The Wackness:90’s nostalgia without the scare factor

Josh Peck and it-girl Olivia Thirby in The Wackness:(I had this dress in 1994 too!)

Last week Tyler and I went to see The Wackness, a coming-of-age story built almost entirely around nostalgia for 90’s zeitgeist. From The Notorious B.I.G. to the cheesy street slang white kids threw around (thankfully “Dope” has died out) to the baggy denim, it’s saturated with aesthetic references to the Clinton-era. And throwing in child star of that era MK (Mary Kate Olson, that is) is just the icing on the Millienials’ cupcake. Oh and I did I mention there are b&w screen Gameboys and Nintendo 64s? And no cellphones! People used landlines!

The movie–meh, take it or leave it. It’s a story that’s been told ten times before, albiet set in an era that we’re currently aching for a return to. However, I will note that  watching the man who played Gandi (Sir Ben Kingsley) do lines of pharmaceuticals and get it on with aging Bond girl Famke Jenssen is both amusing and startling.

During the film I couldn’t stop thinking, “Where’s Telly?” The Wackness proves just how sanitized we have gotten in Bush’s America and post-Giuliani’s New York, as it’s essentially copping the aesthetic of KIDS, but neglects the nihilism of that film.  It also ignores the horrifying and very real presence of AIDS. The sex scene even emphasizes the LACK of condom, which is very out of line with the AIDS awareness that was so prevalent in that time. Lastly it sorely lacks a Chloe Sevigny-type (Sorry Olivia, you are no Chloe). The Wackness is like KIDS redone by High School Musical folks, where the AIDS and heroin problems in NYC never existed…and Biggie never died.

However, The Wackness has reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile: the 90’s countdown:

1. Positive Hip Hop

Man, was it never better for White People to feel rhythm and feel like there was hope for all races. Tribe Called Quest and Digable Planets remind me of Lisa Bonet and, well, idealism. Then I went to a Jurassic Five show in 2000 in Philly and there were no black people to be found. Alas.

2. MTV’s arty dudes

First there were grunge’s slightly femme-y/usually dirty/always tortured but oh-so-sexy musicians toiling in front of us (Kurt, Trent, Gavin Rossdale). But even their non-music programming was full of these Hawkes (as in Ethan). From the The Real World in London (Neil!) to Chris Hardwick on Singled Out (dreamy!) to 120 Minutes‘ “I really need a cough drop” Matt Pinfield, MTV was a minefield of these sensitive dudes…not to mention all the nerdy-chic girls like VJs Kennedy and Karen Duffy, and later, Daria and Jane Lane of Daria around.

Of course that all kind of ended with Carson Daly.

3. My So-Called Life

Jordon Catalano. Rayanne Graff. Ricki. The dad that went to Grateful Dead shows.These people are like cousins to me.

4. Tetrus on Gameboy: Even my mom was addicted.

5. Blossom‘s flower hats, Joey’s “Woah!”

6. Jonny Lee Miller in Hackers and Trainspotting

7. TLC’s Lisa Left Eye Lopez’s condom eye patch: RIP Lisa!

8. Sam Goody’s or The Wall’s listening station: Um who wasn’t listening to the new Dishwalla–and not buying–it in 1997?

9. Wolf Blitzer covering the Gulf War–holy shit, there are bombs in back of him! Don’t die Wolfie! Oh wait, no one died in that war.

10. Prince as a Symbol/Marky Mark/Technotronic/”Heroin chic”/Lillith Fair/Discmans/Unplugged/Behind The Music/Angelina Jolie when she was a bi-curious badass/Elizabeth Wurtzel and her Prozac Nation/piercings up the entire ear/The Grind workout video/Meredith Baxter Birney-era Lifetime movies/pre-Parkinson Michael J. Fox/Leonardo DiCaprio before Titantic/laser discs/Jane cosmetics/Sassy magazine/Juliana Hatfield/trip hop/SPIN magazine when it didn’t suck/Britpop and the time when Damon Alburn was hot/Tony Blair’s first few years and all of “Cool Brittania”/the triumph of the Dollar/that dog on Frasier/tape singles for 1.99/PollyPockets/Pogs/20/20’s molestation special segments/Al Franken on Comedy Central/Dilbert/cheap Ecstasy/Jessie Spano turns into slut-McGee in Showgirls/Barney/glowsticks/Berlin’s LOVE PARADE/riot grrl/Gwen Stefani in “I’m just a girl”/Tori Amos channeling Kate Bush and not looking old yet/the anti-Globilization movement/AOL on dial-up/hackey sacks/snap bracelets/the second coming of Jellies (the sandal)/Clear Pepsi/Reviving Ophelia…

And it goes on and on….

Pulitzers give Dylan a shout-out… and Liz Phair turns into a book critic?

“Bob Dylan is the most frequently played artist in my household so the idea that I am honored at the same time as Bob Dylan, that is humbling.” _

–David Lang, music, for “The Little Match Girl Passion,” referring to Dylan’s honorary Pulitzer Prize.

 Pulitzer Prize Winners! 

First of all, Bob Dylan received a “special citation,” the first rock musician to receive such a notice. David Lang won the Pulitzer for Music (Lang is a founding member of Bang on a Can, who make contemporary classical music pretty damn interesting, especially when they play things like Discreet Music), and Alex Ross’s exhaustive but enthralling The Rest is Noise (which connects Aphex Twin to twelve-tone music) was a finalist for Non-Fiction.

Terry Reily’s In C as played by Bang on a Can (click link to download)

Dylan’s Visions of Johanna (some British poet once said this was the most important American poem of the 20^th century or something like that. After 3 years of poetry school I gotta say it’s damn close…perhaps my very favorite Dylan song?)

Also, how about Liz Phair’s review of a book-Luna’s Dean Wareham’s memoir Black Postcards-in the NYTBR this Sunday? It almost makes up for that ill-advised album she made where she tried to be the Generation X version of Avril Levigne.

 She did go to Oberlin.

Liz Phair: Mesmerizing (click link to download)

Lastly, in high-brow rock world, guess who is blogging about Eno and “Ghosts” now? New Yorker’s smug Sasha Frere-Jones. Um, Sasha, yeah, thanks for that great tip. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, an Eno/Bryne collaboration from the early 80s-woah, a good album? Really! OMG. Who would have thought? Ghosts, not as awesome. Fucking profound.

I’d rather read Phair playing Michiko Kukatani any day! However, knowing that Frere-Jones is probably cranky over his coworker getting a Pulitzer finalist shout-out (Alex Ross writes about classical music for the New Yorker and has done excellent profiles of Bjork and Radiohead for the mag, to boot–oh and his blog is also superb) while he has to write about shit that diy bloggers were covering last week, well, that’s kind of a nice thought for all us anti-Frere-Jones types out there.

Very Very Hungry-My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

Radiohead tours with Grizzly Bear

This weekend, among other activities (seeing O’death blow away an audience of hundreds at Bowery Ballroom, getting pissed at lame Webster Hall bartenders for making me wait an hour for a beer at the Jens Lekman show–although I did also finally hear “Pocketful of Money” live!–and getting screwed by the F train), I spent a lazy Sunday remembering why I love Radiohead and trying out Head On (it doesn’t work, but it is kind of a fun tingly experience–very Kid A). Then today one of my favorite, favorite, favorite bands, Grizzly Bear posted this on Myspace:

“We are VERY pleased to announce that for 6 shows and 2 festivals we will be touring with Radiohead this August.

Hope to see you all!

August 1 – Lollapalooza – Chicago, IL
August 3 – Verizon Wireless Music Center – Indianapolis, IN
August 4 – Blossom Music Center – Cleveland, OH
August 6 – Parc Jean Drapeau – Montreal, QC
August 8 – All Points West Music & Arts Festival/Liberty State Park – Jersey City, NJ
August 9 – All Points West Music & Arts Festival/Liberty State Park – Jersey City, NJ
August 12 – Susquehanna Bank Center – Camden, NJ
August 13 – Tweeter Center For the Performing Arts – Mansfield, MA
August 15 – Molson Amphitheatre – Toronto, ON”

Better than the Beta Band opening in the early 00’s? Better than Grizzly Bear opening for Feist? Uh yeah, fuck yeah, although those were both two very good scenarios. I love you Grizzly Bear, especially since you not only make beautiful post-shoegaze and have an openly gay member who does interviews with Out magazine and Pitckfork, but you also seem to like all the same music as me.

(Please note, I have also added a new blog to the –that of my father, aka Condoguy. Today he is blogging about Sweeney Todd and how it ret;aes to Condos. I’m SO PROUD!)

Music as Memoir, Duh….Mixtape Nostalgia

Woah, people hold on biographical attachment to their favorite music?

(“And in the coming seasons, we can look to books by Talking Heads’ David Byrne, who records his impressions while biking through 10 cities around the world, and by musician and producer Brian Eno, who is writing about art in the tentatively titled 44 Minutes: A Big Theory about Culture.”–HOLY FUCK!)

The mixtape a gesture of love? (Serioulsy, go to this site, mixtape.exopolis, as it is so very wonderful…kitsch, Manu Chau, a little boy and groovy Flash action, etc…and you can send it to all you love!)

Some art from someone who gave me really good mix cds….

Speaking of old school shit like mix tapes and stuff, I realized, when revisiting my book collection, that one single book, put out in 1996 and now worth all of 66 cents used from Amazon.com, probably taught me more about music than anything else. Except for maybe those mix tapes that a creepy but very nice 35-year-old who managed my local video store used to make me when I was 16.

The irony of this is that most of the writers in here are now book critics.  

And I love you all, my dear readers:

Eurotrash Girl: Chicks on Speed …German art ladies who were making capes before Air was wearing them and making fun of hipsters when James Murphy was only dreaming of being LCD
Slip Inside This House: The 13th Floor Elevators …years ago, Primal Scream’s version of this (which I heard first in the terrible Ethen Hawke adaptation of Hamlet which rethought the dire Dane into an NYU film major) was one of my mix-cd/mix tape staples. Then I heard the original. Like Modernism and Post-Modernism. Um, or not. Trippy-ass song, though.
Mannequin: Wire …Mannequin was also a great movie with Andrew McCarthy and if the filmmakers had been truly as rad as we are, they would have put this song into it.
Anything You Want: Spoon…last weekend I was in a cab with a crew and a music fight was gonna ensue, we could feel it (dance music lover versus dance music skeptic). Then Spoon came on the radio and everything was all good again. ‘Cause, I mean everyone likes Spoon, dude. This song is so sweet too.
Nietzsche: The Dandy Warhols….All this talk about Spirtualized lately makes me want to really re-visit psych-1996 style and listen to the Dandy Warhols. Americans never did this sound as well as the Brits, but Songs from Urban Bohemia is a good if guilty pleasure album.
Venus in Furs: Devotchka (VU cover)…so this is why Devotcka tickets are so expensive!
Wawa: Lizzy Mercier  A wawa is a bird. A WaWa is the best crap food/24-hour store in the ENTIRE world. Props to my girl Claire, Wawa’s biggest fan (and possibly best looking patron), who also once told me to lick Brett Daniels from Spoon via text after I told her I saw him at a free show at South Street Seaport (see above).
Felt tip:Love is all  Really, isn’t love all, people?

Dub Easter Electro Egg Mix

Sans la grippe, avec beaucoup de travail, c’est à toi une musique. Bonne Paqcues!

Future: Cut Copy Or, rather, Fewcha! Let’s just go into a minute why Australians rule? Nick Cave. Kylie Minogue. Cut Copy. Koalas. Murial’s Wedding. Ok, I won’t post about Cut Copy anymore.

My Spine is a Bassline:  Shriekback

New Young Pony Club: Hiding on the Staircase This is such a good song. Stupid name for a band and when I first saw these guys two years ago, I wasn’t that impressed but now they impress me. This sounds so vintage I can’t believe it wasn’t made in 1983.

Cocaine in my Brain: Dillinger

Vivien Goldman: Laundrette: This was actually made around 1983. I think I may have actually lived this song, though, in 2004. Goldman is a professor at NYU now. (She was also in the Flying Lizards).

My Favorite Mutiny: The Coup

Yppah: What’s the Matter?

Digitalism: Idealism This song is so very 1994 Big Beat (Orbital, Prodigy) and I fucking love it. I kinda wanna watch Hackers right now actually