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  • Headlights Pointed At The Dawn

    For this Friday Night Video, we’re going back a way, to the mid-nineties. Smashing Pumpkins had released Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness a fittingly grandiose title for an ambitious and widely varied double-album. At the time, I heard the first single, the “rat in cage” song, and I thought this latest effort wasn’t for me. I actually went out and sold my Smashing Pumpkins CDs, which I had been collecting since shortly after the release of their debut, Gish.

    It wasn’t until later that I found out there were some strong tracks on the third official record from the band. “1979” is a well-loved classic. Even Pavement covered the song, and they had their own song with the lyrics, “I don’t understand what they mean, and I could really give a f**k,” in reference to SP.

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  • Recontextualization

    When I heard that Starflyer 59 was releasing a new album hot on the heels of their critically acclaimed 2024 record Lust For Gold, I was a bit surprised. Once I dove further into the concept for the record, though, I began to understand why the band was able to put this out so quickly. This isn’t a collection of new songs, but rather a reimagining of previous material in a gently soporific, slumber-inducing format. I wasn’t sure about the premise, but I have to admit to being fond of the results.

    The collection comes off as very similar to the Lullaby Renditions of… series that came together almost two decades ago. The series took the songs of popular bands and recreated them in a format that sounded like lullabies. Tracks by Nirvana or Radiohead or even Led Zeppelin were transformed into something that you would hear coming from the plastic mobile rotating over an infant’s crib. If it sounds hokey, maybe it was a bit, but somehow it worked. We had the volume dedicated to The Cure and used to play it to get my oldest son to settle down when he was a baby. 

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