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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 May 07, 2019
Tuesday May 07, 2019
By the time of their 2000 album Odyssey Number Five, Brisbane, Australia's Powderfinger had sharpened their sound and created an album that found a balance between sweet radio friendly alternative rock hooks and melodies, while also giving headphone listeners interesting bits to revisit the album over and over again. At home, this lead to a string of chart topping albums and singles, but abroad, the band failed to find a foothold. Not surprising, considering the band drew not from the popular sounds of the moment, but from a wide range of influences, both in terms of songwriting and production. With veteran producer Nick DiDia behind the board, the band swiftly moves from Oasis balladry to bluesy riffing to arena anthems with ease, finding cohesion among them all, albeit with perhaps too much cohesion among the tempos from song to song.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - My Happiness
17:19 - My Kind Of Scene
20:30 - Up And Down And Back Again
25:09 - Like A Dog
35:57 - Thrillology
Outro - Waiting For The Sun
To support the podcast, join us at Patreon for bonus content and more.
Tuesday Apr 30, 2019
Tuesday Apr 30, 2019
By the time of their fifth album Everclear from 1991, American Music Club was anything but a household name. If you caught their single "Rise" on late on night on MTV, or by chance on an adventurous radio station, you are among a lucky few. Considering the musical landscape for rock, where 80s hair/glam metal was still dominant while ascendent alternative had yet to be come a proper decade-defining brand name, it's easy to see why you may have missed it. AMC evokes ideas of genres without ever settling on one, making mainstream classification all but impossible. Touches of Americana thanks to acoustic guitars, but not really any twang. Downbeat and bleak slowcore until Mark Eitzel furiously strums an acoustic in bursts of kinetic release. The album feels timeless, yet could easily be the recollection of a single night of boozing and fury. It did make Rolling Stone take notice, granting the album "of the year" consideration and naming Mark Eitzel the preeminent songwriter of the moment, so maybe it's time everyone else finds the reverbed-out beauty in Everclear.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Rise
15:02 - Why Won't You Stay
17:21 - The Dead Part Of You
22:35 - The Confidential Agent
29:16 - Miracle On 8th Street
Outro - Sick Of Food
To support the podcast, join us at Patreon for bonus content and more.
Thursday Apr 25, 2019
Thursday Apr 25, 2019
If there is a new episode of Dig Me Out in your feed on a Thursday, that can only mean one thing - we sharing with you a preview of our latest Dig Me Out '80s episodes. With the help our Patreon Board of Directors and Steering Committee tiers, we're revisiting another album from the 1980s based on suggestions and votes of our patrons. This month we're checking out the 1989 album self-titled album by Max Q. Join the DMO Union for as little as $2 a month and get access to bonus content like this episode, vote in our album review polls, get exclusive merchandise and more!
To support the podcast, join us at Patreon.
Tuesday Apr 23, 2019
Tuesday Apr 23, 2019
Neither of us had any previous exposure to The Residents prior to this review, and it's a weird entry point. The avant-garde music collective celebrated their twentieth anniversary in 1992 not by released a greatest hits album, but instead taking bits and pieces of old songs and combining them into new works. The result is Our Finest Flowers, a rather low-key affair that relies on drum loops, synths, some occasional singing, and a variety of randomness that includes both female backing vocalists and possibly acetylene torches. This may be the least "rock" album we've ever done to date, but our appreciation for the material ultimately landed on whether the songs stand on their own, which on a sixteen-track album, unfortunately had a lot of misses for us.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Mr. Lonely
11:48 - The Sour Song
15:18 - Dead Wood
19:58 - I'm Dreaming Of A White Sailor
24:57 - Forty-Four No More
Outro - Ship Of Fools
To support the podcast, join us at Patreon for bonus content and more.
Tuesday Apr 16, 2019
Tuesday Apr 16, 2019
With their 1997 self-titled debut, Third Eye Blind charted five hit singles, three that made the Billboard top ten, while moving six million units worldwide. Over a year after the release, they were still logging hit singles and touring, and as we've learned over many episodes, the follow-up doesn't always get the same attention to detail. With the 1999 sophomore album Blue, their limited studio time didn't stop the band from stretching musically, conducting some interesting sonic experiments to compliment Stephan Jenkins rapid fire sing/speak delivery. But 1999 looked very different from 1997 - radio changed, Napster would become a thing, pop music was dominant - was their even room for a jangly rock band anymore? Whether trying to keep up with the times or not, they delivery the most pop-friendly single of their career in "Never Let You Go." While the music takes a leap forward on the rest of the album, the melodies and lyrics either sound under baked or over thought, leading to a potential dreaded sophomore slump.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Never Let You Go
18:47 - 1000 Julys
23:37 - Farther
32:06 - Darwin
46:51 - The Red Summer Sun
Outro - 10 Days Late
To support the podcast, join us at Patreon for bonus content and more.
Tuesday Apr 09, 2019
Tuesday Apr 09, 2019
Grindcore band Old Lady Drivers, or OLD, ended their four-album run in 1995 with the wildly eclectic Formula. Despite the title, Formula is anything but, swapping heavy guitar dirges for tape loops, synths, drum machines and lots of experimentation. Switching gears from Napalm Death to electronic instrumentals might have failed in the hands of lesser musicians, but James Plotkin and Alan Dubin manage to create a compelling, hypnotic record.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Last Look
14:27 - Under Glass
24:30 - Thug
29:53 - Devolve
34:49 - Amoeba
Outro - Break (You)
To support the podcast, join us at Patreon for bonus content and more.
Tuesday Apr 02, 2019
Tuesday Apr 02, 2019
When New Order entered the 1990s, they were coming off their first number one album on the UK charts along with two top twenty singles. So what did they do? Immediately split into multiple factions. While the well received 1993 album Republic would produce one of their finest singles in Regret, the 90s for New Order are defined by side projects. For bassist Peter Hook, it started with Revenge and continued with Monaco. For Bernard Sumner, he paired up with former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, and brought along a number of notable collaborators from bands such as the Pet Shop Boys, Kraftwerk and Black Grape to form Electronic, while Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert formed the slightly passive-aggressively named The Other Two for a pair of albums. Along with our guests, we revisit the entire decade for the band and their various extracurricular activities, and how that impacted the sound New Order in the 90s and 2000s.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Regret by New Order
8:51 - World In Motion by New Order
14:05 - Pineapple Face by Revenge
19:49 - Tasty Fish by The Other Two
28:47 - World by New Order
39:54 - What Do You Want From Me? by Monaco
56:36 - Rock The Shack
Outro - Getting Away With It
To support the podcast, join us at Patreon for bonus content and more.
Tuesday Mar 26, 2019
Tuesday Mar 26, 2019
Whenever we have a guest on to discuss an album either they made, had a hand in producing or releasing, our are suggesting for a review, we always come away with unique personal insights not always available from just a surface listen or new release review. For the sophomore 1996 album Aenima by Tool, our guest Patrick had a close personal connection to the music and the lyrics of the band that he shared with us that gave a deeper appreciation for one of the most original and trailblazing bands and albums of the decade.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Stinkfist
32:50 - Eulogy
42:50 - Aenima
51:41 - Third Eye
1:03:30 - Jimmy
Outro - Forty Six And 2
To support the podcast, join us at Patreon for bonus content and more.
Tuesday Mar 19, 2019
Tuesday Mar 19, 2019
Sophomore albums are notoriously tricky, we've even dedicated a round table series to the phenomenon of hugely successful 90s debuts with follow-ups that, for a variety of reasons, didn't connect with audiences in the same way as their first release. Sometimes it record label politics scuttling the promotional support, sometimes its the shifting musical landscape after time off, and sometimes its artists evolving in ways listeners weren't expecting. To help us explore the 1995 sophomore Soup by Blind Melon, we're joined guitarist Christopher Thorn and longtime contributor Chip Midnight to delve into an album that, upon release, received a notoriously scathing review from Rolling Stone, but has since garnered praise and adulation upon it's twentieth anniversary. We discuss forming the band, the rollercoaster ride that was their debut, the legacy of "No Rain," writing and recording Soup, and the tragedy that followed it's release with the death of Shannon Hoon, and much, much more.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Galaxie
28:38 - Vernie
40:15 - Toes Across The Floor
53:11 - St. Andrew's Fall
Outro - 2x4
To support the podcast, join us at Patreon for bonus content and more.
Tuesday Mar 12, 2019
Tuesday Mar 12, 2019
Although Human Radio's debut self-titled album was released in 1990, their isn't much to the sound that pins it to the decade. Between the jazz-pop nods to Steely Dan, the funk flourishes reminiscent of Stevie Wonder, the new wave pop of XTC, along with a whole host of other subtle (and not subtle) influences we heard throughout the record. Thanks to the quirky lead-off track and single "Me And Elvis," we didn't quiet get off on the right foot with Human Radio, as some of the dated sounds left us less than enthusiastic, but luckily the record recovers quickly, revealing a masterfully produced and mixed record that, for better or worse, runs a wide gamut, sometime connecting, sometimes not.
Songs In This Episode:
Intro - Me And Elvis
9:37 - Hole In My Head
13:27 - My First Million
23:30 - N.Y.C.
Outro - Harsh Light Of Reality
To support the podcast, join us at Patreon for bonus content and more.