of course). I did have some Air Jordan VIIIs though.
I want a shirt like Chris Isaak is wearing.
I want one of those cow sweatshirts.
I owned CD singles for about half of those dance tracks. The Meat Beat song is terrific; but the b-side “Radio Babylon” might be better. Same goes for the Nine Inch Nails b-side, a cover of Queen’s “Get Down Make Love.” Dee-Lite’s World Clique is underrated and an eminently listenable album. Jesus Jones get kicked to the curb in the alt/indie musical canon but Doubt and Liquidizer were great records.
And if I remember correctly, Faith No More opened for BIlly Idol that summer, who was touring behing that “Cradle of Love”/Ford Fairlane thing.
And check out the other labels cited in that indie article–Dischord, Matador, SubPop–just awesomeness.
I don’t remember Hypercolor, but in Boston back then there was a ton of Cross Color.
I was listening to De La Soul is Dead yesterday, still good.
Bettencourt is more beautiful than any girl I know (except my Mom)
i have long said that 1991 was the worst year ever for fashion. Think also: 8ball jackets, 90210, Color Me Bad, and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin to name a few shudder-worthy looks. No one looked good that year.
I never knew that Chris Isaak was in C+C Music Factory
Billy Idol + Faith No More = Amrit’s first concert. The whole family came, of course. My dad couldn’t believe what I had talked him into, while my brother and I played it cool in our leather jackets. I was like 10.
I’ve bee predicting the 90s revival for awhile now. Since music trends have been repeating in the same order as they did the first time around, the 90s revival should be the next big trend. Maybe it’s just because I was a teenager for most of the 90s, but I really like that era. There was still underground music, the indie rock bands were laid back slacker types instead of twee rich kids, and the Simpsons didn’t suck yet. Those were the days…
One thing though- the period right before grunge hit was terrible. Clothes were the tackiest they’ve ever been, mainstream music was unbelievably soulless, and culture generally seemed to be in decline. Of course nothing really changed after the 90s went into full swing; people were just as superficial as ever, but they were just emulating better role models. Look at how kids acted when they emulated Kurt Cobain and compare it to how kids acted years later when kids emulated Fred Durst. There’s a world of difference.
As bad it sounds today, that was the stuff that got me into music! I still remember C + C Music Factory on Arsenio Hall explaining the controversy of not putting the real female singer in the video for “Make you Sweat”. It seems so trivial now! And my god, I don’t think I’ve seen or heard Stevie B’s “Because I Love You” since it fell off the charts (thank goodness). But Deee-Lite are still fun to listen to. It all reminds me of NBC’s Friday Night Videos. I didn’t have MTV, so it was my only mean of getting vids.
Well, I’m off to my closet to cut the boobs out of my jackets.
Holy cow! My wife has one of those sweatshirts!