Society Owes Me A Gen-X Podcast: The 90s

This glorious Brighton band burst onto the scene with their explosive folk-punk collection of protest songs back in 91, and the album is still as fresh as ever more than 30 years on.  We reacquaint ourselves with 'The Levs' and unearth the initial critical response, rivers (rivers, and more rivers) one reeking special delivery & political activism that continues to this day.  How many ways?  One Way!  Fight the power!

SOMAGXP gets the chance to take part in 'The Greatest Gen X Movie Tournament' hosted by the fab guys over at Project Gen X podcast.  We dig into our 'South' bracket and it gets tense for 'May Movie Madness' - Fight Club, Grosse Pointe Blank, Trainspotting, SLC Punk, Breakfast Club, Wayne's World, Say Anything and Party Girl... sparks fly!  Once we whittle it down to two, you can hear us debate the rest with the tournament's other participants - Gen X Mixtape, Gen X Grown Up and of course Project Gen X.  Let the games begin!

Lenny K is our subject today, as we take a look at his biggest and most memorable 90s hits, and all folks he brings along with him.  Talking Kravitz means discussing David Bowie, Johnny Depp, Nicole Kidman, Nile Rodgers, Steven Tyler, racism in television and so much more!  He just wants to let Love rule so if you believe and wanna go his way, fly away (into the sky, so very high) with SOMAGXP right now.  It's all love.

We take your back to the (concrete) streets of LA circa to sample (much) the (rappers) delights of Jurassic 5’s 1998 LP, J5. We dig into the prehistoric roots of these alt hip hip dinosaurs, harking back to the Good Life, good vibes, the life and times of Henry Mancini, via boney chicken wings and dirty sex ponds.

We just want a Bit Part of this legendary album from Evan and the gang - the hazy summer of '92 with nothing but MTV News and Sky mag to glean info from.  Every track is a tiny masterpiece, not flashy or pretentious but melodic, poetic and iconic.  We go through the tracks and drop some info on back stories plus Courtney, Suzy, Juliana and Polly - and our new fave website, Shagtree.com.  

Hello…. it’s 1998 calling! yep, this week we‘re talking about Hello Nasty,  the epic fifth studio album by the Boys Beastie. Also some chatter about prehistoric Fruit Loop-eating birds, African dinger instruments, and the whys and wherefores of consuming warm chicken nuggets and other substances found on the floor.

We return to Grosse Point, Michigan for this soundtrack treat from 1997.  Who else but Joe Strummer could have put together this delight? Faith No More!  Violent Femmes!  Guns N' Roses!  The Specials!  The Clash!  The (English) Beat!  This belter of an OST takes us to the Rock Against Racism concerts, 'legal issues' and behaviour that almost makes Martin Blank look like one of the good guys.

'There is Nothing Left to Lose' was Taylor Hawkins' first Foo Fighters album, and we honour his contribution and the band's third album in this episode.  Inevitably we also get side-tracked by 90s festival tales, bad behaviour and Courtney Love.  

It's 1993.  Ms Phair bursts on to the world music scene, takes on all the Chicago rock scene guys - and The Rolling Stones! - and plays them at their own game.  Liz rocks! Liz rolls! Liz laughs in the face of girls being just groupie good time objects for the male bands, and decided instead to pick up a guitar herself and challenge all the Chicago scene stereotypes with her own album.  This is that album.  We talk everything about the audacious lady and how this album's success was as big a shock to her as it was to everyone else.

Working class Britpop heroes Pulp sealed their legend status in our hearts in 1995 with this epic album - and demonstrating a whole other side of the North with their gritty wit and Jarvis' daring and spontaneous antics.  We dig in to their impressive tenure as Sheffield's arty pop good guys with their sharp and stinging commentary on class inequality and doing that fabulously 90s thing, trying to level the social playing field.  Also in this ep - rando chat involving octopus carpaccio and what to do with your leftover MacDonald's ketchup packets.