College
Rock
Sympathy
for the Devil?
Hey, Tipper! Hey, PMRC!
Never mind these chuckle-
head death metal bands.
Slayer? Geeks. Morbid Angel?
Gimps. Napalm Death? Pan-
sies! College rock is the real
enemy. These bands are pol-
luting our children's minds. If,
on some crisp winterday,
ynu hear any of the below
elements onthe car radin -
beware! You may be listening
to the hedonistic, subversive
strains ofcollege rock.
Jangly, Byrds-ian guitar -
This ringing, chiming
guitar style is designed to
echo in your cerebral cor-
tex, weakening your resis-
tance to dream-pop bands
like the Church. Nest thing
you know, you're humming
along to lyrics about clouds
and liberal politics.
Lo-fi production -
Droning, muddysound
mixing helps bands record
subliminal messagesabout
Satan and dregs. Lislen care-
fullyto Pavement's "Tigger
Cut" and you'll hearthiscryp-
tic message- "Read theevil
devilfax! Doh! Nutmeg!"
Monosyllabic bands -
Blur, Live, Bush, Sponge,
Dig, Beck, Whale, Seam, Gene,
Dish, Low. Make... you...
talk... in... small... words...
and... sound... dumb.
Semi-ironic anthems -
"KillYr.Idols," "Teen
Angst," "Youth Against Fas-
cism." This isthe kind of
souped-up rock and roll that
gets tiw kids all rdff! Hor-
mones ant staff, you meow.
Sonthey'll besmoking
"grass" and goig to "discos."
Upstart females -
PJ Harvey, Liz Phair,
Alanis Morissette. These
women curse frequently
and sometimes even wear
slacks. Beware! They are
wicked succubi.
Weird MTV videos -
Say watyou wantabout
Warrane d Wnger -at
least their videos had hard-
rocking boys oglingsemi-
naked girls, which isnatural
and normal. These new-fan-
gled college band videos have
all mannerof perversity. That
Nirvanavideo-the boy's in
a dress! What theWhey
U. Magazine's
Magnificent
I ____Seven
The Top College Rock Albums
RSince the Dawn of iC e*
shuts down after Thanksgiving. Hardly any albums get released, and the
ones that do tend to be of the Boxcar Willie's Yodeling Jubilee variety. So
we've turned our gaze to the rosy, hazy past. Popular music wouldn't be
where it is today without the influence of college radio, especially in the
80s. While Bon Jovi and Whitesnake were topping the charts, campus stations
were quietly talking hout a revolution, nursing the hands and style that would
conquer the planet in the post-Nirvana era.
Below are seven of the most important college rock albums of all time, in no
particular order. These are recordings that probably would not have survived out-
side the fertile confines of left-of-the-dial radio, and whose relevance and influ-
ence can still be felt to this day. This list isn't by any means comprehensive, and
in anticipation of the impending barrage of righteous criticism, we'd just like to
say: Get off our backs, already! You wanna fight? All right, tough guy. Behind
Throwing Muses
Throwing Muses/9me
Rristin Hersits Iragmented pop sensibilities
would have been crushed anywhere outside of col-
lege radio (in fact, only the eccentric British label
4AD was initially willing to sign the band). With
Throwing Muses, Hersh and stepsister Tanya
Donelly (Belly) made some of the most consistently
interesting guitar pop of their time. in a sense, this
record is somewhat emblematic of a larger scene of
East Coast female-driven rock (Blake Babies, Kim
Deal) that foreshadowed the early '90s boom of
strong women performers (Liz Phair, PJ Harvey).
Husker Du
Wlarehouse: Songm
and Storiesl9mth
Warner Bro.
Probably the most
musically influential
band to never break out
of the college rock
scene, Husker D took
tie primal and direct pttk opd fthe Buzz-cocks
and node it toe prinmai,store direct - atndtoore
honest. Guitarist Bob Mould's jackhammer chord-
ing virtually created the sound practiced by the Pix-
ies, Superchunk and even Nirvana. Warehouse is the
band at its fitest, with crisper production revealing
both the austere sonics and graceful melodies the
band was capable of.
Sonic Youth
Daydream Nation1988
Sonic Youth's ground-breaking experimentation
with song structure and guitar tonalities are best
displayed on this sprawling double album. General-
ly regarded as the hippest band in the world,
they've long fought the lonely battle for main-
stream acceptance. But, you know, their hearts
were never really in it, and it's probably better that
way. Nowadays, it seems you can't trust anything
labeled"altertrive," but rest assured - Sonic
Youth are your friends. This may be your last
chance to hear a state-of-the-art underground rock
band in its natural environment.
*Well, OK, not really the dawn eftime.
Just the '80s and '90s.
metal shop, after school. Be there.
R.E.M.
Murmur/1983
The archetype of the
little college hand that
cttesd, R.L.M. hay' risen
from quirky art-rock
combo to one of the
most popular and impor-
tant bands in rock history. Their full-length debut
album contained the elemental seeds of what would
later bloom into R.E.M.'s signaturesound - folksy
melodicism tempered by a solidly post-punk ethic. If
yOL] can hear the Velvet Underground in Peter Buck's
guitar, you can also hear the Beach Boys it Mike
Mills' harmonies. One thing you can't hear are the
lyrics - singer Michael Stipe's enigmatic, abstract
vocals prompted more than a few Dls to rename the
I P tsotsble. R.E.M. practically invented "college
rock" as we know it with this record, and their suc-
cess - depending on your point of view - either
liberated the format or killed its spirit. Probably both.
Public Enemy
It Takes a Nation of Millions
to Hold Us Back/989
Mff/""
Although the development of hip-hop has ultimate-
ly very little to do with college radio, the two move-
ments have occasionally met with profound synergy.
When Long Island college radio DJ Carlton
Ridenhour (Chuck D) formed Public Enemy in the
late '80s, rap was still very much underground.
With Nation of Millions, Chuck D's controversial
(and incisive) political stance scared away all but the
most courageous radio programmers (Chuck D's
confrontational attitude toward black radio didn't
help: "Radio/Suckas scared of me/Cuz I'm
inad/Cuz I'm the enemy.") And so P.E. found its
way to Middle America primarily through word of
mouth and support from college radio hip-hop pro-
gramming. Nation of Millions arguably remains
rap's masterpiece, its dense production and lyrical
intensity a landmark in music history.
The s
Replace-
ments
Let It Be/1984
.tire
The Replacements,
when they hit their
stride, were the classic
American post-punk
band. Their combination of sloppiness, heart and
balls-out punk bravado is best documented on Let
It Be, which moves from delicate confessionals
("Unsatisfied") to crude in-jokes ("Gary's Got a
Boner") with the kind of woozy grace you can only
find in the hardest-drinking band it show business.
The Mats (as they came to be known) never fully
broke out of their underground status, which some-
how makes them all the more legendary. Watch for
frontman Paul Westerberg to gro into a dignified
elder statesman of rock.
Camper Van
Beethoven
Key Lime Pie/1990
Vigin
i
Seemingly the band .
for which the term "col-
lege radio darling" was
created, Camper Van
Beeithoven released a
series of critically praised, commercially ignored
albums in the mid-to-late '80s. Camper best reflect the
early spirit of nonformat college radio, gyrating wildly
from countrified rave-ups to Middle Eastern music to
garage-punk to psychedelia to ska - often within a
single song. Key Lime Pie is the band's final release - a
darker, calmer record that sounds like a bittersweet
goodbye to the gilded cage of underground music.
Frontman David Lowery would go on to form the sig-
nificantly more straightforward band Cracker.
5. That Dog, Totally Crushed Out, DGC
6. Six Finger Satellite, Severe Exposure, Sub Pop
7. Palace Music, ;iva Last Blues, Palace/Drag City
8. Kids Soundtrack, VariousArtists, London
9. Dambuilders, Ruby Red, EastWest
10. Eve's Plum, CherryAlive, Sony 55
Chart based solely on college radio airplay. Contributing
radio stations: KTRU, Rice U., Texas; KRNU, U. of
Nebraska; KUCB, U. of Colorado, Boulder; KUOM, U. of
Minnesota; KWVA, U. of Oregon; WCBN, U. of Michi-
gan; WFAL, Bouting Green State U., Ohio WUTK, U. of
Tennessee, Knsoxvilte, ansd WWVU, WestVirginia U.
The U.RadioChartis sponsored by
VIRAC[
ORGAN IC CARE2
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