Remember This Song? #4. that dog. - "He's Kissing Christian"

that dog.

"He's Kissing Christian"

Totally Crushed Out!

Some years removed from the 90s, I find myself looking back at the bands of the 90s and examining their legacy. Generally speaking, they fall into one of the following categories:

Then-And-Always Revered: Usually saved for bands that broke up before they had a chance to suck.
Example: Nirvana

Turns Out You Were Pretty Good: For bands that never got their due in the 90s, but are revered now.
Examples: Guided By Voices, Neutral Milk Hotel, Archers of Loaf

You Should Have Quit While You Were Ahead: Bands that have tarnished their legacies by putting out crap, heartless records in an attempt to stay relevant, but end up becoming caricatures of what they originally were.
Examples: Weezer, Green Day, The Smashing Pumpkins

We Actually Liked This Once?: Bands that sucked then, but we were too _____ to realize it at the time. Probably into some girl that liked them.
Examples: Everclear, Goo Goo Dolls, Offspring

Then there's a littany of bands who don't really have much of a legacy, since they never reached a high level of popularity to be thought about 15 years later.

Then there's that dog.

Formed in LA in 1991, that dog. were an A&R rep's wet dream in the 90s: three cute girls singing pop songs about crushes and lost love complete with multi-part vocal harmonies and loud guitars. They even had a violin player. Often described as the female version of Weezer, that dog. never gained the following their male counterparts did. This was partly due to DGC Records' failure to give the record the support it deserved: that dog. should have been the next Veruca Salt in terms of chart success. However, this is also partly due to their more obtuse style of songwriting, one that figures heavily on dissonance in their chord progressions.



It was this juxtaposition of atonality with extremely harmonized vocals and heavily distorted guitars with a violin as a lead instrument that made that dog. one of the more interesting bands of the 90s, and "He's Kissing Christian" one of the more unusual singles during its time.

Released during that magical Summer of 1995, that "He's Kissing Christian" managed to find any airplay at all was pretty special. Alanis Morissette's massive crossover career had just started and "You Oughta Know" seemed to filling the female rock artist quota and then some. Throw in Elastica's "Stutter", Garbage's "Vow" and the little airplay Jen Trynin's "Better Than Nothing" got, and there was no room for that dog. and their loud little quiet song about having a crush on a gay man, even though they were god-damned adorable. Lead singer Anna Waronker was so petite (and still is), the white SG she plays in the video makes her look like a child. This of course in no way detracts from her musicianship, but only adds to what should have been their monumental appeal in 1995.

that dog. would go on to have more greater success with their 1997 album Retreat From the Sun and it's single, "Never Say Never". While that album is rock-solid and their most accessible, it doesn't have the singularity in theme and vision that made Totally Crushed Out! such an cohesive record. Unfortunately, while their legacy deserves to be in that second grouping listed above, with GBV and Archers of Loaf, they won't ever reach the wide appeal that those other bands did, even after their career was long over. However, after only three records, they never had the chance to ruin the great body of work they left behind.

In other words, don't be sad that it's over, be happy that it happened at all. Which is a sentiment that dog. would have probably gotten behind.

Whatever.

Can't Get This Stuff No More #1. - The Aeroplane Flies High

In the entirety of rock history, there are few bands who have been as prolific as The Smashing Pumpkins. Their 1993 album Siamese Dream was huge, and hugely revelatory for impressionable 14-year-olds. Imagine our happiness when only a year later we got another Smashing Pumpkins album, the rarities collection Pisces Iscariot. Then, a year later, ANOTHER album, this time a DOUBLE. It would have been too much, had it not all been amazing.

As successful as Siamese Dream was, Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was even bigger, bolstered by the popularity of the singles "Bullet With Butterfly Wings", "1979", "Zero", "Tonight, Tonight" and "Thirty-Three". The album was definitely one of the high points of the 1990s, not only in its scope and scale, but also in the sheer enormity of it. It was inescapable.

So for the band to put out ANOTHER release just a year later, with 28 new songs, they were simultaneously pretentious, presumptuous and genius.

The Aeroplane Flies High, in true Smashing Pumpkins grandeur, was a collection of expanded versions of the aforementioned singles from Melon Collie, each with it's own theme. The harder songs were on the "Zero" disc, the new wave-y stuff on the "1979" disc, the grandiose stuff on the "Tonight, Tonight" disc. All 5 were packaged (with a 44 page booklet containing lyrics, photos and a complete Smashing Pumpkins discography) in a retro box made to look like a 1960s carrying case for 45s.

 Look how retro!

For a band to do this today would be near impossible - there's not enough radio, television and magazine support, and there is currently no rock band popular enough that could move this much product, as terribly consumerist as that sounds. The only thing that comes close is Teargarden By Kaleidyscope, a 44-song opus that is being released for free on the internet, one song at a time over several years. The band? The Smashing Pumpkins.

Back to Aeroplane, the set is truly remarkable just in the sheer amount of material included. For a band to have released 55 songs in a little over 2 years was astounding; to put out another half as many a year later was unheard of in the 1990s. Even Pearl Jam, a prolific band in their own right, only put out 37 songs in their most productive 3 years; Nirvana put out 55 the whole time Kurt Cobain was alive.

 Don't act like your not going to buy it.

Not only is their quantity here, there's also quality. "The Boy", a James Iha-sung song from the "1979" disc, is a breezy little piece of power-pop that would have been a single for most of their contemporaries. That it got released as a B-side here speaks to the greatness of the band at the time. "Pennies" from the "Zero" disc is another standout track, and is a forebear to the future of the band, particularly songs like "Try, Try, Try" from their 2000 album, Machina.

The "Tonight, Tonight" disc is particularly engrossing, with "Medelia of the Gray Skies", a companion piece to "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans" off of Melon Collie, and "Rotten Apples", a song that's as beautiful as the lyrics are desperate.

The "Bullet" disc contains one Pumpkins song, "...Said Sadly", a country-ish duet between James Iha and fellow Chicago-an, Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt. The other tracks are made up of covers, mostly from the late 70s and early 80s - The Cars, The Cure, Alice Cooper, Blondie and Missing Persons. Their cover of The Cars "You're All I've Got Tonight" is a standout, as the raw, ferocious guitars and an unrelenting caveman stomp (equal parts drums and friends pounding their feet in the studio) turn the new-wave synth-driven original into Queen-sized stadium rock.

The "Thirty-Three" disc is where all the odds and ends ended up, which oddly makes it the most representative of the Pumpkins' work at the time. "The Last Song", no doubt a contender for Melon Collie's closer at one point, features Billy's father on piano and is a perfect companion for the sweeping Mellon Collie (forgive the pun) of "Thirty-Three". As gentle as "The Last Song" is, "Transformer" is raucous, sounding more like "Zero" than anything else. The James Iha-sung "The Bells" (featuring Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger) and a cover of the standard "My Blue Heaven" are also representative of the Pumpkins' softer side, but it's the track from which the collection derives its title, "The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right)" that most truly encapsulates what the Smashing Pumpkins were in 1996. Beginning with some random Billy-esque spoken word ("I never really liked sunny days...the black wings just reach out to me over a distance") over a strummed clean guitar riff, the song quickly explodes with the same riff, with all the power of the Pumpkins' guitarsenal, then goes on for a full 8:31, with meandering solo and the repeated line "disconnected by your smile". It's this juxtaposition of doom and glee, in its epic form, that perfectly sums up the era for the band.

Nowadays, the set is only available online and in record shops, where you'll inevitably pay too much for it, considering that every song ever recorded is available for download on the internet, whether at a cost or for free. Whereas it originally retailed for around $30, a mint copy of the set now fetches close to $200 on Amazon, and used copies in good condition go anywhere from $40 to $140.

That is, if you can find a buyer. Used record stores are quickly disappearing and the most common response from the 13-23 set would be, "I think my dad listened to them" before turning back to their X-Box and upping the volume on the new Neon Trees or whatever stupid crap they listen to.

Whatever.

Cover Art #2. Sonic Youth - "Superstar"

For whatever the reason, alternative rock bands spent much of the 90s trying to convince their younger fans that the music of the 1970s was actually cool, and not the K-Tel, disco schlock that we so closely associated with that decade. Tributes to Carol King, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and at least 4 different compilations were released, all with 90s bands putting their own unique spin on classic songs of the AM era. But us kids knew: that music sucked.

Not helping was the fact that few of us actually saw the 1970s and even fewer of us were of an age to remember anything but its waning moments. There was no nostalgia for what we thought of only as our parents' music (or the music of our parents' younger siblings), and no interest in hearing it, except for, ironically, the classic rock of the 70s that informed so much of 90s alternative (like Led Zeppelin). So when our favorite bands would get together and insist that we should listen to The Carpenters, our young brains could barely handle the dichotomy: on one hand, it's the fucking Carpenters. They're lame. On the other hand, Sonic Youth, Cracker, Grant Lee Buffalo and Matthew Sweet are telling us to listen. Who were we to argue?


Karen and The Carpenters

At the time, I wanted to like The Carpenters. At least, I thought I did. After all, most of my favorite bands recorded their music, so how bad could it be? To an angst-filled 15-year-old that was listening to as much White Zombie as he was The Cranberries, it was terrible. To me, it was soft, didn't have distortion and contained exactly none of the two emotions I felt most at the time: rage and lust. However...Sonic Youth. Now that was a Carpenters I could get into.


Sonic and The Youths

Ironically for me, Sonic Youth's version was probably the truest rendition to the Carpenters' version on the album and definitely the most loving. The band's inspiration/interest in The Carpenters was nothing new, having recorded "Tunic (Song for Karen)" for their 1990 album Goo. But what is really remarkable is how much the band was able to make it their own, while still retaining the spirit and tone of the version they were paying tribute to (as the song was not written by or for Richard and Karen Carpenter, but rather by Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett). All the trademark Sonic Youth noise is present, including feedback, random echo and muted, distant vocals. The video made for the song, directed by Dave Markey, apes the crossfades and soft lighting of musical performances on 1970s variety television and even includes some shots of bass player Kim Gordon hammering on the drums, as Karen Carpenter often did, as Karen was actually a drummer. This was pure 90s: an alternative rock band doing justice to a cheesy song with an ironic video, simultaneously serious and tongue-in-cheek. Though, Richard Carpenter doesn't like this version, but what the hell does he know?

Though much can be said of the legacy of Sonic Youth, it's easily boiled down to unappreciated geniuses that never let commerce get in the way of their art. Sadly, the legacy of The Carpenters is forever tied to Karen Carpenter's premature death from the side-effects of anorexia (for those who haven't seen Todd Haynes' Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, do. It's great.). But over time, as my rage lessened and my lust squelched, I learned to appreciate the Carpenters and the other unsung heroes of 1970s soft rock. There was great songwriting during that time, and I encourage everyone to give it a shot. It doesn't suck nearly as much as we thought it did.

Whatever.

Remember This Song? #3. Aerosmith - "Eat the Rich"

Aerosmith

"Eat the Rich"

Get a Grip

Up to this point, I've been focused on alternative music from the 90s, but after hearing this song today, I thought it'd be interesting to take a look at something slightly more mainstream.



Years before Aerosmith were best known for being "the band the guy from American Idol was in", they were actually a relevant, popular rock band. Which in 1993 was pretty special, given that they were 20 years into their career. Like Pearl Jam are today. Wow.

However, instead of re-releasing their entire back catalog and holding a gigantic birthday party for themselves, Aerosmith did what they knew best and made a record. A fairly decent record that got a lot of airplay. Unheard of, given their age. These were the same music consumers that shunned Guns N' Roses for being old and stodgy, and their first album had come out only 6 years prior.

"Eat the Rich" is the collaboration of Tyler, guitarist Joe Perry and Jim Vallance, who was a professional songwriter that had written "Rag Doll", "The Other Side", and "Deuces Are Wild" from the Beavis & Butthead Experience album.

It was a different time.

Easily the most rock of the singles from Get a Grip, "Eat the Rich" features a signature Joe Perry guitar riff backed by some pretty Dave Grohl-esque drumming from Joey Kramer, who is really pounding the shit out of the skins, for an Aerosmith song.

But this was a new Aerosmith, a cool, sexy one as their record label would have you believe. They wore black, didn't button their shirts and looked pissed off. And it worked, as Get a Grip sold over 7 million copies it's first 2 years of release.

"Eat the Rich" peaked at #5 on the Mainstream Rock chart, but was the album's least successful single, thanks to the mega-success of their video trilogy of "Cryin'", "Amazing" and "Crazy" in which Steven Tyler's daughter Liv and her friend Alicia Silverstone danced around in their underwear and teased Steven Dorff.

It was a different time, indeed.

Back to "Eat the Rich", as you can hear (and see) from the above video, Aerosmith (and/or their management) were trying hard to fit in with the current youth alternative movement. However, there's something hugely amiss with the song - its message. Aerosmith are hardly the first rock band to rally against the upper class, but at this point in their careers, Aerosmith were the upper class. They were probably the richest people they knew. So if the song's orders were to be carried out to their most literal interpretation, Aerosmith would be committing cannibalism, or even worse, self-cannibalism. That's just gross.

It's rare for a band to make it to the two decade mark, as Aerosmith did with the release of Get a Grip, but it's even more rare to be relevant at the time. U2 marked their 20th anniversary with the release of All That You Can't Leave Behind, their 2nd most successful album. R.E.M., however, released Around the Sun, an album I still haven't heard. So the success of this album, and this song, is fairly significant.

Unfortunately for "Eat the Rich", the song hasn't really aged well. It became a big live hit for the band, one they play constantly on tour, but when you hear it today, it sounds more dated than other songs released at the same time. Additionally, the lyrics are very much a 90's sentiment, as the Alternative Revolution was very much born out of a socioeconomic backlash and not just a artistic one. While these same anti-upper class feelings remain in less mainstream music, the popular music of today is more about assimilation when it comes to class struggle than rebellion.

Of course, the song's dated feel may be a psychological effect as well, since the members of Aerosmith are now SIXTY years old and no one ever made important, relevant rock music at that age.

But you don't have to, because you're still rich from back when you did.

Whatever.

90s Live Now - #2 Archers of Loaf

One of the main goals I have for this blog is to explore not only what the music (and other stuff) of the 90s meant to me then, but also what it means now. We're about 15 years removed from the peak of the Alternative Revolution, an interesting time to explore the legacy that this era has left behind. With a little bit of a history lesson, too.

Tonight, I saw a reunited Archers of Loaf, playing to a sold out crowd at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.

I knew little of Archers of Loaf back in the 90s; they had appeared on a few compilations and soundtracks (Mallrats and My So-Called Life among them), but I loved their 1993 hit "Web In Front". I use hit loosely, since it never got any airplay on any of the alternative stations I grew up with, but the song stands as their biggest single, and in my opinion, one of the best tracks of the 90s.

Archers of Loaf then.

Because of the derth of new bands in the 1990s, it was easy for a band whose music wasn't as accessible as most to get lost in the shuffle. Bands like Pavement, Superchunk and Guided By Voices weren't irrelevant, but hardly got the attention that more radio-friendly groups like Everclear and The Smashing Pumpkins did.

However, now that we've put some miles between then and now, it's easier to see what the better music of the decade actually was. As much as I like Everclear's Sparkle and Fade album, it feels more like a guilty pleasure now than it did when I bought it in 1995. Perhaps it's the indie/hipster aesthetic that came with the emergence of The Strokes, or perhaps what became of Everclear post-Sparkle that has caused this shame. I'd like to think it was more of the latter, as their albums got progressively worse and worse. Not to pick on Everclear, but to me they represent the most middle-of-the-road of mid-90s alt rock. Them and Better Than Ezra.

So the question becomes, would Everclear be more highly regarded if they had stopped after their third album? Hard to say, but it certainly didn't hurt Archers of Loaf in retrospect.

Which brings us back to tonight. Archers broke up in 1998, but have recently reunited (obviously) and are touring (still obvious). As evidenced by the crowd tonight, Archers legacy was never tarnished by increased attempts at the mainstream in order to make money, and has instead held intact as a respected and beloved group that is equal parts experimental noise as melodic rock.

Archers of Loaf tonight.

Tonight, the melodic rock side of Archers won out, with the rock weighing heavier into the equation. the band took the stage and tore into "Audiowhore" from their 1994 EP Vs. The Greatest of All Time. They continued the set with "Lowest Part is Free!" from the same disc.

As the show continued, I was surprised at how many songs I had managed to find a spot in my mental jukebox. And I wasn't the only one. When the band launched into 1995's "Harnessed In Slums" (their 2nd biggest hit), nearly the whole crowd was singing along, something that only increased as the night went on. By the time they played "Web In Front", around the 40 minute mark of their 45 minute set, the audience was raucous, yelling back at the band with fervor.

One thing I've noticed while seeing these reunited bands is that they don't show any signs of wear or age (except for The Cars, but since they were defunct for the 90s, they won't find their way onto this blog). In most cases, they're a better band than they were back in the day. With age comes wisdom and learning from your mistakes. Just like Buffalo Tom, Archers were tight and played with enthusiasm, something that is no doubt a by-product of not having to play the same songs night in and night out for the last 15 years.

I've often said that I think bands should resolve to stay together for a decade. Put out as much or as little music as you want, but after 10 years you have to make a choice: break up or tour only as a nostalgia act. There's always exceptions, but a band's creative output suffers greatly around the decade mark. Think of Weezer if they had stopped at Maladroit (we'd still have the green album, but that would be the worst of it). Or Metallica if the Black album was the last they'd put out. Their legacies would not be tarnished and their fans would not have to wish they had the "old Weezer" back. As I do so very often.

So because of their breakup, which came as a result of creative stagnation, Archers of Loaf never suffered through the post-decade garbage years and have instead re-emerged as relevant examples of the highest quality alternative music released in the 90s and can still put on an exciting - and cool - show.

Whatever.

15 Years Ago Today #1 - 6/3/96

What a difference 5 years makes. Not only were none of the top artists from the same week in 1991 in the top 10 of 1996, with the exception of Soundgarden, none of the groups below had even released an album by 1991. (You could exclude Alanis Morissette as well, since she was making manufactured pop in 1991 instead of manufactured Adult Alternative.) A big difference from just 5 years prior, when R.E.M., Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello and the Violent Femmes were already 10+ years into their careers. Young people were important as artists, not just as a demographic with expendable income.

Even more incredible is the fact that, save for R.E.M., none of the chart stars of June of 91 had even released relevant material since that time. While some would argue that the same kind of chart fleetingness is present today, the difference is the cultural "revolution" of the 1990s brought forth more new artists than there had been in years, instead of short attention spans.

The Cranberries were on top with their single "Salvation", a far cry from their first single, "Linger", or their enormous hit off of their second album, No Need to Argue, "Zombie". Where as "Linger" recalled the breezy pop of The Sundays, and "Zombie" the heavy sludge associated with Seattle, "Salvation" had more in common with the new wave and ska sounds of contemporaries Elastica and No Doubt, respectively. That was one thing that was great about The Cranberries - you never felt like you were hearing the same song twice. Unless, of course, you were hearing the same song twice, which was a likely occurrence during the peak of "Zombie"'s popularity.

Despite the more kinetic sound, the song fell flat with its anti-drug message, and was not nearly as effective as the anti-terrorism slant of "Zombie". Which is surprising, given the first lines of the song:

To all those people doing lines, don't do it, don't do it.

If there is a more effective anti-drug message, I have yet to hear it.



Warning: Watching this video will no doubt bring on a heavy wave of nostalgia for the time that there was music on MTV, videos were important and may bring back some certain unhealthy feelings for Dolores O'Riordan.

Something else notable about June of 1996 was the prevalence of female artists and female fronted-bands. Besides The Cranberries, Tracy Bonham and Alanis Morisette made the Top 10, but the aforementioned No Doubt and Elastica were also getting a lot of airplay, as was Garbage, Hole, Magnapop, Sheryl Crow, Jewel, The Goops, Letters to Cleo, Juliana Hatfield, Lush, Fiona Apple, and Veruca Salt. Not to mention the fact that 73% of bands of the time had female bass players.

1. The Cranberries - "Salvation"
2. Tracy Bonham - "Mother Mother"
3. Soundgarden - "Pretty Noose"
4. Dishwalla - "Counting Blue Cars"
5. Bush - "Machinehead"
6. Dave Matthews Band - "Too Much"
7. The Verve Pipe - "Photograph"
8. Oasis - "Champagne Supernova"
9. Goldfinger - "Here In Your Bedroom"
10.Alanis Morissette - "You Learn"

Whatever.

20 Years Ago Today #1 - 6/3/91

Before the Alternative Revolution (led by Grunge, followed by Alt Rock, with Pop Punk and Ska bringing up the rear), when there was still such a thing as Progressive music, there was just Alternative. Or Modern Rock. Or College Radio. Whatever it was called, the Alternative music of the very early 90s bore little semblance to the raucous cacophony heralded by Nirvana.

On top of the chart was Elvis Costello's "The Other Side of Summer", a fairly lackluster track that pays tribute to The Beach Boys. The only problem is, British artists don't make good surf music. It's not an easy thing to pull off, but being from a from a place where people actually surf certainly helps.

All in all, June of 1991 was fairly anemic, with only The La's "There She Goes" and Siouxsie & The Banshee's "Kiss Them For Me" real classics. However, a strong case could be made for The Violent Femme's "American Music" as it is almost certainly gracing the front page of a screenplay in a desk somewhere.

Billboard's Most Popular Alternative songs from 6/3/11:

1. Elvis Costello - "The Other Side Of Summer"
2. Joe Jackson - "Obvious Song"
3. The La's - "There She Goes
4. Julian Cope - "Beautiful Love"
5. Violent Femmes - "American Music"
6. Electronic - "Get The Message"
7. The Farm - "All Together Now"
8. R.E.M. - "Texarkana"
9. Siouxsie and The Banshees - "Kiss Them For Me"
10.EMF - "I Believe"

Whatever.