Tribe - Abort (1991)

The Psych Furs played a concert at University at Buffalo in 1991 and their opening act was Tribe. After hearing them, I went to the campus record store and scooped it right up. Their album, Abort, continues to be one of the few albums that I always want to hear all the way through and can listen to anytime. I love every song. I know every word of every song even though I don't recall trying to remember the words. I have just listened to it so many times, probably the most times of any CD in my collection. On my Pandora account, I have a station named Tribe Radio. Listening to this album reminds me of being a freshman in college, free to do what I want. The campus record store reminded me of home and going to Tower Records in the village. I remember I bought U2's Achtung Baby and The Cure's Wish there when they came out. Those stories are for another day.

Beyonce - Dangerouly In Love (2003)

Another CD about another ex-boyfriend. He was 8 years older than me. One of the things that I recall most about our time together is that he told me that he wanted kids and thought I was old compared to his ex-fiance. Needless to say, he wasn't over his ex and although there were many reasons we didn't belong together, that was number one. I was 32 at the time and didn't think of myself as old until he said that. Somehow, the reminder of the finite amount of time a woman has to conceive children makes 32 seem old and right then and there a tiny part inside of me started to feel desperate. Today, I am a wife and mother of two beautiful children. I have not felt that desperation in a long time. I think my ex is out there alone, single...older. If I was given an opportunity to speak to him, I would like to say, "Thanks for showing me the difference between my being a woman and a girl and helping me graduate to the real world, ready to meet my soul mate. You had a lot of growing up to do even at your age!"

I liked most of the songs on the CD especially 'Crazy In Love', 'Me, Myself and I', 'Naughty Girl' and 'Baby Boy'. I could listen to it straight through and I did that for a lot of 2003.

If food poisoning doesn't kill you, it could kill your blog

My hubby and I just had a bad case of food poisoning this past weekend. We were both out of commission. But lucky for us, my mom was scheduled to come by to see the kids and so she took care of both while we took turns sleeping it off. A few days before that, our daughter had a stomach virus and was throwing up for about 24 hours. Maybe we got it from her? That is entirely possible. We think it was the all-you-can-eat sushi from the weekend that did it. It happened to be a place that we didn't know, never been to...never again.

And so, my blog has been on hold. I think I am about 17 CD's behind. Gotta catch up. And I think I have to change the format too. I wanted this to be a trip down memory lane but when I start writing about music, its hard not to start doing the 'review' type report. I am going to stay away from reviews and stick to the memories. It might end up only being interesting to me but that is okay.

cassette tapes

I just finished rolling tape back into a cassette after my daughter pulled it out in curiosity. And I had a whole blog typed out and it got deleted with a click of the wrong button. I don't have the time to restart it now so I will have to come back and explain the rest. I will listen to the tape before I come back to type again so I can talk about that too because I haven't listened to this tape in forever.

ERASURE - Stay With Me CD single (1995)

Okay, this is going to be fast. My two month old has me occupied and I cannot get away for more than a few minutes at a time. He won't sleep. He is otherwise well, well fed, changed, swaddled and was even sung to sleep and now, an hour later, it has been the battle of the binky. If you don't know what that is, I won't explain it now. I'll explain it another time.

After I sung him to sleep, I was going to post on my FB status something about patting myself on the back for singing 'Rock-a-bye Baby' so well that we fell asleep. I mean, I can sing. But I always found it difficult to sing in front of people solo. But now I was going to brag about my alto voice and how I have nothing to be shy about singing for my babies. I sing 'Edelweiss, 'Twinkle Twinkle', Depeche Mode's 'Somebody'...And before I could post all that, he woke again.

So anyway, Erasure is the very first band that I actually purchased music from. I think it was 1988 and my classmate Antoinette let me listen to them. I left her house deciding I would have to buy this tape ('The Innocents') for myself. Later this same classmate bought me the record (yes, vinyl) for R.E.M.'s 'Green'.

I listened to 'Stay With Me' earlier today to help me with this post. Before today, I don't recall listening to it since...I don't know. Don't let that fool you into thinking I don't care about this CD. It is actually quite the opposite - I love this song and after hearing it again, I recall playing this song over and over again. I know the words, like I do most Erasure songs, and I feel the emotion again like I did before.

More to come...

BREATHE - All That Jazz (1987)

There are only two songs on this album that I know and love: 'Hands to Heaven' and 'How can I fall?'

The first song could be called the theme song for me and my high school boyfriend. I still love this song now. I couldn't care less about the boyfriend. I did try to friend him on facebook recently and he wouldn't do it so I guess he still has hard feelings? Or maybe he just wants to keep it small on facebook. I handled the 20 year reunion for our class so I have them all on my friend list and I don't think he wanted to reconnect with anyone. That is cool. I understand. Oh well.

The second song is just the second song to the theme mentioned above. I had both songs on cassette singles and I must have purchased them sometime between 1989 and 1991. I probably still have them in my cassette single box (stories for another day). But what I am referencing now is a used CD with the markings: 090195, $5.99+tax. I might have bought it in 1995 at a music store, possibly Tower Records in NYC. If it was anywhere else, it might have been in Long Island where I worked at the mall or Queens where I lived for school or somewhere else in NYC. I bought it because of the two songs but I wonder what the other songs sound like? I imagine that when initially purchased it I tried to listen to the whole thing but I don't recall anything special.

I recommend both songs for the slow love song feeling. The lead singer has a sweet voice and the words and music are sweet as well. Enjoy!

P.S. I know I owe you all another post from January 1. Coming later...