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the sound in my head: Blackstrap

other sounds:

It was 1981. I was in eighth grade. My bus driver played the Worcester hard rock station. The morning DJ, Harvey Warfield, was the commander of the Rock and Roll Air Force. He claimed he was going to name his new son "Angus Young Warfield". We were the rockin' school bus. The driver, he was pretty Otto, but sober. Some kids started smokin' stuff one afternoon, and he kicked them off the bus. "Only nice kids on my bus," he said, as we drove away.

One morning, as the bus turned from Main Street to Jewett Street, the song "Lunatic Fringe" came on. It was a new song. Long, spacy echoing vocals. Treated guitars, new wave the way the Tom Petty was called New Wave. Red Rider was the name of the band. The next morning, the "Lunatic Fringe" came on at the same turn. Next day, it came on halfway up Jewett. Next bus ride, same song, same street. It went on for a month. The bus started getting the giggles each morning. But did we change the station? No!

Still, it was my first inkling that radio might not be a free form art form. Kids would mouth the words to Journey songs, to prove they knew all the lyrics. I did it too for a while. Slowly, it dawned on me that this was really uncool, even though I couldn't figure out what it was about journey I didn't buy.

The next year, the station tried switching to a proto-alternative format. They mixed the Human League and "Rock the Casbah" and such with Ozzie. The "New Rock" format was a disaster. Fag music all that. And me, I didn't mind, as I was still trying to get a grasp on the complete works of Jethro Tull. By 1983, they'd dropped the digital diode logo and reverted to the distressed, bloody call-letter logo. As they rolled out the new format, they'd take callers, obviously fake to me even:

"Why don't you play Prince?"
"Because the top 40 stations play him. We are rock"
"But Let's Go Crazy rocks"
"Yes, but we want to bring you something different."

Like the new Guiffria! Around that time, the commander of the Rock and Roll Airforce got a gig on the country station. I wonder if the second child was named Juice Newton Warfield.

posted Thursday, June 24, 2004 1 comments

I grew up during that time in a small town just outside of Worcester and reading this brought it all back about growing up listening to AAF.

By Anonymous, at 11:51 PM

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Pleasure Heads
Catholic Guilt

I bought this record, circa 1990, at a gig where the Pleasure Heads opened for the Afgahn Wigs, as Sub Pop was on the way up. There's one more single, looks to still be out there. Singer Debi Catazaro when on to become Peg Simone. Pittsburgh loved the Birthday Party more than any other town I've lived in. Anyways, it's a favorite lost record of mine, jumbling folk and assault in a way that reminds me more of the Throwing Muses than Nick Cave. pleasureheads-catholic.mp3
posted Tuesday, June 15, 2004 1 comments

Catholic Guilt, you know it.

Isn't it on the jukebox at Dee's -- in the back room with the marble pool tables. Haven't been in Pittsburgh in four years, but I can almost remember the number -- C93 or D93. I'm sick if I got that right.

``What's that about original sin/Honey you know we both gave in ..."

By Cujo JB, at 3:43 AM