120 Months Podcast

October 1990 is another month so packed with new music releases that we’re doing not one but TWO podcast episodes to cover it all. On Part One, we talk about Hold Me Up, the third studio album from Goo Goo Dolls that marked the emergence of Johnny Rzeznik as the band’s frontman; No Prayer for the Dying , a solid entry from punk metal gods Iron Maiden; the self-titled debut (and only proper album)...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit 120months.substack.com On Part Two of our discussion of music released in September 1990, John and I dive into the ethereal world of dream pop and psychedelic grooves that pulsed underneath this weird moment in pop culture. We listen to the puzzling, haunting work of Angelo Badalamenti and Julee Cruise on the soundtrack to David Lynch’s...

September 1990 was so packed with incredible music that we’ve split the month into two episodes. In Part One, we listen to Soul Asylum’s eclectic, promising And the Horse They Rode in On , Bob Dylan’s legendary clunker Under the Red Sky , Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s grunge punk masterpiece Ragged Glory , Indigo Girls’ folky, pristine Nomads Indians Saints , and the self-titled debut from indie ro...

Released in August 1994, Jeff Buckley’s Grace is an album like no other. A moderate hit in the ‘90s, Grace has now risen into the pantheon of “greatest albums of all time” lists by countless fans and critics, with his cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” frequently cited as one of the finest songs ever recorded (there’s even an entire book about just that song). What is it about Buckley’s music t...

This week we’re talking about albums released in August 1990, and wow — what a time for new music. Two now-classic collections came out on the same day (8/21/90): Jane’s Addiction’s Ritual De Lo Habitual and Facelift , the debut album from Alice in Chains. On top of that, we listen to NWA’s harrowing if uneven EP 100 Miles and Runnin’ , Black Sabbath’s pulverizing, non-Ozzie metal journey Tyr , an...

This week Jason P. Woodbury of Aquarium Drunkard ’s excellent Transmissions podcast (not to mention his own expansive musical projects ) joins us for a discussion of Uncle Tupelo’s 1990 album No Depression , as we consider how the “country punk” genre label doesn’t quite capture the breadth and depth of Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy’s diverse artistic output. From the joys and challenges of songwriti...

The albums released in July 1990, despite their eclecticism, share a common theme: dudes with serious problems. We’ve got Pantera’s dark, bracing groove metal on the now-classic Cowboys from Hell (which, as John points out, is LITERALLY about cowboys from hell); Suicidal Tendencies upping their game on the chaotic, cinematic , and utterly batshit record Lights…Cameras…Revolution! ; Iggy Pop’s wond...

We are officially 6 months into our quest to catalog our opinions on every major album release from the 1990s, one month at a time. This week we’re listening to some killer stuff from June 1990. Sonic Youth’s now-classic album Goo sees Kim Gordon take the reins as the band’s lead vocalist, with Thurston Moore refining his ecstatic electric guitar chaos; Uncle Tupelo’s first studio album No Depress...

This week we’re listening to music from May 1990, a moment when, if you had the right ears, you could hear something fracturing in the idealistic image of American life cultivated in the 1980s. Soundgarden’s EP collection Screaming Life/Fopp pushes ‘80s metalhead s**t to its limits as the band teeters on the brink of the sound that will define the decade; Ice Cube’s Amerikkka’s Most Wanted paints...

When John and I first looked at the list of albums released in April 1990, we both said the same thing: “heavy hitters.” These are some of the biggest musical acts of the ‘90s, all putting out important albums within weeks of each other. Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet would’ve been enough to chew on for the whole month, honestly. But we also get: a very early collection from Green Day (soun...

The playlist for March 1990 has some familiar favorites alongside, for me at least, a couple of big surprises. Social Distortion’s self-titled album contains some of their biggest hits (including “Ball and Chain” and “Story of My Life”), and thanks to a Social D-obsessed college roommate, this album became a forever soundtrack to my early twenties. Depeche Mode’s sinister, moody masterpiece Violat...

After listening and re-listening to the playlist for January 1990 , I couldn’t stop thinking about The Sundays. Their album Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic stood out, not just as the best album of that month, but for producing an uncanny sense of nostalgia for the lost world of the pre-Internet 1990s. This week’s guest, David Humphries, a professor of English at Queensborough Community College in...

February 1990 was a wild month in music, with new album releases from Oingo Boingo, Everything But the Girl, The Cramps, Primus, The Highwaymen, Midnight Oil, and Guided By Voices. Listen to our February 1990 playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7cJqeGIUsNXmVkWYWlGzee?si=V8rVdTEVRBucjSyfE76aQw Subscribe to the 120 MONTHS Substack: https://substack.com/@120months Instagram: https://www.insta...

On the very first episode of 120 MONTHS, we’re kicking off a decade of amazing music by surveying the cultural landscape as the 80s ended and a new era began. Musically speaking, the 90s came screaming out of the gates, with albums released in January 1990 that offered a weird prophecy of what was to come, from the lo-fi production of Daniel Johnston’s 1990 , to the bodily-obsessed humor of Ween’s...