Apology - The Posies - Dear 23 - 1990

Okay, one thing I definitely need to remember...just cause my gym gets a hold of some new exercise equipment does not mean that I need to try it out. I looked at all the shiny new back exercise machines and thought "Yeah, I could strengthen my back...maybe that'd help my posture..."

Now my back is a solid cape of sore muscles...not pleasant at all.

Anyway, here is another obnoxiously literate song from the Posies first real album. Words and phrases featured in this song: Disenchantment, Running Rampant, If it Illustrates the Nonesuch Nomenclature, "And The Stones Will Weep, in a Modest Fashion, but Don't Expect Too Much You Might be Disappointed."

With a vocabulary like that and a need to show it off, no wonder everyone hated me as an 18 year old.

This song is also an unfortunate example of a song whose verses are better than it's chorus...the chorus becomes something of a let down. But still The Posies sharp harmonies and Beatlesque melodies make the song at least somewhat worthwhile.

Any Other Way - The Posies - Dear 23 - 1990

Met up with my buddy Rance in Park Slope for some Guinness last night. Much as I am not a fan of the coming cold weather, it is kinda nice to wear a sweater and drink some tasty stout. I mean, who the hell wants one of those things when it's 90 degrees out? But when there's a nice crisp chill in the air, there are few things better.

If you want a concise picture of what I was like as a 19 year old, you could do worse than this song. Hyperarticulate, but perpetually heartbroken. Snide and snarky, as method to mask the crippling pain of adolescent "love" (It's telling that the one line in the song that is not said sarcastically is the plaintive wail of "She Left Me Alone!!!"), but still self-aware enough to know that it's all ridiculous and to have a gallows-humor laugh at the pain.

For instance:
"She Left Me Alone/Could you believe we ran out of things to fight about
I was crushed of course/but at least I have something I can write about
I guess that I'm just so proud of my contempt/it gets paid for having nothing good to say
And even though it doesn't pay the rent/I wouldn't have it any other way."

Ahhhhh, it's all so freaking smug...

This song pretty much wraps up everything I loved about The Posies as a teenager, the clever word-play, the heart on the sleave, the pitch perfect harmonies...and it also sums up most of the things I'm embarrassed about in my youth. Kinda makes me want to go find my teenage counterpart and shake some sense into him.

Andalucia - Yo La Tengo - Fakebook - 1990

I feel like my entire office is coasting through to the weekend...and yes it's Monday. It's just one of those weeks where it feels like everybody in the city is zombie walking through the week to make it to that early dismissal on Friday and the long weekend vacation/staycation they've got lined up for Labor Day. Even the subway seemed slow.

Anyway, speaking of Slow...here's YLT covering John Cale on the Fakebook album. Sadly, I can remember a time when YLT putting out a mellow album was a new and novel twist, rather than to be expected and sighed at with disappointment.

Ana - Pixies - Bossanova - 1990

I was talking to my ladyfriend about something and decided I'd go ahead and post this whole story. We were talking about the worst act of revenge we'd ever done to someone...hers was the fairly benign act of subtextually implying that her roommate was fat. I assured her that I could easily best that.

I used to work for a small dotcom run by an Israeli boss. At a certain point he realized that he was too close to his co-workers (me and my friends) to effectively be a bad cop, so he brought in one of his army friends to do the job for him. I hated this man with a passion unparralleled. He simply didn't understand the company we were running. He insisted that all of our customers be above board, not realizing that we were in the business of dealing with criminals. He insisted that we spend all of our time working, not realizing that the point of the dotcom revolution was that busy work is bullshit...and this distaste was mutual, so I was usually the object of his scorn.

So one day I'm going for a coffee run and I ask around if anybody else wants some. He answers that yes, he'd love some tea. As I came back with the beverages I made a stop on an abandoned floor of the building where I preceeded to make literal the expression tea bagging. And yes, it did scald a bit. But it was totally worth it.

Anyway, I always think Bossanova is an underrated album...sure, they were starting to hate each other...but it was still better than most of the albums that came out in 1990.

All Over The World - Pixies - Bossanova - 1990

For many years I held the contrarian opinion that Bossanova was the best Pixies album, and while I still like it quite a bit, it turns out I was just sick of Doolittle.

Alison - Pixies - Bossanova - 1990

More Things I Learned in Indiana:

C) Fine. You got me. I'll admit it. Baby sheep and cows are pretty darn cute.

I said it, are you happy?

I still have every intention of eating and wearing those animals when they grow up.