Albums That Were Important to Tosh in 1991

 

1991 was a mega-year for me. I worked at Book Soup and worked at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice, California. We also moved from a crummy apartment in Hollywood to Silver Lake in one of those dreamy Walt Disney Snow White architectural wonders. While living in Japan, I did a book of poetry, and everything seemed right to me. And we were still going to Japan, at least once a year. The amazing thing about that year is I had no interest in any music released that year. It was a big year and iconic, due to Seattle bands' resurgence like Nirvana making it big. I admired Kurt and company, but the music meant nothing to me. What impressed me, and was totally new to me at that time was Pixies's "Trompe le Monde." I have heard of them but never their music, until a visit at Tower Sunset, and out of curiosity, listened to this album. By the time I heard the third track, "Alec Eiffel," I was hooked. To this day, I love "Alec Eiffel." I then purchased their past albums, and although I wasn't a fanatic fan, I really love "Trompe le Monde." While visiting Tokyo that year, I picked up on a compilation of Joe Meek's productions/songs as well as his odd masterpiece "I Hear a New World." In 1991, I became a Meek obsessive. Also, I started to listen to Serge Gainsbourg. He died that year, and again, being in Japan, it's easy to be exposed to French pop music. Every music store in Japan had a sizable French Pop section. So, yes, French pop culture made an appearance, which leads to my TamTam Books.