Dig Me Out: 90s & 00s Rock

Tim Kasher of The Good Life and Cursive has a new solo album out this March (No Resolution) on a new label ( 15 Passenger ). We talk to him about the why he decided now was the time to start the new label away from Saddle Creek and the plans for reissuing late 90s Cursive material later this year. We discuss the transition in the mid-00s from writing as a band to writing alone at home and how that...

Remember Electronica ? Well we do, and we’re not quite sure what it was, so we’re hosting a roundtable discussion this week to talk about the explosion of electronic music that hit MTV, radio, Billboard and more in the late 90s. To help us figure out what it means, we’ve got a pair of guests, returning regular Andy Derer from The Andy Derer Show , and a first time visit from our old college radio...

Thanks to our friend Gavin in Australia, we’re checking out 28 Days from Melbourne and their sophomore album Upstyledown from 2000. Though it charted at #1 on the Australian ARIAnet album chart, the band failed to make a dent in the United States, which seems like a missed opportunity considering the band combines the sounds of late 90s/early 00s pop punk and rap rock into a familiar sound. Though...

As The Pretenders once sang, we’re going back to Ohio to check out Dayton’s legendary Brainiac thanks to the winner of our 2016 year-end Patreon giveaway. In just five years, the band put out a significant body of work, including three full-length albums, half a dozen 7″s and a pair of EPs. We’re checking out their third and final album Hissing Prigs in Static Couture , released on Touch & Go Reco...

We got a requested review for an album released in 2000, and since we’re not above stretching the rules outside the 90s occasionally, this week we’re revisiting the third and final Marvelous 3 album ReadySexGo. Between Butch Walker ’s stint in late 80s/early 90s glam metal band SouthGang and his current occupation as a successful music producer (who releases solo albums when not working on albums...

On the surface, our latest r equested review for the 1996 album Deadsexy by Scarce sounds eerily familiar to a lot of 90s band. Band forms, records demos, puts out singles on small indie labels, gets some buzz, major labels start calling, band signs and puts out their debut, no singles race up the charts, and the band is done. But there is more to the story, so we invited singer/bassist Joyce Rask...

It’s our first roundtable discussion of 2017, and we’re tackling the albums from 20-years prior, with special guests Andy Derer ( The Andy Derer Show ), Eric Grubbs  ( Do You Know Who You Are podcast ) and Jeff Takacs ( Rocketfuel podcast ) to help us cover the best, the overlooked, the letdowns and faded-aways of ‘97. While 1997 might be remember as the year that saw the return of pop music in th...

Every year we dig deeper and deeper into bands from Australia that didn’t make much of an impact in United States to try to understand the global story of music in the 1990s thanks to requested reviews from our dedicated listeners down under, and this week we’re back to check out the self-titled 1991 debut by Sydney’s Baby Animals . The sound of the band harkens back to a more straightforward ‘80s...

For our first episode of season seven, it’s a requested review thanks to a Patreon subscriber. We’ve talked about Mike Patton previously on the podcast, but never actually revisited an album from one of his many musical outfits. For the first week of 2017, we’re checking out the 1995 sophomore album Disco Volante by Mr. Bungle . Although Faith No More is known for their eclectic brand of hard rock...

As is our year-end tradition, for our final episode of 2016, we look back at season six of the podcast to review the year that was and look forward to season seven in 2017. We give thanks to our long list of supporters on Patreon and our requested reviews, as well as all of our roundtable participants and interview guests. We also pick our favorite roundtable and interview episodes, choose which 9...

Our previous “In The 90s” episodes examined the careers of Van Halen and Metallica in that decade and discussed if they had managed to survive the turbulence that was the rise of alternative and independent rock music. For our latest edition, we’re joined by author/songwriter Paul Zollo to revisit the career of Tom Petty, who released the book Conversations With Tom Petty in 2006. Starting with th...

For our final review episode of the year, we’re tackling one of those oddball side-projects from major label artists that seemed to pop up on a weekly basis in the 90s. The self-titled 1993 debut by Hater , featuring members of Soundgarden, Monster Magnet and Devilhead isn’t what you’d expect. Instead of polished hard rock and metal riffs, there’s 60s garage and psychedelic rock. If you bought thi...

With ties to the perfectionist power-pop of Jellyfish and Guns ‘n Roses guitarist Slash’s Snakepit, this one-album-and-done band is perfect fodder for Dig Me Out - Imperial Drag and their self-titled 1996 album. Combining T. Rex grooves with analog synths, Imperial Drag we found more in common with British glam revisionists like Suede and Placebo than their North American alternative and indie roc...

Our Patreon patrons voted on which November 1996 release we should check out, and they voted on the sophomore album II by the Presidents of the United States of America , who scored a number one single with Lump a year earlier off their debut. With such a quick turnaround from their freshman release, is a dip in quality or are their gems to be rediscovered? Tune in to find out. Songs in this Episo...

Our latest requested review features a band from Australian we were completely unfamiliar with - Regurgitator . Their second album Unit came out in 1997, going triple platinum, producing hit singles and winning music awards. It’s an eclectic mix of pop, rock and punk powered by ‘80s synth sounds and melodies galore. We previously encountered Spiderbait and enjoyed their genre-hopping approach, doe...

For our second sophomore slump revisited episode of 2016, we jump in the time machine again to revisit 1996 and check out the second album from Bush , the Steve Albini -produced Razorblade Suitcase . Following up a massively successful debut with five hit singles is a tough job, but doing so in short period of time makes the job even harder. It sold half as many and failed to place as many hit sin...

Our latest  requested review  gives us a chance to revisit the 1996 album Building, the third release by  Sense Field . Concise, urgent songs packed with guitar and vocal hooks, the album flies by at just thirty five minutes. We dig into it, and find sounds and styles varying from Bob Mould to The Offspring to Tool. Give a listen, and let us know if you agree with our take on Building. Songs in th...

Thanks to a  requested review , we get revisit the 1997 album American Psycho by the  Misfits . Minus founder/original lead singer Glenn Danzig, this album saw the band return after years of being an underground influence upon bands like Metallica, Guns ‘n Roses and others. The “horror punk” sound created by the band shifts in the direction of the bands it influenced, incorporating a decidedly mor...

To help us revisit the 1995 album Wake by  Emmet Swimming , we’re joined by  Suburban Metal Dad cartoonist  and  Slayer author   DX Ferris . A little bit of R.E.M. jangle combined with a touch Morrissey-esque vocals give this mid-90s album flavors not heard on other releases around this time. We dive into the players, the history and more to determine if Wake swims or sinks. Bonus: you can listen...

In the spring we hosted a roundtable on the Chicago music scene of the 1990s, so for our next “Digging Your Scene” episode, we decided to head to Boston, the home of the Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., Belly, Buffalo Tom, Morphine, The Lemonheads, Juliana Hatfield, Letters to Cleo, Sebadoh, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and many more. To help us on our quest to figure out what made Boston such a vibrant city...

We’ve reached a new milestone, and to help us celebrate, we’ve invited the author of the  33 1/3 book entry  for  Dig Me Out  by  Sleater-Kinney  to join us, author and historian  Jovana Babovic . We discuss how the album was chosen, researching and writing the book, and the difficulty of writing about sound. We get into the nitty gritty of the 33 1/3 submission process, the importance of ‘zines t...

We gave our  Patreon subscribers  four album options that were released in October 1996, and they decided we should revisit the self-titled debut by  Fountains of Wayne . All the hallmarks of power pop are present - tight songwriting, big vocal hooks with guitar riffs to match, and the occasional harmony to sweeten the sound - from the band that would go on to write the massive single “Stacy’s Mom...

This week we’re joined by former  Babes in Toyland  bassist Michelle Leon, author of the recently released book  I Live Inside: Memoirs of a Babe in Toyland . We discuss her upbringing in suburban Minnesota prior to joining the band at the age of 17, her struggle with the idea of “authenticity” and defying expectations writing a “rock biography.” We get into the nuts and bolts of writing the book,...

Our roundtable for September is actually a two-parter on the swing revival of the 1990s. We start with an interview with Scotty Morris of  Big Bad Voodoo Daddy  joining us to talk about his early musical upbringing, how BBVD came together in the early 90s, being a part of  Swingers , the  1999 Super Bowl  and the arc of swing music in the 90s. In part two, we’re joined by  Eric Grubbs  and  Eric P...

This week we are checking out the 1992 album Salutations from the Ghetto Nation by  Warrior Soul . Brash and loud with one foot in the sound of 80s hair metal and the other in 90s alternative, the band is hard to pin down musically. Lyrically, not so much, as they cover anti-government and anti-corporate territory that would make friendly bedfellows with Rage Against The Machine. Songs in this Epi...