Santana Smooth
November 13, 2012 8:56 AM Subscribe

Santana’s Supernatural was 1999’s most surprisingly successful album.
posted by josher71 (733 comments total) 54 users marked this as a favorite

"Supernatural is truly an unusual beast: A comeback record made by a defining artist of the Woodstock generation that functions as the ultimate mixtape of Clinton-era pop-rock awfulness."

All right, now who's willing to do a quick-and-dirty primer on early and awesome Santana for me, since I'm of the generation that knew the name, missed out on the original music, but really hated what she heard of "Supernatural"?
posted by MonkeyToes at 9:03 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

aaaah just reading the words makes it happen again in my brain noooo make it staaaahp
posted by The Whelk at 9:05 AM on November 13, 2012 [26 favorites]

It had a bunch of great songs on it. I wasn't surprised.
posted by Renoroc at 9:05 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

or the songs with Everlast and Eagle-Eye Cherry, since those were once people that other people were familiar with.

Neneh is so bringing up that vicious burn at the Cherry Thanksgiving this year.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 9:05 AM on November 13, 2012 [18 favorites]

That goddamn "Smooth" would have been an invisible dainty if it had just been an invisible dainty - a song that was even popular, and that would be on the radio occasionally for the 6 or 8 weeks after it hit big and then would, rightfully, be relegated to occasional "Oh yeah, I remember that one" duty while in the lobby of Jiffy-Lube. But instead, lordy me. Despicable ubiquity. If I ever meet anyone responsible I'ma punch them in the face.
posted by dirtdirt at 9:07 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm with The Whelk. I just saw the link and went, "Aw, shit, now that song is going to be stuck in my head for friggin' HOURS."
posted by Kitteh at 9:07 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

All right, now who's willing to do a quick-and-dirty primer on early and awesome Santana for me

This'll do you. [possibly NSFW] (edit, better link)
posted by shakespeherian at 9:07 AM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

All right, now who's willing to do a quick-and-dirty primer on early and awesome Santana for me

The easy answer is to check out the album Abraxas.
posted by yoink at 9:09 AM on November 13, 2012 [15 favorites]

I remember "Supernatural" as one of the least awful songs playing at the gym circa 2000 on the occasions when my CD player's (!!!) battery died. Then again I haven't expected much listenable stuff out of mainstream pop/rock radio for many years. And now I have a much more portable music device to take to the gym with me!

On preview: now that Horace Rumpole has brought her up, I may have to play Neneh Cherry's "Move With Me" first thing when I get home tonight.
posted by Currer Belfry at 9:09 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Hey, I still kind of like "Smooth". And "Put Your Lights On" is awesome.

But yeah, I do get the complaints about ubiquitousness. At about this time, I saw some peoples' choice awards show VH-1 set up, and during the voting, they also were soliciting viewers for ideas for creating their own award. Then, when they'd established what the new award would be, they'd also take a viewer vote about who should get that award.

The winning idea for a new award was the "Your Song Kicks Ass But Got Played Too Damn Much" award, and the winner of that award was "Smooth."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:09 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

1999 was the year I hung up my Tower Records nametag and got a "real job." I'm pretty sure Santana and Rob Thomas were more than little responsible for this.
posted by entropicamericana at 9:09 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

gimme yo' heart, make it reeeal

OH ELSE FUHGGEDABOUDIT
posted by incomple at 9:09 AM on November 13, 2012 [72 favorites]

You know that scene in horror movies where a giant stone tomb door closes with someone alive on the inside and there's a "whoosh" of air and sudden darkness and the character reflects on their poor decisions and is convinced that this will be the end of them? That happens in my head when you bring up Matchbox 20.
posted by griphus at 9:10 AM on November 13, 2012 [13 favorites]

I think my continued enjoyment of “Smooth” is due almost entirely to not listening to the radio at all between 1997 and 2006.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:10 AM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

If anyone is now helplessly earwormed, I recommend Cerrone's Supernature as a terrible antidote, which is what I was immediately earwormed with.
posted by elizardbits at 9:10 AM on November 13, 2012

Tangentially - the rest of the AV Club's series about Number 1 albums, where this article was found, looks pretty cool.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:12 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

How to get rid of ear worms.
posted by josher71 at 9:13 AM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

aaaah just reading the words makes it happen again in my brain noooo make it staaaahp

Did somebody say...make it Stapp?

Because that's the only way that album could have been any worse...
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 9:14 AM on November 13, 2012 [10 favorites]

This post... it's just like the ocean under the moon
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 9:14 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

Matchbox Twenty Finally Finishes Watering Down Long-Awaited New Album
posted by Navelgazer at 9:15 AM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

Oh god.. or else fugettaboutit is stuck in my head. This is making me pine for yesterday when Chug-a-Lug by Roger Miller was stuck in my head.
posted by Ad hominem at 9:15 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yeah, well, it's the same as the emotion that I get from you.
posted by josher71 at 9:16 AM on November 13, 2012

ɔː ɛl̩z faʊgɛd əʊbɔːd ɪ
posted by Iridic at 9:16 AM on November 13, 2012 [9 favorites]

A weirdly staticky playback of "Smooth" was our only hold music for a year. The greatest thing about getting our new phone system was the fancy hold-music server appliance, which means no more customers who'd been driven stark raving mad by a few minutes on hold.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:17 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

I guess hating on "Smooth" is cool or whatever, but let's not forget "Maria, Maria" the real gem of awfulness on Supernatural.

Seriously, it's the worst Wyclef Jean song of 1999-2000, and he did a song with The Rock during those years.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 9:17 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

The British version of the 70s star does duet album with late 90s pop stars thing was Tom Jones' Reload, which went #1 on the UK album charts in 1999. In my opinion it's a great album, especially Burning Down the House and All Mine.
posted by burnmp3s at 9:18 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

"Maria, Maria" the real gem of awfulness on Supernatural.

UNDEAD HORRORS FROM THE ANCIENT PAST ARE RISING TO KILL AGAIN
posted by The Whelk at 9:18 AM on November 13, 2012 [11 favorites]

I had totally forgotten about "Maria Maria" and it is truly the thing that should not be.
posted by josher71 at 9:19 AM on November 13, 2012

I also pretty much like "Put Your Lights On," but I actually like Everlast more than I'd admit to people I know in real life. If you ever see me frantically turning down my MP3 player because people are standing near me, there's a good chance I was listening to "Ends."
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 9:20 AM on November 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

Seriously, it's the worst Wyclef Jean song of 1999-2000, and he did a song with The Rock during those years.

It was so awful that I would rather listen to "Jingle Bell Rock" in one ear and "Benny and the Jets" in the other. And I wouldn't do that on a dare.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 9:21 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

It really is a testament that all it took was reading the words. WTF Brain.
posted by Ad hominem at 9:22 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

You know what else was #1 in 1999? A Limp Bizkit album.

Supernatural is not by any means the worst thing about listening to the radio in 1999 is what I'm saying.
posted by Copronymus at 9:22 AM on November 13, 2012 [26 favorites]

Say what you like about "Smooth", but it is one of the most danceable songs ever. It makes for an awesome cha-cha.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:24 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

A Limp Bizkit album.

DON'T SAY THE WORDS IT WILL SUMMON NU ROCK BACK INTO BEING.
posted by The Whelk at 9:24 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

The rise of the PRS.
posted by resurrexit at 9:25 AM on November 13, 2012

I actually once heard "Smooth" in the car with my dad, who probably hasn't listened to a new CD that didn't feature a female bluegrass singer in 15 years and whose interest in popular music petered out somewhere in the 70s. So, the song starts and that so familiar riff is playing and he's never heard it before. He hears it and says "wow, this is really good, who is this?" And I say, "it's actually Carlos Santana on guitar." Then the vocals started and he just wordlessly changed the station.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 9:26 AM on November 13, 2012 [19 favorites]

>In my opinion it's a great album, especially Burning Down the House and All Mine.

I unapologetically and unironically listen to "Motherless Child" from that album all the time (it came up on the drive into work today, as a matter of fact!)
posted by xbonesgt at 9:26 AM on November 13, 2012

Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, guys
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 9:27 AM on November 13, 2012 [12 favorites]

Well, dammit, now I've got the little riff from "Maria, Maria" stuck in my head.

dooooo da doo doo doo-doo doo-doo-doooo da doo dooo
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 9:27 AM on November 13, 2012

There where some good songs from the late 90s early 00s right on the radio? Franz Ferdinand is good, so where The White Stripes....and ...others?
posted by The Whelk at 9:28 AM on November 13, 2012

Oh god this fucking song.

My mom made me make her a mix CD that had Smooth on it three times.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 9:30 AM on November 13, 2012 [26 favorites]

You know, got "Rolling" stuck in my head last week, and I thought this is probably the worst Limp Bizkit song, but then I remembered "Nookie" and that execrable cover of "Behind Blue Eyes" and realized it might be the best.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 9:30 AM on November 13, 2012 [11 favorites]

There's a significant advantage to not listening to the damn radio. I can appreciate Supernatural for what it is and enjoy it being more fun than it has any right to be without it ruining Santana's old work for me or seeming over played.

I still play Smooth from time to time on this Rock Band/Guitar Heroish PC game I play. But then I'm not one of those folks who hate Rob Thomas with the passion of eight thousand fiery suns. Because I didn't listen to him too much on the damn radio.
posted by wierdo at 9:30 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Two years later, 9/11. Just sayin'. Coincidence? I think not.
posted by phaedon at 9:31 AM on November 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

This article is an act of mercy, I guess, in that it is intended to focus on Santana and, to some secondary extent, people who like something about Santana.

For me and for countless others, Supernatural was the album that cemented Santana as just another terrible never-was hippie band. Even as a dumb and relatively unenlightened kid, their biggest single always seemed incredibly regressive and kind of creepy to me, but I figured there must be something to them since they were supposedly legends or something. But then that album came along, and... that was it. "Nope," I said. "Always been terrible, always will be terrible."

I've gradually become a bit more accepting – by which I mean I actually kind of like the song "Europa," a tiny bit – but by and large this opinion has served me well into adulthood. And I think lots of people in my generation have generally felt the same way. Santana shot himself in the foot with that album; he, like many, didn't seem to realize that the 90s was the changing of the guard, and that you had to kind of handle your approach to that carefully. Neil Young did it right. Carlos Santana did not.
posted by koeselitz at 9:34 AM on November 13, 2012

FOOLS, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE.
posted by adamdschneider at 9:34 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Oh Maria Maria
She fell in love in East L.A.
To the sounds of the guitar, yeah ye-ah,
Played by Carlos Santana...

I do believe that Wyclef Jean meant all four lines to rhyme.
posted by Iridic at 9:35 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

There where some good songs from the late 90s early 00s right on the radio? Franz Ferdinand is good, so where The White Stripes....and ...others?

A sampling of who was active from about 1997 through 2001 --

Jewel.
Hanson.
En Vogue.
Usher.
Duncan Sheik.
The Spice Girls.
Shania Twain.
Paula Cole.
Backstreet Boys.
N'Sync.
Barenaked Ladies.
Smashmouth.
Lenny Kravitz.
Destiny's Child.
Nelly.
Eminem.
Alicia Keys.
Outkast.

I leave it as an exercise for the reader to ascertain whether each artist listed is "good" or "bad".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:36 AM on November 13, 2012 [12 favorites]

oye como va oye como va oye como va oye como va oye como va oye como va oye como va oye como va oye como va oye como va oye como va oye como va oye como va va oye como va oye como va oye como va oye como va oye como va oye como va mi ritmo
posted by Ad hominem at 9:40 AM on November 13, 2012 [11 favorites]

Thinking about it more, I seem to recall that a lot of the late-90s early-00s pop artists had really mediocre albums, but then you come across these really interesting arrangements of them that are just freakin' beautiful. There's a version of 3AM with nothing but a piano and Rob Thomas singing which is surprisingly awesome IMO. There were some Goo Goo Dolls songs like that, too.

And if Santana's awesome guitar licks don't make almost anything tolerable, you need to see a mental health professional.

Also, funny article is funny. The Fraunhofer MP3 encoder was released in 95 or so, wasn't it? I think it was like three weeks later that someone sent me an MP3 on IRC and I was like WTF do I do with this? All this is after mass illicit copying began on the interwebs. I guess most people didn't have the perseverance to snatch whole albums at dial up (or even ISDN) speeds. Nor did they want to wait literally hours for their computer to encode one CD.
posted by wierdo at 9:42 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'll say one thing about EC's list -- if you were to ask back then "which of these will be two of the biggest celebrities in 2012?", I'm not sure "a member of N'Sync and a member of Destiny's Child" would have been everybody's/anybody's first guess.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:44 AM on November 13, 2012 [15 favorites]

Hey who remembers Fastball?

Thought so.
posted by griphus at 9:46 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

Did the late '90s produce nothing but annoying earworms?
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 9:46 AM on November 13, 2012

I'm pretty much a barometer of mediocre late 90s taste (ask me if I saw Everclear in concert this year) so what I'm saying is:

Challenge Accepted, Empress Callipygos

Good: N'Sync, Smashmouth, Destiny's Child (who doesn't like "Jumpin', Jumpin'" show yourself!), Nelly (Like half his stuff is insufferably bad, but come on "Shake Your Tailfeather"? "Country Grammar?"), Eminem, Outkast, Barenaked Ladies
Neither Good nor Bad: Hanson (Mmmbop is really a game time decision based on my mood), Spice Girls (good for drunk karaoke, bad for all other purposes) Backstreet Boys (Everybody/Larger than Life: Good. All Other songs: bad), Lenny Kravitz (he can be...fine)
Bad: En Vogue, Usher, Duncan Sheik, Paula Cole, Shania Twain, Alicia Keys

Jewel: Actually I once spent several two weeks doing nothing but listening to Pieces of You and driving around with a friend who was depressed about getting an abortion, so I'm going to pass on this one.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 9:47 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I don't know how other people experience music memory, but I generally hear highly-detailed "recordings," and right now I'm flipping back and forth between 8 bars of "Smooth" and "Maria Maria" and it's awful.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:48 AM on November 13, 2012

Oh, I meant that each individual would have their own opinions about who was good or bad.

After all, I think about half of your "bad" list would be on my "good" list, but....there is no accounting for taste, so you can't be faulted for that. (smile)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:49 AM on November 13, 2012

There where some good songs from the late 90s early 00s right on the radio?

I'm not sure any song from Hefner's The Fidelity Wars was ever played on the radio, but it's still a great 1999 album. As a sign of the times though, I onyl got to know about them because a friend recommended them and sent me an mp3 in an IRC session.

(The Hymn for the Cigarettes fan video.)
posted by MartinWisse at 9:49 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

Looking for a better "Supernatural"? Look no further.

If this removes anyone's earworm, you're welcome. It worked for me but I've known this song for like 10 years.
posted by Alewife's Husband at 9:51 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Lo Fidelity Allstars' "Battleflag" was probably the best song on the radio in that timespan.
posted by griphus at 9:53 AM on November 13, 2012 [14 favorites]

GRIPHUS - I DO IT WAS THE THEME SONG OF MY ROAD TRIP TO COLERADO THAT WAS SO BAD I SWORE TO NEVER GO NEAR A MOUNTAIN AGAIN
posted by The Whelk at 9:55 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Griphus - I remember Fastball. Not completely proud of that, but hey....there was FAR worse to be heard.
posted by Alewife's Husband at 9:55 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Do you suppose that the 22-year olds of the near-future will enjoy listening to this stuff in the same way that I "ironically" enjoy Orleans and Little River Band and Exile?
That ironic listening ultimately giving way to actual appreciation and enjoyment.

Also, what do we make of this cheese-on-toast?

In conclusion, this.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 9:55 AM on November 13, 2012

Based on my iTunes collection, 1999 was not a very good year, but 1998 was pretty decent, as was 1997, and I have a truckload of stuff from 2000. The only really good album I have that came out in 1999 that would be generally accessible is the first volume of 69 Love Songs. And Madonna by the Trail of Dead, but I don't think that would be a popular selection.

1998 meanwhile has a bunch of landmark albums and a bunch of things that are perennial favorites for me: Mermaid Avenue, The Shape of Punk to Come, Up (REM's last album ever - has it been that long?), In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Mezzanine, Moon Pix, The Black Light, The Boy with the Arab Strap, and Moon Safari. 1997 has The Lonesome Crowded West, Portishead, and OK Computer.
posted by LionIndex at 9:56 AM on November 13, 2012 [9 favorites]

Also hey, Semisonic was a thing on college radio?
posted by The Whelk at 9:56 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I don;t Steven Merrit can be considered a contender for good songs of a time period seeing as he is from space and possibly the futurepast.
posted by The Whelk at 9:57 AM on November 13, 2012 [10 favorites]

Whoah! This is amazing. I have legitimately, honestly never once heard that "Maria Maria" song until just right now because of this thread.

Viva Smashing the Monoculture!
posted by Senor Cardgage at 9:58 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

1995-2001: The worst period in American Popular Music.
Second Place: 1982-1988
Third Place: 1950-1956
Fourth Place: 1971-1976
Fifth Place: 2008-Now
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:58 AM on November 13, 2012 [8 favorites]

Well, at least 'The Way' has replaced 'Smooth' as my earworm over the course of this thread.
posted by Gordafarin at 9:58 AM on November 13, 2012

There where some good songs from the late 90s early 00s right on the radio? Franz Ferdinand is good, so where The White Stripes....and ...others?

I would put Franz Ferdinand, The White Stripes, The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, etc. in the solidly post-2000 category, at least in terms of being played on mainstream radio. For mainstream radio in the late 90s, Radiohead (different than post-2000 Radiohead, which was also good), Cake, Soul Coughing, Foo Fighters, Nada Surf, Portishead, and The Smoking Popes were all good in my opinion. Also third wave ska happened, although plenty of people vehemently hate third wave ska for whatever reason.
posted by burnmp3s at 9:58 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

It's a shame nobody makes good angry music anymore.

http://www.metafilter.com/tags/deathgrips
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:00 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

It's almost as if we collectively realize how truly fucking terrible it was and plug our ears and hum to avoid the memories.

There was some Dr. Who shit happening in the background to collectively erase Korn from our landscape.
posted by The Whelk at 10:00 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

Whatever. He's in the category of great guitar players, who can be instantly recognized from hearing only one note, and that can't be taken away by your newfangled "snark".
posted by thelonius at 10:01 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

I'm a huge fan of Santana's earlier material, and had just seen him in concert the year before Supernatural came out. I'm not going to say it's a classic album, but I do think you have to put it in the context of where music was at that point, and where it was heading.

Folks have mentioned the Limp Bizkit fiasco, but not only was alternative rock dead, but the chart domination of boy bands was right around the corner. It's not like there was *no* other good music at that time, but you could have had Carlos playing over six minutes of fart sounds and I would have chosen that over most of what was on the radio at that time.

"Love of My Life" is also the song my wife and I chose for our first wedding dance. So step off, haters!
posted by tonycpsu at 10:03 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

There was some Dr. Who shit happening in the background to collectively erase Korn from our landscape

This might actually be true. When a Korn song showed up on some Guitar Hero game a few years ago, it was a lot like Amy starts remembering that Rory existed in "The Pandorica Opens" only it didn't end with Korn shooting me, proving that Korn has less mercy than the Autons.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:04 AM on November 13, 2012 [9 favorites]

Also David Bowie released a really good album in 2002 that chartered super high but no one talks about.
posted by The Whelk at 10:04 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's a shame nobody makes good angry music anymore.

I've been trying to construct the perfect joke here, but I can't so just:

Taylor Swift.

(which is actually pretty much the comment equivalent to Taylor Swift's angry break-up lyrics... very literal.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:04 AM on November 13, 2012

Man all the Steve Vai h8rs piss me off dude is a legend. Who can forget his ground breaking song *shcroowwwwbleyDOOOOOO weedleweedleweedleSCREE weeblyZeeWEBBLYwoaaaaaaW* Brilliant.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:04 AM on November 13, 2012 [16 favorites]

Second Place: 1982-1988

Awful as it might've been for American music, that period is pretty solid on this side of the Atlantic: high tide of the post-punk UK music boom, a creative boom for all kinds of national pop movements in other countries in Europe: Nederpop, Neue Deutsche Welle, Italo, whatever the French were up to...
posted by MartinWisse at 10:05 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

There's a Modern Lovers bootleg from the early 70s where Jonathan Richman complains that the object of his affection is "listening to Santana and wasting her time". He was fighting the good fight even back then.
posted by anazgnos at 10:05 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Awful as it might've been for American music, that period is pretty solid on this side of the Atlantic

http://www.retrocrush.com/retrorandy/flockofseagulls/flockface.jpg
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:07 AM on November 13, 2012

I may have to play Neneh Cherry's "Move With Me" first thing when I get home tonight.

You may as well just start from the beginning of the soundtrack, because they don't get much more perfect.

Also worth noting that Neneh Cherry has a new project whose album didn't really do much for me, but now there's a remix companion that's much more to my liking.
posted by mykescipark at 10:09 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I worked at a pizza place during the Smooth heyday and we had a quarter jukebox. There were 3 songs on infinite loop when no money was put in the machine.

Smooth
Genie in a Bottle
Say My Name

Now whenever I hear any of those 3 gems I experience something akin to lost time, sweaty palms, nervousness, inability to make new memories. It's awful. Just awful.
posted by M Edward at 10:09 AM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

I can understand the desire to continue rocking into one's golden years, and also become increasingly detached from what's cool as I slowly slide toward them, but I still cannot understand what possessed Carlos Santana to perceive Rob Thomas as an appropriate person with whom to make a comeback of any kind other than perhaps one's lunch, coming back up.

Black Foliage: Animation Music was released in 1999, and may never be paralleled
posted by solipsophistocracy at 10:09 AM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

How is it that no matter where I am on the internet, somehow all the music I like is the WURST THING EVAH!

I'd be curious to do a general poll of ages and their correlation to music preferences. Because I just turned 30 and 1994-2004 is like a freaking golden age.

ok, some of it was terrible and aged badly but it still had some charm
posted by ChipT at 10:09 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

hey watch me identify roughly everyone in my age bracket with just one link
posted by The Whelk at 10:10 AM on November 13, 2012 [49 favorites]

Mmmbop is really a game time decision based on my mood

The Craig Ferguson version is always entertaining.
posted by elizardbits at 10:11 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

Hey did you guys know that every morning there's a halo hanging from the corner of my girlfriend's four-post bed?
posted by shakespeherian at 10:12 AM on November 13, 2012 [61 favorites]

I am going to kill you shakes.
posted by The Whelk at 10:12 AM on November 13, 2012 [22 favorites]

i hate you, shakespeherian.
posted by entropicamericana at 10:13 AM on November 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

Rustic Etruscan: “Did the late '90s produce nothing but annoying earworms?”

Well, let's see. Here are the top 10 Billboard singles for each year from 1997 to 2000.

1997
1 "Candle in the Wind 1997," Elton John
2 "Foolish Games / You Were Meant for Me," Jewel
3 "I'll Be Missing You," Puff Daddy, Faith Evans and 112
4 "Un-Break My Heart," Toni Braxton
5 "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down," Puff Daddy and Mase
6 "I Believe I Can Fly," R. Kelly
7 "Don't Let Go (Love)," En Vogue
8 "Return of the Mack," Mark Morrison
9 "How Do I Live," LeAnn Rimes
10 "Wannabe," Spice Girls

1998
1 "Too Close," Next
2 "The Boy Is Mine," Brandy and Monica
3 "You're Still the One," Shania Twain
4 "Truly Madly Deeply," Savage Garden
5 "How Do I Live," LeAnn Rimes
6 "Together Again," Janet Jackson
7 "All My Life," K-Ci & JoJo
8 "Candle in the Wind 1997," Elton John
9 "Nice and Slow," Usher
10 "I Don't Want to Wait," Paula Cole

1999
1 "Believe," Cher
2 "No Scrubs," TLC
3 "Angel of Mine," Monica
4 "Heartbreak Hotel," Whitney Houston, Faith Evans and Kelly Price
5 "...Baby One More Time," Britney Spears
6 "Kiss Me," Sixpence None the Richer
7 "Genie in a Bottle," Christina Aguilera
8 "Every Morning," Sugar Ray
9 "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here," Deborah Cox
10 "Livin' la Vida Loca," Ricky Martin

2000
1 "Breathe," Faith Hill
2 "Smooth," Santana and Rob Thomas
3 "Maria Maria," Santana and The Product G&B
4 "I Wanna Know," Joe
5 "Everything You Want," Vertical Horizon
6 "Say My Name," Destiny's Child
7 "I Knew I Loved You," Savage Garden
8 "Amazed," Lonestar
9 "Bent," Matchbox Twenty
10 "He Wasn't Man Enough," Toni Braxton
posted by koeselitz at 10:14 AM on November 13, 2012 [17 favorites]

What the world needs now is another folk singer...

...like I need a hole in my head.
posted by adamdschneider at 10:14 AM on November 13, 2012 [13 favorites]

Shakes, why did you have to go and steal my sunshine?
posted by The Whelk at 10:15 AM on November 13, 2012 [12 favorites]

griphus: "Hey who remembers Fastball?"

My music collection? Honestly, when I read that I couldn't place a single song of theirs. Upon listening, it's decent enough filler music. So is Semisonic's Closing Time. So is Every Morning for that matter. It's awesome never having been forced to listen to these songs every 15 minutes for weeks on end.
posted by wierdo at 10:15 AM on November 13, 2012

hey watch me identify roughly everyone in my age bracket with just one link

Oh man, Eve 6 is playing a tour this fall with Everclear, and even though I already saw Everclear this year*, it was really tempting. Alas, the show is in Baltimore.

*With the Gin Blossoms, Sugar Ray, Lit, and Marcy Playground; haters can hate, but it was awesome. Interestingly, Mark McGrath basically did the show as a variety show host, calling people on stage to have singing contests and shit. Meanwhile Art Alexakis kept trying to act like Everclear was still the post-grunge rock band that it stopped being sometime before releasing "A.M. Radio." So it was all "WHO IS AN OLD SCHOOL ROCK AND ROLLLL FAN?" then like two minutes later they played "Wonderful"
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:17 AM on November 13, 2012 [8 favorites]

how is it that Ryan Reynolds and Mark McGrath are separate people? This is like some Hoyt Axton/Joe Don Baker thing going on.
posted by The Whelk at 10:17 AM on November 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

hey watch me identify roughly everyone in my age bracket with just one link

Oh no you fucking didn't.

And ChipT, I'm roughly your same age (as just proven above) and the music of my teens and early twenties was seemingly designed to grant me humility and/or possibly allow master puppeteers to blackmail me later.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:18 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

this thread is making my sperms die
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:18 AM on November 13, 2012 [9 favorites]

AWWWWWWWW YEEEEEEEAAAAHHHHH

KEEP ON BROLIN BABY

YOU KNOW WHAT JOSH IT IS

JOSH BROLIN BROLIN BROLIN
posted by lazaruslong at 10:19 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

Whelk are you just upset because all around the world statues crumble for me?
posted by shakespeherian at 10:19 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

And I guess this thread is as good a place as ny to mention that it was only a couple of weeks ago I realized that Sublime's "What I Got" is basically just "Lady Madonna."
posted by Navelgazer at 10:21 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

A friend posted this compilation video of hit songs from 1999 (which leads off with Smooth, naturally) on facebook a couple weeks back. I DID NOT REALIZE THAT ALL THOSE SONGS WERE HIDING IN DARK CREVICES OF MY BRAIN SOMEHOW, BUT APPARENTLY THEY WERE!! EVERY LAST FREAKING ONE OF THEM!!

You're welcome.
posted by ActionPopulated at 10:21 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

shakes you are the worst person on the entire internets
posted by elizardbits at 10:21 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

This thread is making it really clear why the iPod was such a tremendous hit.
posted by entropicamericana at 10:23 AM on November 13, 2012 [25 favorites]

Maybe he's upset because he asked for a 13 but they drew a 31.
posted by Copronymus at 10:23 AM on November 13, 2012 [19 favorites]

I DID NOT REALIZE THAT ALL THOSE SONGS WERE HIDING IN DARK CREVICES OF MY BRAIN SOMEHOW, BUT APPARENTLY THEY WERE!! EVERY LAST FREAKING ONE OF THEM!!

YOU CANNOT FORCE ME TO RELIVE SENIOR YEAR OH GOD ITS HAPPENING AGAIN
posted by The Whelk at 10:24 AM on November 13, 2012 [8 favorites]

@Navelgazer

I dunno. Sounds more like Dr. Mario to me
posted by ChipT at 10:24 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

At some point this thread turned into a twisted form of psychological warfare. Time to bring out the big guns.

Some BODY once told me
the world is gonna roll me
I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed
posted by and for no one at 10:24 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

Copronymus I will find you.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:24 AM on November 13, 2012

Wake me up before you go-go
'Cause I'm not plannin' on going solo
Wake me up before you go-go
Take me dancing tonight
posted by and for no one at 10:24 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

this thread is making my sperms die

Well if it makes you feel any better, I've been around the world and found that only stupid people are breeding.
posted by burnmp3s at 10:26 AM on November 13, 2012 [23 favorites]

It's a shame nobody makes good angry music anymore.

You're welcome.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:26 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Well if it makes you feel any better, I've been around the world and found that only stupid people are breeding.

Yeah, but everybody knows that the world is full of stupid people.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:28 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

I had to google shakespeherian's post to find out what those lyrics came from. Do I win?
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:30 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

We've got to find the reason. The reason threads go wrong.
posted by lazaruslong at 10:30 AM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

When everything's a little clearer in the light of day
posted by and for no one at 10:30 AM on November 13, 2012

Look at, say, the top 20 albums of 1999. Bad as it is, I'd rank Supernatural in the top 20%.
posted by rocket88 at 10:31 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I had to google shakespeherian's post to find out what those lyrics came from.

I'd have to google this whole thread to understand it. That doesn't make me cool, it makes me old.

I'll just say I saw Rock of Ages a couple weeks ago, and I think I know how people who really lived through the 1950's felt when they saw Grease.
posted by marxchivist at 10:33 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

This seems like as good a place as any to confess that I've listened to Will 2k within the last week.

And again. Just now.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:33 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also may I present New Radicals' You Get What You Give from 1998, which is unquestionably the worst thing ever recorded by human civilization.
posted by griphus at 10:34 AM on November 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

lazaruslong: "We've got to find the reason. The reason threads go wrong."

You can look for answers, but that ain't fun.
posted by tonycpsu at 10:35 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

Both an album I loved and is steeped in nostalgia for the time I spent endlessly listening to it (backpacking, with limited musical selection, so irrevocably tied to that specific set of experiences).

That said, I loved the moment in the (UK original) Life on Mars when the host of a party rhetorically (this being the 70's) asks "Who wants to hear some Santana?" and in a lull everyone hears Sam Tyler say "Oh God" (in contempt), so everyone turns to look. Sam winces through a smile. "God I love Santana."
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 10:35 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

I will also just drop this here, and note that a guy when I was a sophomore in high school a guy with a whispy, terrible looking mustache banged on my car window in a parking lot to exclaim "I DIDN'T KNOW YOU LISTENED TO COOL MUSIC" because I was listening to it.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:36 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also may I present New Radicals' You Get What You Give yt from 1998, which is unquestionably the worst thing ever recorded by human civilization.

a song so bad it made the band break up!
posted by The Whelk at 10:37 AM on November 13, 2012

That doesn't make me cool, it makes me old.

It makes you free of suffering, apparently.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 10:39 AM on November 13, 2012

I'm very thankful to Shakesshperian -- now Halo by Porcupine Tree is my earworm.
posted by Alewife's Husband at 10:42 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's all right. To tell me. What you think. About bad music.
posted by lazaruslong at 10:42 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I will also just drop this here...

I once traded a Crazytown t-shirt for the first disc of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven to a high school girl who shortly after graduated and joined the Navy to learn to run nuclear reactors.
posted by griphus at 10:43 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

There's a serial killer in the financial district right now ranting about Train and wrapping a sledgehammer in plastic and I respect that.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:45 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

So many of the jokes are so hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. High above me. And so lovely.
posted by lazaruslong at 10:45 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

The Craig Ferguson version is always entertaining.

I think the Craig Ferguson version of anything is always entertaining.

Second Place: 1982-1988

Some years back, one of my cousins - when she was still in her late teens (I'm 15 years her senior) - entertained the whole family after Christmas dinner by making me listen to her copy of the soundtrack to The Wedding Singer, so they could all watch my reaction as each song got dredged up from whatever recess of my memory I'd shoved it into.

"Pass The Dutchie", people. I had totally forgotten that song even existed.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:46 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I once traded a Crazytown t-shirt for the first disc of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven to a high school girl who shortly after graduated and joined the Navy to learn to run nuclear reactors.

That's a perfect opening for my other "Butterfly" story which I initially neglected to tell. I work in the same building as a large oil industry lobbying organization. A few months back, I was in the elevator with an older guy in a suit, who was going to one of their floors; looked just like all the other fucks I see talking about fracking in the elevator.

Only he was positively BLARING "Butterfly" in his headphones. I tried really hard not to make eye contact with him, because I would have lost it.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:47 AM on November 13, 2012 [9 favorites]

>Also may I present New Radicals' You Get What You Give from 1998, which is unquestionably the worst thing ever recorded by human civilization.

oh god I had forgotten about that stupid fucking bucket hat why did you do this to me
posted by xbonesgt at 10:47 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

I just want to read this thread beneath the milky twilight.
posted by lazaruslong at 10:47 AM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

And we can ride it hooooooooooome
With one headlight
posted by padraigin at 10:49 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

Heh, this thread makes me remember running through the wet grass, falling a step behind.
posted by wierdo at 10:50 AM on November 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

I had to google shakespeherian's post to find out what those lyrics came from. Do I win?

I decided not to google shakespeherian's posts to find out what those lyrics came from, so I think I win.

anazgnos: Here you go.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:50 AM on November 13, 2012

I'm sorry for all the bad jokes. Seriously. I'm guilt-stricken, sobbing, with my head on the floor.
posted by lazaruslong at 10:51 AM on November 13, 2012 [8 favorites]

padraigin: "And we can ride it hooooooooooome
With one headlight"

One of my high school teachers lent me that CD, which I promptly ripped and returned.

And now I'm drowning slowly.
posted by wierdo at 10:52 AM on November 13, 2012

...the best thing is that someone shouted it out from the audience.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:52 AM on November 13, 2012

Don't feel bad. Only shooting stars break the mold.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:52 AM on November 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

True enough. Better to save this thread, and fight the break of dawn. Come tomorrow....
posted by lazaruslong at 10:53 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

I'm so glad I quit listening to the radio in 1989 when I was in 7th grade and heard Don Henley, New Kids On the Block, and Paula Abdul for the first time

Thank you for my monthly reminder to listen to "Straight Up"
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:53 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

Cut this thread into pieces. This is my last resort.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:53 AM on November 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

Speaking of Santana (the band).
posted by ersatz at 10:53 AM on November 13, 2012

I want something else. I'm not listening when you say goodbye.
posted by wierdo at 10:54 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

ooooo AHH AHH AHH AHH

UH UH
posted by lazaruslong at 10:54 AM on November 13, 2012

ouga chaka ouga ouga ouga chaka
posted by and for no one at 10:56 AM on November 13, 2012

Okay but tell me: did the wind sweep you off your feet?
posted by shakespeherian at 10:56 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

I only came for two days of playing, but I always wind up staying.
posted by wierdo at 10:57 AM on November 13, 2012

I've got something to tell you guys.
I've got news for you.
Gonna put some wheels in motion.
Get ready 'cause we're coming through...
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:57 AM on November 13, 2012

Cut this thread into pieces. This is my last resort.

Oh my God, I work with the world's biggest 40 year old Papa Roach fan. She took her daughters to a show and one of them got to touch the guy from Papa Roach, and she's actually showed me a video of it, MULTIPLE TIMES. The daughter was impossibly excited about it.

It's very difficult to talk to her about music because every conversation ends with us talking about Papa Roach or Drowning Pool and damn it that's weird.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:58 AM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

Okay hang on am I getting my little black backpack back?
posted by griphus at 10:59 AM on November 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

I hear the talking of the DJ
Can't understand just what does he say?

posted by and for no one at 11:01 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

I want something else
Togettmethroughthis
Semicharmedkindoflife
Baby
Baby
Baby
Dootdootdoot
Dootdootdootdoot
posted by emelenjr at 11:01 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

why are we doing this to each other?
posted by The Whelk at 11:03 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

BUZZZZZZZZZZ BALLLLADDSSS
posted by Senor Cardgage at 11:03 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm blue
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di

(This is, btw, still my default ringtone. I think I'm officially a horrible person.)
posted by kmz at 11:04 AM on November 13, 2012 [9 favorites]

I have no idea how much of this thread is jokes about bad songs or irony, but I will say this:

I am legitimately glad that I just remembered that "Little Black Backpack" exists.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:04 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

Don't let your life pass you by, wait not for the memories.

I don't even try to explain I just hold on tight and if happens again I may move so slightly...
posted by wierdo at 11:04 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

why are we doing this to each other?

We are merely freshmen.
posted by griphus at 11:04 AM on November 13, 2012 [34 favorites]

griphus is some kind of evil wizard you guys
posted by The Whelk at 11:05 AM on November 13, 2012

How the hell did this happen? I didn't really care about catching an earworm, but somehow I caught them all. Now I have between 6 and 15 songs in my head at the same time, all battling for the top spot, and all on a 3-5 second loop.

I feel like I'm quickly going crazy and being in the office can't listen to anything else to fix this.

Somebody please kill me. It's the only way now.
posted by Penks at 11:06 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

evil wizard by night, programming director for SiriusXM's Lithium (née Lucy) channel by day.
posted by tonycpsu at 11:06 AM on November 13, 2012

griphus spent the hours of 4 PM - 12 AM, every day, between the years 1998 and 2002 listening to K-Rock, New York City's home for rock radio at 92.3 FM, WXRK.
posted by griphus at 11:07 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

Somebody please kill me. It's the only way now.

Nah you just need a little bit of Monica in your life, a little bit of Erica by your side.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:08 AM on November 13, 2012 [14 favorites]

It's ok, I would protect you from everything even though I was always left standing when it came time to dance.
posted by wierdo at 11:09 AM on November 13, 2012

BUZZZZZZ CUTTTTS
posted by Senor Cardgage at 11:09 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Cut this thread into pieces. This is my last resort.

This was an excellent song in the original polka.
posted by roystgnr at 11:09 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Friday night I was talking to a woman at a bar and this general topic (terrible 90s music came up). I mentioned going to the concert that included Lit and her eyes got wide and she said, excitedly, "Did they play My Own Worst Enemy?"

I was torn between wanting to hug her for loving that song that much and wanting to ask her if she had ever actually been to a concert before.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:10 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

guys

I'm being serious

If I go crazy

would you still call me superman?
posted by The Whelk at 11:11 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

I hate you, shakespeherian.
posted by Penks at 11:11 AM on November 13, 2012

Only if you take me higher to a place where blind men see.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:12 AM on November 13, 2012

but then you'd be so high

above me

she's so lovely
posted by The Whelk at 11:13 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Man, this thread took a wierd turn. It's like it saw an exit to eternal summer slacking, and took it.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:13 AM on November 13, 2012 [9 favorites]

No, the whelk, I don't need to walk around to walk around in circles.
posted by wierdo at 11:13 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

This thread is nice and this thread is jumpin', but I hope the mods don't let the dogs out.
posted by griphus at 11:13 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ok, I'm done with this thread. Fuck.
posted by adamdschneider at 11:13 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

1995-2001: The worst period in American Popular Music.
Second Place: 1982-1988
Third Place: 1950-1956
Fourth Place: 1971-1976
Fifth Place: 2008-Now

I don't know about that fourth place. American acts 'round then would include early Springsteen, Aerosmith when they were actually dangerous, The New York Dolls, Lou Reed, the Allman Brothers, B.O.C., Steely Dan, Patti Smith was on the scene by '76...
posted by Ber at 11:14 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

but then you'd be so high

above me

she's so lovely

I'd fly so very high

just like a dragonfly.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:15 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Ok, I'm done with this thread. Fuck.

I don't remember that song.
posted by The Whelk at 11:15 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Ok, I'll have to leave this thread and go cry in the corner.
posted by Penks at 11:15 AM on November 13, 2012

People, people, this doesn't need to be a riot! Throw back a bottle of beer.
posted by Copronymus at 11:15 AM on November 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

Horace Rumpole: "or the songs with Everlast and Eagle-Eye Cherry, since those were once people that other people were familiar with.

Neneh is so bringing up that vicious burn at the Cherry Thanksgiving this year."

Eagle-Eye would then really know what it's like... to have the blues.
posted by symbioid at 11:16 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I don't want to wast my time with another casualty of conformity.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:16 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

sorry shakes, you're a little late, and I'm already torn.
posted by The Whelk at 11:16 AM on November 13, 2012 [8 favorites]

MonkeyToes: "All right, now who's willing to do a quick-and-dirty primer on early and awesome Santana for me"

"Abraxas" is one of the few things my father and I agree on. I first checked it out because of the boobies on the album cover, but love love love that album.
posted by notsnot at 11:16 AM on November 13, 2012

This thread is nice and this thread is jumpin', but I hope the mods don't let the dogs out.

Just 3 weeks ago (before Sandy shat on my commute), I was getting off the train and SOME DICKHEAD IN A NEW DODGE CHARGER WAS BLASTING THAT "SONG" AS HE BACKED UP (idling in a handicapped parking space, naturally) INTO AND ONTO THE GUARD RAIL!

The smug grin on my face was about 2 feet wide as I walked up, knocked on his (aftermarked tinted, of course) passenger-side window, and said "Dude...bro...you are ON the guard rail."
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 11:16 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I hated the shit out of this song in 1998, and it seems to fit with the horrors already posted: The Flys - "Got You Where I Want You". SOMEHOW, it's worse than I remembered, and I forgot Katie Holmes was in the video. It's legitimately embarrassing to sit through.
posted by Coatlicue at 11:17 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Whelk you're just a Barbie girl in a Barbie world.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:17 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Somebody once asked could I spare some change for gas
I need to get myself away from this place
I said yep what a concept
I could use a little fuel myself
And we could all use a little change
posted by Cookiebastard at 11:17 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Are you worried about your faith? Superman's dead.
posted by wierdo at 11:17 AM on November 13, 2012

Whelk you're just a Barbie girl in a Barbie world.

screw you I love aqua I will say it out loud
posted by The Whelk at 11:19 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

i just googled "Bodeans Closer to Free Lyrics" and n̘͖̗͕o͍̺̜͓̥͙͇wͅ ̤̝͇t̫̻̦h̬i̗̦̦͉̤̱͔s̟͙̘̳̠̱ ͚̺͍̖i̗̯͕̞͇s ͚̩̦͇͚͇̭ha̳͕̙̹p̻p̩͓e̩̘̳̞͍̗n̮̱̺ͅi̲͕̙̘̟n̯̤g̞̹̹͉͓
͓̺̩͕
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:20 AM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

All the roads we have to walk are winding..and all the lights that lead us there are blinding. There are many things I'd like to say to you but I don't know how.
posted by wierdo at 11:21 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm desperately looking for the anti-favorite button. Mods, I know it goes against the MeFi tradition, but this thread has it coming!
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:21 AM on November 13, 2012

Man, before this thread I thought I'd live forever. But now I'm not so sure.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:21 AM on November 13, 2012

My wife always puts on Aquarium when she's cleaning, but she never plays Barbie Girl. The result is that I have a really strong association with "Lollipop (Candyman)" and haven't heard "Barbie Girl" in years.

I'd make fun of her, but I'm afraid she knows how much I love a couple Nine Days songs other "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)."
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:21 AM on November 13, 2012

That's the impression that I get, anyway.
posted by wierdo at 11:21 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

Thong th thong thong thong
posted by shakespeherian at 11:21 AM on November 13, 2012 [17 favorites]

This is the perfect time to remind readers that Shawn Mullins' "Lullaby" is a thing.
posted by porn in the woods at 11:24 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

What have I done?
posted by josher71 at 11:25 AM on November 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

Oh I see your "Lullaby" and raise you a "Shimmer."
posted by Navelgazer at 11:25 AM on November 13, 2012

So if you see the stars tonight and tell me what they say, and let me know how bright they are and I will always say na na na na na naah na na na na naaaah...

Happy hardcore make some noise!
posted by MartinWisse at 11:25 AM on November 13, 2012

this is not my beautiful thread
posted by The Whelk at 11:25 AM on November 13, 2012 [9 favorites]

These hands are small I know but they're not yours they are my own.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:26 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

I had a friend who was a huge friend of Aqua and hated that "Barbie Girl" was their big hit because apparently it wasn't representative of their sound at all or something.
posted by kmz at 11:27 AM on November 13, 2012

Having listened to Aquarium more times than a grown man would care to admit, the rest of the tracks on the album are much better than "Barbie Girl."
posted by griphus at 11:27 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Man.... So many of these songs are go-to jukebox songs among my friends and I. Crowd may hate it, but that doesn't stop them from singing along.
posted by inigo2 at 11:27 AM on November 13, 2012

Only when I'm drunk I sing a song like this.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:28 AM on November 13, 2012

this thread

it'll make you go insane

like a bullet to the brain.
posted by The Whelk at 11:28 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

This thread has a disturbing lack of Savage Garden. Consider that fixed.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:28 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

I don't understand how you people can be so cavalier about such awful music. This isn't a joke. Some of us were forced to listen to this stuff all through the time when we were coming of age, and it permanently warped our sensibilities. Even now, just thinking of these songs, even as a joke, is deeply painful.

I guess what I'm saying is that THEEEESE... FOOLISH GAAAMMES... ARE TEAAAAARING ME APAAAAART
posted by koeselitz at 11:29 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

Have you ever been mellow?
posted by MartinWisse at 11:30 AM on November 13, 2012

Heeeeeeey maaaaan, niiiiiiiice thread.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:30 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

i'm the king of the castle... you're the dirty rascal...
posted by Navelgazer at 11:30 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Savage Garden's CD was part of my first ever music purchase, along with Queen's Greatest Hits I and II.

I still listen to it from time to time and I'm not ashamed to say it.
posted by kmz at 11:31 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

this thread, can you take it all away?
posted by The Whelk at 11:31 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm a raver can't you see?
posted by MartinWisse at 11:31 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

What this thread needs, is a good defense.
posted by kmz at 11:32 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

I still listen to it from time to time and I'm not ashamed to say it.

Oh, I'm only sort of playing the "terrible earworm" game. I found those Youtube links in my history, not by searching.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:33 AM on November 13, 2012

You can make the sun turn purple, you can make the sea turn turtle.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:33 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

I'm a raver can't you see yt ?

is it just me or was the European 90s just way more ....90'ser?
posted by The Whelk at 11:33 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

you're just a sour girl
posted by The Whelk at 11:34 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Indeed. She leads a lonely life. She leads a lonely life....
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:34 AM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

Bulgaroktonos: "This thread has a disturbing lack of Savage Garden. Consider that fixed ."

Sir, I am offended that you missed my Savage Garden reference. Open up your eyes, don't let your mind tell the story here.
posted by wierdo at 11:36 AM on November 13, 2012

clicking the "remove this thread from recent activity" button just doesn't seem like it will be enough
posted by elizardbits at 11:36 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

In fact, fuck it, I think it's time to spin it up again... (metaphorically, on my web music player)

I would fly to the moon back if you'll be, if you'll be my baaaaaaaby...
posted by kmz at 11:37 AM on November 13, 2012

I always included the success of Santana's album as part of the "Latin Music Craze" which happened around the same time period.
posted by Atreides at 11:38 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Far enough wierdo, this thread is moving fast.

Also, everyone go listen to "Crash and Burn" it's the underrated gem of the Savage Garden catalog.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:38 AM on November 13, 2012

Anytimeineedtoseeyourfaceijustclosemyeyesandthenimtakentoaplacewhereyourcrystalmindandmagentafeelingstakeupshelterinthebaseofmyspinejustlikeachickofcherrycola. ;)

from memory
posted by wierdo at 11:39 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

is it just me or was the European 90s just way more ....90'ser?

Oh man, the nineties in Holland was all gabber and happy hardcore, all skinny white bald dudes in aussi shell suits and nikees constantly gurning from the E and tight from the speed dancing on the most abominal shit songs possible.

And the worst part is, over a decade later I can still sing along.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no ,no, no there's no limit! No, no, no ,no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no There's no limit!.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:39 AM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

elizardbits: "clicking the "remove this thread from recent activity" button just doesn't seem like it will be enough"

perhaps if we light the thread, the thread, the thread is on fire

we don't need no water let the motherfucker burn

edit: unedited version
posted by namewithoutwords at 11:39 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

clicking the "remove this thread from recent activity" button just doesn't seem like it will be enough

Pony Request: Remove with Extreme Prejudice
posted by griphus at 11:40 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

to read this thread you gotta be bad, you gotta be bold, you gotta be wiser. You gotta be cool, you gotta be calm, you gotta stay together...
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:41 AM on November 13, 2012 [11 favorites]

I'm trying to find a good song from 1999 and they're all from 1996. I don't know what that means.
posted by mike_bling at 11:42 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I shall banish the demons of this thread by listening to gettin jiggy wit it on repeat.
posted by elizardbits at 11:42 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

But the Vengabus is coming.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:43 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

for retro completion
posted by The Whelk at 11:43 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

At this point in the thread, I feel a sort of survey is in order. Everybody please tell me all your thoughts on God.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:43 AM on November 13, 2012 [9 favorites]

So I cry, I pray and I beg
posted by cottoncandybeard at 11:44 AM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

If you stumble in to this thread, don't bump your head.
posted by lazaruslong at 11:44 AM on November 13, 2012

Anyone can see the riff that we walk on is paved with gold.
posted by lazaruslong at 11:44 AM on November 13, 2012

What if the mods where one of us?
posted by The Whelk at 11:45 AM on November 13, 2012 [17 favorites]

ITT: I'll do anything I can..the wrong way.
posted by wierdo at 11:45 AM on November 13, 2012

Dear God, is there somebody out there?
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 11:45 AM on November 13, 2012

Late 90s, I'll never let you go.

I'LL NEVER LET YOU GO!
posted by cosmic.osmo at 11:46 AM on November 13, 2012

With threads wide open. Under the moonlight.
posted by lazaruslong at 11:46 AM on November 13, 2012

Everybody please tell me all your thoughts on God.

What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us?
posted by mike_bling at 11:46 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Mmhmmmm mmm mmm mmm.
posted by lazaruslong at 11:47 AM on November 13, 2012 [9 favorites]

Say what you want about this era of music but you have to admit the Hook brings you back...
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:48 AM on November 13, 2012 [9 favorites]

If you're leaving the thread, please don't speak. We know what you're saying, so please stop explaining.
posted by Copronymus at 11:48 AM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

This threads been going down, down, since the earlier round.
posted by lazaruslong at 11:48 AM on November 13, 2012

Run along with Captain Jack.

Can you guess why this video was very popular with teenage boys?
posted by MartinWisse at 11:49 AM on November 13, 2012

To everyone in this thread: All I want to do is to thank you, even though I don't know who you are.
posted by burnmp3s at 11:49 AM on November 13, 2012 [9 favorites]

But the Vengabus is coming

Somewhere in England, Rick Astley was relaxing at 7:43 PM GMT when a booming voice rang out from the heavens: "A CHALLENGER APPEARS!".
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 11:49 AM on November 13, 2012 [10 favorites]

this thread makes me want to move to the country, I'm gonna eat me a lot of peaches.
Peaches come from a can...
posted by namewithoutwords at 11:50 AM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

Chicago MeFites beware -- this page has been tagged "karaoke" in my files.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:50 AM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

Close your eyes and count to ten, hope that everything will be Wonderful again...
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:51 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

This thread is moving quicker than a ray of light.
posted by wierdo at 11:53 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

1999 gave the world the greatest album of the decade, but I guess I shouldn't expect blogs to be talking about it
posted by mannequito at 11:55 AM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

Glad Geggy Tah got a mention.
posted by josher71 at 11:55 AM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

You know what, I can't help it, after listening to all these jams, I feel good. Ready to deal with whatevers problems bubbles up!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:00 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

All we do is eliminate the future with the things we do today, but I'll be there when the whole damn world is crashing down.
posted by wierdo at 12:06 PM on November 13, 2012

Makes me want to raise a battle flag.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:06 PM on November 13, 2012

I'll never be your woman.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:06 PM on November 13, 2012 [9 favorites]

Ready to deal with whatevers problems bubbles up!

Oh, lordy... troubles so hard...
posted by Navelgazer at 12:08 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Here I am, doing everything I can, holding on to what I have, pretending I'm a superman. I'm so confused about what to do. Sometimes I want to throw it all away!

Make it stop!
posted by wierdo at 12:09 PM on November 13, 2012

Psychic spies from China try to steal your mind's elation. Little girls from Sweden dream of silver screen quotations.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 12:12 PM on November 13, 2012

I've got one hand in my pocket and another one flagging this thread.
posted by The Whelk at 12:15 PM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

How-ow-ow-ow appropriate.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:16 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

Mmmbop.

Goodnight everybody!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:16 PM on November 13, 2012

I had a disturbing revelation recently when I realized I still know all the words to jagged little pill. Not the song, the album.
posted by The Whelk at 12:19 PM on November 13, 2012 [9 favorites]

This thread and the lists of 90s chart toppers are making me glad I was still in my "I don't listen to any music that isn't some obscure goth/punk/industrial/etc" phase. Granted, my music isn't obscure anymore so I wouldn't be able to continue down that path but I am grateful I wasn't listening to radio att.
posted by _paegan_ at 12:21 PM on November 13, 2012

I've got one hand in my pocket and another one flagging this thread.

I suffer 6d6 mental harmonica solo. *rolls* Ouch.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 12:22 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Baby let this thread shine down.

- yeah

- yeah
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:22 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

See the thing is, right alongside all this music I know (all too intimately) is this Canadian stuff that would seem to me you would have to know as well, except it isn't so.

What I'm saying is, America: the difference, between us, is negative one. The math is simple: subtract attractive opposites.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 12:25 PM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

Is going to let that slanderous remark about The BoDeans pass because, lord, that is one of their weaker efforts, but I would point you towards "Lookin' For Me Somewhere" as proof that redemption is possible.

If anybody starts trashing the Refreshments then I'm going to have to break something tasteful, because the anti-angst of "Broken Record", that's why.
posted by wintermind at 12:25 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

CHRIST thanks for reminding me about that Tom Jones album. I HATED that fucking Sex Bomb song that has continued to fuck up Christmas parties for the past 13yrs.

Though America: be thankful you missed out on the Vengaboys. I really didn't like 1999 for a number of reasons, cultural and personal, but on the music front it felt here like everyone was winding down before the Millennium would Change Everything. We had a mediocre Travis and a mediocre Stereophonics record to enjoy, though Coldplay were still a fresh new band and it would be a few months before Dido choked the airwaves, all my favourite bands were releasing mediocre albums, and then we had this abomination. It was the peak era for horrid chart techno. It pissed me off as I loved the hot soundz of 98.

2000 was much better. Better pop, better dance (I still love 2-Step), better indie; though I didn't care much for the po-faced US bands that got big around then (why listen to At The Drive In when you can listen to Good Morning Captain on repeat in your halls bedroom). And I bought the first Hefner album unheard based on a review and the cover, and finally got to see them live. Bosh.
posted by mippy at 12:26 PM on November 13, 2012

Hated Santana before; hated him with a burning passion after.

How to get rid of ear worms.

Ridiculous. I've had Private Dancer stuck in my head many times. I think the Flintstones theme works better.

1999
1 "Believe," Cher
2 "No Scrubs," TLC
3 "Angel of Mine," Monica
4 "Heartbreak Hotel," Whitney Houston, Faith Evans and Kelly Price
5 "...Baby One More Time," Britney Spears

Hmm. Throw in the rest of the world, and Britney is #1. Always.

Mmmbop.

1997, which was indeed a GREAT year for music: Radiohead, Portishead, Blonde Redhead, Spearhead, Don't Knock the Baldhead ...
posted by mrgrimm at 12:26 PM on November 13, 2012

Heh. In '99, I was just nearing the end of my stone-cold rockist phase, and since my parents were always vaguely hostile to pop radio, I missed a lot of this on the first run through. So it's weird hearing people have, like, freakout moments about New Radicals, who I would have (and probably did) hate at the time, but kinda like now.

'99 was in the heyday of one of the best r&b eras for pop music, something that we've been seeing a resurgence of lately. I'm just glad that the ILX wars of the mid-2000s cured me of my rockism (Geir Hongro for the win!) and allowed me to have fun listening to a lot of this stuff. Still not a big fan of Supernatural — it's just kinda boring — but That Boy Is Mine is still an undisputed classic.

It was the best time for Timbo, and I was deep into garage rock revival and the last good Flaming Lips album, etc.
posted by klangklangston at 12:27 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I really love You Get What You Give. I'm not sorry. It was one of those songs that sounded bloody fantastic on morning FM radio and I'm quite fond of it as a result.
posted by mippy at 12:28 PM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

I heard the song "Low Rider" once described as "the universal solvent for shit stuck in your head." In case anyone needs to try that.

CHRIST thanks for reminding me about that Tom Jones album. I HATED that fucking Sex Bomb song that has continued to fuck up Christmas parties for the past 13yrs.

I liked his previous outing better - the one where he did a cover of a Rise Robots Rise song. (I didn't actually know Rise Robots Rise, but my roommate at the time did and completely freaked out hearing it covered by Tom Jones.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:30 PM on November 13, 2012

mrgrimm: "1997, which was indeed a GREAT year for music: Radiohead, Portishead, Blonde Redhead, Spearhead, Don't Knock the Baldhead ..."

Soul Coughing was still good then, too.
posted by wierdo at 12:30 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I went to America in 1999 before the internet made looking in foreign record shops less exciting (fact: my first eBay purchase in 2000 was the soundtrack to Grosse Pointe Blank, for which I had to buy US currency from Barclays and mail it to the States). I was SO PISSED OFF that the no.1 record there was Walking On The Sun by Smashmouth.

Also: I still like My Own Worst Enemy by Lit.
posted by mippy at 12:31 PM on November 13, 2012

http://getmortified.com/
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:31 PM on November 13, 2012

Here in my bedroom I can turn my head off...
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:33 PM on November 13, 2012

The things you say, your purple prose just gives it away. The things you say...
posted by EvaDestruction at 12:34 PM on November 13, 2012

I discovered new wave, The Smiths, The Specials and Half Man Half Biscuit in 1997, which brought to mind Phill Jupitus's line about every week being the best week for music, because you have today's records and also all the ones that came out before. I also played The Wonder Stuff's greatest hits record a LOT. Dammit, I don't have it here on my laptop...
posted by mippy at 12:34 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

This thread is so dangerous you'll have to sign a waiver.
posted by Daily Alice at 12:35 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Right, just whacked on Absolute Radio 90s YOU BASTARDS.

I am so mad right now that my SO persuaded me to dump my cassettes of stuff recorded off the radio in the 90s. Yes, I can grab it all now on iTunes or Soulseek, but I can't get it with clips of Nicky Campbell or Kevin Greening's voice on the outro, nor John Peel. Seriously one of the biggest regrets of my life, that. I should give him a big wet snog next time I have a cold sore as revenge.
posted by mippy at 12:36 PM on November 13, 2012

My tea's gone cold and I
wonder why I'm in this thread at all
posted by entropicamericana at 12:37 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

fact: my first eBay purchase in 2000 was the soundtrack to Grosse Pointe Blank, for which I had to buy US currency from Barclays and mail it to the States

Reminds me of when I was buying the latest hot comics off off the back of Image number ones from American Entertainment and had to pay by traveler's cheque as cash was slightly too risky to send from Holland to the US...
posted by MartinWisse at 12:39 PM on November 13, 2012

I will not have the greatness of EMF thrown in with this mess of a thread.

It's possible, however, that I saw Geggy Tah open for Barenaked Ladies once (I honestly don't remember if this is true but it feels true in the base of my spine sweet like a chica cherry cola ) ... so I may not be your go-to source for music judgment.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 12:41 PM on November 13, 2012

He said Angel, put that purple skirt on
You know you make me feel hot

I have an eidetic memory for song lyrics and this thread is making me wish I didn't
posted by mippy at 12:41 PM on November 13, 2012

this thread is directly responsible for some hardcore mental regression going on in this house I'm going to play Sim City and watch Buffy
posted by The Whelk at 12:42 PM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

I think Jordan Knight - Give It To You holds up pretty well. Jam & Lewis doing Timbaland?
posted by mike_bling at 12:43 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I saw the word Supernatural and thought we were going to be talking about the show and how Bloody Mary is going to come murder us all and Sam is a big whiny baby. Instead it's the album with that goddamn Smooth song. I am disappoint.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 12:44 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

This thread is making me want to rewatch Popular.
posted by mippy at 12:44 PM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

wait no Clueless, we're all watching Clueless right now
posted by The Whelk at 12:45 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

I will not have the greatness of EMF thrown in with this mess of a thread.

If I had my time again, I would do it all the same, and not change a single thing, even when I was to blame.
posted by EvaDestruction at 12:46 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

It was the peak era for horrid chart techno.

It could be worse. It could be Dutch rap.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:46 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm watching Felicity all all times in my brain ever since I moved to new york.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:47 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Someone who has more time please make this thread into a Spotify playlist. I don;t have Spotify installed on here right now, but hey, you don't know me. That would be sweet like chocolate, boy.
posted by mippy at 12:47 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

To everyone who's leaving, I think it's fly when posters stop by for a comment, for a comment.
posted by Copronymus at 12:48 PM on November 13, 2012

MartinWisse - I used to listen to the Irish station 2FM a lot in the 90s, as you could just about pick it up over the Irish Sea where I lived if you were a DXer. For me, any mention of Scooter makes me involuntarily want to shout 'SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTAAAAAH! BACK! IN! IRELAND!!'
posted by mippy at 12:49 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

This thread is basically the Best Of Big Shiny Tunes.
posted by mannequito at 12:50 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

I discovered a while ago that Wikipedia has all the tracklistings to the UK NOW! albums. This makes me happy.
posted by mippy at 12:50 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

wait no Clueless, we're all watching Clueless right now

When not cleaning to Aquarium, my wife loves the Clueless soundtrack. She's always referencing these songs that nobody has ever heard of because they are on the Clueless soundtrack.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 12:50 PM on November 13, 2012

Oh god, thinking about BNL just reminds me that I once saw a radio station concert with The Honeydogs and Dido opening for BNL.

Holy shit, I have not thought about The Honeydogs in a very very very long time.
posted by kmz at 12:50 PM on November 13, 2012

Scooter! Germany's number one techno dj! Faster! Louder! Harder!.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:51 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I discovered a while ago that Wikipedia has all the tracklistings to the UK NOW! albums.

I have all the NOW! albums
posted by MartinWisse at 12:52 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I have just remembered the line 'what the hell am I doing drinking in LA at 26' and how impossibly well old 26 was when I was 17 FUCK YOU BRAN VAN 3000 FOR MAKING ME FEEL DECREPIT
posted by mippy at 12:53 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

I HAVE the Clueless soundtrack! I bought it because I really liked Mullet Head.
posted by mippy at 12:54 PM on November 13, 2012

So many lyrics in this thread, but all I can hear is that voice, demanding me to tell her watcha want, watcha really really want.
posted by Big_B at 12:54 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

IF YOU STEAL MY SUNSHINE...

Oh, Len was alright, Trip-Pop with a hint of Kraftwerk... and Diogenes.
posted by ovvl at 12:55 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Clueless, Felicity, feh - what you really should be watching while reading this is My So-Called Life.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:58 PM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

Baz Luhrmann is snorting this thread off of a lush red curtain.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:00 PM on November 13, 2012 [8 favorites]

New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits
Chinese food makes me feel sick
posted by mippy at 1:00 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

She's always referencing these songs that nobody has ever heard of because they are on the Clueless soundtrack.

holy crap it just hit me that Lydia Martin is basically Cher?
posted by The Whelk at 1:00 PM on November 13, 2012

"Smooth" is so filled with hooks that its the American pop music version of Lemarchand's box. Like it or dislike it, it sticks in your head because it was specifically designed for that purpose. It makes me a little berserk when I hear it, but I acknowledge that its an extremely well-crafted tune.

I'm of the belief that you can't necessarily claim that one era of music was worse than another. You can argue that what became popular was more driven by marketing in certain eras, but you need to be ready to recognize that even some of the best respected artists and bands were sometimes created with marketing in mind (I'm looking at you, my beloved Clash).

Anyhow, my point is I will remember Smooth. Will Smooth remember me?
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:01 PM on November 13, 2012

Baz Luhrmann is snorting this thread off of a lush red curtain.

I really want an all singing, all-dancing lush over-produced stylized musical all about the mid 90s.
posted by The Whelk at 1:01 PM on November 13, 2012

See the thing is, right alongside all this music I know (all too intimately) is this Canadian stuff that would seem to me you would have to know as well, except it isn't so.

Durn Bronzefist, did you really think that I'd forgotten? With such broad and tentative swipes, why do you even bother? It doesn't mean much, it doesn't mean anything at all; I found me a reason, so check me tomorrow.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 1:01 PM on November 13, 2012

Mippy: I made a spotify list but just of my favorite ones. I'll make it collaborative and we can fill it with garbage if you wish...
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:02 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I really want an all singing, all-dancing lush over-produced stylized musical all about the mid 90s.

Then you'll love my upcoming off-Broadway show "Reality Still Bites"
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:03 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Babybird were one of those weird anomalies on the late '90s radio, like Ultrasound (fronted by a massively obese man). Probably thanks to radio programmers not realising how pervy the lyrics to You're Gorgeous actually were. Like Hot Chocolate's It Started With A Kiss, it's crying out for someone to do a horribly embittered version on the X-Factor.
posted by mippy at 1:04 PM on November 13, 2012

I want to kiss this thread beneath the milky twilight
Lead me out on the moonlit floor
Lift you open hand
Strike up the band, and make the fireflies dance
Silvermoon's sparkling,
posted by The Whelk at 1:05 PM on November 13, 2012 [8 favorites]

I don't wanna wait for this thread to be over. Will it be yes or will it be sorry?
posted by Copronymus at 1:08 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits
Chinese food makes me feel sick

Oh, man, there's a candidate.

Take a sip and you buzz like a hornet
Billy Shakespeare wrote a whole bunch of sonnets

Babybird were one of those weird anomalies on the late '90s radio

The Beta Band LP redeems 1999 (even through 3 EPs came out in '98 ..)
posted by mrgrimm at 1:09 PM on November 13, 2012

This thread is getting heated. In fact, it's getting hot in (hot in). So hot in herre.

I was like, good gracious.
posted by troika at 1:12 PM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

Why is this thread so long, '90s nostalgia?
posted by Apocryphon at 1:14 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

troika, I would point out that this thread IS number one.

Two is not a winner, and three nobody remembers.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 1:14 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Because The Whelk brought me here, I owe you guys this. Ginuwine's “Pony”.
posted by spitefulcrow at 1:16 PM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

Also:

You don't know how you met me
You don't know why
You can't turn around and say goodbye

...You can't find no thread else like this
posted by spitefulcrow at 1:18 PM on November 13, 2012

Sometimes this gem from 1997 gets stuck in my head and I remember getting the album and hating everyone ever after.

(Seriously, a good track that belonged on an entirely different, not-derivative-alt-rock album.)
posted by beaucoupkevin at 1:19 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

But do you believe in life after thread?

/autotune
posted by troika at 1:20 PM on November 13, 2012

Because The Whelk brought me here, I owe you guys this. Ginuwine's “Pony”.

Man R&B videos with shirtless guys were the Sears Underwear cataloge of the 90s for many lonely pre-teens.
posted by The Whelk at 1:22 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

You can feel it in the oven by the lightswitch, The Whelk.
posted by lazaruslong at 1:26 PM on November 13, 2012

Oh no, I've fallen into a well of listening to Nelly songs. Some please come save me before "E.I."* finishes and I listen to "Air Force Ones?"

*This song has a line that sounds a ton like it's about sex trafficking ("I'm drafting them out high school straight into the pros") and it's still better than "Air Force Ones."
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 1:27 PM on November 13, 2012

This thread is fucking me up. Seriously, seriously fucking me up in my head. I don't even remember who I am.

Am I Jimmy Ray?
posted by Bookhouse at 1:30 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

No you're Mr. Jones.

And Me.
posted by The Whelk at 1:32 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

Who wants to know?
posted by Navelgazer at 1:39 PM on November 13, 2012

But can I help it if I think you're funny when you're mad? I try hard not to smile, though I feel bad.
posted by mippy at 1:41 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

People want to know why this thread won't go away?

It's simply because music... makes the people... come together (yeah).
posted by spitefulcrow at 1:41 PM on November 13, 2012

Oh no, I've fallen into a well of listening to Nelly songs.

I'm actually listening to a Scooter playlist now...
posted by MartinWisse at 1:42 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

acid rock
posted by The Whelk at 1:42 PM on November 13, 2012

I don't think I've ever looked over my shoulder to make sure there's not someone standing in the door of my office as I did when I looked up a copy of "Crazy for this Girl" just now.

See, now y'all can just click it and let it run in a different tab with no chance of anyone seeing. I'm doing the Lord's Work.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 1:44 PM on November 13, 2012

(Seriously, a good track that belonged on an entirely different, not-derivative-alt-rock album.)

Oh god, it's hysterical how bad (and how different) the entire rest of that album is compared to "Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand". I'd really like to know the story behind that track.
posted by asterix at 1:45 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

My party trick is being able to harmonise with MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM. That's what an adolescence of singing along to Morrissey will do to a girl's voice.
posted by mippy at 1:48 PM on November 13, 2012

sister, i see you... dancing on the stage of memory...
posted by Navelgazer at 1:48 PM on November 13, 2012

I haven't heard that Primitive Radio Gods song before, it's rather a lovely one. And reminded me oddly of this one from the same time.
posted by mippy at 1:50 PM on November 13, 2012

i like the piano peice. its best part of the song, reminds me of 2pac -changes. this song came on in a chinese buffet restaurant.
posted by mippy at 1:52 PM on November 13, 2012

We're 4 hours into a mid-to-late-90s derail and nobody has asked about Breakfast at Tiffany's"

She said, "I think I remember the film. And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it."

And I said, "Well that's one thing we've got."

(In the grand tradition of Napster, if you try to look up the lyrics to that song, there are a lot of people who neglect the true artist Deep Blue Something and try to assign it to Everclear and/or Matchbox 20, which tickles me to no end.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:52 PM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

Dear AskMetafilter: Please hope me. Special snowflake details inside*

* I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a mother, I'm a sinner, I'm a saint - I do not feel ashamed. I'm your hell, I'm your dream. I'm nothing in between you know you wouldn't want it any other way.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 1:54 PM on November 13, 2012 [10 favorites]

"Breakfast at Tiffany's"! That was an oversight. Years ago, my wife and I made a CD of songs we enjoyed that our roommate did not. We labeled it the CD of Music [name] hates and played it pretty regularly. It included "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

Naturally, he likes the song now, and has, on more than one occasion, explained to me that he "hates when things are over" as a way of explaining why he's sad that something's ending.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 1:56 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Everclear, like Dave Matthews Band, were one of those acts that never crossed the Atlantic - I always got the former confused with Everlast.
posted by mippy at 1:56 PM on November 13, 2012

well then I guess you really know what it's like to sing the blues
posted by The Whelk at 1:56 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Baby, you don't really know what it's like to sing the blues.
posted by mippy at 1:58 PM on November 13, 2012

I once saw Sister Hazel playing Christmas songs for a horde of screaming toddlers in the downstairs area of a Borders.

So yeah, you can't take it with you, I guess.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 1:58 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I know what it's like to drive around this town, let the cops chase us around. The past is gone but something might be found to take its place.
posted by EvaDestruction at 1:59 PM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

I once saw Sister Hazel playing Christmas songs for a horde of screaming toddlers in the downstairs area of a Borders.

This is how I assume I will be greeted at the gates of hell upon my demise.
posted by elizardbits at 1:59 PM on November 13, 2012 [10 favorites]

Say it ain't so. I will not go.
posted by Pallas Athena at 2:00 PM on November 13, 2012

Everclear, like Dave Matthews Band, were one of those acts that never crossed the Atlantic - I always got the former confused with Everlast.

I can never tell how much cultural impact Everclear made in the US; sometimes I'll reference them and people look at me funny. Still, I remember them being pretty popular in 1998. Actually, when my wife and I first started dating, we realized that we had both loved So Much for the Afterglow when we were 14. She wishing she were a drug addict from a broken home, me dreaming of being the white knight who rescue the aforementioned damsel-in-distress.

Our relationship has been shockingly drama free considering.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 2:01 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I went to Europe for the summer to get away from Breakfast at Tiffanys. Didn't work, it got huge there just as I arrived.

I spent much of the late 90s- early 2000s on the high seas where Smooth and Savage Garden reigned SUPREME! We begged and pleaded with the wheelhouse to play Eve 6 every once in a while, thats how bad it was.
posted by fshgrl at 2:01 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

We've missed the obvious aural shorthand for The 90s but don't worry, cause the thread has got me wrapped around your finger, ah, ha, ha.

Do you have to let it linger? Do you have to, do you have to,

Do you have to let it linger?
posted by The Whelk at 2:03 PM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

Try getting that one out of your heads, folks. 1999 was awful.

Do you like butter tarts?
posted by gimonca at 2:03 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Oh god, it's hysterical how bad (and how different) the entire rest of that album is compared to "Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand".

And after you find that out, your last.fm radio is gummed up with a whole bunch of Toad the Wet Sprocket, Seven Mary Three, and Jimmie's Chicken Shack for the next two weeks.
posted by Copronymus at 2:04 PM on November 13, 2012

Dudes, Mr. Bungle's California came out in 1999. My personal favorite of the decade, and still light years ahead of its time in concept, execution, density and beauty. CRIMINAL that it's not regarded as a stone-cold masterpiece.
posted by naju at 2:06 PM on November 13, 2012 [9 favorites]

The Cranberries "No Need To Argue" is the first album I paid my own money for.
posted by koeselitz at 2:07 PM on November 13, 2012

I think back fondly on the height of Pen & Pixel designed album covers and the rise of No Limit and New Orleans bounce.
posted by ndfine at 2:07 PM on November 13, 2012

And the fucking Smashing Pumpkins. Dreadful.

I have something to tell you with regards to your rage.
posted by The Whelk at 2:07 PM on November 13, 2012 [42 favorites]

Yeah, you should love them, love them, say that you love them.
posted by Copronymus at 2:08 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I was just attempting to sing along to Linger on the radio earlier while cleaning under my bed, and regretting being a female tenor because god is that woman hard to do a falsetto to. But as my 1999 comment above, their late 90s album was crap. Probably because The Corrs had taken over the winsome Irish indie-pop role by then.

My 17yr old nephew loves Beck and the Pumpkins. I did at his age, but he's thankfully missed out Placebo. In this age of openly gay boyband members, a wee guy in eyeliner singing about rubber and alluding to bisexuality doesn't seem that subversive anymore.
posted by mippy at 2:08 PM on November 13, 2012

I bought Play by Moby. Why? I had a TV capable of broadcasting adverts.
posted by mippy at 2:09 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

For those like me who are finding their heads spinning, and who, reeling from the heroinic high of nostalgia, want more memory dope:

1997 in music
1998 in music
1999 in music
2000 in music
posted by koeselitz at 2:09 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

This thread makes me happy that the late 90s were my alt-country fundamentalist period.
posted by COBRA! at 2:12 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

What other cult signals can I share ?! Wait - no one made a live reference yet ?! Yes. When the dolphins cry (1999)

This entire thread is flooding me of the memories (mostly represeed and cringe-worthy, but I'm looking back right now at it with snark and detachment...).

I was 12-14 during this peak, likely the crappiest time for pop music.

Also ndcent made a great mixtape of music of the faux-grunge which helped usher in this period.

On preview - WHOA and THE NO LIMIT SOLDIERS album covers !
posted by fizzix at 2:13 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Burhanistan: “And the fucking Smashing Pumpkins. Dreadful.”

I was in my second year of high school when they released the album with the worst title in history. I had friends who were into them, but I wasn't really on the scene much – I was kind of isolated from my peers musically. Still, every time this came on the radio, it made me think of how I was born in 1979, and somehow it was a weird connection to me. And even now, I find it a well-formed pop song. But at this point it's so very difficult to distinguish the nostalgia from actual emotional resonance that I couldn't tell you if it's good.

All I know is that I was more than a little amused when I found out about the Pavement/SP fiasco years later. Would that I was more music-savvy back then. But of course if I had I wouldn't have been holed up in my room listening to the Clash, so who knows.
posted by koeselitz at 2:15 PM on November 13, 2012

Man all the Steve Vai h8rs piss me off dude is a legend. Who can forget his ground breaking song *shcroowwwwbleyDOOOOOO weedleweedleweedleSCREE weeblyZeeWEBBLYwoaaaaaaW* Brilliant.

Bwahahahahahahahahaha...

All I'm saying is you obviously never saw him live w/ DLR and Billy Sheehan and... that other guy on the Eat 'Em And Smile tour.

...hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 2:15 PM on November 13, 2012

LIKE THE THUNDER CHASING THE WIND
posted by The Whelk at 2:16 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

When we thought of TECHNO we only thought of this....
posted by fizzix at 2:17 PM on November 13, 2012

I love this thread always forever.
posted by Metroid Baby at 2:17 PM on November 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

I'm not your only friend.
posted by lazaruslong at 2:17 PM on November 13, 2012

I really love late 90s Robbie Williams - particularly No Regrets, because I have a big love for Neil Tennant and waspish pop songs - and now I've remembered the b-side to Millennium which got a lot of radio play as well. Also, he's looking a bit Morrissey these days.
posted by mippy at 2:17 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Still, every time this yt came on the radio, it made me think of how I was born in 1979, and somehow it was a weird connection to me. And even now, I find it a well-formed pop song. But at this point it's so very difficult to distinguish the nostalgia from actual emotional resonance that I couldn't tell you if it's good.

I long suspected that song is like pure concentrated New Jersey Suburb Feelings and then bam there it is as a maudlin montage sequence in a Kevin Smith movie about New Jersey Suburbian Feelings.
posted by The Whelk at 2:17 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I am going to miss this thread

like the desert misses the rain.
posted by The Whelk at 2:18 PM on November 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

Have a nice glass of red, red wine to console yourself.
posted by lazaruslong at 2:18 PM on November 13, 2012

That Nicole Kidman Robbie Williams version of "Something Stupid" has actually made in to my American Standards rotation.
posted by The Whelk at 2:19 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I am going to miss this thread

like the desert misses the rain.

Don't worry, Whelk! Tomorrow we can drive around this town and let the cops chase us around!
posted by Navelgazer at 2:20 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Boten Anna.
posted by MartinWisse at 2:20 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

LIKE THE THUNDER CHASING THE WIND

Ah, you know how sometimes you can't decide if lyrics are good or bad? Well, with Live you can totally decide. I still have a weird affection for them, though.
posted by liquidindian at 2:22 PM on November 13, 2012

The Pandora station you want is 90s were great, let's have a festival radio btw. You can thank me later.
posted by fshgrl at 2:23 PM on November 13, 2012

I could live without ever hearing Angels again - apparently it;s the most popular song played at funerals in the UK - but those Guy Chambers years were gold. He still does a good job of being a slightly cocky, slightly insecure popstar (the video to Advertising Space is gorgeous) but Chambers' lyrics perfectly fitted his persona of a pop star who didn;t take himself too seriously as a heartthrob.
posted by mippy at 2:24 PM on November 13, 2012

I'm looking forward to opening this thread tomorrow for Return of the Whelk (once again).
posted by troika at 2:25 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Tomorrow we can drive around this town and let the cops chase us around!

It'll be fun. We can call out the instigators, because there's something in the air.
posted by Pallas Athena at 2:26 PM on November 13, 2012

Who knows how long I've loved this thread...
posted by kmz at 2:28 PM on November 13, 2012

I really love You Get What You Give. I'm not sorry.

Hey, a thread about the 90s. I wonder if mippy is... yep, like a rash. And with that comment, just as unwelcome.
posted by liquidindian at 2:30 PM on November 13, 2012

I think I know what everyone in this bar wants - constant 90s music!
posted by The Whelk at 2:31 PM on November 13, 2012

>We're 4 hours into a mid-to-late-90s derail and nobody has asked about Breakfast at Tiffany's"

And I said, "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?"

She said, "I think I remember the film, and as I recall, I think, we both kinda liked it."

And I said, "Yeah—"
posted by KChasm at 2:31 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

The Whelk: “I think I know what everyone in this bar wants - constant 90s music!”

I can tell you what I don't want.

The world to see me.

'Cuz I don't think that they'd understand.
posted by koeselitz at 2:33 PM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

sorry but THIS is the best version of sandstorm
posted by elizardbits at 2:36 PM on November 13, 2012 [8 favorites]

Nobody loves you when you're 23 koes.
posted by fshgrl at 2:38 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Nonsense, koselitz, I like you. Yeah, I like you I like you I like you I like you I like you.
posted by Pallas Athena at 2:39 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Adia is really a nice little song there I said it.
posted by The Whelk at 2:42 PM on November 13, 2012

I like Sarah McLachlan absolutely non-ironically.

The winter here is cold and bitter
It's chilled us to the bone...
posted by kmz at 2:44 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

In 1999 I told all my friends that the only reason Britney Spears is popular is because we are a nation of pedophiles, and that as soon as she stops going on and on about how she's a virgin she will no longer sell records.

My friends did not believe me. BUT I WAS RIGHT.
posted by medusa at 2:47 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Then of course there was that year when it seemed like every single band had the word "Verve" in their name, although on reflection there were actually only two, and they were pretty different I guess, and the only other thing I can remember is that one of them got sued by the Rolling Stones for some reason.

We can't really be held responsible for those bands being popular, though. We were merely freshmen.
posted by koeselitz at 2:47 PM on November 13, 2012

Urban Hymns is really a damn good album. (Not so much whichever album "The Freshman" was on though. I bought that and regretted it immediately.)
posted by kmz at 2:48 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

SEBADOH ON PRIME-TIME BBC 1 GUYS
7mins in
posted by mippy at 2:50 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Urban Hymns is really a damn good album.

The Verve have a secret alternate life as a band that shoegazer music geeks obsessed over.
posted by naju at 2:53 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

and the only other thing I can remember is that one of them got sued by the Rolling Stones for some reason.

The story-- as my dad tells it, so who knows-- is that they sampled some Stones song and the big scary Stones lawyer paid them a visit and was like 'We could crush you, we have all the money and power in the world' and The Verve was like 'No please don't hurt us' and the lawyer handed them some thick legal document that had already been prepared and said 'Sign this to split all the profits from "Bittersweet Symphony" fifty-fifty' and The Verve was like 'Oh whew I thought you were going to be mean' and they signed it and it turned out 50% went to Mick Jagger and 50% went to Keith Richards so no, you never heard another song from The Verve.

Also my dad tells this story likes it's hilarious instead of fucked up.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:55 PM on November 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

The Verve and the Verve Pipe are not the same thing, kmz.
posted by Coatlicue at 2:56 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I want to peek into High school Whelks 90s playlists but I think I'll get get Dandy Warhols all over me.

( and like, glen miller. Shut up)
posted by The Whelk at 2:56 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

kmz: “I like Sarah McLachlan absolutely non-ironically.”

The summer after my sophomore year of high school my church group took this trip to Mexico and there were a bunch of other church groups from around the US there at the conference thing or whatever it was and I met this girl named Samantha and we snuck behind one of the tents one afternoon and she played me this song and she sang along with the whole thing and even though I hated Sarah McLaughlin before that I thought it was the coolest thing for some reason that confused me a lot and all I really wanted to do was make out with her.
posted by koeselitz at 2:56 PM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

All I can remember of the Verve Pipe was them having this late afternoon slot at a festival where every other band was super awesome except the Verve Pipe who were super shitty, and they came out and got halfway through the first boring song and somebody through a full water bottle that hit the bassist in the head and knocked him out cold, and the whole crowd cheered while he was dragged off-stage.

It's pretty much the perfect metaphor for the 90s actually.
posted by mannequito at 2:59 PM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

The Verve and the Verve Pipe are not the same thing, kmz.

Uh, yes, I know.
posted by kmz at 3:00 PM on November 13, 2012

Has no one seriously mashed-up "The Freshman" with "Bittersweet Symphony"?

Come on, internet.
posted by griphus at 3:02 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

When we thought of TECHNO we only thought of this....

Mortal Kombat!!!
posted by Godwin Interjection at 3:04 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I want something else, to get me through this thread.
posted by thankyouforyourconsideration at 3:06 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

So many memories of so many cheerleader routines set to that mortal kombat sing.

Also the question of where the whoop is. It is there. There it is.
posted by The Whelk at 3:07 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

The story-- as my dad tells it, so who knows-- is that they sampled some Stones song and the big scary Stones lawyer paid them a visit [snip] Also my dad tells this story likes it's hilarious instead of fucked up.

You're missing the supremely fucked up part: it wasn't a Stones song they sampled, it was an orchestral cover of a Stones song.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 3:08 PM on November 13, 2012

Plus they'd secured the rights to it. It was stipulated that they relied too heavily on it.
posted by shakespeherian at 3:09 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

Has no one seriously mashed-up "The Freshman" with "Bittersweet Symphony"?

Come on, internet.

This may be one of those situations where, until it is pointed out to them, people didn't remember that they were separate songs. There should be a word for that.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:11 PM on November 13, 2012

Man, I've fallen down the nostalgia hole:

Wilco's last good album.
White Stripes' essential s/t.
Another powerpop classic from Sloan.
The best thing Fountains of Wayne ever did.
Built to Spill had another great album.
The album that led most of us to give up on Blur still had some good tracks.
Baffling as it is now, Beck could get you laid.
Fu Manchu scuzzed out.
Suede was entirely serviceable.
Superchunk was still awesome.
One of the best love songs ever, from Magnetic Fields.
I heard Guster more that year than I've ever heard them since.
Handsome Boy Modeling School was the best Chris Elliot tribute band ever.
Dismemberment Plan put out their best album (even if Ice of Boston, their best song, came out earlier).
Tiger Army was on college radio.
Electroclash was starting to be a thing.
Fiona Apple still dropped singles.
I probably heard Big Pimpin' more than Smooth.
And of course, Eminem.
posted by klangklangston at 3:11 PM on November 13, 2012 [20 favorites]

There should be a word for that.

The Nickelback Effect.
posted by griphus at 3:12 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Damn... I didn't realize that the Stones got 100% of the revenue for that song. That's seriously fucked up. They even got all the writing credits. WTF.
posted by kmz at 3:13 PM on November 13, 2012

It's not like the Stones are really into making money or anything.
posted by mippy at 3:15 PM on November 13, 2012

They even got all the writing credits. WTF.

Not just that: they got the band's first-born sons to raise as their own.
posted by griphus at 3:15 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

You have to get Keith Richards to say his name backwards.
posted by The Whelk at 3:17 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

We've kind of come back around to where we started in this thread: an aging rock group from the 1960s making a late-1990s stab at prolonging their legacy by jumping on the bandwagon of newer, hipper groups and raking in the royalties.
posted by koeselitz at 3:20 PM on November 13, 2012

It's almost a.....

Perfect Circle.
posted by The Whelk at 3:22 PM on November 13, 2012 [6 favorites]

This could be a case for Mulder and Scully.
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:29 PM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

Or just a perfect day.
posted by mippy at 3:29 PM on November 13, 2012

I spent the mid-late 90's working in an office environment where I heard the lite-pop sounds of the time. Most of it was easily forgettable, and not as interesting as the quirks of 70's top-40 (another story). I did like 'Kiss Me' by Sixpencethenameistoolong which had a nice 12 string guitar part and a charming innocence to it. 'Lovefool' by The Cardigans was catchy, and I heard a pretty cool glitch remix of it on the dance radio station in the packaging department. I really liked 'Un-Break My Heart' by Toni Braxton, which was a perfect passionate soul ballad. Now my list is leaning towards the mid-side of the late 90's... it's easier if you forget what you hate, and try to remember what you like.
posted by ovvl at 3:29 PM on November 13, 2012

Sixpencenonethericher covered There She Goes by The La's, a pretty ballad that they had no idea was a paean to heroin. Around the same time, girl band All Saints recorded Under The Bridge, again unaware that it was about The Drugs.

That's E for you.
posted by mippy at 3:35 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

I wish I had never tried to figure out what any song was "about".
posted by telstar at 3:39 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

What do you know; basic average pop music becomes annoying when it's overplayed, amirite?
posted by randomkeystrike at 3:40 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Sixpence None The Richer was named after a quotation from C S Lewis, if I'm not mistaken. They were one of those "Christian contemporary" bands. I'm always surprised at how few people know that. At the time, I actually really liked the album that came before "Kiss Me" (I am not sadist enough quite yet to dig it up on the internet, but I liked it back then) and I was excited about the new stuff because it was being produced by Steve Taylor, one of the few people involved in that scene that I can still kinda sorta respect, at least for his bitter sense of humor about the state of "Christian" culture.

Then "Kiss Me" came out, and I went away to college and decided to give up on the whole lot of 'em.
posted by koeselitz at 3:44 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Thank God someone mentioned Deep Blue Something or else I'd have to go into a long story about how it was the very first CD I ever owned and I knew every single song by heart.
posted by redsparkler at 3:45 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

When I first heard Smooth on the radio, I thought it was an ad for Coca Cola.
posted by nile_red at 3:56 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I graduated from high school in 1990, and I non-ironically love Bon Jovi, so you know where I'm coming from. In 1996, I moved from Baton Rouge to Minneapolis for grad school. I didn't know anybody. I didn't have any money. It was the pre-iPod era. I was on the campus of a large midwestern university, surrounded by undergraduates. I remember a lot of the radio singles being talked about in this discussion. Some of the song I like -- see above re:Bon Jovi before you call me hopeless -- some I didn't. In my opinion, about 3/4 of the problem with a lot of these songs is not that they're terrible, because I think that most of them were perfectly acceptable pop songs, but that they got played. To. Freaking. Death. It's not a phenomenon limited to Smooth.

Is it cool to like Big Head Todd and the Monsters? Because if not, screw it, I'm going to make a new post with a couple of links to Chuck Klosterman pieces and about 50 of my favorite hair metal videos.

Extra disclaimer: I have a soft spot for that first Matchbox 20 CD because it was playing everywhere I went when I was in Australia for two weeks back in 1998, so it's tied to a ot of memories.
posted by wintermind at 4:01 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I LIKE TO MOVE IT MOVE IT
posted by elizardbits at 4:16 PM on November 13, 2012

RHYTHM IS A DANCER
posted by The Whelk at 4:20 PM on November 13, 2012

Is it cool to like Big Head Todd and the Monsters?

Yes, yes it is.
posted by inigo2 at 4:23 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I know I'm late to the thread, but who amongst you has had to play Smooth nearly every weekend in a cover band for over 2 years? Also, you don't know from earworm until you've looped it in the headphones 15 times while learning the parts.
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:24 PM on November 13, 2012

troika: "I'm looking forward to opening this thread tomorrow for Return of the Whelk (once again)."

Strictly this, we don't play around; cover much ground, we've got game by the pound.
posted by wierdo at 4:26 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

Whelk, I wish you would step back from this thread my friend.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 4:28 PM on November 13, 2012 [7 favorites]

Spacehog knew how to write a #1, dammit.
posted by nonreflectiveobject at 4:28 PM on November 13, 2012 [10 favorites]

I like Sarah McLachlan absolutely non-ironically.

Check this out. It's "winter of '89" to me.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 4:41 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh god you really are my people.
posted by restless_nomad at 4:48 PM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

I love Santana. I love Carlos Santana. But what's the deal with the shoes?

Carlos Santana is more than a name for the brand. Although Carlos does not design the footwear himself, he is part of the design process. The interpretation of the multi-cultural, colorful imagery that surrounds Santana’s music brings the shoes to life.

posted by Room 641-A at 4:56 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's twelve o'clock, and it's a wonderful day.
I know you hate me, but I'll ask anyway.

they still play this - i'm sick of it
posted by pyramid termite at 5:02 PM on November 13, 2012

Return of the Mack is useful in this conversation because it is awesome, and points out that while modern radio rock was shitting its britches R&B was still pretty good in the late 90s.

Also, Timbaland.
posted by Bookhouse at 5:07 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Spacehog knew how to write a #1, dammit.

Oh god, now the memories flow. The summer after I graduated from high school I was on the "junior board" of a now defunct music festival. The board's deal was to promote and produce a local battle of the bands event where one band of high school students would win and one band of college age students would win and each would get a really terrible slot to play on Saturday morning. We were then each given a job to do during the festival, and I drew artist hospitality out of the hat, was given an all-access laminate, and for the most part skipped out on anything I didn't want to do. The actual events were not memorable, but the surrounding bits were very educational. I learned:

1. For the most part, people in pop radio are terrible people.
2. Phil Collins is a very small guy, and was very nice.
3. How to drink whiskey straight.
4. Being about five feet away from a group of bouncers macing over zealous crowd surfers is highly unpleasant.
5. Gordon Gano is a very small guy, and was kind of a dick.

Spacehog, to get back to the point, put on a unexpected (by me) excellent performance, and were genuinely delightful to be around.
posted by ndfine at 5:11 PM on November 13, 2012

At the time, I read a Q&A with Elizabeth Hurley, where she mentioned Supernatural as her fav record, and suddenly every hubba hubba I'd ever felt for her evaporated instantly.
posted by bendybendy at 5:41 PM on November 13, 2012

Shorty you're my angel, you're my darling. Closer than my peeps you are to me.
posted by yellowbinder at 5:59 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Durn Bronzefist: See the thing is, right alongside all this music I know (all too intimately) is this Canadian stuff that would seem to me you would have to know as well, except it isn't so.

^This, which I find really strange. It's like the US exists in its own musical vacuum.

Although I spent from about 1980 to 2005 listening mainly to Irish traditional music, with the odd trip out for some Laurie Anderson or Talking Heads. My oldest son was born in 2000, and when he was five or so we started trying to make sure he heard some of what we thought was good when we were younger. Sort of from The Beatles through Pink Floyd, with a bunch of other stuff thrown in (American traditional, Elvis, Blues, African music and Arabic pop. Crash Test Dummies!) Out of all that stuff, the pop albums that really stand out are Supernatural and Dark Side of the Moon (which I had heard but not really listened to very carefully). DSOTM because it's so well-produced and sonically interesting, and Supernatural because Santana loves what he's doing so much. If I'd heard that record in my 20's, I'd probably hate it too.

After all that, turns out my kids really like Cheb Khaled - that's what they were singing on the way to school yesterday.
posted by sneebler at 7:01 PM on November 13, 2012

The recap of Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile is really well done. Time for a re-visit.
posted by mannequito at 7:01 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

marquee at a state fair near you:

SMASH MOUTH : CrAZy ToWn : SUGAR RAY
Monsters of Asshole Rock Tour
posted by porn in the woods at 7:27 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

I just want to put forth that Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too is a really, really enjoyable album. I don't know what the fuck was up with the bucket hat any more than you do.

Also, are there people out there who actually hate Jewel? I mean obviously everyone gotta front and be all "haha jewel wtf" but then afterwards you lock yourself into the bathroom and listen to "You Were Meant For Me" 500 times on repeat and cry, right?...right??... ... ...
posted by threeants at 7:47 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

To be honest at this point I non-ironically enjoy 95% of the earworms posted in this thread. It's some sort of developmental problem-- like how if you play classical music for your fetus it will go on to become intelligent, except your teenager and dumb.
posted by threeants at 7:50 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think I'm finally over my 90's nostalgia. I can throw out my dreamcast and JNCO jeans now.
posted by hellojed at 8:08 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

RENT RENT RENT RE-ENT RENT
WE'RE NOT GONNA PAY RENT
posted by brainwane at 8:31 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

Not sure how relevant this is but I recently found out that Nickleback's first album was released on September 11, 2001. Maybe Jerry Falwell was right, 9/11 was a punishment from god, just not for the reasons Jerry mentioned.
posted by MattMangels

But so was Mink Car by They Might Be Giants - shouldn't that cancel it out?

It's so weird, when you're watching Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns, seeing the tour lead up to that date and then there's a midnight concert in a bookstore in New York, and they open the doors at midnight to let the crowds in as John and John play

You called me last night on the telephone
And I was glad to hear from you 'cause I was all alone...

and then the documentary continues and completely elides why it's freaky that it was that date.
posted by brainwane at 8:36 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I was in a foggy grad school-induced headspace late in this period and only really starting to appreciate how good '97 had been, musically (the aforementioned Radiohead, Portishead, etc.). But looking at some of the stuff in this thread, maybe I was just two years behind as a defense mechanism. Egads. The 90s are a crazy decade to have as one's culturally formative years.

(Though, um, I might still have that Dido album. Oh, and Travis. My melancholy UK period has evidently been extensive.)
posted by percolatrix at 8:39 PM on November 13, 2012

I know I'm late to this thread, but that's because I was under the bridge downtown. (In my own defense, I could not get enough.) This occurred due to my desire to have some fun before I die. Until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard.

Re: "Wild Wild West": much better Songsmithed into bluegrass.

For those of you who remember No Doubt: I ran across an headline on the cover of "India Currents" in the 90s about one of its musicians, who is of Indian origin: "No Doubt He's Indian".

As for Jewel, there was at least one grad student at UC Berkeley in the late 90s who used Jewel as a weapon. He told us that he would, at the end of each class period, pick a person who had not spoken aloud, and make them read aloud one poem from Jewel's new poetry collection.
posted by brainwane at 8:44 PM on November 13, 2012 [11 favorites]

I didn't want to hurt you, oh yeah...

And I still kind of like Standing outside a Broken Phone Booth, though I did have to take about a ten year break from it.
posted by triggerfinger at 8:49 PM on November 13, 2012

Also, are there people out there who actually hate Jewel?

Yes.
posted by corey flood at 8:51 PM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

threeants: “To be honest at this point I non-ironically enjoy 95% of the earworms posted in this thread. It's some sort of developmental problem-- like how if you play classical music for your fetus it will go on to become intelligent, except your teenager and dumb.”

I complained a lot back then, and there really is a lot of crap, but I have heard songs from the past five years that are more execrable and hideous and bad for the soul than anything we knew about in the 90s. Like, for instance, this, which is like all the terrible things about "Smooth" turned up to eleven and all the even remotely interesting elements removed, plus just enough surrealism and subtle racism to make it truly offensive. And this, which has the honor of being probably the most sexist song I've ever heard in my life. As bad as the 90s were, no producer in her or his right mind would ever have floated anything like those piles of excrement.
posted by koeselitz at 8:52 PM on November 13, 2012

the chart domination of boy bands was right around the corner

Oh, it's worse than that. The chart domination of boy bands was in full swing, the summer of Supernatural. I feel like I could reconstruct for you a block of Top 40 radio that consists of:

- "Smooth"
- "I Want It That Way", by the Backstreet Boys
- "Jumpin' Jumpin'", by Destiny's Child
- early-ish Eminem
- That gimmicky boy band that did all those songs about how hot Jennifer Love Hewitt is.
- Ricky Fucking Martin.
and that weird "I'm Blue Ah Ba Deeee Ah Ba Daaaah Ah Ba Deeee" thing that I refuse to look up the title for.

Also maybe LEN's "Steal My Sunshine", but I think that was the previous summer. This was maybe six months before the world was first exposed to Nick Lachey.
posted by Sara C. at 8:56 PM on November 13, 2012

All that she intends and all she keeps inside isn't on the label.
posted by empyrean at 9:01 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

There's no bathroom and there is no sink.
The water out of the tap is very hard to drink.
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:02 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

Mama, this surely is a dream.
posted by triggerfinger at 9:02 PM on November 13, 2012 [4 favorites]

Metafilter, I don't know what's real without you. How can I exist without you?
posted by gatorae at 9:07 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

I can't stand to fly, guys. I'm not that naive. I'm just out to find the better part of me.
posted by davidjmcgee at 9:09 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

How has nobody mentioned the following yet?

~ Air's "Moon Safari"
~ The Dandy Warhol's "The Dandy Warhols Come Down"

C'mon folks: The sexy boy never thought you'd be a junkie...
posted by Alice Russel-Wallace at 9:12 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Return of the Mack is useful in this conversation because it is awesome

Whenever this song would come on my friends would yell "WHERE IS SWEETKID" because I loved it that much and it was important I not miss it.
posted by sweetkid at 9:15 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

The other thing this thread reminds me of is that 1999 was right around the end of a monthly habit of mine: I read CMJ's New Music Monthly religiously all through high school and for a couple years after. My dad'd gotten a lot of old Certain Damages back in the day (my intro to Pere Ubu and Red Hot Chili Peppers and Soundgarden), so I loved getting in on it.

So, from 1999, what I thought was popular music (thanks discogs!):

Ben Folds — Army
DJ Rap — Good to be Alive
I really liked Papa Vegas's "Sermon Underground" but that no longer exists on the internet aside from a broken MySpace link.
Gay Dad — Joy (Pretty much the worst Brit Pop name ever)
Supreme Beings of Leisure — Strangelove Addiction

There's more but I don't feel like sorting through to remember if Gomez was any good, and I used to love Supersuckers and Hellacoptors much more than I do now.
posted by klangklangston at 9:17 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Mikey got with Sharon.
Sharon got Cherise.
As she was sharin' Sharon's outlook on the topic of disease.
Mikey had a facial scar and Bobby was a racist.
They were all in love with dying, they were doing it in Texas.
Tommy played piano like a kid out in the rain and then he lost his leg in Dallas;
He was dancing with a train.

They were all in love with dying.
They were drinking from a fountain.
That was pouring like an avalanche.
Coming down the mountain.
posted by davidjmcgee at 9:18 PM on November 13, 2012 [12 favorites]

but That Boy Is Mine is still an undisputed classic.

I'm still annoyed at how inferior "The Girl Is Mine" is compared to the amazingness of the Brandy/Monica take.
posted by Sara C. at 9:18 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

This is like one of those 80's threads I have hated for so long. Only now you all are doing it with the 90's.

The good news: 80's are finally something that is done. The bad news: You fools.
posted by Mike Mongo at 9:20 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

We had an awesome alt radio station in the 90s. I don't know if some of the songs they played were known nationally or were just played mostly on that station but they played some really great stuff. I still miss that station. Some songs/bands that I remember discovering through them:

Soul Coughing
G. Love & Special Sauce
NoFX
Babe the Blue Ox
posted by triggerfinger at 9:24 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

I saw a 90's retro night advertised at a pub recently. Then I saw a girl wearing a floral dress with docs and denim. I think the trend began long ago, Mike Mongo.

Don't worry though, it'll pass....
posted by Alice Russel-Wallace at 9:25 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

...It'll pass right abouuuuuut .........

....now, funk soul brother.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:28 PM on November 13, 2012 [3 favorites]

This thread is getting heated. In fact, it's getting hot in (hot in). So hot in herre.

I was like, good gracious.

Oh God. There is a bit in Generation Kill about how this set of dudes have this combat problem where they get a song stuck in their heads and just randomly bust it out whenever, and they song they're stuck on is this one. And ever since I read that, it mind-melded with the fact that Nelly exists and the Tiga cover with puppets. And for years now whenever I am driving or walking through the grocery store and I am just kind of relaxed-but-energetic and minding my own business, my brain loops

You're with a winner so baby can't lose
I got secrets can't leave Cancun
So take it off like you're home alone
You know, dance in front of the mirror while you're on the phone
Checkin' your reflection and telling your best friend, like girl I think my butt's getting big
(Uh, uh)
It's getting hot in herre-

And I have to control myself, because my brain is also trying to make me DANCE LIKE THE PUPPETS.
posted by thehmsbeagle at 9:30 PM on November 13, 2012

She likes me for me
Not because I sing like Pavorotti
Or because I'm such a hottie
I like her for her
Not because she's phat like Cindy Crawford
She has got so much to offer
Why does she waste all her time with me
There must be something there that I don't see

If the sound of the band didn't immediately scream LATE 90'S, the Cindy Crawford reference certainly would.
posted by ActionPopulated at 9:35 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us?

I used to see Jane Osborne all the time at (now sadly, sadly departed) Victory coffee shop in Boerum Hill. Other regulars included me, Hope Davis, Paul Dano, Michelle Williams, Matilda and Heath Ledger (also very sadly, sadly departed).
posted by sweetkid at 9:35 PM on November 13, 2012

Hey did you guys know that every morning there's a halo hanging from the corner of my girlfriend's four-post bed?

"Kowalski, Status Report."
"The good news is, the song is almost over."
posted by zarq at 9:53 PM on November 13, 2012

Oh god I've lost track of so much of this thread due to (perhaps appropriately) being at a Who concert all night (They performed the entirety of Quadrophenia in one long continuous set, including incorporating footage of Moon and Entwhistle into the live set, and it was truly pretty damned amazing, even if Roger's voice was entirely shredded at the end of it.)

Anyway, koeselitz: here's a good example of Sixpence None The Richer during their explicitly Christian days, which were infinitely better than their more popular days later.

As for Spacehog - god I loved that band and they have aged very, very well. I once spent about three hours stuck outside the Lincoln Tunnel getting their former drummer Johnny Crag back from a film shoot to his bartending gig in Manhattan, and he was both very pleasant and refreshingly honest about how the band had blown their chances at the true big time by assuming (at all of, like, 23 years old) that they were each such hot shit that they could make it on their own.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:14 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

By 1999, I guess La Bouche were like elder statesmen but I will always carry a torch for Be My Lover.
posted by chinston at 10:18 PM on November 13, 2012 [2 favorites]

Went down the late 90's YouTube wormhole so far I found Placebo - Every You, Every Me. I think top YouTube comment submitter, slickers, put it better than I possibly could:

"how the hell did I get here"
posted by clearly at 10:24 PM on November 13, 2012 [5 favorites]

I need to share my still-glowing joy and this seems as good a place as any. I was at my first Radiohead concert last night in Sydney. OMFG. I knew they mostly play from their post-2000 work these days and that I had a fairly low chance of fulfilling my childhood dream of hearing Airbag live. I'm a grown man and I squealed like a preteen Beiber fan when it was the second song they played, straight after Lotus Flower. Late 90s-wise, that album makes up for an awful lot.
posted by moorooka at 10:37 PM on November 13, 2012

Navelgazer: "Anyway, koeselitz: here's a good example of Sixpence None The Richer during their explicitly Christian days, which were infinitely better than their more popular days later."

Holy cow, yes! That is precisely the album I meant; I loved that record growing up. That was their last album before their unfortunate Steve Taylor produced stab at the mainstream. And it seems to have held up shockingly well. What a nice surprise - I'll have to see if I can listen to the whole thing. Thanks.
posted by koeselitz at 10:37 PM on November 13, 2012

Not sure how relevant this is but I recently found out that Nickleback's first album was released on September 11, 2001

This is definitely not true, because (and I am not proud of this), I am pretty god damned certain that a Nickelback album was playing the first time I ever tried to get high. Smoking out of an RC Cola can at Mike and Jesse's apartment a block from the Pizza Ranch, while trying to figure out if we were going to be able to talk anybody into buying us beer.

Later we gave up and played some Dr. Mario.

That was well before 2001.
posted by brennen at 10:41 PM on November 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

Nickleback's first album was released in '95. Their breakthrough album, especially to American audiences, came out on 9/11.

That's, in fact, what we are never supposed to forget, I'm pretty sure.
posted by klangklangston at 10:48 PM on November 13, 2012

that is how they remind us
posted by mannequito at 10:53 PM on November 13, 2012 [8 favorites]

We've kind of come back around to where we started in this thread: an aging rock group from the 1960s making a late-1990s stab at prolonging their legacy by jumping on the bandwagon of newer, hipper groups and raking in the royalties.

This can only mean that... Oh no! Pop is dead, long live pop. It died an ugly death by back-catalogue.
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 10:58 PM on November 13, 2012

I believe I can touch the sky...
posted by ramix at 11:30 PM on November 13, 2012

You guys are making me completely miserable.
posted by polymath at 12:12 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

OMG you guys. Sleepover, pizza, Hackers, and But I'm a Cheerleader. My place. Now. We can paint soda tabs with nail polish and string them together with embroidery thread to make chokers OMG.

I have POUNDS of TAPES of these songs that I painstakingly composed with my 2-tape deck stereo and the radio.

I remember thinking if I missed a song, or the DJ didn't say who it was, I'd just never know and it would be gone from my history..... then a few years later, google. It's still my favorite thing about the future - unlose-able music.
posted by nile_red at 12:38 AM on November 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

The best thing that can be said for a lot of late 90s songs is that they took up airspace that otherwise surely would have been used to play Black Hole Sun on the same seemingly endless loop it had been on since 1994.

I'm not sure how many times a day I listened to the Superunknown album but I bet my former roommates could tell you. I distinctly remember the record being 16 but I don't know how that's possible.

Also, Black Hole Sun is forever wedded to obsessive play of Shining Force 2 on the Sega, the way Paula Abdul's Straight Up goes hand in hand with Super Mario 2. Don't ask.

And thanks to this thread I have now listened to Sixpence None The Richer for maybe the third (first intentional) time in my life. I had no idea who they were or where that song was from. Interesting.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 1:00 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

Also, "Maria Maria" at #3??? That song is musical poison.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 1:01 AM on November 14, 2012

I'm on a rocket to Uranus.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:11 AM on November 14, 2012

I feel like I need to stand up for the Verve Pipe

You, yes you. Put that down. Stop throwing things at me. Really. Please?

The Verve Pipe were a pretty awesome Kalamazoo-scene band. They headlined at my first ever concert (Kalapalooza, of course, because it was the nineties), which was 14 bands over two consecutive nights. Other fine local bands included Black Spring (metal, sucked), Thought Industry (angsty art prog-metal, available at Best Buys all over for some reason), Twitch (angry hard rock, pretty great, still listen to it), Screwtape (like They Might Be Giants, but if they were a prog-metal band with songs about kissing corpses and realizing the world just sort of sucked, but in a funny way), Rolling Head (who were playing last time I went back to Kalamazoo. I didn't know it, but I suddenly heard their big song from my childhood, called Strangle You wafting out into the parking lot and I sort of went a bit nuts as my friends and family inched away from me).

Kalamazoo was kind of split between alt-metal wankery and neo-hippyish 90's rock. The Verve Pipe were definitely the latter. The thing is, that album was their 3rd or 4th album, after a couple of pretty solidly rocking releases. Freshman was their big song, and it was most likely what got them signed, but it sounded nothing like that mealy mouthed crap song with a lackadaisical drumbeat in the background. It was a full-on singer-songwriter with a guitar heartwrenching confessional. I saw them a couple times at shows in Kalamazoo, and everytime they played that song, it was just reverrent silence from the crowd. Powerful, powerful song.

When I heard they'd been picked up, I was kind of excited. When I heard that Freshman would be their first single, I was thrilled, and I was telling people, oh, you're going to love this song. And then I heard that absolute modern-rock/adult contemporary monstrosity that they made it into.

Strangely enough, that same year, I saw Goo Goo Dolls open for Soul Asylum in Ann Arbor, and both bands fucking rocked. No maudlin Downtown Train. No Iris-ey crap. Just two hours of good fucking music.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:15 AM on November 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

The only remedy to this thread is polka. Lots of polka.
posted by Gordafarin at 1:32 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh god, I just remembered my first true pop music earworm, the song that seemed to always be playing in the summer of 97, my second summer at math camp. The summer when I had my first heartbreak and decided to give this "modern music" thing a try. And I still like this song a lot, but holy hell it was played so much:

Sunny came home to her favorite room
Sunny sat down in the kitchen...
posted by kmz at 1:35 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

Blimey, in 1999 Idlewild still had the last vestiges of their mental hardcore days and hadn't yet turned into the Scottish version of REM.
posted by mippy at 1:54 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

90s Alterna-Polka? You got it!
posted by mannequito at 1:59 AM on November 14, 2012

WAs this response song to No Scrubs a hit in the US? WAY TO MISS THE POINT SPORTY THEIVEZ

Jesus, it sounds labout as professional as the Kersal Massive. No idea how this got prime airplay.
posted by mippy at 1:59 AM on November 14, 2012

The true sound of 1999.
posted by MartinWisse at 3:09 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

There's a significant advantage to not listening to the damn radio.

Yeah, or even better cut off from Western Civilization entirely. I always thought it was a cool tune, and was happy to see Carlos Santana back from the dead. But I was not having to hear it 24/7, I guess that could have an effect.

It was the most popular song my band in Bishkek played, always packed the dance floor with happy folks, made me feel like a rock star singing it. Different strokes I guess.
posted by Meatbomb at 3:38 AM on November 14, 2012

Metafilter: said I loved you... but I lied
posted by flabdablet at 4:01 AM on November 14, 2012

Ghidorah: "I feel like I need to stand up for the Verve Pipe

You, yes you. Put that down. Stop throwing things at me. Really. Please?

The Verve Pipe were a pretty awesome Kalamazoo-scene band. They headlined at my first ever concert (Kalapalooza, of course, because it was the nineties), which was 14 bands over two consecutive nights. Other fine local bands included Black Spring (metal, sucked), Thought Industry (angsty art prog-metal, available at Best Buys all over for some reason), Twitch (angry hard rock, pretty great, still listen to it), Screwtape (like They Might Be Giants, but if they were a prog-metal band with songs about kissing corpses and realizing the world just sort of sucked, but in a funny way), Rolling Head (who were playing last time I went back to Kalamazoo. I didn't know it, but I suddenly heard their big song from my childhood, called Strangle You wafting out into the parking lot and I sort of went a bit nuts as my friends and family inched away from me).

Kalamazoo was kind of split between alt-metal wankery and neo-hippyish 90's rock. The Verve Pipe were definitely the latter. The thing is, that album was their 3rd or 4th album, after a couple of pretty solidly rocking releases. Freshman was their big song, and it was most likely what got them signed, but it sounded nothing like that mealy mouthed crap song with a lackadaisical drumbeat in the background. It was a full-on singer-songwriter with a guitar heartwrenching confessional. I saw them a couple times at shows in Kalamazoo, and everytime they played that song, it was just reverrent silence from the crowd. Powerful, powerful song.

When I heard they'd been picked up, I was kind of excited. When I heard that Freshman would be their first single, I was thrilled, and I was telling people, oh, you're going to love this song. And then I heard that absolute modern-rock/adult contemporary monstrosity that they made it into.

....."

Thanks for the great story. I missed it the vervepipe hate earlier. I'll come out with my vervepipe/kalamazoo defense story. I was managing a college radio station there in the late 00s and Brian Vander Ark, the lead singer of verve pipe, now solo, came to the school, gave a lecture/presentation on the changing ways of artists supporting themselves for a career (he plays at people's private parties/BBQs). I managed to get him an interview at like 5:00 on a friday afternoon, a pretty nice sunny day. He was the biggest name we had at the station while I was there (besides someone from Invisible Children - I did not arrange that one).

Anyways, he was a great guy, really friendly. Yes, I even asked him about how he felt the freshmen... He had no regrets, he still got checks from it often. I don't remember anything else besides that interview besides that, his friendly demeanor, and that he was most interested in our vinyl collection and stuck around for several minutes browsing through it.
posted by fizzix at 4:33 AM on November 14, 2012

HEY HEY HEY I'M GUILTY
posted by Lucinda at 4:38 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

Fizzix, were you managing WIDR? That station was responsible for me learning that good music existed. That station was pretty much my one stop for punk, ska, and the industrial I so briefly liked as a teen.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:43 AM on November 14, 2012

Once I figure out mashing, I'm going to do Helmet "In the Meantime" with Space Hog "In The Meantime"
posted by Renoroc at 5:01 AM on November 14, 2012

Good lord, I'm turning into some sort of 90s apologist, but since sweetkid mentioned Joan Osborne, I'd like to point out that there are some awesome songs on "Relish" that are nothing like "One of Us". I guess you could argue that she tried a little too hard to do the Janis Joplin thing, but I will never be ashamed of loving her cover of "Man in the Long Black Coat". I also appreciate the she had some songs on the album like "Right Hand Man" and "Let's Just Get Naked" that are unapologetic about her owning her sexuality rather than passively reacting to it. I don't know enough to argue strongly that she was making a very serious feminist statement, but there's a lot more there than college sophomore-type musings about the nature of God.
posted by wintermind at 5:11 AM on November 14, 2012 [4 favorites]

best "return of the mack" mashup
posted by elizardbits at 5:11 AM on November 14, 2012

All I know about Verve vs. Verve Pipe is that they were always in my way when I went digging for Veruca Salt singles. (I did manage to put together an almost complete set in the brief period between eBay and Napster.)
posted by yellowbinder at 5:24 AM on November 14, 2012

That's not true I do know Verve from that scene in Cruel Intentions where SMG is unmasked as a slutty cokewhore and everyones like hahaha you bitch and Reese Witherspoon is all I AM BECOME SEBASTIAN.
posted by yellowbinder at 5:25 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

I rebuke, disdain, and hereby decry Santana's "Supernatural" - for all time and forever. I worked at Barnes and Noble when this album came out, and it was an in-store play for over a year. Whenever I had a chance to work in the Music Department, I immediately took it out of play, and put in the 1940s pop compilation album. (Betty Hutton - love you!)

Some things are not crimes, but still are wrong wrong wrong. That Everlast song falls under that category.
posted by palindromic at 5:30 AM on November 14, 2012

That's not true I do know Verve from that scene in Cruel Intentions where SMG is unmasked as a slutty cokewhore and everyones like hahaha you bitch and Reese Witherspoon is all I AM BECOME SEBASTIAN.

SWIRLING JUDGING FACES

JUUUUUDGE
posted by The Whelk at 5:31 AM on November 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

I'd like to point out that there are some awesome songs on "Relish" that are nothing like "One of Us".

THANK YOU. I didn't think anyone else actually bothered with that album, which is a good album.
posted by griphus at 5:41 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

While I love Cornershop's "When I was born for the 7th time", especially for "Norwegian Wood", I have to skip "Brimful of Asha".

Cause everybody needs a bosom for a pillow.
posted by hariya at 5:50 AM on November 14, 2012

It's a sadly overlooked gem, griphus. But I try and remind myself how common it was to hear a single and buy the album only to find that the rest of the songs were nothing like the big hit. If you didn't really want a bluesy, meditative album the you were probably surprised and disappointed by "Relish".
posted by wintermind at 5:50 AM on November 14, 2012

During this time period I was on a folk kick and didn't listen to a lot of popular music. So I'm reading this thread and about 3/4 of the references I just don't get. Then someone will say something like "we were merely freshmen" and I a light bulb will go off in my head. A light bulb of RAGE.

Basically what I'm trying to say is I just don't get it but I'll keep it copacetic and learn to accept it. I know I'm so pathetic.
posted by bondcliff at 6:00 AM on November 14, 2012

At least you got the cool, got the cool shoeshine.
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:04 AM on November 14, 2012

Boy you should know that... I've got you on my mind...
posted by naju at 6:17 AM on November 14, 2012

Doesn't When I Was Born... have the original, non-Norman Cook remix of Brimful of Asha on it? I couldn't buy the original when it was first released anywhere where I lived, so I was quite pleased that the remix was decent.

Speaking of Norman Cook, when I was a temp the firm I was with had a Powerpoint presentation about how well the department had done over the past year. As the first slide appeared, complete with a clip-art stickman raising his hands in joy, someone pressed play on a tape of 'Praise You'. All the temps were trying very, very hard not to piss themselves laughing.
posted by mippy at 6:19 AM on November 14, 2012

Speaking of British Asian number 1 hits, this was quite special.
posted by mippy at 6:21 AM on November 14, 2012

Is it weird that the rap-rock thing is just.... ignored. Like, it never happened? Limp Bizkit and Korn were the biggest rock bands on earth for quite a few years. The "Family Values Tour(s)" were huge, huge deals.

It's almost as if we collectively realize how truly fucking terrible it was and plug our ears and hum to avoid the memories.

In the beginning, there was Bring the Noise - a collab between Anthrax and Public Enemy. It was unexpected and awesome. Then came the Judgement Night soundtrack, and the whole was an order of magnitude better than the sum of its parts - Biohazard is fun, Onyx is great, Biohazard with Onyx is slam-dance-with-semi's incredible. And the whole album was like that.

So, two Detroit acts, Kid Rock and the Insane Clown Posse get the message, and each comes up with a shockingly good album. Subsequent albums will be significantly less good, verging on terrible, tho ICP manages to eek out a few decent singles and founded an apocalyptic death-cult to keep relevant, and Kid Rock transformed himself into Kid Nugent and has been doing mediocre rock stripped of any and all hip-hop at county fairs and racetracks ever since.

But there are others, too - Zebrahead has a fun, perky, bouncy rap-rock album, and then they fall off the planet. Limp Bizcut had one great, beyond awesome album in Three Dollar Bill Yall$, and then anything they did subsequently made you wish they'd just fall off the planet.

So the complete inability of the big rap-rock acts to follow up on their initial success doomed the entire genre.

I don't know if I'd consider RATM rap-rock - Zack de la Rocha's vocals are definitely inspired by rap and rappers, but don't really have a hip-hop flow to them.

I don't really have an earworm to contribute. Well, maybe one.

...if I don't get my bath, I take it out on the slaves.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:30 AM on November 14, 2012 [4 favorites]

Is Biohazard on its own rap-rock? Or Sick of it All?
posted by MartinWisse at 6:33 AM on November 14, 2012

All right, now who's willing to do a quick-and-dirty primer on early and awesome Santana for me

The easy answer is to check out the album Abraxas.
posted by yoink at 9:09 AM on November 13 [14 favorites +] [!]

Not enough love for Abraxas in this thread. It is one of the great albums of all time. The original track list:

1. "Singing Winds, Crying Beasts [Instrumental]" Mike Carabello 4:51
2. "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" Peter Green/Gábor Szabó 5:22
3. "Oye Como Va" Tito Puente 4:16
4. "Incident at Neshabur [Instrumental]" Alberto Gianquinto, Carlos Santana 4:57
5. "Se a Cabo" José Areas 2:50
6. "Mother's Daughter" Gregg Rolie 4:25
7. "Samba Pa Ti [Instrumental]" Santana 4:54
8. "Hope You're Feeling Better" Rolie 4:11
9. "El Nicoya" Areas 1:30

"Black Magic Woman" and "Oye Como Va" are the most famous and Santana uses them as his big encores in live performances.

Until just now, I didn't know that "Black Magic Woman" was a Peter Green/ Gabor Szabo song or that "Oye Como Va" was a Tito Puente song. Guess I'm going to have to search out other versions.

I personally find the silent segue between "Black Magic Woman" and "Oye Como Va" to be compelling.
posted by notmtwain at 6:34 AM on November 14, 2012

It was labelled 'sports-metal' by the NME here, then 'nu-metal'. Blink-182, Korn, Kid Rock (who didn't really do much here), Limp Bizkit, Puddle of Mudd. Korn were never mainstream here and could only be seen on the T-shirts of the kids that hung out in the science block - I was astounded when someone played me a tape of a Korn album that turned out to be three minutes of a man sobbing - was this something worth putting on a T-shirt? ICP never gained traction here and are known mainly for the magnets meme than their actual music.

There was a song that went 'the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire' that was HUEG. Who was that?

My ex saw Papa Roach supported by Puddle of Mudd at the MEN Arena. I should have dumped him then. I really HATE that cynical music video they did with the message 'hey, this is music for disenfranchised kids like YOU!'. Go fuck yourself, corporate angst, I'll be at Claire's Accessories buying a Ramones bracelet.
posted by mippy at 6:36 AM on November 14, 2012

Peter Green/Fleetwood Mac's version of Black Magic Woman (in the days before they became coke sniffing divorcees) is utterly brilliant.
posted by MartinWisse at 6:37 AM on November 14, 2012

Is rap-rock still going strong in frathouses across the nation? What do angry white backwards-cap-wearing fratboys listen to these days? Even cartoonish hard rock seems to be part of another era (Trapt, Puddle of Mudd, Staind, etc.) Did they all transform into h*psters and listen to Animal Collective and talk to girls about French new wave cinema.
posted by naju at 6:37 AM on November 14, 2012

Doesn't When I Was Born... have the original, non-Norman Cook remix of Brimful of Asha on it?

It does. And that was the version that the Syracuse University college radio had in heavy rotation. Which was the only station permitted on the lab's radio.

Listening to it just gives me bad flashbacks.

White Town's Your Woman, and Cake's I will survive, and Bittersweet Symphony, and any Oasis song will also do the same to me.

Put them all together with that song from that NZ guy driving around in a convertible and "God was one of us", and you have my version of the mix tape from hell.
posted by hariya at 6:38 AM on November 14, 2012

There's a lot of bad in Kid Rock (Bawitaba is a dark horse candidate for dumbest song of all time), but I'll stand by Cowboy and Only God Knows Why as decent for what they are. My mother (whose tastes mostly involve Carolina beach music) also really liked that duet with Sheryl Crow, which is still one of the weirdest conversations I've ever had.

Also from having read the Wikipedia article on Kid Rock just now, I learned that he once filled in for James Hetfield when he was touring with Metallica and James Hetfield was injured in a jet ski accident.

I have no idea how I didn't know this because I assume a crowd of Metallica fans seeing Kid Rock sing "Enter Sandman" would have rioted and killed several people, but I guess not.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:38 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

What do angry white backwards-cap-wearing fratboys listen to these days?

In my experience, those guys were always listening to Madball and Agnostic Front and Suicidal Tendencies and continue to do so.

Unrelated: I just got an email from Bowery Presents (the biggest "indie" booker in NYC, if that is even a statement that makes sense) and Cake and the Smashing Pumpkins are on tour. How about that.
posted by griphus at 6:38 AM on November 14, 2012

Put them all together with that song from that NZ guy driving around in a convertible

How bizarre.
posted by MartinWisse at 6:39 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

HOW BIZARRE HOW BIZARRE

It was the Norman Cook remix that went No.1 in the UK, so that got overplayed here.

Oddly relevant link I saw today. lol at 'ladyboner for Mumford & Sons' - this has never happened, they are a band constructed entirely of jumpers.
posted by mippy at 6:41 AM on November 14, 2012

Said link was the subject of a front page post a few days ago...

Mumford & Sons is decent enough; typical 6Music band, a few good tunes, okayish first album, this year's Guillemots.
posted by MartinWisse at 6:44 AM on November 14, 2012

True enough. Better to save this thread, and fight the break of dawn. Come tomorrow....

"Save Tonight" was SO IMPORTANT TO ME that night before my boyfriend left our dorm to spend the weekend with his folks. So relevant and poignant. He was also the guy who caused me to see The Phantom Menace and then tried to convince me that it had been good.

I am legitimately glad that I just remembered that "Little Black Backpack" exists.

It's a fun song! But watch out for a Verve Pipe/The Verve-type disambiguation issue regarding The Strokes and Stroke 9.

I'll have to use this thread as source material in 90s montages for the films I make. K, I don't make films. But if I did they'd have a samurai.
posted by brainwane at 6:45 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

There was a song that went 'the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire' that was HUEG. Who was that?

We don't need no water let the motherfucker burn. Burn motherfucker, burn

From another of their songs "Do it doggystyle so we can both watch X-Files" is the most 90s line ever
posted by yellowbinder at 6:46 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

There was a song that went 'the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire' that was HUEG. Who was that?

The Bloodhound Gang - they had a follow up single, "Mammals", that was also a lot of fun. They are the answer to the question, "What if the Dead Milkmen could travel in time, and decided they liked both rap and grunge?"

But the best Bloodhound Gang is Mope.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:46 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Mumford & Sons is decent enough

I have a complicated relationship with Mumford & Sons. Like half their songs I genuinely enjoy and think are actually pretty decent, the other half I sort of enjoy right up until this moment when get the uncanny feeling that I'm actually listening to the Dave Mathews Band, and it freaks me out and I turn them off.

But the best Bloodhound Gang is Mope.

THE OFFICIAL TOP FIVE BLOODHOUND GANG SONGS

1. Fire Water Burn
2. Mope
3. 3.14
4. Bad Touch
5. Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:49 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

But the best Bloodhound Gang is Mope.

Which video reminds me of this and this is about as Euronineties as you can get. Swedish, camp, over the top vocals, a bit of bisexual teasing, synths.
posted by MartinWisse at 6:50 AM on November 14, 2012

It's a fun song! But watch out for a Verve Pipe/The Verve-type disambiguation issue regarding The Strokes and Stroke 9.

I actually thought it was Eve 6 who I am still convinced is the same band as Stroke 9 and Sum 42.

Also, I am still amazed at how hilarious and obscene Bloodhound Gang's lyrics were. That dude had a gift.
posted by griphus at 6:52 AM on November 14, 2012

Also, sorry, the best Bloodhound Song is "Hell Yeah."
posted by griphus at 6:54 AM on November 14, 2012

In early 1997 I was newly transplanted to L.A., riding the bus because my car had been totalled, working in a special effects shop full of guys ages 20-45ish. As such you'd think there would have been good tunes playing, but the radio policy was "if we can't agree on a station we all like, then we have to listen to a station that we all hate equally."

...And that's why hearing Love Fool or I Love You Always Forever still fills me with a vague sense of lonely homesickness and existential worry about being broke and carless in the least pedestrian-friendly city in the country.
posted by usonian at 6:54 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

At the end of the thread, just before the thirty day limit, would someone please link to the video for

Cloossing time
One last call for alcohol so finish your whiskey or beer...

i know whoooo I want ta take me home
i know whoooo I want ta take me home
i know whoooo I want ta take me home
posted by Ghidorah at 7:02 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

I actually thought it was Eve 6 who I am still convinced is the same band as Stroke 9 and Sum 42.

I consistently misremember "Blink-182" as being "Blink 187" because of California's anti-immigrant Prop 187 a few years a few years prior. I'm remembering a guy I dated who, like, really identified with "What's My Age Again?" and Barenaked Ladies's "One Week" as representative of who he was. God, this is all mixed up with the last episode of Seinfeld for me now.
posted by brainwane at 7:06 AM on November 14, 2012

and isn't that ironic
don't you think
posted by brainwane at 7:07 AM on November 14, 2012

I actually thought it was Eve 6 who I am still convinced is the same band as Stroke 9 and Sum 42.

DISTINGUISHMENT TIME

Stroke 9 is a one hit wonder. That one hit is Little Black Backpack.

Eve 6 had a few songs. Inside Out, Promise, and On the Roof Again, for example. They even did an angsty power ballad in "Here's to the Night." It's basically their "I Want to Know What Love Is." They died out quickly after that.

Sum 42 is not a band. Sum 41 is mediocre pop punk band most notable for producing Avril Lavigne's ex-husband. Also, if you watch a Sum 41 video, you'll notice that all of the members jump into the air simultaneously pretty much exactly in time with the beat. It's basically what you'd expect from a bunch of Canadians trying to pretend to be badass. It's like watching a punk band composed of people from your high school's marching band.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:07 AM on November 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

...because of California's anti-immigrant Prop 187...

Did they seriously number their anti-immigration proposition with the same number as their criminal code/slang term for murder?
posted by griphus at 7:11 AM on November 14, 2012

Don't forget to give me back my black t-shirt.
posted by Diskeater at 7:11 AM on November 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

No, the best Bloodhound Gang was 'Why's Everybody Always Picking On Me?'

Turns out that the roof on fire was Coal Chamber.
posted by mippy at 7:13 AM on November 14, 2012

I'm pretty sure that 1999 was the witching hour immediately prior to dashboard confessional coming out and ruining everything for everyone for all time.
posted by skrozidile at 7:13 AM on November 14, 2012

It's funny how awful 1999 was for music considering how great it was for film.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:15 AM on November 14, 2012

I teach freshman comp and one year I had them make a mix CD as our class " magazine." One of the kids chose Eve 6's Here's to the Night. Why in the heck would an 18 year old in 2011 have that as one of their favorite songs? (Let's ignore the fact that making a mix CD in 2011 is hopelessly retro. Most of the kids seemed to think it was pretty fun.)

I think "Here's to the Night" is like every third school's angsty song about graduation, so I'm guessing that's where it's coming from.

On that note, we shouldn't forget certain songs about graduation.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:17 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

YOU FORGOT ~~POLAND~~ SILVERCHAIR
posted by emelenjr at 7:17 AM on November 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

Back then films still took a year to cross the Atlantic, so what you think of as 1999 films I think of as 2000 films, hence still thinking of '99 as being a bust. It took about six months to a year for stuff to come out on video back then as well.

I found my ticket to Being John Malkovich from March 2000 the other day.
posted by mippy at 7:18 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Look back, I sift through all the cliques
Roaming the halls all year, making me sick
posted by mippy at 7:22 AM on November 14, 2012

Is this the support group for 90s music? Because I have a problem.
On the one hand, I still listen to the albums of pretty much every mid-90s power-pop band I loved in high school, including Jellyfish, Jason Falkner, the Wondermints, Tahiti 80 and Sloan. Also, if you don't love "Always Be My Baby," I don't want to know you.

On the other hand, I am not looking forward to the day when the "oldies" station subjects me to these gems again:
- Good Riddance (yes, they really did play this at my friend's funeral)
- Wear Sunscreen
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy
- anything by the Goo Goo Dolls
posted by overeducated_alligator at 7:27 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

overeducated_alligator - you can experience that very day here.
posted by mippy at 7:30 AM on November 14, 2012

I can't believe none of you people have mentioned Save Ferris' cover of Come on Eileen.

Or Zoot Suit Riot.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 7:39 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

Also, I think I am immune to all of these songs due to being in a college a cappella group circa 2000.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 7:42 AM on November 14, 2012

I now realize why I did so poorly in organic chemistry in college. It's because the part of my brain that is supposed to memorize information is clogged up with every lyric to every goddamned song in this thread.
posted by phunniemee at 7:43 AM on November 14, 2012 [4 favorites]

I'm having a really bad day today and somehow this thread has led to me self-medicating with 90s football songs. Obviously this one is the best.
posted by mippy at 7:46 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think we should leave this thread open forever, as a way of tracking the age of the user base. We could just put a sidebar link called "post jokes about songs from when you were in high school" and we could let people post in it until someday in 2025 when someone says "I totally had to Google those lyrics, lolz, wut's a Ke$ha?" and then we shut down the site forever.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:47 AM on November 14, 2012 [6 favorites]

We could just put a sidebar link called "post jokes about songs from when you were in high school"

lolz these songs are all from when I was in middle school you old fart :P
posted by phunniemee at 7:52 AM on November 14, 2012

Or Zoot Suit Riot.

More applicable to 1999, Mambo #5.

*shudder*

Also, I think I am immune to all of these songs due to being in a college a cappella group circa 2000.

UNCLEAN!
posted by mrgrimm at 7:53 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

shakespeherian: “It's funny how awful 1999 was for music considering how great it was for film.”

No matter how many good things were released, Fight Club, American Beauty, and Magnolia were so awful that the good is cancelled out.
posted by koeselitz at 7:55 AM on November 14, 2012

Sorry, but no "best of Bloodhound Gang" list is complete without earlier efforts like She Ain't Got No Legs and You're Pretty When I'm Drunk.

Collegeville, PA represent, yo!
posted by tonycpsu at 7:56 AM on November 14, 2012

Is going back and watching Fight Club now going to feel like watching the Transformers cartoon movie (Orson Welles' last role!) did when I was in college? Because I don't think I have the heart.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 7:58 AM on November 14, 2012

Wow, so apparently I'm tangling with some serious Bloodhound Gang fans. I'm almost afraid to post my top Lou Bega songs for fear that some weirdo who likes something he released in 2010 will come in to tell me I'm wrong.

ALMOST

1. Mambo Number 5 (obviously)
2. Tricky, Tricky
3. Gentleman
4. Mambo, Mambo
5. THERE ARE ONLY FOUR
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:00 AM on November 14, 2012

That's officially two more Lou Bega songs than I was aware existed, so kudos.
posted by phunniemee at 8:03 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Well, you did say your list was official!
posted by tonycpsu at 8:04 AM on November 14, 2012

Is going back and watching Fight Club now going to feel like watching the Transformers cartoon movie (Orson Welles' last role!) did when I was in college? Because I don't think I have the heart.

I saw the Transformers movie in a theater at my college. It felt a lot like I was in a room full of a bunch of nerds who knew all the words to the "The Touch." Basically, it felt awesome.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:04 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Do you know how vital it was for me, working in a suburban record store circa 1999, to know that that song is "Roll to Me" by Del Amitri?!
posted by overeducated_alligator at 8:06 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

I hereby resume my tradition of ending all statements with "Lying naked on the floor" Lying naked on the floor
posted by Beardman at 8:07 AM on November 14, 2012

I once loaded a couple of Creed tracks into a .wav file editor with the plan of stitching them together to form a new song. This verse from one, this chorus from another, this bridge from a third, and so on. My plan was to seed it onto Napster with a filename like "BRAND NEW CREED SONG EXCLUSIVE!!!" and let it make its way into the wide world as a joke on how every single song they wrote sounded the same.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't force myself to listen to that much Creed. Ultimately the joke would have been on me.
posted by gauche at 8:07 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

Wait now we're positing that Fight Club is an awful movie? When did that happen?
posted by shakespeherian at 8:09 AM on November 14, 2012

It was overly popular ten years ago, which apparently is the same thing.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:10 AM on November 14, 2012

I like American Beauty because I like any chance to point out Mena Suvari's fivehead.
posted by phunniemee at 8:10 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

HELP, I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO NO DOUBT ALL MORNING AND IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT, EVERYONE ON THIS THREAD!
posted by ActionPopulated at 8:12 AM on November 14, 2012

This thread made The Whelk's placenta fall to the floor.
posted by Beardman at 8:14 AM on November 14, 2012 [5 favorites]

I will always be fond of Fight Club for two reasons:
1) When I met my wife, she had gerbils named Marla and Slide.
2) The DVD commentary with Ed Norton, Brad Pitt and David Fincher is a lot of fun.

Speaking of songs from 1999, what about Willennium? I don't remember any of it; I just have the shame of knowing that I actively sought it out on Napster for some reason.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 8:14 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Fight Club holds up despite being the poster child for Misaimed Fandom ( hint, you're not supposed to be on the fascist terrorists' side no matter how seductive he is).

American Beauty has ....some good performances? Eh. Oscar bait.

Magnolia is interesting in retrospect given what PTA has done since but it's really a mess.
posted by The Whelk at 8:14 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

"Do you know how vital it was for me, working in a suburban record store circa 1999, to know that that song is "Roll to Me" by Del Amitri?!"

I did my sixth-form work experience in Our Price (RIP). Someone came in and said 'Do you have that song by those Pakis?' It turned out to be All My Life by KC and JoJo.
posted by mippy at 8:14 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Magnolia is an incredibly fantastic couple of movies that got mixed together slightly wrong.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:15 AM on November 14, 2012

The last single my mum bought (aside from Gym and Tonic to do exercises to) was Just The Two Of Us by Will Smith. 'He's a nice rapper, not like those rude ones.' The cassingle is still in our house somewhere.

(The last one my dad bought was Nothing Compares 2 U. He died in 2006, but even so.)
posted by mippy at 8:16 AM on November 14, 2012

Speaking of songs from 1999, what about Willennium? I don't remember any of it; I just have the shame of knowing that I actively sought it out on Napster for some reason.

Despite being a song about the year 2000, Will 2K holds up shockingly well. At least for me. I'm not even sure I heard the song until like 2004, and I still listen to it all the time.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:16 AM on November 14, 2012

I liked both Fight Club and American Beauty when I saw them in the theater. I really did. I was like nineteen -- what did I know?

Now, when I see them in someone's movie collection, they are an immediate flag that the person has relentlessly middlebrow tastes that he or she thinks are edgy. Like the kind of person who orders the cajun fries over the regular fries at Five Guys and thinks that means they really like spicy food. And, you know, whatever: you like what you like.

The problem with both of these movies is not that they are workmanlike middle-of-the-road movies, it's that they passed for subversive.
posted by gauche at 8:18 AM on November 14, 2012 [6 favorites]

'He's a nice rapper, not like those rude ones.'

Will Smith's entire music career depends on people's moms saying this very phrase.
posted by The Whelk at 8:19 AM on November 14, 2012 [7 favorites]

Magnolia is an incredibly fantastic couple of movies that got mixed together slightly wrong.

It is also one of only two known instances of Tom Cruise acting.
posted by gauche at 8:19 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

The problem with both of these movies is not that they are workmanlike middle-of-the-road movies, it's that they passed for subversive.

This sounds like less of a criticism of the films and more like a criticism of the reception they received.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:21 AM on November 14, 2012

This sounds like less of a criticism of the films and more like a criticism of the reception they received.

That's what I intend. It's been a while, but I don't recall either of them being terrible movies so much as overrated and undeserving.
posted by gauche at 8:25 AM on November 14, 2012

We already went over Fight Club relatively thoroughly here, and although I've read the book now I don't think it changes my positions. I don't really like transgressive fiction. Plenty of people think I'm full of shit on that, as you can see in the thread, but I guess I'm okay with that.
posted by koeselitz at 8:25 AM on November 14, 2012

Will Smith's entire music career depends on people's moms saying this very phrase.

I'd like to think that Will Smith had a music career solely so he could release, in 2005, "Party Starter" a song of unexpected pathos (if you look for it). The song is about a guy (the titular Party Starter), who is forced to start parties even when he doesn't want to. He wants to have a beer and relax, but he can't, he has an obligation to start parties that he can't leave behind. He doesn't get a day off. He doesn't even seem to enjoy party starting, he's the "Pope of this Party Crusade" putting him in a party is like a grenade.

The rest of us are content to merely have a good time, but he has to party harder; he's got no choice. He parties, but there's no joy. It's sad really.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:26 AM on November 14, 2012 [4 favorites]

Oh, also "Miami" is a great song.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:29 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

jesus christ Bulgaroktonos that song has the most long-winded tortured flow ever "Simulating senous acts" is not a phrase anyone should say out loud ever.
posted by The Whelk at 8:34 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm having a really bad day today and somehow this thread has led to me self-medicating with 90s football songs

Most self consciously wacky (with cameos for a convicted pedo and the most annoying comedia of the past decade), most maudlin, most nerdy.
posted by MartinWisse at 8:34 AM on November 14, 2012

My wife and I listen to music from our phone on the car stereo when we drive. Sometimes though, our phones will be out of batteries or forgotten at home and we will have to make do with the radio. Which is terrible. So one day when my phone was dead, I stopped at a consignment shop and bought a used copy of "Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?" by Harvey Danger. It has been in the CD player for almost two years now and gets listened to without complaint any time the phones are unavailable. I'll be sad to see it go when we finally get a new car, but at this point it would feel wrong to eject it.
posted by 256 at 8:34 AM on November 14, 2012

Aw man, this is the best. I'm so glad we're all back together and stuff.
This is great, man.
posted by cooker girl at 8:38 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Someone mentioned this at some point, but those of you not subject to Canadian content laws missed some doozies. I mean you just don't get lyrics like We ate fish, then we listened to some old time rock and roll these days.
posted by yellowbinder at 8:43 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

1994 - Crow soundtrack. I think the longest period of time I have gone without listening to this is 6 weeks. This occurred a few months ago. (I've been getting into Doom/Stoner/Sludge metal.)

1999 - The Matrix soundtrack. There are a few songs I always skip, but I feel this movie/CD marks my last moment of cultural relevance.
posted by JoanArkham at 8:44 AM on November 14, 2012

I was a radio DJ during this era. I would not play any whiny Matchbox Eye Blind ("get up out the way" was almost palatable until I learned it was actually "can I graduate?") "rock," no Dave Fratthews, and neither Dylan. And no post-Connor Clapton (who is as terrible as a mouthful of sores [reference!]).

I was not the DJ the 90s deserved, I was the DJ they needed.
posted by Eideteker at 8:52 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

OK, better stream of consciousness abstract lyrics - Soul Coughing or Beck? Now FIGHT!
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:57 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

I think we all know the best thing to come out of 1999 (ok, late 1998, ,but whatever) was The Chef Aid Album.

Where else are you going to find one album that has all of DMX, Ozzy Osbourne, Ol' Dirty Bastard, and The Crystal Method peforming on the same track? Not to mention Devo, Perry Farrell, Wyclef Jean, Ween, and a fable about Michael Jackson by fucking Primus?
posted by namewithoutwords at 8:57 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

This thread positively REEKS of sex and can-deh.

I can move move move any mountain
posted by infinitewindow at 8:59 AM on November 14, 2012 [5 favorites]

"Hey who remembers Fastball?"

fuck you I sang Fire Escape at karaoke last Friday.

It's still one of the best songs for recovering White Knights.
posted by Eideteker at 9:06 AM on November 14, 2012

Fire Escape is a fucking amazing karaoke song. Everybody has forgotten all about it, but damned if they aren't singing along by the end.
posted by yellowbinder at 9:11 AM on November 14, 2012

While belting out "Santeria" in the car this morning, I remembered that the one thing I have no defenses against is "Mucho gusto, me llamo Bradley..."

(I was always very cranky that despite being in AP spanish I didn't know all the words in that song. But I was not quite dumb enough to ask my teacher to translate.)
posted by restless_nomad at 9:18 AM on November 14, 2012

"The Verve Pipe were a pretty awesome Kalamazoo-scene band. They headlined at my first ever concert (Kalapalooza, of course, because it was the nineties), which was 14 bands over two consecutive nights. Other fine local bands included Black Spring (metal, sucked), Thought Industry (angsty art prog-metal, available at Best Buys all over for some reason), Twitch (angry hard rock, pretty great, still listen to it), Screwtape (like They Might Be Giants, but if they were a prog-metal band with songs about kissing corpses and realizing the world just sort of sucked, but in a funny way), Rolling Head (who were playing last time I went back to Kalamazoo. I didn't know it, but I suddenly heard their big song from my childhood, called Strangle You wafting out into the parking lot and I sort of went a bit nuts as my friends and family inched away from me)."

They were actually an East Lansing band, just like Papa Vegas was a Grand Rapids band. The best Kalamazoo scene band I remember was Lovesick, who kicked ass and birthed Saturday Looks Good To Me from their ashes (well, really, Fred Thomas just started like sixty million bands and SLGTM is the one that took off).

The best East Lansing album ever was probably The Fuzz's Noise Destroyers, which is the perfect sequel to the Flaming Lips' Soft Bulletin. Yoshimi sucked, but the swirly, spacey Noise Destroyers hits the same level of whimsy and inventiveness — when I reviewed it back then, I talked about imagining the Flaming Lips strapping on backpack bongs and re-entering the negaverse, and it still holds up.

That, along with The High Strung's Moxie Bravo and The Avatars' Never A Good Time, are pretty much the triumvirate of early 2000s mid-Michigan pop/rock.
posted by klangklangston at 9:21 AM on November 14, 2012

This thread made The Whelk's placenta fall to the floor.

Finally! I have been waiting for a placenta reference.
posted by apricot at 9:22 AM on November 14, 2012

"I can be myself; how 'bout you?" are sage words for both this thread, and for the people we were when we had to deal with the popular tastes of our respective high school eras. Because I like plenty of stuff most other people hate (like the one good Bizkit song... "Rearranged") and I refuse to feel guilty about any of my pleasures (and so should you). Unhappiness comes from trying to fit other people's (conflicting) expectations.

Would that I could have explained that to myself 10, 15, 20 years ago, in a way they would have actually sunk in, instead of being just empty words in an awkwardly standard rebellion.
posted by Eideteker at 9:24 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also in '99:

Mule Variations.
GY!BE's first album, and Sigur Ros's first album anyone noticed.
Things Fall Apart and Black on Both Sides.
The Unauthorized Biography of Rheinhold Messner.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

And although I'd have laughed at you if you suggested it at the time, a lot of the songs on Play hold up surprisingly well. What you have to do is mentally take them out from under "electronica" and file them in with like the Cowboy Junkies.
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:27 AM on November 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

"Photograph" and "Hero" are great songs and I pretend the one that was like "Brick" never existed (and may or may not have physically scraped it right off my copy of Villains
posted by Eideteker at 9:28 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Day 2 "Smooth" is now in its second day of occupancy of my entire brain, after a decade-long absence. Playing Paul McCartney's All The Best hits clollection (US Edition) on repeat in the hopes of flushing it to no avail.
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:29 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Fire Escape is a fucking amazing karaoke song. Everybody has forgotten all about it, but damned if they aren't singing along by the end.

Huh. I pride myself on my thorough knowledge of pop ephemera, but I had never heard that song before. (On first listen, not so memorable.)

Spacehog was (is) much better:

"Love always gets in the way
Just like in Hutch & Starsky"
posted by mrgrimm at 9:35 AM on November 14, 2012

I always forget Mule Variations is as recent as it is. God I love that album.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:37 AM on November 14, 2012

1994 - Crow soundtrack.
1999 - The Matrix soundtrack.

Nice choices. May I suggest to you

- Point Break soundtrack
- Strange Days soundtrack

Sunny came home to her favorite room
Sunny sat down in the kitchen...

Aaaaaaaaaaahhhh she says days go by I'm hypnotized
I'm walking on a wire

Damn you damn you damn you
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 9:39 AM on November 14, 2012

I've got two tickets to Iron Maiden baby
Come with me Friday, don't say maybe
posted by mrgrimm at 9:39 AM on November 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

Oh my god you guys I went to Lilith Fair and it was dreary and rainy but halfway through Sunny Came Home it stopped raining and the sun came out and it was like we changed the world through the power of wuss rock.
posted by yellowbinder at 9:47 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

HELP, I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO NO DOUBT ALL MORNING AND IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT

No matter who calls, you gotta screen your phone calls.
posted by Serf at 9:47 AM on November 14, 2012 [3 favorites]

a lot of the songs on Play hold up surprisingly well. What you have to do is mentally take them out from under "electronica" and file them in with like the Cowboy Junkies.

Or "soundtracks," because they effectively were. The only reason I even bought the album was that at some point I happened to see some puff news item about how Moby had given people free reign to use the tracks in various TV/Movie/commercial projects, and they made lists of which songs had been used on which shows and I realized I'd actually heard the entire album already without even knowing it just by watching Buffy and X-Files.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:53 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

The other day (election day, actually) I was on a college campus and someone had set up a sound system and speakers to play music across the quad. I walked by just in time to hear... Closing Time by Semisonic. It was a strange blast from the past.
posted by illenion at 9:56 AM on November 14, 2012

- Strange Days soundtrack

What a wonderful steaming hot mess of a movie and soundtrack both. Juliette Lewis covering PJ Harvey? Check. No-name cover of Leonard Cohen ballad? Check. Satchel?! Sure, why not? Skunk Anansie? But of course.

I can't say I love either the movie or the soundtrack, but I did listen to it plenty.

Other rather good '90s soundtracks:

- Natural Born Killers (1994 feat. ... Dan Zanes?!)
- Pump Up the Volume (1990)
posted by mrgrimm at 10:04 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

There's a fiiire between us, so wheeeeeere is your goooooooood?
posted by MartinWisse at 10:05 AM on November 14, 2012

Or "soundtracks," because they effectively were.

Right, good point. Pretend it's by Vangelis and not some guy who used to tour with Aphex Twin.
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:05 AM on November 14, 2012

This thread's a brick, and I'm drowning slowly.

Give me my money back. I want my money back.

But it's ok. I'm the head of the class. I'm popular.
posted by owtytrof at 10:06 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

I walked by just in time to hear... Closing Time by Semisonic. It was a strange blast from the past.

The US Office brought it back fairly amusingly ... last season?

"I never heard that song before and once I heard it I did not care for it. But that song means it's time to go home. Now? It's my favorite song."
posted by mrgrimm at 10:08 AM on November 14, 2012

Mmmmm delicious late 90s thread. I should really get back to my work, I will do that right about now....

FUNK SOUL BROTHA CHECK IT OUT NOW FUNK SOUL BROTHA
posted by greenish at 10:10 AM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

So, from 1999, what I thought was popular music (thanks discogs!):

Klangklangston, get out of my head.
posted by en forme de poire at 10:15 AM on November 14, 2012

Give it to me Mefi, uh huh uh huh
posted by threeants at 10:23 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

"Spacehog was (is) much better"

Well, duh. The above sentence is always true.

And you, of course, linked to one of my other karaoke mainstays (which I also performed that night, aren't you sad you missed it because you should be it was awesome).

My favorite karaoke place recently culled Cemetery Gates (Pantera; Smiths is Cemet'ry Gates, IIRC), Fly Me Courageous, and Ace of Spades (as well as many other hard rock favorites; I think "No One Like You" is still there, though, when I feel like affecting a German accent). I think this is part of the wussification (scientific term) of music over the past decade, decade and a half. Either shit is completely soporific Bon Iver/Gotscye crap, or it is that symphonic "metal" crap that is basically so over the top as to be parodical. I find myself going to hip-hop these days if I want a decent back-beat, and I will likely end up reverse-engineering that stuff into rock at some point (thus closing the loop/completing the circle).

All I can say is, you fuckers are goddamn lucky I don't have a lawn.
posted by Eideteker at 11:07 AM on November 14, 2012

OK, I think that's about enough of this. Everybody out - you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.
posted by nickmark at 11:28 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Time for some Kombucha Mushroom People up in this here thread.
posted by mannequito at 11:31 AM on November 14, 2012

For some reason this ad for a System of a Down concert kept running my local public access channel in like 2001, the result being that, even though I've never listened to them, I get "the toxicity of our cities...of our ciiiiities" stuck in my head all the damn time.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:35 AM on November 14, 2012

I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
Take me home
posted by Elementary Penguin at 11:41 AM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

(self-link) I am in print defending the horror that is the Bloodhound Gang. I stand in front of you all, naked and unashamed.
posted by Bookhouse at 11:50 AM on November 14, 2012

This thread is making me want to walk up on high, and step to the edge...

(Mostly because I still love all of this music, though. Except Sugar Ray. Gah.)
posted by jferg at 11:54 AM on November 14, 2012

Is this where I get to share that my first dance with a girl ever was to this gem?

Now tell me
Do you wanna get freaky
Cause I'll freak you right I will
I'll freak you like one has ever made you feel
I'll freak you right I will
I'll freak you right I will
I'll freak you like one has ever made you feel - yeah
(now baby tell what you wanna do with me)

To M.B. in seventh grade, I'm so sorry.
posted by Lutoslawski at 12:00 PM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also, I've been feeling like there's been some kind of late '90s revival recently, with new albums from Toadies, The Wallflowers, No Doubt, Dave Matthews Band, Alanis Morissette - all in the past couple months or so. It's like everyone ran out of money at once.
posted by Lutoslawski at 12:04 PM on November 14, 2012

I remember how excited my high school friends and I were the day Dave Matthews Band's Before These Crowded Streets came out. We all drove to Blockbuster Music during our free periods to buy it, and I remember listening to it and thinking, wow this is so bad. It was like escaping from a cult.

I still have a soft spot in my heart for Ants Marching though.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 12:28 PM on November 14, 2012

I just wish I was queer, so I could get chicks...
posted by zug at 12:33 PM on November 14, 2012

So much Closing Time, and no mention of Singing in My Sleep. Thanks to this thread and that song I had to shut down for a bit today because of the feels.
posted by ego at 12:34 PM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

Oh, is this where we throw turn-of-the-millennium earworms at people? Because Jacksoul - Can't Stop.
posted by oulipian at 12:40 PM on November 14, 2012

that's funny Elementary Penguin because Crowded Streets is the only album of theirs that still holds up for me, but then it was the album I discovered them on.

The Stone is still my favorite of theirs, and one of my all-time favorite songs to play on guitar.
posted by mannequito at 12:41 PM on November 14, 2012

You know that thing where when you're aroused you're aroused by stuff that will disgust you as soon as you're not aroused? This is what Dave Mathews is like.

In high school when I fell in with a bunch of Dave Mathews fans, I actually liked a ton of their songs. Hell, I saw them in concert in '01 or '02, after Everyday came out (there's an album that doesn't really hold up), but I look back now and I cannot imagine what I saw in them. It's not even fun nostalgia stuff for me. Some of it is, I think, objectively not that bad, but I never listen to it.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 12:51 PM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

Dave Mathews' "Crash" brings up a distinct level of self-loathing for me any time I hear it now, due to amount of enjoyment I got out of it for a few months of college.
posted by jferg at 12:56 PM on November 14, 2012

So much Closing Time, and no mention of Singing in My Sleep.

The best Semisonic song is Down in Flames
posted by ultraviolet catastrophe at 12:56 PM on November 14, 2012

All kidding aside, when I clicked on the link The Whelk posted and heard the opening of Eve 6's "Inside Out," I relaxed into YES. There are some songs, like "Flagpole Sitta" and "Longview" and "When I Come Around" and "Inside Out" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit," that I guess I just imprinted on, and to me they are what pop music is supposed to sound like.

It's like the first time I rode the train, in England, from London to Cambridge, and looked out the window at the gently rolling green fields dotted with sheep below blue skies, and it felt not just beautiful, but as though my brain had been arranged in advance and waited for decades to see this, to fill the slot in my head labelled "beautiful landscape."

There is a nineties rock sound that just *sounds better* to me. I'm glad that I'm now old enough that I can just enjoy that sound, and not insta-wince at the memories of the mistakes I made to that soundtrack.
posted by brainwane at 1:05 PM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

In theory, yes, Verve Pipe was an East Lansing band, but they were always, always playing shows in Kalamazoo. Let's say a 'southwest Michigan music-scene' then recognize that Kalamazoo is the center of the area anyway, and say that all good bands in western Michigan were Kalamazoo bands. I mean, what's next, calling Mustard Plug a Holland-scene band?

Also, I refuse to acknowledge the existence of a 'Grand Rapids scene.' They have the Gerald R. Ford museum and a fish ladder, and that's about it.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:14 PM on November 14, 2012

Well you just sold me on a Grand Rapids stop on my next Michigan road trip, whenever that might be.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 1:17 PM on November 14, 2012

Ha! I didn't know that Mustard Plug was from Holland. I always thought they were a G-rap band too.

And really, there was a Detroit scene and a Rest of the state scene, where if you weren't from Detroit, you played everywhere all the time because you gotta eat.
posted by klangklangston at 1:31 PM on November 14, 2012

Dave Matthews was horrifying for me always. As an indie/alt kid I was fine at my fairly large highschool, but I also did religious things like student teach at Hebrew school and attend/work at Jew camp. The popular kids there (JAPs to use a very loaded term, but that's what they self-identified as) loved Dave Matthews and hated me. And that is why I say: Dave Matthews Band - Not even once.
posted by yellowbinder at 3:31 PM on November 14, 2012

klang, more than likely they were from Grand Rapids, it's just the song I hear the most often of theirs is the one about Holland, and the evil Dutch mafia.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:50 PM on November 14, 2012

griphus: Hey who remembers Fastball?

"The Way" is in my regular set…
posted by ob1quixote at 3:53 PM on November 14, 2012

There's nothing where this thread used to lie. The inspiration has run dry. That's what's going on. Nothing's fine.
posted by ob1quixote at 4:21 PM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

SHE FUCKING HAAAATES MEEEEEEEEEEE
posted by yellowbinder at 4:41 PM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

YOU CANNOT FORCE ME TO RELIVE SENIOR YEAR OH GOD ITS HAPPENING AGAIN

IF YOU MEAN CLASS OF '99, I'M RIGHT THERE WITH YOU.

IF YOU MEAN CLASS OF '00, GET OFF MY LAWN.

Also: seriously, you can eat a bag of bees for getting that damn song stuck in my head. Wanna put my tender heart in a blender watch it spin round to a beautiful MAKE IT STOP.
posted by sonika at 5:35 PM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

Did somebody say Class Of '99?
posted by mannequito at 5:45 PM on November 14, 2012

I just figured this thread was generally Class of '99 representing and everyone else was here by our generosity.
posted by Navelgazer at 5:48 PM on November 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

Mefi's own Zombie Layne Staley?
posted by mannequito at 5:53 PM on November 14, 2012

Oh you know what else is a good karaoke song for duets? Hint: Even food don't taste that good.
posted by yellowbinder at 6:00 PM on November 14, 2012

eat a bag of bees just became a thing for me
posted by lazaruslong at 7:13 PM on November 14, 2012 [5 favorites]

Thanks to you guys I have just aurally relived what will hopefully remain the worst years of my life.
posted by superior julie at 7:26 PM on November 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

SHE DON'T EAT MEAT BUT SHE SURE LIKE THE BONE *RAH*
posted by tonycpsu at 8:47 PM on November 14, 2012 [5 favorites]

Bam bam bam, now it's my turn to jam

Oh you know what else is a good karaoke song for duets?

Islands in the Stream
posted by mrgrimm at 12:06 AM on November 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

The US Office brought it back fairly amusingly ... last season?

Mrgrimm for some reason, I initially thought you were talking about the POST OFFICE, like USPS had tried to use Closing Time as their theme song in some horribly misguided attempt at staying relevant and down with the youths. I was really embarrassed for USPS for a moment there.
posted by illenion at 12:43 AM on November 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

As much as I love to take a spin down memory lane, this has been on a whole other level. It's got me spinning right round, baby, right round, like a record, baby, round round round round.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 2:31 AM on November 15, 2012

No diggity.

Got to bag it, bag it up.
posted by whorl at 6:26 AM on November 15, 2012 [6 favorites]

I can't believe no one has pointed this out yet... but when his thread gets knocked down, it gets up again. You're never gonna keep it down.

It drinks a whiskey drink. It drinks a vodka drink. It drinks a lager drink. It drinks a cider drink. It sings the songs that remind it of the good times. It sings the songs that remind it of the better times.
posted by sonika at 6:28 AM on November 15, 2012 [12 favorites]

(I feel so much envy that my parents had the Stones and the Beatles in high school and me? Well, let's just say I had the time of my life.)
posted by sonika at 6:29 AM on November 15, 2012

$!@#$.... a hip, hop, a hibbit to the hibbip and a hip hip hop and you don't stop banging to the bang bang boogkajsfkja;
IT'S LIKE I"M WALKING IN A SPIDERWEB
posted by whorl at 6:32 AM on November 15, 2012

I've been on this thread for bloody hours when I should be prepping food - things ain't cooking in my kitchen :(
posted by endgamer at 6:51 AM on November 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

Sidenote, Yellowbinder reminded me of something: I saw Crowded House at Austin City Limits (2007 I think?) - it had been scorching hot for a day and a half, everyone was dying in the sun, but as they started up the clouds swept in, and as they hit the chorus of Weather With You, no joke, a shower of rain fell.
posted by endgamer at 6:54 AM on November 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

endgamer, I was there! I'll corroborate. It was lovely. I'm so glad I got to see them.
posted by fiercecupcake at 11:43 AM on November 15, 2012

but when his thread gets knocked down, it gets up again. You're never gonna keep it down

This was the second CD I ever owned (after Jock Jams Vol. 1) and I listened to the SHIT out of this record. Drip Drip Drip was such a good song. And the weird talking bits in between all the tracks? About like eating brains and stuff? Man, just incredible.
posted by Lutoslawski at 1:45 PM on November 15, 2012

Working on a playlist of high school gems inspired by this thread (tailored to only songs that have "positive" associations, which is tough since I was Queen of Angst and Eye Rolling) and I swear my toddler son is all "What. The. Fuck. Mom."
posted by sonika at 2:07 PM on November 15, 2012

(My own work in progress. Titled 1999 simply after the BEST CLASS EVER. Songs actually released between '95-'99)
posted by sonika at 2:10 PM on November 15, 2012 [4 favorites]

This thread says all the right things, at exactly the right

times.
posted by Johnny Assay at 2:28 PM on November 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

Titled 1999 simply after the BEST CLASS EVER

I hate you guys.
posted by sweetkid at 2:34 PM on November 15, 2012

I wonder if Metafilter has an unusually high distribution of Class of '99ers (due to the timing of opening registrations or something.) Pity that's not in the infodump.
posted by restless_nomad at 3:36 PM on November 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

You know, that asshole never told me if he was Jimmy Ray after all.
posted by yellowbinder at 3:54 PM on November 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

I met God this afternoon, riding on an uptown train.
He showed me this thread, and I said "Don't you have better things to do?"
posted by anthom at 5:03 PM on November 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

HEY WHAT'S GOING ON?!
posted by iamkimiam at 7:10 AM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I met God this afternoon, riding on an uptown train.

Was he was of us? Just a slob like one of us?
posted by shakespeherian at 7:15 AM on November 16, 2012

Man, mock Joan Osborne at your peril, sir. That song may be trite & overplayed, but really the whole album is so damn good. St. Teresa, Spiderweb, Ladder, Pensacola... it's strong work. I'm glad they had a hit & made a bundle -- all the people involved with that absolutely deserved it.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:31 AM on November 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

Man, mock Joan Osborne at your peril, sir.

I was gonna say it sucks to be a one-hit wonder, but it really doesn't. Do not mock Joan Osborne.
posted by mrgrimm at 8:10 AM on November 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

The aforementioned rendition of Man In The Long Black Coat is dreadful, just dreadful, but I've always loved Pensacola.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 8:17 AM on November 16, 2012

I was gonna say it sucks to be a one-hit wonder, but it really doesn't. Do not mock Joan Osborne.

I don't want to mock her, just that one song. It is truly horrible. It is a horrible song.
posted by sweetkid at 8:22 AM on November 16, 2012

1999
1 "Believe," Cher"

Steve Albini integrates the history of music fads into his hate for Cher's "Believe"

A bunch of my friends, for whatever reason, decided they wanted to entertain that song as an interesting piece of music. You'd run into people you liked and the "Believe" song would come on in the bar, and instantly, the conversations would stop, and they would start talking about how they actually liked that song. They actually liked the dumb vocal thing. It happened over and over again, just really cringe-worthy moments. It's like in a zombie film, when you see your friend has been bitten and you're just looking for the cues that he's going to go full zombie on you. It was that sort of thing. One by one, I could see that my friends had gone zombie. This horrible piece of music with this ugly soon-to-be cliché was now being discussed as something that was awesome. It made my heart fall.

posted by tonycpsu at 9:49 AM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

(Kid Rock's "Bawitdaba" also makes an apperance in AVClub's Hatesong feature.)
posted by tonycpsu at 9:50 AM on November 16, 2012

Not a lot of "hip-hop" for a year that featured My Name Is ...

Ass so fat that you could see it from the front?

...

New York city gritty committee pity the fool that
Act shitty?

...

Bought ten bricks, four pounds of weed plants
from Branson, now we lampin?

... or dare I say it ...

SMOKE WEED EVERY DAY
posted by mrgrimm at 10:07 AM on November 16, 2012

Stop what you doin an set it in motion
posted by mannequito at 11:02 AM on November 16, 2012

... or dare I say it ...

SMOKE WEED EVERY DAY
posted by mrgrimm at 1:07 PM on November 16

I love huge portions of that album, more than even really makes sense. I love Next Episode, I love Still D.R.E., I love Let's Get High. That album is great.

I also have to confess that I recently texted a bunch of people to ask him how they felt about Dre's declaration that "this is the millennium of aftermath" from Forgot about Dre, but in my defense, I was really drunk.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:04 AM on November 16, 2012

I was looking for apartments and found an area on Google Maps in NYC labeled "Marcy Playground" and immediately thought of this thread. But shockingly, that is not the park that the band is named after. Good story huh?
posted by en forme de poire at 11:19 AM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

I actually kind of love that Marcy Playground album. Half of it is about opium, there's a song about D&D, and Sex and Candy remains a song that makes me happy every time I hear it, mostly because of the "too much caffeine" line. (It was getting a ton of play right about when I was playing a lot of water polo, and so it also reminds me viscerally of the smell of chlorine, which is another of my addictions.)
posted by restless_nomad at 11:30 AM on November 16, 2012 [4 favorites]

Yeah having that song play under Jessica and Hoyt's first date in True Blood was a perfect way to make everyone around 30 instantly fall hard for the pairing.
posted by The Whelk at 11:44 AM on November 16, 2012

I was just watching Anthem for the Year 2000 because of this thread and how much I love songs about a specific future date that is now long past (see also Nina Gordon's 2003) and all I can think is "Oh Daniel Johns, what big teeth you have!"
posted by yellowbinder at 11:51 AM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

A Cloak of Elvenkind, just because it is in fact on YouTube.
posted by restless_nomad at 12:36 PM on November 16, 2012

Well, cortex sent me back to 1996 forever and ever. So you see me with somebody new; I'm not that stupid little person still in love with you.
posted by ob1quixote at 1:13 PM on November 16, 2012

Yeah, Marcy Playground's first album was really something special. They seemed to have the same problem as Blind Melon (who are also bizarrely underrated) — really good versatile songwriting, but their first big single strayed a little too far into "novelty song" territory and it ended up defining their whole career.

It's a little like if "Shiny Happy People" had been REM's first single. They might still have gotten attention as a serious band, but it would have been an uphill battle.
posted by nebulawindphone at 2:03 PM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Actual Marcy Playground. I drive past on a fairly regular basis.

Problem with bands/songs with a "hometown" connection is that they get overexposed that much more locally. See also: Semisonic, Soul Asylum, etc.
posted by gimonca at 6:43 PM on November 16, 2012

Well, to be fair, it's hard to say what Blind Melon's longterm career would've looked/sounded like.

See also: Nowell, Bradley
posted by mannequito at 6:55 PM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I had pretty much disregarded Marcy Playground until that time capsule of all that was good, bad, cheesy and ultimately forgivable about late-nineties pop-rock known as the Cruel Intentions soundtrack introduced me to another track of theirs: "Comin' Up From Behind." The movie used it as a silly way to underscore the buttsex going on in a particular scene, but it's a solid, moody song.

And oh god I recently re-listened to that Nina Gordon album that I played so damn often in college and it has not aged well. Now it all just sounds like a chorus of laughter over the fact that I once thought it meant something.

I'm just happy that Dar Williams somehow caught on with a small group of us in small town Oklahoma high school, so that there's still something from those days that I can look back upon fondly and remember as "my own."
posted by Navelgazer at 8:03 PM on November 16, 2012

en forme de poire - I'm glad you pointed that out (and I'm glad others have clarified it's actually a Minnesota thing), because for years I thought Marcy Playground was named after that Marcy Playground, and all my "I used to hang out in Williamsburg before it was gentrified and you don't know fuck all about hipsters" cred was maybe just a bunch of bullshit.

Because maybe the original hipsters were Marcy Playground, and they smelled sex and candy, and mama it surely is a dream... yeah...

Glad to hear that's not true, and I can stop questioning the true beginnings of the Williamsburg "look at that fucking hipster" subculture.
posted by Sara C. at 9:08 PM on November 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

introduced me to another track of theirs: "Comin' Up From Behind."

Funny trivia about that track. It was originally by a band called Two Ton Boa, lead by one Sherry Fraser (namesake of a song on the first Marcy Playground album).
posted by fishmasta at 9:27 PM on November 16, 2012

To all of those Smashmouth haters: Walking on the Sun is "our song" to me and my boyfriend. We otherwise have good taste, I can assure you.
posted by cabingirl at 12:58 PM on November 17, 2012

I have at least two Smashmouth albums and I will defend them to the death. To the death!
posted by restless_nomad at 1:01 PM on November 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Someone once described Smashmouth guy as a pudding cup with a soul patch and I have never been able to get the image out of my head.
posted by yellowbinder at 1:03 PM on November 17, 2012 [9 favorites]

I have at least two Smashmouth albums and I will defend them to the death. To the death!

Lucky for you, no-one else wants them.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:27 PM on November 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Also third wave ska happened, although plenty of people vehemently hate third wave ska for whatever reason.

I was in a ska-punk band in high school in the late nineties. It was good while it lasted, but I think I can say with confidence that enough was officially enough when the Daisy Fuentes era of America's Funniest Home Videos kicked off with a theme song that sounded suspiciously like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Ska had just reached total saturation at that point. It was in every shitty commercial. It crept into the country charts. It was just everywhere all the time, always that same slick upbeat faux-Bosstones/No Doubt shit.

The disco and/or dubstep of its day.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:03 PM on November 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Someone once described Smashmouth guy as a pudding cup with a soul patch and I have never been able to get the image out of my head.

Totally off-topic but this reminded me of hearing Michael Kors described as a "braying tangerine," which made me lol pretty hard
posted by en forme de poire at 3:13 PM on November 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

Sys Rq, I've probably mentioned this before, but one of the absolutely delightful byproducts of living in Japan is that, for some unknown reason, whenever a variety show cuts to an explanation, a montage, or pretty much anything other than the host talking, more often than not, they'll have 3rd wave ska playing behind the narrator's voice. The thing is, it's never Bosstones, never No Doubt. I've heard Mu330, Less than Jake, Reel Big Fish (that's a pretty common one, simply because the horns from Sell Out are pretty dramatic), Mustard Plug, even bands like Johnny Socko and Slapstick. Somewhere in Japanese TV land, there's an editor with a strong love for great music.

Others might cringe, for me, it's heaven.

I remember clearly, though, the moment I saw that my frat boy friend had picked up the Bosstones CD (the one that went big). I knew ska was done. The boy was like a weathervane for the death of music trends, switching from gangsta rap to country to dead head/phish bands to Barenaked Ladies to, dammit, ska.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:34 PM on November 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THIS THREAD

It's been one week since you looked at me, tossed your head to the side and said I'm crazy.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:50 AM on November 22, 2012 [7 favorites]

You have to be stopped.
posted by The Whelk at 8:04 AM on November 22, 2012

Fuck! Now this is in my head and it's too early on Thanksgiving morning to blast something better to erase it from my mind.

I'm going to go for a run and listen to nonstop Lady Gaga the entire time and ITS ALL YOUR FAULT SHAKESPHERIAN!
posted by Sara C. at 9:14 AM on November 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

I managed to avoid shakespeherian's awful earworm injection by focusing on Smashmouth's All Star. It's marginally less awful.

Marginally.
posted by yellowbinder at 10:28 AM on November 22, 2012

I guess only shooting stars break the mold.
posted by The Whelk at 10:35 AM on November 22, 2012

Yep. (What a concept!)
posted by yellowbinder at 11:10 AM on November 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Funny they call it an ear worm, because everyone knows Groove is in the Heart.
posted by and for no one at 11:47 AM on November 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

SOMEBODY TELL ME

won't you tell me

WHY I WORK SO HARD FOR YOOOOOOU
posted by elizardbits at 12:59 PM on November 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

to give you money (OH!) to give you money

posted by and for no one at 4:12 PM on November 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Dammit, this thread keeps pulling me as I walk away!
posted by mannequito at 4:39 PM on November 23, 2012

Don't worry, mannequito - if you walk out on the thread, it's walking after you.
posted by sonika at 5:02 PM on November 23, 2012

This thread in a nutshell.
posted by The Whelk at 10:36 AM on November 24, 2012 [3 favorites]

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