Tag: 1994

Tunes

Best tunes of 1994: #23 Pop Will Eat Itself “Ich bin ein auslander”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date April 24, 2026
1 Comment on Best tunes of 1994: #23 Pop Will Eat Itself “Ich bin ein auslander”

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Much like the last song and post in this series, the song at number twenty-three on this list of my favourite tunes from 1994 came to me care of the very same CMJ New Music Monthly CD sampler issued in December 1994. But unlike Cranes, whose introduction was the song on that CD (and was well met indeed), I was no stranger to Stourbridge, England’s Pop Will Eat Itself.

Indeed, I’ve already regaled a few pieces of my history with the Poppies on these pages. It all started off with my hearing of them from my friend Elliott, who learned of them from his girlfriend Jen, and listening to them one day at his apartment. Then, perhaps a year or two later finding myself on the dance floor late one Saturday night at the now-defunct Moon Room with a strange young lady dancing to “Wise up! Sucker” and learning that the backing vocals were provided by Miles Hunt, frontman of my favourite band at the time, The Wonder Stuff. I had decided at that point that it might be worth my time to search out some of PWEI’s stuff but whenever I found their CDs at the used shops, I always seemed to find something I wanted to buy more.

Hearing “Ich bin ein auslander” on that CMJ sampler, proved to be the missing piece and proverbial straw that opened the floodgates. I got myself a copy of “Dos dedos mis amigos”, the group’s fifth (and what turn out to be their last) studio album, and proceeded to play the hell out of it. It definitely sounded more industrial than the material that I had previously heard by the group, controlled chaos of more sample heavy dance punk. This fifth studio album also sounded more serious as a whole, less infantile and more angry.

“Welcome to a state where the politics of hate shout loud in the crowd
Watch ’em beat us all down
There’s a rising tide on the rivers of blood
But if the answer isn’t violence, neither is your silence”

The title of the opening track on the album is a misspelled german phrase which translates roughly to “I am a foreigner”. It starts with a rhythmic keys line that resembles a siren or an alarm and almost immediately, the raging guitars kick in, just begging you to jump around or thrash your head back and forth, long hair flailing all about. It is an angst driven political indictment of racism, nazism, and England’s immigration laws at the time, rife with killer lines like the ones above, tailor-made for shouting along to with the rest of the crowd on the dance floor with your fist punching the air.

Glorious!

For the rest of the Best tunes of 1994 list, click here.

Tags 1990s, 1994, Alternative, Alternative Rock, Best tunes, British rock, Clint Mansell, Graham Crabb, Grebo, Industrial, Pop Will Eat Itself, Retro

Tunes

Best tunes of 1994: #24 Cranes “Shining road”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date January 28, 2026
2 Comments on Best tunes of 1994: #24 Cranes “Shining road”

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Here’s another song by a band whose introduction came by way of a sampler. Yes, they really did work!

Back in the latter months of 1994, I was living in a basement apartment just north of Toronto while attending my second year at York University. Although it was definitely a shorter commute from that apartment than it was in my first year driving in from my hometown, it still meant hanging about on campus, killing time between classes, haunting the library, the student centre, the arcades and games rooms, and the pubs. At some point nearing the end of the fall term, I was in the campus general store* in the York Lanes Mall, perusing the magazine section for music mags. I came across one that I’d never heard of before called CMJ New Music Monthly and flipping through, saw names of artists I knew and respected, names I wouldn’t always see in the mainstream press, outside of the British music mags. I got to the end and saw a sampler CD was included and was impressed by the artists featured there as well. I was sold**.

The first track on the CD compilation was the Brauer mix of “Shining road” by Cranes and it hooked me right away with its haunting minimalist approach and the trademark childlike vocals of Alison Shaw. As it would turn out, my friend Tim*** was discovering the band concurrently while attending Waterloo university, about 100 kilometres away. The lucky jerk got to see them in March 1995 in Toronto and covered their show for his university paper. Granted, Cranes certainly fell neatly into Tim’s gothic, dark, and heavy musical oeuvre, which also included bands like Sisters of Mercy, New Model Army, KMFDM, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

Indeed, though the English alternative rock band has often been labelled as ‘Gothic’****, the band has not been happy about it. Cranes was formed by Alison Shaw and her brother Jim all the way back in 1985 and save for a brief hiatus near the end of the 90s, they were active until the end of the 2000s. They reformed again a couple of years ago for some shows and a new album in 2024. In all, they’ve released nine full-length studio albums, a couple of mini-albums, and a litany of EPs.

“She’s been making plans to go (you know)
Hit the bright lights, hit the road
To the city lights this time
Just don’t worry I’ll be fine”

“Shining road” is the opening track off Cranes’ third studio album, “Loved”. It catches your attention right away with those thumping ritualistic beats. The guitar strumming is restrained and taut, ominous and foreboding. At the chorus, though, things rev up considerably, to almost evil sounding levels. Yes, it plays the quiet-loud-quiet game, alternating between traipsing amongst dark clouds and stomping heavily through muddy puddles. Set all of that against the aforementioned childlike and haunting vocals by Alison Shaw and its pure magic. Pure black magic.

*Probably not the right name. I’m sure it’s long since closed.

**And blew a third of that week’s grocery budget in the process.

***It’s actually Tim’s birthday today. So this one goes out to you Tim!

****I included the very song that is the subject of today’s post on a “Goth” playlist I created and posted to these pages almost seven years ago.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 1994 list, click here.

Tags 1990s, 1994, Alison Shaw, Alternative, Alternative Rock, Best tunes, British rock, Cranes, Gothic rock, Retro

Tunes

Best tunes of 1994: #25 Frank Black “Headache”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date November 4, 2025
2 Comments on Best tunes of 1994: #25 Frank Black “Headache”

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Back in the early 90s, Toronto alternative radio station CFNY collaborated with music retailer extraordinaire HMV on a series of alternative music compilations. Fittingly titled “Free at last”, the radio station would hand them out as promotional items at events and the store would give them out free with purchases of music by at least one of the artists appearing on the compilation. There were five of them made (that I know of) from 1991 to 1995 and I’m pretty sure they were available both on cassette tape and compact disc, though the art work differed between the two.

I must have had friends that had a few of the volumes because I still have a couple of copies dubbed to cassette packed away in the basement. I also have stowed with them a legit one that I got myself from HMV: Volume 4, from 1994. Looking at the track listing, I figure I probably got a copy with Lush’s second album “Split”. Other artists that appeared on this volume included The Breeders, The Charlatans, Meat Puppets, The Tindersticks, and yes, you guessed it, Frank Black. The very track of focus today, the only single off his sophomore solo long player.

I had only just gotten into his band, the Pixies, a year or two before they announced their break up in 1993 and almost immediately, the frontman* appeared with his debut solo album. In truth, Black had been working on solo material for some time, recording some covers for a planned album as early as during the sessions for Pixies 1991 long player, “Trompe le monde”. The eventual self-titled debut only ended up with one cover on it** when it came out but had a banger of a single on it called “Los Angeles”, whose video I recorded one night from CityLimits and watched and rewatched and rewatched. The sophomore release, “Teenager of the year”, appeared the following year, including twenty two tracks, mostly of typical Pixie length, in and around the two to two and a half minute mark. I never really got into that album as a whole but man, did I love “Headache”, and this was mostly due to the compilation I spoke about above.

“This wrinkle in time, I can’t give it no credit
I thought about my space and I really got me down
Got me so down, I got me a headache
My heart is crammed in my cranium and it still knows how to pound”

Economical as ever, Black packs it all into three minutes. There’s no running start here, going from zero to a hundred, right from the get-go. Crashing drums and slacker guitars, feeling so free and loose. But it’s Black’s vocals and melody that are the star. There ain’t no time to sit and ponder one’s place in the universe and in history. You just gotta go for it. Live it and sing along with Frank. Back him up, screaming all the way. You’ll never be sorry.