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!
