2.17.2008

'80s Junket of the Week

Check it out... one of the intro clips for MTV's seminal alternative music program 120 Minutes.


I LOVED this show. Truly, madly, deeply. It featured the music that I was either listening to or, thanks to the show itself, music I was about to listen to. I can remember coming home from wherever and watching whatever was left of the show that night, postponing sleep until I had my music video fix. I also just discovered, in one of my insomniac moments, that VH1 Classic is running a version of 120 Minutes in the overnight on the weekends. Caught The Pixies and The Waterboys in the wee small hours of this morning. Awesome.

Anyway... back in the day, it didn't hurt that I had a thing for the smirking, smart-ass, late '80s host, Kevin Seal. Watch this clip. No wonder I wanted to marry him and have adorable, snarky, dark-haired children together...



Found this site which has a remarkably comprehensive set of playlists from the show's fairly lengthy history.

Here's the list from January 29, 1989 -- which featured one Kevin Seal as host.

The Pogues - "Yeah Yeah Yeah"
New Order - "True Faith"
Julian Cope - "World Shut Your Mouth"
Lou Reed - "Dirty Blvd."
Camper Van Beethoven - "Good Guys And Bad Guys"
The Replacements - "I'll Be You"
The Feelies - "Away"
Special AKA - "Free Nelson Mandela"
The Saints - "Grain Of Sand"
X-Ray segment - Cowboy Junkies with interview of Margo Timmons
Cowboy Junkies - "Sweet Jane"
Violent Femmes - "Nightmares"
Nitzer Ebb - "Control I'm Here"
The Pursuit Of Happiness - "Hard To Laugh"
Midge Ure - "Dear God"
The Smiths - "The Boy With A Thorn In His Side"
Ciccone Youth - "Addicted To Love"
Sonic Youth - "Teenage Riot"
The Lilac Time - "Return To Yesterday"
They Might Be Giants - "They'll Need A Crane"
Lime Spiders - "The Other Side Of You"
Echo & The Bunnymen - "Bedbugs And Ballyhoo"
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - "The Mercy Seat"
R.E.M. - "Stand"
A-House - "Call Me Blue"

Wow. Stuff on there I still listen to regularly and stuff I haven't thought about in years. Might be time to track down some of these forgotten tunes.

In honor of this late, great show, I give you...
The Replacements. "I'll Be You."

4 comments:

Elizabeth said...

For some reason, the only clip that would play for me was the one about making your own video. So, too bad, can't take a sonic trip back in time. The visuals on that clip, the big hair, the big shoulder pads were all too familiar! (God, did i really dress like THAT? Eeek!)

janey jay said...

Drat -- I reloaded the youtube links -- sometimes they get a little wonky on me, which I blame on my Mac being in a PC world.

And yes, we really did dress like that. I have photographic evidence that lovingly reminds me every time I forget...

Marissa said...

Damn you woman! Now I have to spend MORE money. lol Thanks for the playlist, though. Groovy!

How the heck do you get vids to upload on your blog without utilizing the youtube 'share' option? I'm such a novice.

janey jay said...

Uploading videos from youtube... when you find what you want, copy the Embed code and just paste in onto your blog post. The code is all set to go and voila! instant video.

That 120 Minutes archive site is a total blast from my past -- and it's going to cost me money as well, since there are songs listed there that I loved but haven't heard in 20 years.