Hey gang...so I just finished cleaning up the Damn The Man! YouTube Channel, so please go over and take a look at the newly organized 90's and non-90's video playlists:
http://www.youtube.com/user/donkeyshow26
If you like my channel, please subscribe! I love entertaining you guys, and there's only more to come...I'm just getting started! I appreciate everyone who follows this blog, so let me know yr out there.
I love YouTube. I could spend days looking for obscure films, TV and music on it. It's a pop culture junkie's fix.
Damn The Man, Save The Empire! 90's babe Lelaina Pierce of the 1994 classic film "Reality Bites" urges you to please subscribe to this blog if you like what yr seeing! How? Handily! To the right of this post is a place for you to enter your email address to subscribe via email. If you prefer to read this blog RSS feed-style, just click on the big orange button next to the words "Subscribe in a reader." How easy was that?
If you subscribe, don't forget to tell a friend about this awesome blog that keeps you updated on news, tour dates and album info on 90's artists that you know and love. There's also features on film and politics, and very soon there will be a feature on 90's fashion called "House of Style," in honor of the Cindy Crawford-hosted MTV show of the same name. Too much fun.
Thanks for stopping by Damn The Man, Save The Empire!
Don't leave poor Lelaina from "Reality Bites" (1994) hanging. Please subscribe to Damn The Man, Save The Empire! so the poor girl will have something to watch! You can subscribe via email by typing in your email address located in the right sidebar.
You can also subscribe by our RSS reader powered by Feedburner by clicking the big orange button located in the right sidebar. Easy peasy! Thanks for loving the 90's as much as I do, and I promise fun and exciting content almost every day.
Cher and Tai of "Clueless" (1995) would both totally like to remind you that we, like, way encourage comments here at Damn The Man, 'kay? So don't be a total Barney and, whoa, like, hit me up on my pager sometime! I'm Audi 5000!
COACHELLA VALLEY MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL, INDIO, CA - APRIL 17 -19, 2009
Man, take a gander at this line-up, people. First off, 90's fans should be very pleased at the 90's-licious choices on deck here: Morrissey, Leonard Cohen (who enjoyed a brief revival back then after his music was featured prominently in the 1994 film, "Natural Born Killers"), The Crystal Method, hip-hoppers Rahzel and People Under The Stairs, Thievery Corporation, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Henry Rollins, Turbonegro, Superchunk, Drive-By Truckers, Calexico, Bob Mould, The Cure, My Bloody Valentine, Paul Weller (of The Jam and Style Council, who had a very good single called "Sunflower" from his 1993 album, "Wild Wood" that I liked very much), Roni Size, Groove Armada and Perry Farrell (founder of fellow 90's summer mega-music festival, Lollapalooza, as well as frontman of Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros).
Dayum!!!
Plus, offically Damn The Man-approved acts like X (!!OMG!), Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Macca himself (that's Sir Paul McCartney to you plebes), Girl Talk, Crystal Castles, M. Ward, Conor Oberst, Felix Da Housecat, The Killers, Amy Winehouse, TV on the Radio, Mastodon, Liars, Throbbing Gristle (!!), Antony & The Johnsons, Public Enemy (!!), Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Horrors will also be contributing to the festivities. Good times.
Here's some Coachella-flavored video love for you all today to enjoy:
Paul Weller - Sunflower (Live Jools Holland 1993)
Bob Mould - If I Can't Change Your Mind (Live Paradise Lounge, Boston - November 2007; from the band Sugar's classic 1992 album, "Copper Blue")
Man, I miss distortion on the guitar! No one plays like that anymore. We're so boring now.
Roni Size - Share The Fall (from his 1997 album, "New Forms")
Man, I miss drum and bass! That was my shizz when I had two good knees!
Though I have lots more to say about the Notorious B.I.G. and the two albums that put him on the map as a hip-hop icon, I have neglected Damn The Man's film buff side as of late, and would be woefully remiss if I did not give a nod to the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah that has only two more days to go, unfortunately. If you want to keep up with the films and film news that is coming out of the festival this year, head on over to the official website or Flavorwire's daily blog of the fest.
The Sundance Film Festival was kind of a mythical destination for me as a budding film buff in the 90's, a kind of indie-movie Avalon where only life-changing works of art emerged from its snowcapped mountains. In hindsight, this is still true, and a recent article from Variety about Sundance's milestones over the years prompted me to feature seminal 90's Sundance films that affected not only mine, but so many other budding filmmakers lives at the time. I will start with director Kevin Smith's 1994 film "Clerks," a 90's staple film of the slacker set, namely, me and my stoned friends.
As it turns out, Sundance began life the year I was born (1978--you do the math!) as the Utah/US Film Festival based in Salt Lake City, and came into its current prominence after Robert Redford's Sundance Institute took over management of the fest and moved it to Park City in the mid-80's. Sundance continues to be a great launching pad for filmmakers (a fellow grad of the film school that I attended, his film won the World Cinema Audience Award in 2008 and subsequently went on to become the first Academy Award entry for nomination from his home country of Jordan) and is a classic 90's film institution like no other. It truly paved the way for independent film to positively change mainstream American cinema. Please enjoy the upcoming retrospective on some great films!
The 2008 film "Marley & Me," featuring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston as the world's most obnoxious dog owners (or owners of the world's most obnoxious dog--whichever), is mostly set in the 90's and has the soundtrack to prove it. So here is a list of all the 90's tunes that show up in the film:
1. R.E.M. - "Shiny Happy People" (from the 1991 album, "Out of Time"):
This song drove many a person crazy, from the earworm of a hook to the almost sickeningly shiny and happy video (featuring Kate Pierson of the B-52's, who sings on the track), but it is and will ever be, incredibly 90's.
Bonus points to those of you who can identify Jane Pratt, editor-in-chief of the defunct and beloved guide-to-the-90's magazine "Sassy" (1988-1994, R.I.P). Here's a hint: in this miasma of 90's fashions, there can only be one daisy-covered dress.
2. Ben Folds - "Rockin' The Suburbs" (from the 2001 eponymous album)
This song is not technically Nineties, but Ben Folds sure is. 90's babies, I've got a gun to your head, sing "Brick!" Louder! You could belt out every word, because that's how big Ben Folds Five was. I myself liked the song "Underground," one of those 90's ironic commentary songs that I mentioned in the last post. In fact, instead of "Rocking The Suburbs," here is a video of Ben Folds Five playing "Underground" live in 1998 on "Sessions at West 54th:"
Check out that dude pull off a backflip at 3:44.
3. Hootie and The Blowfish - "Only Wanna Be With You" (from the 1994 album, Cracked Rearview)
Ah, Hootie. One of the funniest parts of Cameron Crowe's 1996 film "Jerry Maguire" was when the little boy in the airport walks up to Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s football player character and asks him if he's Hootie. It makes me wonder how many times people walked up to singer Darius Rucker and called him Hootie to his face.
Hootie and The Blowfish - Only Wanna Be With You (Live 2008, Joe's Bar, Chicago, IL)
4. Us3 - "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" (from the 1993 album, "Hand on the Torch")
This song was a big favorite of my Mom's. She tends toward more polished, sophisticated sounds, and this track, which sampled Herbie Hancock's Blue Note Records recording "Cantaloupe Island," certainly met those standards. Us3 was an English group, and I was a big fan of dance and electronic groups out of London at the time, so this song fit right into my tastes. A fun and cool track that makes you miss well-crafted radio singles.
Sorry about the out-of-sync sound.
5. Bruce Lash - "Lithium" (2003 cover of the Nirvana song from the 1991 album, "Nevermind")
I had never heard this cover of Nirvana's "Lithium" before seeing this film. It's actually quite appropriate considering that lounge music and lounge covers of rock music became somewhat popular for a short time in the 90's.
6. The Verve - "Lucky Man" (from the 1997 album, "Urban Hymns")
All one has to say to 90's kids is "Bittersweet Symphony" and visions of hysterical drunken nights and bleary-eyed Walks of Shame (avec Walkman) dance in their heads. The Verve is a pretty legendary 90's band, with great songs to boot. "Lucky Man" is one of them. Peace out.
Welcome to Damn The Man, Save The Empire! 90's Pop Culture Blog! I am your own personal 90's - ologist, ready to guide you through the bittersweet pain that is nostalgia for things that happened 5 minutes ago. That is so five minutes ago! That was an expression from some 90's movie, I think, but we'll get into that later.
I want to explain why I've chosen Empire Records as a muse for this blog. I think that this highly goofy, alarmingly commercial yet oddly sweet and sensitive movie really embodies the spirit of a decade that is often looked at through rose-colored glasses. It is the celluloid embodiment of all that I feel for the music, film, politics, and general pop culture of the 90's. While the film was unpopular upon release, possibly because of its seemingly rank co-optation of outsider and radical music subculture and values, but time has proven that once you get past the bright and sunny glossiness of the film and Liv Tyler, there lies an unassailable message: Seize the day! OK, so that was Dead Poet's Society, which misses the 90's mark by one year, but anyway...
The song "This is the Day" by The The (a 90's fave) that appears at the end of Empire Records sums up what I'm trying to say about why this blog had to be. I think about life in the 90's nearly every day. It was a halcyon period, that sure, wasn't perfect, but it sure is fun to think about. Some videos for you, friends:
