Stay Away, Nirvana
I Stay Away, Alice in Chains

Cal88 said:

---

---

...meanwhile in America criminals are using medical masks to commit robberies and internet scammers are preying on the virus fears of the elderly (after Loma Prieta thieves used ladders to climb the collapsed Cypress structure to rob the dead and dying).

Blungld, buddy, thank you for sharing this and for the specificity, which I relished. Lots of relating on the music level. I have to limit my Smiths shoutouts on here to once a year to not be too alienating.

Curious: what amp and speaker setup did you have in the frat house when you were laying down those tracks? I'm 100% confident you know this, down to the woofer size. Was your sound system, as they say, bumping?

blungld said:

---

Northside91 said:

---

---

What a great great song! I had forgotten about this. Now playing it over and over here at home.

I remember playing this at my fraternity in '83 and getting mocked "What is this crap?" I used to go all the way out to Rough Trade records in SF where the imports would come in so that I could be literally the first person in US to get a lot of the new wave/post-punk/ska/whatever imports. They got used to me showing up and I would try and get there when the shipments came in so I could be there when they opened the latest Smiths 12 inches so I could buy the first copy of each new single that seemed to be coming out every month in their hey day. I still have every piece of vinyl as import The Smiths ever put out. Even both versions of the What Difference Does It Make.



Anyway, at the time it was all Born in the USA and Michael Jackson at the fraternities, and then one party they let me "play my stuff" and the guys hated it...but the sorority girls loved it and started dancing to it. I think we were the first frat to start playing "new wave" at our parties. Of course it was pretty milquetoast stuff: Devo, Go Gos, English Beat...but I would slip in the occasional Depeche Mode, New Order, Smiths, Clash, and even Stiff Little Fingers. LIVE 105 Modern Rock was just taking off then.

---

I had many of my Smiths EP/LP covers signed by Johnny Marr, including "This Charming Man" at his Modest Mouse after party at 330 Rich nearly 20 years ago. I wasn't that fond of that particular Smiths song, but bought the EP because the cover with Jean Marais from Cocteau's movie Orpheus was great. The venue was pretty empty so we got to chat with Marr over a few beers, the guy is a huge soccer fan and supposedly a very good player.

Quote:

---

LIVE 105 Modern Rock was just taking off then.

---

It was QKAK ("the quake") at the 98.9 FM dial before it was Live 105, with Rob Francis, Big Rick Stewart et al. KQAK shut down in 1985 but its format and some of its crew were picked up by KITS.



The Bay Area had a great radio coverage with KQAK/KITS on the commercial end, KJAZ (92.7 IIRC), and on the left side of the dial a bunch of solid college stations between KUSF, KALX, KZSU and the Foothill College station. KUSF was clearly the best in the 80s, KALX pulled even in the 90s and 00s, then USF literally sold its station out in 2011.

B.A. Bearacus said:

---

Blungld, buddy, thank you for sharing this and for the specificity, which I relished. Lots of relating on the music level. I have to limit my Smiths shoutouts on here to once a year to not be too alienating.

Curious: what amp and speaker setup did you have in the frat house when you were laying down those tracks? I'm 100% confident you know this, down to the woofer size. Was your sound system, as they say, bumping?

---

Sadly, it wasn't my setup. The house had a system so I would slip my tape (yes cassette tape that I had to record from vinyl) in at the end of the night.

That said, I did have a Rickenbacker 2002 bass guitar and a pretty heavy Peavy amp that I would jam along to The Jam, The Clash, The Smiths, and Talking Heads. Being young and self-centered (still am?) I didn't even think just how loud and obnoxious that was. I feel bad in retrospect for anyone trying to study, but that said there really was music blasting out of almost every room. I loved it when the guys who were fans of The Who and Rolling Stones started catching onto Unforgettable Fire, London Calling, Elvis Costello, and REM. Finally, I could walk into other guys rooms and we would scream along to entire albums.

One day I met a girl from a sorority literally two blocks away. She asked who the annoying guy who always played the bass on our street was. I shrugged I don't know, and then privately gulped and thought TWO BLOCKS!!!

Same thing happened another time when a sorority girl asked who the crazy dude who was always singing in our house was. I used to take showers in the afternoon in our frat when it was typically empty and it had great tile acoustics and I would belt out Smiths songs not realizing the window faced the sorority next door and was basically blasting them with my acapella numbers.She said they all groaned each afternoon and it was a thing over there.Oh man, I am embarrassed now just remembering.

blungld said:

---

B.A. Bearacus said:

---

Blungld, buddy, thank you for sharing this and for the specificity, which I relished. Lots of relating on the music level. I have to limit my Smiths shoutouts on here to once a year to not be too alienating.

Curious: what amp and speaker setup did you have in the frat house when you were laying down those tracks? I'm 100% confident you know this, down to the woofer size. Was your sound system, as they say, bumping?

---

Sadly, it wasn't my setup. The house had a system so I would slip my tape (yes cassette tape that I had to record from vinyl) in at the end of the night.

That said, I did have a Rickenbacker 2002 bass guitar and a pretty heavy Peavy amp that I would jam along to The Jam, The Clash, The Smiths, and Talking Heads. Being young and self-centered (still am?) I didn't even think just how loud and obnoxious that was. I feel bad in retrospect for anyone trying to study, but that said there really was music blasting out of almost every room. I loved it when the guys who were fans of The Who and Rolling Stones started catching onto Unforgettable Fire, London Calling, Elvis Costello, and REM. Finally, I could walk into other guys rooms and we would scream along to entire albums.

One day I met a girl from a sorority literally two blocks away. She asked who the annoying guy who always played the bass on our street was. I shrugged I don't know, and then privately gulped and thought TWO BLOCKS!!!

Same thing happened another time when a sorority girl asked who the crazy dude who was always singing in our house was. I used to take showers in the afternoon in our frat when it was typically empty and it had great tile acoustics and I would belt out Smiths songs not realizing the window faced the sorority next door and was basically blasting them with my acapella numbers.She said they all groaned each afternoon and it was a thing over there.Oh man, I am embarrassed now just remembering.

---

"I'M SO SORRY!!!" (scrubs)
"OHOHOHOHOH I'M SO....." (scrubs)
"SO, AW, AW, AW, AW, AW"

Heh

A little more New Order obscura. I wasted plenty of cash on NO singles at Amoeba and Leopold's. Worst live band of all time. The show at the Greek with Gene Loves Jezebel was excremental. But.....they did have their moments. Movement, before they turned into a strictly dance band, was very good. Then there was the ultra-cliched falling out between Peter Hook and Bernard (whatever his last name is today). Two fat guys from the Manchester area carrying on their slap fight over a period of years now. Shameful.

NO, Joy Division and the rest of the Factory Records and 4AD (Cocteau Twins etc.) bands were on steady rotation for me pre-Cal from 1983 to 1986 as I whiled the days away as a bored high schooler in Marin. And also during the car rides over to Cafe Milano to meet up with the mods on Friday nights and then scoot off to some party in the Oakland Hills at some rich kid's house. At Cal, this was part of my monkish soundtrack as I studied history in my little efficiency in northside or in the study carrels on campus. The more depressing and austere the better.

Cal88 said:

---

blungld said:

---

Northside91 said:

---

---

What a great great song! I had forgotten about this. Now playing it over and over here at home.

I remember playing this at my fraternity in '83 and getting mocked "What is this crap?" I used to go all the way out to Rough Trade records in SF where the imports would come in so that I could be literally the first person in US to get a lot of the new wave/post-punk/ska/whatever imports. They got used to me showing up and I would try and get there when the shipments came in so I could be there when they opened the latest Smiths 12 inches so I could buy the first copy of each new single that seemed to be coming out every month in their hey day. I still have every piece of vinyl as import The Smiths ever put out. Even both versions of the What Difference Does It Make.



Anyway, at the time it was all Born in the USA and Michael Jackson at the fraternities, and then one party they let me "play my stuff" and the guys hated it...but the sorority girls loved it and started dancing to it. I think we were the first frat to start playing "new wave" at our parties. Of course it was pretty milquetoast stuff: Devo, Go Gos, English Beat...but I would slip in the occasional Depeche Mode, New Order, Smiths, Clash, and even Stiff Little Fingers. LIVE 105 Modern Rock was just taking off then.

---

I had many of my Smiths EP/LP covers signed by Johnny Marr, including "This Charming Man" at his Modest Mouse after party at 330 Rich nearly 20 years ago. I wasn't that fond of that particular Smiths song, but bought the EP because the cover with Jean Marais from Cocteau's movie Orpheus was great. The venue was pretty empty so we got to chat with Marr over a few beers, the guy is a huge soccer fan and supposedly a very good player.

Quote:

---

LIVE 105 Modern Rock was just taking off then.

---

It was QKAK ("the quake") at the 98.9 FM dial before it was Live 105, with Rob Francis, Big Rick Stewart et al. KQAK shut down in 1985 but its format and some of its crew were picked up by KITS.



The Bay Area had a great radio coverage with KQAK/KITS on the commercial end, KJAZ (92.7 IIRC), and on the left side of the dial a bunch of solid college stations between KUSF, KALX, KZSU and the Foothill College station. KUSF was clearly the best in the 80s, KALX pulled even in the 90s and 00s, then USF literally sold its station out in 2011.

---

AWESOME! Great knowledge!

I worked at KALX for a bit and even guest hosted the morning show on LIVE 105 with Steve and played some of our song parodies from Bear Territory. We sucked on the radio. Half of our shtick was facial expressions and our voices are identical which is confusing to listeners. Big Risk Stewart was a fan of our TV show and we talked to him often. I think he made an appearance or two.

I am so jealous you spoke with Marr. My guitar hero. I saw him last year in Brooklyn. Sounded great and he has become a real showman. Handled the singing quite well. I love that B-Side of that single. Jeane was one of my all time favorite Smiths songs.

I was backstage supervisor for a spell at the Greek and got to shake Morrissey's hand when he played there, but I'm not as proud of that with the things he has been saying lately. Not the same guy I worshipped anymore.

More isolation/infection songs:







One of the worst and weirdest videos, and my least favorite song from a great band, but it is on point:

Bit of a reach here, but my home is becoming a "gruesome castle" as I self-isolate more and more. I tried.