The 90's.

[nofi]

this seems interesting.

http://www.openculture.com/

[uwe]

Oh my, no drum solos then, doubleneck guitars, keyboard towers, dry ice, 10 minute guitar solos, grand poses and fabulous clothes.   





About as attractive as advocating vegan food, Nofi, and you know how that only gets eaten because people want (you) to believe it's good for you. You are an expert in ruining my Mondays  , especially if they are really Tuesdays because yesterday was a national holiday here.

An era that began with Nirvana (now ... let's see how this bar chord sounds played here ...)  - had an endless intermission when everybody wanted to sound like unused demos from those mythical Memphis culters Big Star, yawn ... - and ended with Nickelback and the Foo Fighters, great, just great. 

[Basvarken]

I don't get it. The link leads to that video where Carol Kaye teaches Gene Simmons how to play bass (which we've discussed here as well).
Nothing about the nineties...

Were the nineties really that awful to you Uwe?

I saw and heard a lot of great bands in the nineties:
The Black Crowes, Cry Of Love, Thunder, Del Amitri, The Hoax, Mother's Finest (comeback), Tonic,  Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies, Badlands, Riverdogs, etc etc
It really wasn't hard to avoid the whole grunge hype (as long as you didn't turn on the radio)

[Dave W]

I don't get it either. What does Carol Kaye teaching Gene Simmons have to do with 90s bands Uwe doesn't like?

Rob is right, lots of great bands that had nothing to do with grunge, drum solos or fancy outfits.

[uwe]

I was just teasing ole Nofi a little, he needs that to keep in shape for countless venomous repartees in the future, not to mention all his old sins. But it's ok, if it makes him feel younger to like the 90ies, I'm happy to feel old listening to a Jon Lord solo album track (even from the 90ies, though it's probably not on that song list ...) as I write this!



You're right, not all music from the 90ies was trendy in its artificial, mannered non-pretentiousness.

You have to scroll down on that site, below the Carol Kaye feature (which we have indeed discussed before here) is a Dutch glass making documentary feature and below that is that 90ies song list!

EDIT: I find it very sad that Nofi's inward perceptions of the glorious 90ies do not even warrant the attention of my brethren to spend more than a second on the site and dig a little deeper for what he might have meant. See, Nofi, I for one take ALL your postings serious! It's my Eurocentric devotion to detail. 

[TBird1958]

  I likes me some Grunge (even tho it killed hair metal  ) esp Soundgarden - but hey, it might be a proximity thing 

[uwe]

Mediocrity is everywhere - I absolve you and your 90ies!

[slinkp]

There was a lot of great music in the 90s, among the inevitable crap and dross. I don't see it as any different from any other era in that regard.
Some of the great stuff was even popular!  Like any other era.

My personal 90s faves off the top of my head, not including bands that were around in the 80s or earlier: Sleater-Kinney, Radiohead, The Breeders ... more obscure things like Ida, Babe the Blue Ox, Beekeeper ... I could go on... some really interesting electronic stuff appeared then too, like Aphex Twin.

[Granny Gremlin]

I don't get it. The link leads to that video where Carol Kaye teaches Gene Simmons how to play bass (which we've discussed here as well).
Nothing about the nineties...

Scroll down to the 3rd item.  Nofi shoulda just linked to it direct, but it was probably at the top of the page at the time: http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/a-massive-800-track-playlist-of-90s-indie-alternative-music.html

Anyway, if all you listenned to in the 90s was top 40 radio, which is to say, almost all non-college radio, then yeah, the 90s kinda sucked..... but not half as much as the 00s.  And now things are a tad better again.  Obviously, all IMHO.   If you ignore the radio and look at what came out in that decade, there was some good stuff,  some of which Uwe even likes (I forget how he feels about Pulp, or if it has ever come up, but I'm sure I could come up with something if pressed.... Pulp was probably a poor choice actually).

[uwe]

I really like Pulp, how did you know?! Their quintessentially British and witty. I favor them over Blur (too cerebral), Suede (ditto), Oasis (too ... errrm ... Gallagher = rather non-cerebral), Radiohead (too ... I think I just fell asleep  trying to come up with a suitable description, their version of Albert Hammond's "The Air that I breathe" was also kind of creepy and paled next to the original).

I kinda liked Ride's druggy atmospherics, unlike Radiohead they at least sounded like the took good drugs, not just antidepressants.

I guess in the US, REM (besides Nirvana and their grunge followers) summed up the 90ies, and though I could do very little with them at the time (no guitar playing included you might want to throw Jimi Hendrix/Ritchie Blackmore/Janick Gers-shapes to!), my view toward them has mellowed a great deal and I even miss that they are not together anymore bringing out new work. And I still buy new Soundgarden (I'm a glutton for punishment with their weird chord changes) and Alice in Chains CDs, so there!

Essentially, I agree with slinkp (though not on Rayawniohead!!!) that the 90ies had highs and lows - like any other era. They are just not that long ago enough to be yet bathed in the same nostalgic evening sunlight that the 80ies have begun to enjoy. Though you can't really like a decade that brought U2 to the fore either.  That didn't keep me from buying and very much liking the last Boy George album though. 

[Granny Gremlin]

Dude, 90s retro has totally started.  It's hilarious (and occasionally a welcome relief).

Lucky guess re Pulp.  Basically, I tried to think of the most indulgent (technically) British band of the period (they win by sheer membership size), that was also character driven (had a schtick), and then second guessed myself for the snark, but shoulda known better. ... I thought Suede was alright from the few songs I knew; never followed up any more than that.  I assumed correctly that Blur was a little too all over the place for you.  You don't like fickleness in a band.  I don't even like Radiohead (I was with them for the first US single, Creep, as that really seemed like the passing of the grunge torch to young me, but then whatshisface's voice just kept get whinnier and I couldn't stand it).  Between that, and my similar inability to tollerate Soundgarden and Alice and Chains (I tried), I became rather isolated musically from my peers.  So when many of them started getting into Rage Against the Machine I welcomed and encouraged that whole-heartedly, even though I did think they were a bit on the nose; there is something to be said for subtlety.  The rythmn section was damn solid.

[gweimer]

I have always considered the '90s as really thin on lasting bands/music.  It was the decade when too many bands wanted to pretend that nothing had come before them, so a lot of music was void of any influences.  For me, the highlights might well have been No Doubt and Soundgarden.   There was that one album by that one band that was pretty much a perfect album, but I credit that to the producer, Butch Vig, and the mixer, Steve Farmer.  The singer checked out by his own hand, but that drummer has become a lasting presence and popular rock artist.   

If nothing else, Alice In Chains revived the art of outstanding vocal harmonies.

[nofi]

geez, get over the carol kaye stuff. i posted the whole page because there is always extra stuff someone might like. open culture is like that.

[slinkp]

Okay, now I feel that I should defend Radiyawnhead

I like that they have covered a lot of territory, mostly successfully in my view, from their initial melodramatic pseudo-grunge hit to acoustic ballads ("High and Dry") to quasi-psychedelic harmony-drenched 60s-pop ("Let Down") to EDM ("Idioteque") to atmospheric work driven by either Reichian polyrhythms ("Weird Fishes/Arpeggi") or more irregular grooves ("Bloom").  I like that they are by turns both very melodic and catchy and aggressively experimental.

I like the way they are a band where every member brings something essential to the mix and they all take foreground and background roles as needed. It's not just the Thom Yorke show by any means. They have entered the relatively small group of bands with their original lineup 100% intact for several decades (almost three now).

Finally, I really like the bass player. Colin Greenwood is one of those guys that doesn't stand out to anybody who's not paying close attention but aside from being really solid, has tried a lot of different ideas all very much serving the song (I am especially fond of the way he finds simple grooves that contrast with the rest of the music and give it a new context, like the stuttering 3-note rhythm that goes throughout "Airbag" and the counterpoint riff that repeats endlessly through "How to Disappear Completely", it's like a second train of thought that fits but doesn't fit.)

[gearHed289]

I thought the 90s were bad until the 2000s got here! Having said that, my 13 YO daughter and some of her friends are totally into 90s stuff, and now I'm being reminded of the stuff I DID like - RHCP, AIC, NIN, Filter... Also (not on her radar) Type O Negative, KMFDM... There might be more...