I’m going to cover a lot of ground here, so bear with me:

I went to my liberal arts college in the fall of 1986, and for various reasons (all entirely my own fault), I burned a lot of bridges. While many of my friends pledged fraternities my freshman year, I was blackballed by two, and I chose to not join one.

The next year, I was back living in the freshman hall, starting my social life over again, hardened by the humility of the previous year.

I was worse then, but saved by a couple of guys whom I was friendly with. There was a fraternity on campus (the oldest) which had been the most popular ten years earlier, but had fallen on hard times. There were only seven members left, and four were graduating – they offered a series of social memberships to some guys in an effort to stay around, and two of them said they wouldn’t join without including me.

Seven of us pledged, and the next year another eleven. By my senior year, we were an…interesting mix. A few of us listened to pop/alt rock (one of the guys’ who made the fraternity take me owned the Gloria Estefan album, which was his favorite), but the majority loved classic rock; specifically The Doors.

When we would throw parties, “L.A. Woman” was played about 5 times a night, and the only women who came to our parties were the girlfriends of the brothers who loved “L.A. Woman”. Something needed to change.

That winter, I became the fraternity DJ, in charge of making mixtapes for the parties, and I did two things right that set us apart from some of the other fraternity parties:

1. I went retro early 80s, incorporating anything from 1979 to 1983 (by April, I included “People Are People” by Depeche Mode, so I’d loved up to 1985).
2. I threw “Head Like a Hole” and “Just a Friend” into those mixes.

It worked. Our parties became one of the “musts” on campus, and all the fraternity brothers enjoyed those two songs.

HLaH is the 2nd best industrial song of all-time, IMO. “Just a Friend” might be the best singalong song EVER.

https://i.ibb.co/vcZ1kGV/frat-dance-mix.jpg

https://youtu.be/I_befjmWxys

Addendum: My mondegreen for Escapade is either “Let me take you to the Ice Capades” Or “Let me take you on a Sexcapade.” In the late 70s, early 80s the Ice Capades used to rehearse their shows in Duluth before taking them on tour. It may come as a shock to some of you, but some of the skaters would frequent the Gay bar where GBear used to bartend. In a case of Friday’s Number One, “Opposites Attract” many of these lithe, athletic young men were smitten with burly bartender GBear, who they dubbed their Number One fan. He had an open invitation to their rehearsals, and to their host hotel, the circular Radisson.

If I were to finish this story, it would be an Ice Capade, Sexcapade, Escapade.

Addendum two: from 1979 to 1999 at least 73 songs that hit Number One on the Hot 100, R&B and or Dance chart had Minnesota connections. 1990 has 10, so we’ll be talking a lot about the street I live on.

What a statement. Also… yes, please be on the new Kendrick album.

Recently when talking about music, I’ve been throwing around the term, “The street I live on.” It comes from a YouTube interview with the former Prince Sound Engineer, Dr. Susan Rogers. In the interview she said:

“Prince used to talk about the street you live on, and by that he meant the music that is your home base, the music that is most right to you. “The music that makes you say, ‘These are my people.’ We can visit other neighborhoods and like other music that isn’t your home base.”

The moment I heard that, my life and my love of music suddenly made sense. Months ago, SrCarto shared a Smithsonianmag.com article on how the geography of Minneapolis influenced the sound of Prince, and by extension, the sound of Minnesota.

The TLDR is early on, Minneapolis, built on the rapids of the Mississippi River became the Mill City, due to the flour mills that lined the river, getting power from the rapids. With that power, and the money made off those flour mills that became household names, local leaders became visionaries when it came to education. Music in schools was part of the vision, and by 1940, one in six children in the Minneapolis school system played at least one musical instrument. By the 1970s the three most famous Minnesotans were all fictional, Betty Crocker, Poppin’ Fresh the Pillsbury Doughboy, and Mary Richards.

Music was always in my life, and in school. My mom was my first-grade teacher, and she played Ferde Grofe’s Grand Canyon Suite and Beethoven’s Fifth in class. She taught us that music could tell a story, even without lyrics and 20 or so of my classmates closed our eyes and imagined a donkey clip clopping down the trails of the Grand Canyon. This was two blocks from the street I lived on.

That same year we got stereo for Christmas. The Beach Boys, Four Seasons, and Louis Armstong brought California beaches, Jersey street corners and New Orleans, Bourbon Street to my smalltown Main Street. On radio I began to hear things with a critical, somewhat precocious ear, understanding the crass commercialism that Mick railed against in “Satisfaction” and loving the Pop symphonic sound of The Supremes’ “I Hear of Symphony” and The Toys’ “A Lover’s Concerto.” The last two songs I now realize are my home base, the street I live on.

The street I live on musically is as much defined by water as anything, Consider the music created by artists from Minnesota. Judy Garland’s birthplace, Grand Rapids, was another city built to take advantage of the rapids of the Mississippi River. Bob Dylan’s birthplace in Duluth might have had a view of 10% of the World’s Freshwater, and what is considered his home, Hibbing, is near the point where water can end up in any of three major watersheds. The street I lived on was a block from 169, which crossed the Mississippi near Judy Garland’s childhood home, on its way up to Hibbing where Bob Dylan’s childhood home was. The street I lived on was 6 blocks and many miles from the street Dylan lived on.

From Judy Garland to The Andrew Sisters, on through Dylan, the early garage/Frat rock sound of Surfin’ Bird and Liar Liar, the Twin Town/Twin Tone punk scene of the 70s and 80s, to Funkytown, to the ‘Mats and Husker Du, the Minnesota sound was melodic, energetic, primal, and rarely fussed over. The street I lived on had modest homes, but there was a lot of love in that modest home, same with the music on the street I live on.

Then, Prince comes along and a few of his friends start the new Minneapolis Sound. Two in particular; Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, start collaborating as part of an Upward Bound educational retreat at the University of Minnesota in 1972. They were at the U as part of a program where public-school students could learn to teach other students. At the time, Jam was into pop rock music like America, Seals & Croft and Chicago, while Lewis was into EW&F, Funkadelic and Kool & the Gang. Combined, Jam brought the pretty, and Lewis brought the funky bass. They eventually met Prince, and simultaneously collaborated, and competed with him and others over the years. The New Minneapolis Sound was melodic, energetic, primal, rarely fussed over, and Black. There was a new house on the street I live on.

This is my home. This is where I feel comfortable. It’s where I come to relieve my stress, to feel love, to enjoy life. Rhythm is important in the street I live on, it’s the foundation of the homes, but the pretty makes me want to live here. “Escapade” isn’t just a lyrical shout out to Minneapolis, it’s a shout out to streets we lived on. It’s on the par with other street and highway and place songs written and recorded by Minnesotans. The “Escapade” could take you “Uptown” or to “Funkytown” via “Highway 61 “(revisited), “4th Street,” (positively) or “Alphabet Street” (because near Uptown are laid out alphabetically.) Hell, it could even take you “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

This proves that all the staff are basically just paid commenters.

Tom’s being really generous with this write up.

I’m here, this is happening.

The Love Below is Above The Hate.
I love you, 3000.

“ME TOO!”

First off, I have to thank Scott for allowing me to represent Stereogum at Rocklahoma and write this piece. Thanks to DeVille for editing and staying in touch throughout the process. Thank you to my director of photography for being able to roll solo most of the weekend and of course being at the media tent at the right time when they dropped the additional Slipknot photo credentials a few hours before the show. He’s the real MVP. BIG THANKS to my friend and his family for taking me under their wing and providing extra historical context that I would have never uncovered by myself. He basically transformed my Media wristband into an Ultra VIP wristband simply by being next to him. We seriously had the greatest time at Mastodon.

If there was any small part you liked and wanted more context, ask away (I experienced multiple good quotes from people including a pretty incredible line from a tollbooth attendant at 10pm).The benefit of writing an article and being a commenter is that I can elaborate down here. In the end, I just wanted to throw you a curveball of an article. At the very least, I hope I succeeded in making you feel like you were there with us.

This week I turned in my resignation for a job I’ve been at about 9.5 years, the last 3 being extremely toxic and kind of awful all around. Starting a new position analyzing data 100% from home which is something I never thought would be possible for me as a chemist. Also signed on for a new 2 bed/2 bath apartment that I’m excited about. Life has shat on me the last five years, feels good to have a couple things go my way finally.

Where are they covering all your awesome covers? Asking for a friend. Oh yeah, nowhere? Jealous and bitter much, are ya? STFU

You know in America, we call this cultural appropriation…guess it just depends on the artist….

And now for an aggressively autistic, overlong comment by a wannabe music journalist trying and failing to outdo the article itself. Every single time. So boring, so narcissistic. 2/10 why I never read these cool articles anymore.

Ok…I’m gonna say it. I don’t like saying it. It’s like picking dogshit over cat vomit. But if a choice has to be made I’ll just do it. This isn’t JUST a musical decision. This is an all emcompassing assessment. Goddamn it hurts to type it…..

The Eagles > Fleetwood Mac

Drake really does have more slaps than the Beatles though.

I decided to Howse this bastard and I cannot wait until Friday. I love this fucking band.