Filed under: music, the Voices That Care decade | Tags: matthew sweet, pj harvey, the 90s, videos, whale
To an impressionable eighth-grader who feared more or less everything, Whale’s 1994 classic Hobo Humpin’ Slobo Babe sounded like a crazy nonsensical mess. It also seemed tough and masculine in the way the hot boys liked but which I frankly just didn’t understand. Little did I realize at the time that the Swedish trio had all the bite of Army Of Lovers. (Actually, the two groups kinda had a lot in common aesthetically, now that I think about it.)
YouTube uploader ROCKVIDEOMONTHLY, who posted the video above, sent me on a long journey down memory lane last night, though. Whoever they are–and I’m guessing they’re from New England–they’ve got some really impeccable taste in underground-ish hits of the early-to-mid-nineties:
Filed under: music, the Voices That Care decade | Tags: britpop, space, the nineties
Popbitch reports that Andy Parle, drummer from 90′s Britpop band Space, died very suddenly while crossing a Liverpool street the other day. I really like Space, in the way that all their singles were fabulous though singer Tommy Scott’s voice got a little grating over the length of an entire 15-song album. But, to be fair, it was the mid-nineties and almost everybody’s albums had about four songs too many.
Here’s their biggest hit, Female of the Species. It’s pretty representative of their sound, which had all the drama and feyness of the Divine Comedy but without any of the sexy Neal Hannon vocals:
More after the jump:
Funny I should have just admitted to buying a John Mellencamp album, because fifteen years ago this week he topped my weekly singles chart. I had a weekly countdown (in notebook form) from fall of 1993 (aged 12) to summer of 1997 (aged 16) and it’s kind of hilarious reflecting on what I used to like. At the same time it’s also kind of amazing how all over the place my listening habits were. I only listened to commercial radio at this point–with the exception of the Milla Jovovich number at #13, which I doubt got any airplay–but listened to every station just about equally. There’s kind of an alarming number of cheesy slow jams on here, though, of all varieties: cheesy R&B (Gerald LeVert), cheesy country (Garth Brooks), cheesy adult contemporary (Elton John) and cheesy alternative (Counting Crows).
40. Stone Temple Pilots, Big Empty (DEBUT)
39. Gerald LeVert, I’d Give Anything (DEBUT)
38. M People, Movin’ On Up (24)
37. Collective Soul, Shine (25)
36. Soundgarden, Black Home Sun (37)
35. Jon Secada, If You Go (28)
34. Tony Bennett, Steppin’ Out With My Baby (35)
33. Green Day, Basket Case (36)
32. Tevin Campbell, Always In My Heart (27)
31. Aaron Neville and Trisha Yearwood, I Fall To Pieces (34)
Filed under: music, the Voices That Care decade | Tags: 20X200, art, jen bekman, mike monteiro, pavement
I’m really ashamed to say that I had to Google these words to figure out why they sounded so familiar. God, it’s like being white and suburban and in high school in the nineties didn’t really happen to me.
Which, on second thought, might not be such a bad thing….
This is a Mike Monteiro print available through the lovely 20X200. Not one of my favorite editions that they’ve released, although it did just remind me of the existence of this video.
While cleaning the other day, I came across my list of my 50 favorite songs of 1998, which is a list I don’t think I’ve seen (unlike my other annual year-end lists) since about January of 1999. Judging from the song choices, I only included singles, and most of these are songs I heard on a late-night new music show that used to be on WBRU, back before Providence’s Modern Rock station (and Modern Rock in general) shit the bed for good.
Reader,
Since you are reading this on a computer screen I assume you’re already sitting down. But if you’re at a library or somewhere that requires you to stand up to look at the internet, then I suggest you find a chair or maybe a fainting sofa, because I have something very serious and important to tell you: (more…)
The hottest hit of the 90s….
Isn’t any of these. You’ll have to wait until the weekend for that. But in the meantime, here’s my picks for the 22 worst hit singles of the 90s. The ones that make my skin crawl now, and made my skin crawl even more then, when I actually had to hear them every day. Insincere, evil piles of rancid ass in audio form, from many of the usual suspects as well as some people that came around just to shit on your ears once before dropping into obscurity. A couple are even from normally not-awful bands who also put out some songs on the top 101. Some are forgotten, and some live on, thanks to completely dreadful adult contemporary playlists, so you never know when they’re going to strike, tormenting you while you’re at the drugstore or the dentist’s office.
[nb: I had to shut my speakers off just while I looked for the video clips. So click with caution, if you insist.] (more…)
At number two, a heterosexual rejection letter, which doubles as an introduction to queer studies.
Filed under: lists, music, the Voices That Care decade | Tags: Edwyn Collins
At number three, a song about the crazy, devilish things a boy does when he falls for the new girl in town.
The fourth hottest hit of the nineties reminds us of olden times, when smart women were allowed on modern rock radio.
