I was watching hotel TV the other night, the sort of shit you never watch at home. In fact, other than the Premier league, I hardly watch anything at home. Hotels are a different matter. Everyone watches too much TV on the road. Anyway, I was watching one of those Time infomercials, where they sell these huge song collections. This one, surprisingly, was for 90’s songs.

“90’s songs!” I thought, “*** me, we are supposed to be an object of nostalgic already?” 

Maybe I even said it out loud. Hotels are like that.

Anyway, I did not succumb to ordering the lot, but it did spur me to download a few songs from the era that caught my attention for the second time around.

Weezer were a weird band then, and by all accounts remain well left of center, but ‘Buddy Holly’ is a piece of genius. The only reason I even heard the song when it came out is because the video was included on the first computer I ever bought. I guess I didn’t listen to the radio that much in the early 90s. I was too poor for cable, in fact the first time I ever saw MuchMusic was after our ‘Run Runaway’ video came out, when I felt compelled to subscribe. Not to digress into my ‘St. John’s was a backwater’ thing again, but Cable TV round here came with 24 channels then, which was an anaesthetizing  23 more than I got with rabbit ears

At any rate, I have been reunited with a dandy. ‘Buddy Holly’s lyrics are clever in a way few attain. Satire does not usually lend itself to pop music, but Rivers Cuomo pulls it off.  The guitars are so boneheaded anyone with 4 strings could play them, but it still  has the happy bubblegum feel the Ramones always tried for and never really nailed. Cuomo can really sing - even when he is comparing his girlfriend to Mary Tyler Moore there is a bit of an edge, an edge that tells you that this guy quite possibly does not have both oars in the water. Better still, according to wikipedia, he pissed off at the height of his fame to do an English degree. I would argue with his timing, but as a fellow devotee of the obscure and arcane, I can certainly sympathize.

Len is the quintessential one-hit wonder act. They have just one hit to their credit, but it is so good their subsequent fall into obscurity is almost prosaic. 1999’s ‘If You Steal My Sunshine’ is blessed with a killer hook, largely sampled from the Andrea True Connection. Lead vocals were shared by Marc Costanzo and his sister Sharon, and somehow perfectly capture the sort of hangover that follows a break-up and subsequent nights of self-destruction.  Marc recites the vocal in a husky rap, sounding as if he is already well into his second pack of smokes, while his sister is as cheery and chirpy as the Easter bunny. Without even trying, they pretty much captured the pattern for every decent break-up - one side is wallowing in despair, while the other prances off in a cloud of relief.

I vaguely recall a video, which appeared to be shot for nothing in Daytona Beach, with the band & buddiea cavorting around video arcades, fooling about with scooters and whatnot. I remember it made me a bit jealous. We were bunging around the USA for most of that year, stuffed back in the van for weeks on end, with all it’s dubious comforts. There was not much cavorting of any kind for us. Len looked like they were having the time of their lives. With the benefit of hindsight, I hope they did.