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MAN CAVE: A '90s music look-back
This weekend, I had a long rekindling session with my first compact discs, and the results are a little embarrassing ...
MAN CAVE: A '90s music look-back
Man Cave is a testosterone-laden Monday feature that highlights the weekend haps of an everyday, pop-culture-loving Philly dude.
If you're my age, you were in 6th grade in 1995. CD players had only recently become household items and there were certain bands that exploded just as nearly every middle class family in America (even the cassette tape holdouts) had finally purchased the laser-guided magic boxes. It may be no coincidence that many of us seemed to own these five CDs (in no particular order):
Ace of Bass: The Sign
Yikes, I may never be allowed inside Kung Fu Necktie again, unless I say I was mocking these Swedish pop stars while listening. But I wasn't. I was jammin' out. "All That She Wants" was moody and mysterious — an interesting twist on top 40 pop. But my personal favorite was "Don't Turn Around." Looking back, I hope there's truth to that Lester Bangs quote, "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool."
Hootie and the Blowfish: Cracked Rear View
"Only Wanna Be With You" was practically the department store national anthem that year, but for the entirely confident (and blissfully unsophisticated) music fan, there are other tracks on here that were quite enjoyable. "Let Her Cry" equals the bittersweet setting of boys standing on one side of the dance floor and girls standing at the other. "Time" was sorta rockin', as much as a Hootie song could rock. But "Hold My Hand," was practically unlistenable ... even to a 6th grader.
The Cranberries: No Need To Argue
"Zombie" was just rocking enough for me to be able to mention it during recess without eating a fist. But the rest of this disc from these post-Celtic folk rockers was something I could only listen to with earphones on, lest I require self-defense classes.
Alanis Morisette: Jagged Little Pill
This album seemed to endlessly produce hit singles. And each one had a different way of representing the '90s. "You Oughta Know" was the female Cobain-angst, psycho ex-girlfriend anthem. "Hand in my Pocket" was classic slack-rock in the vein of Spin Doctors, Weezer (Blue Album), Blues Traveler, etc. "Ironic" was pop majesty whose mindlessness was — unfortunately — more literal than aesthetic. The rest of the album is littered with recognizable songs that got effortless radio play and even more effortless play at my after-school Doritos sessions and cul-de-sac hockey games.
Stone Temple Pilots: Purple (1994)
Finally, a lucky happening upon coincidental good taste. Even a monkey at a typewriter can type out an important word once in a while, and even I could purchase a rockin' CD that would offer metaphorical lyrics, multi-genre instrumentation and interesting rhythms — and generally hold up over decades as an outstanding listen. When I went on to listen to music more seriously (i.e. with a discman, allowing for that extended one-on-one relationship), this was the only one that I really kept listening to. To this day, it's one of my favorites.
I would eventually take a year off from Purple and do a sharp critical examination to make sure it wasn't just nostalgia-fueled love (like Jagged Little Pill, which I still love for it's portcullis to 6th grade). The results are conclusive.
"Vaseline" is uber-melodic, rhythmic psych-rock done right, as is "Lounge Fly," which trades the melodies for chants and heavier atmosphere. "Interstate Love Song" is an example of what country western music could be if it realized its greatest potentials. "Silvergun Superman" is a grunge-rock incarnate with one of the top five guitar solos of the '90s. The dynamic "Big Empty" is possibly my favorite song of all time.
So, in conclusion, while my peers were snatching up Green Day's Dookie, The Offspring's Smash, and The Presidents of the United States, I was clearly spending allowance dollars on the CDs that had the most copies staring at me from the racks.
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