An Ear For An Era: 1999

Let's close out this millennium with style! Swag! Something special! Exclamation points maybe!

1999 was the year I got my driver's license and then broke my leg three days later playing soccer. One thing I remember from that ordeal was that the TV was messed up in my hospital room and so I requested that my parents bring me my discman and the CDs that were in the 6 disc changer in the car. I'd put 6 of my favorites in because duh, I got to drive and I was excited. I know Chumps on Parade was on there, probably Suicide Machines and Skankin' Pickle as well. And probably some Less Than Jake. Etc. Another thing I remember about the ordeal was that I decorated my crutches and walking cast with band stickers. All of this is to emphasize how much skapunk defined this experience for me, music was my life. My own music.

1999 was also the year my brother went to college. We drove down to Arizona with him to help him move in. I don't remember much about that trip except that I must have just gotten the Dan Potthast album Eyeballs right before, because I listened to that CD repeatedly on that trip. I was obsessed with that album. It emphasized the lyrical skills he had, the stories he told with multiple meanings, the clever way he turned a simple story into an analogy about life. And cute love songs, there are plenty of those as well. With Rivers Cuomo/Brian Wilson levels of insecurity. I wrote him a fan letter by hand and sent it in the actual mail and he wrote me back by hand. Such a cool guy that Dan Potthast is! And he's still at it! His band MU330 also put out two albums in '99 because he was so damn prolific in these days. There was a Christmas album that I always put on around Christmas even 15 years later (that wasn't part of this project because I've excluded Christmas music, not wanting to listen to the stuff in January-November) and their self-titled album. I remember this one being new, getting the album at that show I spoke of in a previous entry. The production on it was a little odd, a little lo-fi for MU330, but yet another showcase of Dan P's increasingly personal lyricism.

The Hippos improved when they put out Heads Are Gonna Roll. They shed their Reel Big Fish copping style for a synthy 80s flavored skapunk. Like The Cars meet skapunk. This time I listened to it while running my first half marathon and still really like their cover of "Always Something There to Remind Me."

The next album that came up during the half marathon was Fun in the Dark by Groovie Ghoulies. I don't know why I never got more of their albums because this one has been a favorite of mine for a long time. I always bust it out around Halloween time. It's just perfect spooky-ish pop punk. Spooky in the 50s horror/sci-fi style and pop punk in the 70s Ramones style. I'm glad it came up during October because that was perfect, and I'm glad it came up during the race because it was quite motivating.

One album from this era that I loved at the time and hadn't revisited in a long time but it all came back when I did was Hopeless Romantic by The Bouncing Souls. In '99 I enjoyed the earlier Souls records but they were both from a million years ago (i.e. from before I knew about them) and Hopeless Romantic was the one that came out while I was into them. So to me it feels a bit more mature but not too mature. Some sentimental tracks and some fun tracks. "Bullying The Jukebox" takes me right back to the time I saw them with my brother. They were playing with Less Than Jake and we saw them in downtown Denver. My parents dropped us off there and picked us up at Hooters (the only place we could find with a pay phone...remember pay phones??). Anyway, I'm getting off topic. They played and the singer just bounced around stage and it was just so much fun.

Another one I listened to contemporarily was Weird Al's Running With Scissors. This was a weird one for me but also the perfect one for me at the time. I had just enough exposure to mainstream music at the time to know and understand what he was parodying, and enough hatred for mainstream music at the time to laugh at it. Maybe too much hatred and too much laughter. But I really did hate that Offspring song "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" so I doubly appreciated Weird Al mocking it. It was also funny when the Backstreet Boys were in the polka and my little sister's friend got mad about it, "he can't be allowed to do that!!" I think this was the one where he shaved his mustache too, so it kind of signifies the second era of Weird Al or something. Where he was contemporary to me, up to date, and relevant. Yes, those all kind of mean the same thing.

After The Broadways (about whom I wrote very lovingly if you will recall), The Lawrence Arms formed and put out their debut album A Guided Tour of Chicago, featuring two of the members of The Broadways. The Lawrence Arms would soon become my favorite band for several years and are still up there. The debut was a lot more lo-fi than anything else they would do, and that made it feel like a step back from The Broadways at first. Some political songs, some songs of self loathing, it's a decent collection but their second album (coming up in 2000!) is where it's at.

Their peers Alkaline Trio put out their most solid release of all in 1999, the I Lied My Face Off EP. Four songs, all four stars or more in my ratings. Two Matt songs, two Dan songs. They were just on the top of their game, with Matt getting more poetic and Dan reaching the pinnacle of his angry side.

Alkaline Trio "This Is Getting Over You"

It was my college days when I got knee-deep in this melodic punk/"emo" stuff and Piebald was one of my favorite groups in those days. If It Weren't For Venitian Blinds It'd Be Curtains For Us All is probably their best one. I remember seeing them live and how awesomely unkempt the singer's appearance was, all with a white t-shirt and messy hair and scruffy face, and thinking of how awesome that was. Such beautiful music coming from someone who looked like he just walked in off the street. Maybe that's why I always let myself go in the facial (and head) hair department(s). Look up the song "Fat and Skinny Asses" though, because that's the good stuff.

I lost track (and then re-gained very recently) of Brian Moss, the singer for many projects over the years, starting with The Wunder Years. They had a couple releases in 1999. One was a split CD with Sorry About The Fire called On Behalf of Rock n Roll. It's decent, and I love the first track "You Know Who You Are" but the other album is one of those all-time favorites, Pitstops on the Road Less Traveled. Just an album of motivational songs for a high school kid, delivered with high amounts of passion. I hadn't listened to this album in a long time and of course it was another one of those where it came on and I was immediately singing along, remembering those days.

The only cure for cynicism is optimism. Or something like that. In the early '00s I was all down because my girlfriend had broken up with me and I listened to lots of that pseudo-emo stuff (and some real emo stuff!). I went to a show at Tulagi's in Boulder and Dressy Bessy opened (or maybe who I was seeing opened for Dressy Bessy?) I went by myself and I don't even remember who I was there to see. Because the thing that turned me around, changed my life in a way because it was what told me it would all be okay, was this Dressy Bessy set. Just some pure pop sugar to turn me around and show me that it will be okay. Optimism without sounding like something trying to tell me to be happy when I was not happy. I must have just been ready for it. I bought their CD Pink Hearts Yellow Moons and it's always been there for me since then.

Dressy Bessy "If You Should Try to Kiss Her"

Jim O'Rourke put out two amazing releases in 1999. The first was Eureka, and I don't know how to explain how brilliant it is. I'm sure others have been successful at that. But I just think it makes me feel good. It's comforting and the right kind of sad at the right moments. I think "Movie On The Way Down" is what exemplifies it for me, as it reminds me of the scene in Love Liza that uses it. Just the composition and the words it uses. The drunkenness of the horns. How it stumbles around in sadness.

Jim O'Rourke "Movie on the Way Down"

Keep it Like a Secret is arguably the best Built to Spill album. I think I might prefer some of their others, but they scaled back on the jamminess of Perfect from Now On without losing its technical brilliance. Pop music with respectability. Very 90s indie rock. The end of 90s indie rock?

Where do I fit Tom Waits into here? Mule Variations is yet another brilliant work by him, maybe even more brilliant than most of his other work. It starts off lo-fi-ish and pushes out from there. His blues songs have always been on point and the chaos around him splashing around, not overtaking the power of his vocals. I kind of hope one day to have a child listen to this with me and sing along with "Cold Water."

I didn't get into the Flaming Lips until a bit later than '99, even though I know my friend was a fan. But in retrospect, yes, The Soft Bulletin is one of the greatest albums of 1999. Full of songs of hope and hopelessness but trying. Just doing our best and it not being enough. It's sad but from a perspective of persistence. And selflessness. It wasn't until around 2006 that I saw this video but it is just so touching and everything I love about this album contained in a clip.

The Flaming Lips "Waitin' for a Superman"

Notice I called The Soft Bulletin "one of the greatest albums of 1999." That's because, without question, the BEST album of 1999 was a three-CD collection of 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields. Sometimes an artist just has a time period where everything they do sounds just perfect, they're just tapped into this something. And Stephin Merritt took advantage of that by letting it all pour out over 69 damn songs. Sure there's filler, but it's barely any. Just a few silly songs like "Punk Rock Love," a repeating of the lyrics "Punk rock love punk love, punk love love..." Otherwise though, these are completely solid and overwhelming. Romantic, hopeful, sad, sadder, funny, and all very clever. Several perfect songs, as far as I'm concerned. My wife thought "Papa Was a Rodeo" was a cover of an old country song, and I have to think that's because it's so timeless now it's hard to imagine it being new ever. Like that line from Inside Llewyn Davis, that blues songs were "never new and never get old." My friend introduced me to the band with the song "The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side," which was funny and true and full of longing and sadness in a happy song. But the first song I actually ever heard by them was the result of grabbing a bunch of songs off a file sharing program in college. I didn't know what to think of it at the time, it wasn't really "rock" so why was it in the "indie rock" section? It sounded like an old song (as usual) and it stuck with me until I eventually figured out who this band was and put the song into context. And eventually, that was the song I danced with my wife to as our first dance at our wedding. No, not "The Book of Love," which everyone uses (even people who don't know who Stephin Merritt is!). This one. Simple but perfect, obvious but not too obvious. A song I love to associate with my marriage.

The Magnetic Fields "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing"

Other Stuff:

• Jay-Z's album Vol. 3...Life and Times of S. Carter is okay. It's got "Big Pimpin'" on it.
• The debut of !!! and sister group Out Hud was seen on their split EP Lab Remix Series Vol. 2. Very promising (and knowing history, both bands would turn out to be killer)
• Goodnight Pavement, Terror Twilight was their final album I believe.
• Fat Wreck put out a compilation of 101 30 second songs called Short Songs for Short People. I remember liking it for a few reasons. It introduced me to lots of bands. Blink-182 had a very profane song on it as did MTX. I don't know if anything else really stood out to me other than stuff like "hey cool a Rancid song!" and stuff like that.
• Eminem. The Slim Shady LP. I hated him at the time as a crusader against rap and as a budding crusader against homophobia. But why him specifically? Not sure. 
• Fifteen kind of entered that phase of their career of being super political and more about that than the music with Lucky. But it's heartfelt enough that I still find it somewhat endearing. And at the time I loved it because it was more lessons for me in leftist thought. 
• Beck's all super funky and such on Midnite Vultures.
• I only have a couple songs off The Faint's Blank-Wave Arcade but they are pretty great.
• AFI went all goth/dark/whatever on Black Sails in the Sunset, and at the time I dug it. Not super memorable though, 15 years later.
• The Roots were still awesome duh.
• Dr. Dooom killed Dr. Octagon. I like those Dr. Dooom records. No chorus. Really stupid album artwork. And rhymin' like only Keith can do.
• The first Hank Williams III album Risin' Outlaw is a great showcase of his vocals sounding just like his granddad's. Just a small hint of the way he would blow up the whole country music genre in a bit, it's pretty traditional but quite enjoyable.
• ODB! Got Your Money!
• The White Stripes' debut. I'll save my thoughts on them for a couple albums down the line. But it's good stuff.
• I liked a couple songs on the debut Common Rider album Last Wave Rockers. A different side of the OPIV singer, I kind of liked the songs he rapped on and remember thinking "this is the kind of rap I can appreciate." In retrospect, that was very silly of me.
• Sigur Ros, that stuff's pretty dreamy isn't it?
• More hip hop brilliance: Mos Def's debut album Black on Both Sides was quite the manifesto and a great start (not counting the already brilliant Black Star of course) and Handsome Boy Modeling School's debut So...How's Your Girl? was a nice collection of beats by two of the all-stars of hip hop at the time. With some fantastic guest spots from like likes of Del and El-P.
• Gah Les Savy Fav was great too!
• No Division was a Hot Water Music album I never got myself, but I always wanted to because I have two songs off it and they are probably my favorite HWM songs, "Free Radio Gainesville" and "Rooftops."
• And finally, the debut LP by Blackalicious Nia. Who knew that in a couple years I would discover this group and my entire perspective on hip hop would change? I probably would have actually liked this in '99 if I'd heard it. Very apparent skills on the mic, smart lyrics expressing the same thoughts I've always had, it's just a fantastic album.

Next Time: in the year 2000........(insert your favorite Conan joke here)

Aesop Rock, Alkaline Trio, At The Drive-In...and other letters besides A! Common and Cursive put out some of their best work, Deltron is appropriately futuristic, Enon, The Honor System are the flipside of that Broadways breakup, and my favorite Lawrence Arms album by the way, Ludacris, New Pornographers, Nina Nastasia, Reflection Eternal, Shellac, I get betrayed by The Suicide Machines, Weakerthans, other stuff. 

An Ear For An Era: 1998

Wow, 1998 was a good one! Maybe I can call it my personal 1997 (going by that oft discussed theory of the '7s). A great concentration of my favorite albums of the 90s occurred in 1998 so I'm going to focus on those. A banner year in music...for the underground at least. I'm pretty sure there were some pretty terrible things being done to music in the mainstream. In 1998 I was learning to ignore that and dove in to some great things that many people didn't know about.

We'll go by the general order in which I discovered things. Which means we'll start out with ska/punk. Battle Hymns by Suicide Machines was my first "punk" album when I actually knew what punk was (meaning not counting The Offspring or Green Day). I went from skapunk to wanting to get some "pure punk" and even though there is ska on Battle Hymns it seemed close enough at the time. The longest track on the album is 2:19. Just an album full of short bursts of energy. Politics and punk and a tiny bit of ska but not as much as their previous album. I remember seeing them on the Fourth of July 1998. It was high energy show and the singer handed me his Gatorade to pass around. Then we took the bus to City Park to watch fireworks. Good year, that.

The very first time I went to a record store the day an album came out was for Less Than Jake's Hello Rockview. I probably took the bus because there was a bus stop right by Rocks Off Records. Or maybe it was when Tribal Rites had a record store. That was on the same block. But buses were free for minors like myself so I loved taking that bus downtown. On a Tuesday I showed up after school. I had to ask about it because it wasn't on the shelf. The guy said they just got these boxes in. He opened one up and there it was! I was probably the first person in Fort Collins to buy Hello Rockview! Buying albums the day they came out became quite a hobby for me over the years that I still follow pretty regularly (the last year or two I've slowed down on that just because this project means I can't really listen to it for a week or two anyway). However, I remember the music being fairly disappointing. I liked the energy but the production just seemed like overkill to me. The horns seemed almost synthesized. I know I'm in the minority about this album and it's a fan favorite but it was really the beginning of the end for me and skapunk. It's funny that most of my favorite ska/punk albums are from the years leading up to me listening to it, and then when I was into it most of the stuff that came out was inferior to the glorious 1994-1996 stuff.

One major exception to this was Slow Gherkin. Shed Some Skin may have been the last great skapunk album. Not that that genre fits it particularly well. More like a mix of two-tone ska and Weezer-esque rock. Whatever you call it, I loved it and I still love it; it's much more consistent than their debut. They figured out their sound here and put so much passion into it. Later I wanted to use the title track as my "personal" high school graduation song because the class' song was something stupid. In retrospect, it'd serve better as a high school reunion song because it's about going away and growing up and coming back. Anyway, this album was also the general timeline of the most unbelievable memory of any show I've ever been to. I was at this one with my friends this time, and we spent some time haggling with the band on the price of the CDs at the show (which in retrospect was kind of mean of us, sure we could get them cheaper from Asian Man but the band needs help on the road NOW!) and then while they were playing the craziest thing EVER EVER EVER happened to me. It seems like a dream. We were on the right side of the stage, front row, right in front of the valve trombonist. I think his name was Matt. During an instrumental break he actually HANDED THE TROMBONE TO ME. I picked it up and I PLAYED WITH SLOW GHERKIN! I HAD A SOLO! WHAT?!?!?!?! Thinking back, I kind of wonder if that was on purpose or he was just putting it down and I took it from him. But how would I assume he was handing it to me unless he was being obvious about it? He had to have been. I don't remember if I'd talked to him about trombone before the show, but how else did this happen? How else would he know I kind of knew how to play? Was it a dream? I believe it really actually happened.

And back to punk rock. I know I'm not being fair but that first Dropkick Murphys album Do or Die holds a special place in my heart more than anything they've done since. I didn't even drink back then and I loved these drinking anthems! The deep appreciation to the hard working union man, fighting against oppression and incorrect assumptions, and just being rowdy. Here is my favorite drinking song.

The Dropkick Murphys "Barroom Hero"

Refused put out their final statement in The Shape of Punk to Come and lived up to the audacious title. The use of electronic beats, jazz, and a whole lot of other things serves well to further intensify the hardcore punk that screams out of the speakers from behind every corner. It's like a good horror movie where the moments of calm are there to build tension and make the jump scenes that much more effective. And the whole thing turns on a dime, shifting rhythms and hitting harder than anything.

Refused "The Deadly Rhythm"

Oh, what's that? My favorite album or at least nearly my favorite album of all time? Broken Star by The Broadways. No question about it. Now. How do I explain this? The Broadways took highly political subject matter and made it highly personal. Three distinctive voices with three perspectives, different styles of lyrics, brought together in such a cohesive, infectious way. The music itself was deep, complex, comforting, and aggravating all at the same time. Brendan's overtly political listen-to-what-I-just-read-about style, Dan's lamenting of a world that has gone the way of commercialism, and Chris' personal struggles to deal with such a place. It's an unspoken narrative. It's three overlapping parts that tell an overall story of this world and how we deal with it and where it's been and where it's going. Without trying. It's a bunch of punk rock songs. But it's bigger, so much bigger than all this...here's the one song that combines each vocalist/lyricist to hopefully kind of demonstrate what I'm talking about. But to really get it, you need to listen to this record. Over and over again.

The Broadways "I Hear Things Are Just as Bad Down in Lake Erie"

I admit that I didn't get Alkaline Trio's debut LP Goddamnit in 1998 when it came out. This was a time when mailorder from Asian Man Records was one of my favorite things in the world but the curse word in the title made it hard to navigate sneaking it by my parents. The funny thing now is that when the 10 year anniversary remaster came out they got it for me for my birthday without me even mentioning wanting it. But here's my history with Alkaline Trio way back then. They were on a tour with MU330 and stopped by Fort Collins. Even back then I was going to shows by myself because I didn't have any friends there and while I was waiting for the show to start some dudes invited me to play pool with them. I was pretty terrible but what do they expect, asking some kid? But it was fun. I ended up losing by scratching on an 8 ball shot. Anyway, while all that was going on apparently Alkaline Trio was playing and I totally missed it. I would soon regret that (but I was there to see MU330 anyway). When their second album came out I got that and then came back around to Goddamnit. And then that became one of my favorite albums ever. Heart-on-your-sleeve punk rock got me through some tough times and I go back every once in a while. I really love this early Alkaline Trio stuff for its insane drum fills, clever lyrics, repeating motifs, and extended codas. It's a good formula that served them well.

Alkaline Trio "San Francisco"

Jets to Brazil's debut album Orange Rhyming Dictionary kind of cleaned the slate of any sour impressions people had of the last Jawbreaker album because while it had some similarities (particularly Blake's cleaned up vocals), the passionate lyrics and just plain beautiful songs opened up a whole new world of possibilities. This is not Jawbreaker. This is nothing like Jawbreaker. This is a new project and it has pretty songs.

I think I discovered Neutral Milk Hotel in college when I pretty much discovered every indie rock band. Because of music downloading sites. I forget what the one was called that I used, but one night I just went through the first 20 pages or so of most popular "indie" bands and downloaded a song by each of them. "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" became a favorite. It took me a while to actually acquire the album (also called In the Aeroplane Over the Sea) but it was easy to listen to that one on repeat. Kind of a precursor to some other now very successful indie bands, particularly The Decemberists. Literary, passionate, easy, catchy.

I have no segue to switch over to hip hop.

I shamefully haven't listened to Aquemini by Outkast nearly enough to say much about it, but it is quite an incredible album. They pretty much could do no wrong. Moment of Truth is another great Gang Starr album and includes my introduction to them, "You Know My Steez." Thanks to my friend with a very extensive hip hop knowledge I discovered one of my favorite MCs. I remember Hello Nasty by The Beastie Boys had some fun videos and got a lot of praise. I didn't pay much attention to that at the time but it is yet another great one by them. One girl that liked the same ska bands as me insisted that Lauryn Hill was better than I was giving hip hop credit for. But I just would not listen, even though I think it contradicted every argument I had about hip hop being bad. But ok, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is a pretty great album, I'll give you that finally after all these years.

And one of my favorite hip hop albums of all time, probably my favorite hip hop album of the 90s, came out in 1998. It took me a while to come around to these guys but everything about Black Star is amazing. Hi-Tek's (and others') beats, Talib Kweli's and Mos Def's next-next-next-level flows and wordplay, the energy and the love, it all comes together in such a ridiculously good way.

Black Star "Definition"

Other things:

• Mutations by Beck was another good one by Beck.
• Massive Attack, Fatboy Slim, and Air were pretty good there too.
• The two songs I have off Deserter's Songs by Mercury Rev are fantastic and I wish I had the full album!
• It's a bit rough listening to a full 25 song album by Wesley Willis but I made it through! The highlight of course was "Cut The Mullet."
• Remember that video for "Rabbit In Your Headlights" by UNKLE featuring Thom Yorke?
• The soundtrack to Velvet Goldmine is pretty golden. Awesome throwback to the glam era featuring Shudder to Think and Thom Yorke and others!
• Empty Bottles Broken Hearts by Murder City Devils is very great, but maybe not quite up there with their self-titled album from '97.
• Featuring "Birds" by Quasi was on my radar to check out for a long time, and then I finally got it and have only listened to it a few times. Turns out I'm not as into them as I thought. Still good though.
• Jay-Z Vol. 2 ... Hard Knock Life.
• I used to think End Hits was the last Fugazi album and they had broken up. Or some sort of collection of songs from the end of their tenure and they had broken up. How exciting it was when they put out another album a couple years later! But that seems to have been it.
• Electro-Shock Blues may be Eels' best album. Very personal. I love that song "Climbing to the Moon."
• The Ex - Starters Alternators. Still pushing forward 20 years into their career (and this was 16 years ago!)
• Interesting to hear feuding tracks between Hepcat and Skinnerbox...
• The Boy With The Arab Strap is another great Belle & Sebastian album guys.
• Elliott Smith was still good. xo was very good.
• Early Calexico effort The Black Light has "Trigger" on it so you know they started strong.
• Pulp. This is Hardcore. I remember the album cover from way before I ever heard the album. Provocative! The album itself? Also provocative! I like Pitchfork's description of it as a "hangover" album after their last one.

Next Time:

We close out the 20th century so let's party! Sigur Ros, Alkaline Trio's amazing EP, Beck goes funky, Built to Spill's maybe best, Dr. Dooom, Slim Shady, The Soft Bulletin, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Hank III, 69 Love Songs, Mos Def solo, The Decline, Out Hud/!!!, Pavement bows out, The Roots, and another classic from "Weird Al" Yankovic.

An Ear For An Era: 1997

Happy 200th post on this log, log and log readers!

I made a mistake of not pre-writing any of this when it was still fresh. Recently I've taken to working on this here written essay portion of my assignment in pieces so fresh stuff will have fresh thoughts and opinions and writings representing it. But not this time. Most of the 1997 stuff is a nostalgia trip though and not really anything too fresh to add other than how I feel now about the old 1997 feelings.

I really just wanted to finish 1997 as quickly as I could so I could listen to this new Spoon album. And The New Pornographers. And some other 2014 hits I've acquired recently.

Okay, where was I? I hadn't started yet? Good. I'll start from the top then.

1997 is an enigma. It was the year when I switched, a huge year personally. Every once in a while I count back to 1997 to see how long I've been entrenched in underground/my-own-thing music. The very brief time I spent in the mid 90s listening to the radio and MTV and more or less identifying with it as "my music" ended and I finally found MY music. So now I've been intimately involved with music in this way for 17 years. This number used to give me pride; now it makes me feel old. But I have this working theory about the '7s being the peaks of the decade and I'm not sure if I can say that about '97 even though it was huge for me. I'll come back to that at the end.
It's also been weird hitting 1997 in this project because as I listen to the stuff I am having a hard time figuring out how music has evolved since then. I'm sure it has but since I've experienced it first hand from here on out it just feels like trends have come and gone but there hasn't been a lot of growth. I mean, where do you go from OK Computer and "Autumn Sweater?" I guess you go to Kid A and "Black Flowers" but even so, it's hard to trace actual evolution over the musical landscape as a whole. I guess we'll just see what we get.

Let's just start with that then, the big one. The one that could make a case for my theory of '7s being tops. OK Computer was world changing music from Radiohead. I don't really have much I can say about it that hasn't been said much more eloquently by the critical consensus. At the time I remember being merely intrigued by the band and its music videos but I actually didn't get OK Computer until Amnesiac came out a few years later. I think Best Buy had some sort of buy-one-get-one deal on Radiohead albums or something so I finally got into it. Talk about an album! Sure, the singles sound good on their own but this is something you just put on track one, do nothing but listen until it's done, and then reluctantly leave to do something else (or just repeat as needed).

Radiohead "Paranoid Android"

On the last day of classes in 1997 before summer vacation I went to a party thing at my friend's house. A boy-girl party and I think some spin-the-bottle happened and I ended up with my first girlfriend (which lasted maybe a week?). But for some reason my strongest memory was after the girls left and the dudes were hanging out watching MTV and this music video came on:

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones "The Impression That I Get"

I remember making declarations to my friends that this music was the best stuff because they used a trombone in such a cool way (I played trombone in concert band). I didn't know what ska was. I think I had heard the song/seen the video before maybe with my brother but watching it at this point switched something in my brain. I made some sort of conscious decision watching this video at this time that I had to have more. I needed more awesome rock music with trombones in it! Now, as previously mentioned, I didn't personally even get this CD. My brother did. So I only heard bits and pieces of it, mostly the singles. I remember VH1 would play the "Rascal King" video every night at midnight on the dot so I would tune in before bed (it was summer vacation!) and watch that video every night. This all led to Reel Big Fish obsession and new friends from band class once we started 9th grade in the fall.

One friend in particular, Paul, was the other trombone player and he seemed to have a head start on this whole ska thing. He introduced me to quite a few bands, most significantly I'd say being Mustard Plug. He had their album Evildoers Beware! which I ended up getting as one of my earliest "underground" purchases. Today it's an album I can't listen to objectively. It's just so damn catchy and it puts me in a good mood. Now I'll try to get through a quick summary of the other albums that do the same thing. Hang-Ups by Goldfinger surprised me because even though I loved it at the time I can admit they aren't the greatest. But the front half is so energetic and ska-centric that I can see why I loved it so much. The Hippos kind of sounded just like Reel Big Fish which was just fine for me. Buck-O-Nine reminds me of some other friends I kind of got into ska...there were some mild nostalgic feelings coming up when 28 Teeth came on. Link 80 was a little more hardcore than I preferred at the time, but 17 Reasons... was still a good transitional record into hardcore sounds. The EP they put out later in the year (and the last Link 80 album with Nick Traina as vocalist) entitled Killing Katie (get it? Kill Link 80?) I preferred because it was more varied and had lighter ska-flavored songs and a cover of "For What It's Worth." Sad story, that of Nick Traina. I read the book his mom (Danielle Steele of all people) wrote about him. Labelmates and still one of my favorite of the ska bunch MU330 started maturing with Crab Rangoon, which involved some very serious topics such as molestation in the Catholic church and cancer, which I didn't particularly like at the time but I would later realize was maybe my favorite album by them.  I dug Bruce Lee Band pretty much immediately because they were Mike Park's band and I loved Skankin' Pickle and Asian Man Records pretty deeply. And he was playing with Less Than Jake as his backing band at the time! And finally, a good band that transitioned me into other things (and was the main remaining "ska" band I listened to after moving on), The Impossibles had a good combo of ska/punk energy and Weezer-esque earnestness. The lyrics were very clever and while the majority of the songs had ska guitar I could almost exclude them from the skapunk category of the rest of these bands. Kind of a growing up kind of band.

When I got more deep into the ska-punk thing I started realizing I should listen to punk too if I could only find a band that stuck with me and didn't have a ska element. Ironically, I had already gotten into something that was sort of punk-related in The Offspring's Ixnay on the Hombre. I must have gotten it right before the ska switch because I liked that song "All I Want" and I just associated the album with the whole "alternative" thing. I actually got quite into this album briefly and then kind of dropped it. Years later I would realize that Jello Biafra does the opening "disclaimer" track. Which gave me a little bit more respect for The Offspring and a little less respect for Jello Biafra.

Beyond the punk rock already covered (apparently I liked old punk from the start!) we sure liked local heroes Pinhead Circus. The songs "Detailed Instructions for the Self Involved" and "Carefree Metal Days" were our anthems. We also saw the band Bigwig opening for someone (or someone opening for them) and liked them mostly on the strength of their cover of the theme from Cheers. My friends may not have particularly gotten into the Mr. T Experience but I sure did. Revenge is Sweet, And So Are You is one of my favorite pop punk albums because of its great wordplay and earnestness in a combination that not many can accomplish. Also I remember watching this music video on Punk TV, a TV show on public access I was obsessed with around this time (mostly because they also played ska but MTX was a good first step into the punk world).

The Mr. T Experience "And I Will Be With You"

I remember being a rebel but still watching MTV (slowly weaning myself off!) and there was a show where a panel of random dumb people rated music videos, giving the winner some sort of heavy rotation on the network. I think it was down to The Toasters' "Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down" and Daft Punk's "Around the World." I had mixed feelings, because I wanted The Toasters to win because they were awesome but the dumb people didn't know anything about ska and I didn't think they deserved it. I was very judgy. Anyway, Daft Punk won (probably) because that "Around the World" video is quite the video and it's quite the song. But at the time I did not care for Daft Punk. I was not there when James Murphy played Daft Punk for the rock kids.

Daft Punk "Around the World"

Techno or whatever you would call it was getting pretty big at the same time as ska. So it was automatically the enemy of course. They don't use real instruments and ska uses MORE instruments! So much more real! I had some friends that weren't so closed minded; I remember listening to a friend's tape that he was somehow involved in (I don't know what he did, some sort of remixing or something?) so he was into it. And now I can appreciate these artists but I still have a hard time differentiating the different genres of electronic music. But Daft Punk was great. And so were The Chemical Brothers. The beats on Dig Your Own Hole are pretty undeniable.

After the punk stuff I got into the melodic almost-emo sounds of bands like Hot Water Music. Fuel for the Hate Game was their first full length and my introduction to them (even though I didn't get it until probably around 2000). There's just so much bearded passion going on, it is a strange experience to listen to Hot Water Music. So rough around the edges, such a bumpy ride with the vocals yet comforting as an overall experience. Similarly, Tuesday just takes me back. The first post-Slapstick band to put out material, their only full length was Freewheelin' and it's all they needed to do to solidify themselves in the cannon of great melodic pop punk bands of the era. Of course, bandleader Dan Andriano would soon join Alkaline Trio. And of course the early Alkaline Trio releases (the "Sundials" 7" and the song "97") just showed the brilliance they would further develop for a few more years before I would disown them once they left Asian Man Records. But those early years, oh man!

But of all the earnest/melodic pop-punk that got lumped in with emo of 1998, The Smoking Popes absolutely nailed it with their final album (before reuniting years later) Destination Failure. Anyone that is ever going through a painful breakup, has ever felt the doubt deep inside needs to listen to this album. Anyone that has held out hope needs to listen to "Megan." Anyone that has lost that hope needs to listen to "I Was Right." Any anyone who is anyone needs to listen to this song to experience the gamut of emotions from loss to betrayal to hope to self doubt to a little bit more hope.

The Smoking Popes "Pretty Pathetic"

I Can Feel The Heart Beating As One is one of those albums of a now-veteran indie rock band settling into its groove. Confidence abounds. At this point they know who they are but still aren't afraid to experiment with different sounds (as they still demonstrate on every new album they put out to this day), vary wildly from track to track without losing a cohesive sound, and just sound like comfort in their longer, jammier songs, building a setting, a place that you just want to hang out in for a while. And then "Autumn Sweater" comes on. That's just one of those songs, you know?

Yo La Tengo "Autumn Sweater"

Another "indie" band that just hit its groove in this time was Built to Spill. Perfect From Now On is a perfect title for the album that saw them confidently move on from the poppier tracks of their previous material and into an artsy, longer-song, "perfect" sound that now really defines the band. It was never my favorite BTS album but that's probably just because I haven't spent more time with it. There's really nothing wrong with this album, it's just slightly more difficult. 

Electro-Shock For President was the last we would ever hear from the brilliant Brainiac. All the ideas going into an EP just concentrated the creativity onto 6 tracks, making it unbelievably brilliant. And all the more tragic that Tim Taylor left us in 1997. I can only imagine where they would have gone from here. 

Brainiac "Fresh New Eyes"

Modest Mouse was on top of the indie world (nearing breakthrough status they'd hit very soon) in 1997. I don't actually own the album The Lonesome Crowded West but the few songs I have from that one are among my favorites. I absolutely need to get that record! Plus the 7" songs from that year from the same compilation I've referenced before are more of my favorites. "Baby Blue Sedan" was one of my ex-girlfriend's favorite songs and "Other People's Lives" spoke to the world of the Internet that we would all soon experience first hand. 

Pavement was still a great band as demonstrated by Brighten The Corners, an album that includes my introduction to the band, a song called "Stereo." I liked the ironic detachment of it all. In around 2000 my brother was getting into this band because he'd just gone off to college and introduced me to them. I was still pretty punk rock but could dig what they were doing. But actually, my actual introduction to Pavement was when they were on a show I loved in 1997 or so, Space Ghost Coast to Coast. I still love that show. The precursor to all the Adult Swim shows of varying quality, SGC2C spoke to me like nothing else. And the fact that years later I discovered that the random band that played on an episode, introduced as The Beatles and played a noisy, somewhat off-putting set turned out to be super hip indie band Pavement, my appreciation for the show just multiplied. Great stuff!

Pavement "Land of the Hot Knives" and the Space Ghost theme

Speaking of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, its spinoff program Cartoon Planet was another thing that defined me in these days. My screen name for many things, skankinwithbrak, says it all. Ska and Brak. Brak from Cartoon Planet. I know it was a more kid friendly version of Space Ghost but as a 14-year-old I just embraced it. The first of two albums, Musical Bar-B-Que was an album I remember singing (particularly the Brak songs of course) with my friends, and that was also an early version of being completely myself without caring what people thought and people embracing that about me. We made friends with some girls for the first time and as much as it would seem to make sense to hide this immaturity we embraced it and they seemed to love that about us. It was a great time in my life. And then my slightly-ironic love of those songs kind of got confused when my family got into it. I think I had hoped they would find it obnoxious and they totally called my bluff by getting into it themselves. When it stopped being rebellious and different it got annoying and I couldn't listen to it with my family anymore. But now it's cool. If I have a child someday I'll probably try to get them into it. Here's a song from the happy times, one that I remember singing for our female friends and them loving it (it didn't get me a girlfriend though, if you can imagine that!)

Cartoon Planet "Crazy Lovesick Fool"

So. Aside from all the silly jokester music and ska and punk, does '97 qualify as one of the "7s" I have a working theory about? The best year of the decade? "Indie" rock may be able to make a case for itself with Radiohead, Built to Spill, Yo La Tengo, Brainiac, Blonde Redhead, and others putting out arguably their best material. Ben Folds Five and Cornershop also broke through with some genius albums as well. Hip hop was following a different trajectory and starting to get crappy but Notorioius B.I.G., Wu-Tang, Del, and Jurassic Five represented a great development in the genre. But aside from a few choice records, it might not be on the level of a '92 in hip hop.

What an odd year.

Other Comments:

• Oddly I didn't even know about Del The Funky Homosapien's album Future Development for quite some time. I thought there was a big gap between No Need for Alarm and Both Sides of the Brain. Eventually I discovered its existence and couldn't find it anywhere. Now I have it and it's as good as I hoped, a good bridge between those two albums.
• Early Beulah is quite good but I'll have more to say about them in upcoming entries.
• Early Cursive is a whole different band. Very emo or something.
• Early Piebald is decent too.
• Other "alternative rock" at the time: The Foo Fighters! There were some great singles off that The Colour and the Shape album, particularly "Everlong."
• Time Out of Mind by Bob Dylan is one of the best late-period albums by someone like that.
• Still dig the Man or Astro-Man with Made From Technetium.
• Les Savy Fav was starting out promisingly.
• Rest in peace Notorious B.I.G.! I dug the album Life After Death but Puffy/Puff Daddy/P Diddy/Diddy/whatever-he-is-now handled it very awkwardly and was a big reason I didn't like rap music at the time. 
• I remember liking the Smashing Pumpkins song "The End is the Beginning is the End" from whatever Batman soundtrack that was. Must have been my waning days of MTV and that stuff.
• Same with The Verve and the song "Bittersweet Symphony." Particularly the video!
• of Montreal had some early music in 1997. They were only 10 years from their masterpiece. I'll see how that evolution moves along with music itself!
• I need to listen to the self-titled album by OOIOO more because that's the kind of weirdness I can get behind.
• I should have more to say about Elliott Smith's Either/Or. It's just a beautiful record that I haven't listened to enough. But "Say Yes" is a song I cannot get enough of.
• Early Jim O'Rourke is great! Bad Timing is an album I got a while ago and couldn't really get behind at first. More or less a bunch of 10 minute acoustic guitar solos, but in the right frame of mind you can hear the innovation happening and the future of his contributions to the musical landscape.
• Samiam might have been my bridge into "melodic punk rock with heart" that I used to confuse with emo. But "She Found You" is still a song I love.
• Stephin Merritt's side projects reigned supreme in 1997. The Gothic Archies and Future Bible Heroes both put out albums. They are decent but not quite on the level of the great Magnetic Fields material.
• I should get that Jurassic 5 EP they put out in 1997 because the three songs I have are stone cold classics.
• Cornershop was gold beyond their big hit "Brimful of Asha." When I Was Born for the 7th Time is a great album up and down.
• That Murder City Devils album (self-titled) is fantastic too!
• And Sleater-Kinney! Dig Me Out might be one of their best.
• Wu-Tang Forever! I agree with ODB, they should have won the Grammy because Wu-Tang is for the children.
• Ben Folds Five! Too much to talk about, right?? "Brick" was the breakout sad song hit and they kept me around with goofier upbeat songs like "Kate" and "Song for the Dumped."
• Self-titled Blur? Woohoo!
• I need to give Blonde Redhead's Fake Can Be Just as Good more spins. A great transitional record from one of my all-time favorites.

Next Time!

Air! Alkaline Trio for real this time! A left turn from the Beastie Boys! Beck, yo! BLACK STAR ONE OF THE GREATEST ALBUMS IN HIP HOP! The Broadways were one of my favorites though! Fatboy Slim! More Fugazi! Jets to Brazil at last! Lauryn Hill! Neutral Milk Hotel! Outkast still rules the world! Pulp! Refused with one of the greatest albums ever! Slow Gherkin! Suicide Machines! And more!

An Ear For An Era: 1996

Okay. This was a turning point. Well, the music released in 1996 was a turning point for me, even though I personally did not turn until 1997. But I have a lot to say about some of this stuff so we'll just get started.

Reel Big Fish changed my life. Specifically their major label debut Turn the Radio Off. This album changed everything for me. Because while they were very popular at the time, they turned me on to a whole new scene, one based out of the underground, things I could not hear on the radio or MTV. This whole ska craze, silly as it was, completely changed me. All because I played trombone in junior high band and was excited to find the trombone being used in popular rock music. Plus the goofiness made it easy to get into as a 13/14 year old. It taught me to think for myself. It got me into bands that showed me a new way of thinking. And I probably wouldn't have discovered any of this without the success of Reel Big Fish (or maybe The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, but my brother got that CD so I didn't get into them as much). I remember finding them in the "ska" section of Wherehouse Music, one of those big, fairly corporate music stores. I remember looking at other CDs in that section. I got a compilation called Generic Skaca because it had a Reel Big Fish song I hadn't heard before on it, and that introduced me to another 20 or so bands. Ska got me into punk, which got me into "emo" and then "indie" and then everything. And I owe it to this, my favorite album from junior high. I can't speak enough to how much I loved this album. I tried to figure out the horn lines on trombone. I went and saw them at the Ogden Theater and it was the first concert I went to that was my choice and a band I had actually heard (the first show I had gone to that was my choice was our friend's ska band Area 52 in Fort Collins, but I wasn't so familiar with them). I bought the shirt and put it on because I didn't know any better. I still have that shirt. I still wear it sometimes skiing because it's one of my few long sleeved t-shirts. I saw RBF at Warped tour a year or two ago because my sister won tickets and we decided to go for the hell of it. The majority of the songs they played were from this almost 20 year old album because even they know what the people wanted to hear.

Reel Big Fish "Sell Out"

I never got super into Sublime but I did enjoy their popular songs. Like "Wrong Way." Another trombone part I memorized. And "What I Got" reminded me of the junior high dance when it came on in a censored version, how it didn't matter that it was censored because everyone was singing along with all those f words...

Chumps on Parade was my favorite MU330 album for a long time. They matured quite a bit after this, so it's the more "fun" one featuring plenty of goofy songs like "Rok" and "La," good sing-along songs. It starts with back-to-back punk rock songs under a minute thirty, which really reminds me of seeing them live. They would just bring the energy! And Gerry would bust out the chainsaw and go crazy. I remember talking to Gerry at the Starlight in Fort Collins after a show while waiting for my mom to pick me up. What a crazy thrill that was. He was my favorite since he was in both Skankin' Pickle and MU330, two of my all time favorite ska bands. And Skankin' Pickle called it quits here! The Green Album was their last one! A good mix of goofy and inventive as always. Lots of cover songs on here too. Their cover of "Special Brew" was why I got into Bad Manners once upon a time.

Slapstick was another lightning-in-a-bottle band on the Dill/Asian Man roster that my friends and I got obsessed with. They didn't last long, but what they created was very memorable. Today they're probably more famous for the bands its members would go on to create/join, but the fact that so much talent was condensed into this one skapunk band is pretty remarkable. Brendan's lyrics were a great summation of what it feels like to grow up in Chicago (I assume). Songs about losing friends, riding the bus, and not wanting to grow up really hit home for me (particularly the non-Chicago specific portions). And talking to homeless people. I think Slapstick is the reason my friend and I talked to homeless people in high school. We created some great memories doing that, and somehow managed to not be murdered.

And Less Than Jake! Losing Streak was a big hit for me and my friends. Just a ton of energy and what felt like brilliant lyrics at the time. One of my favorite live bands at the time as well. And I remember when Greased came out (an EP of cover songs from Grease) I looked everywhere for it and finally found it on a field trip to Denver (I think we went to go watch a performance of Macbeth or something for AP English) at Virgin Records or some such big CD store.

Chim Chim's Badass Revenge is the first Fishbone album I got and might still be my favorite. Just the anger and energy it puts off are so cool. Pure funky skapunk or whatever you want to call the genre. Lots of toilet humor because they just didn't care about that anymore. And this song was probably my first instance of appreciating a rap (outside of Weird Al and Simpsons of course):

Fishbone featuring Busta Rhymes "Psychologically Overcast"

Remember that whole swing craze that came about around the same time as the ska craze? I was into Squirrel Nut Zippers because of the use of horns again. My friends and I took swing lessons and I can still do the Charleston. But Hot! is a very enjoyable album even today. That's the timelessness of jazz, folks. Even if there was a weird boom in popularity in the mid 90s, that stuff still sounds good today. I remember hearing the song "Hell" on 93.3 which was the alternative or whatever station and the DJ came back on air saying "as in...what the Hell was that?" and I was annoyed that he seemed put off by it because I dug it so much.

I wonder if I had heard Neutral Milk Hotel's On Avery Island at the time if I would have appreciated it because of its use of horns. And the fact that it has a song called "April 8th" and my birthday is April 7th. Probably not. It's a bit on the mature side of things. It would have been badass of me to get into NMH back then though.

Now that that detour is done, let's get to punk, which should probably be right next to the ska but I had to talk about those in that order. The Descendents' kind of reunion or something album Everything Sucks was another favorite. It was funny that Reel Big Fish and The Descendents both had songs called "Everything Sucks" the same year. And they both had albums with that name. But yeah, this is what got me into The Descendents, even though it didn't take me long to get into their back catalog as a result. It's a good thing they didn't mature too much for this album. There are a couple thoughtful songs but most of them are short and silly. And "I'm The One" is a trademark Descendents pop punk girl song that I love.

The Suicide Machines were probably my favorite punk band for a while there, mostly because they incorporated a lot of ska. Destruction By Definition will always hold a place in my heart because of how earnest it is and the crazy levels of energy it has.

And now let's talk about Weird Al again. Bad Hair Day was another one I got when it was new, as all of his albums will be from here on out. "The Alternative Polka" was, despite the fact that I watched MTV and tried to figure out what to like, my introduction to lots of the popular songs of the day. My friend and I made a music video for "Gump" but got in trouble for using my brother's dart gun even though it wasn't loaded. But obviously I get why it was a stupid idea. I also remember watching some New Year's Eve coverage and Weird Al was performing that song and it cut away to The Presidents of the United States of America showing them all stoked on the song, dancing and singing along. I think even now they might still end "Lump" with the "And that's all I have to say about that" line in live performances. Such a stark contrast to Coolio's reaction to "Amish Paradise."

But I think that means it's time to talk about The Presidents of the United States of America. I eagerly got their second album II because it came out and my brother had beaten me to the punch of their first album. I loved this one so much. Dancing around my room singing along, no shame. Probably a good transition to ska in that it was very goofy and easy for a 13 year old to get into. Songs about puffy little shoes, volcanoes, and Tiki gods, I was just obsessed with it. I still have the whole thing memorized even though I hadn't listened to it in forever (6 years, if my itunes stats are correct!). I also remember the hidden track was my first encounter with such a thing because I was so confused about it I had to ask my friends if they had that weird track with the kid talking about basketball on their copy, and I might have even asked the band about it in an email (I never heard back though).

Side note: An example of the same practice with less success was Crash Test Dummies' A Worm's Life. I got it because my brother had their popular album and then this one came out. Turned out to be pretty disappointing.

I never got into Weezer until sometime after these two first amazing albums. Somehow I missed them even though I was watching MTV at the time and my friends were getting into them. But Pinkerton is a very special album that I don't really need to elaborate on because I feel like everyone already knows. Everybody knew before I did.  But "El Scorcho" went on many mixtapes anyway. And then "Falling For You" for who is now my wife, because of course it did. 

My first official "guilty pleasure" when I was into ska and punk and whatnot was what I assumed was just pure pop: "Lovefool" by The Cardigans. I didn't realize it was a respectable pop, a Swedish alt-pop sort of thing. It was just so catchy and I was slightly embarrassed that I loved it so much. Eventually I got the CD First Band on the Moon and yeah, it's pretty awesome.

The Cardigans "Lovefool"

I guess that takes me to other such indie minded things. Brainiac (a.k.a. 3RA1N1AC) were as indie minded as you could get I think. About as creative and outside thinking as rock and roll gets. It sucks that their career would be cut off so prematurely after just an EP more, but Hissing Prigs in Static Couture is probably their definitive statement. The levels of distortion on the vocals, the weird effects they put the guitars through, there is really nothing else like this. When I discovered Brainiac (a good 8 or so years later) I remember being disappointed that they weren't more influential, that others hadn't really taken on this sort of sound (Enon did it to a degree, and I do love me some Enon, but that doesn't count since it's the dude from Brainiac). I guess maybe others wouldn't be able to particularly pull it off. Here's a song that to me is a classic dance track, in its own unique way.

3RA1N1AC "Pu55yf00t1n'"

Belle & Sebastian put out a couple in '96. Tigermilk was a fine debut, but If You're Feeling Sinister is just next level. So much heart-on-the-sleeve. So comforting. And heartbreaking at the same time. This might be my favorite Belle & Sebastian track. (Sorry I didn't write much here, it's just getting so long and I'm running out of juice!)

Belle & Sebastian "Seeing Other People"

WHY HIP HOP SUCKS IN '96
I hated hip hop in '96. That hatred would continue for a good 4-5 years. But at this time obviously I didn't know about all the great stuff that was out. I was very closed minded about the stuff too. I wouldn't have appreciated Reasonable Doubt, the fantastic debut of Jay-Z, even though it is of the highest quality. It was just talking and rhyming. For some reason I even made fun of hip hop for having so many tracks featuring other rappers. Like collaboration is anything besides awesome. On some church retreat thing me and the other punk rock kids declared our group "Team Outkazt" (or some such spelling) because we were such outcasts...and then were disappointed that there was already "some rap group" called Outkast and how could someone that does such a popular form of music as rap be an outcast? I really didn't get it. But ATLiens is a beautiful thing that, if I had given it a chance, I would have probably gotten really into it. Not anything like the crap on the radio. Spacey sounds, smart wordplay, delivery that absolutely requires more than what I made fun of. Ah well. Eventually I got it. Similarly spacey and sci-fi based was Dr. Octagonecologyst featuring Dan the Automator and Kool Keith. Hip hop from the future, man! And then The Roots, Illadelph Halflife. Man. This.

The Roots "No Alibi"

Let's see, other hip hop. The Fugees' The Score is pretty brilliant. DJ Shadow's Endtroducing is a whole different thing. Instrumental hip hop. DJ mastery. Even when I got it because I was open minded 10 years later for some sort of anniversary reissue, it took me a while to get into it. But this time it just felt right to listen to it. De La Soul's 1996 album Stakes Is High seems like if I were to open my mind just a hair I would have appreciated it. It's very smart, criticizing the very aspects of mainstream hip hop that I held against the whole genre.

And of course Tupac's All Eyez On Me came out in 1996 shortly before his death. I remember when he died a skater guy in my class who was into hip hop was very upset about it, saying it was like losing a member of his family. I didn't get it then, and while today I'm still not as interested in Tupac as other hip hop, I can recognize the talent and travesty of it all.

Also Noted:

• Archers of Loaf's All the Nations Airports is another fantastic one from those dudes.
• The Age of Octeen by Braid. Neat!
• Odelay! What a hugely influential album. I should give it a full paragraph but this thing is so gigantic and it wasn't that big of a deal to me at the time so I'm just putting it here. I just liked the videos and didn't get the actual album until much later. I wasn't ever really a Beck devotee, just an appreciator late to the party.
• It Was Written is another quality Nas album...
• I didn't get the Refused album Songs to Fan The Flames of Discontent until a couple years ago when they did their reunion tour and I only knew the fantastic The Shake of Punk to Come, so I figured I should know more before seeing them live. STFTFOD turned out to be pretty damn spectacular on its own. 
• The "Sordid Sentinels Edition" of Wowee Zowee by Pavement has some great bonus tracks, including what may be my favorite Pavement song of them all: "Give It A Day."
• Beautiful Freak by Eels is this old? Damn. Such a good album though. And the song "My Beloved Monster" reminds me of walking my dog around an old apartment complex we used to live in.
• Experiment Zero was one of my favorite Man or Astroman albums that I only had on vinyl for the longest time.
• My friend and I used to obnoxiously sing "Popular" by Nada Surf during soccer practice, not really getting the irony of the song and thinking it was stupid but still catchy. Then I got it. Then years later I found out they are actually a very good band! I like the album High/Low quite a bit, it does a really good job creating and retaining energy. I used to think some of those builds should be used by a harder band as a way to bust into something screamy, but now I think it works best as it is.
• Maniacal Laughter is the other early Bouncing Souls album that is great fun.
• The Modest Mouse songs from the Building Nothing Out of Something album (a compilation of 7" songs) of 1996 include the ones from one of my favorite 7" records I own: "A Life of Arctic Sounds" b/w "Medication." Two of my favorite Modest Mouse songs for sure.
• The same year as all that Slapstick I already have a couple Broadways early songs. I'm excited about those ones!
• "Criminal" by Fiona Apple was another guilty pleasure type of song for me, but I think mostly for its music video. Rawr!
• Being There shows that Wilco was already very amazing very early on.
• I need to listen to This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About more. Not my favorite Modest Mouse album but since I so love the surrounding singles I probably just need to give it some more attention.
• I mildly got into Goldfinger. Mostly for their associations with Reel Big Fish. And the ska songs. And how silly some of the songs were.
• No Code by Pearl Jam was maybe the last of the pre-ska CDs I got. I got it when it came out and the packaging was really neat but I didn't particularly care for the music that much.
• Gah and Johnny Cash! American II: Unchained! He was on a hot streak!
• Double Happiness by Slow Gherkin brought back tons of great memories. Even though I've always thought of the album as sort of a hodgepodge (the next album would be much more cohesive), it is full of great songs that invoke great memories of great friends at a great time in my life.
• The Welcome To The Dollhouse soundtrack featured Future Bible Heroes! I love that movie. Todd Solondz is brilliant.

Next Time:

1997 was when I actually officially became a ska devotee (all of the 1996 stuff I wrote about I listened to in 1997-1998). So we've got The Bruce Lee Band, Buck-O-Nine, Hippos, The Impossibles, two Link 80 albums, the Bosstones, MU330, Mustard Plug, and more of that.

...And other stuff like Ben Folds Five, Beulah, Blonde Redhead, a Bob Dylan comeback thing, the last EP from Brainiac, Cartoon Planet lunacy, Chemical Brothers, Cornershop, Daft Punk, Elliott Smith, two Hot Water Music albums, Les Savy Fav, Missy Elliott, MTX, Murder City Devils, B.I.G., The Offspring, OOIOO, Sleater-Kinney, Tuesday, Wu-Tang, and a seminal Yo La Tengo album.

Oh, and OK Computer.

An Ear For An Era: 1995

Until the wheels fall off! My computer housing the music is not accepting (or the keyboard is failing to submit) the letters L and O, and the number 9, and the period. So now I'm on my wife's laptop. I hope I can figure out what is wrong with my super old computer or its super old keyboard. Or this will get difficult when I wish to write while the wife is using her computer.

Okay. 1995. This is getting weird. This was supposed to be some sort of historical thing, and now it's invading my life.

Several Wu Tang solo albums came out in '95 as they started taking over the world. Ol' Dirty Bastard's Return to the 36 Chambers is a favorite mostly for its collaborative songs with other Wu Tang members (particularly Raw Hide, featuring Raekwon & Method Man) because he seemed to bring out some real fire in them...ODB on his own is something else entirely to listen to and can get overbearing over a full album, so it hits a good balance. Raekwon's album Only Built for Cuban Linx is a critical favorite but a bit too monotonous for my liking (mostly just Rae and Ghost being badass storytellers). The GZA's Liquid Swords I like a bit more because it has a more full Wu-Tang roster as guests and the production is just fantastic.

Mobb Deep and their album The Infamous is along the same lines and just feels very real and very honest. Aceyalone brought a lot of creativity and spark to proceedings with his debut All Balls Don't Bounce. Similarly, The Pharcyde followed up a ridiculously creative endeavor with another one, Labcabincalifornia. I need to give these dudes more spins, because that was a highly entertaining listen.

Around '94 (I'm not sure if I articulated this in the last entry), I was struggling to find music I liked and followed my sister's lead. And I thank her for welcoming me into that world, even if I never quite found its groove. In 1995, I think that must have been the big trifecta year for my family. We got a PC, a dog, and cable TV (it could have been '96 but I don't know for sure and judging by the music of '95 it seems accurate). Now, of course the dog was the best thing about that. Ringo forever! But cable TV meant MTV finally found its way to me. And my brother got into that popular "alternative rock" scene and MTV helped us bond a little bit over that stuff. Having music videos we liked and would call each other over if they came on. Like this one!

The Presidents of the United States of America "Peaches"

The Presidents of the United States of America were a total bonding band for me and my brother. He had the CD but played it a lot. Together, we came up with an idea for a Weird Al song called "Leeches" ("Millions of leeches, stuck on my knee?" something like that?) and in the ensuing years would continue to appreciate PUSA. So perfect that lead singer Chris Ballew would start a children's music project Caspar Babypants in time for my brother to introduce his son to one of his favorite artists of all time.

My brother was a big fan of the Smashing Pumpkins in this, their heyday. He requested albums by them for gifts and my parents struggled to keep up (I recall a story of my mom trying to work with a music store clerk saying she was looking for a band that was called something like "killing fruit"). All of their singles from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness bring back memories of watching videos with my brother and more or less identifying with their youthful rage. I know we got a midi version of "1979" because those were a thing in these days of the Internet and laughed at how off it sounded. Midioke is what we found, a program that showed lyrics to accompany midi versions of songs. Those were fun. My brother's website had lots of those files if I recall. Back when we had AOL sites. This might have been a little later than 1995. Isn't it weird to think that the song "1979," popular in 1995, is now older than the year 1979 was in 1995? I remember loving the song/video for "Thirty-Three" and it was kind of my own love (less shared with my brother) but of course the pinnacle of this album, of the Pumpkins' popularity in the 90s, and to me the definitive music video of these days was this one. It would be years before I would learn about Georges Melies and his A Trip To The Moon film that this was based on.That knowledge enhanced my enjoyment of both.

The Smashing Pumpkins "Tonight, Tonight"

The other band I equate with my brother and his "alternative rock" tastes and MTV is Oasis and specifically the album (What's the Story) Morning Glory. I remember "Wonderwall" playing all over the place and that was why I thought they sounded like The Beatles. Or like they were trying to sound like The Beatles. I now recognize their songcraft, and I think that was only really the case for their slower songs like that and "Don't Look Back in Anger." Oh, and another funnyish story about this album. My brother's CD player had what looked like a slot to hold a smaller disc than a standard CD. So at Best Buy we saw they had Minidiscs. Remember those?  We bought this album as a minidisc. Smart move. Obviously it did us no good. We theorized taking it back, telling Best Buy that a grandma bought it because she was confused about CDs but I think we just ended up keeping it. I ended up getting a minidisc player a few years later but I don't think I ever put this album on there. I didn't say much about the music. It's Oasis' big one, that's for sure. The hit songs make me nostalgic for those memories. That's about the extent of what I can say about it.

How about the other sides of the Brit pop contest of 1995?

Blur once again had a very solid entry into the competition (definitely at least more consistent than Oasis!) with The Great Escape. Another great mix of all types of pop music from melancholy to giddy.

However...not only did Pulp pull out its second consecutive Brit Pop victory, but a good argument could be made for Different Class being the greatest album of 1995. It's just of a whole different class, if you will. It's the apex of their career. They spent a decade or so perfecting this sound and there's so much confidence and swagger just oozing out of this album that it's infectious. Have I mentioned that I spent a few months after college as a go-go dancer? Well I did. It was for free drinks at a hipster dance night, so no big deal (and I'll probably have more to say about it a ways later in this project) but the way I got the gig was that "Common People" came on and I just went nuts over the song because it's impossible for me not to, and that impressed some guy that was organizing the thing. That song and really the whole album is just so full of energy, a little bit of perversion, and a very earned "epic" feeling that just makes what you're listening to sound like the most important thing in the world.

Pulp "Common People"

Wow, I don't think I had ever seen that video before. A little goofy and not really worthy of the amazing song.

The other album that is a clear candidate for album of the year was The Bends, Radiohead's fantastic follow-up to the not-quite-fantastic Pablo Honey. Looking at my ratings, none of these songs rates below a 3 star rating, which is pretty remarkable. Pretty much means it's perfect. I always have a soft spot for jams like "High and Dry" and of course "Just" but it's such a step in the right direction for the band that the experiments are more hints at how far they would go on the next album OK Computer while still being grounded. I'm not sure which of the two is my favorite Radiohead album but this one so ably straddles the line between experimental Radiohead and grunge-ish/populist-ish/but-not-in-a-bad-way Radiohead. Very guitar based, which I can't say about their later work, but absolutely fearless.

Now let's talk about stuff that I was not aware of in the least at the time, as I was only 11-12 in 1995.

I promised another beloved Magnetic Fields album and Get Lost is certainly that. I'm somewhat torn between this and The Charm of the Highway Strip as my favorite pre-69-Love-Songs Magnetic Fields album...I love Charm as a cohesive unit, a conceptual piece, with plenty of great songs. But Get Lost has my favorite songs of all (and no filler!). I love it for pretty much every song, and feel like if any of these had been on 69 Love Songs they would be highlights. "All The Umbrellas In London" is one of my favorite sad songs...I fell for it during a live performance after the album i, so it was a slowed down version with cellos and whatnot, which just brought out the brilliant lyrics. "If I could live through the night, it'd be all right. It'll make a good song or something." Indeed it did. And then this song, which I like to use as a representative Magnetic Fields song if purposefully introducing someone to the band. Even though introducing people to the Magnetic Fields is usually an accidental occurrence in that any time someone hears them in whatever context they happen to be in, they tend to want to know more.

The Magnetic Fields "Save a Secret for the Moon"

"I know all the saddest people...most of them are dead now" is one of those simple lines that used to catch me off guard and provoke a strange hybrid response of both humor and dread. Something Stephin Merritt excels at, and that line exemplifies it. He also had some other bands, one of which was The 6ths, who released an album called Wasps' Nests (they sure liked to make hard to pronounce names!) this same year. Bringing in guest singers singing against type was a great move and as a collection is very solid Merritt work. "San Diego Zoo" featuring Barbara Manning is a mixtape staple (many Merritt songs are mixtape staples). Listen to this stuff, yo!

I was SO CLOSE to finding punk rock in 1995 but it would be another year or so yet. But that doesn't mean I didn't eventually totally dig Rancid's album ...And Out Come The Wolves. One of those defining punk rock albums of the 90s. I don't care how old I get or what people say about 90s punk rock not being real punk rock. ...And Out Come The Wolves was a defining album for me and is part of what made me a punk rock kid. From the insane bassline of "Maxwell Murder" to the ska backbeat all over the album (very much influenced by The Clash's London Calling) to catchy punk rock songs like "Ruby Soho," this album had it all. Oh, and a good story song about the life of Operation Ivy in "Journey to the End of the East Bay." That caps it off.

Less Than Jake's Pezcore is a pretty seminal album in mid 90s skapunk and listening to it brought back many memories of hanging out in high school and being awesome. Reel Big Fish made their debut with Everything Sucks but I think they would go on to do much better once they had major label backing, as weird as that is to say, as their big album of next year would greatly influence me and my musical tastes for decades to come. On this album they feel like demo versions of the songs. Which when listening with a less nostalgic feel all these years later just kind of makes it feel immature and whiny. Maybe when I hit the big album in the next entry the nostalgia will take more hold.

Honorably Mentioned:

• The end of Freddie Mercury's Queen. I'll miss them!
• My one and only Dismemberment Plan album titled simply "!" (quotation marks included) is fabulous and I should have gotten more at some point I reckon.
• I could almost devote some more space to Fugazi for Red Medicine but I'm going to relegate them to here because their last two are the ones I have personal stories to express. But Red Medicine is the one that was apparently a weird departure at the time. I kind of consider everything Fugazi represents a weird departure so this one stands out slightly less to me. I will say that it wasn't as great for running to as some of their previous albums, so that's saying something. 
• Crap! The Roots' Do You Want More?!!!??! came out in 1994. My itunes was mislabeled 1995 so I can't really write about it except to say yes I do!
• Archers of Loaf's Vee Vee is another excellent record I must say.
• So was Wowee Zowee (what's it with album names with double e's in 1995 indie rock? Just the thing to do?) by Pavement which was my favorite and sounds kind of like their double album even though it kind of fits on one CD. All over the place and has some real gems.
• A couple stray Tupac songs, "Dear Mama" and "California Love."
• I like PJ Harvey's album To Bring You My Love. Kind of a 90s alt rock version of Patti Smith.
• The Suicide Machines/Rudiments split is the first taste of who would be one of my favorite skapunk bands in the 90s. And The Rudiments!
• Citizen Fish was a great skapunk band who seemed to have shared members with Brit punk band Subhumans. Highly political but smart about it, Citizen Fish are one of the few skapunk bands that persist an I can still enjoy on a less-nostalgic level.
• That Bjork album Post is pretty great even if I couldn't get into her music videos at the time. Today I think they're pretty neat!
• I have a soft spot for the early Wilco album A.M. because it was one of my first (due to the property of many of my nostalgic albums, the fact that it was the one I found when browsing for used CDs).
• The Pietasters' Oolooloo used to be one of my favorite ska albums but at this point it just feels way too chauvinistic to be comfortable with. Still lots of catchiness though. But something's not quite right about those dudes.
• Don Caballero's album Don Caballero 2 is fabulous by the way.
• Smoking Popes' Born to Quit is my first Popes album. I expected it to be a little more punk rock after learning of how many bands were influenced by them but I adapted to it. The ultimate romantics.
• Aceyalone's All Balls Don't Bounce was a very welcome addition to the hip hop vocabulary I've been developing. Not the most innovative but definitely up there in creativity.
• My first play of The Amps' only album Pacer. Good pretty-much-the-Breeders album that I need to listen to more.
• In the emo world, the last Jawbreaker album Dear You came up. It's not particularly well received by critics but I'm ok with it. Definitely way more commercial than anything else they did but the lyricism and the cleaned up vocals kind of bring to mind Blake's next project Jets to Brazil. At least here and there.
• Insomniac by Green Day was another one I bonded with my brother over. I only have a couple songs on my computer but we were into it. Which may make it my first punk rock album despite being owned by my brother? Or we'll just call this one coming up next year my first punk rock album. Either way...

Next Time!

1996 was a turning point for me. Kind of. I mean, I didn't get into some of the 1996 stuff until 1997 but it was current when I got into it and it changed my life. So we'll call it like that. What's the stuff of 1996?

Beck! Belle & Sebastian x2! Braid! Super sweet Brainiac album! My first official "guilty pleasure" (The Cardigans)! Cat Power! De La Soul still killin it! Descendents comeback album! DJ Shadow goes all nuts! So does Dr. Octagon in what would eventually lead to The Gorillaz! Eels! Fugees! Ghostface solo! Jay-Z! Nada Surf is Popular! Neutral Milk Hotel is amazing! So is Outkast! RBF! Refused! I get to write about The Roots this time! Au Revoir to Skankin' Pickle. But hello to the likes of Slapstick and Slow Gherkin! A swing revival with the Squirrel Nut Zippers! And how about that Sublime? The Suicide Machines were a favorite. And another gem from that Weezer group. One of the better Wilco albums. 2Pac. And another classic from "Weird Al" Yankovic!