Alternative Rock Nostalgia Buzz

The Best of 2010! By: Pete Crigler Well another year has circled the drain and the world of music has gotten worse and worse. In 2010, there just wasn’t a lot of kickass music like there’s been in previous years but it not the musicians’ fault, it’s everything else, just because there haven’t been a lot of good things to listen to. But these bands have stood out by rebelling against the bullshit and doing what they best. On the personal side, 2010 has been one of the best fuckin’ years in recent memory with the runaway success of my first book “Keeping It Tight In The Old Dominion: A History of Virginia Rock Music” and work with Redefine Online. As you read this list, go and download some shit you wouldn’t listened to earlier. With 2011 comes some excellent music so take a chance DAMMIT! Records of The Year: 1. Stone Temple Pilots- S/T With a long-awaited new record, Stone Temple Pilots combined the best of their past with their future and turned in a great pop alternative record that ...

Forgotten Songs of the ‘90s: Unsane Unsane were always one of the loudest, heaviest bands of the Noise Rock scene of the early ‘90s coming up alongside bands like Helmet, Cop Shoot Cop and Surgery but Unsane were able to keep coming out with strong records their entire career. 1996’s Scattered Smothered and Covered was no exception and with the record, they also released one of the coolest songs of their career: “Scrape.” Starting out with the thrashing guitar of frontman Chris Spencer, the trio come at you with full tilt and never let up. The effect on Spencer’s screaming is one that it tends to blend in greatly with the music and it doesn’t sound forced. With the rhythm section of drummer Vinnie Signorelli and bassist Dave Curran constantly gaining ground as the song moves on, it’s only a matter of time before they all collide and in the crescendo they come together perfectly and Chris just screams his head off but it all made a great song and a great combination of sounds. Now in a...

Forgotten Songs of the ‘90s: Jawbox This is going to be a bit different for two reasons; 1. The song is a cover and 2. It’s a hidden track. When Jawbox released their self-titled final album in 1996, they chose to close it with a cover of Tori Amos’ “Cornflake Girl” from 1994. Now knowing that the media would jump all over the song, they buried it at the very end of the song “Absenter.” But because the song was so strong, it became one of the few hidden tracks to ever be made into a single/video, but listening to the song, it’s easy to understand why. Starting up with their signature wall of feedback, the band kicks into the familiar melody of the song about three minutes after the end of “Absenter” and once you hear the melody, you know you’re gonna hear something different. Instead of Amos’ lilting voice, J. Robbins’ tuff snarl comes in and adds a whole new dimension to the song. With the band delivering a heavier backbeat, the song really becomes harder and meatier and with a new le...

Forgotten Songs of the ‘80s: Icicle Works It’s only just been recently that the Icicle Works have started to get recognition for being so diverse in the face of eighties new wave. The best place to start for anyone who is interested in getting to know the band is “Whisper to A Scream (Birds Fly).” Kicking off with a memorable guitar riff courtesy of Ian McNabb, the band tread the ground a bit lightly at first before the tight rhythm section of bassist Chris Layhe and drummer Chris Sharrock come in with a bit of African rhythm that sets up the rest of the track. When McNabb’s light and heavy at the same time voice comes in, listeners know that they’re in for a different song than previously used to. The chorus is absolutely barnstormingly brilliant and remains one of the most recognizable choruses of the eighties. By the time the breakdown comes in utilizing three part harmonies from the trio, one should know that this band is quite different than everything else around them. Just when ...

Forgotten Album of the Month: Tripping Daisy This is an article that is long overdue but that’s because the record is so damn hard to find. Upon obtaining a cassette copy of Jesus Hits Like The Atom Bomb by Tripping Daisy in 2000, I was immediately taken with how weird and bizarre the record was. But that was one of the things that made me so excited by it. As the years moved on and I tried to replace the cassette with CD, I realized it was going to be a lot more difficult than I had thought. Cut to ten years later and I finally found a good copy and upon relistening to it, I was again struck by its bizarreness but I grew to love it all over again. First off, this album will erase any memory of “I Got A Girl” forever. Songs like the six minute single “Waited a Light Year” and the absolute joyful, euphoric “Your Socks Have No Name” are just swirling epics of power and joy and punch, thanks to the addition of rhythm guitarist Philip Karnats, now of The Secret Machines and teenaged drumm...