![#550: Double Albums of the 1990s]()
July 27, 2021
While the double album (two vinyl LPs) has long been the medium for big-thinking artists from Bob Dylan to Pink Floyd, introducing cassettes and compact discs in the 1980s changed the format length and what actually qualified as a double album. In the 1990s, artists again began pushing the limits of the dominant medium, as evidenced by double album releases over two compact discs not only by 90s rock bands like The Smashing Pumpkins or Wilco, but with hip-hop, electronic and others expanding their releases like from The Notorious B.I.G., Nine Inch Nails, The Orb, Tupac Shakur, and others.
Songs in this Episode:
Intro - We're In This Together by Nine Inch Nails (from The Fragile)
21:26 - Bodies by The Smashing Pumpkins (from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness)
30:06 - Outta Mind (Outta Sight) by Wilco (from Being There)
46:40 - Brown Paper Bag (Single Remix) by Roni Size - Reprazent (from New Forms)
56:20 - The Sound by Swans (from Soundtracks For The Blind)
Outro - Little Fluffy Clouds by The Orb (from The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld)
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July 20, 2021
The moniker "jam bands" had been around for decades before their 90s counterparts in Phish, Rusted Root, and String Cheese Incident brought their own takes out on the road. Athens, Georgia based Widespread Panic draw on the southern sounds of The Allman Brothers Band as well as other guitar heroes like Eric Clapton and J. J. Cale to craft their guitar and keyboard driven sounds. The trick with jam bands, regardless of decade, has always been converting the energy and improvisation of the live performance into a crafted studio product. On 1997's Bombs and Butterflies, Widespread Panic smartly avoids overly long passages for trimmed down and concise songwriting.
Songs in this Episode:
Intro - Radio Child
17:18 - Aunt Avis
19:06 - You Got Yours
41:18 - Glory
52:32 - Hope In A Hopeless World
Outro - Gradle
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July 13, 2021
Plenty of bands messed around with a lo-fi sound in the 90s, sometimes to euphoric effects, sometimes not so much. Swell dabbles: a white noise fractured guitar lead here, a flat acoustic guitar riff there. But on Too Many Days Without Thinking, they are merely small pieces of a more layered puzzle. Had it been played on Les Paul's through big amps, the album would have sounded very familiar, so dialing back the noise and putting it to sparing use helps elevate the band above their 90s rock peers.
Songs in this Episode:
Intro - Make Mine You
14:27 - When You Come Over
19:08 - Throw the Wine
22:36 - What I Always Wanted
29:01 - (I Know) The Trip
Outro - F*ck Even Flow
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![#547: Hash by Hash]()
July 6, 2021
Well-regarded music historians often explain the 90s explosion of alternative music into the mainstream boiled down as the rise of Seattle grunge, the So-Cal pop-punk sound going national, and the movements that followed like the swing revival, electronica, nu-metal, and more. But lost in that simplicity is the more difficult and (quite frankly) weirder starting point of the decade, where bands were mixing and moshing across a spectrum of hard rock, funk, and more. A prime example is the one-and-done band Hash, who released their self-titled album on Elektra in 1993. The band sounds comfortable mixing Red Hot Chili Peppers-style funk with Living Colour-esque swagger and shredding with touches of 60s sitar-spiked psychedelia, all topped with big melodies and harmonies. It's a talented if at times overcooked stew, but finding bands that can play in this many sandboxes and maintain a level of quality is few and far between, even if some of the big swings are misses.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Twilight Ball
17:09 - In The Grass
22:08 - Ghetto
27:58 - Mr. Hello
29:36 - Traveling
Outro - American Chorus
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