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 Grads, get your $400 certificate and program information. Return the postage-paid reply card enclosed in this publication or call: L:-7 CHEVROLET. CHEVY TRUCKS mc Geo GMAC FINANCIAL sERVICES 18 U. Magaszine * December 1995 See your participating Chevrolet/Geo Dealer for details.