Dig Me Out: 90s & 00s Rock

Rusty's 1995 debut album Fluke pulls off a neat trick, sound both of the times and yet somehow ticking the boxes of previous generations. There is the swampy garage blues of "Warning" that Royal Trux or Beck would appreciate as much as ZZ Top of Rory Gallagher. There is a blast of hardcore-ish punk on the aptly titled "Punk" and nods from everyone to the Stooges, Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr. and The Replacements across the record. Separated, the guitars might sound too gnarly or the drums to lo-fi, but the overall combination mostly finds the sweet spot.

Song In This Episode:

Intro - Groovy Dead

13:22 - Misogyny

18:07 - K.D. Lang

19:52 - Warning

23:50 - Punk

Outro - California

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Best known for their string of mid-90s hit singles that smoothed off the harder edges of what we once called alternative rock, Collective Soul returned in 1997 under difficult circumstances with Disciplined Breakdown. A legal battle with their ex-manager lead to a canceled tour and recording the record on their own. Thanks to Ed Roland's tenured history as a musician and songwriter, the band barely misses a step combining pop-friendly melodies with rock arrangements and sounds, even taking some unexpected detours that work ("Link") and don't work ("Full Circle").

Songs in this Episode:

Intro - Precious Declaration

25:02 - Disciplined Breakdown

34:51 - Link

40:18 - Crowded Head

Outro - Listen

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While the double album (two vinyl LPs) has long been the medium for big-thinking artists from Bob Dylan to Pink Floyd, introducing cassettes and compact discs in the 1980s changed the format length and what actually qualified as a double album. In the 1990s, artists again began pushing the limits of the dominant medium, as evidenced by double album releases over two compact discs not only by 90s rock bands like The Smashing Pumpkins or Wilco, but with hip-hop, electronic and others expanding their releases like from The Notorious B.I.G., Nine Inch Nails, The Orb, Tupac Shakur, and others. 

Songs in this Episode:

Intro - We're In This Together by Nine Inch Nails (from The Fragile)

21:26 - Bodies by The Smashing Pumpkins (from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness)

30:06 - Outta Mind (Outta Sight) by Wilco (from Being There)

46:40 - Brown Paper Bag (Single Remix) by Roni Size - Reprazent (from New Forms)

56:20 - The Sound by Swans (from Soundtracks For The Blind)

Outro - Little Fluffy Clouds by The Orb (from The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld)

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The moniker "jam bands" had been around for decades before their 90s counterparts in Phish, Rusted Root, and String Cheese Incident brought their own takes out on the road. Athens, Georgia based Widespread Panic draw on the southern sounds of The Allman Brothers Band as well as other guitar heroes like Eric Clapton and J. J. Cale to craft their guitar and keyboard driven sounds. The trick with jam bands, regardless of decade, has always been converting the energy and improvisation of the live performance into a crafted studio product. On 1997's Bombs and Butterflies, Widespread Panic smartly avoids overly long passages for trimmed down and concise songwriting.

Songs in this Episode:

Intro - Radio Child

17:18 - Aunt Avis

19:06 - You Got Yours

41:18 - Glory

52:32 - Hope In A Hopeless World

Outro - Gradle

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Plenty of bands messed around with a lo-fi sound in the 90s, sometimes to euphoric effects, sometimes not so much. Swell dabbles: a white noise fractured guitar lead here, a flat acoustic guitar riff there. But on Too Many Days Without Thinking, they are merely small pieces of a more layered puzzle. Had it been played on Les Paul's through big amps, the album would have sounded very familiar, so dialing back the noise and putting it to sparing use helps elevate the band above their 90s rock peers.

Songs in this Episode:

Intro - Make Mine You

14:27 - When You Come Over

19:08 - Throw the Wine

22:36 - What I Always Wanted

29:01 - (I Know) The Trip

Outro - F*ck Even Flow

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Well-regarded music historians often explain the 90s explosion of alternative music into the mainstream boiled down as the rise of Seattle grunge, the So-Cal pop-punk sound going national, and the movements that followed like the swing revival, electronica, nu-metal, and more. But lost in that simplicity is the more difficult and (quite frankly) weirder starting point of the decade, where bands were mixing and moshing across a spectrum of hard rock, funk, and more. A prime example is the one-and-done band Hash, who released their self-titled album on Elektra in 1993. The band sounds comfortable mixing Red Hot Chili Peppers-style funk with Living Colour-esque swagger and shredding with touches of 60s sitar-spiked psychedelia, all topped with big melodies and harmonies. It's a talented if at times overcooked stew, but finding bands that can play in this many sandboxes and maintain a level of quality is few and far between, even if some of the big swings are misses.

Songs In This Episode:

Intro - Twilight Ball

17:09 - In The Grass

22:08 - Ghetto

27:58 - Mr. Hello

29:36 - Traveling

Outro - American Chorus

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Lots of bands have brothers, but how about two pairs of brothers? Perhaps growing up with a musical sibling is the reason the Kerns and Dahle brothers are able to crafty such a hooky and satisfying album of power-pop tinged rock on their third and final released as The Age of Electric - 1996's Make A Pest A Pet. Along with fellow Canadian 90s rock bands like Sloan, Odds, and Zumpano, TAOE bring their own take to the nebulous power-pop genre, bashing through three-minute guitar lead bursts without sacrificing dynamics or melody. 

Songs In This Episode:

Intro - Remote Control

18:56 - Mad at the World

21:34 - Nothing Happens

29:35 - Don't Wreck It

Outro - Unity or Grenadine

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Launched in 1991 by Perry Farrell as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction, Lollapalooza immediately became the defining musical tour of the decade. Inspired by the UK festivals like Reading, Farrell concocted an underground music celebration based on the bands he wanted to see and tour with - Siouxsie and the Banshees, Living Colour, Nine Inch Nails, Ice-T & Body Count, Butthole Surfers, Rollins Band, Violent Femmes, and Fishbone. After it proved a success, the tour exploded in size until, but seemed to lose steam at point through the decade, as the once groundbreaking festival became another opportunity to chase trends and showcase already hugely popular bands. We look back at each tour in the 90s, as well as compare it to the current incarnation as a corporate-driven destination festival in Chicago.

Songs in this Episode:

Intro - Smells Like Teen Spirit by Soundgarden (Nirvana cover, 7/22/92)

Outro - Sabotage by Beastie Boys (8/6/94)

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Of all the bands to release big albums in 1994, there may be none bigger than Live's sophomore album Throwing Copper. In the studio heavyweights like Jerry Harrison (production), Lou Giordano (engineering), and Tom Lord-Alge (mixing) helmed the album that prepared the band for multiple radio singles, MTV hits, album sales around the globe. It also helped that they leaned into their successful influences, channeling U2, R.E.M., and Pearl Jam without coming across as imitators. Revisiting an album that was everywhere for over a year (it took fifty-two weeks to reach number one, the third-longest ever), digging into the lesser-known album tracks reveals a band that could embrace simplistic fun as easily as dour universalism.

Songs in this Episode

Intro - All Over You

17:19 - Selling The Drama

22:11 - Stage

33:13 - Lightning Crashes

44:19 - Waitress

Outro - I Alone

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With vocals equal part sneer and sweet, supported by a thick and fuzzy bass, Moler is a little pop, a little punk, slightly grunge, and very interesting on their lone album from 1997, Golden Duck. The three-piece is at no loss for volume, cranking out over a dozen two and a half to four-minute gems that have plenty of attitude and energy. Lead singer and bassist Helen Cattanach, along with Julien Poulson on guitar and Steven Boyle on the drums, are a tight unit that only falters when the melodies don't shine, which happens a few times on the back half of an otherwise engaging album.

Songs on this Episode:

Intro - Mustang Base

11:35 - Pseudoephedrine

23:06 - I Do, I Do

31:39 - Warning Sign

Outro - Red Light Disco

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