2. Cake, Fashion Nugget Among college radio kids in the mid-nineties, there was a pretty healthy market for songs that took critical aim at their own music fandom. For example, Ben Folds Five first got noticed with “Underground.” In the … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 2 and 1
4. Various Artists, The Cable Guy soundtrack To the degree that anyone’s especially invested of reevaluating the bygone cinematic output of either Ben Stiller or Jim Carrey these days, I think the critical consensus on The Cable Guy has shifted … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 4 and 3
6. Fuzzdolly, XOC Surely there was no better way to guarantee airplay on 90FM in the mid-nineties, when then station was arguably at the peak of its commitment to Wisconsin-based bands, than being a group with specific ties to the … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 6 and 5
8. Counting Crows, Recovering the Satellites I can’t. I’m sorry, I just can’t. 7. Rage Against the Machine, Evil Empire Back in the day, I had loads of three-beer-in, barroom arguments with Rage Against the Machine fans, pointing out what … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 8 and 7
10. The Afghan Whigs, Black Love Black Love was the second album Afghan Whigs released with Elektra Records, and it would prove to their last such collaboration with the major label. Greg Dulli’s band had been snapped up by Elektra after a significant bidding war, releasing the 1993 album Gentlemen, which could be termed a modest commercial breakthrough. The group largely had the rock critic community enthralled, but they were denied the sort of huge success that other “alternative” acts were enjoying in the grunge era, perhaps because their take on dark, thick rock ‘n’ roll was notable for its … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 10 and 9
12. Possum Dixon, Star Maps This is one of the albums that drove home for me that commercial alternative radio was going to follow a different path than my old, preferred home of college radio. Possum Dixon’s second full-length, Star … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 12 and 11
14. Golden Smog, Down by the Old Mainstream Golden Smog has a longer history than their best-known recorded history suggests. First formed in 1989 by a batch of Minneapolis musicians with pretty good day jobs (like the Replacements and Soul Asylum), the band was something of a lark, playing countrified rock as a counterpoint to the punk that was flooding the local scene. The group released a covers EP in 1992, with everyone credited under pseudonyms. It wasn’t really until the 1995 release of their debut full-length, Down by the Old Mainstream, that the prospect of this being a more … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 14 and 13
16. Various Artists, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet soundtrack Yet another soundtrack, but this time I get it. And not just because a copy of this one still sits on our household CD shelf. Like a lot of director Baz Luhrmann’s films, his kinetic adaptation of Romeo and Juliet is such a melange of music and imagery, essentially the culminating cinematic product of the heavy MTV influence from the prior decade, that getting the soundtrack comes across as almost a necessity, a way to openly acknowledge the fingerprints Luhrmann has left on the mind, for good or ill. Surely it … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 16 and 15
18. Rusted Root, Remember Surely I’m not the only one who assumed that Rusted Root didn’t exist much past their fine breakthrough single, “Send Me On My Way,” right? Of course, there’s also no real reason I should have jumped … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 18 and 17
20. Various Artists, Supercop soundtrack Yeah, I don’t really get this one. While I’ve acknowledged that well-built compilations hold a special sway over college radio deejays who may be otherwise confronted with the dauntingly unfamiliar across the new music rotation shelves, I have an exceedingly hard time figuring out why the fairly slapdash soundtrack to a 1996 Jackie Chan action flick (which was actually the third installment in franchise, originally released in 1992 in Hong Kong) got so many spins. Sure, there are a couple amusing covers on there, but it’s mostly a incoherent mix of limp alternative rock and … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 20 and 19
Coffee for Two 