76. Bob Mould, Bob Mould I was working in commercial radio in 1996, at a station billed, in the parlance of the time, as a “new rock alternative.” While I often disparage the format’s reliance on watered-down grunge, at about … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 76 and 75
78. White Zombie, Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds Perhaps every generation gets the Renaissance Man it deserves. The former Robert Bartleh Cummings first found fame as the co-founder and driving creative force behind the band White Zombie, a group with which he shared an adopted second half of a name. The group released four proper studio albums from the late-eighties to the early-nineties, with the remix effort Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds serving as their official parting shot in 1996. Featuring modified fan favorites with parenthetical names such as “Meet Bambi in the King’s Harem Mix” and “Sex on the Rocks Mix,” the album … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 78 and 77
80. Skinny Puppy, The Process I didn’t know that Skinny Puppy was still making music together as late as 1996. Maybe that’s because they barely were. The arduous process of recording The Process started in 1993, with the band intending … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 80 and 79
82. Phish, Billy Breathes Honestly, I’m surprised this one isn’t higher. It’s not that I remember 90FM as having a particularly strong jam band bent back in the day (although, there was a fairly unfortunate early championing of the Spin … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 82 and 81
84. The Cranberries, To the Faithful Departed And now we come to what is arguably the “lingering goodwill” portion of the chart, with a couple of albums that a reasonable observer may conclude garnered airplay less on their own individual … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 84 and 83
86. Ramones, Greatest Hits Live The Ramones played their final live show on August 6, 1996. Beginning with its very title, they’d made it clear that the 1995 album ¡Adiós Amigos! would be their last, at least barring some major … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 86 and 85
88. Pearl Jam, No Code Pearl Jam was probably poised to be the biggest rock band in the U.S. in the mid-nineteen-nineties. After their 1991 debut, Ten, built into a sales juggernaut over the course of a couple years of … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 88 and 87
90. Marilyn Manson, Antichrist Superstar You know, when I counted down Trouser Press‘s picks for the ten best albums of 1981, I made a point of listening to every one of them before I wrote on them. Not with this … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, 90 and 89
A recent Onion A.V. Club article posited that 1992 was the year that college rock died. It’s clear that the author, Noel Murray, is talking primarily about a very specific sound, the rootsy, chiming music that was largely inspired by … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1996, An Introduction
1. “Just Like Heaven” by the Cure The third single from the Cure’s 1987 double album release, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, was a clear breakthrough for the band, at least in the United States. It was their first song to cross into the Billboard Top 40, although just barely. What’s more, the band that MTV had been toying with for a couple of years found themselves with a very secure place on the trend-setting cable network. Maybe that was in part because the smitten exuberance of the song helped the band shake off some of gothy cobwebs that … Continue reading College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 1
Coffee for Two 