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!

An Ear For An Era: 1993

When I was little I was good friends with my next door neighbor Ryan. When we were little we used to brag about arbitrary things. One of these things was how old our siblings were. When I asked how old his older brother was he held up all of his fingers. Ten! That's so old! And then in 1993 I turned ten.

This entry feels like it marks a turning point where it's mostly going to be about memories of music because apparently the music released in 1993 had a lot of influence on pivotal moments in my life over the 10 years or so following.

Technically my first CD was Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell and I really don't know why. I didn't pick it out. I don't have it anymore. I think my parents got it for me but I don't know why they picked it. Not that I was easy. I kept saying I wanted a CD player but all I listened to was Weird Al so they'd ask me what music I would get if I got a CD player and I had no idea. At the time all I wanted was to have the technology. I think part of my now-obsessive relationship with music is to make up for that and prove that I was right, that I really needed that CD player. I think I got it for Christmas 1993? Based on the Meat Loaf release date and the not-sureness of my Alapalooza format (see below) that makes sense that I would have gotten it at the end of the year.

It's a bit fuzzy but I think Alapalooza is the first Weird Al album I got on CD (now I can't remember if I actually had it on tape instead) and it was definitely the first one I got when it was new. It opens up with "Jurassic Park." That movie made me a Michael Crichton fan and I remember going to see it with my mom even though it was PG-13 and I was 10. It was scary!  Let's see, what else about this album? In music class we had an activity where you click PVC pipes together while someone jumps over them to a beat (I'm not sure how to describe it without taking another whole paragraph so deal with it). The teacher said we could bring in music from home to do that to. We brought Alapalooza wanting to do "Jurassic Park" or "Bedrock Anthem" or something but the teacher said they didn't have enough of a beat (or in the latter case, probably too fast of a beat) but said "Traffic Jam" would work. I think we said no deal to that. I liked "Achy Breaky Song" because I agreed that "Achy Breaky Heart" was terrible. I'm going to pretend I think that Pitchfork got its name from this song's line "I'd rather have a pitchfork in my brain." "Bohemian Polka" took some guts but it was pretty fantastic. In addition to the CD, I got a VHS tape called Alapalooza: The Videos and I dug this claymation music video, particularly what happens to Barney:

"Weird Al" Yankovic "Jurassic Park"

A year later was 1994 and I know I got a World Cup '94 soundtrack album. Why am I not talking about this next time? Because all I was going to say was there was a silly song by James called "Goal Goal Goal" that I quite enjoyed at the time. A few years ago I acquired quite a bit of the James catalog and discovered it was a rework of the song "Low, Low, Low" from Laid. "Laid" is a pretty great indie pop rock whatever song too by the way. but "Low, Low, Low" now makes me laugh because I remember "Goal Goal Goal" and its cheesy lines like "He was never ever ever offside." Maybe if I remember (I don't have the World Cup album in my collection anymore so it won't naturally come up here) I'll post the video in the 1994 entry. It's another World Cup year, you know.

I listened to a lot of early 90s ska/punk in the late 90s. My super cool brother got the contemporary popular  albums like Let's Face It by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones so I naturally got the punker back catalog stuff like Don't Know How to Party. I remember thinking the trombonist was super cool (because he was super cool and also because I played trombone). And the hardcore moments they did were (at the time) the hardest music I listened to. But I preferred the ska side of the ska-core. I also had their EP Ska-Core, The Devil, And More which consisted mostly of covers but I still preferred the original song "Someday I Suppose." and the Bob Marley cover "Simmer Down" featuring a vocal turn by said super cool trombonist. The hardcore covers were my unwitting intro to Minor Threat though, which made me appreciate that more when I got it, since I already knew that song.

The other big ska albums that came up were Marbles by King Apparatus (I like King Apparatus because it reminds me of a ska version of Elvis Costello...take that as you will. I think the songwriting style is similar in a way I can't put my finger on) and Big Daddy Multitude by Mustard Plug. Mustard Plug was a band that I grew up with musically, and while Big Daddy Multitude wasn't the one that got me into them, it was the soundtrack to many fun days in high school. Including the song "Mr. Smiley" which we (very loosely) based a movie on back when my friend Bryden and I would make movies on dance nights. It was our tradition as dateless wonders, you see.

Do you have that one album that, for better or worse, takes you back to a very specific person in your past, a very specific location and time? Of course. There are many of those. But the one that hits so hard and so personally that you can't really listen to it? I used to have that with Pablo Honey by Radiohead. Used to? That sounds anti-nostalgia or something. But that one used to hurt and I didn't even rip it onto my computer (that I've had since 2005) until recently when I figured I should put myself through it for the sake of this project. In 2000, the album brought me immense joy to hear. In 2002, it helped me through some lonely times and then became my go-to moping album. Tears were shed over it. In 2004 I couldn't listen to it anymore. And I didn't for about 10 years. Today it turns out I can listen to it pretty objectively as long as I'm occupying myself with something else while it plays. Other than a few songs. Mostly the good songs are the ones that persist. "You." "Stop Whispering." "Thinking About You." "Anyone Can Play Guitar." Etc. About half of the album is pretty forgettable in my opinion and in my experience. But the good-to-great songs are some of the better grungy songs of the day. Still just a small hint of what they would do one day.

It turns out I listened to a good amount of 1993 music in 2003. Another go-to mopey album was Diary by Sunny Day Real Estate. When I got it my other point of reference for emo was Bivouac by Jawbreaker, and I was a little disappointed that Diary wasn't heavier. But now it sounds just perfect to me. I hadn't listened to it in several years but it turns out it stuck with me pretty damn well. Another album I listened to in 2003 when I wasn't moping was Get Fired by The Smoking Popes. I like this one because they hadn't sanded off their rougher edges and it has such a cynical feel throughout. And the original version of this song was empowering to me getting over a breakup and stuff...

The Smoking Popes "Can't Find It"

It was probably around this same time that my future wife was listening to Archers of Loaf. I happened to have "Web in Front" from a random download spree from college and it happened to come on once when she was there and she was very excited because she remembered that song and liked Archers of Loaf quite a bit. Eventually because of this I would get a few Archers of Loaf albums, the first of which was Icky Mettle. I like the whole album for different reasons than "Web in Front," mostly how hard it rocks. But still. This song.

Archers of Loaf "Web in Front"

There was also stuff happening that I don't particularly have memories of. Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins is a pretty good middle ground between Sunny Day Real Estate and My Bloody Valentine. Not that I need to attempt to describe their sound because everyone knows what they sound like. But I made that correlation the other day listening to this so I thought I'd share. I have some stories about The Smashing Pumpkins but they are more related to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness so I'll share those in the 1995 entry.

Vs by Pearl Jam was one I got for my birthday one year, which must have been around this time (probably my 1994 birthday though). It was cool because it was the first time I got music from a friend. So I knew it had to be what I should be listening to as a young person growing up. But it turned out I didn't particularly enjoy it. I liked "Daughter." And "Leash" was amusing because it sure didn't sound like he was saying "Get out of my lucky face." But I just couldn't get into it when there was so much Weird Al to listen to, you know?

I was barely aware of the existence of Nirvana in 1993 but I do remember seeing them on Saturday Night Live playing "Heart Shaped Box." I remember distinctly how Krist Novoselic jumped around for the performance. Looking at wikipedia, that was the same episode Charles Barkley was on. That one cracked me up.

Nirvana "Heart Shaped Box"

I remember this cool guy in my class named Chris liked Nirvana. I just wasn't cool enough to like that kind of music yet. But in retrospect, In Utero is a pretty awesomely bold album. It's dirty and messy enough as it turned out, but I really want to hear the "unlistenable" version Steve Albini came up with. But at the moment all I have is the commercial version. After In Utero comes MTV Unplugged in New York, which seems like the perfect cap on the band's short run.

After the break-up of the Pixies, we got Frank Black's debut solo album Frank Black. I like Frank Black solo stuff for what seems like a completely different reason than why I love the Pixies. It's good in its own way. Let's just say that. But it ain't the Pixies. And their recent reunion album sounds more like Frank Black than the Pixies. Whatever similarities people draw between this and the last Pixies album seem trivial. What they did is over. Last Splash by The Breeders, on the other hand, feels a little bit more magic to me (but still for different reasons than the Pixies). It's the instrumental aspect, I'm more interested in clever sounds than lyrics. The Breeders have more clever sounds than Frank Black I think. Fair enough?

Math rock, the natural progression of crazy instrumentation and hardcore, was coming along nicely, as I have a few Don Caballero singles that rock me very hard and happily, and Polvo's album Today's Active Lifestyles. That one's pure math rock perfection right there. But when it comes to screwing around with the formula for hardcore, Brainiac got it just right in my mind. They would go on to go even crazier, but Smack Bunny Baby is a great jumping off point.

Brainiac "Draag"

Was hip hop the best music being made in the early 90s? It's hard for me to say because I'm a rock kid at my core and these albums listed above are pretty great. But the hip hop continues to just be phenomenal from these days. Obviously De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest continued to kill it. But No Need For Alarm was my original exposure to Del the Funky Homosapien (not counting "Clint Eastwood" of course, when I didn't know who he was) and one of the first hip hop albums I ever bought. I was highly impressed by the lyrical gymnastics and bouncy sound of his vocals. I still am, particularly on this album. He's a good early MC to listen to when getting into hip hop for the first time with how playful/ridiculous the whole thing sounds and it holds up now that I've been exposed to much more hip hop.

The fantastic fusion of hip hop and jazz on Guru's Jazzmatazz, (featuring live jazz musicians!) as well as Digable Planets' Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space). I first heard Digable Planets when I asked my then-girlfriend to tell me what hip hop to listen to as I tried to open my mind to it. I enjoyed and then got sick of "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" and kind of stopped thinking about them until Shabazz Palaces came along a couple years ago and blew my mind. That's when I knew I had to give Butterfly's earlier project another go. I can dig the Digable now, although the amount of positivity is almost too much for me sometimes.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, KRS-One was going hard and solo on Return of the Boom Bap, and of course Wu-Tang Clan's debut album Enter The Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers remains one of the most raw, energized, solid-from-front-to-back albums of all time. I tried to have it come on during my 10k the other day but my ipod messed up and it didn't happen. I kind of feel like I would have done better if I had Wu-Tang soundtracking the thing.

Wu-Tang Clan "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'"

I think that's the best place to end things.

Other Stuff:

• The first track to come up was "Shoop" by Salt-n-Pepa. Is there a better way to say "Are you ready for 1993?" than that song? I doubt it.
• Those early Rivers Cuomo recordings from that Alone album are pretty sweet previews of the Weezer to come. Including an early, slower version of "Buddy Holly!"
• The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack! Very enjoyable. My friend in high school was obsessed with Tim Burton (I know he didn't direct this but still) and we very un-ironically loved this movie. But now that makes us seem like Hot Topic kids or something because don't they still love this movie? I assure you, this was before Hot Topic was a thing.
• Another Saturday Night Live performance I kind of remember is Billy Joel playing "River of Dreams."
• Liz Phair's Exile In Guyville is great btw
• Flaming Lips' Transmissions From The Satellite Heart has that big hit song about doing stuff your own unique way "She Don't Use Jelly."
• Mercury Rev is still pretty Flaming Lips like in 1993, maybe with a smattering of Yo La Tengo...but not quite as great as those two bands. Good thing I know how much better they get!
• Fugazi's In On The Kill Taker is another great one from the band that really didn't make anything non-great.
• Mekons' I Love Mekons includes one of my favorite Mekons songs, "I Love Apple." It's a good album that has a few songs with that great 70s punk energy.
• The morning of the evening I wrote this, I listened to some Simpsons stuff from 1993 including the "Monorail" song. And the day of the evening I wrote this was the anniversary of the day that Phil Hartman passed away. That made me sad.
• People born the same year as all this music can now legally drink. Let that one sink in, grandpa/grandma!

Next Time...

You thought I had a lot to say about 1993? There were only 551 tracks for 1993. 1994 has 803. I'm going to have to start editing better! Lots of stuff turns 20 this year.

Ill Communication. Beck. Blur. Built to Spill. An album called Dookie. Jawbox. Jeff Buckley. Big Johnny Cash comeback. Two classic Magnetic Fields records. Wu-Tang solo stuff begins. Lots more skapunk. Nas debuts. The Downward Spiral. A pretty darn good NOFX album. The Notorious B.I.G. Oasis. Outkast. Rodan. Rancid. Weezer. And a classic non-album track by "Weird Al" Yankovic.

And a ton more that I didn't bother typing. This will take a while.