Grunge and '90s Alternative Rock

Facelift from Alice in Chains is the album that pretty much defined 90's alternative rock for me. This album actually came out before the groundbreaking Ten from Pearl Jam or Nevermind from Nirvana. The sound from this band was unlike anything I had heard up until then. Sea of Sorrow, Blead the Freak and I Can't Remember are standouts tracks in my mind. Of course, Man in the Box got MTV airtime back when they actually played videos. Sludge heavy guitars reinvented a sound from those days of slick hair band metal. It was like an aural breakthrough. The lyrics were dark. Layne Staley's vocals were raucous. It was a perfect bridge from the 80's metal production to 90's alternative.

I have to say that I always liked AIC much better than other notable Seattle grunge/Alternative bands like Soundgarden, Nirvana or Pearl Jam. Nirvana may get credit for ushering in 90's alternative to the masses, but I believe it was Alice in Chains who delivered the first blow to the 80's hair band sound.

I am going to commit blasphemy. I believe Pearl Jam to more or less suck. Yes, I know they are considered by many to be the greatest American rock band of the 90's. I believe Newsweek magazine even said as much just as the alt rock scene was breathing its final breaths. Their music never did much for me. I could never find a hook to latch on to on any of the songs. Plus I really never liked Eddie Veddar's marble mouth singing.

Part of my malfunction with the band is their insistence to drag political awareness into their music. I find that annoying. I know a lot of you hippy wannabes get all fired up when a favorite group starts spouting off about a popular liberal issue or political figure. Yes, I get that rock and roll has always been a favorite vessel for delivering a bands political bent. I simply want them to STFU. I care about the music. Which in this case was extremely boring.

Ten was their first album and best seller released on August 1991. Four massive singles were released that dominated the alt rock airwaves for a good year: "Evenflow", "Alive", "Jeremy" and "Black". If I hear "Jeremy" one more time my brain will turn to sludge and run out of my nostrils. I actually like "Black" finding it a very soulful and thoughtful song. It builds to a satisfying crescendo. "Evenflow" and "Alive" were hardy rockers that I liked a lot at the time. This was definitely my favorite PJ album by far.

After Ten we got Vs, released in October 1993. They could have released an album full of lullabyes at this point and would have sold 5 million copies. They were at the height of their popularity. They decided not to release a single off this album because they were too cool. Alt radio did pick up some of the flotsam to play like "Animal and "Daughter".

It was around this time that two of the band mates did do something cool which was to try to reel in the costs of Ticketmaster. It obviously didn't work but at least they tried. They thought ticket prices was too high. Gossard and Amen actually went before a subcommittee in Congress to air out their grievances over the high prices.A later judgment by the Justice Department favored Ticketmaster. Bummer for us all because they really suck.

Vitology was released in December.1994. It was another hit. "Better Man" played constantly in 1995. This album would be their last big hit.

Pearl Jam release a couple of more albums in the 90s, Yield and a Live album, neither of which came close to achieving the success of the first three albums. Through the 2000's they continue to release various albums and Live sets that barely achieve Platinum status. The media continue to try to find them relevant but commercially they are not the same band that sold 20 million records in the 90's.

I never saw the band live. I trust that they are much better live than the music on their albums.

Oasis came out of Britain in the mid-90's blazing a rock and roll trail with Definitely Maybe, then a year later with (What's the Story) Morning Glory. Both of these albums rank among my favorite rock and roll albums of the 90's.

Not very grundge but definitely alternative, Liam and Noel Gallagher created some of the best anthemic rock and roll songs played during the 90's.

Possibly my favorite Oasis song is "Live Forever" on Definitely Maybe. This one song, in my mind, held the great potential that this band could achieve, and subsequently lost. Morning Glory is definitely a classic 90's album but it was Oasis' peak. They haven't been the same since that release in '95. The brothers just couldn't keep it together and wound up fighting and creating other drama with their drinking and other strange mess. A potentially great band lost to virtual 90's obscurity. Oasis may in fact release new albums, but they will not live up to the greatness that was the mid 90's for this band and that, to me, is a waste. I loved this band. I can hope for a resurgence, but so far, in the 21st century they haven't found the old magic.

There are no bands that came out of the 90's and rocking in the 21st century that I am more enthused about than Tool. Defining Tool into any particular genre is quite difficult. They are at once minimalist, yet extremely deep and thoughtful. Their music is hard and crunchy yet experimental at times too. To say that their music is complex cannot do it justice. But whatever it is, they simply rock.

Tool's Aenema is one of my favorite albums of all time. Released in 1996 it is simply a masterpiece of musicality and lyrics. I love the cynicism of the title track, Aenema. Flush LA away. The lyrics to that song are simply hilarious and brilliant.

Forty Six and Two and Stinkfist are probably the most popular tracks on the album. They are each heavy and pretty straightforward rocking tunes.

The rest of the album is a mixture of fabulous instrumental experiments. Most work. Some take a few track spins to get. If you want to challenge yourself try to figure out singer Maynard James Keenan. Meaning, it seems that each track has spawned numerous arguments over just what he actually means with each lyric. Personally I am a huge fan of drummer Danny Carey. Mixing all sorts of bombastic beats with tribal rhythms, you never know what you might hear from song to song. And guitarist Adam Jones is one of my top three favorite guitarists. I am awed by his talent on every successive album they release.

I love this band. I love this album. They are one of the best groups in the 90's. They are most certainly my favorite group to come out of the 90's that are still together making tunes.

I can't think of too many rock bands that endured more crap than Bush did in the 90's. They could never get a fair shake with their music, since everything they did was compared to Nirvana. I liked Nirvana and I liked Bush. Never did I confuse the two. I don't get why critics had the same problem.

I actually enjoyed Sixteen Stone more than Nirvana's Nevermind (here I go comparing the two bands...stop it!). Horrors! I thought Nevermind was genius. I just didn't think it was as fun as Sixteen Stone. I don't confuse the difference.

Anyway, I loved the crunchy guitars on Sixteen Stone. Machinehead, Glycerine, Little Things, Everything Zen and Comedown got serious airplay back in '94-95. I still hear those tunes on Sirius Lithium. These songs have stood the test of time.

Personally my favorite tune on the album was Little Things. Everything Zen was the first tune that got airplay on the alt radio station. Machinehead was a zippy little tune. Glycerine sucked in my opinion.

Like many bands during the grunge era, Bush could never replicate this album in terms of musicality or sales. They released a piece of crap called Razorblade Suitcase in '96. I loved the song Greedy Fly but little else about the album.

Guess I'll get some flack for dropping Garbage into this listing. Look, I think garbage was one of the best bands in the later part of the 90's. They sort of helped usher a less grungy sound on alternative radio. Shirley Manson is one of the oddest yet sexiest women in rock and roll. Gwen Stefani can only dream of being so cool and sexy.

Garbage's self titled first album was really a lot of fun to listen to after getting hit over the head for so long with grunge on alternative radio. Granted their lyrics were quite cynical, the music was definitely not. There was a lot of variance in the music. Sure you had crunchy guitars but you also had an element of airy rhythms from the keyboard as well as danceable poundings from the drum kit. It was a good sound to get us out of the moody depths of grungy guitars.

My favorite tunes from their first album are typical. I love "Only Happy When it Rains", the cynicism of "Stupid Girl" and the biting "Queer".

The album is one of the best albums to come out of the 90's yet the band is hardly ever mentioned as favorites. I'm not sure why this is. Perhaps we needed to see more panty shots of Shirley ala Paris Hilton or something. Seems this band stayed out of the limelight until it was time to promote the material.

Their follow-up album Garbage 2.0 released in the late 90's proved to be perhaps a little more radio friendly and definitely one for the dance halls. It left crunchy guitars behind in favor of more melodic guitar riffs and keyboard wizardry. Sort of more pop and party. Just another evolution of a constantly changing band. I did not personally enjoy this album as much as their first. Songs like "I Think I'm Paranoid" and "Push It" got a lot of airplay but at this point I was still interested in a crunchier sound which they sort of abandoned.

I still love Garbage. They came through the 90's just fine. 2005's Bleed Like Me brought the rock back to the music in fine form.

As I usually do I was listening to Lithium on Sirius radio and have made a mental note of songs that I used to love from the 90's but whose artists I didn't hear much from them past that song. They may have been great groups but their radio play back in the day did not reflect that. So I decided that I would keep a list of grunge/alternative songs I dug from the 90's that I personally classify as one hit wonders. This list will continue to be added to and grow. Don't be offended if I choose a song and you believe that the group was the greatest thing with guitars and all their songs rocked your world. And in keeping with the vibe of this lens , these choices will be slanted more toward alt rock/grunge than alt pop. So here ya go:

Nada Surf - "Popular" - (OK so this is close to alt pop. Gimme a break.)
Harvey Danger - "Flagpole Sitta"
Semisonic - "Closing Time"
Better Than Ezra - "Desperately Wanting"
Breeders - "Cannonball"

Sirius radio has now given alternative rock a home with Lithium on Channel 24. With the channel updates this week those who love 90s grunge can delight in listening to non-stop Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and more.

I'm digging it. And as an aside I will never be able to go back to terrestrial radio. I hate paying for radio but Sirius is so worth it. If you don't have Sirius, you are missing out big time if you like music.