Best Band of the 90s?

[MendotoManteo]

So, I caught up with my musician co-worker. Actual musician. Has a Spotify page. He agrees: Alice in Chains best band of the 90s. He described to me how they use dissociative chords. I don't understand much of that but made sense. Said that, among other elements, made them very unique. As for me, I just know what sounds good when I hear it. What sounds technical but still listenable.

On a slightly amusing side note, technology must have been following me around in our new era of surveillance. So, on my Instagram this past week, there was a big debate about Grunge all of the sudden. Whatever the implications of that sudden outcome aside, most posters agreed about Alice.

 

[EyeballKid]

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.

I haven’t thought of the Vulgar Boatmen in ages. I was an English major at U of Florida in the early-mid 90s. One of my profs was Robert Ray, who was a member of the band.

Son Volt’s “Trace” is a cornerstone for me. I listened to it on repeat as I drove from FL to Chapel Hill when I moved to the triangle.

Good list overall. Huge fan of the pixies/frank black, Tom Petty, SCOTS, Lemonheads.

I would add Cracker, Smashing Pumpkins (probably already been mentioned in this thread), Dino Jr., and in place of Nirvana I’d go with Pearl Jam and Soundgarden (heresy, I know).

 

[aGDevil2k]

Pearl Jam
No Doubt
Goo Goo Dolls
Green Day

 

[Ro Laren]

1. Godspeed You! Black Emperor (Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada + F# A# Infinite combined are better than any other combined output from any other band in the 90s)

2. Nine Inch Nails (Broken + The Downward Spiral + The Fragile)

3. Megadeth (Rust in Peace + Countdown to Extinction + Youthanasia)

4. Type O Negative (Bloody Kisses + World Coming Down + October Rust)

5. Immortal (At the Heart of Winter is the best black metal album ever)

6. Guns N’ Roses (Use Your Illusion I + Use Your Illusion II)

7. Oasis (What’s the Story Morning Glory?)

8. Death (Symbolic + Human)

9. The Smashing Pumpkins (Siamese Dream + Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness)

10. Mogwai (Young Team + Come On Die Young)

 

[Ro Laren]

I have a thing for female songs that have what I call a "haunting" sound.

Sour Times is probably at the top of the list. Others include Criminal by Fiona Apple. Possession by Sarah McLachlan. Bad Liar by Selena Gomez.

If you like haunting female vocals, have you listened to SubRosa?



Or Born Again by Overmars? With vocals by Marion Leclercq that are more than haunting. More like torture.



Or Wylt by Black Math Horseman?

 

[Ro Laren]

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.

Meshuggah pretty much invented the breakdown with Destroy, Erase, Improve. Ironically all the -core people who are obsessed with breakdowns give them no credit for it or even know they were the originators.



Meshuggah is a good pick for a 90s band.

 

[Bobfripp]

Hootie and the Blowfish ... and Nickelback. C'mon, give'em some love!

 

[8992Tiger]

Flaming Lips
Cranberries
Radiohead
The Verve
90s U2
King Missile
Janes Addiction

 

[fourheels]

Hootie and the Blowfish ... and Nickelback. C'mon, give'em some love!

Cracked Rear View was huge. I grew up with some guys that formed a band that was on Hootie's label that I'm sure some of you are familiar with - Jump Little Children.

 

[aGDevil2k]

Cracked Rear View was huge. I grew up with some guys that formed a band that was on Hootie's label that I'm sure some of you are familiar with - Jump Little Children.

Cracked Rear View was indeed an awesome album

Being 47 and having that midlife mental battle of nostalgia, I've been listening to a LOT of 90s music over the last year

 

[ChileG]

Anybody remember the band Jolene from the 90s? (Before that they were called Hardsoul Poets).
Their drummer is my next door neighbor.

 

[finesse]

Cracked Rear View was indeed an awesome album

Being 47 and having that midlife mental battle of nostalgia, I've been listening to a LOT of 90s music over the last year

Hear the angels sing it′s a beautiful thing
There's a lot of new music stop and think and you′ll find
Even Hank was new music once got to keep an open mind
I set aside my Faron Young and bought myself a Hootie
I rolled down the window of my pickup truck and sailed it like a Frisbee

 

[heelinhell]

Seeing this long list of best bands of the 90s is impressive...

Which of these bands will be music icons 50 years from now ? I have no idea and will not know because I will no longer exist, but I wonder which of these bands will my grandkids still be listening to when they are in their 60s

I remember getting into a "spirited" debate with my daughter and son-in-law back in the 90s about this. They were criticizing Eric Clapton and Cream for being over the hill and touting Neutral Milk Truck Hotel as a superior band. I asked them which band will be remembered another 20 years from now.

 

[finesse]

Seeing this long list of best bands of the 90s is impressive...

Which of these bands will be music icons 50 years from now ? I have no idea and will not know because I will no longer exist, but I wonder which of these bands will my grandkids still be listening to when they are in their 60s

I remember getting into a "spirited" debate with my daughter and son-in-law back in the 90s about this. They were criticizing Eric Clapton and Cream for being over the hill and touting Neutral Milk Truck as a superior band. I asked them which band will be remembered another 20 years from now.

I get your point but I also think that has at least as much to do with how music is distributed and heard as the merits of the music itself. Much of the breadth of my musical tastes comes from exposure to late night AM radio where almost everything got played regardless of genre. In a weird paradox where more styles and genres are available, the chances of a genuinely widely acclaimed act seems to diminish.

 

[kickazzz2000]

I get your point but I also think that has at least as much to do with how music is distributed and heard as the merits of the music itself. Much of the breadth of my musical tastes comes from exposure to late night AM radio where almost everything got played regardless of genre. In a weird paradox where more styles and genres are available, the chances of a genuinely widely acclaimed act seems to diminish.

I saw oasis last nite at the meadowlands. Freaking killed it.

Flame away

 

[DougDaBroadcasta]

Hum.

 

[duluoz]

I remember getting into a "spirited" debate with my daughter and son-in-law back in the 90s about this. They were criticizing Eric Clapton and Cream for being over the hill and touting Neutral Milk Truck Hotel as a superior band. I asked them which band will be remembered another 20 years from now.

Depends on who you ask. I can rattle off Neutral Milk Hotel records and songs and have seen them live multiple times.

Meanwhile you couldn’t pay me to sit through a Cream show or even listen to their music, I can’t even name you more than a track or two, and Clapton is a racist prick.

They’ll be as forgotten as NMH twenty years from now, hate to break it to you. They ain’t exactly the Beatles or Stones. So your daughter had a point.

 

[heelinhell]

Depends on who you ask. I can rattle off Neutral Milk Hotel records and songs and have seen them live multiple times.

Meanwhile you couldn’t pay me to sit through a Cream show or even listen to their music, I can’t even name you more than a track or two, and Clapton is a racist prick.

They’ll be as forgotten as NMH twenty years from now, hate to break it to you. They ain’t exactly the Beatles or Stones. So your daughter had a point.

Not withstanding Clapton's bigoted views, he has been a rock icon for 50 years, but he may be forgotten another 20 years from now.
You might be able to appreciate the Derek and the Dominos group with Clapton, Duane Allman, Jim Gordon, and Bobby Whitlock...or maybe not, but give it a try

and I confess I have not listened to a song by NMH so I would be interested in you sharing one of your favorite NMH songs here. I am open to be convinced my daughter had a point when saying NMH is superior to Eric Clapton

 

[superrific]

Meshuggah pretty much invented the breakdown with Destroy, Erase, Improve. Ironically all the -core people who are obsessed with breakdowns give them no credit for it or even know they were the originators.

I must be missing something. The breakdown has been around forever. I mean, what are we talking about here? Creeping Death? Sabbath Bloody Sabbath?

S.O.D. as a band was basically all about its breakdowns. Anthrax used them. DRI if I recall correctly. Prong was another band in which breakdowns were part of the whole sound.

 

[Icky Mettle]

Depends on who you ask. I can rattle off Neutral Milk Hotel records and songs and have seen them live multiple times.

Meanwhile you couldn’t pay me to sit through a Cream show or even listen to their music, I can’t even name you more than a track or two, and Clapton is a racist prick.

They’ll be as forgotten as NMH twenty years from now, hate to break it to you. They ain’t exactly the Beatles or Stones. So your daughter had a point.

Before this post, I was entirely unaware of Clapton’s racist rant in 1976 (which I read about after reading your post). How was his image ever rehabilitated after that? That was bad. Like, really bad.