Music Collection #1: 200 Cigarettes, 10,000 Maniacs, Ace of Base

Artist: N/A
Album: 200 Cigarettes Soundtrack
Favorite Song: Cruel to be Kind by Nick Lowe
Origin: Amoeba Music, San Francisco

Annie owned this movie, and I finally agreed to watch it with her one time. It was a lot better than I thought. Not high cinema, but an entertaining look back at the early 80's, complete with the requisite New Wave soundtrack. I found the album for $6.95 (the price tag is still on the case) in the used bin and picked it up. I think this was shortly after we had consolidated our music collection, and I was at Amoeba selling my duplicates (Annie, of course, would not part with her copies, even when mine were in better shape).

The album itself is something of a mixed bag. It's got some awesome early 80's rock - the aforementioned Cruel to be Kind, Elvis Costello's (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding, The Cars Just What I Needed - as well as some passable covers, such as The English Beat's Save It For Later by Harvey Danger. There's also some real crap, such as Bow Wow Wow's I Want Candy and an unbelievably awful medley of Blondie tunes (a medley, wtf!).

The only time I really remember listening to this all the way through was just after we bought our house, and we were painting the living room. I was scraping old paint off the ceiling, and we were alternately listening to fun albums and Bob Uecker's radio broadcasts of the Brewers. Otherwise, I put the 8 or so good songs from the album on my computer at work, and so I hear them on the randomizer now and then.

Artist: 10,000 Maniacs
Album: Our Time in Eden
Favorite Song: N/A
Origin: Unknown

This CD is something of Annie's and so I've never listened to it. A couple of these songs are relatively well-known - These are Days and Candy Everybody Wants (which is sort of a dirty-sounding title, if you think about it). And I've heard a live version of Jezebel. Otherwise, none of these songs sound remotely familiar.

Artist: 10,000 Maniacs
Album: Few & Far Between Single
Favorite Song: N/A
Origin: Streetlight Records, Santa Cruz, CA

I believe that Annie got this as part of a buy 3 get 1 free deal from Streetlight's singles bin. Apparently it was $3.95. The a-side is from the aforementioned Our Time in Eden album (boy, that's a really pretentious title, now that I think about it). Two of the b-sides are from the MTV Inaugural Ball from 1993 - back when mixing music and politics was still considered cool.

Michael Stipe provides guest vocals on both of the Inaugural Ball tracks. Which brings to mind the real reason that these 10,000 Maniacs albums are in our collection - they're one of those artists with an R.E.M. connection - Grant Lee Phillips, Husker Du, Pylon, etc. - that, if you're a big enough R.E.M. fan, you feel compelled to own and, if not exactly enjoy, at least know something about. Man, the 10,000 Maniacs probably owe a few hundred thousand dollars worth of royalties to the fact that Natalie Merchant dated Michael Stipe for a while (or at least spent time together being artsy-fartsy).

Artist: 10,000 Maniacs
Album: MTV Unplugged
Favorite Song: Because the Night
Origin: Streetlight Records, Santa Cruz, CA

This one I actually bought myself (see above for R.E.M.-related explanation), and even enjoyed, although this copy is Annie's (see above for explanation of how all of my duplicates ended up at Amoeba). This is one of those albums that I listened to quite a lot for a while, especially Because the Night (Patti Smith cover) and Jezebel. Tracks from this probably even ended up on mixtapes that I made. But at some point, I just stopped listening to it. I honestly don't think I've heard it since I graduated from Santa Cruz in 2001 (omigod, I graduated from college 5 years ago).

Artist: Ace of Base
Album: The Sign
Favorite Song: None
Origin: Known only to God

This is the kind of album that emphasizes rule #3 - every album must be blogged. No exceptions. Only Annie can possibly explain why she owns this. I, however, am reminded of that horrible months-long period in 9th grade when the title track from this album ruled the airwaves and introduced Middle America to the ankh. Ah, memories.