Best Band of the 90s?

ZenMode said:
I remember spin doctors making me angry.... heart rate increasing, legit anger.

I had a similar reaction to Zombie by Cranberries.
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I understand the Spin Doctors hate, but not the Cranberries.

And, since you don’t appear to get the reference, a very well-liked poster looked a lot like one of the guys from SD.
 
ChileG said:
In addition to many of the band already listed, I also like the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
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I could not get into them -- not sure why, sound just didn't do it for me. However, the other project from Jon Spencer and Cristina Martinez (they were married), Boss Hog, is quite good. I like it at least.
 
Since all of the usual suspects have been mentioned and rementioned, I'll say that I quite enjoyed the Magnetic Fields' output from the 90's and I still consider them a 90's band. Probably a little too quirky for some, but I like 'em. Same with Jonathan Richman, who also happens to be an ace guitarist, but of course his career spans decades both prior to and after the 90's, but that's when I saw him the most and when he put out some of my favorite solo albums of his...
 
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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We went to see Evan at Tower Records in SF, Lemonheads were playing somewhere that night and he performed an acoustic set that afternoon in the store (remember when that was a thing?). My girlfriend at the time brought him a nugg, which he seemed to appreciate. I brought the sleeve of my copy of Electric Ladyland for him to sign, when I got to the table he looked at me and said "that's kind of a stretch, don't you think?" I was like yeah, but it's what I brought, and he signed it. We were on the same wavelength drug-wise around that time, so I felt like we shared a brief knowing glance with one another, but I was probably just high...
 
breepf said:
If you're willing to consider metal, I think Neurosis matters quite a bit.
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Ha. I realized after my post that I forgot about them. But I didn't edit because I didn't think anyone else actually cared about metal, lol.

You are right. They would definitely be above Paradise Lost.
 
superrific said:
Ha. I realized after my post that I forgot about them. But I didn't edit because I didn't think anyone else actually cared about metal, lol.

You are right. They would definitely be above Paradise Lost.
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Meshuggah provides an entry for extreme/technical metal. Neurosis hits the doomier, sludgier post-metal category.

In my mind, any third spot would go to a death metal band--in fact, probably the aptly-named Death.
 
breepf said:
Meshuggah provides an entry for extreme/technical metal. Neurosis hits the doomier, sludgier post-metal category.

In my mind, any third spot would go to a death metal band--in fact, probably the aptly-named Death.
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Maybe, but I've always disliked Death.
 
BlooVooDoo said:
Was Ibrahim Ferrer a part of that tour? He was such an incredible talent.
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Yes, as was Ruben Gonzalez (who was the first to pass away, not long after that tour), Compay Segundo, and Omara Portuondo. They were the core of the bigger names.

I saw that show at a really nice theater in SoCal from the 3rd row. Still one of my favorite live shows ever.

They recently turned it into a Broadway show, which seems to be doing very well. Not sure I’ll go see it, but maybe.
 
So I posted my best bands of the 90s thinking bands that were formed in the 90s, but re-reading the thread title it doesn't limit bands formed in the 90s so...

My best band pick of the 90s and for all time :

 
Tough to argue with many of the above. Especially, the Archers for the iconic Chapel Hill sound. I think I saw their first show (before they were the Archers) at the Hardback Cafe of all places.

For me, the anthem of my 90s is Sleater-Kinney.
 
Blurb said:
Tough to argue with many of the above. Especially, the Archers for the iconic Chapel Hill sound. I think I saw their first show (before they were the Archers) at the Hardback Cafe of all places.

For me, the anthem of my 90s is Sleater-Kinney.
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Superchunk > Archers, in my opinion.
 
MendotoManteo said:
Generally speaking, Nirvana seems often considered the best band of the 90s. Or at least the most iconic. There are two reasons for this:

1. Nirvana was, objectively, a great band.
2. The cult of Cobain

For my part, however, I offer Alice in Chains as the best band of the 90s, despite almost seeming like an afterthought these days. I'm not a musician and don't understand music like musicians do, obviously. But I do know what sounds good and know enough about technical intricacy when I hear it. I think these features are what make Alice the best:

1. The harmonizing between Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell is almost without parallel.
2. Brought what I will call "outside elements" and accompaniments (again, not a musician so don't know technical terms) like other support vocalists or symphonic elements at certain points in their songs. I call their sound a "symphony of calamity" for this reason. I don't recall Nirvana ever doing this but could be wrong.
3. I believe they had more range than most other bands of the era.
4. "Jar of Flies" is, in my opinion, the greatest album of the 90s (well, at least rock; aka, what we would consider a "band"). Technically, an LP but whatever.

What do you all think? Any other contenders?
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100% in agreement on Jar of Flies. I still listen to it at night while dozing off.

Alice In Chains is unquestionably (in my mind, at least) the best of the Grunge bands.

One more band I’ll mention in the top 2 or 3 of that era: Rage Against the Machine. A ridiculous amount of individual talent in that group. Zack De La Rocha was a legitimate MC, not just a rocker pretending to be an MC (looking at you, Fred Durst). His lyrics, timing, and voice would stack up with any rap MC of the era. Then you had one of the greatest guitarists of all time in Tom Morello, the master of experimentation. And add to that Tim Commerford at bass and Brad Wilk on drums, both of them powerhouse performers, and you had what amounted to a super group.

Another band I left off is Tool, only because 3 of their 5 albums were released after 2000, all of which were stronger than Undertow and Aenima (which are still both classics).
 
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