Loved, loved, loved, loved, LOVED the Sugarcubes.  I mean, Bjork's solo stuff is OK, but the 'Cubes were the sheet.  The 1989 album Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week! features a wonderfully wacky and up-tempo little number entitled "Dear Plastic."

One memory I have that's specific to this song dates back to around 1990, when I gave my CD to my friend Pat (Rabid Garfunkel) before he worked a night shift at the campus radio station, and asked him to play that track.  He did, along with many other similarly oddball tunes.  I was listening while washing dishes at the pizza place I worked at (ah, college) just having the time of my life.  Seriously, I've never had as much fun washing dishes since.

Click here to watch a live performance of "Dear Plastic" on YouTube.  This is actually the all-Icelandic version, simply called "Plastic."

Pete Townshend is another one of those artists I respect a great deal, even though I'm not a huge fan of his body of work.  I was never a big Who guy (whoa, Dr. Seuss moment there), and the bulk of his solo work flew under my radar as well.

However, his 1985 release White City is one of the very finest albums ever put to vinyl or plastic.  Seriously, you owe it to yourself to give it a listen however you can.  I could just close my eyes and point and pick a winner from it, but for now I'm going with its opener, "Give Blood."

Click here to watch a live performance of "Give Blood" on YouTube.  (hey, it's David Gilmour!)

Click here to watch the song's segment from the White City film.

I think it was around 1979, maybe 1980, when I was first exposed to the wonder of cable television.  If I recall correctly, the service was called Home Premiere Cinema and it was eventually bought out by Showtime.  On any given day they would take about two or three B-grade 70's flicks (many of them made by the immortal Roger Corman) and repeat them ad nauseam.  That's how I discovered such cheese-ridden gems as Starcrash, The Great Texas Dynamite Chase, Hollywood Boulevard and a whole slew of others, including one of my all-time favorite films, Rock and Roll High School.

To fill time between movies, they would play music videos.  Yes, there were actually some music videos made before MTV even existed.  One of them was "One Step Beyond" by Madness, and I fell in love with it instantly.

Click here to watch the aforementioned video for "One Step Beyond" on YouTube.

The Untouchables are commonly called a "mod revival" band.  Yeah, I don't know what in the holy hell that means either.  What I do know is that these guys blended rock, soul, funk and ska like no other.  If we're gonna try to come up with an appropriate buzzword, I suggest "groovalicious." 

They were about the second or third band I ever saw live, and three things stood out from that show:  taking home a broken drumstick, giving lead singer Jerry Miller a mean ol' high five, and getting drilled in the back by some idiot mosher.  Yes, they actually moshed at a UT's show.  Morons.

Their 1985 album Wild Child makes me want to dance like an epileptic monkey on crack.  Well, it would if I actually could dance, but I digress.  One of its more ass-shaking cuts is "Free Yourself."

Click here to watch the video for "Free Yourself" on YouTube.

Los Lobos is such a great band.  They can do just about anything, and do it well.  I'm not even going to try to pigeonhole them by throwing around labels like "Tex-Mex" or "Chicano rock" or whatever.  They could be friggin' Amish for all I care.  They are just a seriously talented and musically diverse group and I adore them as players and artists.

1987's By the Light of the Moon is much beloved by me.  I could (and may yet still) pick a whole slew of cuts from it.  The lead track, "One Time One Night", is one of those "seedier side of Americana" songs that bands do when they want to project some blue collar "everyman" type of vibe.  But I think this one does it the right way - observant yet still subtle and even hopeful, without a hint of cynicism or vitriol.  Plus, I just love the arrangement and the playing on it.

And I just discovered that Los Lobos is playing in one of my hometown casinos on New Year's Eve.  I am so there.

Click here to watch the video for "One Time One Night" on YouTube.

Fishbone has always been a favorite, especially in my high school/early college years.  They were one of the very first (if not THE very first) bands I ever saw live, and they were astoundingly good.  They were once referred to as "tighter than a mosquito's ass live", and if I'm quoting correctly, whoever said that had it spot on.

Their 1988 album Truth and Soul includes a terrific rendition of the Curtis Mayfield classic "Freddie's Dead."

Click here to watch the video for "Freddie's Dead" on YouTube, with some interview footage thrown in.

This is part of a week-long series on cover songs.

Agent Orange is commonly known as one of the founders of the "surf punk" style.  As such, they belted out several surf music standards, including The Chantays' "Pipeline."

Click here to watch a fan-made video for "Pipeline" on YouTube.

This is part of a week-long series on cover songs.

I'm out of town for a while, so I'm doing these next couple of entries ahead of time.  And quickly.

Infectious Grooves was a more funk-oriented offshoot of Suicidal Tendencies.  So if you think you're hearing Mike Muir's voice when you hear their version of Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song", you are.

Click here to watch a fan-made video for "Immigrant Song" on YouTube.

This is part of a week-long series on cover songs.