#thetitanics

[indieephemera]

Photocopy of the “Cellars by Starlight” column, featuring the band The Titanics, as published in a 1989 issue of The Boston Phoenix.

I always enjoyed reading Kris Fell’s local music column, “Cellars by Starlight,” wherein he would regularly review demo tape submissions from the many local bands in the Boston music scene. One band’s standout submission was typically featured, with the rest of the reviews appearing under a heading—“Notable Near Misses and Spectacular Failures”—letting you know the writer isn’t about to pull any punches.

I saved a copy of this particular column due to the feature, on The Titanics. While their bluesy garage rock sound wasn’t something I was typically drawn to, I appreciated their lyrical humor and damn catchy songs. Blasting their psych ode to intoxication, “High On Drugs,” was a titter-inducing form of rebellion for straight-edge teen Jen.

[indieephemera]

Hand-written playlist for “Mystery Tape #2″, one of my many tapes onto which I’d record Boston-area radio programming for later review and editing.

As I mentioned in my previous “mystery tape” post, most every week in high school I'd record WFNX’s local music show, Boston Rocks. This is the playlist from one such tape, a recording of Boston Rocks from March 4, 1990—or so I believed. I’d go back and listen to each tape some time after recording it to create these playlists, and I didn’t always remember to label each cassette with the date.

I put “SAVED” next to the songs or other material I wanted to keep. Those I’d dub onto a fresh tape with segments from other recordings to create custom compilations of my favorites. Here, I was particularly interested in capturing the music by, and interview segments with, garage rock back The Titanics.

The show must have ended just before the tape ran out, as per the note off the the right where I attempted to identify the last bit of recorded music: “Morrissey (?)”. Yes, questionable even in 1990. 

[titanics-mightyfunkandsoul-blog]

Did we say something about a new single? Listen to a quick blast of "20/20" over on our Soundcloud!

[titanics-mightyfunkandsoul-blog]

2015 - the hiatus is off again..