POST-GRUNGE PARADISE: celebration, trashing, and discussion of the rock music of 1993-1998

Listened to Sister a couple months ago on a spin through a “96 alterna-hits” playlist, and it REALLY anticipates the most popular “hard rock” of the following 10 years.

Also it totally sucks of course

I'd say the thing I am probably nostalgic about was the regular record/Cd stores I frequented. I had some friends that were into music and could discuss some music and share it all, but the record store was where you found the odd deep stuff you had to search out. It was a bit like going to the drug dealer in a way. Tom Donahue RIP - I loved TD's CD's & LPs in Bloomington. That dude was a sage. Missing Link and Luna Music in Indy. There were others, as there was places to find cheap vinyl and places that had lots of jazz. First thing I would do going to any other town was going to search for 'the place', so road trips to Bardstown Rd (RIP EarXtacy) in Louisville or say down off Vine in Cincy or up in Ludlow.

Chuck called this "Nerf Grunge" (probably not his term originally) in the afterward to the expanded Stairway To Hell, published in '98 and-along with his accompanying "Top 100 Metal Albums of The '90s"-is a good chronicle of the times as they happened.

It's kind of amazing that, in America, Bush out-performed all BritPop comers up to and including Oasis.

Eric Weisbard called it “scrunge” (contemporaneously, in the pages of SPIN). Many of the acts listed in the first post don’t apply, though.

It would be interesting to do a poll of relevant bands from this era that didn’t have an established indie pedigree (i.e., their debut album was either on or distributed by a major).

i have to imagine people trying to get amped up for the chorus at concerts and just giving up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA4tYxgmxeg

and there's fucking lame-assed violin

like most of these posers, they had roots in glam rock and changed gears when they saw the way the wind was blowing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bf2C4R0F1Q

no, it isn't

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO1kZxOSZeQ

Thought I'd never heard Oleander and then that opening triggered a flashback to riding to lunch in the back seat of a 4 cylinder convertible '80s Mustang.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoZF4pMKho8

Kind of feel bad for the guy I knew whose band "got signed to Creed's label man" - his band was at least as competent as Oleander.

he was still having to do solo gigs at a Flying Saucer on Sunday nights and would sing directly at a bartender I worked with - direct, creepy eye contact for 3+ minutes at a time

Pretty sure this was one of the regular creepy eye contact songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIjGxYIiMXE

It's kind of amazing that, in America, Bush out-performed all BritPop comers up to and including Oasis.

this does not surprise me, "Swallowed" mops the floor vs. every band that featured a Union Jack bass drum at any point in the '90s