CD Review - Whatever: The 90s Box Set

Not to steal someone else's review, but I'm doing it. As someone who essentially grew up in the 90s (i.e. went to high school and college), this CD compilation is hideous at best and manipulative at worst. Attached below is the review of the new 90's compilation that you can buy from Rhino records called "Whatever: The 90s Box Set" taken from www.pitchforkmedia.com. Good God. It's a longggg review, but it speaks perfectly to me, at least regarding music from this decade. It's dead on in panning it. This is your-parents-90s-radio, all boxed up and ready for you to enjoy. Want to listen to some C&C Music Factory, some MC Hammer and some Jump Around? Got an arena that needs songs to get peeps off their feet? Boy, have we got the CDs for you. Enjoy.



Disc 3 track 8: King Missile, "Detachable Penis"Disc 3 track 9: Silk, "Freak Me"

Good God the juvenilia! I was 14 when I first heard "Detachable Penis," and I found it catchy and hilarious enough that my friend Dave and I choreographed a whole geeky "interpretive" dance to go with it, which we performed backstage in our high school auditorium for a selection of friends. Later that week, on a late-night bus ride, I split a pair of earbuds with a girl from our audience, listening to the left channel of "Freak Me" and touching actual boobs for the first time. This box puts the two tracks together because it thinks it knows me. It can't explain how I managed to touch this girl's boobs even after she'd seen me doing geeky interpretive dances, but whatever: I shouldn't have been touching those particular boobs anyway, and now, whenever I hear Silk's overheated "wanna lick up you up and down" come-ons (most recently from a singing homeless guy), I get all sorts of Portnoy's Complaint issues going.

Disc 2 track 17: Spin Doctors, "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong"Disc 2 track 18: dada, "Dizz Knee Land"

You think it's totally self-indulgent of me to share my banal high-school memories at the top of this review? Then don't think about buying this box set. Whatever is seven discs and over a hundred dollars' worth of random nostalgia and unflinching faith in the disposable income of formerly middle-class suburban alt-rock kids now around their late twenties. The track selection is specifically designed to let people in this demographic spend 15 minutes going "oh shit, I remember...and holy shit, lookit, that one video, right...I am Cornholio I need TP for my bunghole...holy fuck ... no MC 900 Foot Jesus?" All for the last decade during which people relied on ganky old cassette dubs, and therefore don't have ganky old external hard drives to crack open when they want to get Proustian about 4 Non Blondes.

Disc 3 track 12: Green Jelly, "Three Little Pigs"Disc 3 track 13: Dinosaur Jr., "Start Choppin"

So what do you want to do: Bask in the warm-fuzzy vibe of shared pop-cultural history or be crushed by the thought that your suburban alt-rock song-memories, and maybe even some of the stories that go with them, are shared by just as massive a cohort as you-- being a child of the nineties and therefore wanting to be "special"-- always feared? And so long as you're examining your emotions, check this out: How many of the tracks you're excited to see here did you actively despise when they were on your teenage radio? Not yet 30 and already so wistful! Pop culture races along, and here is the ambient sound of your teenage years; I have Big Head Todd like a sepia snapshot of me growing up in Colorado and hating Big Head Todd; do we just buy this now and put it in storage for when we retire?

Disc 5 track 14: Better than Ezra, "Good"Disc 5 track 15: Blues Traveler, "Run-Around"

Well no, because Rhino couldn't possibly understand just how special you are, and they're cheating on you with everyone in your age group. The bulk of this set consists of standards and one-hit non-wonders from the mid-nineties flare-of up alternative rock radio, and maybe if you pared that segment down to a couple of discs it'd be a half-decent idea: There's nothing wrong with getting a kick out of hearing Green Jelly or Marcy Playground one last time, but there's certainly something wrong with spending a hundred bucks to do it. Same goes for the subset of perfectly fine, memorable alt-rock singles scattered around, especially in Time-Life infomercial terms: Looking for a way to avoid the expense and headache of tracking down Helmet, Sugar, Juliana Hatfield, and Ash albums? Except: If that's your angle, how much do you really need some C+C Music Factory and Right Said Fred hanging out on the other five discs? How much do you need weirdly placed tracks by Pavement, My Bloody Valentine, and Stereolab, tracks from albums fans mostly bought and still listen to? Is this a recap of alt-rock memories or a Now That's What I Called the Nineties hits compilation or what? By whose estimation, exactly, do quasi-riot-grrrls and Seattle rockers form this much of the nineties history? And why does this listing seem to swing back and forth between "remember the theme from Friends" kitsch-stalgia and seemingly trying to tell us that some of these tracks are actually good and important?

Disc 6 track 11: Jewel, "Who Will Save Your Soul"Disc 6 track 12: Primitive Radio Gods, "Can You Believe Our Label was Willing to Promote a Song with a Long Stupid Title about a Phone Booth?"

The only thread that really works, in fact, is the carefully selected line of Genuine Chart Hits that Suburban White People Liked then Forgot About. Rhino just happens to assume that somewhere around 1993 you bought a bunch of flannel shirts or striped tights and threw away whichever of your middle-school mix tapes contained "Walking in Memphis" and "Silent Lucidity," and after that you thought you were much too cool to buy anything by Des'ree or Deep Blue Something-- and then somehow, by decade's end, you were back to being cool with Shawn Mullins. See? Rhino doesn't know you at all. But you're special to me, and at least if they'd been a little more consistent about the pop streak, we could be listening to Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn" right now.

Disc 3 track 5: Wreckx-N-Effect, "Rump Shaker"Disc 3 track 6: Snow, "Informer"

Speaking of pop: A quick scan over the track listing might give you the mistaken impression that Rhino have made a half-hearted attempt to get some hip-hop, r&b, and dance music on here. Turns out there's no "half" going on. They've just managed to cull an exact, scientific selection of the particular hip-hop, r&b, and dance hits that their alt-rock demographic-- hell, their alt-rock demographic's parents-- either liked or can't help remembering. "Can't Touch This" is the first track on the first disc, followed by plenty of EMF and Jesus Jones and other things that struck me as sounding "cool" and "different" on the radio on the way to soccer practice, where-- oh memory!-- a guy named Steve would later sell me all his old Cure and Morrissey albums, because he was getting into Van Halen and trying to pick up chicks. Whatever: from there on it's all En Vogue and Sir Mix-a-Lot and "O.P.P." and other things that even people in comas would remember, plus such legends of hip-hop's Golden Age as Kriss Kross, plus stuff like Canadian toaster Snow (whose "Informer" video was so popular that MTV put the words and a bouncing ball on screen), jock favorite "Jump Around" (by the proud Irish rappers of House of Pain), and, cleverly, DAS EFX, filling the spot you'd think would be reserved for Digable Planets or Arrested Development. Whoomp, there you are, and no Onyx, either: You can get nostalgic for both the alt-rock hits you loved and a few of the pop hits you pretended not to! Plus Boyz II Men.
Disc 1 track 2: Sinead O'Connor, "Nothing Compares 2 U"Disc 1 track 3: Michael Penn, "No Myth"

Whatever. I am nothing if not a nostalgist; I have associations for miles and stories to tell; I spent this exact decade in high school and college and the mere track listing of this box makes me want to hunt down old friends. Here is a bunch of stuff I remember, and yet it's not even worth one hundred dollars. Good thing we no longer live in that Time-Life world, that pre-mp3 world where you couldn't possibly track down all these memorable hits; give yourself an afternoon and a copy of iTunes, and you can make your nineties however you like, for memory or for quality or for fun. If all else fails, didn't they just put out My So-Called Life and the first season of The Real World on DVD?
-Nitsuh Abebe, July 25, 2005

To Tell the Truth

Once again, we are embroiled in a firestorm that has entangled many in the country. In case you haven’t heard, it was revealed this week that Bush’s Brain, otherwise known as Karl Rove, identified a CIA operative to a reporter supposedly in retaliation for her husband’s outspokenness against the president.

From the very onset of the investigation, Rove said he never heard of the woman and didn’t have anything to do with this woman’s name being leaked. Come to find out that this isn’t the case at all and now Rove is hiding for cover under and the white house is backtracking faster than a redneck at a gay pride parade.

While I won’t get into Rove is guilty or not – and he is…the lying fat f#ck – what’s interesting is to see these same people on the far right step up to vehemently defend Rove.

Let’s take a trip back through the time machine shall we? It’s the mid 90’s and it’s been learned that the president has received a blow job in the oval office.

Oh my God!!!! The horror! Our national defense is weakened!!! People are going to die for this!!!

Actually, no. None of this happened, but it sent a firestorm throughout conservatives across the country. So much so that the President was impeached for such a pathetic reason.

Why do I bring this up? Because throughout the week I’ve heard Republican after Republican stand up and defend Rove’s actions, actions, mind you, that may be illegal and are certainly reprehensible from a top White House aide. These same people that are now defending Rove and are saying this is nothing but a partisan witch hunt are the exact same people who dragged out the Lewinski affair to a point of no return.

There’s nothing funnier and sadder than political hypocrisy. We see it all the time in Washington from both sides of the aisle.

One can’t help but wonder if there will ever come a time when this country’s leaders can once again find time to trust and work with one another. I think it can happen, but certainly not under this administration given their history of denial, deceit and cover-up.

With Rove's Lie Uncovered, Now What?

A year ago, President Bush promised he'd fire anyone in his administration that leaked the name of a covert CIA operative to the press. This stemmed from the investigation into Valerie Plume's name being leaked to the media as an act of revenge on her husband, a man who disagreed with the President.

Karl Rove's name was on the list from the start as the leaker, but the White House categorically denied any of his involvement. Now, it appears that it was Karl Rove - the President's brain and chief strategist - who committed the offense.

In a country where residents were so "outraged" over the President getting head in the Oval Office and seeing Clinton impeached, it's funny there isn't much furor over this debacle.

Here's to you Karl Rove, you fat f#ck.


WASHINGTON, July 11 - Nearly two years after stating that any administration official found to have been involved in leaking the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer would be fired, and assuring that Karl Rove and other senior aides to President Bush had nothing to do with the disclosure, the White House refused on Monday to answer any questions about new evidence of Mr. Rove's role in the matter.

With the White House silent, Democrats rushed in, demanding that the administration provide a full account of any involvement by Mr. Rove, one of the president's closest advisers, turning up the political heat in the case and leaving some Republicans worried about the possible effects on Mr. Bush's second-term agenda.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, cited Mr. Bush's statements about firing anyone involved in the leak and said, "I trust they will follow through on this pledge."
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said Mr. Rove, given his stature and the principles involved in the case, could not hide behind legal advice not to comment.

"The lesson of history for George Bush and Karl Rove is that the best way to help themselves is to bring out all the facts, on their own, quickly," Mr. Schumer said, citing the second-term scandals that have beset previous administrations.

In two contentious news briefings, the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, would not directly address any of a barrage of questions about Mr. Rove's involvement, a day after new evidence suggested that Mr. Rove had discussed the C.I.A. officer with a Time magazine reporter in July 2003 without identifying her by name.

Under often hostile questioning, Mr. McClellan repeatedly declined to say whether he stood behind his previous statements that Mr. Rove had played no role in the matter, saying he could not comment while a criminal investigation was under way. He brushed aside questions about whether the president would follow through on his pledge, repeated just over a year ago, to fire anyone in his administration found to have played a role in disclosing the officer's identity. And he declined to say when Mr. Bush learned that Mr. Rove had mentioned the C.I.A. officer in his conversation with the Time reporter.

When one reporter, David Gregory of NBC News, said that it was "ridiculous" for the White House to dodge all questions about the issue and pointed out that Mr. McClellan had addressed the same issues in detail in the past, Mr. McClellan replied, "I'm well aware, like you, of what was previously said, and I will be glad to talk about it at the appropriate time."

A moment later, Terry Moran of ABC News prefaced his question by saying Mr. McClellan was "in a bad spot here" because he had spoken from the same podium on Oct. 10, 2003, after the Justice Department began its formal investigation into the leak, and specifically said that neither Mr. Rove nor two other officials - Elliot Abrams, a national security aide, and I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff - were involved.

Mr. McClellan disputed the characterization of the question but did not directly address why the White House had appeared now to have adopted a new policy of not commenting on the matter.
Mr. Rove made no public comment. A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the White House now says its official position is not to comment on the case while it is under investigation by a federal special prosecutor, said Mr. Rove had gone about his business as usual on Monday. The official said Mr. Rove had held his regular meetings with Mr. Bush and other top White House aides, and was deeply involved in preparations for the Supreme Court nomination and efforts to push several major pieces of legislation through Congress this month.

The officer was first publicly identified under her maiden name as Valerie Plame, "an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction," on July 14, 2003, by the syndicated columnist Robert Novak. He wrote that Ms. Plame was the wife of Joseph C. Wilson IV, who had recently written an Op-Ed article for The New York Times disputing an administration claim about Saddam Hussein's nuclear program. Mr. Novak cited "two senior administration officials" as the source of his information.

The criminal investigation into how the C.I.A. officer's name came to appear in a syndicated newspaper column two years ago continued largely out of public view. But the recent disclosure of evidence that Mr. Rove had, without naming Ms. Plame, told a Time reporter about the same time that Mr. Wilson's wife "works at the agency," thrust the case squarely back into the political arena. That reflected Mr. Rove's standing as among the most powerful men in Washington and his place in the innermost councils of the White House.

Because of the powerful role Mr. Rove plays in shaping policy and deploying Mr. Bush's political support and machinery throughout the party, few Republicans were willing to discuss his situation on the record. Asked for comment, several Republican senators said on Monday that they did not know enough or did not want to venture an opinion.

But in private, several prominent Republicans said they were concerned about the possible effects on Mr. Bush and his agenda, in part because Mr. Rove's stature makes him such a tempting target for Democrats.

"Knowing Rove, he's still having eight different policy meetings and sticking to his game plan," said one veteran Republican strategist in Washington who often works with the White House. "But this issue now is looming, and as they peel away another layer of the onion, there's a lot of consternation. Rove needs to be on his A game now, not huddled with lawyers and press people."

A senior Congressional Republican aide said most members of Congress were still waiting to learn more about Mr. Rove's involvement and to assess whether more disclosures about his role were likely.

"The only fear here is where does this go," the aide said. "We can't know."

Mr. Rove, Mr. Bush's senior adviser, deputy chief of staff and political strategist, was plunged back into the center of the matter on Sunday, when Newsweek reported that an e-mail message written by a Time reporter had recounted a conversation with Mr. Rove in July 2003 in which Mr. Rove discussed the C.I.A. operative at the heart of the case without naming her.

Mr. Rove's lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, has said the e-mail message showed that Mr. Rove was not taking part in any organized effort to disclose Ms. Plame's identity. Mr. Wilson is a former diplomat who traveled to Africa on behalf of the C.I.A. before the Iraq war to investigate reports concerning Saddam Hussein's efforts to acquire nuclear material.

Mr. Wilson has suggested that the White House sought retribution by publicly identifying his wife, effectively ending her career as a covert operative.

Mr. Wilson has at times voiced suspicions that Mr. Rove played a role in identifying his wife to reporters, saying in August 2003 that he was interested in finding out "whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs."

In September 2003, Mr. McClellan said flatly that Mr. Rove had not been involved in disclosing Ms. Plame's name. Asked about the issue on Sept. 29, 2003, Mr. McClellan said he had "spoken with Karl Rove," and that it was "simply not true" that Mr. Rove had a role in the disclosure of her identity. Two weeks earlier, he had called suggestions that Mr. Rove had been involved "totally ridiculous." On Oct. 10, 2003, after the Justice Department opened its investigation, Mr. McClellan told reporters that Mr. Rove, Mr. Abrams and Mr. Libby had nothing to do with the leak.

Mr. McClellan and Mr. Bush have both made clear that leaking Ms. Plame's identity would be considered a firing offense by the White House. Mr. Bush was asked about that position most recently a little over a year ago, when he was asked whether he stood by his pledge to fire anyone found to have leaked the officer's name. "Yes," he replied, on June 10, 2004.
Under some circumstances, it can be against the law to disclose the identity of a covert C.I.A. operative. Mr. Luskin has said he has been told by the prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, that Mr. Rove is not a target of the investigation.

Democrats, as the minority party in both the House and the Senate, have no ability to push forward with a formal Congressional investigation. But Mr. Rove is such a high-profile political target that his role is sure to draw intense scrutiny from both Democrats in Congress and liberal interest groups.

Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Government Reform committee, called for hearings on what he termed "this disgraceful incident," saying that if it had happened in the Clinton administration the Republican-controlled House would certainly have summoned the deputy White House chief of staff to testify.

Mr. Rove has been caught up in the inquiry almost from the start. He was first interviewed by F.B.I. agents in 2003 during the preliminary investigation. Later, he was interviewed by prosecutors and testified three times to the grand jury.

The prosecutor is believed to have questioned Mr. Rove at the grand jury about his conversations with the Time reporter, Matthew Cooper, whose call to Mr. Rove on July 11, 2003, was noted in a White House log that was turned over to the prosecutor. Time turned Mr. Cooper's notes and e-mail over to the prosecutor last month under court order.