ALBOE.3

Time for another installment of “can’t make up my mind.” Seventeen tracks representing 48 years of music (1968-2016), and a wide range of genres: rock, electronic, dance, Reggae, and alt/punk. But first, a little info on a few of the featured artists.

Barenaked Ladies (BNL) are a Canadian band that formed back in 1988. Hailing from the Toronto suburb, Scarborough, Ontario, they began as a duo of singer-guitarists Ed Robertson and Steben Page, but grew to a quintet by 1990, adding brothers Jim and Andy Creegan on bass and keyboards/congas, respectively, and drummer Tyler Stewart. They released a self-titled cassette (remember those?), which became the first independent release to be certified gold in Canada. They signed with Reprise Records and released their debut album, Gordon, in 1992, with singles including “If I had $1000000” and “Brian Wilson.” Their popularity soon spread to the U.S with versions of “Brian Wilson” and “The Old Apartments” from their 1996 live album, Rock Spectacle, followed by their 1998 fourth studio album, Stunt. The band is also known for creating and performing the theme song of the American sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. Their style has evolved over the years, and their music (originally acoustic) grew to encompass a mixture of pop, rock, and folk. The band has continued to regularly tour and record new music, having released 14 primary studio albums of original material and three themed studio albums. The featured song, “Hello City,” is from their debut album.

Beanfield is a trio of German musician/producers allied with the groove label, Compost Recordings. The group evolved among a generation of dance acts like Faze Action, Filla Brazillia, and A Forest Mighty Black (the latter act are close friends of the trio) and balance their status in the electronic community by producing amazing organic sounds, inspired by earthy ‘70s sounds from funk to Latin and Brazilian jazz to disco. The trio formed around keyboard player Tobias Meggle and bassist Jan Krause (formerly with the acid jazz unit, Poets of Rhythm), along with Compost label boss, Michael Reinboth. After releasing several singles (1995-96), they released their self-titled debut album in 1997. My featured track is “Keep on Believing” from that debut album and is representative of a good deal of electronic music of that era.

Cake is an American rock band from Sacramento, California, consisting of singer John McCrea, trumpeter Vince DiFore, guitarist Xan McCurdy, bassist Daniel McCallum, and drummer Todd Roper. They formed in 1991 and quickly became know for McCrea’s droll, sarcastic lyrics and deadpan vocals, along with their wide-ranging musical influences, including norteño (Mexican folk ensemble), country music, mariachi, disco, rock, funk, folk music, and hip hop. There is “wide-ranging,” then there is this list.  After some personnel changes, they self-released their first studio album, Motorcade of Generosity, in 1994. Given their influences stated above, it should come as no surprise that the album’s genre list includes Alternative Rock, Lo-fi, Alternative country, and experimental rock. In other words, good luck trying to find the album in a traditional record store! After a few albums with Capricorn Records, they signed with Columbia Records, releasing their first album with that label, Comfort Eagle, which featured the single, “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” (the ninth song on this playlist), which hit number 7 on the Modern Rock Tracks. They have not released any new music since 2011 but continue to tour. If you happen to be in San Francisco on September 13, 2025, you can catch them at the Sound Summit Festival, Mt. Tamalpais, Mill Valley, CA.

Cassius was a French musical duo active from 1998 to 2019, consisting of producers Philippe Zdar (Philippe Cerboneschi, 1967) and Hubert Boombass (Hubert Blanc-Francard, 1967-2019). Under its different incarnations, the duo is linked to “French touch,” which is a subgenre of French electronic house music that emerged in the 1990s, characterized by its use of disco and funk samples, funky basslines, and heavy filter and phaser effects on vocals. They released nine albums between 1999 and 2019, and my featured track, “I Am Woman,” is from their 2002 release, Au Rêve. I have somewhat of a soft-spot for this duo, as when I first started dabbling and getting interested in the electronic music scene around the early 2000s, this is one of the first albums I listened to, and I was immediately hooked.

Enjoy the music!

Los Angeles 2025