1996

                If I didn’t know what was coming, I’d be thrilled with 1996.  Grunge is petering out, but because the bands involved are moving on to new sounds.  Britpop’s big names are quiet, but a crop of new bands are all springing up.  Alt-rock more generally is churning along, spitting out all sorts of fun, experimental, and quirky micro-genres and unique bands (one hit wonder and otherwise).  Best of all, a fantastic new sound is developing at the nexus of alt-rock, hip-hop, and electronica, that sounds like it will both set the template for alt-rock going forward and will revitalize a hip-hop scene that’s been in a bit of a lull since ’91.  Sure there are worrying signs like the rise of boy bands and Matchbox 20, but what can go wrong?

                I’m pleased to report that the breaking-down of the isolation between the US and the UK scenes continues in earnest in 1996.  In part this is because the alt-rockers start to rediscover the joys of the beat this year, with Beck especially taking the Happy Mondays and Black Grape as touchstones in his new, funkier, collage-based sound.  But in large part this is due to a firm strain of 60s revivalism this year on both sides of the pond (beyond just the Kinks homages of Brit-pop).  The swirling organ sounds of Kula Shaker and the Charlatans fit in well alongside feuding 60s psych-rock revivalists the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Dandy Warhols.  The BJM especially could be a Brit-pop band, sounding uncannily like the Rolling Stones circa ’67 (right down to the ham-fisted psychedelia), while the Warhols also show a shoegaze influence in their droney guitar jams. 

                If the two scenes on a broader sense are starting to come together, the cores of each both have a down year this year.  The big bands of grunge generally reach their end this year, while the big Brit-pop bands (Blur, Oasis, & Pulp) all take the year off.  They’ll be back, in some cases in considerably different form, but in their absence the British scene as a whole feels a bit empty.  There are plenty of older acts still going.  The Fall and Cure continue to work in a more beat-heavy vein, but still close enough to sound appropriate next to Brit-pop (to the degree that the Fall ever sound not-jarring next to other bands, given Mark E. Smith’s distinctive approach to music-making).  Just as I was wondering when I’d hear from him again, Billy Bragg returns with some mighty pleasant folk-rock, this time playing up his more romantic side.

                But Brit-pop is about to splinter into a host of different directions, as represented by three debut albums this year.  I already mentioned Kula Shaker, who stand in for a whole host of post-Oasis trad rock bands.  I understand why critics didn’t like them, since they’re really no more or less than an homage to late 60s (pre-metal) Deep Purple, but I loved late 60s Deep Purple, and so have a soft spot for Kula Shaker as well.  Regardless, they’re representative of a whole host of post-Oasis bands that will follow.  On the other side of the rocking spectrum, we’ve got the first two albums from Belle & Sebastian, who owe just as much to the late 60s, albeit the folk-pop of Van Morrison, the Left Banke, and Nick Drake, as well as a healthy dose of the La’s and the Smiths.  They, along with Sebadoh in the United States, point to the future of indie-pop, with a retreat from rocking in favor of a melodic and wistful folk-pop, which makes perfect sense as an antithesis to the laddish or meatheaded rock that’ll be dominant in the end of the decade (though the UK got Oasis-aping bands and we got nü-metal, so they won that battle hands-down).  Finally, and best of all, we get the album debut of the Super Furry Animals, who again owe a lot to the late 60s, but while Kula Shaker and Belle & Sebastian are basically homages to specific styles, the SFA took away the relentless experimentation within a pop-song framework of the early psychedelic singles.  Not really dated sonically, either, with elements of punk, and other later sonic movements in the stew.  More just in the sense that they give equal importance to energy, sonic creativity, and catchiness, making them easily the most Beatles-eque band since at least Blur, but probably since the Beatles themselves.  High praise, and a bit too high for a debut that, frankly, leans more heavily on the sugar rush of energy than the more expansive and experimental stuff of their later work.  But they’re close to my platonic ideal of a pop band (catchy, experimental, British, guitar-based but unafraid of techno), so I get excited.

                Back in the States, 1996 is most definitely the end of the line for grunge, where we get the last albums from the original grunge bands other than Mudhoney (who’ll never change, most likely) and Pearl Jam (who have already moved past grunge).  But Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and the Screaming Trees all end their runs this year, plus we get a last live album from Nirvana.  Alice in Chains, who generally paralleled Nirvana a lot more than I realized, end their run like Nirvana, with an MTV Unplugged album.  It’s neither as shocking as Nirvana’s (since they’d already started moving in a more acoustic direction) nor as revelatory (since there are no illuminating covers or particularly radical rearrangements), but it’s a fine way to go out (and like Nirvana, they’ll follow up with an electric live album in the coming years, but not one I own).

                Soundgarden and Screaming Trees, however, end with studio albums, both of which look back to 70s rock and generally are ‘cleaner’ than their earlier stuff.  For Soundgarden, this is almost a return to their pre-Badmotorfinger sound, with a bit more wah-wah on the guitars; really it mostly sounds like late-era Zeppelin.  Good, but unremarkable.  Screaming Trees, on the other hand, deepen the folk-rock influence in their sound; maybe the most grungy of the Seattle bands this year anyhow.

                Furthest from their original sound are Pearl Jam, though, who have come out the other side of their Neil Young collaboration as an eclectic but thoroughly classicist rock band (though they sound uncannily like the Foo Fighters on “Mankind”).  No Code is diverse as Vitalogy, but far less experimental.  They’re probably the biggest band in the world this year, but they’re already starting to withdraw into their own little world.  R.E.M. are similarly withdrawing, with what’s probably their most sonically adventurous set to date, including songs that recall any number of stopping points along their career plus a willingness to put their own abstracted and distinct spin on the increasingly electronics-heavy alt sound, with drum machines and siren sound effects that work surprisingly well.  This is especially the case when used to build a synthetic version of their haunted Automatic sound more than the stuff that was probably Monster outtakes to begin with.

                If grunge is dying out, though, there’s also the beginnings of a scene that could fairly be called neo-grunge (if that label wasn’t already taken by the dire likes of Creed and Nickelback).  But the likes of Modest Mouse (who debut this year) and Built To Spill (who’ve been kicking around for a couple of years) owe a lot to the classic grunge sound, though more to the New England variant of Dinosaur Jr. and Neil Young than their fellow West Coasters in Seattle.  If anything, they most closely resemble the Screaming Trees of the Seattle bands.  They’re less interested in abrasive noise-for-noise, but also less interested in ideas that can be expressed at single-length, favoring jammy or extended pieces recalling Neil Young (or, I suppose, Phish, in compositional approach (jamming around almost progressive suite-song construction) but not in sound, favoring guitars that crunch rather than noodle).  Still in their early stages, but worth noting as keeping the flag burning for this kind of rock as the early 90s exemplars drift apart.  Also keeping the flag burning this year is Neil Young, with his most jammy of his trilogy of mid-90s grunge records (so perhaps the one that sounds most like 70s electric Neil), plus a double-live album, plus his grunge-ambient soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man, memorably described by Ebert as the sound of Young dropping his guitar down a flight of stairs.

                Outside of grunge (& R.E.M.), alt-rock is increasingly colorful and upbeat in its approach.  Beck’s Odelay is clearly the biggest example of this shift to a more “upbeat” alt-rock, but the band that best embodies this shift is the Stone Temple Pilots.  They always had a glam element, but perhaps inspired by the glam sounds of R.E.M. and U2 in recent years, this year give full reign to that sound, turning into something approximating a glam Led Zeppelin.  At last no longer trying at all to sound like a grunge band, they also manage to hit their absolute peak, being the colorful stadium-rockin’ glam band they always wanted to be.  They are also part of a whole mini-glam revival this year, elsewhere represented by the more straight-up Bowie influenced Spacehog.  (this also ties in with another of my themes this year: the collapsing gap between the US and UK scenes, the UK having been on a glam revival since Suede’s debut back in 1993).

                Elsewhere a bunch of other alt-rock mini-scenes are churning along.  Weezer accidentally jump-start the emo scene with Pinkerton , not inventing the sub-genre, which grew out of DC hardcore, but making an album that shares a lot of the virtues of the mid-90s version (not the goth-revival ‘00s version).  The same basic sound as their debut (grunge guitars playing happy pop melodies), but with a bit more lyrical angst, though still mighty funny at times.  And “The Good Life” again illustrates how the indie-rock of Pavement wasn’t so far from the alt-rock getting played on the radio, at least not yet.

 The mid-90s were a mini golden age for humor in music (as well as horns in music).  This is captured by Cake, who don’t really fit in any genre (except post-Camper college rock maybe), but sound perfectly natural next to the ska and swing revivals on the radio.  Ska revival moves in a decidedly jokey direction, away from the more hard-edged likes of Rancid and the Bosstones, in favor of the lighter likes of Reel Big Fish and Goldfinger.  These are the kinds of bands that gave the Third Wave a bad name, but that’s not really fair.  First of all, there were a lot of excellent regional ska bands that were phenomenal (and owed a lot more to the First Wave) and secondly, songs like “Sell Out” and “Here In Your Bedroom” were a heck of a lot better than the dour or artificial likes that would follow soon enough.  Also, this is Sublime’s big year; they were damn near inescapable that summer, and worthy of the attention (sadly, leader Bradley Nowell was already dead by the time the album got play).  Ironically, while the rest of the Third Wave is getting more jokey, Sublime are less jokey than on 40 oz. for Breakfast, and tighter in their songcraft besides.  The Bad Religion influence is almost entirely gone, though, leaving a mellower vibe more reggae than ska. 

Of course, one of the oddest revivals in the 90s was the brief swing revival, but it always made a bit of sense to me coming out of the ska revival.  Unlike the Second Wave, which was only a decade removed from the First Wave’s Jamaican peak, Third Wave was commemorating a well-distant style, so if you’re a young, punk/alternative minded band with a horn section, how different really is the 60s-retro of ska from the 40s-retro of swing?  Anyway, it was a lot of fun, even if the swing bands were generally too focused on being true to the vintage sound to play with it enough to make it a revival that could point toward an evolution of the sound (in contrast, for instance, to the Second Wave, which was flexible enough to grow and move forward). 

                But as I alluded to, the biggest development in alt-rock is more properly what’s happening at the nexus of three previously largely distinct scenes: alt-rock, hip-hop, and electronica.  The Brits, of course, have been fusing UK indie and electronica elements since the dance-rock days of ’91 (and the Fall and Cure both continue to work in that vein this year), but few bands since Big Audio in the UK seemed to really care about hip-hop.  Similarly, Stereolab add beats to their sound this year, but end up recalling Neu! more than hip-hop or even electronica.  But in the US, something is starting to churn at the margins of both alt-rock and hip-hop, borrowing the junk-shop aesthetic of Sebadoh and Beck (circa Mellow Gold) from alt-rock and fusing it with the sample-happy aesthetic and boom-bap of hip-hop.  On the rock end of things, this produces Soul Coughing (who are still more beat-jazz influenced (which means they sound oddly appropriate next to the swing-revivalists), but increasingly rhythmically focused and playing with repetition), some of what Sublime’s been up to, and most importantly Beck’s Odelay (which of the three shows the most willingness to add in electronica elements, as well as touches of Madchester-style funk-rock).  Odelay, more than any record since maybe License to Ill, sits right on the boundaries between hip-hop and rock (Ill Communication doesn’t count as while there was both rock & hip-hop, they were generally “rock” songs next to “hip-hop” songs). 

                On the hip-hop side of things, there’s a rediscovery of the collage-happy aesthetic that dominated in the Bush Administration years, and I'm thrilled to hear that it breaks the genre out of the rut it's been in.  1996, as it turns out, is the year that indie hip-hop as I know it really comes into being, driven by a pair of producer-dominated projects.  DJ Shadow's Endtroducing... shares more musical DNA with Beck, similarly fusing a vast and at times deeply counterintuitive set of samples and influences into a coherent whole.  It’s so inventive in its cut-&-paste aesthetic, and the first great instrumental hip-hop record, so perhaps it’s no surprise that the electronica kids would claim it as one of their own.  Still, the foregrounded boom-bap and swinging rather than pounding beats make it clear that this is hip-hop.  (not that the electonica acts weren’t doing interesting stuff this year as well, esp. Daft Punk, who continue to put out a run of fantastic singles in advance of their actual debut album).  Elsewhere in the new indie hip-hop, Dan the Automator and Kool Keith's Dr. Octagon is more focused on original composition, as well as some of the most original (and bizarre) flow I've heard in awhile.  Plus, Automator has long been perhaps my favorite hip-hop producer, whose classical training make him much more compositionally adventurous than most; almost like an Eno with beats.  Between the two of them, Automator and Keith pretty much invent space-rap, the psychedelic and cosmically-focused subgenre that I suppose picks up where Parliament left off.  Also, just as a way of foreshadowing the future, Automator’s A Much Better Tomorrow EP (also featuring Kool Keith) already shows that Automator was the key architect of Gorillaz’ sound.

Not that there isn't other stuff going on in hip-hop.  Outkast are also trying their own variant on space rap, setting themselves up already as the group that best bridges the worlds of indie and mainstream hip-hop.  Meanwhile, A Tribe Called Quest continue to carry the flame for the older, Native Tongues version of indie hip-hop, and the Roots serve as a bridge here, between the older, jazzy hip-hop underground and the new spacey version.

And I mentioned earlier that there hadn't really been anything in hip-hop-rock crossover, but that does overlook Rage Against The Machine's thrash-meets-Public Enemy sound.  It was tremendously innovative on their debut, but this year they're in the odd position of being both innovative on the micro level (clever riffs, neat effects) and repeating themselves on the macro level (none of these songs would sound out of place on their debut).  Rage are also on the verge of securing their place as the band with the worst quality to quality of followers ratio in history, as the execrable likes of Korn and Limp Bizkit are about to ooze their way onto the airwaves.

Deeper into straight metal, Metallica make their big alt rock "sellout," but it's honestly more in their visual aesthetic (apparently scandalous haircuts) than sonics, as Load is basically more of the same from the Black Album: a harder version of 70s classic rock, albeit now with a noticeable dose of Alice in Chains imitation on lead single “Until It Sleeps.”  Similarly looking back to the 70s, but to a more hard prog 70s, are Opeth, who oddly but entertainingly fuse death metal and Jethro Tull/King Crimson style hard/soft prog.

                Within real classic rock, it’s also a good year.  Tom Petty continues to appeal to the alt-rock camp, this year covering Beck, but also is decidedly backward-looking, with a big, studio-polished sound that sounds a lot like Fleetwood Mac (without the, shall we say, caprine singing).  Bruce Springsteen also looks backward but also appeals to the alt-rockers, returning to the stripped Nebraska sound that was always the favorite among the alt-rockers (and the biggest influence on them as well, esp. in the alt-country side of things).

                Among the alt-country bands, a quieter year than last year’s explosion, but an impressively sprawling (in an Exile On Main St. kind of way) double-LP from Wilco, showing their stylistic range within the broad confines of roots rock, and even (on the Disc 1 and Disc 2 openers) pointing toward the more complex and abstracted structures that will define the band going forward.  Otherwise, not a lot to report from the established bands, though the debut of one of the favorite acts of a significant portion of my readership, the Refreshments.  They probably fit among the alt-country bands most closely at this point, though they also have a healthy dose of the harder roots-punk sound of Social Distortion (who put out another album of their excellent roots-punk this year), as well as scoring yet another of the numerous light-hearted singles of the alt-rock era that you couldn’t imagine being a hit after.  Even before Liz introduced me to the fantastic live show of Roger Clyne & co., I loved “Banditos,” because 1) it sounded like Dinosaur Jr. circa “Feel The Pain” and 2) it referenced Star Trek.

                So a lot of good stuff, but as I alluded to, there are worrying signs.  No sooner does grunge die, than one of the genres it drove from the charts springs back like a weed.  The Backstreet Boys are the leading edge of a new synthetic soul-pop/boy-band revival, but there’ll be more.  In itself not so terrible a sign; throughout the alt-rock period there were Michael Jackson-aping acts (including the man himself, albeit a shadow of his former greatness).  Much more worrying is the new crop of mainstream “alt-rock” bands.  This year we get Matchbox 20, in the vein of Everclear last year and Third Eye Blind next year (and, probably not coincidentally, Everclear were a bit better and Third Eye Blind a bit worse).  None of these bands are bad, per se; they shuffle along in a sub-Counting Crows kind of way that seemed harmless enough.  But they also almost scientifically pinpoint the blandest parts of early 90s alt-rock, stripping away all the goofiness, eccentricity, energy, and unpredictability that made the genre fun in favor of midtempo acoustic strumming and ham-handed electric pounding while their lead singers angst on about their generic “feelings” or whatever.  If you want to know why people remember alt-rock badly, it’s this blandly dutiful kind of alt-rock (well, this and the neo-grunge bleating of the likes of Creed & Nickelback).  It’d be like if you remembered the New Wave as the likes of Toto – too late and not actually a part of the genre itself.  Anyway, early 90s radio was a mini Golden Age (as I’ve noted before, akin to the psychedelic and New Wave eras), when labels and DJs didn’t know what would sell, so threw up all sorts of weirdness in the hopes of getting lucky.  But after a few glorious years, they figured out that this stuff will do the trick, and it’ll eventually clog up alt-rock radio, driving the interesting stuff back into underground.  *sigh*  1996 was a good year, and honestly alt-rock had a very good run, but ’96 feels a lot like ’83 did: still quality, but coming to an end before a dark period (at least on the radio).

Song of the Year:  No clear winner, but I’m tempted to go with Dr. Octagon’s “Earth People.”  It was birth of late-90s space rap and Kool Keith’s fantastical, absurdist boasts are an outstanding send-up of the much duller boasting of gangsta.  I fancy myself a connoisseur of the absurd rap boast, and this song has some gems.  Personal favorites include “astronauts get played, tough like a ukulele” and “my 7XL is not yet invented.”  Plus, as I mentioned above, the introduction to the broader world of Automator, perhaps my all-time favorite hip-hop producer, who cooks up a mean organ-based groove here.

Album of the Year:  Beck – Odelay.  An easy pick, straddling the worlds of hip-hop, electronica, and alt-rock, and sounding for all the world like the future of alt-rock. 

Artist Most Benefiting from Reevaluation:  DJ Shadow – I came to Endtroducing… late, so it sounded like a lot of other hip-hop in my collection; but Shadow was there first and really set the template for my favorite era in hip-hop.

Artist Most Diminished in Reevaluation:  Matchbox 20.  See above rant.  Before, I thought they were mediocre but harmless; in hindsight they were the leading edge of a wave that would replace one of the great eras of rock (at least on the radio) with one of the blandest.  And somehow their sound was the one that would endure well into the next decade.

Album List

A Tribe Called Quest - Beats Rhymes & Life

Alice In Chains - MTV Unplugged

Automator - A Better Tomorrow

Backstreet Boys - Backstreet Boys

Beck - Odelay

Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister

Belle & Sebastian - The BBC Sessions

Belle & Sebastian - Tigermilk

Billy Bragg - Must I Paint You A Picture?: The Essential Billy Bragg

Black Grape - Misc.

Blind Melon - Nico

Blur - Great Escape B-Sides

Bruce Springsteen - The Essential Bruce Springsteen

Built To Spill - Misc.

Cake - Fashion Nugget

Cee-Lo Green - Closet Freak: The Best Of Cee-Lo Green The Soul Machine

Charlatans UK - Melting Pot

Daft Punk - Musique Vol 1

Devo - Pioneers Who Got Scalped: The Anthology

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing...

Dr. Octagon - Dr. Octagonecologyst

Dropkick Murphys - The Singles Collection, Vol. 1

Elvis Costello - Extreme Honey: The Very Best Of The Warner Bros. Years

Jamiroquai - Travelling Without Moving

Johnny Cash - Unchained

King Crimson - Live 1994-2003

Kula Shaker - K

Kula Shaker - Summer Sun

Manic Street Preachers - Forever Delayed

Matchbox Twenty - Yourself Or Someone Like You

Metallica - Load

Midnight Oil - 20,000 Watts R.S.L.: Greatest Hits

Modest Mouse - Misc.

Modest Mouse - This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About

Neil Young - Broken Arrow

Neil Young - Dead Man (Soundtrack)

Neil Young - Year Of The Horse

Nirvana - From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah [Live]

Oasis - The Masterplan

Old 97's - Hit By A Train: The Best Of Old 97's

Opeth - Morningrise

Outkast - ATLiens

Patti Smith - Horses

Patti Smith - Outside Society

Paul Weller - Modern Classics

Pearl Jam - Christmas Singles

Pearl Jam - Lost Dogs

Pearl Jam - No Code

Phish - Billy Breathes

R.E.M. - New Adventures In Hi-Fi

Radiohead - The Bends B-Sides

Rage Against The Machine - Evil Empire

Rancid - And Out Come The Wolves

Richard Thompson - Action Packed: The Best Of The Capitol Years

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers - Liz's Best of Compliation for Her Wonderful Husband

Rush - Retrospective 3

Screaming Trees - Dust

Screaming Trees - Ocean Of Confusion - Songs Of Screaming Trees 1990-1996

Sebadoh - Harmacy

Social Distortion - White Light White Heat White Trash

Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss

Soundgarden - A-Sides

Soundgarden - Down On The Upside

Spacehog - Hamsters of Rock

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hot

Stereolab - Serene Velocity - A Stereolab Anthology

Stone Temple Pilots - Thank You

Sublime - Sublime

Super Furry Animals - Fuzzy Logic [Bonus Tracks]

Super Furry Animals - Mwng

Super Furry Animals - Outspaced

Super Furry Animals - Super Furry Animals Songbook

The Beach Boys - Stars & Stripes

The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Take It From The Man!

The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request

The Cranberries - The Best Of The Cranberries 20th Century Masters The Millennium Collection

The Cure - Galore (The Singles 1987-1997)

The Dandy Warhols - Dandys Rule OK

The Fall - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong: 39 Golden Greats

The Fall - Light User Syndrome

The Flaming Lips - The Fearless Freaks

The Mekons - I Have Been to Heaven and Back..., Vol. 1

The Refreshments - Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy

The Refreshments - Wedding Songs

The Roots - Illadelph Halflife

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - She's The One

V/A - Children Of Nuggets IV

V/A - Trainspotting

Weezer - Pinkerton

Weezer - The Good Life

Wesley Willis - Fabian Road Warrior

Wilco - Being There

Wu-Tang Clan - Wu: The Story Of The Wu-Tang Clan