Home Taping the '90s Vol. 2

With Nirvana’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 10th and the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death coming up, 1994’s music is high on the agenda right now. This gives us an excellent opportunity to go once again through the good old tape collection and use the wonderful internet technology of today to try to recreate the playlist of one of the 60-minute cassettes I was taping off the era's radio shows.

Volume 2 of our Home Taping the '90s series brings you an hour of excellent music selected from radio recordings made during March 1994 and mixes tracks from some of the protagonists of '90s indie rock (Hole, Meat Puppets, Sebadoh, Superchunk) along with obscure gems from bands you might never heard before (Done Lying Down, Monsterland, Breed, Aenone) unless you hold a PhD in '90s rock music history. A handful of these songs come from sessions recorded for BBC Radio 1 shows and I’m very pleased that we could find them available for online streaming (Inspiral Carpets covering Black Sabbath, the collaboration between Frank Black and Teenage Fanclub, and Th' Faith Healers track). Press play and enjoy an hour of the finest music that was playing on the radio during March 1994, right before the sad events of April 5th:

Side A
01 Meat Puppets - Backwater 03:42
02 Lotion - Tear 04:17
03 Done Lying Down - Septic 03:36
04 Monsterland - At One with Time 04:11
05 Jale - Promise 04:34
06 Hole - Rock Star 02:42
07 Breed - Wonderful Blade 03:52
08 The Charlatans - I Never Want an Easy Life If Me and He Were Ever to Get There 04:10

Side B
09 Inspiral Carpets - Paranoid 03:20
10 Frank Black & Teenage Fanclub - Sister Isabel 03:59
11 Crowsdell - Sad Eyes 03:31
12 Aenone - Celestia 03:15
13 Cornershop - Born Disco, Died Heavy Metal 03:40
14 Th' Faith Healers - Ooh La La 04:00
15 Archers of Loaf - Ethel Merman 02:42
16 Superchunk - The First Part 04:12
17 Sebadoh - Rebound 02:12

If you liked what you’ve just heard, here are the albums and EPs that you should be looking out for, in order of appearance in our mix-tape:
Side A: Too High To Die, Full Isaac, John Austin Rutledge, Destroy What You Love, Dreamcake, Live Through This, Violent Sentimental, Up to Our Hips 

Side B: Radio 1 Sessions, John Peel Session, Meany 7" and Dreamette LP, Saints & Razors EP, Hold On It Hurts, John Peel Session, Icky Mettle, Foolish, 4 Song CD EP and Bakesale LP.

And here's a little something in honor of Kurt and Nirvana from their historic Reading Festival headlining appearance in August 1992:

Nirvana - Come As You Are (Live at Reading 1992)

Found Sound Vol.13

Found Sound, the post series bringing you the best new music we discover through your helpful suggestions and submissions, gets to lucky number 13! In this edition, we have new releases by artists from Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the UK. Let’s start from the south and work our way to the north:

Plastic Flowers - Vicious Victims

Plastic Flowers formed three years ago in Thessaloniki, Greece, by Giorgos Samaras and Aggelos Pashalidis. The dream pop duo has just released its debut LP titled "Evergreen" on Inner-Ear Records and Crash Symbols, and "Vicious Victims", a melodic, '80s-synthpop influenced gem, is its opening track. The album, which was recorded by using various vintage analog synths, drum machines and lots of cheap guitar amps in less than two months during the summer of 2013, also features collaborations with New Yorker Ed Askew (on the track "Love is Above All") and local heroes Keep Shelly in Athens (on "Ghosts"). Check it out here.

Schonwald - Fuchsia

Schonwald may have a Germanic sounding name but they come from Ravenna, Italy. Alessandra and Luca create an atmospheric, minimalist sound that draws inspiration from '80s synth-pop and new wave. The dark, ominous sounding "Fuchsia" is their latest song in a discography that also includes the 7" single "Mercurial" on Chicago label HoZac Records, the album "Amplified Nature" on Pocket Heaven Records and this excellent cover of The Cure's "A Forest".

Für Immer - Wrapped in Plastic

Another Germanic sounding band name, but Für Immer are actually a trio from Dublin, Ireland. Rachel, Stephen and Paul formed the band in January 2010 with a view to combining innovative visuals and heartfelt music in the face of a recession gripped Ireland. The track "Wrapped in Plastic" which brings to mind the chilling beauty of the Twin Peaks theme song, is one of the highlights off their recently released debut album "March", currently available as a free download here. You can also get yourself a beautiful looking physical copy of the album from here.

Postcode - Losing The Battle

Postcode are a five-piece band from the Isle of Man and "Losing The Battle" comes from their third album "Zebratronic". This record was conceived at a time when the band was incomplete and was recorded by Mikie Daugherty and Marie Reynolds utilizing drum machines, synths, guitars, screwdrivers, drumsticks and an increased deployment of slide to create a new, more experimental sound. The album is released by Small Bear Records and is available as a pay-what-you-like download from here.

Dead Fader - In Cover 

New 12" single by UK electronic experimentalist John Cohen, a.k.a. Dead Fader. "In Cover" is released by Robot Elephant Records and is available as a download and limited edition vinyl from here. The single is just an appetizer for the main course as Dead Fader has two full length album releases in store for us ("Blood Forest" and "Scorched") this April. Check out more sounds from Dead Fader here.