120 Minutes Rewind

The point of this piece is Alan Hunter's presence as VJ. But take a look at the playlist for this ep of 120 Minutes from 1986:

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2012/09/07/120-minutes-alan-hunter-sept-28-1986/

TSOL and the Go-Betweens' "Head Full of Steam" got MTV airplay? And who the heck are Bang and Cryin' Out Loud?



Post Edited (09-07-12 15:21)

By the time my wife & I started watching 120 Minutes, Lewis Largent was the host. Cool videos, but jeez, we found that guy irritating. He struck us as a guy with minimal talent or credentials, who had lucked into the VJ gig ... and who had somehow forgotten that fact. We always expected him to jump off his stool and start dancing and mugging the camera, taunting the viewer with, "Naah-naah-ne-nyaaah-naah! I know the Ra-mooones! I know Sonic You-u-uth! You-u-u do-o-o-on't!"

Kevin Seal was the host when I started watching it. He was a dork, but kind of endearing. Though he didn't seem to do much research before he interviewed anybody.

I havent watched 120 minutes of music videos in my entire life. Never understood the format. Why do I need to watch senseless random images while I am rocking out?

Quote

who the heck are Bang and Cryin' Out Loud?

or Walk the West, The Wind, or The Rainmakers? One wonders how "alternative" all that stuff was. Maybe the reign of "fale alternative" that I thought started in the '90s began earlier. (Still, seeing The Descendents on that list is an eye-opener.)

I remember the Rainmakers, who were usually lumped in with the Del Fuegos, the Long Ryders, the Del-Lords and the other 80s roots rockers. The Wind I know about because of this.

Walk the West I've never heard, but I remember seeing their record in a million used record stores and Half-Price Books. I believe they were part of the Nashville underground rock scene. Looks like most of that record is on YouTube. Not their music video, apparently. Guess no one ever recorded it on VHS.

Quote

I remember the Rainmakers, who were usually lumped in with the Del Fuegos, the Long Ryders ...

I remember The Rainmakers as the the only band out of that trio that didn't make a beer commercial ... but I could be wrong about that.

Was E*I*E*I*O ever on 120 Minutes? They had lots of songs that would have made great beer commercials ("Go West Young Man" especially). Their debut CD was/is seriously excellent and the second one was only marginally less than.

...

By the way. There's a solid, two-CD Rhino anthology to be made from that whole Dusty-Alternative-Cowboy scene if anyone at Rhino is listening.

...

I liked 120 Minutes best when they had an open-door guest host policy. There wasn't an actual VJ. They just had some artist or other in and set 'em loose.

The format didn't last long ... but it did happen, right? My memory is shot.

Too much Dreamweapon.

> I liked 120 Minutes best when they had an open-door guest host
> policy. There wasn't an actual VJ. They just had some artist
> or other in and set 'em loose.
>
> The format didn't last long ... but it did happen,
> right? My memory is shot.
>
> Too much Dreamweapon.

I don't know how many showed up but I remember the one that Robyn Hitchcock hosted. I didn't know much about him back then except that "Balloon Man" was always played on 120 minutes. Needless to say, he was great. One of the few times I preferred watching the VJ than the music videos.

I remember that! It was when Queen Elvis was out. I remember him telling all kinds of funny stream-of-consciousness stories and playing a gorgeous version of "Wax Doll."

lovely thread MT,
i was dating the tp fan club prez (known @ kathleen round here) back in '91 and somehow paying rupert fucking murdoch a deposit $ for Comcast. so thats when i discovered 120 min.

i remember watching jack frost & straightjacket fits videos on the same night. i thought to myself ' either boy wonder (whoever he/she is) or jack rabid is behind this'

who knows, its all in retroSPECTavision now.

SIDEnote: some of you already know that doug brod ( tp alum) was most definitely a part of the same networks show 'ODDville'



Post Edited (09-07-12 19:48)

sloan

If you don't remember The Rainmakers, you missed out as they were (well, still are, actually) a very kick-ass band and are pretty literally the link between 80s cowpunk and 90s alt-country. They started out basically as Jason and the Scorchers followers, and being a Missouri band (from Kansas City, I think, but maybe Columbia) they were a regular presence in St. Louis in the late-80s, where Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy and Mike Heidorn were usually in the audience taking notes.

Anyhow, "Downstream," "Government Cheese," "Let My People Go-Go" and "Tornado of Love" are all pretty prime chunks of early alt-country. "Big Fat Blonde" is kind of fun, too, though I never loved it as much as most of their audience always seemed to.

i once met dave kendall while waiting for a train in new york, he seemed quite shocked that he was recognized..

Quote

i once met dave kendall while waiting for a train in new york, he seemed quite shocked that he was recognized..

My friends and I made Dave Kendall serve as a sort of recurrent punchline all during the time he was the 120 Minutes VJ. I think the game that was the most fun was to see who could ornament their impression of Mr. Kendall with the most phony-baloney gravitas.

Remember Kendall's reaction after the "World Premiere" of Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U" video? It was an Oscar-worthy split second. Had he been holding his breath the entire time?

I much preferred the subsequent VJ that looked a bit like a potato. His name escapes me at the moment. Matt Something-or-other? He was a bit more down-to-earth and less ... toffee-nosed.

Plus, none of us could do an impression of him ... so he couldn't show up at keg parties in absentia. Endlessly.

I've got several hours of 120 Minutes on VHS tape somewhere. Probably even the Robyn Hitchcock appearance ... and also Peter Buck and that dude from Drivin N Cryin (who was flogging a solo album at the time). I seem to recall Syd Straw showing up as well.

Matt Pinfield. He was a trip. Potato-shaped, yes.

Somewhere on VHS I have videos from X, Leather Nun, and Taang!-era Lemonheads ("Second Chance") taped off 120 Minutes. Obviously this was before Nirvana, et al hit and the majors had their "alternative" departments to push said Product. (I remember Jack Rabid describing in The Big Takeover how/why his band Springhouse broke up - which made the then-interest in all things "alternative" seem like a double-edged sword - and apparently thanks to the deluge of major-label Alternative vids, MTV wasn't adding any more videos from indies like SH's label Caroline, ever for 120M, unless they had a "story" of some sort).

BTW has there ever been a band (aside from Smashing Pumpkins) that actually had a positive experience with Caroline Records? (Maybe I'm looking at the wrong examples, but it doesn't seem like it).

Also, I do remember They Might Be Giants hosting 120 Minutes once, which including some "acoustic" (i.e. just accordion-and/or-guitar and voice) performances of "Racist Friend", etc.