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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 Nov 03, 2020
Tuesday Nov 03, 2020
Instead of tackling an individual label for this roundtable, we decided to invite our Patreon patrons on the show to discuss some of their favorite record labels of the 1990s. While many started out with a narrow musical focus, some developed and expanded their roster of bands, while others stay true to their original mission. We talked about the pop-punk of Berkeley, CA's Lookout Records, the New York hardcore of Revelation, the garage punk of Bellingham, WA's Estrus Records, the post-punk of Chicago's Touch and Go Records, and many more.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - B.L.U.R.E.M.I. by Blur
6:43 - Mouth Breather by The Jesus Lizard (Touch & Go)
19:24 - The Young Influentials by Juno (Desoto)
31:31 - Graveyard Girlfriend by The Groovie Ghoulies (Lookout)
48:28 - Killing A Camera - Braid (Polyvinyl)
Outro - Mutate Me by Into Another (Revelation)
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Tuesday Oct 27, 2020
Tuesday Oct 27, 2020
For every obvious major label signing in the mid-90s trying to capitalize on the success of a variety of Seattle-sounding guitar bands, there was an equal number of head-scratchers that seem to make little sense in retrospect. Take Southern Culture on the Skids, a North Carolina rockabilly outfit that had kicked around since the mid-80s, but found a home on Geffen Records alongside Weezer, Sonic Youth, Veruca Salt, and White Zombie for their 1995 release Dirt Track Date. What the three-piece had going for them is a tight unit of skilled players steeped in American music history, smoothly transitioning from steel-pedal Hawaiian influenced ballads to B-52s-esque kitschy minimalist pop. Dirt Track Date may have only made the slightest dent thanks to its quirky single "Camel Walk," but like the swing revival, the attempt at recapturing the sounds of the past comes across as earnest rather than nostalgic.
Song In This Episode
Intro - Camel Walk
17:50 - Firefly
22:50 - Nitty Gritty
26:08 - Make Mayan A Hawaiian
Outro - 8 Piece Box
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Friday Oct 23, 2020
Friday Oct 23, 2020
For our latest Dig Me Out '80s episode, available only to our Patreon community, we revisit the 1981 album Fair Warning by Van Halen. While tensions mounted within the Van Halen camp between Eddie, Dave, and producer Ted Templemen, the band explored dark sounds and themes, integrating dirty disco grooves, screaming slide guitar, and synthesizer mayhem that marked a turning point in the Van Halen story.
Check out the first thirty-five minutes of this two-hour and fifteen-minute episode for free, join the Dig Me Out Union to access the previous dozen '80s episodes, vote in our monthly album pick polls, and more.
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
Tuesday Oct 20, 2020
The success of the 1993 Screaming Trees album Sweet Oblivion and the single "Nearly Lost You" may have put Mark Lanegan on the mainstream map, but as a solo singer/songwriter, Lanegan was already successfully forging a different path with 1990's The Winding Sheet. By the time 1994's Whiskey For The Holy Ghost was released after a protracted recording period, the split between the streamlined grunge of the Trees and Lanegan's forays into folk and blues were fully on display. With only one track, the escalating "Boracho," featuring prominent electric guitar and distortion, the album finds more similarities with fellow Seattle folksters The Walkabouts (with whom Lanegan appeared as a guest) than most of his Seattle contemporaries. The result is Lanegan's voice, sought after as a collaborator for decades to come, fully out front, which serves him well while exposing some of the cracks in the instrumental performances and production.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - House A Home
13:11 - The River Rise
17:47 - Boracho
31:18 - Sunrise
36:58 - Ride The Nightingale
Outro - Judas Touch
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Tuesday Oct 13, 2020
Tuesday Oct 13, 2020
With a major label budget backing them, Doug Martsch and his rotating cast of Built To Spill members made something special with 1997's Perfect From Now On. While his previous indie releases, along with Martsch's original band Treepeople, pointed to a capable songwriter and inventive guitar player, Perfect From Now On raised the bar for nearly every guitarist who studied J Mascis' frenetic shredding, Neil Young's extended jams, or Kevin Shields layered shoegaze. Thanks to the time on their side, layers of guitar intertwine throughout, switching between clean picking and fuzzed leads, backed by an array of studio indulgences that include a cello, mellotron, organ, and more. The result is lush and dreamy without losing its bite, and a timeless record that influenced a generation of artists that none have equaled.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Untrustable, pt 2
19:36 - Randy Describes Eternity
22:03 - Stop The Show
29:00 - Out Of Sight
Outro - I Would Hurt A Fly
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Tuesday Oct 06, 2020
Tuesday Oct 06, 2020
By 1998 the grunge bubble had burst even for the second wave, as sunnier, more eclectic alternative rock fought for radio airwave space against the upstart nu-metal bands and a resurgence of manufactured pop. One of the biggest hits was thanks to the Austin, Texas trio Fastball, whose sophomore album All The Pain Money Can Buy produced the cinematic single "The Way," which along with bands like Harvey Danger, The New Radicals, Imperial Teen, and others provided a momentary bubble of pop uncertainty. Fastball wasn't exactly a one-hit-wonder, charting two additional singles in the top 20. The album oscillates between the voices and styles of Tony Scalzo and Miles Zuniga, who craft concise tunes with enough diversity to touch on 60s pop psychedelics, 70s power-pop and 80s new wave without jarring inconsistencies.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - The Way
27:20 - Out Of My Head
33:38 - Sooner Or Later
48:20 - Warm Fuzzy Feeling
51:11 - Charlie, The Methadone Man
Outro - Fire Escape
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Monday Sep 28, 2020
Monday Sep 28, 2020
Noise rock is a moniker tossed around about a number of 1990s bands. Australia's Ricaine are no different, except that they are different, and their 1996 debut album Regret Is An Inevitable Consequence of Life is proof of it. While there are plenty of bursts of howling guitar feedback, grinding bass, and crushing drums, the band excels at balancing the noise with moments of tension-filled restraint, playing with the quiet/loud dynamic in a myriad of interesting ways. Did we say dynamics? This album is chock full of them, turning on a dime in ways that left us impressed, bolstered by a perfectly natural production style that compliments the sonic shifts throughout the record.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - The Failed Actor
18:13 - Three From Three
22:03 - Judith's Fence
28:14 - Meek
34:40 - Contradictory Black Muzzle
Outro - Even In Death
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Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
Tuesday Sep 22, 2020
After the industrial noise rock of Cop Shoot Cop, lead singer/bassist Tod Ashley moved on to the eclectic sounds of Firewater, drawing on the sounds of American indie rock equally with European traditional music such as cabaret and Klezmer. With the help of future Gogol Bordello guitarist Oren Kaplan and a variety of skilled players, the band jumps from the Screaming Trees-esque alternative rock of "I Still Love You, Judas" to the Peter Gunn aping intro track "Ponzi's Theme." At their best, Firewater are a challenging and diverse listen thanks to the gravel-voice Tod A., but that's counterbalanced by some kitschy organ and piano sounds that sound more Smash Mouth than Tom Waits.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Green Light
10:23 - So Long, Superman
13:40 - Knock 'em Down
21:15 - Whistling In The Dark
Outro - Caroline
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Monday Sep 14, 2020
Monday Sep 14, 2020
Something must have been in the Missouri River that helped produced so many Kansas City post-hardcore heavy-hitters. We've already talked about Shiner and Giants Chair on this podcast, and this time we're checking out the 1994 sophomore album In A Perfect World by Season To Risk, who shared members with Shiner and Molly McGuire, also of K.C. Leaning more into the more chaotic noise rock of early Soundgarden, Killdozer, or The Jesus Lizard, with a manic rhythm section, and Lemmy-meets-Buzz Osborne, the fact that this was released on a major label at the height of Seattle radio and MTV dominance is a testament to the talent of the band and the free flow of major label money in the decade. There is a radio single on the sledgehammer of an album, but any attempt to reign in the mayhem would have resulted in a watered-down and inferior release.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Jack Frost
21:25 - Nausea
26:29 - Future Tense
34:50 - Timebomb
Outro - Remembered
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Tuesday Sep 08, 2020
Tuesday Sep 08, 2020
Portishead may remain the most interesting enigma of the 1990s. First is Beth Gibbons, who channels Liz Fraser of the Cocteau Twins, Billie Holiday, and Jane Birkin into an unmatched vocal for the decade. Second is Geoff Barrow, creating 60s and 70s sounding spy movie and spaghetti western sound scapes via downtempo, gothic, and hip-hop samples and influences, with the tone-perfect playing of Adrian Utley on guitar. Though cast with trip-hop peers Massive Attack, DJ Shadow, and Bjork, Portishead forge an entirely unique path.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Sour Times
21:07 - Glory Box
31:19 - Wandering Star
36:25 - Roads
Outro - Mysterions
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.