Much like how October is the month most of us get our colder-weather clothing out storage, I break out the fall music. And for me, a great deal of that music is from the early 90’s.
As I was in my teens at the start of the 90’s, I was more attune to contemporary music of that era than at any other time of my life. Those who came of age later (or were even born after that era) likely have a different mental image of the state of music at that time than how it really was. There were many trends that could have been the dominant one. One of those was grunge, but many were surprised that caught on as thoroughly as it did.
With that, here is a collection of some staples of college radio from the early-to-mid 90’s which are largely forgotten today.
“Libertine” by The Buck Pets
If there is one track here I hope will find a larger audience, it is this one. Success eluded The Buck Pets, despite having two albums on a major label. “Libertine” was the closest they had to even a radio hit, perhaps partially due to production by The Dust Brothers, who would go on to produce Beck’s Odelay
“Love Your Money” by Daisy Chainsaw
I used to play this song to death back in the day. Nowadays, I find it a bit too tinny and, frankly, a bit annoying. I can just imagine my younger self sneering at old man me. That’s OK, kid, I don’t like you, either.
“The City Sleeps” by M.C. 90 Ft. Jesus
Mark Thomas Griffin would have a sizable hit with “If I Only Had A Brain” on his next album, but he was still flying under the radar with this release. I’m not sure I ever fully bought the “darkness” he tried to convey on tracks like this and “Falling Elevators”, but both had a hypnotic allure and moody instrumentation which spoke to me.
“Valerie Loves Me” by Material Issue
Before grunge rode in on a tidal wave starting with Nevermind, it looked for a while like power pop could have been the dominant sound of the early 90’s, with bands like Material Issue and The Smithereens providing some excellent music that was alternative only in how it was distinguishable from the hair metal and terrible pop which dominated the airwaves at the time.
“The Sweater” by Meryn Cadell
This is a track that should have been huge, but barely even built a cult following for Cadell. That sample is incredibly catchy, and every word she sings-speaks atop it is priceless.
“Taking Up Space” by The Cavedogs
The Cavedogs were one of the seemingly thousand bands specializing in this kind of alt-pop-rock that all seemed to be fighting for the same tiny piece of pop culture real-estate around the turn of the decade. I love many songs in this mix but, damn, do I ever wish I could make everybody I know hear this particular one at least once.
“Birmingham” by The Wolfgang Press
This is a single that should have been, though it was wisely decided to issue “A Girl Like You” and a cover of “Mama Told Me Not To Come” instead. The link here is to the version from initial UK pressings, before the removal of samples of the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting For The Man” and “I’ll Be Your Mirror”.
“Flyin’ The Flannel” by fIREHOSE
Now we’re getting to some real alternative, with a band made up largely of surviving members of the Minutemen following the death of the incomparable D. Boon.
“Hello” by The Beloved
This may be the pop, but it got played on alternative rock college radio a lot back then, and played approximately zero times on commercial pop radio. Hence its inclusion here.
“Gong” by The Hinnies
Nowadays, everybody seems to know and love My Bloody Valentine, but there were far fewer fans back in the day, when “Only Shallow” would appear rather sporadically on college radio. So I’m going to go with a different shoegaze band. I only know The Hinnies from this one song but, damn, what a song. This is a group that doesn’t even need a second song.
“Stranded” by The Gunbunnies
To some extent, every other band in the B.G (before grunge) 90’s wanted to be R.E.M. The Gunbunnies successfully channeled some of the sound of their early I..R.S. records. No surprise, given Mitch Easter was at the boards. That said, the song “Stranded” is funnier than that Athens, Georgia, band ever let themselves be.
“The Damage Done” by Gumball
Speaking of producers, Don Fleming produced many alternative rock classics of this period, such as Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque and Screaming Tree’s Sweet Oblivion. Before Butch Vig formed Garbage, you had this group organized by a producer, though to considerably less success. I remember being dismissive of this band at the time, but they seem better in retrospect. Something which does them no favors, ironically, are the lackluster mixes which aren’t very dynamic.
“John Brown” by Snowpony
I mentioned My Bloody Valentine earlier, so here’s at least a tangent to that group. Snowpony was Debbie Googe, the bassist from that shoegaze act, with Katherine Gifford. This is a step away from shoegaze, but with the genre still within its sights.
“Hold Me Up” by Velvet Crush
I mentioned power pop earlier, and it would be hard to find a more joyous, lively and catchy pop song than this. Naturally, given the musical climate of the time, it didn’t break the group into the big time.
“Milkshake Girl” by Giant Sand
Now this is seriously alternative, a pop song if you squint hard enough, but which refuses to the wear its heart on the sleeve of the gas station uniform shirt it stole from a thrift store.
“People Are Still Having Sex” by LaTour
The early 90’s sure had everybody worried whether they were getting enough sex, curiously offset by how terrified everybody was that they would get AIDS and die if they had too much sex.
“Long Haired Guys From England” by Too Much Joy
Despite the loud F-bomb in the first verse, this was in heavy rotation at the time on my local college radio station. Naturally, it was bleeped, but the censored world was so obvious that the edit might have made it more conspicuous by its absence.
“Earth To Grandma” by The Ass Ponys
This band had two albums on A&M that were received high marks from critics, but which had middling success commercially. “Earth To Grandma” has incredibly sharp lyrics which brings to mind memories for many who were of the right age when this was released. I remember my own grandmother had figurines made of seashells and those googly eyes. She also had at least one “beer-can hat” she had made a long time ago, though she used a Pepsi can instead. This band’s Chuck Cleaver went on to even more critical success with Wussy.
“Kathleen” by Pere Ubu
The early music of Cleveland’s Pere Ubu was unlikely to be described by most as “accessible”, which probably isn’t much of a surprise, when a band takes their name from a character in a play by French absurdist Alfred Jarry. So, it is all the more surprising the early 90’s found them releasing such radio-friendly fare as this.