Drewography – Page 3 – 90s alternative rock stuff

Aerosmith: My Angel to Winning Radio Contests (and gateway to Vanilla Ice)

At 12 years old, every night wound-down the same way. After brushing my teeth, I’d lay down in my “captain’s bed” with the steering-wheel headboard, my yellow Sony Sports boombox against the wall, and fall asleep with my ear pressed against the speaker, the volume just loud enough to be audible.

Then it happened. Usually, between 2am – 3am.

Aerosmith’s “Angel” would come on the radio, and I would rise from the dead.

[Read more…]

Tom Petty’s “Walls” Paved the Way for the 1996 New York Yankees Championship

By Drew Rosen Leave a Comment

Sports and superstitious rituals go together like baseball and chicken.

Well, that’s true if you ask Hall of Famer Wade Boggs, who correlated his hitting success to chowing down on pre-game chicken.

And that’s not even the strangest sports ritual.

We can pick apart Wayne Gretzky’s baby powdered hockey stick, Jason Giambi’s golden thong, and Moises Alou’s “pee hands.” But today, we are here to talk about how I single-handily helped the New York Yankees win their 23rd world championship after an 18-year dry spell back in 1996.

OK, OK. I didn’t help the Yanks win alone.

My sister helped.

Tom Petty helped, too.

[Read more…]

Kmart Radio Network: The Soundtrack of Minimum Wage

By Drew Rosen Leave a Comment

As a Kmart employee back in the 90s, I spent many days and nights having my ears infiltrated by the Kmart Radio Network.

It was never a smooth transition from Bryan Adams, “Everything I Do” to an ad for two-ply paper towels. There was no easy way to shift from the Muzak version of “Always” by Atlantic Starr into “Save with Layway!”

But that was the Kmart way.

[Read more…]

The Nelson Twins Asked: “Will you love me, like you loved me yesterday?” And the answer is, “YES!”

By Drew Rosen Leave a Comment

The Nelson twins . Too hard to be soft and too soft to be hard.

Their manufactured fashion sense and pretty boy looks made it hard for anyone to take them seriously.

But I did.

From the moment I hit record on my Fisher VCR to tape the “Love and Affection” video on Saturday Morning Videos, I was enamored.

[Read more…]

Mother Love Bone’s “Chloe Dancer” Is Always With Me

By Drew Rosen Leave a Comment

Almost 30 years later, and the opening piano notes of “Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns” still give me chills.

While most songs ebb and flow from the playlist of my life, Mother Love Bone remains a constant. When you find a song that still give you the feels decades later, whisking you away to another time, another place, you hold on–tightly.

No band better bridges the 80s heavy metal era with the emergence of 90s grunge than Sub Pop rejects Mother Love Bone. MLB’s frontman, Andrew Wood, was a fucking legend, and in life and death, a pioneer.

[Read more…]

Big Head Todd and the Kidney Stone Attack

By Drew Rosen Leave a Comment

It wasn’t exactly a tsunami of pain, more like incessant ripples of water washing over me, eroding my sense of control, one small wave at a time.

It was a kidney stone attack.

If you’ve had one before, you’re feeling a great deal of pity for your humble author. If you’re fortunate to have never experienced the excruciating hell of a foreign substance rattling against an organ, I hope you never do.

I was standing at the console of one of our on-air studios at 1633 Broadway, prepping another 90s-heavy VH1 music block to beam up to a satellite and back down to the car radios of people willing to pay a monthly charge.

It was a regular Friday afternoon…until it wasn’t.

My stomach roiled. My chest heaved.

There was an uncontrollable force within me, contorting my body, contracting muscles I never knew I had. How could I be feeling hot and cold at once? Is this what a cloud feels like during a thunderstorm?

[Read more…]

Footer