Okay, so here's a whole bunch of new old songs, some of which you might not know, but some of which if you don't know means you should be drowned in a bucket.
79. Sonic Youth - Kool Thing
Here's one of those bucket songs. You had better know this one. I just saw it used in the soundtrack of Once Upon a Time (my mom was watching it, I swear). So, even corporate idiots know this song is Kool. Side note: I used to have a crush on Kim Gordon. But not nearly as big as my crush on Kat Bjelland from Babes in Toyland.
80. Blur - There's No Other Way
This is kinda before Blur was really Blur. This song was very stereotypically "Madchester." On their next album they departed from this sound entirely -- they grew up, basically. Anyway, it's still a catchy song.
81. Sugar - If I Can't Change Your Mind
Husker Du... blah, blah, blah... Bob Mould... yatata yatata. You forgot about this song, and here it is to say, "Hey! There was more than one single off this album, muthafucka!"
82. Quicksand - Fazer
If you weren't really into something like Helmet or Tool or Jawbox, you probably never paid any attention to quicksand. Now's your chance.
83. 10,000 Maniacs - Candy Everybody Wants
I'll give you what you want. Natalie Merchant is kind of hot, but she always looks really uncomfortable, like she learned facial expressions from a robot.
Soft, friendly pussy pop. I really, really love this song. At one point I owned two Lighting Seeds albums, but other than this song and Blowing Bubbles, I can't remember them.
85. Stabbing Westward - Save Yourself
I'm so pissed at my parent, dude, that I'm gonna get all screamy and shit and go JINKY-JINKY on my guitar real loud a bunch of times!!!
86. Cowboy Junkies - A Horse in the Country
Cowboys and Junk. Enough said.
87. Mr. Bungle - Quote Unquote
This is one you don't have to drown yourself in a bucket over. And... you're welcome. Mike Patton, famous for being the 2nd and better singer for Faith No More, somehow finagled a deal for his pet project Bungle in order to join up with FNM. And while the 1st Bungle album is not really spectacular (unless you are SUPER into circus tinged Funk Metal, and I mean, who isn't?), they went on to produce near gold on Disco Volante and California (get me out of this air conditioned nightmare).
88. Jesus Jones - Real Real Real
What's up with these guys now? They always appeared to be a caricature of what British scenesters (probably) looked like in 1990.
89. MC 900 Ft. Jesus - Killer Inside Me
I am seriously scared of this white guy. He's hard, right hard. And I don't want him making me die. So I'll play his video to appease him.
90. James - Born of Frustration
Native American activists got this video banned after they unsuccessfully sued the Atlanta Braves. (Please tell me this joke doesn't go over your head. Watch the video to refresh your memory.) And damn, there are too many people in this band. The Brits really went overboard on the huge band lineups.
91. Too Much Joy - Crush Story
I really don't have too much to say about these guys. Their name stands out in my mind more than their music. But on hearing this song again, I do remember I really did like this one back in the day.
Now that I've Grunged myself out, here are 13 more vids, great, mediocre or otherwise, by bands from the Alternative years early and mids 1990s.
66. Matthew Sweet - I've Been Waiting
This guy had a real penchant for taking 60s pop sounds and making them into something completely original. Why didn't he maintain his stature? That's a question for someone else's blog. I'm just here to show you the video.
67. Jawbox - Savory
Jawbox was certainly very enchanted with the post-punk sounds of Chicago and Boston, managing to turn them into a very catchy punk-pop format that never really caught on. But they do get lauded in the underground and Noise Rock fanbase of the 90s, sometimes a little too much. Anyway, Savory is a very catchy song. Watch the video.
68. School of Fish - 3 Strange Days
One of the first bands I recall with this college-y guitar pop sound. Not a great band, but I do miss this song, too.
69. Midnight Oil - Truganini
A really good band and one of the few political bands I truly respect, though I can't really get behind their politics.
70. Nine Inch Nails - Down in It
Probably a better song than Head Like a Hole, but not as angry, so it didn't catch on during the Grunge Years in the way it might have. But I like it better.
Not quite the heights of pop songwriting he reached with the Replacements, but you can't deny it was a pretty decent song.
72. Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U
Written by Prince, who also wrote Manic Monday in case you didn't know, Sinead took this song all the way to the top. The more time that passes, the more I like it.
A song about the X Files? Why, it must be the 90s.
74. The The - Dogs of Lust
Freakin' awesome song I almost forgot about. Of course this is Matt Johnson's brainchild once he left the Gadgets, who you should also check out.
75. Porno for Pyros - Pets
Perry Farrell's follow up to Jane's, which I didn't so much like in the 90s, but like many other bands I have feature, I like much better now.
76. Trashcan Sinatras - Hayfever
One of those obscure bands who got some play right before the great Brit Pop craze in which Oasis became 'the New Beatles.' Not a great band, the Trashcans, but I do like the video. It makes me feel all creepy... like I'm in the UK.
77. XTC - The Ballad of Peter Pumpkin
The mighty XTC - this was actually my first real exposure to them. Sure, I'd heard Generals and Majors, Dear God, and Senses Working Overtime on the radio occasionally, but this is the track I got to know them on. Not their best albun, Nonsuch, but a good song and a good video.
78. BAD II - Rush
Mick Jones, legendary guitarist of the Clash, went on to not-so-legendary mix of Rock, Pop, Dancehall Reggae and Hiphop. Interesting side note: When Beck's "Loser" hit the radio, I thought it was the new BAD II single. For like two weeks.
I'm going to do reviews of all eight of 2011's books by the New Bizarro Author series. Mainly I am doing this because I hope to join their ranks in 2012. But also because the books are all damn good and deserve as much publicity as can be mustered (mustard?).
We begin with Placenta of Love by Spike Marlowe. This is the tale of a Robo Pirate who goes in search of love, creating for himself a lover that goes all Frankenstein and causes major problems for the dude. On it's face a fairly simple but weird fantasy romance with thrilling resolve. But on further examination the story is anything but simple.
Spike Marlowe (who is a woman, despite the masculine ring of the fictitious first name) brings a uniquely feminine voice to the Bizarro movement without being in any way girly. I find that many male readers are turned off by 'feminine' writing because they assume it is girly lit, which is hardly the case with Placenta of Love. Little girls in their pink princess gowns aren't going to be sitting at tea party tables, a star tipped wand in one hand, a copy of Placenta in the other, reading it and doing all the various voices (cat, pirate, placenta, et al) in hilarious tones that their mothers can video and submit to a show that rewards hilarious video moments. Ironically, the color pink and faeries do figure into the story prominently.
For those of you wondering what the story is about, I guess a short synopsis is in order. The blurb on amazon goes:
Step right up! Captain Carl the robo-pirate is one of the few Artificial Intelligences living on Venus-the amusement park planet. When Carl is given the spark of intelligence by his creator, he becomes a creator himself. No longer just an automaton from a pirate ride, Captain Carl creates the love of his life and searches for her perfect body. He thinks he's found it in a big placenta. But programming is everything.
When the placenta's desire to reproduce kicks in, the whole park is endangered as the organ grows to monster size, spreading placenta babies across the planet and eating all the rides (and the people riding them!). Captain Carl must band together with a cat, a creator, and the Pope of The Church of Transubstantial Birth Fear to stop his love from killing everyone and destroying the park.
That's a pretty good plot summary, I must admit, so to redo it in my own words would be a waste of time. It tells you exactly what happens without revealing the exciting finish (Spoiler: the good guys win!). But again, don't mistake this relatively simple story as just sheer light entertainment. There are several truly profound philosophical angles to explore.
i. The Male Protagonist as Portrayed by the Female Author Dealt with both in a very straight-forward way--we can easily understand Capt. Carl's motivations and weaknesses--and in more subtle terms, the penning of a male protagonist by a female author always brings with it certain philosophical underpinnings, most notably that she believes her audience is predominately male and that males will not read feminine writing because they think it is girly, as I mentioned above. This could be the case with Spike, or it could be that she wishes to dissect the overused male protag to shed a postmodern light on his ridiculous innards. For instance, Capt. Carl desires to create, and he tries to do this by taking the non-sentient automatons of Venus and creating from them sapient AI-driven Robos. The age old notion that men create things because they cannot bear children is well-trod territory. Does Marlowe intend us to suspend our disbelief and swallow this nugget without a grain of salt, or should we see it as a lampooning of a cliched (and frankly, unfounded) notion perpetuated in the patriarchal society we find ourselves in? Viewed honestly, doesn't this notion reduce women to nothing more than baby-makers who are completely satisfied in chasing their biological destiny? More on this in the next section.
ii. The Portrayal of Biological Purpose as Ultimately Destructive So, Capt. Carl fashions for himself what he believes will be a perfect lover: a living placenta with an implanted AI. His new creation/lover names herself Helen. Now, Helen consists of two (contradictory)natures: the rational and sympathetic AI, the carnal and self-serving biological nature. In contrast, Carl is motivated by his AI without the hindrances of the flesh. Helen can't wait to have sex, which Carl doesn't seem to really comprehend, and once Helen becomes pregnant for the first time with Carl's progeny she desires the feeling of 'fullness' that this experience gives her, despite her pregnancies only seeming to last for a few minutes. So, her thirst to produce more and more offspring is unslakeable. She has seemingly no concern for all these placenta-babies that she is creating, only caring that she can remain pregnant for as much of the time as possible. Is this a metaphor? It's hard to see it as anything but.
iii. Inconsequential Offspring
In the course of her rampage, Helen creates hundreds of placenta-babies, which she immediately abandons. Carl is only concerned with stopping Helen's path of mayhem; in order for Helen to become "pregnant" she must absorb an object or person to impregnate her. Carl is not concerned with the offspring, all of which he orders destroyed by fire, except for the original offspring he and Helen created together, which he damns to a life of slavery in a side-show exhibit. Another prominent character is the female Pope Natzo Innocent, who creates her own army of Robo servants for the sole purpose of worshiping her. Is this new generation simply to provide new consumers for the corporate machine that is Venus? One may take the guess that Marlowe's attitudes to toward parents is somewhat negative, and that leads us to the next section.
iv. Parental Roles There are two creative forces on the amusement park planet Venus: Zampanò, the male force that instills intelligence, will, and emotion; and The Lady Fey, who gives all automatons their physical (read as: carnal) form. Are we to understand that the feminine creative force does not elevate and enlighten the souls of her children, but relies on the male for that guidance? I should turn this work over to an expert in feminist theory, because I'm afraid I'm getting out of my depths. Which brings me to:
V. The Stereotypical Presentation of Pirates
Much of cinema and literature has served to degrade the multifaceted and sometimes even noble pirate into a flat, cardboard clown that is often made the subject of fun. Capt. Carl can't abide his pirate nature because it is so restrictive, being confined to cliched lines like, "Avast, me hardies!" and "Shiver me timbers!" He is also portrayed with a hook and a pegleg, the combination of which was relatively rare when piratical history is truly examined. Marlowe seems to be saying it is okay to forget about the generally ecumenical and democratic nature of service aboard pirate ships. We must focus only on the eye-patches. Am I digging too deep here for meaning? I feel that we are not digging nearly deep enough. Because I haven't even touched the fact that she equates cats with femininity, and includes the Japanese picture snapping tourists, and her trivialization of religious institutions as the cults of self-important self-appointed pontificators. If I was a Republican, I would suggest we burn the book, but since I don't believe these Bizarro books can be destroyed by anything less than Hellfire, I shall resist the urge to vote for Mitt Romney.
All in all, a very entertaining book. And yes, it is a first novel, so I did a cut a bit of slack--you can tell it was a bit rushed, but damned if it wasn't thoroughly entertaining. I look forward to her next release and I'm sure it will be even better than this one. Marlowe is going places. If we could only get her to remove her mask and show us her true face...
There was this sound that came about in the late 80s, matured in the early 90s. It wasn't quite metal, it wasn't quite punk, and it certainly wasn't hardcore. These bands didn't seem to mind feedback and they didn't seem to have the same predelictions for high fashion that their mainstream counterparts possessed. People labeled it the "Seattle Sound" even though their were bands doing it in Minneapolis, LA, Philly, Denver, NY and Lawrence, KS. The sound was hard to nail down, but it did represent a real musical thread for a lot of heavy alternative music of the early and mid 90s. It wasn't long before bands from Australia and the UK were doing their own version of the sound. Anyway, all these videos are from bands that helped to establish the sound, formed as a result of the sound, or modified their style because of the Grunge phenomenon.
Unlike my usual Alternative Aftermath posts that have 13 videos, this one is little longer (see: Spectacular). I hope it recaps all the highlights and many of the forgotten vids of the era. 1. Nirvana - In Bloom (Early Version)
Okay, let's get 'em outta the way. You knew they had to be on here, but you've seen all their videos a bajillion times, so I went with their fairly obscure pre-Nervermind version of In Bloom. It is, afterall, a grungier version. Kurt still has his long-ass hair, and Dave Grohl is still Chad Channing at this point.
2. Soundgarden - Jesus Christ Pose
Another band I was forced to include. This video totally failed to impress me at the time of its release. But it's a song that doesn't really get any play anymore, and so here you are.
3. Alice in Chains - Them Bones
And the third obligatory inclusion. I have vowed their will be no Pearl Jam videos in this series, and those guys didn't have any songs that were particularly grungy anyway. So, we got the major Seattle guys out of the way and we can go on to more interesting things right after this video.
4. Stone Temple Pilots - Wicked Garden
The quintessential--quite literally the fifth essential--Grunge band after the Big 4 Seattle guys. Interesting mix of Seattle sounds and traditional hard rock. They continue to refine and expand the sound throughout the decade.
5. The Jesus Lizard - Nub
I never even knew there was an official video for this song until a year ago, but the Jesus Lizard, though they never got any particularly large commercial success, were an extremely influential band on the development of bands like Nirvana, who in turn influenced countless other bands. And the Jesus Lizard has the honor of being the 1st band to have two videos featured on my blog.
6. Mudhoney - Suck You Dry
Another hugely influential band that all the cool grunge kids listened to, the ones that listened to Sonic Youth and Nirvana, not the ones who listened to Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains.
7. Melvins - Hooch
Their drummer was in an early incarnation of Nirvana and they just crush most other hard alternative bands who came after them.
8. Tad - Stumblin' Man
Unfortunately for Tad, despite the fact he had one of the best Grunge bands in the Pacific Northwest, he was too fat to get really successful.
9. Sonic Youth - 100%
They were never Grunge, per se, but their noise antics were hugely influential on the sound. And the album Dirty, their first to be released after the incredible commercial success of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, does sound suspiciously grungified if you ask me.
10. Daisy Chainsaw - Love Your Money
No one ever applied the term Grunge to Daisy Chainsaw, that I can recall, but you can hardly get any more Grunge than they were. I mean... JESUS!
Don't remember exactly how I heard about these guys, but I'm pretty sure they never showed this video on MTV. In theory Baby Chaos should have been huge. In reality I bet you forgot all about them.
12. Sponge - Wax Ecstatic
These guys would never have had any success without the Grunge vanguard preparing the way for them. They never seemed particularly good or bad to me, but for some reason songs like "Molly" and "Plow" have persisted. Wax Ecstatic was actually way catchier.
13. Wool - Medication
DC's first line of defense went up as soon as Dave Grohl made it big with Nirvana. Wool had one of his former Scream band mates. I assume it was no trouble for these guys to watch a couple Pearl Jam and Soundgarden videos and buy some hats and flannel.
14. Helmet - Give It
The first East Coast band to be pushed on Grunge listeners. This is not their best song, but it is kind of grungy, if you squint and cock your head. It doesn't help that they all look like frat boys about to kick your ass. Helmet is also the 2nd band to get the honor of having me feature more than one of their videos in this series.
15. L7 - Pretend We're Dead
I think it was their look that lumped them in with Grunge, because they are really built on the Joan Jett template, with really melodic lead guitars. They did have some really grungy stuff... later, once no one cared anymore (see: Off the Wagon).
16. Low Pop Suicide - Kiss Your Lips
Their look was a little Goth, and their personnel (members of Revolting Cocks, Lard, Ministry, Gang of Four, Shriekback, among others) made them hard to pigeonhole into a genre, but basically they were a heavier version of Bush, if Bush was actually good.
17. Paw - Jessie
Emerging from Kansas, Paw had a unique blend of melodic Southern Rock sensibility and grunge aggression (only Mule and early Iron Boss are even comparable at all). This is the most intense son you will ever hear about losing a dog.
18. Babes in Toyland - Bruise Violet
Their look mixed kinderwhore with white dreads and filth, their sound mixed high school metal riffs and stylized vocals with punk angst and relentless noise assaults. Their music may be the apex of Grunge.
19. Babes in Toyland - Sweet '69
Fuck it, I'm posting this one, too. Babes are babes and that's all there is to it.
20. Ruth Ruth - Uninvited
Kind of a typical example of the first wave of solidly Post-Grunge rock. You know, all those bands that sounded kinda like the first Foo Fighters album. But it's still a catchy song.
21. Salt - Bluster
You are in for an absolute fucking treat if you forgot about this Swedish grunge act. This song rocks! And is it just me or did Fuel rip the chorus of Shimmer off of this song?
22. Dandelion - Weird Out
And speaking of bands that sound like early Foo Fighters, I totally thought this song was by Foo Fighters for like a year. I was all, "Man, that band has soooo many songs on the radio!" But it turned out some of those songs were, like, Dandelion.
23. Clutch - A Shogun Named Marcus
These guys emerged from the DC/Maryland hardcore scene, but they never really fit in. You can hear the Melvins/Soundgarden-ish vibe in there. This fit right in with those bands no matter what Gus Bowman tells you.
24. Therapy? - Nausea
These Northern Irish guys, like Helmet, had some industrail and noise rock edges, but kinda crept in because of Grunge, and so they total deserve to be on the list. And this video always cracked me up when the song breaks down and the drummer is hitting the jello salad with the serving spoons. Genius!
25. Green Apple Quick Step - Dirty Water Ocean
Sort of a Grunge Jane's Addiction without falsetto vocals. Not one of my favorite bands of the era, but I guarantee you haven't heard this song since it came out.
26. Treepeople - Something Vicious for Tomorrow
VBoise's Treepeople, based primarily out of Seattle, were certainly tainted by the Grunge virus as evidenced by this track. They generally had played 'College Rock' with elaborate intertwining guitar leads, the kind of emotional stuff that evolved into Built to Spill, which Doug Martsch went on to form. And Grunge hit, and they got darker and heavier, but just for the one album, so you can't blame 'em.
27. Toadies - Away
These guys took Pixies, Nirvana and Soundgarden and put them in the proverbial blender, but somehow it really worked and I totally dig 'em.
28. Gruntruck - Crazy Love
And on the more Metal side of Grunge, we had Gruntruck, who, according to some sources, were the last actual Grunge band to get signed out of Seattle. They were a less nuanced Alice in Chains, basically, but they wrote catchy riffs.
29. Urge Overkill - Sister Havana
These fellows were actually an anomaly in that the more popular Grunge became, the less Grungy they sounded. Their first few albums (before Saturation, which features this song) are very noisy and grungy. Then later they release the Neil Diamond cover for the Pulp Fiction soundtrack... you know. I guess it was a way to rebel.
30. Blur - Song 2
At an earlier point in his career, Damon Albarn declared himself the anti-Nirvana. Well, Blur could hardly get any closer to Nirvana than they did on this track.
31. Hole - Garbage Man
If sludge riffs, buzz saw distortion and off key screaming make you Grunge, then Courntey perfected the art on this song.
32. Veruca Salt - Seether
And then there were the Post-Grunge bands like Veruca Salt and Weezer who combined classic Power Pop sensibilities with the wall of guitar sound the Butch Vig popularized in his production of Nevermind.
33. Nada Surf - Popular
I'm kinda surprised this song hasn't remained in rotation. The video and the song are both so quirky, you can't help but like it.
34. Screaming Trees - All I Know
Another unemphasized side of the Seattle sound was how much of it was rooted in 60s Garage and Psychedelic music. Screaming Trees were the most obvious example of this. Great band, too.
35. Meat Puppets - Scum
This a case of a band being influential upon Kurt Cobain, so he wore their t-shirts. Then the started sounding a lot more like Nirvana after that. Strange.
36. Bush - Little Things
Now, Bush are not a particularly good band, but I do kind of like this song. I once heard a guy say Bush were musically just like Nirvana, except they had singer who could sing from his diaphragm. Yeah, and a songwriter who couldn't write songs.
37. Brother Cane - And Fools Shine On
If you were into the kind of Grunge that became Toadies and Veruca Salt, you, like me, probably didn't like bands like Brother Cane or Days of the New. But none the less they did carry on a Grunge legacy of a certain breed.
38. REM - Bang and Blame
Totally REM trying to stay and hip and current. Got themselves a little Grunge and everything.
39. Cranberries - Zombie
Yeah, these guys tried to Grunge it up, too.
40. Self - Cannon
Forgot about these fuckers, didn't you? Are you sorry yet?
41. For Squirrels - The Mighty KC
A song about Kurt, and then the singer of For Squirrels died before they really peaked. Ironic?
42. Coward - I Don't Care
Another Weezer who just wasn't as cool or nerdy.
43. Foo Fighters - I'll Stick Around
This song rocks, though the band has at times taken detours into stupid crap.
44. Weezer - Pink Triangle
Pinkerton is one of the greatest rock albums of all time. No question. If you disagree... stop reading my list.
45. Jale - Not Happy
Somewhere between Veruca Salt and the Breeders, these Canadian gals took their turn cranking up the distortion.
I didn't really get into these guys and only have the vaguest recollection of them. Song is interesting, but I don't think I need to hear it for another 15 years.
48. Shudder to Think - Hit Liquor
Ditto about these guys. Never liked 'em.
49. Local H - Bound for the Floor
Catchy song. Though the two man novelty aspect was unfortunate.
50. Everclear - Father of Mine
Rounding out the list at a nice 50 is Everclear, who I also never liked very much, but this song is good to hear after 15 years.
Does the world not need another young, Australian Nirvana?
53. Cracker - Teen Angst
David Lowry has a message for us kids who had just discovered how much we wanted to change the world (and our first pubic hairs, which we no doubt saved in a scrap book).
54. Teenage Fanclub - Star Sign
I saw these guys rocking out on Saturday Night Live and that is the night I made the conscious decision to become Alternative. I picked out at a striped t-shirt to wear over a longsleeve the next day, and denied any further hair cuts. Truly, Teenage Fanclub did beat Nirvana for album of the year 1991 in Spin, and somehow they impacted me harder, too. Though, honestly, I never listened to any of their albums at all. :/
55. The Posies - Dream All Day
At the time I probably thought the Posies were too 'gay' to get into (though I don't remember that stopping me liking Sugar or Morrissey). But I really have to find more of these cats' stuff. Damn, I miss this song!
56. Loud Lucy - Ticking
I just remember one of my best friends picking these guys as his whipping boy for all derivative up-and-comer Alt Rockers. But hearing the song again, I actually kinda like it.
57. Dada - Dizz Knee Land
They used to play this nonstop, and I can't stand the way the guys look, but damn if the song doesn't bring a smile to my face when I hear it now.
58. Ministry - NWO
Scary music for a lot of us kids who hadn't really ever been exposed to Death Metal or anything like that. They look scary, they sound like demons, the video is full of violence. They gave us the kind of nightmares we wish we had today.
59. REM - Drive Then there was this REM band who kinda helped to kick off the whole alternative explosion with the smashing success of "Losing My Religion." "Drive" was just about as close as they could get to writing a sequel to "Religion" so they went with it. But it didn't make the same impact.
Along with the Cure, Depeche Mode, and the Smiths, what people called "Progressive" for a while, which confused me greatly when I started to hear bands like Yes and King Crimson described by the same term.
61. Black 47 - Funky Céilí
Sort of post-Rap neo-Trad Irish music. Catchy, but now hearing it again all these years later... the charm hasn't held up.
62. Annie Lennox - Walking on Broken Glass
A big string of hits with the Eurhythmics, and then this song kinda picked up where they left off.
63. Paul Weller - Uh Huh Oh Yeh
So, he was in the Jam which rocked, then he had the Style Council, which frankly sucked. He started to redeem himself on his first solo outing, but he didn't really nail the cred until his 2nd solo release, Wild Wood. Get that album.
64. Skinny Puppy - Killing Game
"Hi, we're Skinny Puppy. Let us creep you out. Please?"
65. Stereo MCs - Connected
The kind of thing that Alternative kids had no business listening to, but somehow the groove got right under your skin, and you were wearing denim and dancing like a skinny white Brit in no time.
Well, Primus seems to think Jerry really was a racecar driver, but I'm still not convinced. Gotta love the weird blend of Devo and Butthole surfer's aesthetics in this video, though. And Primus was actually the first band I ever heard anyone use the word Alternative to describe.
41. Tripping Daisy - My Umbrella
Yeah, these guys totally had another song before that "I Got a Girl" nonsense. At the time they totally epitomized that bland, guitar pop that began to abound in the early 90s, but now I miss them so much! I would kiss their faces.
42. Shakespeare's Sister - Stay
Does this video give you a boner? It also takes it away.
43. Blind Melon - Tones of Home
Before the bee girl took the world by storm, this song got a little bit of play on MTV. It's really kinda likeable, in a dirty hippie way.
44. Jane's Addiction - Stop!
Where is this song when the world needs it so much?
There's Jane's Addiction, then there's Mary's Danish, who seemed to be hoping to capitalize on having females and a black guy in a hard alternative rock band. Didn't work, but the try was noble enough.
45. Life Sex & Death - School's For Fools
And if you took the hot girls and black guy out of Mary's Danish, you'd have LSD.
46. Social Distortion - Cold Feelings
I bought this album hoping it would all be as dark as this song, but it was mostly fruity, "I wish I James Dean" crap.
47. 25th of May - It's All Right
Yet another dancey Brit band. Good song that you certainly have heard in 20 years, if ever.
48. Luscious Jackson - Daughters of the Kaos
Introducing us to these lovely hip ladies, there was "Daughters of the Kaos," which has the best drumbeat ever.
49. Catherine Wheel - Black Metallic
Yet another somber British band. My friend Scott used to think his sexuality would be called into question if it became common knowledge that he really loved these guys.
50. Suede - Animal Nitrate
Another British band that can't stop trying to have sex with me.
51. Morrissey - We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful
And here's a somber British guy who can't admit how much he wants to have sex with me.
52. Dramarama - Last Cigarette
These guys probably reached the pinnacle of their popularity on HFS when they released that Earth Day song, but this song really deserves to not be forgotten.
53. Toad the Wet Sprocket - All I want
I dated a girl who was in love with the Toad's first ablum (the one before this one, I guess, that you've never heard of) and she had all the 80s albums by Midnight Oil you never heard of either.
Around the same time that Kim Deal was forming a new version of her band the Breeders with her sister Kelley, Black Francis inverted his moniker and struck out on his own. Video directed by John Flansburgh of They Might Giants.
29. Belly - Slow Dog
"Feed the Tree" might have been the obvious choice for a video from ex-Throwing Muses/ex-Breeders Tanya Donelly's band Belly, but they really did have more videos. Gepetto, for instance. I'm saddened that they've been written off as one hit wonders.
30. They Might Be Giants - The Statue Got Me High
Frank Black's favorite band, or so he claimed at one point. Anyway, they were one of my favorite bands when I first started writing songs. Great album.
End of family tree. For now.
31. Michael Penn - Seen the Doctor
I had no idea at the time that this was the same guy that did "No Myth" or that he was related to Sean Penn, but the video and the song were both neat enough to stick out in my memory.
32. Tori Amos - God
Used to hear this all the time at night on HFS, when I was wishing I was talking to a girl on the telephone instead of, you know, listening to Tori Amos on the radio at 1 AM.
Apparently this is the album where the Whigs adopted their 'characteristic soul-influenced sound.' Shit, you could have fooled me. I thought they probably listened to a lot of Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth. Anyway, these guys weren't the greatest, but they never really got the credit they were due if you ask me.
34. Smashing Pumpkins - Siva
And along with the Afghan Whigs in the 'not quite Grunge, but noisy rock' category, were these guys who went on to get huge. But you can barely tell this is the same band that went on to do that "Tonight, Tonight" song.
35. The Cure - Hot Hot Hot
This is probably my favorite Cure song, and the one you are least likely to hear played these days. Who doesn't want to dance to this? NOTE: The video has a sound problem. Click the 360p in the bottom right corner of the player and select 240p. Then you can hear the sound, too.
36. Sugar Cubes - Hit
Just like Bjork after she went solo, the Cubes produced totally amazing videos. I mean - I say ouch, this really hurts!
37. David Byrne - Hanging Upside Down
He had no shortage of success while fronting Talking Heads. But after this album he crawled off into obscurity. Poor guy.
38. Basehead - 200 BC
If you asked me to name an Alternative Hip Hop act, this would be the exemplar that comes to mind. They've got it all - that drugged out vibe, the reverb, that weird soul jazz undertone, the melanin.
39. The Shamen - Ebeenzer Goode
One of the few techno dance tracks that really sticks in my mind. Interesting video. And great English white-guy rapping.
