Music That My Kids Enjoy

 

Last month I took a road trip with my son to see a concert.  I started taking him to shows when he was 12 or 13. We bonded over bands like QOTSA, Wye Oak, The Joy Formidable, Bully, A Place To Bury Strangers, and some of his favorite metal bands (Mastodon, Deftones, High On Fire, and Red Fang).  We saw Acrassicauda (the Iranian band featured in the documentary "Heavy Metal In Baghdad").  We once saw a couple exchange wedding vows onstage at an iwrestledabearonce concert.

My son turns 30 this year.  I feel fortunate that he and his wife live nearby, and that we get together fairly often.  We don't talk about music as much as we used to, so I encouraged him to play some of his favorites during our road trip.  I compiled a playlist of his selections, which I'm sharing today.  Each of these two mixes is an hour long.

Some of these songs date back to his high school years (class of 2014). I can hear the influence of bands like Dinosaur Jr., MBV, Pavement, Pixies, Nirvana, the Breeders, and the Jesus Lizard. 

We also listened to some newer music that he's into. It was interesting to learn from my son that there is a shoegaze revival going on now, and that a lot of the young shoegaze artists are based in Philadelphia.  There are also several of his local favorites from Atlanta (Sword II, Thousandaire, and Whores.) He seems to like a lot of bands with female singers, and I do too.

I have also taken my 25 year old daughter to shows.  We've seen Gorillaz, Animal Collective, Machinegirl, Perturbator and Tropical Fuck Storm.  Her tastes are a bit more esoteric, and I don't always grasp the appeal of the music that she plays for me.  But she did introduce me to Bambara and the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets.  "March On For Pax Romana" might be my favorite new song of 2025.

I've tried not to push my own tastes on my kids. I think the only CD's my son ever borrowed from me were Loveless and The Low End Theory.  I'll never forget when he asked his parents if we had ever heard of The Cure. We ended up going to see The Cure together (when they toured with 65daysofstatic). And just recently, my daughter asked me about the Cocteau Twins.  

I also included one song that my wife loves (Charly Bliss' version of "Steal My Sunshine" from AV Undercover).  Hope you find something to enjoy in these two mixes. If you're seeking reassurance that it's not just "the olds" who appreciate guitar-driven indie rock, you'll find it here. And I hope you have fun this weekend.  My kids and I are going to see Ovlov!  I can't get enough of their song "Strokes", and I really hope they play it.

I Was A Teenage New College Student

As a high school senior (Class of '84), the only college I applied to was New College of Florida.  From the 1960's until just a few years ago, it was an innovative school where students had opportunities to design their own education. Under the current governor (who likes to say that Florida is "where woke goes to die"), the college was essentially dismantled by a new state-appointed board who fired faculty members, discarded a dumpster full of library books, rewrote the curriculum, and remade New College in the image of Hillsdale, a conservative Christian school.  

Whether you view that as a victory or a loss is a matter of perspective, but it was an early win for the Project 2025 activists who are now deconstructing the federal government from within.  You don't come here for political opinions, and I'm not going to rage against the machine or mourn the New College that I knew.  Let's talk about the music.

Palm Court (pictured above) was where we held our parties, dancing among the Florida palms at the center of the dorms.  There's a low wall around Palm Court that was the right height for sitting (while drinking, smoking, chatting, and watching the dancers).  An informal party was called a "Wall".  The bigger parties were called PCP's (Palm Court Parties).  That was when they brought out the big speakers, the kegs, and the punch bowl spiked with acid.  MDMA wasn't outlawed until 1985, so we were "sorted for E's" (if not wizz).

Today I'm sharing a selection of songs that were often played at those parties in the mid to late 1980's.  Students made mixtapes, and someone would plug in an amplifier, a cassette deck and a pair of speakers.  Throw in a case of Busch, and you've got a Wall.

There was something special about hearing these songs in the Florida night, dancing under the trees with the smell of cheap beer, patchouli and clove cigarettes in the air.  Hearing these songs again now is interesting.  It was a time when the US and Russia were sworn enemies, and we never imagined our presidents becoming friends. Many of us feared that Ronnie was going to let the nukes fly (as he joked about in the sample used in "5 Minutes").  Apartheid still existed ("Free Nelson Mandela").  Gil Scott-Heron's intro to "B Movie" sounds surprisingly relevant to the current efforts of Project 2025 Project 1955. 

It's also interesting to look back to what we imagined the future of music might be back then.  A lot of the tracks are examples of (or influenced by) electro, an offshoot of hip hop and one of the roots of EDM.  This was back before the internet, so I didn't know at the time that we were listening to Arthur Russell ("5 Minutes") and the members of Tackhead (who backed Grandmaster Flash and other rappers on the Sugar Hill label).  Keith LeBlanc's "Malcolm X (No Sell Out)" was also popular at our parties.  Bill Laswell, Bernie Worrell and Nicky Skopelitis were listed on the sleeve of the Time Zone 12", so I did know that Material members were backing John Lydon and Afrika Bambaataa (and I recognized the "White Lines" bassline from "Cavern").  I really can't describe how amazing it was to hear "World Destruction", "Uncertain Smile" or "Bela Lugosi's Dead" at top volume in the open air on a warm night.  I invite you to Turn Your Watch Back and join me in a Time Zone...

Let's Build A Carcass

Koen and Stinky recently shared compilation LP's that were formative influences.  The compilations that shaped my tastes (more than any album) were mixtapes.  Growing up in the suburbs without older siblings, I started exploring outside the musical mainstream by trading tapes with penpals, who I found via fanzines.

The Miami Carcass was a fanzine based in Oxford, Ohio (home of Miami University), and the guy who ran it (whose name I have regrettably forgotten) was kind enough to share advice on starting my own zine as well as sending me tapes.  It was 1981, so a lot of the first wave punk bands were gone.  Hardcore and anarchopunk were on the rise. "No Values" and "No Government" were nihilistic, raw and revelatory.

I was buying vinyl, tapes and zines by mail (and traded zines after starting my own).  There were so many records I wanted to hear, but I couldn't afford them all.  I asked my friend at The Miami Carcass for Crass, The Fall, and Adam & The Ants, because I had read about them in the World Update issue of Slash.  I also asked about records that were reviewed in the Carcass.  A couple of Ohio bands (Toxic Reasons and Dementia Precox) were on these mixtapes, as well as some wonderful surprises like P-Nissarna's pisstake of Plastic Bertrand.  

My interest in The Fall, Rough Trade and San Francisco punk begins here.  Let's Build A Carcass (today's share) features most of what was on those mixtapes. 

PREVIOUSLY ON JONDERBLOG: WQFM'S "Q-Wave", a Milwaukee radio show that also helped me discover new wave, punk and local bands.

Get To Know Stinky

This three record set was one of the best purchases of my early teenage years [sez Stinky], and that includes buying nice copies of both The Beatles' Revolver and Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies LPs at a yard sale for fifty cents apiece shortly after I reached double digits.  

It was the early seventies and music was in a terrible state.  The Beatles had broken up and Paul McCartney & Wings’ Venus & Mars and Band On The Run and Ringo’s Goodnight Vienna had landed with me more than Harrison or Lennon’s music.  Disco had reared its ugly head and obscured almost everything else, driving me into a box of 45’s my much older sister had left behind that was full of wonders that included girl groups: The Shirelles, The Cookies, The Dixie Cups, Dionne Warwick, and Annette Funicello.  

In the early 70’s, record labels tended to lose interest in releases that had left the charts, and reissue labels like Rhino were struggling to become a national presence.  I remember paying $10 for a pretty trashed copy of a Best Of The Shirelles LP because it was “collectible” at what may have been the only record store that sold used records in my town — and they didn’t last long fleecing school kids like they did. 

My point is that you really had to seek out oldies.  The popularity of American Graffiti gave me a two record set of great early rock & roll/doo wop, and the sequel stirred in some classics from the 60’s (but wasn’t nearly as good a film).  There were a couple AM oldies stations that played songs that straddled the two soundtracks like Gary Lewis & The Playboys and The Classics IV.  Songs which were about ten years old at the time!

These events, and the fact that each radio station DJ played whatever they wanted back then, made me the shambling musical omnivore I am today.  Even the jukebox at the local burger joint had Ernie’s Rubber Duckie, Johnny Winters’ Frankenstein, and Bloodrock’s D.O.A. on it.  

I was given a 45 of The Tubes’ Don’t Touch Me There that got a lot of spins.  In addition I loved Rod Stewart & The Faces, The Kinks, Tommy James & The Shondells, Nancy Sinatra, The J. Geils Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, Cream, The Eagles, Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show, Dion & The Belmonts, Dr. Demento, George Thorogood, and Loggins & Messina.  Country was popular where I lived, so I was happily exposed to George & Tammy, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Ray Price, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Conway Twitty.

I was into pretty mainstream stuff when I was a high school upperclassman — until punk & new wave finally reached the desolate location where I lived — and I added The Ramones, The Dead Boys, The Cars, The Pretenders, more Tubes, and Nervous Eaters which I bought at the second used record store in my town around 1980.  One of my more intuitive purchases, which led to my taking a chance on a lot of other artists I’d never heard of before.

But 1980 is musically way ahead of where I began my love affair with THE #1 HITS OF THE 60’s.  When I bought it in 1975, I got $10 a week in allowance — so the $7-$8 I mailed away for the Special TV Offer was a substantial investment, and one of the best I’ve ever made.  THANK YOU, Adam VIII Ltd.  You made my childhood a lot better.  And the concept was as simple as Seuss; nothing but #1 hits! 

I’ve recreated the track listing using digital copies because the three records were in nearly constant rotation first on a child’s turntable, and then on my first all-in-one sound system with an 8-Track player!  I probably listened to all three records once a week for a couple years.  Although I still have my treasured copy, no one would want to listen to that.  

While the cover art isn’t going to make Hipgnosis sweat, it has a simple charm, and they put some thought into the track order.  And unlike K-Tel and Ronco — the dominant forces in compilations at the time — the tracks were as fat as a regular album so they played good and loud, and none of the songs faded out to make them fit.  And it featured 40 original hits by the original artists.  Since then, I’ve accidentally bought K-Tel cassettes in person that were re-recordings by one or more of the original band members. So this collection is dear to me not only because of its surprising quality and value, but because it offered me an oasis in a desert of disco (which, I’m glad to say, I now appreciate).

Dutch Pirate Stations and Nederbeat

Koen recently celebrated a vinyl-only evening with two old friends.  On his own blog, Koen writes: My generation grew up with vinyl records; 45s, eps, and lps, a.k.a singles, extended plays, and long-play albums. Two Dutch radio pirate stations, Veronica and Noordzee, were of utmost importance as they were often first playing new exciting rock and pop songs.

Dutch TV only had 2 channels and there wasn’t that much shown regarding ‘pop’ music… Fast forward to 2024 when we are literally swamped with instant access to streaming music courtesy of the internet, forget about cassettes, CDs, or even mp3s.

The first to be played from my vinyl collection that evening was Dank U!, a 1970 lp of Dutch artists under the banner of Radio Veronica (a well-known pirate station in those days), which was released for two purposes: the 10th anniversary of the station & raising funds for charity.

Later I realized that it gives an excellent (though short) overview of the Dutch Nederbeat at that time, from The Tee-Set to Golden Earring!

And since this lp was never released on CD, I decided to make a digital version of it for your listening pleasure!  The zipfile also includes a history of Radio Veronica and a detailed pdf with background info on this album and the artists.  

And for a bonus share, since we missed two days of posting this week, 12 Jaar Radio Veronica is (as you may have guessed) more Nederbeat gems compiled to celebrate the pirate station's 12th anniversary.

PREVIOUSLY ON JONDERBLOG: jonder reminisces about Q-Wave, a Milwaukee radio show that introduced a lot of punk and New Wave music to an impressionable teen.

Downstairs Dan Made Me A New Wave Fan

Photo from onmilwaukee.com

At the dawn of the 1980's, it dawned upon my teenage brain that there were worlds of music beyond what was played on the radio and sold in the stores of my bucolic Wisconsin town. I eventually found college stations like WMSE and WCCX, but first I stumbled onto a Sunday night radio show on WQFM, an "album rock" station right in the middle of the FM dial. From atop Wisconsin's second tallest building*, 93QFM's broadcast signal spanned the plains, grains, and moraines of America's Dairyland. 

The show was called Q-Wave, and the DJ was Downstairs Dan. I began to tape Q-Wave every Sunday night, and listened to the tapes all week. They were a formative influence on my teenage tastes, and Downstairs Dan was my guide.

Promos from labels like Sire, PVC and IRS would have collected dust at WQFM if Dan hadn't played them. American stations like WBCN and KROQ championed the Clash, the Go-Go's, Devo and others long before they were added to playlists at mainstream radio stations like QFM. I heard the Stray Cats on Q-Wave a year before they hit the US charts. When Billy Idol became an MTV star, I already knew "Dancing With Myself" because Downstairs Dan often played tracks from the final Gen X album.

One memorable episode of Q-Wave featured local singles by Plasticland, Ama-Dots, the Haskels, the Shivvers, the Lubricants, the Blackholes' classic Warren Spahn, and (my favorite) Modern Problem by Buck Byron & The Little Seizures. It was another revelation: adventurous music was being made not just in London, LA and NYC, but close to home.

I think Dan Hansen still lives in Milwaukee. He was on the air for decades. There's a sandwich named after him. I salute you, sir.

*It's no Sears Tower or nothing, but it's pretty dang tall, doncha know.