"My Girl" by Spicy Gribblets

Spicy Gribblets were never a big band. Most people have never heard their name. But if you talk to any punk or ska kid that went to shows in the 90's in Connecticut, they will talk with absolute love and reverence for them. The were one of CT's great bands. And not because they were talented. But because the band and music were so goddamned fun.

The first time I saw them was at UConn in a room in the student union. We showed up and found maybe 6 people in the room (including me and my friends Matt, Chris Cleary, and Jess Stone that equalled a whopping 10 people). If I recall right, there were to be 3 bands playing, but 1 didn't show up. So that left the Gribblets and some weak hippie band.

We endured the hippies and allowed the Gribblets rock out for us for the next hour. For all 10 of us. But it was brilliant. Everyone moving, dancing, jumping, yelling. It was madness. It was love. I left that night with a copy of their album on cassette which proceeded to be the soundtrack to my summer once school let out.

The song that grabbed me by the nuts was "My Girl". A song I fell so in love with that I covered in my own band almost 10 years later. We played many shows with bands that included Steve Burke, a member of the Gribblets. Steve was blown away by our cover of "My Girl" and even told me that he thought we did a better job than Spicy Gribblets did. A greta compliment, but no one could ever touch the greatness of the original.

Download "My Girl"

"You Might Think" by the Cars

"You Might Think" was the first music video I ever saw. This was the time when MTV was THE hottest thing in the universe and of course my parents forbade me from watching it . Granted I was only 8 years old, but I remember having to endure the recap of the Michael Jackson "Thriller" video by my elementary school chums on a daily basis. In fact, I never saw "Thriller" until probably 1992.

But there was a hot summer day where I awoke early and retreated to the basement of our house to watch cartoons, and as I was switching channels (on our analog cable channel switcher, connected to the TV by a wire) I came across MTV. The forbidden channel. And quietly I watched this video which enthralled me by it's combination of:

a) a catchy song
b) computer animation
c) hot girl

It was mesmerizing. And when it was over, I proceeded onto my beloved cartoons. But, I was hooked. And I knew I would be back again to see more of these so called "music videos".

Download "You Might Think"