Dig Me Out: 90s & 00s Rock

We're kicking off a new roundtable series with Slim Moon and Kill Rock Stars , who shares with the history of the Olympia, Washington (now Portland, Oregon) independent label that has been home to an amazing roster of musicians and bands, including Sleater-Kinney, Unwound, Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, The Decemberists, Elliott Smith, Huggy Bear, Mary Lou Lord, Gossip, Deerhoof and many more. We discus...

In 1991, Material Issue released their long-in-the-works debut album International Pop Overthrow. Along with bands and artists like Jellyfish, Matthew Sweet, The Posies, Redd Kross, major labels were taking chances on the hard-to-pin-down genre known as Power Pop, and the future looked bright until the steamroller known as Nirvana arrived in the fall. Rather than scoop up the next Big Star or Chea...

What's your memory of The Verve Pipe ? Are they filed away with the alternative rock one-hit wonders of the 90s thanks to the single "The Freshman"? Are they lumped in with other mid-decade "alt rock" bands like Live and Bush? Did you see them in their early indie days when the were Midwest up-and-comers? Did you bother to check out their 1999 post-hit follow-up album? Did you check out more than...

The 1991 album Spiderland by Slint has taken on icon status since release, the bridge between Sonic Youth noise, Velvet Underground drone, Joy Division dread and the 1990s wave of post, math, indie and other alternative rock sub-genres. Like so many revered albums discovered via slow burn over years thanks to the accolades of musicians and rock journalists, the influence of Spiderland can be heard...

Twenty-five years after the release, Mike Gent of The Figgs stops by to tells us about their 1994 release Low-Fi At Society High. From the small town of Saratoga Springs in upstate New York, The Figgs spent years writing, recording and playing out long before the rest of the nation got a taste of their punk, mod, power-pop and rock sound that recalls the best of Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, Cheap...

We often discuss production as an aspect of what makes a record sound good to our ears, but the truth is that different styles of music often demand different production choices. On the 1995 sophomore album Hi Fi Way by You Am I , terms like organic or immediate get tossed around to describe the sound of a band that gives a performance not fussed over, but clearly considered. With Sonic Youth's Le...

Some bands and artists leave you wanting more, with only a single album to their name. In some cases, they are one-off side projects or solo releases that act as an outlet for material not in-line with the primary band. Sometimes, personalities clash and bands quickly implode. In other cases, tragedy strikes down an artist at the start of their career. The 1990s, like every other decade, have thei...

The 1997 album Nothing Feels Good by The Promise Ring lays at an interesting crossroad. On the one hand, vocalist Davey Von Bohlen can grind on a melodic hook like a power pop pro, giving the listener plenty of ear candy on this tightly constructed record, while backed by a tight and creative rhythm section that never looses the groove. On the other hand, there are enough jarring structures, repet...

By the time of their 2000 album Odyssey Number Five, Brisbane, Australia's Powderfinger had sharpened their sound and created an album that found a balance between sweet radio friendly alternative rock hooks and melodies, while also giving headphone listeners interesting bits to revisit the album over and over again. At home, this lead to a string of chart topping albums and singles, but abroad, t...

By the time of their fifth album Everclear from 1991, American Music Club was anything but a household name. If you caught their single "Rise" on late on night on MTV, or by chance on an adventurous radio station, you are among a lucky few. Considering the musical landscape for rock, where 80s hair/glam metal was still dominant while ascendent alternative had yet to be come a proper decade-definin...

If there is a new episode of Dig Me Out in your feed on a Thursday, that can only mean one thing - we sharing with you a preview of our latest Dig Me Out '80s episodes. With the help our Patreon Board of Directors and Steering Committee tiers , we're revisiting another album from the 1980s based on suggestions and votes of our patrons. This month we're checking out the 1989 album self-titled album...

Neither of us had any previous exposure to The Residents prior to this review, and it's a weird entry point. The avant-garde music collective celebrated their twentieth anniversary in 1992 not by released a greatest hits album, but instead taking bits and pieces of old songs and combining them into new works. The result is Our Finest Flowers, a rather low-key affair that relies on drum loops, synt...

With their 1997 self-titled debut, Third Eye Blind charted five hit singles, three that made the Billboard top ten, while moving six million units worldwide. Over a year after the release, they were still logging hit singles and touring, and as we've learned over many episodes, the follow-up doesn't always get the same attention to detail. With the 1999 sophomore album Blue, their limited studio t...

Grindcore band Old Lady Drivers, or OLD , ended their four-album run in 1995 with the wildly eclectic Formula. Despite the title, Formula is anything but, swapping heavy guitar dirges for tape loops, synths, drum machines and lots of experimentation. Switching gears from Napalm Death to electronic instrumentals might have failed in the hands of lesser musicians, but James Plotkin and Alan Dubin ma...

When New Order entered the 1990s, they were coming off their first number one album on the UK charts along with two top twenty singles. So what did they do? Immediately split into multiple factions. While the well received 1993 album Republic would produce one of their finest singles in Regret, the 90s for New Order are defined by side projects. For bassist Peter Hook, it started with Revenge and...

Whenever we have a guest on to discuss an album either they made, had a hand in producing or releasing, our are suggesting for a review, we always come away with unique personal insights not always available from just a surface listen or new release review. For the sophomore 1996 album Aenima by Tool, our guest Patrick had a close personal connection to the music and the lyrics of the band that he...

Sophomore albums are notoriously tricky, we've even dedicated a round table series to the phenomenon of hugely successful 90s debuts with follow-ups that, for a variety of reasons, didn't connect with audiences in the same way as their first release. Sometimes it record label politics scuttling the promotional support, sometimes its the shifting musical landscape after time off, and sometimes its...

Although Human Radio's debut self-titled album was released in 1990, their isn't much to the sound that pins it to the decade. Between the jazz-pop nods to Steely Dan, the funk flourishes reminiscent of Stevie Wonder, the new wave pop of XTC, along with a whole host of other subtle (and not subtle) influences we heard throughout the record. Thanks to the quirky lead-off track and single "Me And El...

We've tackled metal in its various forms and sub-genres, but this week for the first time we're checking out the symphonic metal of Finnish band Nightwish via their 1998 album Oceanborn. Combining operatic vocals with shredding guitars, double kick-drum beats and classical-influenced strings, keyboards and pianos, we're left mouths agape at the musicianship and ambition of this band and album. Whi...

After departing 1980s new wavers Berlin, bassist and vocalist John Crawford and drummer Rob Brill formed the rock power trio The Big F. With the addition of guitarist Mark Christian, the band manage to forge some interesting musical ground on their second and final album Is from 1993. Unfortunately, the band is caught between worlds, showing off more eccentric and ambitious choices (saxophone jazz...

You're probably wondering, why is there a new episode in my podcast feed on a Thursday? We wanted to share with you a preview of our first of six Dig Me Out '80s episodes in 2019. Starting this month, and continuing every other month this year, with the help our Patreon Board of Directors and Steering Committee tiers , we'll be revisiting an album from the 1980s based on suggestions and votes of o...

 The shadow of Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly looms large over 1990s alternative and indie rock. They were both members of seminal 1980s bands, Deal in the Pixies, and Donelly in Throwing Muses, and had second acts in the 90s in their own bands, The Breeders and Belly. For one album, before Kim's sister Kelley joined the band, Donelly joined forces with Deal on the 1990 album Pod by The Breeders, then...

The term "Pop-Punk" started showing up in the mid-90s - a hybrid of the breakthrough punk sound via bands like Green Day and The Offspring, but with a decidedly more pop (re: melodic) twist in the vocal department. It's not easy to pin down with what band or at what time pop-punk took off, but from what we discussed with our guests, we know artists such as Blink-182 helped set the proverbial table...

Compact discs were the predominant physical medium for music in the 90s that, like cassettes and vinyl before, came with positives and negatives. No more rewinding or fast forwarding to find a song. Mobility meant moving from your home stereo, to your Discman, to your car with ease. Plus, you had almost eighty minutes to work with. That last one, however, became a curse as much as a blessing with...

Sometimes we revisit albums that have little to no internet presence, reviews that only appeared in print, and barely managed to slip into the big name publications. When that happens, there is little baggage or preconceived notion of what we're getting into. On the other end of spectrum, we have the 1991 album Goat by The Jesus Lizard . Now heralded as one of the defining alternative rock albums...