2 October 2025 - Tori Amos - Cornflake Girl

I have been holding this song back for a long while.   I go back and forth on it, honestly.  I don't always love the song, but I always like it.  And, as I write this, I am in a love period.

Tori Amos grew up in Baltimore, and since today is Maryland day, I felt it was time to uncork it.

This was one of Amos's biggest hits - a breakthrough of sorts in the UK.  She had bigger pop hits but no song did better on alternative radio.

And it's about.... cornflakes?  No, "cornflake girl" is slang for someone close to you who betrays you - specifically used around the practice of female genital mutilation.  And now you know. 

The song itself is something of an upbeat waltz and you're going to be tapping your toes to this song for the rest of the day.  You're welcome. 

And she made two videos for the song - her insistence.  She WANTED two DIFFERENT videos. The US version featured Amos driving a truck full of women. 

The UK version is much better. It's kind of a reverse Wizard of Oz situation where Dorothy goes to hell. 

Not shockingly, her 1997 performances of the song live sounded just like the record.  Well, not identical.  It's a little different.  But the flair and sound are still there. 

And, kind of shockingly, the 2015 performances also sound like the record, but with glasses.

She actually seems to perform it with more personality here. 

She does still perform, by the way.   Here she is in 2023, still sounding incredible.

1 October 2025 - Throwing Muses - Firepile

C'mon.  It's Rhode Island Day. 

I'm not gonna not post Throwing Muses.  

At this point, both Tanya Donelly and Fred Abong had left the band, leaving only Kristin Hersh (Tanya's stepsister.... or half sister.  It's never actually been clear to me.  But they are sisters) and David Narcizo, both of whom you see in this video.  (Leslie Langston, their original bassist, did return to do some bass work).  

What resulted is arguably the worst reviewed Throwing Muses album - Red Heaven.  This is not me saying this (and, truth be told, Allmusic tells me it's Hunkpapa which I love but I understand the bad reviews).  I think Red Heaven is a revelation and I'd rank it 2rd in my list of their albums (House Tornado being inarguably better).  

Go ahead.  Debate me in the comments.  

The band released two different versions of this single, and I own them both somewhere.  Or I lost them in a past move.  I don't know.  Anyway, it's a fun song that is probably as close as they came to a pop hit. 

I think it would be really intimidating to meet Kristin Hersh in reality.  I had the chance to in 1995, and I regret not doing it because I found it quite intimidating.  

But if you watch the interview and the intense solo performance of the song, you might understand where I'm coming from.  It's intense, and as someone who has seen Throwing Muses live twice and will do so a third time if given the opportunity, yeah.  She's intense.  

1 October 2025 - Belly - Gepetto

Yeah.  This is gonna be a two post day.  Sorry.  But I couldn't choose between two sisters again.  

Belly is a fully, 100% Rhode Island band.  The four original members went to high school together in Newport, Rhode Island.  And, well, they had some degree of success in the 1990s after leader (and my favorite doula) Tanya Donelly's stints in Throwing Muses (more on that in the second post) and the Breeders (more on THEM later this month, probably).  

In fact, the debut album by Belly was supposed to be The Breeders's second album.  Early demos of Star are clearly labelled "The Breeders".   Tanya went in a different direction, and this song wasn't included in those demos - which may explain its unique sound.

To be clear, by all indications I have seen, Tanya didn't get kicked out of either previous band.  She left both to focus on Belly of her own accord.  

Although Fred Abong - also ex-Muses - was the bassist when the song was recorded (and therefore, his is the bass you hear), he had left the band soon after the release of Star and was replaced by Gail Greenwood by the time this video was made.  That's her playing bass in the video. Thankfully, Greenwood is also from Rhode Island, although she had relocated to Boston when she was recruited.   

By the way, Belly did break up.... but they got back together in the mid-2010's.  Here they are - the Gorman brothers, Donelly and Greenwood - performing this song in the KEXP studios in 2018.

Lest you think I'm lying about them being back together, this is them in 2024.

I want you to focus not on Tanya - who is wonderful but please.  I've said enough - but on Gail Greenwood.  She brings JUST as much energy as she did in the 1990s.  

30 September 2025 - The Lonely Island ft. Michael Bolton - Jack Sparrow

Well, we're up to Connecticut on our list.   

And, yes, I know.  The Lonely Island are from California, largely.   But we're not here to talk about them today.

We're talking about Michael Bolton, and, while I find most of his music to be dreck, this collaboration he did with The Lonely Island is absolutely fantastic.

He did not, however, write the sexy hook.   In fact, it took the group some doing - and eliminating most of the profanities (the Scarface reference near the end couldn't be sanitized). But what came out was a classic weirdly big hit song.  

And by the way, a lot of it was recorded using Skype.   No word on whether or not he was in Westport when he recorded it, but that's where he lives to this day. 

Of course, Michael Bolton isn't known for his club bangers.   He's known for piano-driven ballads, and yeah, he does a solo version of the song.

It kinda works.  

But it almost works better live, with all of them together. Yeah, it's the first part of an Emmy medley, but still.  It's incredible.  How did Michael Bolton make such a quick change?

29 September 2025 - Pixies - U-Mass

OK, maybe I should have done this song instead.  

But I always say, give the people what they want.  

And also, this song is in a live version with the original lineup, and not the studio version.  

Bonus: the performance is FROM Massachusetts. 

By the way, this song is one they still perform, like they did at this performance in Boston this year. 

29 September 2025 - Pixies - Monkey Gone To Heaven

Maine was hard.

Massachusetts?  Probably the easiest choice of the whole list.  You see, I grew up in a town called Enfield, CT.... which is right on the Massachusetts border.  I grew up going to concerts in Northampton and Springfield.... throughout the Pioneer Valley.

And in the valley full of pioneer, a band formed in the 1980s called the Pixies. And I heard them and enjoyed their music.  This was the first song of theirs I heard - it was fuzzy and noisy and weird and deep. 

I have been lucky enough to see the Pixies live.  I saw them in 1991 in Springfield, MA, in a pretty large music hall.

This performance was from the same tour, and it's pretty much exactly as I remember it sounding. 

Even though Kim Deal left to be a full-time Breeder, the Pixies are still around and still touring, and of course they still perform this song.

And it still sounds just as dark and noisy and weird and great as it always has. 

26 September 2025 - Patty Griffin - Little Fire

Maine was one of the hardest states for me to do.  Not a lot of nationally famous musicians have come from Maine.  

Patty Griffin is the anomaly - hailing from Old Town, ME - who has made a name for herself as an excellent folk and gospel singer.   This song is from her 2010 Grammy Award-winning album Downtown Church, and it was literally recorded in a downtown Nashville church.  Written by Griffin, it is an absolutely beautiful song, and no, you don't have to be a believer to believe this song is excellent.

Despite not being the most popular artist, Griffin is held in high regard and is seen as influential.  Here she is on Austin City Limits performing this song with the legendary Emmylou Harris.