1994 -- The History of Rock Music
The End . . . And The Beginning
First off, no.
I’m not going to talk about “them”.
You all can and should.
They were central to Mancunian culture; they likely play a part in why all of us are even here together virtually on this thread to begin with.
But they’re yours, not mine.
I’m a Yank.
They were nothing more than a really good-sounding import who I (we) enjoyed and then didn’t think about much after.
As I’ve written many times before, I’d no sense of how they hollowed out British music the same way Nirvana did American music.
Anyhow, I’d be downright embarrassed to try to discuss their importance. That’s for you lot. Many of you lived them from the get-go; some of you know everything about them; I’d bet a few even have met them or know them personally.
So I look forward to your insights and memories. I truly do. I, meantime, will focus on the good old U.S. of A.
As I opened my 1991 thread with the “birth” (not really but sort of) of Nirvana, thus 1994 opens with the death of them. Again, not really but sort of, since Kurt Cobain committed suicide in April of that year.
Despite his death, the dandelion he was had already turned from bright yellow to a gossamer puffball of seeds and been scattered to the winds. Everyone, it seems, wanted to sound a bit more like Nirvana. We had huge records from fellow Seattlites Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. We had Kurt’s widow with a record many considered the best of the year. REM revisited guitars after monkeying about with fey pop-dom. Post-punk/near-punk guitar bands were in; grunge had infected nearly everything. 1994 was a year to mourn and to sort through those influenced by the Nirvanian influenza who turned new and exciting tricks, and those infected by it who became plaid-clad zombie imitators.
I turned 29 in 1994, and I remember very little of that year as both my wife and I were working all the time, though we loved our little apartment overlooking the Castro in San Francisco. But I literally have no touchstones for the year whatsoever, other than finding out that Kurt Cobain died and watching O.J. Simpson being chased by police at 10 miles per hour. I remember an office; I recall business trips and one golf trip with buddies, but otherwise I can’t place anything special. That’s both sad an a bit scary.
Plenty happened in the world though:
Ukraine announced that it will give up the world’s third biggest nuclear arsenal in return for Russia would respecting its sovereignty. Everyone lives happily ever after.
The Tanya Harding / Nancy Kerrigan feud happens. I am pretty sure many of you are familiar with this, but if you aren’t, look it up.
The LA Earthquake (known here as the Northridge quake) kills 30 and does $60 billion in damage, although it only takes a short while for the I-10 freeway to re-open, which means everyone in SoCal forgets about it right away.
In February, Harry Styles is born, followed shortly thereafter by Justin Bieber in March. Oh well.
The world’s largest milkshake is made in South Africa in February, the world’s largest omelette is made in March in Japan, and the world’s largest lollipop is made in Denmark in April.
The Rwandan genocide begins. One of the most awful things I can recall from my lifetime. But Nelson Mandela is sworn in as President of South Africa, one of the better things from my lifetime.
Richard Nixon dies, surely the man who will go down as the worst President in American histo . . . . errrrrrrr, never mind.
Pulp Fiction premiers at Cannes, leading everyone who sees it to ponder the difference between a Quarter Pounder with cheese and a Royale with cheese. Later The Shawshank Redemption is released, which everyone ignores until later, when it is considered by some simps to be the greatest film ever made.
Former American football star, actor and TV pitchman O.J. Simpson (allegedly) kills his wife and Ron Goldman, then leads police on a low speed chase in LA as he tries to escape, sort of. The chase captivates the entire world, if you define the world as the United States.
In a huge development for The Album Thread — more important than any record release — The TV show Friends debuts.
In November, the first conference to discuss the commercial potential of something called the World Wide Web happens in San Francisco.
The Chunnel opens to commercial trains, but swimming remains the fastest way to get between the UK and France.
In music, besides the death of the generation's voice, other unfortunate things occurred. For example, there were some bad bands that made annoyingly huge headway in 1994, namely Weezer (the alt version of the Eagles) and Green Day (the punk version of the Eagles).
Thankfully, one great band also got rolling — those three princesses of grrrrrrldom, Sleater-Kinney — and others who would go on to produce interesting music, like Eels and Belle & Sebastian. Dave Grohl started screwing around with a cassette tape on his way to eventually starting Foo Fighters, which was both good and bad in a wide variety of contexts dependent on one’s point of view (and which record). Also, Korn apparently invented “nu metal” in 1994 (does “old metal” have an umlaut?). Among breakups beyond Nirvana, Pink Floyd disbanded along with Dramarama, That Petrol Emotion and — to everyone’s relief — New Kids On The Block.
My ten songs are quite narrow — all American artists, all “alt” or “indy” in some way, shape or form — and mostly quite guitar-forward, as bands all over continued to take up the sonic mantle that Kurt Cobain had laid at their feet. That said, many of these tunes have a smidge of ol’ classic rock or punk or hip-hop — but as seasoning, not as a main.
And since apparently all of you have decided that “Loser” was a 1993 song even though no one fucking heard it until 1994 and it was single of the year, I’ve had to delete an entire paragraph I wrote about it.
Gift — Sugar
Bob fucking Mould. My favorite guitarist apart from Eddie Van Halen. But Eddie was fireworks; Bob is a nuclear-powered chainsaw. With chord changes that might have been written by God Himself, I know this will sound like hyperbole but I swear on my life it isn’t: of the tens of thousands of songs I’ve played in my life, Gift is still the song I play the loudest. Go and do likewise.
Bull In The Heather — Sonic Youth
As commercial as it got for them until 2006’s “Reena” and “Incinerate”, the kings and queen of indy just kept cranking out records that sounded like art projects all through the 1990s. Great video with Kathleen Hanna, that little minx, jumping around like squirrel in heat.
Sabotage — Beastie Boys
Gradually abandoning traditional hip-hop form for the guitars they grew up on (and that their sampling often hinted at anyway), three white, Jewish, growth-stunted idiots from Brooklyn go even more mainstream than they already were with this crunch-filled hook exercise. And another ridiculous video is the cherry on top of the Budweiser ‘n’ ganja flavored ice cream.
Water Wings — Superchunk
Back to the band none of you care about but that I truly love, the prolific North Carolinians released their record “Foolish” with this little gem on it. Rollicking guitar, played at pace, with enough noisy feedback to add extra punch. Maybe I’ll convert some of you to fans someday.
Seether — Veruca Salt
Though their adherents would claim they weren’t a one-note, it doesn’t really matter. Straight-forward post-punk with the grrrrrrls that — despite repeating plenty of stuff that came before — still sounds like it could have been released last Tuesday. Katrina and the Waves with muscles.
Feel The Pain — Dinosaur Jr.
While over the course of an entire record D Jr. might be an acquired taste, J Mascis has always been an iconoclast and a kind of mad guitar alchemist. Every once in a while he wrote a dynamite song no matter how he tried to cover it in sludge. For me, this is his best and arguably most popular one. Another great video too (Spike Jonze directed) with J and his bassist knocking a golf ball around the streets of Manhattan. As incongruous as his tunes of course.
Superunknown — Soundgarden
Over on the album thread we recently waxed poetic about Led Zeppelin — again — deservedly but also annoyingly so. As such, instead of choosing any of the many, many hits from this record — like Black Hole Sun, Spoonman, or Fell On Black Days, or even the two I like best (The Day I Tried To Live or My Wave) — I chose the tune that most clearly rips off Led Zep just to appease you, the fawning masses, that frequent both these threads. Here ya go, ya stuck-in-the-70s, elephantine FOCs. BTW Rob because you asked once — take the whole record as is through Fresh Tendrils except remove Limo Wreck, then cut off the last three tunes, and Superunknown is a 10/10.
Violet — Hole
There might not be a person, or a celebrity, easier to lazily pigeonhole than Courtney Love. And her response to everyone trying to do so was “Fuck you.” All defiance and anger and pain, this record wears its heart on its sleeve without ever feeling self-pity more than nearly any I’ve ever heard. “When they get what they want / They never want it again / Go on, take everything / Take everything / I want you to” — never obtuse and always grungily pecking away at your earlobes, Hole and Courtney were a force, and I think she’s earned her success and what appears to be a now quiet, more pastoral life.
Come Out And Play — The Offspring
Irresistible at first, it became more resistible the more you heard it, and an actual armed resistance should have formed in arenas worldwide when a bunch of other bands tried to copy it. Successfully too, unfortunately.
Backwater — Meat Puppets
Kurt Cobain covered three Meat Puppets tunes on his unintentional Unplugged swan song (or maybe intentional given so many of the covers were about death) but I can see why he liked them. Simple, clever, odd, prolific . . . and never especially popular outside a few diehards, like Kurt (and the aforementioned J Mascis). One of their better tunes about optimistic pessimism.
I’m now going to break protocol (again) and pretend I’m a different poster (call me FogBlueInOakland, whatever) and offer up four additional songs, just to get in my takes in before someone else does. Sorry.
Closer — Nine Inch Nails
There’s something about this band I liked but never trusted. They weren’t poseurs. They had an interesting industrial dance metal fusion. Maybe their hooks felt forced instead of natural? I don’t know. Anyway, whatever way I feel, I feel the same way about Jane’s Addiction.
Cut Your Hair — Pavement
The only song by this perennially-overrated critics’ darling band I ever cottoned to. A similar but much, much better band from this era had far less acclaim than these bozos . . . but you’ll need to stay tuned to the album thread to find out who.
The Sign — Ace of Base
Never liked it. Didn’t matter. In 1994, you simply couldn’t escape it.
Rock ‘n’ Roll Star — Oasis
I’m paraphrasing my album thread review of “Definitely Maybe”, but it bears repeating: only these asshats would have the chutzpah to a) write this song at all and then b) make it the FIRST song on their FIRST record. Oh well. I guess the lift-off of the rocket is one of the most exciting parts of any journey into stratosphere. I’m still conventional enough to love Supersonic and Live Forever, among others, and still American enough to think “What’s The Story Morning Glory?” is a better album.
