Two great rock songs, Vol. 3

This time around I'm gonna focus on two old-school alternative rock / hardcore bands from the 90's.

1) The first band is Farside. The Orange County, CA punk band formed in 1989, and after the obligatory numerous line-up changes, was comprised of frontman Popeye, guitarist Kevin Murphy, bassist Brian Chu and drummer Bob Beshear. They signed with Revelation Records and issued their debut "Rochambeau" in 1992, followed a year later by "Rigged." They then resurfaced in 1999 with the scattered-but-still-amazing "The Monroe Doctrine" and broke up soon after.



The song I'm posting is from 1993's "Rigged". It's called "Page", and I got excited about it again after reading an archived post from Aversiononline.com, where Andrew gushed about this CD like it was the greatest CD of all time. Although I certainly wouldn't go that far, I dug it out and totally rocked out to this song like it was 1993 all over again.

Farside - "Page"

2) The 2nd song is from 411. The band is best known for its singer, Dan O'Mahony, who's been in many hardcore bands (No For an Answer, Speak 714) and is also a writer (I think he once wrote for Punk Planet, or some other zine).

I remember picking up 91's "This Isn't Me" from a mailorder company, probably for no better reason than somebody saying it kicked ass (and the fact that it had a pair of beat up Vans on the cover, which -- being from Pennsyltucky -- I thought was pretty punk rock). Then the opening song "Face the Flag" just floored me. I always had headphones on in those days, and I rode my BMX bike around for weeks cranking that cassette (yes, old school).

This song I'm posting is track 6, "The Naked Face" -- which even after all these years gives me goosebumps when O'Mahony kicks it up a notch or two at the end of the song.



411 - "The Naked Face"

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Two great rock songs, Vol. 2

Ah, yes. the second installment in the wildly popular "Two great rock songs" series. And I even got around to posting it! Amazing (for me, if not you).

1) The first band I think you should know about is Nine Days, a group of guys from Long Island who are most well known for their hit in the summer of 2000, "Absolutely (Story Of A Girl)," from their debut cd, "The Madding Crowd." The band has two lead vocalists, and they write (generally) sunny pop-rock songs with crunchy riffs and harmony background vocals galore.



The song I'm posting is from their 2002 CD, "So Happily Unsatisfied". It's called "Good Friend", and it was also featured in the 2002 geek-gone-hero movie "The New Guy". Basically slick, modern radio pop-rock at its finest.

Nine Days - "Good Friend"

2) The 2nd song is from an old alternative band from Montreal, the Doughboys. Again, I didn't find much about them on Google, but I can tell you they wrote some pretty damn catchy rock on their 1993 CD, "Crush".

Initially the Doughboys put out what was then called melodic hardcore, but after alternative rock exploded in the early 90's, there were A&R guys everywhere, signing band after band to cash in. The Doughboys weren't immune -- a major label bidding war ensued, and they signed with A&M. The sound got watered-down, the hooks were ratcheted up, and A&M soon had a gold record on their hand, led by the single, "Shine"

Funny, as with many of the bands I'm going to post here, "Crush" seems to be pretty cheap on Half.com -- I saw it on there for 75 cents - which is a hell of a lot cheaper than buying their songs on some music site for 99 cents each! It's worth checking out for songs like "Shine", "Fix Me", and "Melt".



Doughboys - "Shine"

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Two great rock songs, Vol. 1

To avoid clutter in my life, I try to use the "I haven't ______ it for the last 6 months, so I'll get rid of it" method. For example, if I haven't worn a shirt in six months, I try to donate it -- try being the operative word -- sometimes I just can't bring myself to letting it go.

Just the other day I was going through my CD's, wondering which ones haven't stood the test of time, thinking I can put some more on Half.com to sell.

I pulled out this one particular CD, thinking about that ONE GREAT SONG that I loved, but the rest didn't thrill me. Then it hit me: I'll create a blog post about great songs by unknown bands.

So here it is, the 1st installment.

1) The first song (that started this thing) is by a band by the (unusually long) name of Bestkissersintheworld. There's not much of a biography on them -- that they were from the Seattle area, and played power-pop in the early '90s is about as much as I know.


I will tell you this though -- their 5-song EP, "Puddin" got a LOT of airplay when I was a college-radio DJ. The 1st two songs, "Pickin' Flowers For" and "60 Seconds" just ROCKED. Cool thing is, you can get this CD for, like, 75 cents at Half.com.

The song that I'm gonna provide here is off their full-length release, "Been There", an album that shows the band had lost a lot of their earlier attitude, and the CD suffered for it. But there was THAT ONE GREAT SONG that I still love to this day, it has a melancholy line that repeats, and I sing along every time: "Thanks a lot, que sera sera"

Best Kissers in the World - "Bad About the Fact"

2) The second song is by a Milwaukee band called The Gufs that have been around for quite a long time — about 18 years — and are still pretty obscure.



The song I'm posting is from their 1999 album on Atlantic Records, “Holiday from You” and includs some great radio-friendly songs. The song itself, “Give Back Yourself” has a great chorus — featuring Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty — and has the same upbeat but melodic sound I've always been a sucker for.

The Gufs - "Give Back Yourself"

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