Millennial / Gen Y Tunes

[anna ~ grace]

Got any songs that are from that era, and are your favorites?

 

[dzheremi]

(Produced by the great Ric Ocasek of the Cars!)

 

[anna ~ grace]

The Smashing Pumpkins; 1979

@BrAndreyu

 

[dzheremi]

 

[anna ~ grace]

Completely off-topic, but this was funny;

Back on topic ;

Genesis; That’s All

 

[Sodafox]

Does this count as just one?

 

[anna ~ grace]

 

[Sodafox]

But this one is my favorite:

 

[dzheremi]

Anyone else remember these guys? I feel like this was their biggest song, but it could very well be that I just don't remember the others, since this was so long ago (1992). I saw these guys live at some festival back in the mid-1990s, and I thought they were pretty good for having one of the worst band names I've ever heard (and that means a lot in the 1990s...I'm looking at you, Smashing Pumpkins, Blind Melon, and so on!). It feels to me like they were the inverse of the 'grunge' that was popular once Nirvana broke: softer, more melodic, but still vaguely weird enough to be included in 'alternative' (but not so weird like Sonic Youth, Ween, etc) -- like something they could still play on VH1 (not just MTV), so long as it was after 9 pm.

Another strong candidate in the Horrible Band Name contest, but these guys also had the misfortune to rip young me off by releasing one good single (heh) on an album full of crud, which I've never forgotten or forgiven them for. I was so sad when I got home and listened to the whole thing and had to skip everything that wasn't the hit (which, now that I listen to it again for the first time in 25 years, really isn't that great; they chose an appropriate name for it). If mp3s/itunes/spotify had been around back in 1995 so that people could just buy the single track, their terrible album would've never have gone platinum.

 

[anna ~ grace]

Anyone else remember these guys? I feel like this was their biggest song, but it could very well be that I just don't remember the others, since this was so long ago (1992). I saw these guys live at some festival back in the mid-1990s, and I thought they were pretty good for having one of the worst band names I've ever heard (and that means a lot in the 1990s...I'm looking at you, Smashing Pumpkins, Blind Melon, and so on!). It feels to me like they were the inverse of the 'grunge' that was popular once Nirvana broke: softer, more melodic, but still vaguely weird enough to be included in 'alternative' (but not so weird like Sonic Youth, Ween, etc) -- like something they could still play on VH1 (not just MTV), so long as it was after 9 pm.

Another strong candidate in the Horrible Band Name contest, but these guys also had the misfortune to rip young me off by releasing one good single (heh) on an album full of crud, which I've never forgotten or forgiven them for. I was so sad when I got home and listened to the whole thing and had to skip everything that wasn't the hit (which, now that I listen to it again for the first time in 25 years, really isn't that great; they chose an appropriate name for it). If mp3s/itunes/spotify had been around back in 1995 so that people could just buy the single track, their terrible album would've never have gone platinum.

I vaguely remember both these guys. I also remember the 90’s phenomenon of one good song on a CD of crud.

And, man, I haven’t heard that Better Than Ezra song in like 25 years. Thank you, Dzher, that’s been a while.

 

[anna ~ grace]

Cake “The Distance”

 

[dzheremi]

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum from Better Than Ezra's ripoff album, the Goo Goo Dolls' Boy Named Goo album is extremely solid to this day. Might be my favorite 'alternative' album of the whole 1990s, in fact. All of the singles were great, and there were several of them (Wikipedia says 6, which is nearly half the album -- that's how you do it, BTE!). Even the required acoustic ballad "Name" beats the heck out of later tracks in that same mold like "Iris" any day.

Huh...I should probably pick up another copy of this album, since I'm sure I lost it/sold it or whatever by late 1995/early 1996 when I got into punk rock (funny, since Goo Goo Dolls were a punk band on their first album, back in 1987) and was suddenly too cool and rebellious to like a song with hooks in it. That's just what the maaaan feeds you on the radio!

 

[Shane R]

I find myself gravitating more to the country music of the 90s as I age and away from most of the rock. I was playing in school sports when the Nu-Metal craze kicked off and that was the regular fare in the locker room. Then we got emo/pop-punk a couple of years later which didn't even have the ridiculous masculinity of the Nu-Metal.

I still think this is the coolest music video of that era though, even better than the Evanescence one mentioned earlier:

 

[anna ~ grace]

I find myself gravitating more to the country music of the 90s as I age and away from most of the rock. I was playing in school sports when the Nu-Metal craze kicked off and that was the regular fare in the locker room. Then we got emo/pop-punk a couple of years later which didn't even have the ridiculous masculinity of the Nu-Metal.

I still think this is the coolest music video of that era though, even better than the Evanescence one mentioned earlier:

That guy can really scat / beat box!

 

[Shane R]

That guy can really scat / beat box!

It was more the aesthetic than the music. I don't remember anyone doing a cartoon like that before Korn. And the edginess of tracking the bullet.

 

[anna ~ grace]

This sort of multiple things; it’s a remix of REM’s “Losing My Religion”, but filmed in Tehran. The layers of meaning and thought behind this video, and the cinematography, are pretty awesome.

 

[anna ~ grace]

White Town ; Your Woman

 

[dzheremi]

Another good band that never got their due (probably because they had such a weird name), THAT DOG! I remember finding this band on some weird promo CD my dad got given at some festival he was working in 1995-96 or so, and the entire thing was absolutely horrible garbage except for the one That Dog song. But then when I went to the record store to try to find it, they didn't know what I was talking about. I had to explain that the band's name was "That Dog" (to be fair, asking "Do you have that dog?" just makes it sound like I don't know what kind of store I'm in), and still nothing. Oh well.

Looking back on it with enough distance, I think this was actually the 90s best kind of music, or at least the stuff that has held up the best for me personally: not grunge, but really distorted power pop or whatever you'd call this. Like it's not angry enough, or on drugs enough, or heavy metal-influenced enough to be grunge, but it's still loud and guitar driven.

Another band I really like from the 90s that is similar to this on some songs is Sugar, Bob Mould's 'alternative' project after his punk band Husker Du ended in the late 80s.

Hahaha. "Alternative Nation"...that takes me back...

 

[anna ~ grace]

Both of those clips are making me miss the 90’s very, very much.

 

[dzheremi]

Oh man..."Hey Sandy" from Pete and Pete! Still one of my favorite theme songs ever! I remember I even got a cassette tape of it by buying a specific cereal back then. I can't remember if the tape was just hanging out in the cereal box or if I had to clip a little card from the back of the box as a proof of purchase, but I loved that little tape. Polaris later did a whole CD of music from the TV show, which is really neat.

Man...now I'm going to have "Hey Sandy" stuck in my head for the rest of the night. Cool!