Mid 1990s Music
I'm not sure how to really start this posting, so I'll just jump right in: we could be missing out on some of the better music of our short life-times. Assuming that anyone who is reading this is my age, that means anywhere from the early 1980s up until now. But the era in which I am specifically pointing out is the mid 1990s.
I remember getting my first radio sometime around 1991 or 1992. It was a dual-tape deck that had a headphone jack, stereo or mono selector, and was made by Craig. It gave me my first taste of freedom: I could listen to whatever was on the radio whenever I wanted. Of course I was completely unaware of how many genres there were or all of the politics and big money behind the industry. All that mattered was that I could have a double-sided tape full of music for as much as pack of blank casettes cost.
A few years later - in 1995 or so - a friend let me borrow Weezer's blue album for a week or two. From the first time I listened to it, I thought it was the greatest album I've ever heard. It still ranks as one of my top 10 albums despite hearing hundreds of other albums since. The point here is that this sparked my interest in a specific genre. Local rock stations became what I frequently tuned to (101.1, 88.7, and a short-lived 105.7).
There were two other events which were probably critical to my music taste (or lack thereof), both of which happened right about the same time. Our family finally got the Internet in late 2000. Know what else was also peaking at that time? The original Napster. This meant I could just search up something I heard on the radio and - hopefully - have access to many other of that artist's titles.
This is what I did somewhat frequently when I was driving somewhere listening to the other big breakthrough: college radio. WHFR (Henry Ford Community College) and CJAM (University of Winsdor) were two stations that I could only pick up in whatever car I was driving, but had no luck listening to when I was at home. From here I found out about such bands as Starflyer 59, Built to Spill, Death Cab for Cutie, Braid and Hey Mercedes, Sunny Day Real Estate, and others.
When meeting new people in college or online one of the first questions usually asked was, what music do you like? People started rattling off not just the bands that I had but also stuff from the 1980s. Bands like The Smiths, The Cure, and KMFDM started popping up due to older siblings pushing it on them or due to listening flashback blocks of programming on local rock stations.
I think that once you learned that there was more stuff out there, you immediately went back and tried to find stuff you had heard at one point and get more of it. You basically keep going further and further back to get stuff you might've missed. Except for when you first came of age, in the early to mid 1990s. You lived through this period and actually thought yourself as being cognitive during it. I mean, you had stacks of blank casettes filled with miscellaneous songs with DJs talking over the first five and last five seconds. So why would you go back and listen to this stuff again?
Such it is as I have discovered. I've liked a few bands that probably peaked during this time but I haven't put all of them together until a recent posting on craigslist where some chick mentioned her favorite Archers of Loaf song.
In the cut below there's a bunch of videos by the following artists: Archers of Loaf, Jawbox, Neutral Milk Hotel, Red House Painters, Sunny Day Real Estate.
"Lowest Part is Free" by Archers of Loaf:
"Web in Front" by Archers of Loaf:
"Savory" by Jawbox
"Iodine" by Jawbox
"Song Against Sex" by Neutral Milk Hotel
"Oh Comely" by Neutral Milk Hotel
"Katy Song" by Red House Painters
"In Circles" by Sunny Day Real Estate
"Faces in Disguise" by Sunny Day Real Estate
I remember getting my first radio sometime around 1991 or 1992. It was a dual-tape deck that had a headphone jack, stereo or mono selector, and was made by Craig. It gave me my first taste of freedom: I could listen to whatever was on the radio whenever I wanted. Of course I was completely unaware of how many genres there were or all of the politics and big money behind the industry. All that mattered was that I could have a double-sided tape full of music for as much as pack of blank casettes cost.
A few years later - in 1995 or so - a friend let me borrow Weezer's blue album for a week or two. From the first time I listened to it, I thought it was the greatest album I've ever heard. It still ranks as one of my top 10 albums despite hearing hundreds of other albums since. The point here is that this sparked my interest in a specific genre. Local rock stations became what I frequently tuned to (101.1, 88.7, and a short-lived 105.7).
There were two other events which were probably critical to my music taste (or lack thereof), both of which happened right about the same time. Our family finally got the Internet in late 2000. Know what else was also peaking at that time? The original Napster. This meant I could just search up something I heard on the radio and - hopefully - have access to many other of that artist's titles.
This is what I did somewhat frequently when I was driving somewhere listening to the other big breakthrough: college radio. WHFR (Henry Ford Community College) and CJAM (University of Winsdor) were two stations that I could only pick up in whatever car I was driving, but had no luck listening to when I was at home. From here I found out about such bands as Starflyer 59, Built to Spill, Death Cab for Cutie, Braid and Hey Mercedes, Sunny Day Real Estate, and others.
When meeting new people in college or online one of the first questions usually asked was, what music do you like? People started rattling off not just the bands that I had but also stuff from the 1980s. Bands like The Smiths, The Cure, and KMFDM started popping up due to older siblings pushing it on them or due to listening flashback blocks of programming on local rock stations.
I think that once you learned that there was more stuff out there, you immediately went back and tried to find stuff you had heard at one point and get more of it. You basically keep going further and further back to get stuff you might've missed. Except for when you first came of age, in the early to mid 1990s. You lived through this period and actually thought yourself as being cognitive during it. I mean, you had stacks of blank casettes filled with miscellaneous songs with DJs talking over the first five and last five seconds. So why would you go back and listen to this stuff again?
Such it is as I have discovered. I've liked a few bands that probably peaked during this time but I haven't put all of them together until a recent posting on craigslist where some chick mentioned her favorite Archers of Loaf song.
In the cut below there's a bunch of videos by the following artists: Archers of Loaf, Jawbox, Neutral Milk Hotel, Red House Painters, Sunny Day Real Estate.
"Lowest Part is Free" by Archers of Loaf:
Click to view"Web in Front" by Archers of Loaf:
"Savory" by Jawbox
"Iodine" by Jawbox
"Song Against Sex" by Neutral Milk Hotel
"Oh Comely" by Neutral Milk Hotel
"Katy Song" by Red House Painters
"In Circles" by Sunny Day Real Estate
"Faces in Disguise" by Sunny Day Real Estate