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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 Feb 04, 2020
Tuesday Feb 04, 2020
It took twenty-three years for Giants Chair to follow-up their 1996 sophomore album Purity And Control with the 2019 album Prefabylon, which we discussed briefly in our 2019 New Albums Roundtable. Though we've covered plenty of 90s bands reuniting a decade or two later to make new records, prior to Prefabylon Giants Chair weren't on our radar. Thanks to one of Patreon patrons we got the chance to revisit this Kansas City, Missouri band's 1995 debut. While the post-punk math-rock sounds fit nicely into our previously expressed admiration for bands such as Jawbox, Shudder To Think and Quicksand, as well as the neighboring Shiner, we didn't expect to unearth a local scene that included Season To Risk, Molly McGuire, Boys Life, and others all dishing out their own versions of angular guitars, tricky rhythms, and indie/emo vocals. Perhaps a Digging Your Scene episode is in the future, but on this one, we got to dive into this three-piece and their unique take on mid-90s post-punk.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Gunshot And The Jogger
11:55 - New Orleans
24:03 - Mother Brother Sister Lover
26:31 - Weed Roses
Outro - Semi
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Jan 28, 2020
Tuesday Jan 28, 2020
1990 is a strange, contradictory year for music. How else do you explain alternative and underground bands like Jane's Addiction, Concrete Blonde, Faith No More and The B-52's taking up regular MTV rotation slots next to MC Hammer, Warrant, Paula Abdul and Vanilla Ice? There's a good chance you saw They Might Be Giant's "Birdhouse In Your Soul" right after Billy Idol's "Cradle of Love," or "We Die Young" by Alice Chains on the same Headbanger's Ball episode as "Unskinny Bop" by Poison. What we're saying is, there was a lot going on, and we attempt an overview of some of the most interesting overlooked, under-appreciated, and influential albums of the year.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Stop! by Jane's Addiction
10:46 - Graveyard Shift by Uncle Tupelo
24:15 - Is She Weird by Pixies
36:12 - There You Are by Goo Goo Dolls
47:41 - Candy by Iggy Pop
Outro - Cliffs Of Dover by Eric Johnson
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Jan 21, 2020
Tuesday Jan 21, 2020
One and done bands are always an interesting listen, whether they were full-formed bands, one-off side-projects or solo albums, or something else entirely. In the case of Bandit Queen, they formed out of the ashes of Swirl, retaining three of the four members and an indie rock sound. Gone were the jammy rhythms and chorus'd guitars for a more straightforward approach, reminiscent of American female-led alternative acts like Throwing Muses and The Breeders. While the harmony vocals and honest production kept us interested throughout, a few more soaring vocal hooks would have made Hormone Hotel a can't miss record.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Back In The Belljar
14:00 - Big Sugar Emotional Thing
18:54 - Blue Black
20:57 - Scorch
Outro - Give It To The Dog
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Jan 14, 2020
Tuesday Jan 14, 2020
There are plenty of anomalies in what did and didn't become popular in the rise of alternative music during the 1990s. Take for instance They Might Be Giants, who's breakthrough 1990 album Flood with almost thirty tracks of weird and quirky songs that combine humor and musical knowledge into a wholly unique recording. So what then to follow it up? The band decided to produce themselves, and rock out a bit more on the 1992 follow-up Apollo 18. While the experimentation with a slightly more traditional pop-rock sound on songs like The Statue Got Me High and Dig My Grave made the band a bit more palatable to our ears, the stripped-down reliance on simplistic looped drums held back what expanded in year with a full band backing them.
Two notes: Tim was battling a cold, hence the nasal congestion you can clearly hear in his voice. Also, this was recorded prior to the death of Rush drummer/lyricist Neil Peart, which is why there was no mention of it when Rush was briefly brought up during the episodes. #RIPTheProfessor
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - I Palindrome I
11:48 - The Statue Got Me High
16:15 - My Evil Twin
24:17 - Mammals
38:47 - Spider
Outro - Dig My Grave
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Jan 07, 2020
Tuesday Jan 07, 2020
By 1999, the musical landscape had seen the rise and fall of a variety of genres touted as the next big thing. The electronic sounds of The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy offered varying takes on electronica, which bands would incorporate elements of over the years that followed. In the case of Skunk Anansie and their 1999 album Post Orgasmic Chill, it means adding layers to an already layered sound. Guitars are buzzsaw aggressive on one track, followed by a pop ballad approach on the next. Feedback is replaced by orchestrated strings. Booming drums by breakbeats. And making it all work is the dynamic Skin, who vocally covers all the ground with thought-provoking lyrics and near-unparalleled range.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Charlie Big Potato
17:00 - The Skank Heads
21:32 - Good Things Don't Always Come To You
Outro - We Don't Need Who You Think You Are
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Dec 31, 2019
Tuesday Dec 31, 2019
Our look back at Season Nine of the podcast really highlighted how much growth we've experienced and how much more we have ahead of us. We turned over the selection of our roundtable episodes to our Steering Committee and Board of Director level Patreon patrons, and the results did not disappoint. Our poll selected episodes were as interesting and diverse as ever, and our patrons selected reviews also provided us with a chance to revisit some familiar names (Nirvana, The Verve Pipe, etc.) as well as expand the sounds and genres to include rock en español, symphonic metal, avant-garde noise pop, and much more.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro/Outro - Dig Me Out by Sleater-Kinney
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Dec 24, 2019
Tuesday Dec 24, 2019
For our final roundtable of 2019, we invited several of our Patreon patrons to discuss the new albums released this year from artists connected to the 1990s. Turns out, 2019 had dozens of albums that qualified, over a hundred in reality. We talked about new releases from bands like UK shoegazers Swervedriver and Ride, the long-awaited return of Tool, a stellar new release from The Sheila Divine, plus names you know like Bob Mould, Fastball, UNKLE, Beck, Sleater-Kinney, etc., as well as lesser-known releases like Giants Chair and New Rising Sons.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Saw Lighting by Beck from Hyperspace
10:07 - White Collar by Fastball from The Help Machine
18:42 - Russian Racehorse by Giants Chair from Prefabylon
31:34 - Future Love by Ride from This Is Not A Safe Place
40:25 - Age Is Just A Number by The Sheila Divine from Beginning Of The End Is Where We'll Start Again
1:06:07 - Can I Go On by Sleater-Kinney from The Center Won't Hold
1:15:07 - Miracle Pill by Goo Goo Dolls from Miracle Pill
Outro - Africa by Weezer from Weezer (Teal Album)
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Dec 17, 2019
Tuesday Dec 17, 2019
Bands like Animal Bag were dime a dozen in the early 1990s. Getting signed, putting out a record, the musical landscape shifts, and suddenly your sound is outdated and the record label is in flux. Their 1992 self-titled debut has reverb-filled production that pins it to the start of the decade, and taking cues from fellow Californians like Faith No More, Jane's Addiction, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. But their funk and weirdness only shows up in short bursts, as this band could easily be lumped in with the jeans and t-shirt alternative metal and grunge bands like Raging Slab, Mind Funk, and label mates Mother Love Bone. Though they lack Andy Wood's penchant for an epic ballad, there is no doubt Animal Bag had their sights set on Seattle rather than the Sunset Strip. Does it all come together in a timeless way? Depends on the listener.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Another Hat
21:24 - Personal Demons
35:55 - Mirrored Shades
42:11 - Everybody
Outro - Moonsong
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Dec 10, 2019
Tuesday Dec 10, 2019
Where is the line between rock and metal? What about stoner or desert? And what is doom besides a video game and bad movie? All questions worthy of discussion as we revisit the 1992 album Sleep's Holy Mountain by Sleep. Baked into the sound of Sleep is the ever-present influence of 70s Black Sabbath, but with an occasional pummeling dirge closer to The Melvins, while trafficking in the same sun-soaked low-end riffage of Kyuss. It's dark, heavy, psychedelic, drone-filled head-nodding rock that works best when the rhythm section gets to swing.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - The Druid
17:00 - Evil Gypsy/Solomon's Theme
25:20 - Holy Mountain
30:31 - Inside The Sun
Outro - Dragonaut
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.
Tuesday Dec 03, 2019
Tuesday Dec 03, 2019
San Diego may be known for beaches and year-round mild weather, but the second-largest city in California is also home to a vibrant if isolated music scene dating back to the 1960s with Gary Puckett & The Union Gap and Iron Butterfly. As per our "Digging Your Scene" episodes, we're interested in sounds of the 1990s - where those bands played, bought and sold records, recorded their music, read and listened to other bands, and all the other interesting and unique elements that help define a scene. What we discovered is a deep and vast collection of guitar rock heading off in multiple directions - from punk to post-punk, hard rock to nu-metal, industrial to experimental. To help us discover it all, we're joined by members of No Knife, Jejune and aMiniature to talk bands, venues, record stores, labels and more.
Songs In This Episode
Intro Medley (Academy Flight Song by No Knife / Peddler's Talk by aMiniature / Hileah by JeJune
28:16 - Does Not Compute by Drive Like Jehu
53:33 - Flexiclocks by The And/Ors
Outro - Deadbolt - Voodoobilly Man
Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon.