Flashback Friday - Bronski Beat

I had all but forgotten about this group until hearing one of their songs in the movie "Edge of Seventeen" which I had just recently watched. The song was Smalltown Boy.

I bought their album "Age of Consent" in late summer of '84. I listened to this album throughout the summer, but one song stuck out, it was Smalltown Boy. There was something hauntingly beautiful about this song that I didn't quite get until later in life. Listening to the lyrics I thought the song was about a teenage boy running away from home. Not fitting in at school and being picked on.




I remember the first time I saw the video, it was on Night Tracks (does anyone remember this?) It was a late Saturday night and I was probably the only one awake. I sat in front of the TV (like always) when it came on. I soon realized that it wasn't about a teenage runaway, but about a boy/young man struggling with his sexuality. Watching this I began to realized I was going through this in my life. I was struggling to find my own identity and figure out where I fit in. As I watched I saw how he was being treated by others and forced to leave home because he was gay. An overwhelming sense of sadness came over me as well as fear. I began to think that if I was gay, was this how I would be treated? I didn't want to be an outcast so I suppressed my feelings from myself and hid them from others around me. I remember thinking I'm 16 and it was only a faze, although I recall having these feelings since the age of 13. Hearing this song again reminded me of how awkward I was as a teenager. Struggling for years to find myself and never really feeling comfortable in my own skin. I struggled with my sexuality until my early 20's when I could finally be honest with myself.

Although this song reminds me of the tough time(s) I had earlier in life, I find the memories are more of a life lesson.  Of my personal struggles I had,  but learned from to become better person and the man that I am today.

Flashback Friday - Face to Face

Well if you haven't noticed by now a lot of my flashback posts have been groups/artists from the 80's. In the 80's I was a teenager and music was my escape from everything. I promise I'll do my best next week to pull a song from another decade.....


I was sitting at home this past Tuesday night going through the 300+ CD's, and vinyl I've accumulated over the years. Most of my collection came from my aunt Cynthia who used to take me record/CD shopping in Berkeley every summer here. We'd go to Tower Records (now closed), Amoeba Records, and a few indie stores which are now long gone. As I was going through my collection I remembered a group from the summer of '84. I searched for an album from a group called Face to Face. As I was  looking I remembered that album was one of the many albums I had sold when I was jobless in the early '90's. I kept the majority of my vinyl, but I regret ever selling any of it. Lesson learned. 


After realizing my mistake in my youth I retreated to You Tube to see if there were any of their videos posted. I was happy to have found that there were. "10-9-8" was their first single that I remember hearing and seeing on MTV as well as Night Tracks 





I would spend just about every Saturday nights from 9pm to 12m watching videos on Night Tracks. Another single that came out a few months later called "Under the Gun" which got played  a lot as well.





After watching these videos I search for their music on iTunes. I was excited to find it there. I downloaded it and began listening to it again. I remember how much I loved this album. There isn't one song on it that I didn't like. The songs that I posted are their most popular, but there are others on the album which I felt should have been singles instead of these. I know that Flashback Fridays are usually about one song, but this one is about one album. 


Hearing this album took me back to that summer when I first bought it. It made me miss my record shopping excursions with my Aunt Cynthia to Berkeley. The hours she'd spent walking from store to store with me until I found everything that I wanted to find. And then would pay for it all even though I had my own money. That was 26 years ago, but still seems like last year to me.


Thanks again Auntie.

Flashback Friday - Fake

Before each Friday I'd try and find a song for my flashback entry. I listen to music constantly if not incessantly to and from work and home, all in hopes to find that song. As each Friday approaches I stress myself out because I haven't found one to write about. Well it seems that my Friday morning commutes no matter how good or bad it is I am inspired by one of the songs that I hear.  And this Friday it was this one....

Back in my youth a few years ago, (haha!) I clubbed every weekend at a place called the Twilight Zone (i still have my membership card as well). It was an small old movie theater that they turned into a dance club in Alameda. I ended up there Saturday nights with my cousin Jon and friends. I'd get all dress up in my black shirt, black pegged pants, my creepers (my old fav shoes), put on a few rosary beads and crosses (hey it was the 80's and that was cool at the time), and black rubber bracelets. My hair would be perfectly quaffed and held in place by the can of aquanet I would use (damn I think I have a few pics of those nights). I was a huge fan of new wave music back then, siouxsie and the banshees, joy division, front 242, gene loves jezebel, etc. The Twilight Zone played all of that and more.


Without fail they would play this song....





I don't know what it was about this song, but when it was played the dance floor would fill up. It did have a catchy synth beat which most if not all 80's songs did. I would join the masses on the dance floor and dance my rendition of taffy pulling (hopefully some of you will know what I'm talking about). You had all the goths, modes, punks, and preps on the dance floor dancing along to what ever their dance style was. It was sort of cool, it didn't matter who you where nobody hated you because you weren't like them.


I loved that club and the space that it was in. The stairs around both sides of the dance floor took up up to the old balcony. This is where the DJ booth was located as it sat and over looked the dance floor. We'd go upstairs every week and request every song that we wanted played that night. And the DJ (for the life of me I can't remember his name) would play each and every one of them. Between sets of songs he'd  throw in a music video up on the screen located on the stage. This video would sometimes get played, but not often. 


I had to look this song up on You Tube and was glad to have found it. Listening to it this morning reminded me of the fun I had back then. 

Flashback Friday - The B-52's

(For some reason my blog didn't post last Friday so I'm posting it 3 days late)

The B-52's  are a group that I discovered in the summer of '82. Now while I'm not a huge fan of their current stuff I loved their first couple of albums. A song that I really loved which is also a title of an EP is Mesopotamia. This was suppose to be a studio album which they started recording with David Byrne of the Talking Heads, but Byrne ended up pulling out of the project before it was finished. 





I can remember the first time I heard it. I was at my cousin's house on Buena Vista in Patty's room. She said what I can remember, "Oh you should hear this group I think you would like them." She put on the EP and I sat on the edge of her bed and listened. After listening to the entire EP I knew I had to own it so bought it the next day. I must have played that EP non-stop for at least a month. There are other songs that I like, Cake, and Loveland, but Mesopotamia is my favorite. I liked The B-52's because I think they had a unique sound that no one else seem to have had back then.  Every so often I listen to this and it reminds me of summers that my brother and I used to spend here in California, hanging out with our cousin's Patty, Melissa, and Jennifer. Good times....

Flashback Friday - David Bowie

This morning I had my iphone on random shuffle. I was listening to a play list that I created of all my favorite music (well not all) from the 80's. Just as I was getting on Muni (our subway) to head to work Fashion from David Bowie comes on. 



This song came out in 1980 and I was between the ages of 12 and 13. I think I was just getting ready to begin Junior High at Maywood. We had just relocated to Washington state from California the year before, so I didn't really have many friends. I was not a very outgoing child and was an introvert so this made it difficult for me to make friends.


On the weekends I would sit in my room and listen to my stereo (a hammy down from my parents). If I was feeling bad or down I would retreat to my room, shut the door and tune into my favorite station. I would sing along to every songs and learning all the lyrics perfectly.  There was a great station called "the wave" (no longer on the air) that played new wave/modern rock. I would listen for hours and sometimes record my favorite songs off this station (god I think I still have some cassette tapes some where at home). This was one of the songs that would get played a lot, but only felt that way.


This song reminds me of hanging out in my old room. Music poster plastered on every wall with my over sized headphones on and laying on my bed. Hearing it now reminds me of where I was as a child and how much I've grow and changed since then.

Flashback Friday - Total Coelo

Thank you Myla for this first post...


The other day a friend of mine forwarded a link to this song. Total Coelo - I eat cannibals









Total Coelo a one hit wonder from the 80's (well at least I think the song was some kind of hit). I remember hearing it for the first time on MTV back in 1982 (when they used to play music). The tribal drumbeat sucked me into the song. and then one by one the group appeared in the video. I thought the girls were hot (we'll 80's hot) and they all seemed dressed in what it looked like hefty bags. The first time that I heard this song and saw the video I think I was a Freshman/Sophomore in high school. I was sitting at home after school watching MTV instead of doing homework. Daydreaming of the day that I wouldn't have to go to school anymore and being out in the world on my own. Now as I listen/watch it again I'm taken back to that day. The girls dancing in a spotlight with a back drop that looks (or is trying to look) like the African Sahara. The video filmed in a studio with neon lights and fog/smoke machines. They were all dressed in colorful costumes (aka hefty bags), and dancing along to the catchy lyrics with their well choreographed dance routines.


I still love this song....

And So It Shall Begin....

After weeks of trying to decide what I want to write about in my blog I finally came up with a format. It may change over time, but this is how it's going to start...

Mondays - New Artist/Group (write about new and upcoming artists and/or groups that I think are going to be someone to watch out for.

Wednesdays - Suggested Listening (Artists that I like and think you should give a listen to.)

Fridays - Flashback Friday (a song from my musical past that envokes great memories everytime I hear it.)

Look for to my first "official" blog Monday March 1st.