#bostonphoenix

Advertising insert from alternative newspaper The Boston Phoenix, promoting their concert showcase of local bands playing at the Coop bookstore in Harvard Square on September 25, 1988.

This was actually the second Boston Phoenix/WFNX-sponsored concert event I attended. The first one had happened the previous weekend, at the MIT location of The Coop. The presence of three local bands on that bill was completely overshadowed for me by the incongruous presence of Marty Willson-Piper of The Church, there to play a solo set in support of his latest album on Rykodisc. But I got there early enough to catch the local acts, opening my eyes ever-so-slightly to the presence of a local music scene.

So when I learned of another free outdoor concert the following weekend, I was all in, even minus any star power. I had never heard of any of these local bands before, either. But maybe some of them would good?

Turns out, I was right. The set by Galaxie 500, just a few weeks before the release of their debut album, Today, was revelatory. This is... jangly? Kind of like, uh... R.E.M.? (It would be a few years yet before I heard The Velvet Underground for the first time.) I ended up reviewing their set, along with the rest of the acts performing that day, for my high school newspaper.

In fact, I also fell pretty hard for local rockers Heretix, whose dramatic, slightly goth sound would fit right in on local radio. Heck, I enjoyed everyone that played that day, from the bluesy, garage-rock of The Titanics to just-shy-of-metal The Unattached to, yes, even the ska bands (Plate O’ Shrimp and Bim Skala Bim). I even captured songs from a couple of the band’s sets on my shitty tape recorded though, alas, not the one by Galaxie 500.

Advertising insert from a late 1989 issue of alternative newspaper The Boston Phoenix, promoting the six-year anniversary of alternative rock radio station WFNX.

Real "Holy shit! We made it to another year!" energy with this supplement. Given the paper printed a big spread to celebrate their 5th anniversary the previous year, it’s a bit odd they’d choose to commemorate their 6th. Though this insert is a lot smaller, just a single piece of broadsheet printed on both sides.

Here WFNX is testing a new slogan: “Rock the Boat Radio.” Not sure why an alternative rock station decided to use a phrase that only serves to make me think of this classic soul jam. Buy hey, there is a long tradition of basic alt-rock stations appealing to the egos of their listeners by adopting a cooler-than-thou slogan.

Advertising insert from the September 30, 1988 issue of alternative newspaper The Boston Phoenix, promoting the five-year anniversary of alternative rock radio station WFNX.

The owners of The Boston Phoenix had launched WFNX in 1983, so the newspaper went all-out in celebrating the radio station’s fifth anniversary with a multi-page center spread in their paper. Inside were profiles—with photos!—of every DJ whose voice I had gotten familiar with over the past year or so.

There’s Bill Abbate, host of the local music show “Boston Rocks” (before Juanita the Scene Queen took that over). And Tony V, who was always interviewing bands and hosting their live, in-studio performances. Or super-cool Angela, whose show I’d fall asleep listening to late at night when I couldn’t sleep.

I also loved the little profiles of some of the behind-the-scenes goofballs:

When you hear, for example, a lunatic take on Ethel Merman singing Modern Covers for Modern Lovers, or the shoreline pollution riff on the B-52′s in “Beach Dumpster,” then you are hearing the collaborative genius of Duane Bruce and Kurt St. Thomas.

Clipping from alternative newspaper The Boston Phoenix, advertising the top 50 local songs of 1988 as determined by the paper’s affiliated radio station, WFNX.

While it barely missed hitting #1 on local “alternative” radio station WFNX’s top local releases list, Surfer Rosa was absolutely the local album of 1988 for me. I was a one-girl copyright-violation spree, dubbing copies of Surfer Rosa for all my friends from my 4AD cassette with the tastefully-positioned silver Pixies sticker over the top of the cover lady. And both “Gigantic” and “Where Is My Mind?” were inescapable on both the local music program and the daytime general rotation.

However, artifacts like this serve as helpful reminders of what failed to blow up beyond the Boston scene. The chart-topper, Treat Her Right, was indeed a very big record at the time. Though leader Mark Sandman would go on to much wider popularity and acclaim with his next band: Morphine. Numbers 3-5 were all personal favorites of mine at the time, and I saw Heretix, Tribe and the Cavedogs many times from 1988 to 1991 or so.

When I lived in Boston, The Phoenix was my go-to source for not only music and arts news, but also politics and other local newsworthy events. Their coverage of the Occupy movement, notably, was nuanced and fair, and they didn't hold anything back. No such thing as censorship for this newsweekly.