120 Minutes: 12/30/90

I am not generally a nostalgic person but I have enjoyed watching a lot of old early 90s 120 Minutes recently. There's a lot of them up on YouTube.

Sadly hardly any MTV Europe ones though... not that I had MTV at the time in the UK.

I love Danielle Dax, but Blast the Human Flower is a huge step down from everything else she did. She hadn’t performed live in, what, 30 years now?

If you’re nostalgic for this, Matt Pinfield is a DJ on nonprofit station 88.5 FM and has a show that deep-dives into bands he featured/interviewed on 120 Minutes

Reasonable odds I watched this in real time, although it would have been Christmas break if my senior year in college and I don’t remember if I was at my parents’ house (without cable) or my girlfriend’s parents’ (with cable).

“Radio Free Europe” is kind of a joker here, I won’t pick it because it’s not really of the 120 Minutes era. Probably “Mandinka,” but could vote for several.

I saw this in a “borrowed” house in Thousand Oaks California visiting my widowed grandfather in an unusually cold Christmas season there.

I’ll follow that logic and also take Mandinka over REM

Why the hell is “Radio Free Europe”’in there?

Was the JW Harding a Roky Erikson cover from that tribute album that came out around then? … I never saw 120 minutes, but the SF station Live 105 played most of these (this was before it went to shit in the mid-late 90s) so I never felt like I was missing out … tough call between Mandinka, Sisters of Mercy and the Siouxsie cover which is probably my fave Iggy Pop pop song (as opposed the other faves that are more experimental and/or messy)

I guess “The Passenger” is not really of that moment either, though I think it’s my favorite thing here. Strange to think now that that version came only ten years after Iggy’s version.

I think the Front 242 was definitely a banger of its time

interesting to see goo goo dolls here with a bunch of alt rock heavyweights

“madonna of the wasps” is looking like my pick, a perfect outsider pop song. love the way he pronounces “madonner”

The GGD song is very Replacementsy. Pretty good.

1 Happy Mondays – Kinky Afro (World Premiere)
2 Depeche Mode – World In My Eyes
3 Ride – Like A Daydream
4 New Order – Round And Round
5 Cocteau Twins – Heaven Or Las Vegas
6 Jane's Addiction – Been Caught Stealing
7 The Sisters Of Mercy – More
8 Sinead O'Connor – Mandinka

"I only went with your mother because she's dirty"

World Premiere won out but "Mandinka" might be the best song or is it "Like A Daydream?"

Why the hell is “Radio Free Europe”’in there?

It maybe got some renewed circulation after Eponymous came out. But also 120 Minutes threw in the odd classic from the vaults.

John Wesley Harding seems to have been on a lot during this period. I don't recall him being featured or that successful in the UK at the time but was just starting to read the music press.

Mother Universe is an under rated track.

MTV’S 120 minutes 1990