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Episodes
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 04, 2018
Tuesday Sep 04, 2018
Concept albums are as old as albums themselves, though defining what exactly qualifies as a concept album is flexible. The 90s were no different, as many bands and artists took loose ideas and strung together narratives and themes to form a cohesive idea. Of all the bands you were probably expecting to do so back in day, Local H was probably not high on that list, but songwriter/guitarist/singer Scott Lucas has dipped into the concept album well often during the past several decades, first with their 1996 break-through As Good As Dead, and then the 1998 follow-up Pack Up The Cats. Lucas and drummer Joe Daniels weave a tale not unfamiliar to rock fans - the rise and fall of a musician, but with the decade specific twists and turns that make it a uniquely 90s affair, both lyrically and sonically, and craft a concept album worthy of the decades medium of choice: the compact disc.
Intro - All The Kids Are Right
32:13 - All-Right (Oh Yeah)
34:49 - Cool Magnet
36:58 - Laminate Man
40:47 - Deep Cut
43.46 - Lucky Time
50:16 - Hit The Skids
Outro - What Can I Tell You
Tuesday Aug 28, 2018
Tuesday Aug 28, 2018
The 1990s are known as the grunge decade, but really Seattle's reign was contained to the first half, which is when The Posies power-pop tour de force Frosting On The Beater happened to be released in 1993. It's not hard to understand why this band from the Pacific Northwest struggled to find an broad audience - the singles are teeming with Big Star, Cheap Trick, The Beatles, and other classic power pop influence, and only Matthew Sweet was able to crack mainstream radio playlists and MTV video rotation with a similar but equally melodic approach. It doesn't help that in an era of Discman players and vinyl decline, Don Fleming's beefed up production truly only finds its sweet spot when the stereo speakers are pushing serious air, which we are happy to oblige.
Intro - Dream All Day
9:54 - Definite Door
13:28 - Love Letter Boxes
19:51 - How She Lied By Living
29:37 - Solar Sister
Outro - Flavor Of The Month
Tuesday Aug 21, 2018
Tuesday Aug 21, 2018
When musicians aren't busy writing, recording and touring with their main band, often times you'll find them in side projects, mixing it up with new sounds and new collaborators. The 1990s were no different, as folks from the biggest bands to lesser known indie artists often found a new creative outlet outside their main gig. But what exactly makes it a side project, as opposed to just putting out a solo album, or recording with a fabled "super group?" We try to lay down some (admittedly) shaky criteria to figure out what makes a side project, revisiting those that worked, a few that didn't, some that left us scratching our heads and some that left us wanting more.
Intro - Side Project Medley (Friends Of P by The Rentals, Hunger Strike by Temple Of The Dog, Tipp City by The Amps)
7:17 - That's Just How That Bird Sings by The Twilight Singers
20:06 - Gimme Indie Rock by Sebadoh
26:48 - Wasting Away by Nailbomb
40:57 - Song For A Dead Girl by Three Fish
46:54 - 20th Century by Brad
Outro - Yoo Hoo by Imperial Teen
Tuesday Aug 14, 2018
Tuesday Aug 14, 2018
After Nirvana exploded in the 1990s, bands across the globe got signed for sounding just enough like the Kurt, Krist, and Dave, an inevitable result of major labels hoping to find "the next Nirvana." It was also inevitable that young artists would be influenced by the band dominating radio and MTV, and so began the delicate balance of imitation and influence, recycling and reinterpretation. On their sophomore album Into The Pink, Verbena had a lot to shoulder. With the multi-pronged assault of electronica, nu-metal and manufactured pop, some decried the end of rock'n'roll in the later half other decade, and searched for a savior. With a single that tipped a nod to Cobain vocally and Nirvana sonically, and with Dave Grohl onboard as producer, the hype machine declaring Verbena to be "the next Nirvana" was in full swing, coloring the band before most got to hear the record in full. We try to get beneath the marketing and figure out what really worked, what didn't, and why rock music fans in general are so intent on tearing down the latest thing.
Intro - Into The Pink
15:09 - Baby Got Shot
19:06 - John Beverly
24:41 - Monkey, I'm Your Man
Outro - Pretty Please
Tuesday Aug 07, 2018
Tuesday Aug 07, 2018
On their 1996 major label debut Tin Cans With Strings To You, the Sacramento, CA band Far find themselves at an interesting crossroads. By this point in the decade, grunge is well past its expiration date, so how do you describe a rock band that can synthesize New York City post-hardcore and Washington D.C. emo, with hints of the burgeoning San Diego screamo scene? Thanks to our Patreon patrons suggestion, we revisit a record that on the surface hits all of our respective musical sweet spots, but gave us some some head scratching moments as well with regard to production choices and track list order.
Intro - Love, American Style
13:14 - Girl
22:30 - Celebrate Her
36:25 - Joining The Circus
Outro - Seasick
Tuesday Jul 31, 2018
Tuesday Jul 31, 2018
For the tens of thousands of bands who signed to a major label, put out a record, scored a minor hit and disappeared, there just as many divergent stories of what happened after the temporary spotlight dimmed. In the case of Jonny Polonsky, his tale started in the suburbs of Chicago, home recording cassette albums as a teen in his bedroom and dialing up famous guitarists for feedback, which lead him to move to Boston, the support of Frank Black of the Pixies, and a deal with Rick Rubin's American Recordings. His 1996 debut Hi My Name Is Jonny scored a college radio hit with "In My Head," but like so many in the mid and late 90s music industry machine, the churn happened quickly and soon after he find be looking to new outlets for releasing music and relocating to Los Angeles to start anew. There is a chance you've heard or seen Jonny in the 2000s without even realizing it, playing on records by Pete Yorn, Puscifer, Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash, Minnie Driver and more, while hitting the road with many more. Jonny shares with us his story, his approaches to songwriting, recording, learning new instruments, his love of David Bowie's side-project Tin Machine, and much much more.
Intro - In My Mind
Outro - Love Lovely Love
Tuesday Jul 24, 2018
Tuesday Jul 24, 2018
When an established name like Trent Reznor shows up in the credits of a 90s industrial album, the natural starting point is to compare it Nine Inch Nails. But what about when the artist is not a contemporary or disciple, but a predecessor? That's the case with Kevin McMahon, veteran of new wave group Lucky Pierre going back to the 70s, and where the Reznor connection occurs in the late 80s. Thanks to having over a decade worth of experience, on the 1995 eponymous debut by Prick, Reznor acts as less an overwhelming force upon McMahon and his band and more of a slightly different flavor. It's not hard to pick out which tracks Reznor had a hand in, but compared to the majority of the album, they pair nicely with the overall experience rather than stick out like the proverbial sore thumb. While so many industrial acts can either get weighted down by lyrical dreariness, musical repetition or underwhelming vocal performances, McMahon uses his new wave background wisely, crafting melodic hooks and not losing the rock aspect of industrial rock thanks to some well-produced guitar riffing.
Intro - Animal
9:36 - Tough
12:19 - Crack
14:44 - Other People
18:12 - No Fair Fights
25:42 - I Apologize
Outro - I Got It Bad
Tuesday Jul 17, 2018
Tuesday Jul 17, 2018
In the first of a new roundtable series, we're taking a look back at the 90s origins of Spoon, and how they went from devotees of Frank Black and Robert Pollard, to one of the most consistently interesting and successful bands of the 2000s. Britt Daniel and Jim Eno, the core singer/songwriter/guitarist and drummer/producer of Spoon, have been at it for almost thirty years. In the 2000s, starting with Girls Can Tell, and up to their most recent release Hot Thoughts, the band has managed to expertly toe the line between slick songwriting worthy of radio, television and film placement, while keeping a shape-shifting edge that expertly slips back and forth between minimalist and embellished production, tied together with Daniel's emphatic but easy on the ears delivery that manages to inhabit Ray Davies, Tom Petty and Prince all at the same time. But before they began their run of successful 2000s releases, the band was almost another tragic tale of the 1990s major label signing frenzy, bouncing between taste-maker Matador for their debut Telephono and EP Soft Effects, to then jump to the majors on A Series Of Sneaks at Elektra that saw them dropped four months after their sophomore release. Like so many before that have carved out long careers, the early years of Spoon reveal a band struggling to channel their influences into something wholly unique while Daniel's begins the process of finding his own voice.
Intro - Utilitarian (A Series Of Sneaks)
14:42 - Theme To Wendell Stivers (Telephono)
18:54 - Nefarious (Telephono)
22:43 - Mountain Of Sound (Soft Effects EP)
33:49 - The Minor Tough (A Series Of Sneaks)
47:39 - Metal Detektor (A Series Of Sneaks)
Outro - The Agony Of Laffitte (Laffitte 7" single)
Tuesday Jul 10, 2018
Tuesday Jul 10, 2018
Let's get this out of the way - thanks to the ridiculous nature of regional rights and legal mumbo-jumbo surrounding album releases, we are occasionally stuck reviewing the edited and inferior US release of an album rather than the original UK or Australian version that the artist intended. That's what happened when one of our Patreon patrons selected the sophomore album Six by Mansun for us to check out. The original 1998 UK release features extra songs, a different track list and mixes, and is overall considered to the superior to the chopped-down and rearranged US version released in 1999. Back in the day, we would have made a visit to the local Virgin Megastore and dropped twenty to thirty bucks on an important version, but that option is long gone, so we're playing the hand as dealt. While the band made no secret on their debut Attack of the Grey Lantern that straight-up Brit-pop was of no interest, the band managed to craft radio-friendly pop melodies with twisted instrumentation and odd embellishments. Six takes it one step further, honing the pop songs while doubling-down on the twisted and odd, taking long divergences into instrumental passages, drastic tempo shifts and, uh, The Nutcracker?
Intro - Six
14:23 - Negative
20:23 - Legacy
26:06 - Anti-Everything
34:48 - Being A Girl
Outro - Fall Out
Tuesday Jul 03, 2018
Tuesday Jul 03, 2018
Mark E. Smith of The Fall was a divisive character, turning people on or off with his kinetic one-note, occasionally slurred, stream of consciousness vocal delivery. After a decade and a half of abrasive post punk, line-up changes and restlessness led to a stylistic change, accounting for several electronic and IDM influenced albums. 1993's The Infotainment Scan falls into this era, while still featuring a jagged guitar line, clean (or sterile) production on programmed drums and synth keyboards dominates the overall sound, featuring odd cover song choices and sonic stretches that left us scratching our heads. There's a lovable cantankerous aspect to Smith's vocals that endears us to his limitations, but hearing the band go full rave seemed to a bridge too far.
Intro - Paranoia Man In Cheap Sh*T Room
14:17 - Glam Racket
19:30 - It's a Curse
28:44 - Ladybird (Green Grass)
Outro - Lost In Music