"Valerie Loves Me" really deserves its own thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcRtlj8KXT4

Stumbling upon that video on a late-night cable show in '91 blew my mind - my first taste of indie rock probably. Funny how already back then, at 13 years of age, I found the song so crushingly nostalgic - and here I am 23 years later getting the same sad rush listening to it on youtube

Don't know what to add except to say I agree.

i recently found a little scrap of paper that jim ellison signed for me when i saw material issue at an amusement park in high school. it did not blow my mind, but i liked this song ok. rip jim ellison.

I loved their poster! (I can't remember what the band sounded like.)

Material Issue used to piss me off. Jim Ellison had been a member of Green a few years prior, and this song rips off the Green song "Technology" (not on youtube, apparently). It was depressing and annoying to see these guys get semi-popular, while Green -- who had made the definitive power-pop album of the 80s -- was still struggling.

That said, as I listen to it now, this isn't too bad of a song. But I always wondered how much of the pressures of being on a major label contributed to Ellison's suicide.

(There was a sweet moment at the Who's 10/31/96 Chicago show where Pete Townshend dedicated a song to Jim.)

always get this song mixed up with Veronica.

I saw them a couple times live, I esp remember a free outdoor gig at Central Park Summerstage.

A few years later I worked with Kenny K of Green, who of course went on to run Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign, no joke. (Had no idea he now edits the NY Observer, which I haven't looked at in eons.)