ITS NOT GOING TO BE ABOUT FOOD IS IT?

ARTIST - WEIRD AL YANKOVIC
ALBUM - OFF THE DEEP END
SONG - SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT
DATE - APRIL 3, 1992
STATUS - ACQUIRED

As the story goes, Mr. Yankovic got in touch with Kurt Cobain through his "UHF" co-star and Saturday Night Live cast member Victoria Jackson when Nirvana played SNL. Jackson got Cobain on the phone whose only question was "It's not going to be about food is it?" Evidently the band took Weird Al's parody as quite the complement. Nothings more punk rock than laughing at yourself.

Its easy for some to dismiss Weird Al, but "Smells like Nirvana" captures in a clear and concise manner the zeitgeist of the early nineties. To my parents and there friends the world suddenly did smell like Nirvana. Who where these scruffy ne'er do wells. What the hell where they singing about, Satan? Their confusion made me laugh.

Nothing sums-up the early nineties better than the line "Well, we don't sound like the Madonna, Here we are know, we're Nirvana". Have a giggle.

GREAT NAME, GREAT BAND.

ARTIST - GIN BLOSSOMS
ALBUM - NEW MISERABLE EXPERIENCE
SONG - FOUND OUT ABOUT YOU
DATE - 1994
STATUS - ACQUIRED

While crunching guitar driven, punk laced grunge dominates our memories of mid-nineties music, bands like the Gin Blossoms where creating great jangling rock albums. I've never figured out what he found out about who, and it doesn't really matter. The jangle of the tambourine and the beat cuts against a dark undercurrent of accusing lyrics and sly guitar work to create an amazing track that rocks with out screaming.

Video Alert. The goatee was the facial hair of the nineties. Well done Gin Blossom's drummer for representing so hard. I think that guy lives next door to me and owns an arch welder.

I GET IT, THERE ARE ONLY THREE OF THEM. HOW DROLL.

ARTIST - BEN FOLDS FIVE
ALBUM - BEN FOLDS FIVE
SONG - WHERE'S SUMMER B.?
DATE - AUGUST 8, 1995
STATUS - ACQUIRED

"Whatever and Ever Amen" would be Ben Folds Five's big break out album, but the preceding self title album received a lot of attention with several songs appearing regularly on alternative radio.

"Where's Summer B.?" was the second single off the album. The bouncing piano licks and joyful harmonies hide a certain hipster detachment that would bloom into full pop music misery and anger on latter Ben Folds Five albums. You gotta love it.

...AND A FEW WEIRDOS

ARTIST - PAUL WESTERBERG

ALBUM - EVENTUALLY

SONG - LOVE UNTOLD

DATE - 1996

STATUS - NOT ACQUIRED

More often than not the Pixies were name dropped when ever some aspiring rock journalist asked some aspiring mid-nineties rock band about their influences, and some of those bands even sounded like the Pixies and not just vaguely punky and emotional. Far less often, a band would reference the Replacements. The Replacements began life in the frozen exoticism of the Twin Cities music scene of Minnesota. They were sort of a Punk version of Prince. There's something magical about something that good coming out of a distant and frozen land. 

I missed out on the Replacements in large part because before 1991 all cool American bands where forbidden from achieving main stream success. I came to know of the Replacements through Westerberg's solo career. More macho swing in the music than the Pixies, with straight to the heart lyrics. 

PEACE IS COOL AND EVERYTHING, GOT ANY MORE SNICKERS?

ARTIST - PHISH
ALBUM - BILLY BREATHS
SONG - FREE
DATE - OCTOBER 15, 1996
STATUS - NOT ACQUIRED

I remember hearing rumbles about Phish as a senior in high school and a freshman in college. Usually it was some guy who wanted to score some weed going on about seven twelve time and blashy blashy blah. I think that's when I got into early punk. Something about technical proficiency and artistic achievement not being one and the same thing. I don't know, it was all kind of meta at the time.

As I've gotten older I've decided not to let Phish's fans ruin the experience of a great band. Technical proficiency can be delightful on the ears.

Free was the first and only song by Phish I ever heard on the radio. Its a nice easy three and a half minute intro to a band that can quickly pull you into an abyss of double live albums and 24 hour concerts.  So unplug your mind from the machine (figuratively) and reminisce about how recreational drugs would improve an experience like this.

YOUNG AND HUNGRY AND GOING FOR IT

Artist: Jay Z
Album: Reasonable Doubt
Song: Ain't No Nigga
Date: 3-26-96
Status: Acquired

In 6 months 2Pac would be dead, and 6 months after that Biggie would die, leaving a huge unserved demand for "intelligent gangster rap". Jay Z would rise to fill the role.

Ain't No Nigga is a portent of things to come, and yet its not. The flow and the clever lyrics are there, but the content is a caricature of a high rolling Mafioso lifestyle that has more in common with western movies than the actual west (or street dreams over real streets). Jay Z's latter work would weave in more ambiguity and hard truth about life without loosing its edge of mastery of that life.

Jay Z is great, but Foxy steels show with her verse near the end. She's fine and a true MC.

...EVEN THOUGH THE SOUND OF IT IS REALLY QUITE ATROCIOUS

Artist: Outkast
Album: Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
Song: Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
Date: 1994
Status: Not Acquired

Not yet the full fledged space pimping of Ms. Jackson, Souternplaylisticadillacmuzik is purely about the dirty south sound. Tripping, rolling southern draw rhyming representing the aliased ATL.

Plus, shout out to the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes...droppin' bones.

ONE WOMAN INDUSTRY

Artist: Ani DiFranco
Album: Little Plastic Castle
Song: Glass House
Date: February 17, 1998
Status: Acquired

I'm a little out of my depth hear. I didn't listen to a lot of Ani in high school and college, but boy do I know a lot of people who did. For a neophyte her discography is a little...thick, and despite a huge and loyal following, there aren't a lot of obvious single to pick from.  This seems like a good place to start though. Recommendations welcome.