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Episodes
J and Tim dig into the grunge, alt-rock, and indie albums that changed everything—the forgotten classics, the underappreciated masterpieces, and the legends worth hearing again. One album at a time. Let’s dig it out.
Episodes
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
Ending the 1980s with the creative one-two punch of Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me and Disintegration, like many of their alternative college rock counterparts, The Cure were poised for global superstardom at the start of the next decade. Filled with compilations, live albums, and contributions to various soundtracks, the band managed two proper albums - 1992's Wish, which featured the now ubiquitous single "Friday, I'm In Love," and the polarizing "Wild Mood Swings," whose title accurately describes the inconsistent sound and musical approach.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - A Letter To Elise (from Wish)
16:48 - Never Enough (from Mixed Up)
26:03 - Friday, I'm In Love (from Wish)
47:19 - The 13th (from Wild Mood Swings)
Outro - Maybe Someday (from Bloodflowers)
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Tuesday Feb 08, 2022
Tuesday Feb 08, 2022
Ride's debut album Nowhere sits at the crossroad of 1980s and 90s rock. Shoegaze was still an underground curiosity, and Rider were initially lumped in with Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, and Lush. But as much guitar noise and neo-psychedelia as the band dabbles in, there is an equal amount of 1960s jangle pop and Who-like bombast from the explosive rhythm section to help them stand out from the crowd. Sure, the production is stamped in 1980s reverb and chorus, but Ride were able to craft songs as well as noise to maximum effect.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Seagull
17:03 - Kaleidoscope
24:43 - Dreams Burn Down
30:21 - Nowhere
40:09 - Vapour Trail
Outro - In A Different Place
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Thursday Feb 03, 2022
Thursday Feb 03, 2022
The Mommyheads are the quintessential artist for Dig Me Out. Formed in the late ‘80s by guys who went to a performing arts high school in New York City (yes, the same one that the movie/TV show Fame was based on) and who enjoyed experimenting with lo-fi recording equipment, The Mommyheads had no interest in aping what they were hearing on FM radio or MTV. Instead, they looked up to the underground bands that were also experimenting with 4-track recording, bands like Fish & Roses, They Might Be Giants, and Flaming Lips. In the early ‘90s, they signed with Simple Machines and released a long out-of-print collection of demos and 4-track recordings titled Swiss Army Knife. Dreams of “making it” led to a relocation to San Francisco where, after a string of indie releases on various labels, Geffen Records came calling. Like so many bands covered on the Dig Me Out podcast, the major label deal was not all it was cracked up to be and shortly after The Mommyheads’ self-titled album came out in ‘97, they were dropped and the band broke up. After drummer Jan Kotik passed away from cancer in 2008, the other members got back together and have been active (VERY active) ever since releasing new albums and re-issuing the albums from the ‘90s at a regular pace. A new album is due later in 2022 and there are no signs of slowing down.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - In In Awe from The Mommyheads
8:31 - Wedding Day from Coming Into Beauty
Outro - Spiders from Flying Suit
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Feb 01, 2022
Tuesday Feb 01, 2022
Making commercially successful funky dance pop music amid Britpop's reign may have only been possible via Shaun Ryder. The then ex-Happy Monday hooked up with producer Danny Saber and a group of new cohorts to produce 1995's debut album by Black Grape, It's Great When You're Straight...Yeah. Mixing the big beats of Big Audio Dynamite with touches of ascendent electronic music like trip-hop, while still dipping a toe in the Madchester scene, there's plenty going as slide guitars and sitars brush up against funk basslines and saxophone solos. It's not entirely successful, but Ryder and Co. manage to push the best material to the limits and create a truly unique sound for the middle of the decade.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Reverend Black Grape
12:48 - Tramazi Party
20:08 - A Big Day In The North
30:41 - Shake Well Before Opening
Outro - Kelly's Heroes
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Jan 25, 2022
Tuesday Jan 25, 2022
Little did anyone know that a two-piece garage rock band from Detroit would kick off a sonic revolution in 1999. The White Stripes debut of minimalist blues paired down to just vocals, guitar, and drums wasn't completely without precedent in the underground music scene with bands like the Flat Duo Jets and Bassholes preceding them. And while it would be a few years and a few albums before the mainstream caught on, the core elements of The White Stripes sound were there from the start.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Jimmy the Exploder
20:07 - The Big Three Killed My Baby
26:53 - Sugar Never Tasted So Good
35:26 - Astro
40:56 - Slicker Drips
Outro - Cannon
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Thursday Jan 20, 2022
Thursday Jan 20, 2022
With the success of acts like Rage Against the Machine, Limp Bizkit, 311, and Korn in the mid-90s, by the end of the decade, labels were jumping on the bandwagon and signing bands that incorporated rap and hip-hop into rock, metal, and punk. Zebrahead, from the pop-punk hotbed Orange County, were one of the bands to benefit from this trend and released their debut, Waste of Mind, on Columbia Records in 1998 featuring the singles “Get Back” and “The Real Me.” Though the music industry would shift to boy bands and teen starlets by the early 2000s, Zebrahead soldiered on, finding success in Europe and Japan. As two of the founding, and original members, of Zebrahead, Ben Osmundson and Ali Tabatabaee join us to discuss the band’s longevity, why their sound clicked with listeners, and how they’ve managed to stay together for 25 years while continuously releasing new music.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Check from Waste Of Mind
6:30 - Playmate of the Year from Playmate of the Year
Outro - Falling Apart from MFZB
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Jan 18, 2022
Tuesday Jan 18, 2022
California thrashers Suicidal Tendencies had already been called "sell outs" when they released the video for the iconic single "Institutionalized." Mike Muir, never one to buck to expectations, took ST in the directions he wanted through the 80s and early 90s, and their 1992 album The Art of Rebellion might be the creative apex for the band. Yes, they thrash. Yes, the rock. But the band was already evolving, and TAOR shows a level of arrangement and playing craftsmanship that doesn't come easy. From the charted MTV single "Nobody Hears" to the shape-shifting opener "Can't Stop," Muir is the most surprising discovery in our revisit, taking his voice and lyrics into a variety of sounds and ideas that still resonate. Of course, having an already established line-up of killer musicians backed by the lone appearance of drumming monster Josh Freese helps to further flesh out all the ideas and sounds into a truly unique record for the time period.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Accept My Sacrifice
19:06 - Can't Stop
23:56 - It's Going Down
27:09 - Gotta Kill Captain Stupid
31:34 - Nobody Hears
Outro - Tap Into The Power
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Jan 11, 2022
Tuesday Jan 11, 2022
While 1991 is regarded as the true launch of the 1990s alternative explosion into the mainstream, the sheer volume and diversity of music that followed in 1992 might lay claim to the crown as the most interesting year of the decade. The mainstays of 80s college rock were alive and well, with albums by R.E.M., Bob Mould's new band Sugar, Faith No More, The Cure, The Lemonheads, Sonic Youth, Soul Asylum, and many more. The ubiquitous "grunge" sound was fully ensconced in radio and MTV with Stone Temple Pilots, Alice In Chains, and Screaming Trees added to playlists, while more aggressive sounds emerged from the likes of Rage Against the Machine, Helmet, Pantera, and White Zombie. Underground scenes cracked the mainstream as well, as industrial and electronic acts such as Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, The Orb, Curve, Aphex Twin, and others made significant noise, and the growing UK shoegaze scene produced records from Lush, Catherine Wheel, Ride, Moose, etc. And this barely scratches the surface, as hip-hop saw the release of the decade-defining albums The Chronic by Dr. Dre and Check Your Head by the Beastie Boys, as well as albums by Arrested Development, Ice Cube, Das EFX, Redman, The Pharcyde, and more. And that barely scratches the surface.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - 1992 Medley (Them Bones by Alice In Chains, Wish by Nine Inch Nails, Unsung by Helmet, Somebody To Shove by Soul Asylum)
Outro - Miles Iz Dead by The Afghan Whigs
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Thursday Jan 06, 2022
Thursday Jan 06, 2022
Of late, Terry Ilous is probably best known as Jack Russell’s replacement in Great White (“Once Bitten, Twice Shy”), a position he held from 2010 until his surprising dismissal in 2018, but from the mid-80s until the mid-90s, Ilous fronted the Sunset Strip band XYZ (“Inside Out”, “What Keeps Me Loving You”, “Face Down in the Gutter”). In this revealing conversation, Ilous shares how XYZ bassist Pat Fontaine tricked him into moving to the U.S. from France with promises of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll, the unlikely way XYZ landed a record deal with Enigma Records, working with Don Dokken on the band’s 1989 debut, touring with the likes of Foreigner, Ozzy Osbourne, and Ted Nugent, the arrival of grunge and the devastating effects it had on Ilous’s career for the rest of the ‘90s and how he left the music business for a number of years before being lured back in through the unlikeliest of ways (voiceover work for cartoons). Ilous has reformed XYZ and still plays shows under that band name while also releasing solo material and fronting Land of Gypsies, whose self-titled debut was released by Frontiers Music in December.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Inside Out by XYZ (from self-titled)
12:56 - Face Down In The Gutter by XYZ (from Hungry)
Outro - Don't Say No by XYZ (from Hungry)
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
Tuesday Jan 04, 2022
In the fall of 1993, if you heard the name Meat Puppets attached to the newest single Backwater blasting from your local alternative radio station or on MTV, you would be forgiven for thinking this was a new band from Seattle riding the grunge wave. In truth, this was the band's eighth release, and they hailed from the much sunnier climate of Phoenix, Arizona. As veterans of the indie rock scene who had spent the 80s on famed SST Records, Too High To Die was their second major-label release, and the band was as much an influence on the current wave of alternative acts breaking through as a contemporary, as evidenced by Nirvana's choice to cover three of the band's songs on their MTV Unplugged performance and have the Kirkwood brothers join them onstage. With Too High To Die, the band shows off all of their skills, crafting finger-picked bluegrass tracks alongside ripping Soundgarden-esque tunes.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Backwater
20:27 - Shine
24:19 - Things
29:17 - Severed Goddess Hand
37:48 - Evil Love
Outro - We Don't Exist
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.