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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 Sep 28, 2021
Tuesday Sep 28, 2021
In popular culture, whether it's music, films, books, or television, the idea of a Guilty Pleasure has existed as long as people have formed opinions on entertainment. High versus low art, serious versus inconsequential, intimate versus manufactured - everyone has their own criteria. We discuss the power of shame, such as when a once-popular genre falls out of favor, or when the personal behavior of an artist can affect an audience, the phrase can take on an even more serious interpretation.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Barbie Girl by Aqua
Outro - I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred
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Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
Members of Seattle's biggest bands of the 90s rock scene were often dabbling in side projects, like Temple of the Dog, Mad Season, and Brad. Matt Cameron and John McBain had previously played together in Hater, and along with Soundgarden bassist Ben Sheppard started Wellwater Conspiracy By the time they got around to album number two, Sheppard left, leaving Cameron and McBain to make the 1999's Brotherhood of Electric: Operational Directives, along with some friends. One of those friends is Josh Homme, not long after the end of Kyuss and just as Queens of the Stone Age is starting up, who hops on board for vocals on three tracks. Cameron tackles most of the rest and does a nice job with some 60s-influenced garage rock tunes that wouldn't sound out of place on a Hives record. Unfortunately, the side-project nature of the band leaves room for lots of noodling and experimentation. Some good, most not, which turns what would have been a tight, rockin' record into a much more bloated affair in need of a editor.
Songs in this Episode:
Intro - Good Pushin'
13:09 - Compellor
20:55 - Right Of Left Field
23:38 - B.O.U.
28:07 - Van Vanishing
Outro - Red Light Green Light
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Tuesday Sep 14, 2021
Tuesday Sep 14, 2021
Toward the middle of the 1990s, the shift away from loud grunge, post-hardcore, and punk resulted in a wide variety of more introspective sounds. Some bands were tagged with emo, some with slowcore, others with simply indie rock. From Death Cab for Cutie and John Vanderslice to Elliott Smith and Iron & Wine, the late 90s and early aughts were full bands turning down both the volume and tempo. San Diego's Pinback, comprised of veteran scene musicians Rob Crow and Armistead Burwell Smith IV, utilize a wide variety of instruments and approaches on their self-titled debut from 1999. A simple drum preset can carry an entire song, mixing a variety of analog keyboard and guitar sounds, while occasionally introducing samples, guitar-mimicking vinyl scratching, or vocal loops. It's a melancholy but charming debut that presents many interesting ideas that sometimes lack a second or third gear to make them truly inspired.
Songs in this Episode:
Intro - Hurley
17:34 - Tripoli
20:20 - Rousseau
25:33 - Crutch
Outro - Lyon
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Tuesday Sep 07, 2021
Tuesday Sep 07, 2021
While 90s rock is known for the volume-pushing bands from Seattle, Boston, Chicago, and other parts around the world, a loose movement of quiet and introspective artists rallied (quietly) around sparse arrangements, hushed vocals, and an appreciation for traditional to 60s folk. Ida covers most of that ground and more on their fourth album, 2000's Will You Find Me. Thanks to a wide range of guest musicians and a major label budget, the band incorporates electric piano, moog, wurlitzer, viola, and a host of other instruments to fill out the nooks and crannies of their deliberate sound. When at their best, the foursome use the three vocals to perfection, crafting haunting and beautiful sound scapes. But on the flip-side, some of the less fussed-over tracks sound bare in comparison, or tracks meander when they should be more concise.
Songs in this Episode:
Intro - Shrug
21:24 - Down on Your Back
26:19 - Turn Me On
32:29 - Encantada
40:18 - Shotgun
48:09 - Man in Mind
Outro - The Radiator
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Tuesday Aug 31, 2021
Tuesday Aug 31, 2021
By the early 90s metal music faced a crossroads - fixtures of the 70s and 80s influenced by Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were less connecting less with a younger generation of fans whose exposure to the thrash of Metallica, the hardcore of Bad Brains, and a new wave of guitar gods like Vernon Reid of Living Colour and Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine. From their early years in high school through years of demoing and playing gigs in Southern California, the Deftones tapped into this wide variety of sounds, as well as new wave and post-punk, to craft a uniquely 90s take on metal. Thought dubbed nu-metal at the time on their 1995 debut album Adrenaline and 1997 follow-up Around The Fur, both with producer Terry Date, their sound continued to expand in the 2000s, incorporating shoegaze, space rock, and more. We revisit their 1990s output to trace the beginnings of one of the most interesting and influential alternative metal bands of the past twenty years.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - My Own Summer (Shove It) from Around The Fur
20:11 - 7 Words from Adrenaline
35:23 - Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away) from Around The fur
42:28 - The Chauffeur (Duran Duran cover)
Outro - Bored from Adrenalin
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Tuesday Aug 24, 2021
Tuesday Aug 24, 2021
Few names evoke the 90s like Ned's Atomic Dustbin. It doesn't hurt that the band also sported an unusual line-up of two bass players that made full use of the sonic range - one carrying the low end and the other mid-range riffs ala Peter Hook of New Order. It gave The Neds something extra to play with, and on 1992's Are You Normal? the band shed their punkier, less polished debut sound for a rhythmic, bouncy follow-up effort. While the rhythm section carries a large amount of songs, if gives the guitar room to roam, from metalish funk riffs to blissed out delays. On the stronger material, it gels nicely, but the album takes time to find its footing, with a back-half that shows more range and depth that keeps us from loving the whole.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Suave And Suffocated
29:42 - Walking Through Syrup
40:30 - Not Sleeping Around
57:03 - Intact
Outro - Swallowing Air
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Tuesday Aug 17, 2021
Tuesday Aug 17, 2021
Chicago had a reputation for producing some of the notable heavier bands of the 1990s, including Ministry, Smashing Pumpkins, The Jesus Lizard, Shellac, and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. You can now add Wicker Man to that list. Not familiar with the band Wicker Man, you say? We're here to help, thanks to one of our knowledgeable Patreon patrons. The band managed just one full-length, their 1995 self-titled debut for Hollywood Records, and it's both hard and easy to understand why the band is all but forgotten. The quality and craftsmanship is clear, heavy riffs that touch on power metal, stoner rock, post-hardcore, and more that could satisfy a wide variety of metal fans. But looking back on 1995, it's also easy to see how the band was out of step with the emerging nu metal and industrial scenes, which makes rediscovering the band all the sweeter.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - You Annoy Me
19:26 - Party Grrrl
26:56 - Don't Believe A Word
29:58 - Hey Hey Hey
39:47 - Brainfreeze
Outro - Sugarfoot
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Tuesday Aug 10, 2021
Tuesday Aug 10, 2021
Rusty's 1995 debut album Fluke pulls off a neat trick, sound both of the times and yet somehow ticking the boxes of previous generations. There is the swampy garage blues of "Warning" that Royal Trux or Beck would appreciate as much as ZZ Top of Rory Gallagher. There is a blast of hardcore-ish punk on the aptly titled "Punk" and nods from everyone to the Stooges, Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr. and The Replacements across the record. Separated, the guitars might sound too gnarly or the drums to lo-fi, but the overall combination mostly finds the sweet spot.
Song In This Episode:
Intro - Groovy Dead
13:22 - Misogyny
18:07 - K.D. Lang
19:52 - Warning
23:50 - Punk
Outro - California
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Tuesday Aug 03, 2021
Tuesday Aug 03, 2021
Best known for their string of mid-90s hit singles that smoothed off the harder edges of what we once called alternative rock, Collective Soul returned in 1997 under difficult circumstances with Disciplined Breakdown. A legal battle with their ex-manager lead to a canceled tour and recording the record on their own. Thanks to Ed Roland's tenured history as a musician and songwriter, the band barely misses a step combining pop-friendly melodies with rock arrangements and sounds, even taking some unexpected detours that work ("Link") and don't work ("Full Circle").
Songs in this Episode:
Intro - Precious Declaration
25:02 - Disciplined Breakdown
34:51 - Link
40:18 - Crowded Head
Outro - Listen
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Tuesday Jul 27, 2021
Tuesday Jul 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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