J.Jerry's Daily Music Pick(s)

GLENDALE, CA (YIFTM) - For a brief time in Jr. High I moved out of the house. Not many people know this, and even fewer care. I was staying up later and bothering my folks, as our rooms were sharing a wall. It was still warm outside so I decided I’d pack the necessities and move out of the house. My folks agreed. It was time for the youngling to spread his wings. The destination it seemed wasn’t too far from the nest. It was actually the back yard. I set up the family’s 4 person tent, grabbed my black chair I’d recently acquired from my Aunt and Uncle, my dad’s army cot, although he was never in the army, a small wobbly shelf, a few extension chords (which I needed for my boombox, and that I plugged into the kitchen some 20 feet away) and my recent BMG purchases. One of which was my pick for today, Adam Ant – B-Side Babies. I’d sit in that humid tend and reap the luxuries of living alone, at least that’s what I told myself. It was in that tent that I got the first taste of this goofy and extremely catchy album (it’s actually a collection of Adam Ant’s British only B-sides). I ordered the CD because BMG had labeled the album under punk. This album isn’t punk, and for a bit I was disappointed.

Well, after about a week the heat inside the tent became unbearable, and like a scolded dog I tucked my tail and moved back into the house, but this time to the basement where I’d stay until my last days of living with the folks.

This album grew on me like a well-watered fern. The climax of my desire for this album hit shortly after an unfortunate trip to Milwaukee visiting YITS as he graduated from college. (Way to go YITS!) My car was stolen and with it several CD’s, one of which was B-Side Babies. For years I contemplated spending the $30 for the now out-of-print album in an attempt to recapture my first days of liberated freedom, however bleak and pathetic.

I did, I finally broke down and bought, re-bought the album. And I must say it was probably the best $28 and change I’ve spent in recent years. Excluding frequent trips to Visions with GW and YITS.

With tracks like Juanito the Bandito and Why Do Girls Love Horses?, this album will surely bring a head nodding smirk to your face, even if for you it isn’t associated with moving out of the house before you enter high school and losing your car as well as having to purchase what you already owned more than once. Jingles.

(Highly recommended, as all my shit is)