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  • The bit that you skip #223: Elastica – 2:1

    Justine Frischmann once said that Elastica should’ve been a one-album band, and to some of their most ardent fans, they really were. It’s a shame, because The Menace has some great ideas, but it does feel as far from their 1995 release as Gorillaz is from Blur. The impact of Connection in Mexico was tremendous…

  • The bit that you skip #222: Blur – Sing

    Not gonna lie, the first days after arriving to Nottingham, solitude hit me like a tons of bricks. Perhaps all the walking and roaming around the campus and town was more to find some sort of solace, someone to converse with, to feel again. It’s a strange feeling, loneliness. I joined a few student societies,…

  • The bit that you skip #221: La Ley – 1 800 Dual

    -For Vanessa a.k.a Rita. When I first mentioned liking La Ley, my dad raised an eyebrow. He swore I would never listen to rock en español due to having bad experiences with the usual fans that were in my immediate circle (i.e. bullies). Four years had passed since I was in junior high school. I…

  • The bit that you skip #220 Dave Stewart and Candy Dulfer – Lily was here

    My aunt owned a satellite dish in Tampico. It had a decoder and you could “acquire” a code to open up many channels at a local market called “macalito”. The name “macalito” was a deformation of the word “pequeño McAllen” (small McAllen), which was one of the closest US cities to Tampico, the other being…

  • The bit that you skip #219: Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Welcome to the Pleasuredome

    Spring 1993. I’m leaving a THX theatre with my parents and my brother. The mood is indiscernible. We just watched Barry Levinson’s Toys. I’m 100% sure my dad hated it, as he never had patience for Robin Williams. My mum probably disliked it too, since she didn’t mention a single thing on the walk back…

  • The bit that you skip #218: Weezer – Hash Pipe

    It’s a well-worn archetype that a band’s worst enemy is their fanbase. I don’t think this is endemic to music. You see, I watch Dr. Who, so I know about fanbases that can be passionate about what they love. How that passion comes through varies in levels of adjectives. Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, and Arcade Fire…

  • The bit that you skip #217: Metallica – Frantic

    As a kid who was bullied daily for 3 years straight in junior high school, I was relieved the moment I graduated and moved as far as I could from the school I was enrolled in. My experience was so bad that any music the bullies enjoyed I ended up disliking for ages. Metallica, El…

  • The bit that you skip #216: ‘Til Tuesday – Coming up close

    I’ve got a weird story with Aimee Mann’s beautiful music. I was living in Nottingham, and had a video rental place a couple of blocks from my student accommodation (Albion House). On my hour long walk from my gaff to the Environmental Science department, I would listen to a lot of music, most of it…

  • The bit that you skip #215: The Lemonheads – Into your arms

    The subject of covers is always fraught with deadend bickering. Who sang it better. Which one is “true”. What is even originality any more? I love all covers of The Beatles’ She’s so heavy, especially IO Echo’s expansive gloom and doom, but I really think it’s a question of taste. Saying that, I wasn’t aware…

  • The bit that you skip #214: Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse of the Heart

    It’s an obvious choice, and perhaps I could’ve gone for Lost in France (pre-surgery vocals) or It’s a heartache (with her gravelly, raspy voice we all loved), but I can’t lie, I’m a sucker for the Steinman-penned rock ballad. Russell Mulcahy’s video is one for the ages. You can see how he cut his teeth…