Gafoo’s Blog

Welcome to the second edition of Chris’s Playlist. This is your humpday podcast to get you through a little of the Thanksgiving day traffic as you make your way to family and friends. In honor of Thanksgiving I will be putting up 3 songs for your listening pleasure. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and lets get on with the show.

Well, with this being a show about my own personal favorites, it would only be a matter of time before a Nirvana song showed up here so I will go ahead and get it over with. This is a song that probably a large portion of you have never heard. Since I first borrowed the “Nevermind” cassette from Abbie way back in 1991 I have never and will never stop enjoying Nirvana. Of course that traditional discourse: blah blah blah, they gave a voice to a generation of angry teens, gave music the kick in the ass it needed. But I say let the music stand on it’s own. Forget the fact that they eploded on the scene at just the right time (which they didn’t). Forget the fact that journalists were claiming them to have broken punk to the mainstream (which they didn’t). Forget the fact that millions of people consider Kurt Cobain rock’s “Savior” (which he wasn’t). Just listen to the music itself. This song in particular embodies exactly what I feel Nirvana is all about. Loud, angry, and viceral and good songwriting with Kurt still reaching for those higher notes and not quite hitting them but just totally not caring at all. Here is Curmudgeon.

/AsySound.swf?http://www.christhefoo.com/blogfiles/03 - Curmudgeon.mp3
03 - Curmudgeon.mp3

In keeping with the 90’s theme, I will continue with The Smashing Pumpkins. This is another band of the so-called “grunge” era that suffered rock star tragedy. However, in spite of this, they continued to crank out kick ass tunes. And through it all, you could always tell that distintcly nasaly voice of lead singer, Billy Corgan. He was actually an early inspiration for me. I mean, with a voice that wierd, anyone could sing right? The other big inspiration was them releasing an independant album when they were obviously big enough that any record label would be falling over themselves to give them distribution. Releasing an independant record was a risky venture and it may have ultimately led to their demise but kudos to them for sticking it to THE MAN. Anyway, here is a song from their box set “The Aeroplane Flies High” entitled “Set The Ray To Jerry.”

/AsySound.swf?http://www.christhefoo.com/blogfiles/06 - Set The Ray To Jerry.mp3
06 - Set The Ray To Jerry.mp3

Rounding out the 90’s theme for you this episode is one of my current obsessions, Nada Surf. Yes, this is a 90’s band. Doesn’t everyone remember the song “Popular?”
/AsySound.swf?http://www.christhefoo.com/blogfiles/03 - Popular.mp3
03 - Popular.mp3
Most anyone my age will instantly remember that song. I think it set a record for being played on radio playlists every other song. Seriously, it was that prevalent. Back when I used to actually listen to the radio I think I heard about 7 times a day. It was rediculous. Of course this can be a good or bad sitiuation for the band involved. If they are a “hit maker” band then it means back up the fucking money truck and dump it on my lawn. For Nada Surf, that utmately proved they were much better songwriters than 3 minute pop, it means that you record a 2nd album only to never have it come out and you end up touring your ass off in Europe just to break even on a “bad record.” Fortunately for us Nada Surf survived this mess, the second album made it to US shelves, and they have since released 2 more records, “Let Go” and “The Weight Is A Gift.” Both of these recent albums are great to just pop in to your cd player at night and let the music wrap around like a big warm blanket. The last song for you guys today will be “Killian’s Red” from the album “Let Go.”

/AsySound.swf?http://www.christhefoo.com/blogfiles/Killians Red.mp3
Killians Red.mp3

Well, that does it for todays show. I hope you enjoy listening to these 4 songs (I snuck one in when you weren’t looking) and reading a little bit about them. As Always, if you would like to hear these full albums then just drop me a line at chris.rodriquez@gmail.com and I will be happy to set up a download for you. Until next time, keep your volume at 11…