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1989 - A watershed year for music


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David Bowie's social media people have been pushing the 30th anniversary of Tin Machine. That's reminded me how many albums came out that year that I really liked:

 

Tin Machine - S/T

Bob Mould - Workbook (to this day, my favorite)

Lou Reed - New York

Neil Young - Freedom

Pixies - Doolittle

De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising

Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique

Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever

Stone Roses - S/T

Replacements - Don't Tell a Soul (not one of their best, obviously, but I saw them in June of '89 when I'd first started dating my wife, emotionally attached)

XTC - Oranges & Lemons

Indigo Girls - S/T

Elvis Costello - Spike

 

Uncle Tupelo's No Depression missed the cut by weeks coming out in January of 1990.

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Agree with many already mentioned... some other favorites from that year:

 

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother's Milk

B-52s - Cosmic Thing

The Cult - Sonic Temple

The Godfathers - More Songs About Love and Hate

Love and Rockets - S/T

The Sugarcubes - Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week!

Big Audio Dynamite - Megatop Phoenix

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Agree with many already mentioned... some other favorites from that year:

 

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother's Milk

B-52s - Cosmic Thing

The Cult - Sonic Temple

Love and Rockets - S/T

Big Audio Dynamite - Megatop Phoenix

Thought about citing these, but there were just a few tracks on each that were memorable to me.

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1989 was a big live music year for me. I was running around with the Grateful Dead and when I wasn't doing that, I was going to see punk and grunge shows at Cabaret Metro and Lounge Ax. In between all that, I was working on my undergrad degree and working. Looking at all the ticket stubs from that year, I'm not sure how I afforded it or found the time/energy. Ah, to be young again! 1989 was a very good year...

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1989 was a big live music year for me. I was running around with the Grateful Dead and when I wasn't doing that, I was going to see punk and grunge shows at Cabaret Metro and Lounge Ax. In between all that, I was working on my undergrad degree and working. Looking at all the ticket stubs from that year, I'm not sure how I afforded it or found the time/energy. Ah, to be young again! 1989 was a very good year...

Any chance you, or anyone else here for that matter, was at the Iggy show at Metro in July '88? My two best friend from H.S. road tripped from Des Moines for that show. Thirty-one years later we're still telling stories.

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Violent Femmes - 3

Barry Adamson - Moss Side Story

XTC - Oranges & Lemons

Eleventh Dream Day - Beet

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1989 was a big live music year for me. I was running around with the Grateful Dead and when I wasn't doing that, I was going to see punk and grunge shows at Cabaret Metro and Lounge Ax. In between all that, I was working on my undergrad degree and working. Looking at all the ticket stubs from that year, I'm not sure how I afforded it or found the time/energy. Ah, to be young again! 1989 was a very good year...

I saw the most Dead shows I ever saw in one year in '89 (17). And a couple of JGB shows (Alpine & Poplar).The Spring still felt like a continuation of the hit/miss occasional shows I saw in '88 but from July forward it got amazingly good. But, back to the OP haha:

 

One thing here that I didn't see mentioned was the first major label (A&M) release of the Seattle "Grunge" movement - Soundgarden's "Louder Than Love". I did not hear that when it came out - Badmotorfinger was my fist exposure to SG, and I still think that is the crowning achievement of the whole scene - but the template is being set with Louder Than Love. AIC's first record came out a year later, then Temple of the Dog in early '91, then 6 months later Nevermind, Ten and Badmotorfinger ALL IN THE SAME MONTH. Buh bye, Poison, Buh bye Warrant, etc. I know about Melvins, Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone, etc.But props to SG for going big. They were supposed to be the "next big thing" but all of the others of the "Big Four" blew up before them.Because they were the weirdest of the four.

 

Blah blah blah New York is one the 5 best Rock records I've ever heard and Freedom was the return to form I'd waited on for a decade. And OH MERCY! So those are my 3 faves of '89.

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Hey UC2P, was that show a double bill with The Ramones? Because I was supposed to go to that one but for some reason didn't make it. It may have been in 1988 though...

 

I saw Soundgarden play Chicago their first time. It was with Mudhoney and Bullet Lavolta(?), at Cabaret Metro. I talked my buddies into going to see these bands we had never heard of. Outside of Mudhoney being good, we were not impressed. In fact, the word soundgarden became an inside joke among us when discussing something unappealing or not good. I saw them again a few years later opening for Neil Young and remained unimpressed. Sorry, MB!

 

Speaking of Neil Young, I saw him on the "Freedom" tour at Poplar Creek in 89. It was a solo acoustic show, no electric guitar at all. He had Poncho come out to play mandolin on a few tunes. I managed to get an audience recording of it some years later, its one of my prized recordings.

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Hey UC2P, was that show a double bill with The Ramones? Because I was supposed to go to that one but for some reason didn't make it. It may have been in 1988 though...

Nope. A horrible metal opener (he was touring the metalish LP, Instinct) called Balaam & the Angel.

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Yeah, Eleventh Dream Day was another great band of the time. Saw them many times. Rick used to tend bar at the Blue Bird so I would swing in there every so often to say hi and have a drink with him. "Beet" should've put them in national exposure...

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1989 records i dug... note that i was late to the game on some of these

 

 

American Music Club - United Kingdom

Band of Susans - Love Agenda

Blake Babies - Earwig

Bob Mould - Workbook (still one of rawest performances i've ever seen)

Butthole Surfers - Double Live

Camper Van Beethoven - Key Lime Pie

Christmas - Ultraprophets Of The Psychick Revolution
Das Damen - Mousetrap (this record got a ton of play this year from me)

De Artsen - Conny Waves With A Shell (pre-Bettie Serveert band that i found out about later. good record)

Various - The Bridge (neil young tribute)

11th Dream Day - Beet (always a great live band)

fIREHOSE - fROMOHIO

Fourwaycross - On The Other Hand

Giant Sand - Giant Sandwich and Long Stem Rant

Grant Hart - Intolerance (not as good as Workbook but close)

Guided By Voices - Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia (would get on this later after discovering B000)

Meat Puppets - Monsters

Mekons - Mekons Rock and Roll

Melvins - Ozma 

Monks of Doom - Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company

My Dad Is Dead - The Taller You Are, The Shorter You Get

Neil Young - Freedom

Pitchfork - Saturn Outhouse (pre-Drive Like Jehu)

Pixies - Doolittle

Red Temple Spirits - If Tomorrow I Were Leaving For Lhasa, I wouldn't Stay A Minute More

Ride - Chelsea Girl EP

Robyn Hitchcock - Queen Elvis

Sebadoh - The Freed Man

Straitjacket Fits - Hail (US version)

Sylvia Juncosa - One Thing (finally scored a vinyl copy last summer!)

Tar - Handsome

The Cure - Disintegration (still one of the greatest concerts ive seen)

The Fluid - Roadmouth 

The Frogs - It's Only Right And Natural (got this a few years later when Conrad at In Your Ear basically forced me to buy the used copy in the bins. One of the greatest records ever).

The Jazz Butcher - Big Planet Scarey Planet

The Mighty Lemondrops - Laughter

The Reivers - At The End Of The Day (figured this band would be popular on this board)

The Slickee Boys - Live At Last 

The Stone Roses - S/T

The Sundays - Reading, Writing and Arithmetic

The Wonder Stuff - Hup

Thelonius Monster - Stormy Weather

Thin White Rope - Moonhead

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Tangle

Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever

Winter Hours - S/T

XTC - Oranges and Lemons

Yo La Tengo - President YLT 

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Yeah, Eleventh Dream Day was another great band of the time. Saw them many times. Rick used to tend bar at the Blue Bird so I would swing in there every so often to say hi and have a drink with him. "Beet" should've put them in national exposure...

Eleventh Dream Day is opening for the Dream Syndicate next Saturday night at The Hideout. Unfortunately (of fortunately depending on your POV), it's already sold out.

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