--Compiled by Tzarathustra--
As a connoisseur of 90's alternative music, I'm always coming across lists with titles like "12 Forgotten 90s Bands" or the like
featuring extremely well-known bands like Collective Soul and the Gin
Blossoms. Bands you may not have thought of in a while, but you still
hear their music on in-store radio and nostalgia blocks on modern rock
stations.
Well
here's a good ten song playlist of 90s bands that were neglected in
their day and are barely even rumors now. These are the no-hit wonders,
the opening acts and local scene stars. They're forgotten heroes of 90s
alternative rock.
Formed
in 1994, Frogpond released their first album in 1996 on Sony. Which
tells you something about the rate at which guitar bands were being
snapped up. This largely female outfit went from the Missouri boonies to
touring behind their own album with Everclear in two years. And if
you'll recal, in 1996, touring with Everclear was a pretty big deal.
From
the same Tempe, AZ breeding ground that spawned Gin Blossoms and The
Refreshments, this crop of dead-ender guitar rockers helped put the lie
to "Alternative" as a thoroughly northwestern and depressive phenomenon.
Sometimes it was just open chords and open roads on endless summer
nights.
The
Fall Outs were A part-time concern of a handful of Seattle locals in
the early 90s. They were the kind of band that results from compulsively
creative people being in the same place for a long time and
occasionally needing to have fun and make music. The title track off of
their 1995 sophomore album is a spiky and ragged punk work out that in
subject matter mirrors what was being expressed by Greenday, but
retaining everybit of harried and authentic credibility Greenday never
really even pretended to have. Credibility is depressing. Credibility
gets forgotten. But the good news is it still sounds awesome!
Beneficiaries
of the turbulent climate surrounding the Chicago music scene in the
early nineties rush to find the "next Seattle," Fig Dish wer swept up in
the same signing binge that brought us Smashing Pumpkins and Liz Phair.
Later they were victims of a more litteral type of climate turbulence
when a blizzard in Nebraska wrecked their van and equipment while on
tour. Their sound lights the 90s synapse in anyone who formed that
circuitry in record stores that smelled like incense, and on nights
cruising that smelled like your friends' second hand smoke and fields of
ripe corn.
An
infamous "What if" of 90s Alt Rock, For Squirrels were on the verge of
releasing their first album, but on the road back from a successful gig
at the iconic CBGB's in Manhattan their van blew a tire and overturned.
Their vocalist, bassist, and manager all died in the crash. About a
month later their first album Example was released and got a surprising degree of positive notice thanks to its debt to early REM, cracking the Billboard top 200.
A
band that had the backing of the critics and their peers and which
still recieves positive rememberance among discerning list makers;
Stockton, California's Grant Lee Buffalo never quite hit the commercial
heights they were likely hoping for. They never had that one song that
would have gotten them heavy traction on the nostalgia circuit twenty
years later. But their rich textures blending earthy and ethereal are
still something grand to discover and behold.
Perhaps
best remembered for his appearance in the 90s nostalgia-mainline film
Empire Records (Watching it now is like shooting a cocktail of Clinton
era ennui, Crystal Pepsi, and Friends reruns right into your eyeball),
eccentric rock journeyman Coyote Shivers also provided the capstone song
for that film as sung by Renee Zellwegger (Sugar High). Leather Jacket
Weather displays a ragged bounce and humor that recalls Stiff Records
product of the late 70's but with big KISS-inspired guitars.
If
you have an empty spot in your playlist right between Smashing Pumkins,
HUM, and Our Lady Peace, might I recommend I Mother Earth. Formed in
the same Toronto, Canada as gave us Our Lady Peace, I Mother Earth was
Perhaps lost in the buzz surrounding the hit machine release that was
Our Lady Peace's Clumsy for the
length and breadth of 1997/98. But there is no denying their ambition,
and the time to circle back and pick them out, if you haven't already,
is now.
Another
example of how the nineties brought roots textures back into rock and
roll mainstream. Even though Junkhouse never made it terribly big they
were on a major label. And at the same time bands like Counting Crows
were proving that the public were hungry for these sort of rustier home
brewed sounds. Out of My Head has a straining urgency and a sense of building sonic excess that climbs from pensive to purgative.
Perhaps
more easily recalled by 90s kids north of the U.S. Canadian border. For
residents south of that line Salmonblaster are a fun late stage
discovery. Especially if you're looking for that jolt of attitude and
energy that always seemed to just barely peek through on 90s alt rock
radio between Stone Temple Pilots singles. You know the kind of, "What
the F#*K was that?" moment where you hear a song and get as close to the
radio as you can to see if maybe they'll I.D. the band because you know
they'll never play it again. Because that's just not how radio works.
But hey, "...there's
this new band we think you'll enjoy. So strap in everyone for the first
single off their debut album My Own Prison, it's Creed!"
And lo, dark days were upon us all.
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