Best Band of the 90s?

Well, Nirvana — brilliant, revolutionary, truly great. And kind of about the only grunge band that did all that much for me.

Son Volt’s ‘Trace’ possibly best album I can think of from the decade, behind maybe ‘Nevermind.’

Jayhawk’s ’Hollywood Town Hall’ also brilliant. And ‘Blue,’ from ‘Tomorrow the Green Grass,’ could be considered among the very best singles of the decade.

Also Vulgar Boatmen’s ‘Please Panic.’ Utterly brilliant.

Lucinda Williams’ ‘Car Wheels on a Gravel Road’ in ultra elite league.

Tom Petty put out some awfully strong music in the 90s. I’m a fan more so of his earlier classics, but he should probably be in the conversation for best stuff if that decade.

Some very high-level music made by Frank Black, Ronnie Dawson, Lemonheads, Southern Culture on the Skids.

Were these the best bands in terms of sustained creative greatness? I don’t exactly know. But I think they produced some of the very best music I know of from the decade, so I could be comfortable saying I think they were among the top bands.
 
Nirvana was great IMO, but they put out only two proper albums in the 1990s, along with a compilation of b-sides and unreleased tracks. Bleach came out in 1989. But Nevermind was an amazing album and also a phenomenon that revolutionized popular music of the time. And the fact that an album as abrasive as In Utero was no. 1 on the charts and sold over a million copies in just a couple months is crazy to think about.

I never cared for the Foo Fighters. I always found their music bland and uninteresting. But I did see them perform at the Cat’s Cradle in 1995 before their debut album came out. They opened for Mike Watt, who was touring with Eddie Vedder on guitar and Dave Grohl on drums. I do think it was cool to have had that experience. Interestingly, the feeling people seemed to have after leaving that show was that the Foo Fighters weren’t really going to make it.
 
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ole howard1 said:
Well, Nirvana — brilliant, revolutionary, truly great. And kind of about the only grunge band that did all that much for me.

Son Volt’s ‘Trace’ possibly best album I can think of from the decade, behind maybe ‘Nevermind.’

Jayhawk’s ’Hollywood Town Hall’ also brilliant. And ‘Blue,’ from ‘Tomorrow the Green Grass,’ could be considered among the very best singles of the decade.

Also Vulgar Boatmen’s ‘Please Panic.’ Utterly brilliant.

Lucinda Williams’ ‘Car Wheels on a Gravel Road’ in ultra elite league.

Tom Petty put out some awfully strong music in the 90s. I’m a fan more so of his earlier classics, but he should probably be in the conversation for best stuff if that decade.

Some very high-level music made by Frank Black, Ronnie Dawson, Lemonheads, Southern Culture on the Skids.

Were these the best bands in terms of sustained creative greatness? I don’t exactly know. But I think they produced some of the very best music I know of from the decade, so I could be comfortable saying I think they were among the top bands.
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I was a huge Lemonheads fan in high school. It’s a Shame About Ray was a significant album in my personal musical journey. It pretty much instantly became my all-time favorite album soon after listening to it for the first time, and I spent what little money I had on their entire back catalogue afterwards and loved it all.

To be honest, Come On Feel The Lemonheads was a bit of a letdown for me, but I remained a big fan. Shame is still high up there among what I consider to be the all-time great albums.
 
A lot to choose from for sure… and it’s such a personal and subjective thing trying to rank “the best” of anything with music.
I always think of the popular question “who’s the best guitar player” etc. it becomes a matter of personal taste and opinion. And at the end of it all you’re really just splitting hairs.

I would have to divide things up into categories or genres. Like Americana; Indie; Alternative; World Music; Rap; Metal; Jazz, etc….
And then I’d still have to list 2 or 3 for each category… could I then pare it all down to just one group or band or artist? Probably not.

Loads of good examples already mentioned in the alternative rock genre.

I’ll throw out a couple from the Americana genre:
Wilco; Gillian Welch/David Rawlings; Lucinda Williams; Son Volt; The Jayhawks

For Jazz:
Medeski Martin and Wood; Diana Krall; Charlie Hunter; to name a few.
 
Icky Mettle said:
I was a huge Lemonheads fan in high school. It’s a Shame About Ray was a significant album in my personal musical journey. It pretty much instantly became my all-time favorite album soon after listening to it for the first time, and I spent what little money I had on their entire back catalogue afterwards and loved it all.

To be honest, Come On Feel The Lemonheads was a bit of a letdown for me, but I remained a big fan. Shame is still high up there among what I consider to be the all-time great albums.
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It’s a Shame About Ray is a nearly perfect record, in a way. I don’t think the songwriting quite matches Trace or Car Wheels …. But for an alternative pop record with great production that thoroughly captures the mood — a mood, anyway — of the era, it’s darn great.
 
ole howard1 said:
It’s a Shame About Ray is a nearly perfect record, in a way. I don’t think the songwriting quite matches Trace or Car Wheels …. But for an alternative pop record with great production that thoroughly captures the mood — a mood, anyway — of the era, it’s darn great.
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One of the cool things about Shame is that it was a bit of a departure from what so many of The Lemonheads’ contemporaries were doing at the time. The Lemonheads started as a punk band with distorted guitars cranked up loud. And much of their pre-Shame stuff was grunge-adjacent (they very easily could have found themselves grouped in with bands that were being labeled “grunge” even though their music was a little more poppy). But when bands playing distorted guitars became the big thing, Evan Dando decided to go a different direction and turn the distortion way down. It was intentional and it made the album sound fresh.
 
nrsair said:
Dave Matthews Band gets some shit but I think you could make a case for them given the sheer amount of talent, and how strongly associated they were with the 90s vibes.

My dark horse pick would be Helmet.
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DMB is my personal 90’s favorite. But if we’re talking most influential it’s got to be
Pearl Jam
Nirvana
Soundgarden
Alice In Chains
Pumpkins
Rage Against the Machine

All of that was early 90’s but I think it set the tone. Where did all the great rock bands go?
 
bassydude77 said:
DMB is my personal 90’s favorite. But if we’re talking most influential it’s got to be
Pearl Jam
Nirvana
Soundgarden
Alice In Chains
Pumpkins
Rage Against the Machine

All of that was early 90’s but I think it set the tone. Where did all the great rock bands go?
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Agree with this and it’s a hard question to answer. 90s rock was incredible. 90s rap and hip hop was really good. 90s pop sucked donkey balls. And a lot of the rap was not really part of a “band.”
 
Loved some MM&W back in the day, but hard for a jazz band to get that kind of cred for overall from the decade. Same with Buena Vista Social Club, had huge influence for me anyway but too niche to win.

Surprised it took until page 2 for Dave Matthews to get mentioned. That would probably be my vote here, still hugely popular but in the 90s they were still sort of unique.

My own personal choice here would be Widespread, but that was because in the 90s they were actually my favorite band and listened to them way way too much.

In the end, the listed criteria of "best" can be interpreted many ways (most popular, most influential, most long term impact, most still listened to, etc), so a wide gulf of "right" answers, imo... so long as nobody says Hootie! 😉
 
lawtig02 said:
Agree with this and it’s a hard question to answer. 90s rock was incredible. 90s rap and hip hop was really good. 90s pop sucked donkey balls. And a lot of the rap was not really part of a “band.”
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I was at a bar the other night and “No Scrubs” came on. Mid-late 90’s early 2000’s had some banging club songs. Montell Jordan, TLC, Nelly, 2Pac,Biggie,
 
Icky Mettle said:
For me, based on my own personal preference, I’m going with Archers of Loaf, with The Sea and Cake a close second, and Pavement, PJ Harvey, and getting some strong consideration.

Archers of Loaf put out music that consisted of some of that quintessential 1990s post-punk indie-pop sound but also had a distinctive sound with the way Eric Johnson utilized his lead guitar playing. Frontman Eric Bachmann had (and still has) a commanding voice that grabs your attention. They absolutely rocked and put on a great live show. They put out four full length albums in the 1990s, three of which were fantastic and the last of which was solid, though not on the level of the first three IMO. They also put out a brilliant EP between their first and second albums and a really good collection of b-sides and unreleased tracks.

The Sea and Cake put out great album after great album over the course of 25 years between 1993 and 2018 (not sure if they have more to come), and may be the most under-appreciated band ever. And the four albums they put out in the 90s were great. The Biz, released in 1995, may be my all-time favorite album. They put out some very chill rock with jazz-influenced guitar that I could listen to all the time.

Pavement was sort of the quintessential indie rock band that influenced so much music of the era (and beyond). Though their sound was always recognizable, they evolved from each album to the next, putting out five full-length albums between 1992 and 1999.

PJ Harvey has been constantly reinventing herself with each album and has been doing it for nearly 35 years now. Her output in the 90s was consistently great, while also being dynamic, and after the drastic shift in both sound and image in 1995’s To Bring You My Love, it was exciting to wonder where she would take us next.
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Archers is one of my favorite bands ever. I am wearing one of their T-shirts right now.
 
Rock said:
Born in 85. My favorite album of all time is Ten. Second is What’s the Story Morning Glory. Thus, Pearl Jam and Oasis are two of my favorite bands of all time.

Nirvana was always overrated.
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Fun little 1990s music fact you might find interesting as a Lawrence native:
You are well aware of the connection between Lawrence and Chapel Hill with regard to college basketball (Dean Smith, Larry Brown, Roy Williams, Dick Harp, Matt Doherty, Scott Williams, Steve Robinson, Joe Holladay, CB McGrath, Jarod Haase, Jonas Sahratian, and most significantly, Brad Frederick).

There was also a connection between the two college towns with regard to music. In 1995, two of the shows I went to at the Cat’s Cradle (if you’re not familiar, it’s a music venue located in downtown Carrboro, right on the edge of Chapel Hill) were headlined by two of my favorite bands based out of Chapel Hill at the time (and two of Chapel Hill’s most renowned bands of the time): Polvo and Archers of Loaf. Both bands were finishing up their respective tours when I saw them and both were touring with bands out Lawrence.

Touring as the opening act for Polvo was a Lawrence band called Butterglory. Their album had recently been released on then Chapel Hill-based Merge Records, which was also Polvo’s label at the time. Touring as the opening act for the Archers of Loaf was a band called Vitreous Humor, which formed in Topeka but relocated to Lawrence where they based at the time. Not sure if you were ever familiar with either of those bands, but I remember thinking times interesting how that Lawrence/Chapel Hill connection extended to music.
 
Oddball said:
Loved some MM&W back in the day, but hard for a jazz band to get that kind of cred for overall from the decade. Same with Buena Vista Social Club, had huge influence for me anyway but too niche to win.

Surprised it took until page 2 for Dave Matthews to get mentioned. That would probably be my vote here, still hugely popular but in the 90s they were still sort of unique.

My own personal choice here would be Widespread, but that was because in the 90s they were actually my favorite band and listened to them way way too much.

In the end, the listed criteria of "best" can be interpreted many ways (most popular, most influential, most long term impact, most still listened to, etc), so a wide gulf of "right" answers, imo... so long as nobody says Hootie! 😉
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Points for mentioning Bueno Vista Social Club. Saw them in Knoxville at the Tennessee Theater.

I agree about the criteria of “best”. It’s difficult to pick because of genre diversity.

What criteria should be used?

It’s all just a bit like “so and so is the best guitar player of all time”
 
I don't know about bands but two of the most intriguing musicians were Mark Sandman and Mark Oliver Everett. Their bands weren't particularly shabby, either.
 
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