The End Of Side A = The End Of An Era
Next to "nineties" in the dictionary, there's a picture of that dude in the brown.
What ever happened to Toad The Wet Sprocket? You know, the “All I Want” band from the ’90s?
…No? “Walk On The Ocean”? Not ringing a bell?
I’d forgotten I even owned that album until iTunes DJ unearthed it earlier today, and then I realized that I knew every word, even of the songs I didn’t care for — because we listened to the whole album back then. Well, I did, anyway, because my dorm-room system didn’t have a remote. Just for the hell of it, I listened to the whole album again.
It really hasn’t aged well. Even the band’s name is symptomatic of that time, how it tries too hard for the accidental wisdom of a randomized stoner handful of unrelated words. (I seem to recall from 120 Minutes that there is a story behind that band name, but I don’t recall the story itself.) And the one thing it does really well is completely irrelevant now, to wit: the two-minutes-or-less song you use to plug the end of Side A of a mix tape.
“Nightingale Song” off the Fear album is great for that — it’s peppy, so it can transition between “up” songs, but it’s plaintive too, so it can transition into “down” songs. It made a great bridge between, say, Belly on Side A and a risky but crucial Cure track on Side B. I put it on just about every mix tape I made in college — when said mix tape’s theme didn’t call for “Please Please Please (Let Me Get What I Want),” that is, or for the all-time champion of Side-A short-ends songs, “Particle Man” by They Might Be Giants. (Or The Sundays’ “Noise” if I really wanted to show off, and I nearly always did.)
The Smiths and TMBG survived, of course; Toad The Wet, not so much. I wonder how many other bands, not destined for particular longevity, touring frantically behind another single entirely, live on that way in the memories of mix-tape alchemists, thanks to a 90-second track that thousands of us crammed onto Sides A to fill space.
Which songs did you wedge into that last awkward bit of Side A? Or do you not even know what the old lady is gassing on about right now?
Tags: Gay Nineties music The Smiths The Sundays They Might Be Giants Toad The Wet Sprocket
Oh, Side A. God, I can’t even remember now, which is sad. Once I replaced my old minivan with its cassette deck, I didn’t have anything that played cassette tapes. Sigh.
I still love Fear because I think it’s got an edge to it. All the songs sound all low-key but the lyrics can be downright creepy.
The band name, if I remember correctly, is from a Monty Python sketch.
“My World” by Guns n’Roses was a fave. It’s a 90-second growly rap off one of the Use your Illusions discs. Fit nicely on the end of either side of a mix tape.
The name is from a Monty Python sketch that discussed silly band names, like “Toad the Wet Sprocket.”
This in no way relates to the question, but I’ve had “Birdhouse In Your Soul” in my head since I woke up at 6 a.m., and you are NOT helping.
I don’t know which album it was off, but for some reason the rock music channel at my gym winds up playing “Fall Down” at least once a week – and that’s just in the time that I’m actually AT the gym.
By the way, speaking of “Please, Please, Please….”, Give a listen to the recent cover version done by She and Him(Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward’s collaboration). It’s pretty impressive.
The only think I remember about Toad the Wet Sprocket is my two brothers having endless arguments about whether they or Eve 6 were better, which seemed pointless to me at the time, and is now my favorite story about how ridiculous their sibling rivalry got when they hit puberty.
“Next to “nineties” in the dictionary, there’s a picture of that dude in the brown.”
Hahahahaha….change the gender and I think that’s what I looked like in the early nineties. – facial hair + fedora & over large man’s coat from thrift store = me in 1992
My husband was a big TTWS fan and I was never into them. Of course you put Walk on the Ocean right there and now I can’t get it out of my head. I had no idea that I even knew the words to that song.
I remember when the CD of Full Moon Fever came out and it had that track in the middle where Tom says “hey this is where the LP/tape people have to turn it over”. hee.
I still put Particle Man in my iTunes mixes to pad them out! :)
@tulip: I remember that. I think he does it on the cassette too, actually, because that’s the version of the “album” I had first.
…Shit, now I have “Zombie Zoo” stuck in my head.
In highschool, my friend Matt Bailer me a REALLY good mixtape. I mean Neneh Cherry into, gosh, I don’t even know what. But that was a darn good mixtape. Well, we’re all grown up now and Facebook lets us reconnect with old friends. You know what? Now Matt Bailer is a kickass DJ in DC who spins an awesome show. You know what he calls this show? “MIXTAPE”! Ah, the memories.
Oh, gosh, but “Windmills” can still break this girl’s heart. The answer, like you, though, was always “Please, Please…”
Not to sound like too much of an old fogey – but Toad are alive and well – and sounding way better than ever these days! I saw them at a great smaller show in Santa Barbara early this year and their voices and tones are actually better now!
Why, why, why – when I was making mixed tapes – did I not know of this phenomenon? I would just chart out the time of each of the tracks and hope for the best.
@tulip – my husband and his roommate were big TtWS fans, too. They even played ‘Nanci’ at an open mic night. That track and ‘Walk On the Ocean’ come up occasionally when his ipod is on random during long car trips and he waxes nostalgic. Ah, the 90s.
“Next to “nineties” in the dictionary, there’s a picture of that dude in the brown.”
I recently found a box of old pictures at my Mom’s house, and it includes the rogue’s gallery of college boyfriends – all of whom pretty much are that dude in brown, right down to the glasses frames. Yikes.
@Ellen: It’s tohhh-tally the glasses frames. And I can’t see them in the photo, but if he’s NOT wearing pale Levi 550s, I’ll eat my hat.
A few months ago my car was broken into in the parking lot in front of my building. They smashed in the passenger side window, stole my iPod charger, my CLUB (sitting on the floor) and possibly my ice scraper as I can’t seem to find it. What they did leave on the passenger seat in a pile of safety class was the collection of late ’90s mix tapes from the armrest storage well that have been languishing since I got my first iPod about 6 years ago. I was appalled that they would leave such treasure behind! My colleagues speculate that the vandals/thieves were too young to even know what a mix tape was. . . Kids today have no sense of culture!
“I’ll eat my hat”
That you totally wore in the nineties, buduhbump.
;)
Oh my, TTWS is still one of my favorite bands. I saw the picture and got all excited. They are indeed alive and well, and when not playing together, Glen is off having a solo career and collaborating with all kinds of people, and Todd and Dean have their own band, Lapdog, which Randy occasionally joins on drums. Butterflies (on Fear) and All in All (on In Light Syrup) are two of my all-time favorite songs. If you can find it, they have a fantastic parody of Smells Like Teen Spirit called Smells Like Teenage Mutual Ninja Turtles (down in the sewers, there’s radioactivity and ninja turtles . . .) which is short and funny and a great “end of Side A” song. And now I must go listen to all my Toad cds on shuffle.
I have a recording with that Monty Python sketch!
I am going to embarrass myself, but my all-time favorite side break is from The Carpenters – they have a little ditty that says ” We’ll be right back – after we go to the bathroom.”. Always cracked me up.
… I’ll just show myself out, now …
“That you totally wore in the nineties, buduhbump”
I owned a bucket cap that was worn as a bucket cap for most of the nineties, but or a brief period, I flipped the front up and pinned a giant fake gerbera daisy on it, a là Blossom.
Damn you, @Dsayko! …I really wanted to be “first”. Still not cool enough for the internets.
But yes, Glen Phillips has been touring solo for years now, and he puts on a great show, full of witty banter and good tunes. He maybe does one Toad song a set, but it’s mostly his *newer* work. I try to see him whenever he comes to SF… and GREAT covers, from Randy Newman to songs from Ringo Starr’s “The Point”.
And he’s also my boyfriend. Don’t tell my husband.
“The Exploding Boy” by The Cure. It was on the B-side of the mid-80’s single compilation (Standing on a Beach) and it’s about 2 minutes long, so it was perfect for that last tune.
I recently unearthed a mixtape given to me a A Boy in 1992. It’s amazing and holds up well. Just yesterday I succeeded in tracking down the one song I could never find digitally and now I can re-create it! Whee!
Not quite so 90’s, but when I was mixing tapes back then, I always padded with the Beatles’ “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road.” Short, sweet, a little naughty, and Ringo.
I was a big TTWS fan, as well … haven’t dug them out in a while but will have a “Walk on the Ocean” earworm today, thank you. But if I go get TMBG right now, maybe I can stave it off!
Barenaked Ladies, anyone? Cowboy Coffee?
Also, @Sandy, I had that hat, too. Mine was blue. Sunflower and all. Many pics to prove it.
*shame*
Ah, mix tapes. I made and received my share. I enjoyed coming up with quirky titles for them, too. Every once in awhile I come across one and pop it into my car’s tape player. I also never thought of plugging the end of a side with a short song, I just hoped for the best, too.
Yep, they’re definitely still touring. They were in/will be in New Orleans. A bunch of bands from that era seem to be coming to New Orleans a lot lately. I don’t really understand it.
On the topic of the mixed tape, I never really knew how to use those last few seconds, but a friend of mine once used to record his own words of wisdom in those gaps. He told me one time to flush my sister’s hamster down he toilet.
@Melanie: Damn you.
“…not to put too fine a point on it…”
So, today’s my birthday. Not really such a deal, except this time of year tends to lead me to some introspective reminscing. Add Patrick Swayze’s recent passing (I saw “Dirty Dancing” on my 16th birthday), and I suspect that I’m in for a doozy.
I am *so* getting out some mixed tapes later today, and playing them.
My husband kinda looks like the guy in brown. Now. Except he has square glasses.
“if he’s NOT wearing pale Levi 550s”….which my lovely husband still does.
As for Toad, I saw them at the TLA on South Street in Philly before they ripped out the seats. Good show, with the most polite crowd I have ever seen. I like the album Pale better than Fear, and I still have a thing for “Corporal Brown”: nice and strummy-sounding, chronicling a horrible story.
And for that little short thing you needed to fill out Side A, nothing beats “Waitress in the Sky” by The Replacements.
1) @Nichole, I love that Matt Bailer is now doing a DJ stint he calls MIXTAPE, he’s also doing one called “The Peach Pit” after everyone’s favorite 90’s hangout from 90210 :)
2) Girlfriend in a Coma was my go to side a endsong, because you could cut off some of the beginning and no one would really notice. You could shoehorn that bad boy in anywhere… also I just love the song.
To the original question: “Star”, by Belly, was my “go to” for that.
I now totally have Big Head Todd and the Monsters stuck in my head. Doh!
For a last-song-Side-A-song: ‘Pretty Little Ditty’ by the Chili Peppers, off the ‘Mothers Milk’ album. It was an instrumental and just on a minute long, so it fit perfectly into those awkward pauses without mucking up themes or rhythms or anything else. Tragically, this song was used as the hook for that GOD-AWFUL Crazytown song ‘Butterfly’, which is where most people would recognise it from. Ruined, is what. Ruined.
Later on in life I’d start Sides B with ‘Contractual Obligation’ by Noise Addict, and I still use this on CDs because it’s used on the ‘Meet the Real You’ CD to mark the division between what would have been Side A and Side B.
@SarahDButning – you are sooooo right about the glasses, and the Levis 550’s. Heck, my glasses from that era are frighteningly similar to those. Excuse me while I go put some Tenax hair gel in my haircut that looked exactly like the blonde woman from The Human League…
As for my “End of Side A”, it was usually “Wednesday Week” by the Undertones, “Return of the Los Palmas 7” by Madness, or The Jam’s cover of the “Batman” theme song. They were all right around 2 minutes long and filled in that little bit of leftover space.
Ahhh, mixed tapes. So much of my spare cash was eaten buying blank tapes by the box.
I was more like @Sarah in Ottawa and charted my song lengths before hitting record, but if I needed to shoehorn a song in, my favourite filler was “Dad, I’m in Jail” by Was/Not Was. Funny piece, about a minute long, and and instant mental flip to the part of “Pump up the Volume” where Christian Slater & Samantha Mathis were careening around town in a jeep while being pursued by FCC trucks. Cinema verite at its best.
I didn’t have any short songs to put at the end of Side A, so I’d tape over the previous song and add a long one instead. Usually “Party at Ground Zero” by Fishbone. I’m so going to bust out my old tapes today!
TV theme songs or bits from “Mad About Cartoons” (college bf had an extensive CD collection). Or maybe TMBG’s “Minimum Wage”.
One out of state friend ALWAYS fell went to bed and fell asleep to mix tapes, so I made a nice mellow one that wound down and faded out…then tucked the Smurfs theme into the last 30 seconds. The 2am phone call from him, yelling about nearly breaking his foot leaping across his (always messy) room to silence “the COMMUNIST SONG” was priceless. (Yeah, the Smurfs were communists, always working together for the common good…)
I don’t have any mix tapes left, alas. But my iTunes playlists are full of 90s stuff like Tasmin Archer’s “Sleeping Satellites” and Cake and Chris Isaak, plus Concrete Blonde, Rob Dougan and the Sundays. My husband just rolls his eyes, but my kids are becoming experts on vintage music.
“Vintage”. .
@Heather C:
My husband still wears those, too! (Fortunately, they’re getting harder to find–I finally got him to buy a pair of dark jeans that don’t look like they’re left over from the grunge days.)
::obligatory moment of silence for the old TLA:: It’s just not the same since Livenation took over…
My wedge-at-the-end-of-the-side songs were usually by Guided By Voices. They have some short-ass songs. Also there was some super-short Frente song I used a fair bit, as well as Please, Please, Please. I’m wracking my brain to come up with others; I know there were some TMBG songs in there (Nightgown of the Sullen Moon is fairly short, if I recall).
Ohhhh, the mix tape. My go-to squeeze in song was Presidents of the United States of America’s “We’re Not Gonna Make It” off of their self-titled debut album. Goofy as hell, but fun. I did switch to mix CDs in college, which were a hell of a lot easier to make, and you still had to squish songs in at the end.
And yes, my best friend and I were monster TTWS fans in high school. I still get a litte wistful when some of their songs come on, especially since I hated “Fear” the first time I heard it, and drawered it for six months before dragging it back out again and loving it.
“Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others” did me a few solids at the end of Side A back in the day, especially since it fades in and out so abruptly. Liz Phair’s “California” had a similar effect, and it’s hardly ever a bad idea to end a mix with Liz Phair telling a dirty joke.
Oh, the mix tape, how I remember you. I was actually anal enough to time every song so I could plan out each side to within 30 seconds. But those short songs were definitely useful. Still are, when I’ve got a 77 minute playlist I want to burn.
Hearing that they took their name from a Monty Python sketch, rather than sitting around trying to come up with something oh-so nonsensical and hip.
I’m…pretty sure we all did that.
@sly: I didn’t!
I did have overalls, though. More than one pair. I was Ohhhhhhndrea Zuckerman.
Our arty college mix tape fad in the late 80’s was to just start something up and let it get cut off to fill the ends – OR to splice the tape to end after the last song on side A (yep, theater geeks.)
The cutoff stuff could be an instrumental, or something wacky – never something that truly fit the theme or that the other person would really want to hear in its entirety. I used “Hanging Tough” once, and something by MC Hammer another time, and snippets of Entertainment Tonight (recorded straight off the TV with the boombox mike) at one point. My roommate was very fond of using musical theater stuff for the purpose. Our more pretentious friends recorded the sound of the record needle circling in the inside groove…
…that is, when we all weren’t using the more musique concrete-y bits from later Beatles albums. 1989 was just like that.
I will say that much more important to me than the end of side A was the first song on side B, and that XTC’s “Across this Antheap” is my favorite thing to use there.
Anyway, I just turned 40 (the last one of my immediate circle to do so this year) and have been reminiscing a lot about mix tapes, and all of the stuff we used to do – painstaking cuing, messing around with hi-speed dubbing to get both slowed-down and sped-up vocals, switching between recording off LP, tape, and CD, and all sorts of dorm room jam sessions and impromptu script readings to get content for the tapes. These days, the most complicated thing anyone does is transfer stuff from cassette to mp3.
Sigh.
Does anyone else have all the cassettes they made of their vinyl, PLUS all the cassettes they made of their first 50 or so CDs? You know, to take along to play in the car, and also to college, because there was no room for a full-sized stereo and that was the only way to have a turntable, and you didn’t get an actual CD player until you already owned 10 CDs? Just me? OK.
My iPod died on me the other day in the car so I opened the console and grabbed the first mixed tape I touched. The first two songs weren’t much of a surprise (the Goo Goo Dolls’ ‘Long Way Down’ and Bush’s ‘Glycerine’) then all of a sudden I heard the opening chords of ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ by Deep Blue Something. I had completely forgotten I ever listened to/liked that song but damn it if I didn’t remember every single word. I have since been debating adding it to my ‘90s iPod playlist for nostalgic reasons.
As for the ending of Side A, I usually worked out the timing of each song, sorted and re-sorted the order, and did the math so it would end at exactly 30 minutes. Consequently making a mixed tape took hours/days/weeks to perfect—it was definitely an art. Nowadays it’s almost too easy with an iPod—unless I really care about it, I usually just sort the songs first by number of stars and then alphabetically. I’ve gotten lazy.
My favorites: “Mercedes Benz” by Janis Joplin (1:46) and “Penny for your Thoughts,” (1:21) a folky little instrumental on “Frampton Comes Alive,” if you can believe that.
Holy cow, I have a box full of old mixtapes that I want to dredge out of the closet now. I always used TMBG’s “Spider” as an opener, and was also a diligent timer of songs.
Also (possibly of interest given the mixtape love here), there’s a book by Rolling Stone contributor Rob Sheffield (“Love is a Mixtape”). http://tinyurl.com/yh8bbnh