I don’t have rabies!

Now it has just occurred to me that maybe I didn’t post here about how I accidentally attacked a bat that somehow ended up in my apartment.

Well this was two Thursdays ago, and he was really sick, so the animal control lady said they were going to get him tested. And he was apparently sick with something other than rabies which is hopefully not easily transmitted.

But I got my letter in the mail today informing me that I do not have rabies. Or at least, if I have rabies, it did not come from that bat.

I’ve probably blabbed about it here before, but working at KRNU as a music director can make you kind of burnt out on music. Dozens of CDs come in every week, and most of them are just horrible. And when you’re doing a weekly show, you have to seek out new music to keep the show fresh. Eventually, when listening to music becomes your job, you start to lose the joy that comes with hearing new stuff.

Putting together the KRNU top 100s over the past few weeks was an amazing recharge. Digging through all the old 80s music – a lot of it which I hadn’t listened to in years – reignited the desire to listen to music for enjoyment. For example, I’ve always like groups like The Church and O.M.D., but I came upon those bands when there wasn’t really time or motivation to explore more. Listening to early Church albums and trying to track down some early O.M.D. (nothing against the Pretty in Pink soundtrack, but I’m enjoying albums like Organisation a lot more) has just reignited whatever metaphorical fire is appropriate for this rambling.

So in the last few weeks, I’ve been listening to a lot more of Peter Murphy’s early solo stuff, the first three Simple Minds albums, Talk Talk’s “Spirit of Eden” and “It’s My Life,” Naked Raygun’s “All Rise,” Kate Bush’s “Hounds of Love” and the aforementioned Church and OMD. It’s stuff that’s been sitting on shelves in my apartment for years, and some of it hasn’t been put in a CD player in nearly a decade. In some ways, it’s kind of frustrating knowing this music has been sitting there while I got bored with everything else, but it’s also exciting being able to rediscover music second time around.

That said, I stopped by Homer’s today and went on a little buying spree. I’ve been looking for more OMD, individual Teardrop Explodes albums (I only have a compilation), and Madchester stuff like the Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets. I didn’t find much along those lines, but I did find three albums with super low pricetags.

Echo & the Bunnymen “Ocean Rain (reissue)” – $8.99
Reading Bill Drummond’s essay on Echo & the Bunnymen in his book 45 has gotten me a lot more interested in rediscovering the band. I’d only ever owned “Songs to Learn and Sing” and the self-titled album and I was content with those. I actually went to the E’s looking for a more comprehensive best of for KRNU, as “Songs to Learn and Sing” is pretty incomplete. I’d been eying these reissues for a while now, but they were pretty pricey. Now, for some reason, this one was on sale. It’s got a few classics like “The Killing Moon” and “Seven Seas,” but the reissue also includes 8 bonus tracks with some rarities and live recordings. And it comes with extensive liner notes. I’m a sucker for liner notes. I get really disappointed and feel kind of cheated when CDs skimp on the liner notes. Actually, Drummond’s essay was written for the sleeve notes of some best-of collection I’ve never seen.

Talk Talk “The Essential” – $7.99
The new romantic phase of the early 80s has always been one of my favorite periods in music, even when I was too young to understand that Duran Duran and Tears for Fears were part of a “movement.” Talk Talk was one of those groups that managed to survive a musical shift quite nicely – their biggest hits happened on both sides of their transition away from new wave. I’ve enjoyed “It’s My Life” and “Spirit of Eden,” but I’d never owned “Talk Talk” and “Life’s What You Make It” on CD so I picked this up. I figure any career retrospective with only 12 songs is probably lacking, but at $7.99, I figured it was a good start.

The Style Council “The Collection” – $7.99
I’ve always been fascinated by the way in which Paul Weller disbanded post-punk mods The Jam at the peak of their success and went on to start this jazzy, over-produced, slightly homo-erotic continental pop duo. I’ve never really heard if it was contempt for Jam fans or just an experiment to see what would happen.

You can listen to some of these songs and see them fitting in with later Jam music, especially with some of the politics, but then you hear stuff like “You’re the Best Thing” and “Shout to the Top”, and you see Paul in his new romantic attire, and it jerks you right back into a mindset of “What exactly was going on here?”

Turbotito, a.k.a. the bass player from Junior Senior, has posted two new Public Enemy remixes on his myspace page.

Frequent visitors to this page may recall previous Turbotito pimping. His song “Losing Their Heads” was one of my favorites of last year.

Go download those remixes quickly – he promises they’ll be gone soon.

Three times in my life, various producers of unnatural food products have hooked me with their goods and then yanked them away once my love was firmly established.

The refreshments of choice at my grandparents’ house were Hi-C Ecto Cooler and peanut butter Twix. I have heard tales that Ecto-Cooler still exists, and I am in no position to doubt them, because I know it outlasted all other forms of Ghostbusters promotion. But that was not the beloved part of the junkfood equation.

It was the peanut butter Twix. My grandma kept them in the freezer. I’m not sure why, but she did, and so we always ate frozen peanut butter Twix.

It was a completely different experience. When you eat a hot or room-temperature peanut butter Twix, it’s pretty much just like eating a normal Twix. It just kind of falls apart, it’s chocolatey, it’s gooey, whatever.

But when it’s frozen, you can dissect a peanut butter Twix with your teeth. I’d carefully pry off the ends, and then chisel away the sides all down the length of the cookie. Those sides were like the concrete reinforcement that kept the peanut butter fastened down. Once that was gone, the peanut butter had no anchor. Then the trick was to shear the remaining chocolate off the top of the peanut butter without prying it from the cookie. Once that was gone, you could eat the peanut butter solo, followed by the naked cookie.

I think it was around the time my grandma passed away that peanut butter Twix disappeared. I was talking with my friend Jill down at the Daily Nebraskan one day about how I loved peanut butter Twix, so we decided to place a phone call to the number on the back of regular Twix.

I was overjoyed when the customer service representative informed me that peanut butter Twix was coming back after the beginning of the new year (I think this was like 1999).

My second lost love was Mello Yello. I’ve told far too many people the story of how I lost Mello Yello in a Hinky Dinky parking lot in 1996 and then found it again in a western Nebraska gas station in 2000. I’m afraid I’ve stripped the story of its meaning by overtelling it. But just know that I loved Mello Yello, it was taken from me, and then it came back. Also in 2000.

The consistency of those dates is actually irrelevant and deceptive, because my third love has nothing to do with 2000. In the spring of 2004, Arby’s introduced two beautiful new sandwiches under the banner of “Sourdough Melts.” They had a beef and cheddar and a ham and swiss.

Then after about 2 months, they were gone.

I stepped into Arby’s this past weekend to meet my friend Nate. The first thing I saw, in the menu panel that briefly boasted the new gyro, was a backlit pane adorned with sourdough melts. “They’re back!” I shouted. “Ooops, sorry,” I said to the counter attendant when I realized I just shouted in his restaurant.

They’re fantastic – exactly as I remember them. The goopy yellow cheese on the beef and cheddar still tastes and feels like melted plastic as it sticks to your teeth. The ham and swiss is unrivaled in the fast food world. I had sourdough melts 5 times between Saturday and Monday afternoons.

The nice lady at the counter told me they’ll probably only be back for a month. So go eat them while you can. And I think I should go buy some peanut butter Twix and Mello Yello now that I’m thinking about it.

Today was Leflerpalooza 4, essentially the official end to the school year for Lefler after school clubs.

This year has been so amazing for me. I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone by. I’ve spent nearly every weekday for the last 9 months, at Lefler with various after school clubs. I’ve gotten to know so many kids and see so many people change over the course of one school year.

But what’s weird, is that I feel like so many of these people are my friends. It’s like somewhat socially unacceptable for an old person to say that people who are 12-14 years old are their friends, but I’ve spent the last year with these guys, and I’ve gotten to know them, and they are my friends.

I think back to when I was in 8th grade and 7th grade and 6th grade, and I think about the people who meant something to me then mean relatively nothing to me now. And I realize, that to these kids, when they get to be my age, I will be at best a memory, and at worst, completely forgotten. But that doesn’t change the fact that for the last 9 months, these were my friends.

I look forward to seeing what these people grow into in 10-15 years. Because I was there, and I know how hard it was to go through middle school. and it’s easy to see how much potential there is in these people.

So maybe it’s a little bit of jealousy and insecurity, seeing how far these people can go, and seeing how much they have in them, at these young ages, and seeing where I am now. But it makes me sad, knowing that I can really only be some small brick on their path. I guess I just hope that I was an important brick on that path.

I think this is why I could never be a teacher. I get too attached. But I can’t wait to see what these guys accomplish by the time they’re college aged and beyond. It’s amazing to see how much talent they have now, and to also wonder about all the other kids at the other middle schools who have that talent, but no after school program to let it loose.

I guess I’m just really happy that in the fall of 2000, Jason Schmit and I took Film Production 1 together, otherwise I’d never have known him, and I’d never have ended up teaching after school clubs at Lefler for the past school year.

2000s
Rank Song title Artist
1 Do You Realize? Flaming Lips
2 Gravity Rides Everything Modest Mouse
3 Gone for Good Shins
4 The Rat Walkmen
5 Such Great Heights Postal Service
6 Electric Pink Promise Ring
7 Second Story Man Heaven is a Hotel
8 Take Me Out Franz Ferdinand
9 Mrs. Whiskerson Troubled Hubble
10 Strange Built to Spill
11 You Look Like a Lady Lee Hazlewood
12 Nothing’s Going to Happen Elf Power
13 80 Steps to Jonah Head of Femur
14 Jesus Etc. Wilco
15 Bohemian Like You Dandy Warhols
16 Float On Modest Mouse
17 It’s the Sun Polyphonic Spree
18 Yawn Yawn Yawn Les Savy Fav
19 One Big Holiday My Morning Jacket
20 Everything Hits at Once Spoon
21 There Goes the Fear Doves
22 Stay Forever Ween
23 Out of the Races and Onto the Tracks Rapture
24 Lost Cause Beck
25 I Walk the Earth King Biscuit Time
26 Company Calls Epilogue Death Cab for Cutie
27 Alone Again Or Calexico
28 Penelope Pinback
29 That Great Love Sound Raveonettes
30 First of the Gang to Die Morrissey
31 Never Better Drive-By Honky
32 The Swimmer Frank Black and the Catholics
33 Fight Test Flaming Lips
34 The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
35 To You Alone Beta Band
36 Banquet Bloc Party
37 The Way Bonnie Prince Billy
38 New Resolution Azure Ray
39 Life is Still Sweet White Hassle
40 Fuel for Fire M Ward
41 The Devil I Once Knew Heidi Saperstein
42 War on War Wilco
43 No Revolution Bobby Conn
44 Optimistic Radiohead
45 We Used to Be Friends Dandy Warhols
46 The Weather Built to Spill
47 So You Wanna Be a Superhero? Carissa’s Weird
48 Calling from Space Chainsaw Kittens
49 Catch the Sun Doves
50 Killed By an Angel Sunny Day Real Estate
51 Precious Depeche Mode
52 Album of the Year Good Life
53 Change My Life Spoon
54 Fortress Pinback
55 Exactly Where I’m At Ween
56 I Thought You Were My Boyfriend Magnetic Fields
57 51-7 Camper Van Beethoven
58 Anything You Want Mike G
59 Bowl of Oranges Bright Eyes
60 Death Connection Flesh
61 Jurass Finish First Jurassic 5
62 Lost Art of Keeping a Secret Queens of the Stone Age
63 Playgirl Ladytron
64 Last Nite Strokes
65 Staring at the Sun TV on the Radio
66 This Year Mountain Goats
67 Up Above the Sea John Vanderslice
68 Wonderful Life Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
69 Emerge Fischerspooner
70 Golden My Morning Jacket
71 I Came as a Rat Modest Mouse
72 World’s Gone Mad Handsome Boy Modeling School
73 Neon Tom Gwenmars
74 Offcell Pinback
75 Slipping Under the Shadows Lenola
76 Nervous Tic Motion of the Head Andrew Bird
77 The Conductor Faint
78 You Can Have It All Yo La Tengo
79 Portions for Foxes Rilo Kiley
80 Anything at All Firewater
81 Black Book Stephen Malkmus
82 Broken Heart Mooney Suzuki
83 Back Before You Go J Mascis and the Fog
84 Indian Summer Pedro the Lion
85 Vaporizer Lupine Howl
86 Paralyzed Mando Diao
87 On Your Way Album Leaf
88 Pumping on Your Stereo Supergrass
89 The Sporting Life Decemberists
90 Facts of Life Black Box Recorder
91 Slow Dying Flashlight Helicopter Helicopter
92 Du ar for Fin for Mig Dungen
93 The Winter is Coming Elf Power
94 Svefn-g-eglar Sigur Ros
95 Trouble with Dreams Eels
96 Bend Your Mind Elysian Fields
97 Why You’d Want to Live Here Death Cab for Cutie
98 First in Flight Blackalicious
99 Faces in Disguise Sunny Day Real Estate
100 Bandages Hot Hot Heat

I was presented with this question several times tonight:

Q: Where did these top 100s come from?

A; The answer is different for all three.

The 1980s and before:
In the 80s, KRNU was a top 40 station, operating off vinyl 7″ singles. General Manager Rick Alloway saw the writing on the wall, and Christmas 1989’s forced transition to CDs motivated KRNU to switch to an album-based alternative rock format.

That means in the 1980s, KRNU was all about stuff like Wham, Bon Jovi and Whitney Houston. As much fun as it would’ve been to count down stuff like that, when it comes to making a Top 100 of the 80s for KRNU, it was all about inferring what, based on the 16 year history of alternative KRNU, would define the station prior to the 1990s.

The 1990s:
The 90s were the first full decade in which the alternative format dominated. As an old person, compared to the current music director staff, I only had memory of KRNU’s popular songs dating back to 1996. So I sought out as many former KRNU listeners, DJs and music directors as I could track down in the relatively short period of time before the countdown and presented them with the question of what they remember as being big songs on the station from their period of expertise.

The 2000s:
In 2000, KRNU had its first Top 100 of the year countdown, which has continued since then. So in terms of this decade, the results were weighed based upon the tangible response of the listeners, staff and other voters who weighed in over the past 6 years.

With the context of all three countdowns, the songs that were considered eligible for a Top 100 were placed into a list and sent out to all willing participants to rate as 1: worthy of the top third, 2: worthy of the middle third, 3: worthy of the bottom third or 4: not worthy of the top 100 of the decade. The votes were placed into a spreadsheet and averaged.

The composite scores were then sorted, and ties were broken based upon things like current prominence on the station, extreme endorsements by representatives of the institutional memory, or placement on established Top 100 countdowns.

People are obviously going to disagree with the results. Any Top 100 countdown is going to have a fantastic song at 101, and there has been some great music omitted from all three countdowns. But it was a process adhered to, for better or for worse, and it’s been a process that was as informed by the informed as possible.

When each countdown was completed, I looked at the list and I was satisfied. I feel like each top 100 contains a certain degree of unpredictablity, yet it makes sense.

And most of all, each Top 100 represents KRNU, and that was pretty much the point.

1 Made Up Dreams Built to Spill
2 Paranoid Android Radiohead
3 Waitin’ for Superman Flaming Lips
4 Sometimes Millions
5 Natural One Folk Implosion
6 Diamond Sea Sonic Youth
7 When You Sleep My Bloody Valentine
8 Velouria Pixies
9 Voodoo Lady Ween
10 Arpeggiator Fugazi
11 Cut Your Hair Pavement
12 Hit Sugarcubes
13 Low Cracker
14 Infected Bad Religion
15 MST3K Love Theme Man…Or Astro-Man?
16 Summer Mercy Rule
17 Cannonball Breeders
18 November Spawned a Monster Morrissey
19 Particle Man They Might Be Giants
20 Pretend We’re Dead L7
21 Same Old City Velocity Girl
22 Ball and Chain Social Distortion
23 Center of the Universe Built to Spill
24 Cure for Pain Morphine
25 Bull in the Heather Sonic Youth
26 If I Only Had a Brain MC 900 Ft. Jesus
27 The Only One I Know The Charlatans
28 I Must Be High Wilco
29 Fake Plastic Trees Radiohead
30 Dry the Rain Beta Band
31 Getting Away With It Electronic
32 Space (I Believe In) Pixies
33 Deeper Shade of Soul Urban Dance Squad
34 She Don’t Use Jelly Flaming Lips
35 Feel the Pain Dinosaur Jr
36 I Miss You Bjork
37 Loaded Primal Scream
38 Super Bon Bon Soul Coughing
39 Sick of Goodbyes Sparklehorse
40 Sour Times Portishead
41 Teenage FBI Guided By Voices
42 Welcome to the Terrordome Public Enemy
43 Sodajerk Buffalo Tom
44 Unsung Helmet
45 Suddenly Mary Posies
46 Orange Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
47 Positive Bleeding Urge Overkill
48 Cuts You Up Peter Murphy
49 The Day Ted Nugent Killed All the Animals Wally Pleasant
50 A Letter to Elyse Cure
51 I’m Free Soup Dragons
52 I am a Tree Guided by Voices
53 I Saw the Light The The
54 Kill Your Television Ned’s Atomic Dustbin
55 Kool Thing Sonic Youth
56 Light from a Dead Star Lush
57 Tender Blur
58 Red Right Hand Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
59 Hobo Humpin Slobo Babe Whale
60 Child Psychology Black Box Recorder
61 Crank Catherine Wheel
62 High and Dry Radiohead
63 Alone Dinosaur Jr
64 No Depression Uncle Tupelo
65 Tomorrow Morrissey
66 Block Rockin’ Beats Chemical Brothers
67 All I Know Screaming Trees
68 Virginia Reel Around the Fountain Halo Benders
69 Do Ya Think I’m Sexy Revolting Cocks
70 Break Fugazi
71 Hold On Hope Guided By Voices
72 Istanbul (Not Constantinople) They Might Be Giants
73 Karma Police Radiohead
74 Love Spreads Stone Roses
75 Pets Porno for Pyros
76 That’s Evolution Wally Pleasant
77 21st Century Digital Boy Bad Religion
78 Bell Bottoms Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
79 Do You Remember the First Time? Pulp
80 Full Clip Gang Starr
81 Ship Song Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
82 Spark That Bled Flaming Lips
83 A Design for Life Manic Street Preachers
84 Christiansands Tricky
85 John the Baptist Afghan Whigs
86 Love Me I’m a Liberal Jello Biafra and Mojo Nixon
87 On Fire Sebadoh
88 One to Another Charlatans
89 State I Am In Belle & Sebastian
90 Teardrop Massive Attack
91 Candy Iggy Pop
92 Charlotte Anne Julian Cope
93 Last Goodbye Jeff Buckley
94 Passenger Side Wilco
95 Draining Escape Mechanism
96 13 Steps Lead Down Elvis Costello
97 4th of July Galaxie 500
98 Born in ’69 Rocket from the Crypt
99 Protected By Their Prayers Dark Fantastic
100 Girls & Boys Blur

1 Love Will Tear Us Apart Joy Division
2 Teenage Riot Sonic Youth
3 How Soon is Now? Smiths
4 Psycho Killer Talking Heads
5 London Calling Clash
6 Where Is My Mind Pixies
7 Fight the Power Public Enemy
8 Bastards of Young Replacements
9 Blue Monday New Order
10 This is the Day The The
11 Just Like Heaven The Cure
12 Ziggy Stardust Bauhaus
13 I Wanna Be Sedated The Ramones
14 Dear God XTC
15 Shipbuilding Elvis Costello
16 Enjoy the Silence Depeche Mode
17 That’s When I Reach for My Revolver Mission of Burma
18 Fools Gold Stone Roses
19 Ghostrider Suicide
20 Outdoor Miner Wire
21 Just Like Honey Jesus and Mary Chain
22 Take the Skinheads Bowling Camper Van Beethoven
23 The Killing Moon Echo & the Bunnymen
24 Whip It Devo
25 Here Comes Your Man Pixies
26 Transmission Joy Division
27 Mushroom Can
28 Enola Gay Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark
29 Smash It Up Damned
30 There Is a Light That Never Goes Out The Smiths
31 Anarchy in the UK Sex Pistols
32 Going Underground Jam
33 Holiday In Cambodia Dead Kennedys
34 Kick in the Eye Bauhaus
35 The Robots Kraftwerk
36 Ceremony New Order
37 Making Plans for Nigel XTC
38 Never Let Me Down Again Depeche Mode
39 Watching the Detectives Elvis Costello
40 Silver Rocket Sonic Youth
41 Burning Down the House Talking Heads
42 I Wanna Be Adored Stone Roses
43 There is a War Leonard Cohen
44 Lovesong Cure
45 Blue Savannah Erasure
46 Head On Jesus and Mary Chain
47 Damaged Goods Gang of Four
48 Fairytale of New York Pogues
49 Ghost Town Specials
50 Gigantic Pixies
51 Alex Chilton Replacements
52 An Unguarded Moment Church
53 Sheena Is a Punk Rocker Ramones
54 Personal Jesus Depeche Mode
55 Suedehead Morrissey
56 Bent Out of Shape Teardrop Explodes
57 C’Mon Every Beatbox Big Audio Dynamite
58 Mirror in the Bathroom English Beat
59 Punk Rock Girl Dead Milkmen
60 Satisfaction Devo
61 She Sells Sanctuary Cult
62 White Man in Hammersmith Palais Clash
63 TV Party Black Flag
64 Alison Elvis Costello
65 God Save the Queen Sex Pistols
66 Bizarre Love Triangle New Order
67 Human Cannonball Butthole Surfers
68 I’ll Be You Replacements
69 So Alive Love and Rockets
70 She’s Lost Control Joy Division
71 Bela Lugosi’s Dead Bauhaus
72 Long Lonely Day Go Betweens
73 Eighties Killing Joke
74 Me, Myself and I De La Soul
75 Close to Me Cure
76 Everybody Knows Leonard Cohen
77 Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now Smiths
78 This Must Be the Place Talking Heads
79 Uncertain Smile The The
80 Blitzkrieg Bop Ramones
81 Cashing In Minor Threat
82 Contact Big Audio Dynamite
83 I Found that Essence Rare Gang of Four
84 King Ink Birthday Party
85 Out My Way Meat Puppets
86 Temple of Love Sisters of Mercy
87 Reuters Wire
88 Under the Milky Way Church
89 Gangsters Specials
90 Pure Lightning Seeds
91 Shake the Disease Depeche Mode
92 Sanity Bad Religion
93 The Model Kraftwerk
94 Save it for Later English Beat
95 Running Up that Hill Kate Bush
96 Bouncing Baby Teardrop Explodes
97 Panic Smiths
98 Monkey Gone to Heaven Pixies
99 Guns of Brixton Clash
100 Can’t Hardly Wait Replacements

This weekend on KRNU:

It’s been a long couple of weeks of researching, surveying, tabulating, ranking and assembling. I love countdowns, but this weekend’s festivities had a secondary purpose. The amount of storage at KRNU has recently increased, allowing for much of the long-ago departed music to be restored to the library. There’s been an extra focus in these past few weeks on the music that was popular at KRNU back in the late 80s and early 90s when the switch from top 40 to alternative happened.

So in addition to 30 original hours of the best of the past 25 years of indie music, the back catalogue at KRNU should be noticeably replenished post-Memorial Day.