Modern Rock #1 Hits of 1995

you joined the army?

Here is a picture of me a year later at the H.O.R.D.E. festival.

aside from Alanis, I spent most of this year listening to Prince, rave, UK breakbeat/hardcore, trip-hop, drum n bass, industrial and PJ Harvey

"Down By the Water" hit #2 too.

just fyi for you all, you should really get up on Gigapus by Severed Heads from this year, which was basically all kinds of awesome (think "New Order does industrial dance")

gigapus is awesome

this list however is horseshit

god help me am i really about to vote for wonderwall

Wow, this is so much worse than 1994...

JAR still rocks though.

fuck it im voting for lump

god can't help you, jj

I underrate "Lump" because that band went on to give us "Peaches", I song I hate so so so so so much that it permanently tainted everything else they did

'95 was pretty much the start of my alternative alternative phase (and first year of college, natch): Yo La Tengo, Julianna Hatfield, Sebadoh. Y'know, the real fringe stuff. Plus all the stuff I discovered from mixtapes made by my riot grrrl friend who I crushed on massively (Softies, Lois, the proto S-K bands).

(And who's all super normal and married and domesticated now, of course.)

I listened to a lot of Tricky in '95.

I detect some sarcasm in your post, Deric, but you remind me of some former band members of mine who wanted to cover "Box Elder" because it was "an obscure song from an obscure band."

Oh shit. This is the year I graduated from high school and I distinctly remember Name being played CONSTANTLY ugh. I never liked Alanis at all. I don't remember what JAR is. Huh. I was in the Soul Asylum official fan club around that time (don't judge! OK you totally can but I will still rep for a couple of their early albums) and did like Misery. Hmmmmmmm.

xxxpost

(I told her recently that I'd found my stash of her old zines and she was like "BURN THEM!!")

I listened to a lot of Tricky in '95.

In retrospect I am surprised my wife ended up marrying me, given the number of times I played "Overcome" at her in an attempt to be broodingly sexy.

Bush always blew but Gavin Rosdale was so fucking hot when he sang glycerine alone on stage in the pouring down rain at MTVs spring break in '06. Man alive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfatUZ5RDG0

I distinctly remember watching that in my dorm lounge during my freshman year of college and just being like O_O. I have a soft spot for that song as a result. I'll totally sing along if it comes on the radio while I'm driving.

I detect some sarcasm in your post, Deric, but you remind me of some former band members of mine who wanted to cover "Box Elder" because it was "an obscure song from an obscure band."

Yeah, a total goof. But at the time, I certainly felt fringe-y, if only because I discovered a lot of that stuff on my own and didn't know anyone else who was into it.

this is my regularly scheduled "bte was totally underrated through their first three albums but on the fourth then yeah they did start sucking" comment

that's a really bad list though
when i come around was the only green day song i ever really liked (despite people hyping basket case on 94 thread)
and i liked good, as stated but i'd probably go with wonderwall

i don't think anyone ever admits to liking bush but i got that album, little things was probably the best track on it though and didn't really get anywhere

Good is actually really fun to sing along to at a very high volume.

what, I have heard "Little Things" on the radio at least once a week for the past 17 years (xpost)

Which one goes "breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out"? That's the one I hear on the radio most often, I think.

machinehead, that had that werewolf movie tie-in tho

"Machine Head"

x-post lol which movie - OMG THE ONE WITH JULIE DELPY?

I saw that in the movie theater. :/

Oh wait it seems like that was 97 so idk which one you mean.

all 5 of the Sixteen Stone singles are and have always been oppressively overplayed

Because they are oppressively awesome.

No.

yeah the delpy one actually

Oh! That really wasn't a good movie.

oh, no that single was a remix of "mouth" actually? NEVERMIND

I saw it too :(

from Dan Weiss' recent Butch Vig interview:

I thought the Soul Asylum record was underrated as well. It was kind of the right record at the wrong time because it came a few years before alt-country became a thing.

I think it's underrated too. The songwriting is amazing on it, there's some incredible songs. [Vig starts singing a bit of "To My Own Devices"] That was a difficult record to make because... they had all this success with "Runaway Train" and all of a sudden Dave was dating Winona Ryder, they were playing at the White House. And it was hard to get them to focus and start on the record. That was by far the biggest budget record I'd done. Pirner could almost be a street bum, he's such a character and so off in his own world, but I think he's an amazing songwriter. But they kind of fell by the wayside, it didn't have the same kind of success as Grave Dancers Union.

Hold Me Thrill Me - the last great U2 track of the Achtung/Zooropa era - I think it was a holdover from the Zooropa sessions.

x-post - otm

It was

xpost

i liked soul asylum back then but a lot of it doesn't seem to hold up now except for maybe black gold

also, not to bring up hfs again but one of the hfstivals i went to had both soul asylum and primus during the pirner/winona years - primus going into big brown beaver while winona was in attendance at the side of the stage was hilarious

It's embarrassing that we as a society tolerated hair like Pirner's.

lol

He totally had a cameo in Reality Bites btw. That's just so perfect somehow.

one of my friends claims to have slept w/ Alanis in Holland around the time You Oughta Know was blowing up

still can't vote for it in good conscience even on this comedically bad list

anybody own that Soul Asylum record? A '95 example of ship's list of commercial failures.

I have the Soul Asylum record. I loved Misery (but voted WICA) and picked up the CD through a Columbia House or BMV spree, haha.

also, not to bring up hfs again but one of the hfstivals i went to had both soul asylum and primus during the pirner/winona years - primus going into big brown beaver while winona was in attendance at the side of the stage was hilarious

― fauxmarc, Wednesday, May 23, 2012 11:44 AM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol i totally remember listening to the station that weekend and hearing reports about the dustup, les claypool apparently dryly informing him that the name isn't even spelled the same in "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver"

Let me note that despite the overall crappiness of this list, there are 3 songs here that I really like "When I Come Around", "Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me" (favorite U2 song by a mile), and "You Oughta Know". That's probably better than some of the later lists will hit.

i love swag U2, even "Discotheque" was cool w/ me

(he typed, listening to "Cold Contagious")

i don't think anyone has been brave enough to wade into those waters, no

Before there's any serious discussion of this, I'd like to draw everyone's attention to lyrics that made me actively angry in '95 (it's miraculous that later singles were able to pull me back to the shores of "eh..."):

There must be something we can eat
Maybe find another lover
Should I fly to Los Angeles
Find my asshole brother
Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Dave's on sale again
We kissy kiss in the rear view
We're so bored
You're to blame

Try to see it once my way
Everything zen
Everything zen
I don't think so

Raindogs howl for the century
A million dollars a stake
As you search for your demi-god
And you fake with a saint
There's no sex in your violence
There's no sex in your violence

Try to see it once my way
Everything zen
Everything zen
I don't think so

I don't believe that Elvis is dead
I don't believe that Elvis is dead
I don't believe that Elvis is, Elvis is

There's no sex in your violence

holy fucking shit, are those the real words

i mean, a lot of songs back then had horrific lyrics, and sometimes i have to actively try to forget what the real words to "Cherub Rock" are in order to continue enjoying it, but with a band as shitty as Bush it's just fun to see how bad the lyrics really were

TS: "There must be something that we can eat" vs "Sitting around the HOUSE" for slacker poetry scene-setting.

Like, I'm sure Gavin was going for something more tormented given their whole vibe but it just sounds like he's rifling through the fridge, rejecting the Chinese leftovers and discovering that the yogurt is unexpectedly past its date.

i always thought Bush was too brooding to evoke the Pixies as much as Rossdale wanted to, but apparently it was just his delivery that was brooding and the lyrics were suitably wacky nonsense

I remember "Everything Zen" coming on the radio and my mom being like "ugh, is that that 'find my idiot brother' song?" and wondering if she was censoring herself or had somehow gotten the words wrong or...what, I don't know.

There must be something we can eat
Maybe find another lover
Should I go to Redbox
Rent Our Idiot Brother

http://www.emilykayelazzaro.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/our-idiot-brother-bd.jpg

hahahahaha

Now that has the feel of a genuine slacker anthem.

Bush in general seemed to really ride the long loud grunge thing hard on their singles - - wonder if they'd be more fondly remembered if they'd been a little more punchy in their delivery.

This was extrapolated in their live performances too. The version of Everything Zen they played at HFStival had to have been over ten minutes long.

The lyrics to Silverchair's 'Tomorrow' are just as terrible, but at least Daniel Johns had the excuse of being 15 or something when he wrote them.

very hard to drink

YOU GONNA WAIT 'TIL, FAT BOY, FAT BOY, WAIT 'TIL TOMORROW!

morrisseyesque

thing is, very hard to drink is very fun to sing

VERY HAHD TO DRAAYYYAAANKKKK
Fat BOOH-OOOHY! Fat BOYEEEE! WAIT TEW TOMARROOOOOOOOOOH

I'll always remember when the video to 'Tomorrow' appeared on Beavis & Butthead; when the drums kick in after the opening guitar arpeggios, and Beavis goes "MORE THAN A FEEE-LIIIING!".

I think "Everything Zen," "Comedown" and perhaps even "Glycerine" had radio edits that made them much more concise.

Ogling Billie Joe Armstrong was all the pleasure this era could offer.

"What I Got" deserves the firing squad.

I saw the #1 and was like...

http://media.giphy.com/media/l4FGnnlIQslHkOPaU/giphy.gif

But then I saw the rest of the list and I was like...

http://media2.giphy.com/media/xUySTD7evBn33BMq3K/giphy.gif

Lump gets stuck in my head the most these days out of this crew.

Most of these songs are catchy like herpes.

This is making me realize just how short-lived was my intense affair with the Alternative Nation. Lots of strained smiles and forced conversation by the time '95 rolled around.