What was it like to be a TP dude (or, the equally ubiquitous "bro") in 1993? Windows 3.1 had been released and people leaned towards it, causing IBM to post a huge loss. Clinton took office – great for the economy, bad for punk rock. In the mainstream buyers were enthralled by Ace of Base, A Tribe Called Quest and Faith Hill stormed onto the scene. Rap was at its peak with the 2nd-wave stars just beginning their acting careers. Underground hipster cred was maintained amongst tape-traders (yes, tape) by passing around "Shut Up Little Man" while those less-in-the-know settled for Jerky Boys.

The apparent center of the universe was now Seattle and tie-dyes were exchanged for plaid on frat rows across the nation (backwards baseball caps worked with either). As a "rock fan", people now assumed you were into grunge. The cultural phenomena that was grunge can't be overestimated. Music trends rarely infiltrate the mass media as fully or as quickly as grunge. Everyone assumed everybody else was a participant and never has the world seen so many trend-gobbling poseurs as those that ran to the mall and snapped up discs by Alice in Chains, Mudhoney and the like.

Whether anyone truly enjoyed this music (or still does today) was pyrrhically irrelevant to the foregone conclusions of this ineluctable marketing construct. The speed at which it arrived fully formed would be part of the reason for its quick demise. No matter, there was a big new movement afoot. Call it slacker, Lo-fi, whatever, it was at it's soul, "pure indie". Several bands with cut-and-paste styles that released 4-track/demo-style recordings would soon emerge and "Lo-Fi" became a tag for a so-called movement that was not a centered or planned thing (hence the world "slack") but simply a reaction to grunge (which itself was not only corporate rock, it was 70s rehash).

It was a weird time in that bands that would have been kicking it underground in any other era were charting. Pearl Jam dropped Vs; U2 became one of the biggest acts in history with Zooropa. Crossovers: Breeders – Last Splash; Cracker – Kerosene Hat; Depeche Mode – Songs of Faith. As always, there was a healthier, true underground and lots of great titles coming out for those willing to look and listen.

---

20 Great 1993 LPs to Revisit:
APPLES – s/t. Actually more of an EP, these 6 songs are a classic entry in the low-fi canon. After a couple spins, this one turned me into a teen fan again, wondering "who are these guys?". I stopped short of standing outside their rehearsal and putting up posters on my wall. Seriously, I could not get the songs out of my head. It's not just their catchiness, it's the presentation as a whole; the little burps and stutters left in create an atmosphere perfectly in hand with the material. The EP is available on CD as the first six tracks of Science Faire though they're not presented exactly the same (they've been cleaned up, the lock-groove removed, EQ'ed, etc.). The impact is still there.
ASHTRAY BOY – The Honeymoon Suite. Jangle-pop made out of construction paper and stick glue. The glue that causes the tracks to stick in your head dries out fast; the cut-outs then show up unexpectedly when you're concentrating on something else. Kiwi-pop at its best from Randall Lee (Cannanes/Nice) with help from Liz Phair.
BAD RELIGION – Recipe for Hate. I'll forego the track-by-track analysis of why this is their best. Suffice to say this is the one with American Jesus, Portrait of Authority, Modern Day Catastrophists, etc. It's sad when this is not in the collection of someone who professes to love loud rock. Not just punk, indie, etc but rock. Coming after the lesser effort Generator and before their switch to a major label, it's hooky, potent, spry and contains nice little surprises beyond the three-chords-loud-and-fast genre. You will air guitar. Yes you will.
BOO RADLEYS – Giant Steps. Unheard in the US, this not only charted in the UK top 20, it was named album of the year by the NME. After the blazing Everything's Alright Forever, The B-rads dropped a sprawling piece that bridges dub, Britpop, sonic and indie (sometimes in one song). The songs range from the delicate to the angular, all while waving a Smiths flag. Little rock theatrical productions from pre-Radiohead prog-gaze.
BUFFALO TOM – [big red letter day]. Wow, this one really aged well. It could be released today to good reviews. It does have a certain adult contemporary sound – I can't imagine a teenager enjoying it. But college rock, yes. In fact that was the Tom's audience at the time. While this doesn't have all their best tracks (some are found on Let Me Come Over), it's got several of their best and is their most consistent overall release. The Tom created a unique, layered sound that is simultaneously soft/hard (see "Suppose").
BUTTHOLE SURFERS – Independent Worm Saloon. "We're a stupid band. We have stupid pictures. None of it makes sense. If it starts making sense than you have my permission to kick my ass. I'm not asking you, I'm telling you, kick it!" - Paul Leary. The Butts had released some highly inventive and unusual creations but one piece of carpet they hadn't vomited on was a real rock and roll album. This is it...or as close as this band came. In one of the strangest match-ups in history, they entered the studio with John Paul Jones and came out with the classic Leary riff "Who Was In My Room Last Night", rockers like "Wooden Song" & "Dancing Fool", weirdly fucked-up shit like "The Annoying Song", the straightforward power-pop "You Don't Know Me" and a country-ish banjo piece "The Ballad of Naked Man". Varied and entertaining, this is an institution kicking back and being a band.
COCTEAU TWINS – Four-Calendar Café. By this point, the band had become a worldwide touring outfit and working out those requirements (how to arrange and get their technically challenging sound across) coupled with Guthrie's unique production abilities yielded solid changes back in the studio. "Bluebeard", "Evangeline" and "Essence" are among the band's best and they're merely the standard tracks on this one. The band that invented the shoegaze sound and was the house band for the 4AD label still had something to say.
DINOSAUR JR – Where You Been. While everybody and their dog was sportin' the plaid, it was a seen-there-heard-that-no-thank-you concept for Mascis. Bucking the flow of the times, this is an album with something grunge missed: dynamics. Start to finish, this is probably the best overall Dino album with the best songwriting, temperament and playfulness. Not that it won't blow speaker cones.
FALL - Infotainment Scan. Another one of those surprising peaks in Smith's career, this one charted top 10 in the UK and was not only released in the US, it had the major label backing of Atlantic. It would have been typical of the irascible band to release an uneven stinker but this is their smoothest release: Fall for newcomers. Recording without a label, Smith paid for this one, laying it down at New Order's facility. In keeping with their nature, it wasn't a new direction as much as one-off. In most band's catalogs, the hit record is snapped up by the punters but is weak-to-awful in retrospect. However, the Fall are not most bands and Infotainment contains classics such as "Ladybird", "I'm Going to Spain" and "Paranoia Man in Cheap Sh*t Room". Course, quality and durability are nothing, if not a curse to this band and its relationship to labels/media/radio/tv; after this, the mainstream once again turned its back on The Fall Gruppe.
JEAN PAUL SARTRE EXPERIENCE – Bleeding Star. Actually, they're billed as JPS Experience on this outing. JPSE are another NZ pop experience intertwined with the whole Flying Nun thang (whose "clean" indie peaked in the 90s). Grunge had no truck in Christchurch and shoegaze musta come by slow boat: this is a direct reading of the style. Yet, like Psychocandy, just underneath is simple jangle pop of the kind that Flying Nun is known for. Distorted on top are swirls, paisley and a blunt lysergical solipsism that puts a spin on the genre.
LOUD FAMILY - Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things. I'm not sure why this wasn't released as a Game Theory LP - why Scott Miller decided to rename his project after a reality show (probably legal concerns). It is, for all purposes, the successor to 2 Steps from the Middle Ages. To preserve the continuity, sound collage clips from previous Game Theory tracks appear. If you don't know where the title comes from, you're probably quite young (note the title's origins are contemporaneous with the band name's origins). If you don't know what Game Theory sounded like, it's hard to describe this other than catchy power-pop with found sound and snippets that are like Pink Floyd with a sense of humor or Ween with a twee perspective. "Take me down to hallucination town".
LIZ PHAIR – Exile in Guyville. Yeah, it would be sad if our younger generation never heard this one. Scroll down to Breno's comments for this release.
ST. JOHNNY – High as a Kite. A batch of tiny-label vinyl singles and EPs make up this obscure gem. In keeping with early 90s sonic-noise genre, the songs are light/dark and feature layer upon layer of pop tonalities. What the John did different was combine elements of Portland (not necessarily Seattle) post-grunge. Think Dinosaur Jr meets Wipers produced by Ranaldo. At the height of grunge, bands like this got written off for being too much like Sonic Youth. Ironically, now that time has passed, this stuff sounds inventive and the others dated.
SMASHING PUMPKINS - Siamese Dream. I can respect this band once I separate the music from the mythos. After Breno's suggestion (see Breno's comments below) I found myself standing right in front of the stereo between the speakers. And I cranked it. To a certain extent, this is what Rock is supposed to be; the first two Pumpkin releases bring just enough punk/indie sensibilities to not be the Black Crowes or Linkin Park.
SUGAR – Beaster. This came to life, supposedly, as the outtakes from Copper Blue but, unlike that straightforward reading, Beaster is a snarling, unrepentent, cornered beast. Mould's best return to the assault he commonly mounted while in Hüsker Dü, it's a song cycle (in fact it's like one long song in parts) about being pissed off at someone (possibly an ex-lover) and then expressing that anger with Catholic imagery. It's more likely that Bob saw what he had and wisely set these songs aside from Copper Blue to make a song cycle that stands as Sugar's (and arguably Mould's) finest moment.
SUPERCHUNK – on the mouth. Their first honest start-to-finish LP creation put forth some issues they hadn't yet covered. Some of their best tracks are herein: Precision Auto, Package Thief, etc. Noted for their DIY ethics, it's as much metal as punk (as in metallic, not nümetal). It's dense, it's loud, it'll fill your dose. For Tension guess what I use?
27 VARIOUS – Fine. Another entry for the lost shoegaze classics boxset. Not wannabes, just a guy with the same tremolo box as Shields and sensibilities similar to the Brits (they were from Minneapolis). Actually recorded before Loveless had its impact, bad timing meant it was lost in the post-Loveless shuffle. Bad for them but great for those that like these kind of discoveries. Dream pop from a band whose roots are Soul Asylum, Hüskers, and the Mats.
VERSUS – Let's Electrify!. It's all here in the debut. The minor keys, the dense atmospherics, the dark hallways, the harmonics, the open-string sonics, the bright shifts. Importantly, the lyrics here are their best. People say X is the band that shoulda been huge. I say it's Versus. They were poised third behind Sonic Youth and YLT in the same sweepstakes/place/time but remained obscure (think Soul Asylum's position in Minneapolis if they hadn't their big hit). Everything succinct about Sonic Youth, everything stylistic abut Yo La Tengo, the mad strum of Wedding Present, with the detachment of VU. The Baluyuts designed sonically ultimate, jangle guitar bursts. Full title: Let's Electrify!...Shall We?
VERVE – A Storm in Heaven. It's not entirely uncommon - bands releasing their best work right out of the gate and then slowly imploding. While Verve's story is famed in rock annals, a lesser known fact (in the States at least) is that Urban Hymns is their weakest, not their best, which is this one. Let's see, 1993, they must have been strictly shoegaze? Nope, this is more akin to Spacemen 3 (or Loop) with symphonic/prog sensibilities and a background in Britpop. A young Thom Yorke ate this stuff up. A swirling, druggy, messy delight.
YO LA TENGO – Painful. Their previous effort was a change in sound for the band but also defining - they'd found the direction that made them unique and with which they would contribute to music history. This, then, is the crystallization of that discovery. Part sonic/ethereal, part shoegaze, all rock guitar, the album has a start-to-finish thematic starting with the overture "Big Day Coming pt. 1" (Let's wake up the neighbors/Let's turn up our amps) and followed by, "Sudden Organ" (As the days go by/I'm stepping on them all/Like ants) and "A Worrying Thing"
(Another sleepless night/Reading, over by the only light). Incredibly (for not being proggy), the theme exists only as a sense: in the progression of the tracks and their mood. And it's palpable! Sonically, comparisons to Daydream Nation and Loveless are inevitable but new realms are explored where different laws of musico-physics apply. Atmospherically, the imaging is self-inclusive; this release would exist singularly (in a world without the Chain, Sonic Youth, etc.). One of the best albums of all time, Painful is freakin' Euclidean.

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Still reviewing the Cranes - Forever. I would first like to place it in the context of their other albums. If you're familiar with them, tell me what your favorite is.



Post Edited (10-30-07 15:46)

One of the albums on that list is a hidden favorite of mine: Bleeding Star (I didn't know it then, but I lived in New Zealand for half of 1994 and heard it then.)

Based on a quick skim in iTunes, my 1993 otherwise was very much like this:

P.M. Dawn, The Bliss Album
James, Laid
Bjork, Debut
Aimee Mann, Whatever
Counting Crows, August and Everything After
JudyBats, Pain Makes You Beautiful
Moby, Move (You Make Me Feel So Good)

In retrospect, although I didn't know them at the time:
Blake Babies, Innocence and Experience
Loud Family, Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things
Spinanes, Manos

The Verve are a really weird band for me - as an album act I found them wearying; but in their singles I found they summed themselves up in 4 minute bursts that showcased all their strengths. Their great singles are like mini docu-dramas.

They are on of the few bands ever to strive to make beautiful Rock & Roll and actually pull it off - and if their albums veered into pretentious drivel well, it was that impulse to do something "beautiful" that drove those great singles.

My pick for '93 would be "Icky Mettle" by Archers of Loaf - a one stop shop for all your indie needs. Still sounds great too.

1) Exile In Guyville - Liz Phair
2) Sugar - Beaster
3) Archers Of Loaf - Icky Mettle
4) Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
5) Slint - Tweez (Reissue)
6) Fugazi - In On The Kill Taker
7) Pavement - Westing
8) Digable Planets: Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)
9) The Dambuilders - Tough Guy Problem EP
10) PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me
11) Mekons - I (Heart) Mekons
12) Mercury Rev - Boces
13) Superchunk - On The Mouth

Most loathsome record of this year: Dr Dre - The Chronic

Favorite Radio Song: All Apologies - Nirvana

Biggest disappointments of this year:

Freedy Johnston - Unlucky
Dinosaur Jr - Where You Been
Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne
Matthew Sweet - Altered Beast

Paganizer -

Nice pick with St. Johnny! I havent heard High As a Kite since I was a frosh. Time to go rummage in my basket of forgotten cassettes.

a few discs I played to death in '93...

Forever[Cranes]
Cuckoo[Curve]
Star[Belly]...another crossover. Gave Tanya Donelly the spotlight for a year or 2.
Become What You Are[Juliana Hatfield]....see above.
Into The Labyrinth[Dead Can Dance].....i think wound up being their best selling album??

brainiac - smack bunny baby
new bomb turks - destroy oh boy
afghan whigs - gentlemen
scrawl - velvet hammer
mercy rule - god protects fools
sebadoh - bubble and scrape
steel pole bathtub - miracle of sound in motion
didjits - que sirhan sirhan
cop shoot cop - ask questions later
eleventh dream day - el moodio
digable planets - reachin
george clinton - "paint the white house black"
psyclone rangers - feel nice
teenage fanclub - 13
melvins - houdini
rocket from the crypt - all systems go
prisonshake - roaring third
royal trux - cats and dogs
flop - whenever you're ready
cypress hill - black sunday
grifters - one sock missing
pj harvey - rid of me
gumball - super tasty
arcwelder - pull
best kissers in the world - puddin
some guys - in utero
you am i - sound as ever
ed hall - motherscratcher



Post Edited (09-30-07 21:16)

Blaggers I.T.A. - Bad Karma

Boo Radleys - Giant Steps

Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen

Cruel Sea - The Honeymoon Is Over

Credit To The Nation - Take Dis

Gotta disagree with Nosepail on ANODYNE being a disappointment.

ANODYNE, PAINFUL, Mazzy Star's SO TONIGHT THAT I MIGHT SEE, and Bruce Cockburn's Christmas album were all released the same day, and it remains one of the favorite record buying days of my life.

And I think that FOUR CALENDAR CAFE and Kate Bush's THE RED SHOES were originally scheduled for that same day but got bumped back a few weeks. I just remember seeing the release schedule for that day and nearly swallowing my tongue.

Yeah, I have those Lisa Germano, Teenage Fanclub, Sloan, and Cruel Sea records. I admit, though, that the original Capitol issue of Germano's "Happiness" is my preference, not the 4AD (remixed) issue.

Red House Painters, with the roller coaster.

Jellyfish - Spilt Milk

not yet mentioned. but for me definitely part of being a tp dude back in '93

eat -- epicure
penelope housoton -- the whole world
lisa germano -- happiness
sloan -- smeared

My nominees to fill out the top 20:

Guided by Voices - VAMPIRE ON TITUS - GBV's national breakout. That alone should be enough to earn it a spot on the list, but the fact that it contains some of Pollard's most enduring melodies seals the deal. "Expecting Brainchild," "Dusted", "Sot," "Jar of Cardinals," and "Gleemer (The Deeds of Fertile Jim)" remain high on my list of all-time GBV classics.

Flying Saucer Attack - FLYING SAUCER ATTACK. FSA's opening salvo of quiet melodies buried beneath a squalling mountain of noise, distortion and feedback. Total chaos has never been so perversely soothing and restful. It's like hearing a mother's lullaby in the middle of a trainwreck.

Stereolab - TRANSIENT RANDOM NOISE BURSTS WITH ANNOUNCEMENTS. Stereolab mix Esquivel with Neu! and the Velvets for an album that has always felt like it exists in its own special time warp. "Jenny Ondioline" is their all-time greatest track, and the entirety of side one (especially the lead-off tryptich of "Tone Burst," "Our Trinitone Blast" and "Pack Yr Romantic Mind") is their career high point.

Red House Painters - RED HOUSE PAINTERS (ROLLERCOASTER) - The perfect, hazy Sunday morning album. I think it's still Kozolek's best work, and "Katy Song" boasts the best coda this side of "Layla."

Lisa Germano - HAPPINESS. Two of the more enduring musical trends of the early 90s were shoegaze and alt.country. Johnny Cougar's sometime violinist somehow managed to find the unlikely common ground between the two. Gently tuneful, claustrophobically fragile and midnight-black humored.

Cranes - FOREVER. The Cranes take the creepy ambience of their earlier work and combine it with catchy melodies. This could be the soundtrack of Kate Bush and Liz Frazer's most disturbing dreams.

Uncle Tupelo - ANODYNE. They'd mixed punk and traditional Americana music on their earlier albums, now they were ready to move ahead with their own unique sound. The title track and "Chickamauga" are still two of Farrar's most beloved songs, with "New Madrid" and "Acuff-Rose" conjuring the same amount of affection from Tweedy fans.

U2 - ZOOROPA. They thought they were recording an EP, but it ended up becoming an album, and one of their best. The lack of planning and expectation freed U2 up to record the most playful and experimental album of their career. They take a lot of crap for their perceived pomposity (although in reality its mainly for their massive popularity), but no other Biggest Band in the World besides the Beatles ever unleashed such a downright bizarre album (or singles like "Numb" or "Lemon") on their public. And it paved the way for Johnny Cash to become cool again at the end of his life, after spending the previous 20 years as a washed-up has-been playing to blue hairs in Branson. After Thom Yorke was finished eating A STORM IN HEAVEN, ZOOROPA is what he had for dessert.

Liz Phair - EXILE IN GUYVILLE. No amount of selling out later in her career can deny the power of Phair's debut, nor deny her her rightful spot alongside Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, Kate Bush and PJ Harvey as one of the most important women in the history of alt-rock.

The Smashing Pumpkins - SIAMESE DREAM. Sure, Corgan is a pompous pain in the ass, but did any album in '93 SOUND better than SIAMESE DREAM? As Paganizer pointed out, 93 was the high tide of lo-fi, but Corgan defiantly went the highest of hi-fi, with "Cherub Rock" and "Silverfuck," - to name but two - gorgeous sonic sculptures of precisely shaped guitar noise.

Moby - AMBIENT. Moby has disowned his early albums as little more than unofficial compilations put together by the Instinct label with little or no input from himself, but this collection of his early ambient dance tracks is hypnotic and beautiful.

Slowdive - SOUVLAKI. It lacks the epic scope of JUST FOR A DAY, but songs like "Alison" and "Machine Gun" showcase the solid songwriting that Neil Halstead would bring to the fore with Mojave 3. The English music press had already worked itself into a frenzy to kill off shoegazing (BLOOD MUSIC, Chapterhouse's disappointing '93 album, was one of the first signs of the sound's impending demise) but with SOUVLAKI Slowdive managed one last bit of gorgeous noise.

Grant Lee Buffalo - FUZZY. Grant Lee Phillips debuts his literate, Elton John goes alt.country sound to the world. Nations rejoice.

Vapourspace - GRAVITATIONAL ARCH OF 10. An epic of ambient electronica of nearly symphonic scope.



Post Edited (10-03-07 08:59)

i moved to new jersey in 1993

still awaiting results

I thought somebody would defend:
CHRISTMAS – Vortex.
JELLYFISH - Spilt Milk.
NIRVANA - In Utero.
FRANK BLACK - s/t.
SUEDE - s/t. certainly worthy?
POSIES - Frosting on the Beater.
PALACE BROTHERS - There is No One What Will Take Care of You.

I like the defense of Belly and Juliana Hatfield.
Both Cranes and Archers of Loaf have gotten respect this time (i'll check them both out - thnx mats). I confess I remember not a single track on the latter one - completely skipped my musical conscience.



Post Edited (10-30-07 15:37)

The last (???) Kinks studio album, Phobia, was released, which was a bloated mess w/a few good tunes trapped inside. It would have been better if half the songs were gone & replaced w/some of the tunes in the Did Ya EP which came out a year earlier.

Public Enemy's Fear Of a Black Planet is a more important and more exciting record than any of the above mentioned (with the possible exceptions of Guyville for importance and some of the kickass punk records on satchmykels' list for excitment) but I believe it came out in 1990! Yeah, I distinctly remember sophmore year layup lines to the accompaniment of War at 33 1/3.

The first Wu Tang record definitely belongs on the list however. It really a landmark in the history of rap music. The stark, haunting beats.. the strings and piano... the subtle sampling...the samurai imagery...the bizzare, unhinged blubbering of ODB...the narrative powers of Ghostface. I know this is not really a rap demographic on TP but you've got to love this record. Even if you really dont like rap at all, you have to acknowledge that 36 Chambers belongs on any list above...say...Lisa Germano.



Post Edited (10-02-07 21:47)

will revisit FSA

GBV - is Vampire on Titus perhaps one of their best releases? Does the EP that's on the CD count also? If somebody's never heard them is this the one you'd give them? I'm familiar with it but I guess I should pull it out and listen to it in the light of this list.

Stereolab - Is Transient as good as Margarine?

I don't think I have a copy of that Red House Painters rec



Post Edited (10-06-07 20:04)

The Red House Painters record isn't officially named Rollercoaster - it's the unofficial name given to it since they released the two eponymous albums around the same time. So one is unofficially called Rollercoaster and the other is unofficially called Bridge. I should've put Rollercoaster in quote marks or something to avoid confusion.

I don't know if VAMPIRE ON TITUS is the GBV album that I would give to a newbie or not, but when I stop and think about it, it's the first one I heard and the first one that had any kind of national distribution behind it, so it likely was the introduction to the band for a lot of people. it did the trick of turning lots of people (myself included) into fans, then BEE THOUSAND sealed the deal.

TRANSIENT remains my favorite Stereolab album, although the accepted wisdom seems to be that EMPEROR TOMATO KETCHUP and MARGARINE, at least, are better. It may just be more sentiment on my part than an objective judgement, but it's the Stereolab album I've loved above all others.

Several singles I loved in 93 - "Dreams" & "Linger" by the Cranberries, "Feed the Tree" by Belly and "My Name is Mud" by Primus.



Post Edited (10-03-07 09:20)

Elvis Costello, TWO AND A HALF YEARS [Ryko box]

OTIS! THE DEFINITIVE OTIS REDDING

Sarah McLachlan, FUMBLING TOWARDS ECSTASY

I remember the Ryko Elvis Costello reissues since Ryko was based here in the Witch City at the time. I couldn't wait to get them as they came out. I also got the Undertones reissues that also came out at the same time. Also, speaking of Otis Redding, I just got the Dreams to Remember DVD & it's great. It's nice to see him perform, even doing lip-syncing.

A '93 release that wasn't one of the year's best, but deserves recognition - the Buzzcocks' TRADE TEST TRANSMISSIONS. The reunified 'Cocks have never matched their original glory days, but they've been a respectable bunch doing good, solid work, and this was a reunion album that was more than worthwhile. Not a classic, but not an embarrassment, either. It was great to have them back.

one of my favorites that was out in 1993 was bash n pop, tommy stinsons first band post replacements. stonesey and faces kind of riffs. solid rock n roll with a little punk influence as well and while not coming off like a replacement album a few of the songs would have fit in .

chris mars had a cool album as well but i think that came out in 92.
kinks style stuff where mars shows off his musicianship by playing all instruments and playing them quite well.

singles soundtrack- think it came out in 93. pearl jam, screaming trees, mudhoney- normally not a big fan of soundtracks but this one flows through .

Bump for favorite Cranes?



Post Edited (10-30-07 16:01)

I graduated from college in 1993. I had no interest in grunge in 1993. I detested Smashing Pumpkins in 1993 (my stepbrother was one of 3 engineers Vig employed on SIAMESE DREAM, so I may have learned a bit more about what a complete buffoon Billy Corgan was/is/always shall be at the time.

I loved Aimee Mann's WHATEVER, Matthew Sweet's ALTERED BEAST and Paul Westerberg's 14 SONGS. This territory has been covered.

These, not so much:

Y'all So Stupid - VAN FULL OF PAKISTANS
Dumb name for the group, dumb name for the release, but they more or less created the blueprint for all non-NYC/West Coast acts to come. And it was fun. And they included different versions of the single. Black Sheep did that, too, but they weren't from GA, so what do I care?

New Order - REPUBLIC
"Regret" is worth the price of admission by itself. The second- or third-best album by a singles band? So is LONDON CALLING.

Ice Cube - THE PREDATOR
This was the intersection of everything happening at the time. If you've never listened to "When Will They Shoot?", and you just think of Ice Cube as the dude in "Friday"...?!?(bonus points for coming out on my birthday).

Rise Robots Rise - SPAWN
At the time I felt like I just didn't "get it", but I was very intrigued. Looking back on it, they may have been among the last sincerely "modern" of the "modern rock" bands. Musically, they consistently had a good time, and they really, really knew what they were doing.

Basehead - NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE
Basehead & Rise Robots Rise worked together for me. The sophomore releases from both were interesting enough to result in me trying to understand why I was interested, which led to a general understanding of music & music theory, followed by many other boring things, which led to this. Damn you, Basehead!

Although Basehead wasn't remotely as complex as Rise Robots Rise. Basehead wasn't as complex as Alan Thicke's theme song to "The Facts of Life"...the point is: first thought, best thought. Basehead gave license to those of us who felt Pavement & Superchunk were way too slick.

Antenna - HIDEOUT
That's the Boston sound: 12 songs, 1 tempo, nonsense lyrics, insanely infectious. Strohm was giddier on the first Antenna release (STRAY), but he nailed (choose your term)-rock better than David Lowery or Liz Phair with this one.

Adam Schmitt - ILLITERATURE
Okay, we're talking about a guy who's released 3 albums in the past 17 yrs., but this is his crowning achievement. Available for $2 or less in almost any used record store anywhere in the world since the day of its release, this is mind-blowing stuff. Adam Schmitt is a legitimate Prince-level talent. Dang, I love this album.

Over the Rhine - TILL WE HAVE FACES
Elisabeth Frasier and Kate Bush, hanging out in the south-midwestern US, with a guitar prodigy, a locked-in rhythm section and 5 notebooks of journal entries...

De La Soul - BUHLOONE MINDSTATE
If you will just listen to "Long Island Wildin'" & "Ego Trip"...

Wow.

Antenna is such a great pick out of nowhere. Frustratingly, I'm not sure if I still have a copy. It had a great cover, too.



Post Edited (10-30-07 16:01)

Aw, nuts.... I forgot one of my favorite 1993 records:

Th' Faith Healers: Imaginary Friend: brilliant droning Krautrock.

Any 1993 list of mine would have to include:

Th' Faith Healers: Imaginary Friend
new bomb turks - destroy oh boy
grifters - one sock missing
Guided by Voices - VAMPIRE ON TITUS
didjits - que sirhan sirhan

Thanks to satch for recalling all that kick-ass early 90s punk shit.