After being stuck at home for nearly a year, I am feeling especially wistful of those late nights spent curating music for folks at my local watering hole. My main weekly residency before the pandemic was strictly vinyl, which meant mostly 60-80s music, but some of my most fond memories are of the handful of times I hosted 90s night.

Oh, 90s night…. Some of the most appreciative crowds, shortest bathroom breaks, and wildest DJ moments. Around 3am I’d hand a dead microphone to someone, throw on the Titanic theme, and the whole room said goodnight in style. It is one of the most fun eras of music if only for its consistently over-the-top production values. I look forward to hosting another – I have a feeling everyone else is dying for a return to form, too. Here are a few selections that I would always be sure to drop throughout the night.

This top 10 is in no particular order – They’re all tied for first in my book.

—

Real McCoy – “Another Night”
why? The quintessentially 90s style of male/female vocal interplay. They’re reaching for each other like crazy – At the right volume, people dancing to it somehow transform and become them.

Sisqo – “Thong Song”
why? Lyrical content. The strings remind me of “Eleanor Rigby.” And I don’t want to hear anyone push up the bridge on their glasses and complain that this song is from 2000; it may have controlled that summer, but the album dropped on November 30 of the previous year.

Robyn S – “Show Me Love”
why? The dreamlike background melody, hard luck and deep emotion. A song about personal strength and self-care, about loving yourself before loving another. This is more of a “top three” track.

Amber – “Sexual (La Di Da)”
why? It electrifies people when they’re all covering the dance floor like sardines and there’s barely room for brine. The whole room moves as one. Anyone on the edge of hooking up hooks up. A heavenly, breathy few minutes of pop perfection.

Ini Kamoze – “Here Comes the Hotstepper”
why? The “Na, na-na-na-na…” is inextricable from the 90s experience. I theorize that, like the 69 Boyz’ “Tootsie Roll” or Tag Team’s “Whoomp! (There It Is,)” the refrain was universally appealing to those aged 1-8 in 1993 (Then 22-30 when I hosted 90s night.) I choose this over the other two because, now that it isn’t the 90s anymore, this one has aged the best and is infinitely less annoying. This track reams out dance circles like no other.

Daft Punk – “Around the World”
why? It’s literally timeless. 1997? Or 2097? Daft Punk’s calling card was that they wore space helmets. I think this is because they are legitimate time travelers. This track has a grounding effect within a 90s setlist; after an hour or three, things can get a bit ironic or campy without it.

Mark Morrison – “Return of the Mack”
why? It’s a song about feeling sure of yourself, no matter how untested, and getting back on the saddle – Which subliminally clicks with everyone who hasn’t heard the music they’re dancing to in around 20 years. Whether bobbing your head on the perimeter, dancing alone near the stairs, grinding together at the epicenter, or stepping through the carnage, it has the perfect tempo down to the .00001 bpm.

Monifah – “Touch It”
why? Because the first time I hosted ’90s night’ in 2008, the party lost steam and the cool kids started leaving around 1:30 – Then I dropped this track and I watched the flow on the stairwell switch directions back upstairs. By the second half of the song, the floor started bowing under the weight of a hundred revelers like the Tacoma Narrows bridge. I thought to myself: “If I survive this gig I’ll never forget it.”

Crystal Waters – “100% Pure Love”
why? The song won’t stop, can’t stop – It moves at highway speeds and everyone can’t help but love it. Probably in last place among these ten tracks, but simply fun and indispensable. Play it at 12:12.

• Black Box – “Everybody Everybody”
  why? Like the Monifah cut, should things slow down it’s a shot in the arm, another great revival track. The bass beat and organ combo is an improvised defibrillator. The energizing pre-chorus wail hearkens disco. The song is pure, carefree happiness.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you on the dance floor,

Leon

If you really want to get anything out of a workout, you should be at it for over 30 minutes. Music can be a great source of motivation for exercise, but playlists on YT or Spotify are never perfect. So something I’ve gotten into recently has been to engage in interval training for the duration of one album or CD all the way through. they tend to be 30-60 minutes – And best of all, as you memorize exercises they crudely replace HIIT timers. Don’t count how many reps you do – Just perform the exercise for some passage in the song. Maybe it’s from the beginning of a song to the beginning of its first chorus, or from the beginning of the bridge to the end of the third chorus. Try to hold a plank for an entire solo. It’s not rigid amounts of time, but who cares? It’s fun, it’s a great way to revisit your collection and find a new appreciation for an old favorite you may not have listened to in a long time – And with the benefit of exercise besides.

On the treadmill? Just walk on the treadmill for the length of the album! Have a couple of light weights handy and alternate each song – walking freely, holding the weights, uphill, running, walking backwards. Did you put Bowie on? Up the hill backwards.

Here are some selections to get you started. I will revisit this post and update it as I find more albums to suggest!

Pet Shop Boys – Very

The Style Council – Introducing…

The Strokes – Is This It

Madonna – The Immaculate Collection

Heaven – Telepathic Love

The Rolling Stones – Let it Bleed

Billy Bragg – Don’t Try This at Home

Dokken – The Very Best

Coolio – It Takes a Thief

Jam Harder – The A&M Underground Dance Collection [comp]

Rocky IV – Soundtrack [comp]

Nate Dogg – G-Funk Mix

Fine Young Cannibals – The Raw and the Cooked

GZA – Liquid Swords

Luscious Jackson – Natural Ingredients

‘Til Tuesday – Voices Carry

Another year of Squabble is coming!

Join today and trade five tapes with five random music fans!

The original 65-tape edition will continue with SQU-066+ in the mail March 14, 2021.

As tapes can be hard to source, this year I am offering tapes at cost to participants.

If you are interested in joining Squabble, send this form to me no later than 12/31/20:

http://squabble.website

Last month, I wrote a letter to General Mills outlining my concern over the inclusion of cleaning agent / lubricant / degreaser trisodium phosphate in their breakfast cereal products.

Last week, I received a response.

I appreciate knowing my thoughts were considered, but I see their repsonse as little more than lip service. TSP is explained away as a benign “water-soluble salt,” and to that I say: Why not substitute sodium chloride?

A final point I would like to make to you, my dear reader, is that your body needs no refined sugar. Zero! None. Don’t forget this: It’s at the tip-top of the food pyramid for a reason. So, if you believe that TSP is no big deal, still know that Cinnamon Toast Crunch is not exactly the healthiest thing to eat – and that goes double for young, growing people.

Thank you to General Mills for identifying my concerns and responding to my letter.

They never fight, and

They are always together.

I won’t separate.

How many people eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch every day?

How many eat Lucky Charms?

Maybe this is a better question: How many children eat both of these products every day? And how many of them adhere to the nutrition facts’ recommended serving size of just one cup?

These and other General Mills products contain trisodium phosphate, a problematic agent that could negatively impact children’s physiological growth.

The contents of my letter are below. I will update the blog if & when I receive a response from General Mills.

People, it’s delicious, but please stay away. And feel free to contact General Mills with your own voice; their corporate address is below.

Leon

***
August 14, 2020

General Mills
P.O. Box #9452
Minneapolis, MN 55440

Re: Trisodium Phosphate

Dear Gen. Mills:

I was recently moved to purchase my first box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch of 2020. I have enjoyed your product for over twenty years, but my purchasing habit has fallen off more recently due to a growing distaste for sugar. Enjoying my first bowl, I casually read the ingredients list and paused on the mention of trisodium phosphate (TSP.) After cursory research, I learned TSP has a vast range of applications in consumer products, from Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Lucky Charms, to cleaning agents and detergents. It is also used as flux for soldering joints in copper plumbing applications. I am appalled to learn that this ingredient is present, in any concentration, in your breakfast cereal.

TSP as an additive has drawbacks that far outweigh its benefits. It upsets the balance of calcium in the body and can cause stomach rupture. Adults who do not regularly purchase your product may have bodies that can withstand this chemical, but young children, who make up the vast majority of your customers, are more at risk for developing osteoporosis and stomach ulcers.

I am moved to recall a TED Talk given by Mark Bittman, food journalist and author, in which he held refined granulated sugar in his hands to illustrate the amount of added sugars found in consumer drinks. Both hands cupped, overflowing with sugar: It was an image I will never forget. A teaspoon is four grams volume; Cinnamon Toast Crunch contains 12 grams of sugar per one cup serving. Three teaspoons in one’s palm may seem like a lot, until you remember no child consumes only one cup of this product at a time.

I am not writing to request less sugar in your cereal; that ingredient has been a matter of contention for decades. Rather, I am writing you with the emerging concern over TSP. This is not a business decision inasmuch as profit and loss is concerned. This is a matter of ethics. This is a matter of consumer protection. You have an enormous responsibility to millions of children worldwide who are exposed to these products through word of mouth or advertising campaigns. It must be possible to manufacture this product without TSP; therefore, I hereby request the use of TSP in your product stops completely and immediately.

Sincerely,

Leon Ferri

See idler tire replacement procedure here.

I picked up a top-of-the-line 1974 Technics tape deck two years ago and it has been an ongoing project to restore the machine to function. Apart from taking a pretty bad smack over the years which damaged the VU meters, its only major issue was that the Rec/Play switch, which is rather difficult to access, had gotten dirty over the years, rendering playback poor with blown out bass frequencies. I shelved the 676 about a year ago when I found out about its super-rare wired remote accessory, available a few times a year for $300-600 on Ebay.

A couple of weeks ago, this RP-9275A came up for auction. Against all odds, I bid $100 and….. won! While it was in the mail, I ordered some Deoxit Gold G5 contact cleaning spray. It was time to fix the 676.

Just four screws removed from the base of the metal hood exposes the electronics, laid out as simply as any car’s engine bay of this era. The transformer features an actual bent metal heat shield (photo upper right) and the tape speed is controlled by inserting a simple flat-blade screwdriver into a control unit (photo upper left.) I do not have an oscilloscope to guage the proper setting, so I used another tape deck to record a sustained note off an mp3 file. I then put this tape, recorded at the correct speed, into the 676, and adjusted the play speed until it matched the tone of the original file played back separately and simultaneously.

In order to remove the face plate, all knobs and switch covers must be removed. Most are unique and keyed, so this is not difficult. One exception is the Rec input volume knobs, which seat within one another (Left and Right channel controls) and are held in place with set screws.

One of the most remarkable features of this vintage tape deck is its centrally located logic board, which controls various solenoids within the unit by lightly depressing buttons for rewind, fast forward, play, pause, and record. The click-clack of the solenoids snapping between their positions can be a very satisfying sound. With the bezel removed, these contacts can be easily reached and cleaned. The VU meters I replaced last year (photo upper right) help ensure that when you record, you are realizing the full potential of your tape.

The wide drive belt and giant flywheel help to bury “wow and flutter,” irregularities in both recording and reproducing of sound. Potential energy afforded by the oversized flywheel keeps the speed consistent and sounding great. The motor on the right is held suspended away from the chassis by four screws and eight rubber grommets in order to minimize vibration. The tape spool motor, nestled between the belt, indicates a build date of November 19, 1974.

The two particular contacts I need to clean are located on the other side of this breadboard. Another board is mounted perpendicular to this one; it must be pulled up and away from the top first.

The build quality of 1970s Technics is evident in the gold band resistors (seen in tan/brown) indicating 5% tolerance. No visible band, seen in non-audio applications, indicates 20% tolerance, and a silver band, seen commonly in lesser brands, indicates 10%. Two plastic switches for “Record” and “Play” are on this board; I sprayed both generously with Deoxit then pushed on them a few times to ensure they were well cleaned.

Do not use Deoxit to clean tape heads. I used 70% alcohol, but 99% is preferred. Simply rub a Q-tip on the playing and recording heads (from left to right above: Q-tip, recording head, playing head.)

While the unit is disassembled, this is a good opportunity to align your fingernail within a damp cloth and clean the detailed surfaces of all knobs and switch covers.

Another hallmark of vintage electronics seen here is the non-polarized two-prong electrical plug with separate ground post.

After testing the 676, I re-installed the front bezel, all knobs and switch covers, and the metal hood.

Now, the moment of truth…. The type of thing Scarface may have had sitting on the carpet next to him in the hot tub…. The wired remote.

After removing the cylinder over the remote control plug-in, I found four jumper wires connecting several of the 12 holes. I was unable to pull these wires out with pliers, but I soon found out that didn’t matter.

It’s somewhat difficult to discern by this photo, but the plastic cylinder in the center of the remote control’s 12 prongs is slightly larger than the receiving hole on the 676, making it impossible to insert. Note the unit’s statement: Its remote can be “only Matsushita model RP-9275” (photo left) while the underside of my remote gives itself away as an “RP-9275A.” (photo right)

This was an extremely disappointing realization because I have no idea what I’m going to do with this remote control now. The search continues for, specfically, an RP-9275.

On the bright side, the 676 is operational, working perfectly, and I’m glad to have it back on the rack.

Special thanks to Dave McDonald of 12VOLTVIDS for assistance.

Notes:

• Comps tend to suffer from recency bias
• Ferry’s eye patch worn for the Love is the Drug video was mistaken as a fashion statement; the eye patch was for an eye injury!
• In Every Dream Comp, a Glaring Omission
• Opening instrumentals are India off Avalon & Slave to Love off Ferry’s 1985 solo album Boys and Girls

Rated:

L – 8
A- 8
J – 7.5

Average: 7.7/10

Thanks for listening, and stay tuned for more… Rate the Comp!