Secret Love

There are 2 record collection commercials from my 80's youth that I will always, always, remember. The first was "Freedom Rock". No explanation needed. Everyone knows "Freedom Rock". But the second most played? Secret Love. Maybe you remember this gem? Memory a little hazy? Well behold:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F36GeAIExg

Yes. I thought so. This commercial is eternally burned in my skull. But also, the songs are eternally burned into my soul. This collection represents "lite magic" at it's absolute finest. Or worst. It is the soundtrack to every dentist visit. Every doctor's visit. Every car ride with your mom. Every department store.

so download all three discs, and savor the cheese.

download

"Feels so Good" by Chuck Mangione

I don't know why I never got into this before now. But yeah, "Feels so Good" is one of those "lite" songs that you heard alllllllllll the time in the late 70's and early 80's. So any time I hear this song, immediately I am transported back to Zayre and it's floral pattern walls or Caldor and it's orange and brown color scheme, because department store muzak is where you would hear this song the most back then.

Download: "Feels so Good"

"Peter Piper" by Run DMC

During the summer of 1985, the black music of inner city New York had found it's way to the white, middle class suburbs of Connecticut. My best friend Jay had received a cassette of Run-DMC's masterpiece "Raising Hell" for his birthday, and the rest of the neighborhood was in awe. We had already been listening to local pop radio, so we were already up on the dance and R&B hits of that era, but this was something new. It got into us and we couldn't let go.

Jay had also received a dual cassette boombox and so we all immediately made copies. I would sit in my room wondering what exactly "Adidas'" were, and why it was so "tricky to rock a rhyme on time".

Every Saturday morning for a few months we'd put on the first track "Peter Piper", lay out some cardboard in a driveway of a neighbor down the street, and would attempt to break dance. Badly. I think some windmills were done, but all most of us could really master was "the worm".

But that was the introduction to hip-hop for Cody Ave, and it's still one of my favorite albums, and songs, to this day.


Download: "Peter Piper"

"She Stands There" by DGeneration

DGeneration were a band that tried and tried so hard and you really wanted so bad to succeed, but alas huge alternative rock stardom always alluded them. Which was sad, because they really wrote some of the catchiest songs of the 1990's. It's nice that these days Jesse Malin is at least well respected in the punk rock community.

While attending UConn in 1996 I received a Radio 104 compilation CD at a concert on the student union mall. I remember knowing DGeneration because 104 had played "No Way Out" from their last album a little bit. I recall not caring about any other song on the CD, becasue "She Stands There" was surely a standout track. Driving and melodic, the track really holds up 13 years later and is still a staple of long car rides.

And if you want further evidence of how awesome DGeneration was, listen to "The Party's Over" by Murphy's Law (DGen guitarist Rick Bacchus was the guitarist on this album, and makes it all the sweeter of an album).

Download: "She Stands There"

Summer Tunes

no real stories here, just a bunch of songs that I like rocking in the summer:

Stateside - Hot Rod Circuit
Over the Hills and Far Away - Led Zeppelin
A Praise Chorus - Jimmy Eat World
Stars - Hum
Time of the Season - the Zombies
Smiley Faces - Gnarls Barkley
Blood Red Summer - Coheed and Cambria
Cherry Pie - Warrant
It Was a Good Day - Ice Cube
Think About You - Guns N Roses
Cannibal Girl - Head Automatica
Jamming - Bob Marley
Uptight - Stevie Wonder

Download

"I Won't Forget You" by Poison

1987 was the year I discovered hair metal. And the awesomeness of dial MTV. Every night Adam Curry we bring us the greatest songs in the nation, voted on by we the public. The countdown at this time was primarily hair bands, with some Def Jam hip-hop mixed in (Run DMC and the Beastie Boys!). Because at the time I only knew of the pop radio stations (96TIC and Kiss 95.7), who rarely played any of the great rock starting to come up at the time, I devised a way to listen to this music all the time (without spending my hard earned paper route money on cassettes or records). Every night I'd watch MTV and hold a boombox up to the TV when a song I wanted came on. And pushed record. And for months I'd listen to all these terrible sounding recordings on this 1 90 minute tape I made. And everyday I'd come in to school and listen to "I Won't Forget You" by Poison with Nicole Rouleau while we helped watch the kindergarten kids each morning. She preferred "Talk Dirty to Me" but thought "I Won't Forget You" was pretty good too.

And in fact, I still have that tape I made.

Download: "I Won't Forget You"

"Crucial B-B-Q" by Murphy's Law (from the Album "Good For Now")

Murphy's Law is one of my top ten favorite bands ever. They are the number 2 live band I have ever seen, only behind Deftones.

I liked a girl in high school (same girl from my BossTones story) and she was always suggesting new bands to me as I was such a punk rock novice in the fall of 1993. She started with the ska bands, hit me with the transitional Operation Ivy and Big Mistake, and then we started moving into actually pure punk rock. That fall was the first time I heard such bands as Rancid, Green Day, and Murphy's Law.

This girl gave me a mission to go get some Murphy's Law, so I went to the Strawberrie's in Bristol near the Bristol Center Mall which, at the time I felt, had the best selection of less mainstream music. So I found their Murphy's Law section and found they had 3 albums in the bin: "Back With a Bong", "The Best of Times", and "Good For Now". I had no idea which to choose. I had never heard this band before, so I had no clue. In the end I went with "Good For Now" becasue it was an EP and cost less than the full lengths.

The standout track on this CD was "Crucial B-B-Q". Punk rock with horns. Not ska, but actual punk rock with a horn section! It was triumphant. It spoke of beer and orgies, boobs and burgers. Most importanly, it was fun.

2 years later I finally got to see Murphy's Law live for the first time, when they played Maxaluna's in my hometown of Plainville. Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed booked the shows there and in addition to allowing my shitty band to share the stage with some modern hardcore legends, he brought in many great bands I would never had expected to play a small suburb in CT.

Jimmy Gestapo became my new hero that night. He talked more in between songs than any singer I'd ever seen. He gave Jamey shit and mocked his missing finger. He swung from the ceiling beams over the crowd (which was a big no-no in the club). And he let the crowd call the songs to play.

Since then, I've seen them many more times. For a while Ken and I were going to see every MA, RI, and CT show they played. And tomorrow night it's down to RI for us to see them with Rancid and Bloodshot Hooligans.

good times!

download Crucial B-B-Q