Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Boxing My Past

It’s kind of odd to see my youthful rebellion (such as it was) repackaged as nostalgia but that’s exactly the case with Rhino’s just-announced Left of the Dial: Dispatches from the '80s Underground, due out in October. Their website doesn’t mention it yet but a track listing can be found elsewhere. A slightly odd mix since some of this--Depeche Mode, Sisters of Mercy--was never underground, though come to think of it neither was R.E.M. even at their most indie.

Anyway, I co-hosted a show called Progressions on the University of Alabama’s student radio station from 1983 to 1987 and a lot of this is much like a playlist. In fact I count 35 songs that I definitely played, including my favorites by The Jam, New Order, Minutemen, the dB’s and others. Not that it’s typical since I played big doses of punk, reggae and avant but then they aren’t putting out a box set of my show.