Following the fuss over the recent Radiohead "Best of", and then rather lesser-known band Luxtwanting to effectively revise history by re-recording their older material with their new singer to create a career overview, it's time to appraise the idea of the "Best of" compilation. The "Best of" is used for a number of reasons - either as a way of completing a band's obligation to a record label, as a way of introducing new fans to a band, as simply a cynical money-making tactic...but really, there are loads of reasons. And for me, more than anything, the "Best Of" is dead useful for DJs as if done properly they may mean that I don't need to carry six albums by a band - just the "Best Of" will do! So let's look at the good, the bad and the ugly...
An old one now, this - now ten years old, it was for me an ideal introduction to an artist's work that by that point was already nine or ten albums and fifteen years in. It's a marvellous collection, too - although not in chronological order, it flows well and includes pretty much everything that should be there (my only quibble being the omission of Stagger Lee). In fact, pretty much an ideal "Best Of".
Another ideal "Best Of" was this great career retrospective of one of the top electronic/techno acts of the nineties. By the point this album was released, Underworld's career was perhaps on the wane - their biggest moments behind them, this was probably the best moment to release this. And they didn't skimp on content, either - a 2CD monster with sixteen tracks that covered everything possible to that date, a useful reminder that there was always more to Underworld than just Born Slippy.NUXX.
Also worth picking up - in particular for the staggering version of Cowgirl that closes it - is the live "Best Of" Everything Everything from 2000, which arguably is a better and snappier selection...
Another that really didn't skimp on content was this, which came in as a lavish 2CD set - one of the original tracks, the second CD full of remixes, in a hardback book-like case. Including a full history of the band too, as well as a wealth of photos and information, it was nice to see this fascinating band get a decent "Best Of" treatment.
Arguably the greatest hip-hop band of all, this release was long-overdue when it eventually arrived, and also arguably has helped their critical renaissance a little recently, which has culminated in the "Don't Look Back" tour, playing all of It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back in it's entirety. While some of the later material on this album is, er, not so good, perhaps, the first eleven tracks or so on this are utterly, utterly essential.
I was never entirely sure why this existed. While a useful singles compilation, it was missing a number of tracks and was almost totally devoid of information, suggesting perhaps that the band didn't have much of a hand in it. It is made perhaps more redundant now by the fact that it was the one album ignored in the recent process of remastering and re-releasing the backcatalogue, meaning that it sounds rather flat comparing to the glittering re-issues, and in addition to that the six albums since mean it is also really rather out of date.
Talking of revisionism, this was perhaps the ultimate example in a while. Rather than simply issuing a CD covering their thirty-year history as one of the pioneers in industrial music, the newly-reconvened band took the decision to re-record all of the tracks to appear on the retrospective - with startling results. All of the tracks sounded fresh and new, belying their age. And the accompanying tour was just as good, too...
One that reeked of "cash-in" once the band announced their split (and have since "reformed", to mixed reaction) was this collection, which while doing what it said on the tin (basically the singles) was desperately uninteresting in it's track selection - and did the cynical trick of putting two "new" songs on the end and then a second CD of "rarities" to entice people to buy it. Really, if you want to get into the 'Pumpkins, simply buy Gish and Siamese Dream - they are both a far better investment than this.
A band that appear never to have had a problem with taking the piss out of their fans: this is the last release that has featured new material to date. While as a singles collection, this is hard to top, it is hard to argue the point of it when there were only three-albums worth of material to draw from (the earlier material, pre-First and Last and Always, was covered on companion release Some Girls Wander by Mistake) - and the only new stuff was Under the Gun and the umpteenth version of Temple of Love, albeit that the latter has become a goth dancefloor staple, and still is even now. Calling it Volume One was particularly presumptious in hindsight, too...
A trend on a number of "Best Ofs" in recent years has been to include a DVD of videos to accompany the CD, either in a limited edition format or as part of the general release, as an interesting way to try and make the release more attractive to the "fan" as well as the casual buyer (artists to have done this to good effect? In particular I can think of the Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson "Best Ofs" - the latter including a couple of videos that were otherwise banned). So it was a little galling to find that this "Best Of" didn't come with the DVD included, but you had to buy it seperately - for another £20!
One label that has been particularly bad for releasing, re-releasing and generally taking the piss somewhat is Roadrunner Records. A particular example of this was with Type O Negative, where The Least Worst of was a butchered "Best Of", which while including most tracks that should have been there, they were all included in "edited" versions that made the whole exercise pretty much pointless. And then, Roadrunner released The Best Of Type O Negative six years later, after the band had left the label - and didn't really correct any of the faults with Least Worst Of, simply adding later songs that barely come close to the quality of their mid-nineties prime. Again, if you want the real best of Type O, buy Bloody Kisses and October Rust.
A few weeks ago I covered ten of my favourite 80s albums. The 90s were the decade where I seriously got into music, and because of the disparate genres I listen to, there is simply no way that I can narrow this down to ten. So, my favourite albums of the 90s is split into two parts, and the second part will follow next Tuesday.
And it is roughly split by genre, I guess. One part covers metal and industrial, and the other alternative and electro - I'm going to cover the latter this week.
This is, of course, an entirely subjective list. The albums that are/were important to me are probably entirely different to others who read this, and to me that is half the fun of being into music - no-one's tastes are exactly the same. I've deliberately missed out a couple of the more obvious stuff as I've no doubt mentioned them before!
Girls Against Boys House of GVSB
1996
Touch & Go
For a while the darlings of the alt.rock press during the nineties, this was the last album of a period where the band apparently couldn't do any wrong. What they did was slightly unusual - groovy alt.rock with two bassists (one of them being co-producer and a keyboardist, too) - and that perhaps worked against them in that they never quite got the success that they deserved. After this near-perfect album (they flirted with electronic tracks, sampling and attempts at pop, in addition to the usual sleaze-filled rock in eleven tracks stretched over just forty minutes), they moved to a major label, where it went horrendously wrong. The band's last album was six years ago, and it appears unlikely that another will ever come. You should hear:Super Fire, Disco Six Six Six, Vera Cruz
Garbage Garbage
1995
Mushroom
From a band that should have had success but didn't, to a band that got a huge amount of success, arguably, thanks to the work of another. It has been argued for years that were it not for the work of Curve previously, Garbage would never have had a "market". I see that to a point, but the first Garbage album was such a shiny pop gem that it perhaps would have been a success anyway. It had everything - a rock sensibility that somehow worked alongside the endless pop hooks, the Butch Vig production that simply shimmered, probably every track could have been a single, oh, and the outspoken, pretty, lead singer...There have only been three albums since this, with constant rumours of a status of less than harmony between the band that has hampered a number of tours over the years, and while their sound changed and evolved over the years, they have never reached the heights of this album again. You should hear:Vow, Supervixen, Queer
Tricky Maxinquaye
1995
Island
In amongst the boom of "trip-hop" in the mid-90s, in my eyes this remains the pick of the albums from the period. Throwing in influences as diverse as Public Enemy, Michael Jackson, The Smashing Pumpkins and Isaac Hayes (all of whom are sampled, or in the case of the former, covered to thrilling effect), with a number of guest vocalists including an early appearance by Goldfrapp, the album as a whole isn't half as relaxed as you might think: the main themes being paranoia, jealousy and fear... You should hear:Aftermath, Black Steel, Suffocated Love
Underworld Dubnobasswithmyheadman
1993
Junior Boys Own
While they had been active in a number of different guises for nearly a decade before, it took this album to bring Underworld to wider attention. It's not hard to see why: this is a sprawling, trancey-techno album with no end of glorious moments. From the rambling vocals over driving techno of Dark & Long, to the cut'n'paste vocals and euphoric peaks of Cowgirl (Underworld were never better than this track - particularly in it's spectacular live version), it is all brilliant. To many this is an overlooked album, as Born Slippy.NUXX's success subsequently eclipsed it, which is rather unfair, really... You should hear:Cowgirl, Mmm Skyscraper I Love You, Dark & Long
Daft Punk Homework
1997
Virgin
Who knew that two young French guys making house music could be so much fun? While their live shows have now passed into legend of late, it is this album that laid the foundation for all the success that followed. Never taking itself too seriously, it's an album stuffed with fantastic dancefloor tracks and songs that are still on heavy rotation now, thanks to their equally brilliant videos (that'll be Da Funk and Around the World, then). If you don't think house music can be any fun, listen to this and try and tell me that again... You should hear:Da Funk, Revolution 909, Rollin' and Scratchin'
The Verve A Northern Soul
1995
Hut
There isn't a lot of indie albums that in hindsight I would recommend as the best of the period - many from the 90s "Britpop" boom really haven't stood the test of time - but this one has. Something of an epic album - only two of the twelve songs dip below five minutes in length - this was an album Richard Ashcroft maintained would make them stars, although their rampant drug use and intra-band fallouts conspired to end the band afterward for a while after the success never came. Ironically, of course, they reconvened a year or so later and then did become stars with the following album Urban Hymns, before yet more problems dogged them - and they of course reformed again last year. Anyway, this album is awesome - a mix of classic rock and psychedelia, a classic case of "looking up from the gutter at the stars". In addition to rocking tracks like the opening pairing, there is stuff like the staggering, reverb-drenched freak-out of Brainstorm Interlude, and the tear-jerking ballad History (all strings and Ashcroft's voice - and it is heartbreaking, too), which could probably make a statue weep. While Urban Hymns was great, this really is better. You should hear:This Is Music, History, A New Decade
Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
1994
Atlantic/Matador
Otherwise, in my eyes, the best indie was not coming from the UK in the mid-90s. One perfect example were the oh-so-slightly strange Pavement, who would go from being wilfully obscure to wannabe pop stars - often in the same song. This is probably their most straightforward album, where their indie-rock probably had it's broadest appeal, and in the main where they wrote their best album. And a few years after this, they were back in the press when Damon Albarn from Blur started singing their praises. I don't think anyone expected to hear Pavement in the latest Blur album, but that was what happened... You should hear:Cut Your Hair, Gold Soundz, Range Life
Mazzy Star So Tonight That I Might See
1993
Capitol
Mazzy Star seemed to exist in a calm, lazy world of their own for a number of years, releasing albums of gorgeous ballads with a wierd, cryptic feel to almost all of them. This, their second of three albums, was by far the most commercially and critically successful. The album is wonderfully recorded and produced, too - listen to it on headphones and it sounds as if Hope Sandoval is singing to you and you only. You should hear:Fade Into You, Mary of Silence, Unreflected
Six by Seven The Things We Make
1998
Beggars Banquet
By the end of the 90s, there was a new breed of indie band coming through, who had no interest in getting involved in the whole Britpop love-in, and instead were prowling the darker corners of human existence. Enter Six By Seven, who were just one of these bands, who released a taut, intense debut album that was simply dripping with loathing, both of the self and others. Live they were an equally cathartic experience. You should hear:A Beautiful Shape, Spy Song, Something Wild
Nachdem uns die Absage der laufenden Underworld – Tournée in Angst und Schrecken versetzt hat, kommt nun die Entwarnung: Die Termine für die Ersatzkonzerte stehen fest! Die gesundheitliche Krise im Hause Underworld scheint überstanden, die Genesung ist vollbracht und die verpassten Termine werden fleissig nachgeholt. Wenn das nicht ein wahrer Grund zur Freude ist!
Die bereits gekauften Tickets behalten natürlich ihre Gültigkeit. Hoffen wir also ganz fest, dass es den Herren Underworld wirklich wieder besser geht und sie uns noch viele Jahre mit guter Musik versorgen werden!
Electronic music has become part of my life in a big way. since hearing artists like Aphex Twin and Justice, I have begun to collect as much music in the genre as possible, and have been inspired by the beats and synths in these disks to make my own music, (under the name Latent Image), heavily influenced by the electronic genre. No other style of music has had an impact on me this profound… And not only is it what I listen to, Electronic is a lifestyle and a whole scene is associated with it.
It is a shame that electronica has become corrupted and is often lumped in with the genres of pop and hip-hop, and has been associated purely with the image of a metro scenester popping pills in a nightclub. Listening to some of the classics of the genre, I find it hard to believe just how diverse it really is.
Here are some examples of the bands which are the reason that I love the style so much.
I’ll start with the first Electronic band that I ever liked, Aphex Twin. My brother told me about this creepy music video for a song called ‘Come to Daddy’. It sounded pretty interesting, so I watched it on YouTube, and ever since Richard D. James has remained my favourite musician of the last 100 years. I have said before that I think he is the most naturally gifted musician since Ludwig van Beethoven, and I fully believe that.
Listening to one of the classic electronic albums, his debut Selected Ambient Works 85-92, you are carried away on an endless stream of slick beats and laid-back bass lines, from the beautiful openers Xtal and Tha, to the acidic Delphium, the album is a pure classic, and shows how Richard D. James has captured in his debut album the sound that Brian Eno couldn’t in a lifetime.
Another band that brings you into a seemingly endless trance is Underworld. The duo create incredibly catchy hooks purely with a single word repeated over a pounding beat, and the way this is executed makes songs like Cowgirl and the classic Born Slippy.NUXX amazing achievements is any genre.
If Electronica were rock, then Justice would surely be the Sex Pistols… The French duo infuse their huge, loud, beats with splices of distortion so that the synthesizers become the equivalent of an overdriven guitar… I mean, just take a look at their live rig:
And their groovy bass lines in songs like DVNO and Phantom deliver stylized electro the likes of which you have never heard.
Of course, you can’t have rock and electronic comparisons without giving mention to the classic Daft Punk, who, with their seminal album Homework converted a whole generation of kids to the electronic genre, and gave inspiration to thousands to buy a synthesizer and try to replicate some of the amazing sounds, from songs like Da Funk.
One man obviously heavily influenced by them, as well as the punk rock and post grunge of bands like Sonic Youth is James Murphy, owner of record label DFA and lead singer and beat-wizard of LCD Soundsystem. With their infectious and funky grooves, and Murphy’s witty and tongue-in-cheek lyrics, LCD Soundsystem are an addictive and energetic band that have slowly creeped their way to the top of my charts, because I can’t go a day without hearing songs like Get Innocuous!, Daft Punk Is Playing at My House or the brilliant Losing My Edge.
From these rock-influenced electronic acts, I’ll mention the poppier side of things. For more than a decade, the beats that will be blasting out of every clubs speakers in the next year has been decided by the ridiculously anticipated Annual Compilation from Ministry of Sound. The double or triple disk sets contain the best hooks around, and even over the course of a year, you will not grow tired of hits like Armand van Helden's I Want Your Soul.
A band that I had regarded as pop for a long time, but who have recently caught my attention with their debut Felt Mountain are Goldfrapp. The hauntingly beautiful vocals unfolding over the dense and artistic beats on this album are insanely catchy and surprisingly deep and dark.
Of course, as with every genre there are extremes. I’ll refer again to Aphex Twin who after his earlier ambient efforts helped pioneer the genres of breakbeat, idm and techno. His more extreme efforts such as revolutionary Richard D. James Album contain a frenetic energy and warped style that had never been done as effectively before. His newest effort Drukqs is a excellent example of his diversity, with beautiful piano pieces like Avril 14th and songs like Vordhosbn, Mt. Saint Michel Mix+St. Michaels Mount and 54 Cymru Beats are full of wall shaking beats and incredibly technical and layered synths and sound effects.
Another artist in the idm (Intelligent Dance Music) genre are a band I am just recently starting to listen to, Venetian Snares. The haunting strings on the album Rossz Csillag Alatt Született give way to fractured and demented breakbeats delivered with purpose and executed with an amazing sensibility. Songs like the epic Szamár Madár and Kétsarkú Mozgalom showcase both the beauty and the menace in this genre.
Throughout all these styles is a feeling of drive and purpose, and each of these albums and songs are made with passion and originality. electronica is and ever-changing and ever-present genre, and it has changed my life.
I didn't used to be an Underworld fan. Up until a few years ago, they were just "that band with that song on the Trainspotting soundtrack" to me.
Then one night my good friend and musical companion jgd3 played me the downright brilliant Sola Sistim, and I was hooked. Clever, artful electronic music with a sense for both heavy atmosphere and a good pop hook...what's not to love?
So, I was quite looking forward to this show. It bummed me out when it got moved from the legendary Red Rocks to downtown Denver, but, in the end, that didn't really matter. The boys really gave it their all, complete with crazy video and wacky stage props (blow up light tubes? who knew?).
As for the music itself, the old stuff sounded tight and got the crowd absolutely moving (Cowgirl just about lit the place on fire). The new songs, presumably from the forthcoming album, sported a bit of a dark and sinister vibe and were some of my favorite pieces from the night.
Overall, one of my all time favorite electronic music shows. I hope they come back and get to do that Red Rocks show someday.
Наконец-то! Легендарная британская электронная группа Underworld удостоила визитом и Москву. Неравнодушные ждали этого очень много лет и вот – свершилось…
Изначально мероприятие планировалось проводить в Экспоцентре, но потом было принято решение перенести его в некий бизнес-центр «Нагатинский», что мне сразу не понравилось. Мои опасения начали подтверждаться уже когда я подошёл к входу в данное строение, которое сверху донизу пестрило неоновыми рекламами автомобильных салонов, шиномонтажа и магазинов запчастей. Выглядело элементарно тупо. Ладно, я ещё могу понять – какой-нибудь маргинальный заброшенный склад, но это было даже как-то не прикольно.
Отстояв объёмную очередь на вход, и вдоволь насладившись давкой а-ля «метро-в-восемь-утра», я проник на территорию, но узрел там ещё более невероятную очередь, которой я решил пренебречь, пройдя через vip-вход (понятно, что билет у меня был не vip).
Концерт проходил в рамках серии вечеринок MXTronica от Marlboro. Вследствие этого, антураж был соответствующий – всё в красно-белых цветах бренда, какие-то конкурсы, связанные с сигаретами и прочая лабуда. Кроме того, мероприятие имело некую ориентацию на высокие технологии, но кроме огромной сферы-монитора и кучи плазм-панелей, я ничего интересного по этой части не увидел. Ах да, ну и "периметр из диодных экранов", конечно...
Внутри: проглядываются признаки некого недостроенного (заюзанного?) склада, плохо задекорированные бетонные стены, крайне аскетичный гардероб, ряд из биотуалетов (объём очереди возле которых не менялся с течением времени), кресла, диваны, 4 бара, танцпол и 2 vip-балкона по бокам. Всё это в общем-то нормально, но что конкретно не понравилось – отсутствие какого-либо покрытия на полу (пыль во время плясок + выбоины).
Поскольку прибыл я что-то около 24:00, времени до События у меня была гора и я долго сидел на диване, тупил и глушил апельсиновый сок. Заколебался. Музыка до Underworld была абсолютно бездарная, хотя когда я допил второй стакан сока, я увидел на сцене полную афро-американскую мадам, поющую Massive Attack - Safe from Harm. Не понял. Потом был Darren Emerson, даром что частичка Underworld, в роли диджея играл полный порожняк (кстати он сегодня должен выступать вместе с Junkie XL). Послушав его репертуар в течение 2 минут, я понял, что мне лениво ради такого отрывать зад от кресла.
Виновники торжества появились по расписанию, ровно в 1:30. Вот они: Карл, Рик и Даррен (который к ним присоединился по такому случаю). Ничуть не изменились по сравнению со старыми фотографиями, такие же живые и энергичные. С этого момента я забыл обо всём, что меня парило на мероприятии, поскольку думать о подобной суете, когда на сцене эта мега-группа, как-то неуместно даже. С первых минут меня расплющило так, что ого-го. Бешеная энергетика, убойный ритм и массовый общественный позитив. Это просто непередаваемо. Полнейшее погружение в музыку, тело само двигается в такт до боли знакомым мелодиям, и ты всеми порами ощущаешь этот поток чистой энергии, хлещущий со сцены.
Приблизительный трек-лист с комментариями (без порядка):
Mmm... Skyscraper I Love You (публика начинает разогреваться, многие подпевают; я осознаю, что вот оно - началось) Dark and Long (Dark Train mix) (этого трека я ждал почему-то больше всего; когда вступили клавишные в сочетании со вспышками ламп в такт к ним (смотрите видео), по спине побежали мурашки; у меня с этим треком связаны несколько сильных событий в жизни, которые тут же пронеслись перед глазами; такого сильного флэшбека я ещё ни разу не испытывал; экстаз) Juanita / Kiteless / To Dream (хороший трек, но вживую не так круто, однако всё же - классика жанра) Rez(мощный напор звукового течения, бесподобно) King of Snake (динамично, ярко, сбалансировано; шедевральный трек) Cowgirl(для меня, пожалуй, второе по значимости место в концерте; трек оказался довольно мясным, аудитория расшевелилась не на шутку) Two Months Off (единственный трек, который не смог меня тронуть, как я ни напрягался – слишком флегматично, не хватает резкости) Born Slippy.NUXX (апофеоз концерта, слов нет, я чуть не расплакался когда услышал эти звуки) Pearls Girl (один из мощнейших битов, на мой взгляд, да и вообще, боевой такой трек; я всю песню пел, люди косились недоумевающее)
Encore: Moaner (никогда бы не подумал, что этот трек так заводит вживую; не побоюсь сказать, что меня ещё ни от одного трека на концертах не распирало до такой степени; я просто летал где-то там ^, в то время как тело отплясывало нечто невообразимое) Jumbo (трек хорошего настроения; когда рыбак произнёс «буку фиш», я вспомнил что у меня в кармане обложка одноимённого альбома, которую бы здорово было подписать, однако не сложилось)
Кроме того, было ещё порядком новых треков, один очень понравился. Надо бы обзавестись записью. Карл отплясывал в свои 49 так, что многие позавидуют и вообще выглядел очень бодро. Рик почти всё время стоит, уткнувшись в пульт, как и Дарен впрочем. На заднем плане песни сопровождает некий видеоряд, который, впрочем, впечатлил меня значительно меньше оного у Coldcut. В основном это были какие-то малопонятные абстрактные образы или визуализации. Запомнился видеоряд только на Born Slippy.NUXX и Pearls Girl: он был составлен из быстро сменявшихся атмосферных фотографий, снятых в жанре ломографии (известно, что Underworld - большие любители ломографии, недавно был выпущен альбом с 10000 снимков в этом жанре, которые Карл сделал на свой мобильник). Присутствует та же фишка с камерой, которая вживую всё показывает. Освещение вполне достойное, много движущихся стробоскопов, хотя до уровня Продигов всё же не дотягивает. Кроме того, применялся лазер, эффект от которого меня впечатлил значительно больше. Смотрелось убийственно в некоторые моменты, респект за это светорежиссёру. Кстати о светорежиссёрах. Карл весь концерт, как угорелый носится по сцене то туда, то сюда, то под стойки залезет, то за кулисы куда-то свалит. Ну так вот: всё это время за ним бегает специальный чел с нехилым прожектором в руках и подсвечивает снизу героя. Выглядит очень забавно. Кстати, на некоторых треках Карл брал в руки гитару и, наверное, что-то там играл (я не расслышал). По залу долгое время летали огромные надувные шары, которые все с радостью отбивали то друг другу, то Карлу на сцену.
Длилось всё это безумие 3 часа, в силу того, что большинство треков игрались в эдакой даб-обработке и шли минут по 10. Однако смею заверить, что это нисколько не надоедало, а напротив, весьма радовало. И при этом концерт не убивает тебя в хлам, в отличие от тех же The Prodigy, после которых ты выползаешь из зала и падаешь на газон.
Где-то в полпятого прозвучал последний аккорд, музыканты попрощались с москвичами и поблагодарили всех за терпение в ожидании их приезда. Очень хотелось бы, чтоб они приехали ещё раз…
Автографом обзавестись я не сумел и после концерта в силу уродской конструкции здания. Просто не смог нормально подойти к чёрному ходу, так как он был во внутреннем дворе. Проводил глазами их чёрный минивэн, выезжавший на прилегающую территорию и двинул к метро покупать персиковый сок и ждать 5:30. А жаль, хотелось подписать Буку Фиш то…
Но это уже опциональный элемент, суть далеко не в этом. А суть в том, что это реально был один из лучших концертов, которые я посетил. Далеко не везде получается в такой мере насладиться музыкой (будь она даже любимой) и это зависит от очень многих факторов. Здесь, видимо, звёзды встали удачно. Я просто в восторге и очень хотел бы увидеть Underworld ещё раз.
Yesterday I was @ Litexpo Underworld.
I did not expect such a lot of people. Maybe because of that there was a big row at the entrance. It was hard to get inside.
I expected a little better concert, but I saw a lot of happy faces around me :)
Songs performed: Cowgirl, Born Slippy, Jumbo and more...
1996... That was quite a year. Lots of things (some good, others very bad) happened. Bill Clinton was re-elected, The Onion (which I don't think I've ever read) made it's debut, Sublime's legendary posthumous self-titled album (not their best, but still good) was released, Ramones played their last show ever during that year's Lollapalooza, 2Pac was killed, An unknown 6 year old named JonBenet Ramsey was murdered and became a big news story (that poor kid! It's so sad she had to die so young.), Duke Nukem 3D was unleashed on the world, my 10th birthday occured, and I don't remember what happened on it, Mr. Big relased their timeless masterpiece:&
This Is the World We Live In
