Best Band of the 90s?

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.
 
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 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).
 
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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)
 
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ZenMode said:
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.
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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?

 
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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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.
 
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