How many of you remember your first music purchase? I have a terrible memory, so I’m not sure if it really was my first purchase ever, but I absolutely remember buying my first CD with my own money. I was eight, the year was 1984, and the unfortunate CD was Culture Club’s Colour by Numbers. (I don’t know what CDs cost back then, but I must have done a lot of chores to be able to afford one at that age.) I say “unfortunate” not because the album was bad — I still enjoy it even today — but because it just becomes the laughingstock of the first-purchase conversation. I could absolutely tell people that it was Def Leppard, Billy Joel, David Bowie — hell, even Ride the Lightning if I wanted to be cool — but I know that at some point I’d tell someone the wrong thing and get called on it and then not only will people laugh at my purchase but they’ll think I’m an asshole for lying about it too. It’s really a no-win situation, so I just stick with the truth. Besides, people are just as horrified when I cradle my self-titled Frank Stallone record like it’s my child, so at that point “Karma Chameleon” is like 100 times better.

I’m an absolute junkie for the “My first record was …” story, so I’d love to hear what yours is after you take a listen to the 19 below as we continue this week with the letter “B.”

(more…)

Two weeks ago, Dead Milkmen tried to insult us by saying, “You’ll dance to anything by Book of Love.” Today, we officially respond: Goddamn right we will.

It’s hard to believe now, but there was a point when Book of Love were as big as New Order, Depeche Mode, Ministry and Erasure. You couldn’t go a single night in a club without hearing at least two of their songs, and with one spin of their 1986 eponymous debut, it is easy to see why: the record, no joke, is an alt-dance masterpiece. There is nary a lazy track on the album, and DJ Ivan Ivan’s crisp, inventive production gave the band a sound like no other. The band’s ace in the hole, though, was lead singer Susan Ottaviano, who has a voice that my wife once, and definitively, described as “beautifully bored.”

Book of Love didn’t seem to take their 12″ mixes very seriously at first. “Boy” and “I Touch Roses” were merely extended as opposed to remixed, but in the band’s defense, neither song really needed much additional help in packing a dance floor. It Boy Jellybean Benitez handled remix duties for third single “You Make Me Feel So Good,” but primary songwriter Ted Ottaviano — no relation to Susan, which is a far greater cosmic goof than Duran Duran sporting three Taylors — took the reins for fourth single “Modigliani (Lost in Your Eyes).” As catchy as the song is, Ottaviano had his work cut out for him; the drums were flat, and the production just didn’t have the same oomph that the previous three singles boasted. (more…)