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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 Dec 07, 2021
Tuesday Dec 07, 2021
Trends came and went in the 90s, some propelling underground subgenres into the mainstream, while others revitalized previously dormant sounds. A few bands, mostly under the radar like Cry Of Love, The Four Horsemen, The Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies, Raging Slab, and Brother Cane, were ignoring the sounds of Seattle for rock rooted in 60s and 70s blues, r&b, southern, country, and hard rock. Leading the pack was Marietta, Georgia's The Black Crowes, who had been kicking around since the 1980s under various names, led by the mercurial Robinson brothers, Chris and Rich. Their debut is full of well-known radio singles, while their follow-up expanded their sound and garnered further accolades. But sessions for their third album, originally titled Tall, became mired in endless and expensive experimentation. After refocusing, the band wrote and rewrote to land on Amorica, displaying a matured and relaxed vibe with the guitar fire that made the band favorites, but without devolving into navel-gazing jams that others in the compact disc era regularly abused.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Gone
24:59 - Wiser Time
30:17 - P.25 London
37:28 - A Conspiracy
Outro - High Head Blues
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Tuesday Nov 30, 2021
Tuesday Nov 30, 2021
Last year we spent Thanksgiving Eve with our patrons and friends sharing new music we were thankful for during a difficult year. 2021 has presented its own challenges, but we're lucky to have so many musical artists and creatives to turn to for escape. From the metal and hard rock of Iron Maiden, Danko Jones, and Mammoth WVH to the trip-hop of Morcheeba, Sneaker Pimps, and Hooverphonic, to the electronic and industrial of Front Line Assembly, Martin Gore, and Gary Numan, to a host of other artists like Brandi Carlisle, Dave Gutter, Palm Ghosts, The Hold Steady, Spectres, King Buffalo, Ben Kweller, and many more, there was plenty to celebrate.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Don't Back Down by Mammoth WVH (from Mammoth WVH)
7:27 - All My Heroes Are Dead by Dave Gutter (from I've Been Here Awhile EP)
15:12 - John Carpenter by Palm Ghosts (from The Lost Frequency)
18:24 - The Creeps by Garbage (from No Gods No Masters)
24:29 - Family Farm by The Hold Steady (from Open Door Policy)
30:13 - Blink Twice by Jim Ward (from Daggers)
36:42 - Swan Song by Lindsey Buckingham (from Lindsey Buckingham)
46:12 - Submarines by Failure (from Wild Type Droid)
57:38 - Ouch by The Tragically Hip (from Saskadelphia EP)
Outro - This Love Ain't Dead by Aaron and the Lord (from Aaron and the Lord)
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Nov 23, 2021
Tuesday Nov 23, 2021
Out of the fertile Chapel Hill, North Carolina scene emerged Polvo at the start of the 1990s. Their sound is lumped into math rock, a term the band themselves reject, but the elements are there - progressive rock filtered through an indie lens. On their 1993 sophomore album Today's Active Lifestyles, you'd be hard-pressed to find any evidence of Jethro Tull, Yes, or Emerson, Lake & Palmer. But King Crimson meets Sonic Youth? Now we're warmer. Guitar lines criss-cross with noise and bends that lesser bands would likely turn into a messy dirge, while Polvo creates a singular sound unto themselves.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Sure Shot
20:25 - Thermal Treasure
30:11 - Action vs. Vibe
39:42 - Lazy Comet
Outro - Gemini Cusp
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Nov 16, 2021
Tuesday Nov 16, 2021
The 1990s definitely saw its fair share of pastiche in music from The Rolling Stones raunch of The Black Crowes to the underground Los Angeles swing revival that briefly bubbled into the mainstream. Out in San Francisco, The Brian Jonestown Massacre was taking full advantage of the Haight-Ashbury vibes to experiment with sounds old and new, dabbling in shoegaze, psychedelia, jangle-pop, and more. On their sixth album, 1997's Give It Back!, the one and only with future Black Rebel Motorcycle Club founder Peter Hayes, the band puts all the elements to use on slinky bass-driven jams like "Super-Sonic" and "Whoever you Are" while also finding time to bliss out on tracks like the sitar-driven "Salaam." But it's not all good vibes, as the bands more evil half of the namesake shows up on the disturbing noise collage "Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request," and "#1 Hit Jam" is definitely not.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Satellite
13:53 - This Is Why You Love Me
18:55 - Whoever You Are
25:05 - Super-sonic
34:00 - Servo
Outro - Salaam
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Nov 09, 2021
Tuesday Nov 09, 2021
Almost six years to the day, we revisited the debut album Earth Vs. The Wildhearts by the UK hard rock band. All the ingredients were there for us to love and champion this band, but for various reasons, we were both underwhelmed and disappointed. Thanks to a member of our Patreon Union, we're giving The Wildhearts a second shot with their 1995 follow-up P.H.U.Q. Far from a sophomore slump, the second album by the band pulls successfully from metal, hard rock, and power pop to create a riff-laden record that matches it on the vocal front with big, sugary hooks and loads of backing vocals.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Nita Nitro
18:14 - I Wanna Go Where The People Go
21:46 - Just In Lust
27:46 - Getting It
37:14 - Caprice
Outro - Naivety Play
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Nov 02, 2021
Tuesday Nov 02, 2021
Country, blues, and gospel are a winning combination. So are mixing trip-hop with acid house. But what if we threw that all into a big stew, layered it with a John Prine cover, Jim Jones (of Jonestown infamy) audio samples, and a druggy, capitalist critiquing, night-on-a-bender lyrical bent that also stayed away from strident political commentary while being entirely political? A big stew, eh? That's what Alabama 3 are serving up on their 1997 debut album Exile on Coldharbour Lane. If the band name sounds familiar, and you were alive at the start of the 21st century, you probably heard their track "Woke Up This Morning" introducing the weekly exploits of one Tony Soprano. Hearing that song gives listeners a nice primer on the band, but they do much more with their sixty-minute run-time, even if occasionally indulging a bit too much, like any fully exploited bender.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Woke Up This Morning
18:42 - Speed of the Sound of Loneliness
24:44 - Sister Rosetta
39:46 - Mao Tse Tung Said
1:07:34 - Peace in the Valley
Outro - U Don't Dans 2 Tekno Anymore
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
Tuesday Oct 26, 2021
Just like how the 1990s produced hundreds of alternative bands signed to major labels that barely made a dent in radio, MTV, or Billboard, the 80s had their fair share of obscure and forgotten acts of might-have-beens. Those rock bands that straddled the line between the two decades often suffered the worst, coming in at the tail end of hair/glam rock dominance into the emergent alternative and college rock scene ready to explode. Phantom Blue is a perfect example of this interesting time, a band whose 1989 debut is more in line with 80s metal, while their 1993 follow-up (and last) record Built to Perform shows growth in multiple directions, incorporating the drop-d riffing of Soundgarden and Alice In Chains flawlessly with Guns 'n Roses licks and energy.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Better Off Dead
15:32 - Lied To Me
21:11 - Little Man
31:01 - My Misery
Outro - Time to Run
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Oct 19, 2021
Tuesday Oct 19, 2021
Band reunions aren't new, as some of the best-selling and most well-known bands have gone on hiatus or broken up for extended periods of time. Back in 2015, we discussed 1990s rock bands that had broken up and gotten back together. Six years have passed, and more bands have reunited, released material, or at least toured. We decided to revisit the topic and discuss bands like Swervedriver, Hum, The Psychedelic Furs, The Vapors, Guns 'n Roses, and many more who have been back in the studio (either to record or rerecord) and hit the road together.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Step Into You by Hum
11:50 - Thread by Shades Apart
18:09 - Don't Believe by The Psychedelic Furs
34:50 - Amputation by The Jesus And Mary Chain
47:00 - The Colour of Love by The Smashing Pumpkins
Outro - Mary Winter by Swervedriver
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Oct 12, 2021
Tuesday Oct 12, 2021
Before Creeper Lagoon scored a minor hit with "Wrecking Ball" on their 2001 major label, radio-friendly alternative rock album Take Back The Universe and Give Me Yesterday, the band released a much more intimate debut. 1998's I Become Small and Go, co-produced in part by John King of The Dust Brothers, finds an even balance between catchy indie-pop, and more produced and layered tracks. Using a host of loops, oddball sounds, and other studio tricks gives tracks like "Wonderful Love" just enough earworm material to balance with the more subdued songs like "Sylvia." Unfortunately, the band can't hold up the momentum, and the album takes a noticeable dive in quality towards the end, but that doesn't erase what is a re-listenable record.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Dear Deadly
17:16 - Wonderful Love
20:23 - Sylvia
24:04 - Drink and Drive
Outro - Empty Ships
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Oct 05, 2021
Tuesday Oct 05, 2021
He's an outlier, an enigma, an iconoclast, an original. We're talking about Tom Waits, whose career is more closely tied to the 70s and 80s, but who released his Grammy Award-winning album Bone Machine in 1992 just as the first wave of grunge was talking off in 90s rock. Trying to compare Waits, and this album in particular, to any of his contemporaries, is a fool's errand. Sure, there's a bit of Nick Cave here, some Mark Lanegan there, even some Morphine and Beck, but Waits is often on another planet entirely. Using a collection of non-traditional percussion instruments (some homemade) combined with buzzing guitars and ramshackle pianos, to create a junkyard orchestra. It often sounds like it's falling apart before it even starts, but Waits can bring it together with his vocals, even if they are the most divisive aspect of a Tom Waits album.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - I Don't Wanna Grow Up
17:26 - Black Wings
24:49 - That Feel
29:54 - Whistle Down The Wind
34:26 - Goin' Out West
Outro - The Earth Died Screaming
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.