Best Band of the 90s?

[Carolina Fever]

Hootie, Matchbox 20, Third Eye Blind, Vertical Horizon and Barenaked Ladies had some great songs in the 90s.

 

[duluoz]

I like Nirvana. Great band. The Foo Fighters are better.

Yikes. Foo Fighters are the Olive Garden of ‘90s rock IMO.

In fact if you go there now, you can probably hear them overhead.

 

[Carolina Fever]

Maybe worth a different thread, but what "undiscovered" bands do y'all remember hearing live in HS or college? For me, Hootie (in HS) and Vertical Horizon (in HS and college). Also heard Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds in college, but it was well after they'd hit it big.

I saw Hootie at App State before they blew up.

 

[ChileG]

The first concert I ever saw in a music club was Live in the summer of 1992 at the 13-13 club in Charlotte (where the Arlington a/k/a the Pink Building currently is). I went to high school with a guy who years later would take the place the band’s original lead singer (who, as I understand it, is back with the band). He also happens to be son of former Charlotte Hornets owner, George Shinn.

Saw many shows at the 13-13. There was also the 4808 Club on Central.

 

[ZenMode]

For whatever reason, I didn’t listen much to Radiohead or Oasis. I was aware of their biggest hits.
My 15 year-old son got me listening to them because he will play them in the car.

I'm truly baffled by all the love for Oasis. I saw them in the late 90s, because it was cheap and I liked live music, but their show was terrible.

 

[GoHeelsweeeehoooo]

Maybe worth a different thread, but what "undiscovered" bands do y'all remember hearing live in HS or college? For me, Hootie (in HS) and Vertical Horizon (in HS and college). Also heard Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds in college, but it was well after they'd hit it big.

I saw the White Stripes at the Ritz (I believe at the time it was called Disco Rodeo) in Raleigh right as they were getting big

 

[nycfan]

Two bands I struggle to place in this conversation:

1. Live. Not nearly at the same level as others mentioned, but I see Lightning Crashes as the third part of the early-90s trilogy, along with Jeremy and Smells Like Teen Spirit (or Lithium, if that's your preference).

2. Bush. Totally commercial and manufactured, but I still listen to Sixteen Stone every now and then because it's just so entertaining top to bottom.

No doubt in my mind that Nirvana, AIC and Soundgarden are 1a-c in whatever order, but I do feel a sense of loyalty to those two.

 

[nycfan]

I saw Hootie at App State before they blew up.

Not in anyway direct at you personally, but this post reminds me of a 90s song / lyric that I always associated with my younger brother who said the same thing about seeing Hootie et al at ECU in the 90s (and would never admit it now)

… Should I fly to Los Angeles
Find my asshole brother …

[also has a nod to Bowie in that song, but I always hear it as about that Hootie denying brother]

 

[nycfan]

I'm truly baffled by all the love for Oasis. I saw them in the late 90s, because it was cheap and I liked live music, but their show was terrible.

I mean Don’t Look Back in Anger pissed me off at first as a Bowie rip-off but it has survived as a solid 90s hit. And Champagne Supernova still hits the right moment / mood.

The only reasons Yesterday (the movie 2019) have existed were (a) the joke about Oasis never existing if the Beatles never happened and (b) the

Spoiler

scene with John Lennon.

Otherwise, fine. Blur (for instance) is soooo much better.

 

[nycfan]

Hootie, Matchbox 20, Third Eye Blind, Vertical Horizon and Barenaked Ladies had some great songs in the 90s.

 

[nycfan]

In any event, I was really lucky to see a lot of bands in ballrooms in NYC in the 90s, which has impacted my POV. OMG, seeing Radiohead premiere OK Computer months before the album release in a 2000-person ballroom? Fucking amazing (we lucked into a buddy who had been a roadie and had great info on such shows).

 

[hedge]

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?

What about Dead Can Dance?

 

[Ro Laren]

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.

Okay.

I was talking about the breakdowns that dominate metalcore and deathcore now, that are the gravitational centers of every damn song in those genres, and completely characterize those genres. Those breakdowns were born in the 90s. If not Meshuggah, Pantera. Domination by Pantera was the first song I know of that was filled with legit breakdowns. Meshuggah was just much more creative.

Anthrax and S.O.D.? You mean parts of songs that lack the accelerated beat? Yeah, a bunch of Metallica songs, even on their thrash albums, have those. They aren’t what I would call breakdowns.

 

[Ro Laren]

What about Dead Can Dance?

Thanks for the response. Never listened to them, but I will now!

 

[superrific]

Okay.

I was talking about the breakdowns that dominate metalcore and deathcore now, that are the gravitational centers of every damn song in those genres, and completely characterize those genres. Those breakdowns were born in the 90s. If not Meshuggah, Pantera. Domination by Pantera was the first song I know of that was filled with legit breakdowns. Meshuggah was just much more creative.

Anthrax and S.O.D.? You mean parts of songs that lack the accelerated beat? Yeah, a bunch of Metallica songs, even on their thrash albums, have those. They aren’t what I would call breakdowns.

I asked what I was missing because I figured there was something I wasn't getting. I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about. In what way is the breakdown the gravitational center of Domination?

I'm now unsure I know these genres "metalcore" and "deathcore." I don't really recognize the bands listed under those headings on wikipedia.

 

[duluoz]

The comment about "best" was more intended as a wry observation. And come on -- people aren't just nominating their favorite bands. They are nominating bands that are less than their favorite but still deserve consideration, lol.

As for the Pixies, plenty of bands were doing that in the 1980s. Fellow MA band Mission of Burma was. So too the Mekons, the Fall, the Dead Milkmen, half the SST catalog, late Husker Du. Hell, what was U2 doing in the 80s if not that?

The Pixies' main innovation was to tone down the guitars and let Kim sing, which meant they appealed to girls. Back in those days, punk and alt-rock was almost exclusively XY, and the women who were in that scene generally tended toward techno and goth. That's certainly my experience. At my radio station -- one data point, but we are talking about 100-150 kids over my tenure there -- most of the men were lukewarm about the Pixies. Some liked them quite a bit, but I don't remember any guy being really into the Pixies. By contrast, the girls loved the Pixies. The Pixies were their introduction to sub-radio pop. It was a huge gender divide. Of course, it was even more stark in metal.

Re: “best” or favorite or whatever, you might want to climb out of your tightly wired left brain and forget ratings and nominations and just let it be a ‘90s music discussion. Otherwise it would be about 9 posts long and everything would be covered and we’d be stuck thinking about trump b.s.

Only U2’s earliest stuff qualifies in the way that I’m referencing, and then they went pretty much straight into their anthemic stadium sound. The rest of the bands you mentioned are fine but they don’t approach The Pixies as far as bridging multiple ‘80s genres and influencing ‘90s bands. Cobain, Radiohead, plenty others all held them in much higher esteem than you do, so I’m fine being in their camp.

And it wasn’t just Kim that made them different, innovative, or notable — it was also the way she played off Black Francis and how they could go from sounding saccharine and catchy one moment, to absolutely feral and shredding the next, and do it all seamlessly.

 

[Ro Laren]

I asked what I was missing because I figured there was something I wasn't getting. I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about. In what way is the breakdown the gravitational center of Domination?

I'm now unsure I know these genres "metalcore" and "deathcore." I don't really recognize the bands listed under those headings on wikipedia.

It's not the gravitational center of Domination, or any Pantera song. Pantera was treading new ground with breakdowns (they weren't even called that then), and they never wrote their songs around them. Dimebag probably would have scowled if he'd known what they would become. Many of their songs didn't have any at all. Same with Meshuggah.

What I said was that breakdowns are the centers of almost any song by a metalcore or deathcore band. Pick a handful of the bands you pulled up on Wikipedia under those genres. Listen to some albums by some of them and see what you think. It's amazing to me how they write songs around breakdowns so consistently. These bands have huge audiences that are obsessed with them and have been for 20 years.

 

[breepf]

It's not the gravitational center of Domination, or any Pantera song. Pantera was treading new ground with breakdowns (they weren't even called that then), and they never wrote their songs around them. Dimebag probably would have scowled if he'd known what they would become. Many of their songs didn't have any at all. Same with Meshuggah.

What I said was that breakdowns are the centers of almost any song by a metalcore or deathcore band. Pick a handful of the bands you pulled up on Wikipedia under those genres. Listen to some albums by some of them and see what you think. It's amazing to me how they write songs around breakdowns so consistently. These bands have huge audiences that are obsessed with them and have been for 20 years.

When Wikipedia is tossing off suggestions like Earth Crisis and Integrity, I think more guidance is in order: he should listen to Converge, Jane Doe.

Converge's prior records are a bit more self-indulgent, though "Saddest Day" was the hardcore/metalcore song that everyone loved. Everything after Jane Doe shares its buzzsaw aesthetic.

And if you like Converge, then there's a decent chance you'd like everything that HydraHead records was putting out in the late 90s and early 00s, in particular Botch (We Are the Romans), Cave In, and Dillinger Escape Plan.

Of course, the label founder is Aaron Turner of ISIS, Old Man Gloom, Split Cranium, Pharaoh Overlord and, last but definitely not least, Sumac fame. By my reckoning, he's one of the most creative metal musicians of the last 25+ years.

 

[aGDevil2k]

Third Eye Blind absolutely.

 

[superrific]

Re: “best” or favorite or whatever, you might want to climb out of your tightly wired left brain and forget ratings and nominations and just let it be a ‘90s music discussion. Otherwise it would be about 9 posts long and everything would be covered and we’d be stuck thinking about trump b.s.

Only U2’s earliest stuff qualifies in the way that I’m referencing, and then they went pretty much straight into their anthemic stadium sound. The rest of the bands you mentioned are fine but they don’t approach The Pixies as far as bridging multiple ‘80s genres and influencing ‘90s bands. Cobain, Radiohead, plenty others all held them in much higher esteem than you do, so I’m fine being in their camp.

And it wasn’t just Kim that made them different, innovative, or notable — it was also the way she played off Black Francis and how they could go from sounding saccharine and catchy one moment, to absolutely feral and shredding the next, and do it all seamlessly.

Eh, Steve Albini hated the Pixies and he produced those records. I guess it just depends on your priors. For instance, nothing in the Pixies sounds "feral and shredding" to me, but then again, I listen to Big Black and Husker Du regularly, and also metal.

I mean, the Pixies are fine. I have one of their albums. I listen to it occasionally. Un Chien Andalou -- I guess the track name is Debaser -- is a really good song. the rest of the album, to me, is inconsistent. Some of it is just too silly for me.

I just don't think the Pixies are as singularly innovative as you have been implying.