Dig Me Out: 90s & 00s Rock

Catherine Wheel 's 1992 debut Ferment is a bonafide shoegaze classic, full of swirling guitars and ethereal vocals. For their 1993 follow-up Chrome, the band brought in Gil Norton, who had a resume boasting bands like the Pixies, Throwing Muses, Pale Saints, Echo & the Bunnymen, and more. With Norton on board, the band dialed down the waves of distortion and used it more sparingly, and a more craf...

Dave Smalley ’s been a punk rock fixture since the early ‘80s when he fronted DYS. Stints as the lead singer in Dag Nasty and ALL followed before the touring life caused him to reconsider what it meant to be in a band. In 1991, Smalley formed Down By Law, signed with Epitaph Records, and released six full length albums before the decade was done and another four in the 2000’s with the most recent...

Many, many years ago, we checked out the 1997 debut album Elsewhere For Eight Minutes by the Melbourne, Australian trio Something For Kate . Thanks to a Patreon patron we checked out their 1999 sophomore follow-up Beautiful Sharks to hear the evolution of the band. Whereas the debut offered some catchy alt-rock, Beautiful Sharks is a more subdued yet intricate album, putting new bassist Stephanie...

We're as shocked as anyone to be talking about a Kylie Minogue album, but here we are thanks to a Patron. If you're a 90s grunge and alternative fan, chances are your exposure to Kylie is limited to her late 80s cover of "The Loco-Motion" or her earworm early 00s hit "Can't Get You Out Of My Head." But after growing tired of the musical restrictions of her pop success, Minogue explored collaborati...

Following the breakup of the mid-90s alt-country band Scud Mountain Boys, lead singer/songwriter Joe Pernice teamed up with his brother to write and record the debut Pernice Brothers album,  Overcome by Happiness, for SubPop Records in 1998. While it was the only Pernice Brothers album released by the legendary Seattle label, Joe’s continued to release music under that moniker through a label, Ash...

By the end of the 1990s, grunge had run its course, seeing two and three waves of followers come and go. Nu-metal was ascendant thanks to the likes of Korn, Limp Bizkit, Deftones and others ruling MTV and radio, along with post-grunge acts like Creed, Chevelle, Drowning Pool and more. For a band like Oleander , their take on Nirvana-tinged grunge meant leaning into the manic energy of Bleach as mu...

Formed in 1988 and one of the earliest acts to put out music on SubPop, TAD paved the way for bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden with their heavy and sludgy guitar noise. After releasing three albums on the infamous Seattle label, TAD put out two albums on majors, 1993’s Inhaler on Giant/Warner Bros and 1995’s Infrared Riding Hood on East West/Elektra before breaking up by the end of the decade. L...

After the dissolution of Jawbreaker in 1996, lead singer and guitarist Blake Schwarzenbach spent the next year not playing music, but DJ'ing and writing video game reviews. But the itch to create came back with the help of former Texas Is The Reason drummer Chris Daly and Handsome singer Jeremy Chatelain on bass. Jets To Brazil isn't so much a reinvention as a natural evolution, leaving behind the...

By the end of the 1990s, The Afghan Whigs were critical faves without the breakthrough single that propelled some of their contemporaries into the platinum or multi-platinum stratosphere. While 1993's Gentlemen and 1996's Black Love explored the dark, 1998's 1965 turned on the light long enough to find the party and get down to the business of feeling good, as lead singer Greg Dulli sings on the o...

By 1991, Moving Targets were already well established in the Boston music scene upon the release of their third full-length, Fall. Lead by Kenny Chambers on vocals and guitar, the band that started out playing Husker Du-esque hardcore evolved like their contemporaries, downshifting the tempos and finding more melody. Tracks like "Answer" and "Away From Me" were primed for college radio alongside T...

Often side-project bands don't live up to the hype of the artist or band's main gig. But for Stephin Merritt, this isn't the case with several of his non-Magnetic Fields bands. With The 6ths , he's taken on the challenge of writing the songs but handing them over to guest vocalists. On the 1995 debut Wasps' Nests, that means a wide array of contributors, including Lou Barlow from Sebadoh and Dinos...

By 1995, the alternative music revolution was in full swing, dominated MTV and radio across the US and around the world. While some of the original trailblazers, like the Pixies and Jane's Addiction, were no more, others continued and evolved their sound. Juliana Hatfield , who started out in the mid-1980s with the Blake Babies, had already released two acclaimed alternative rock albums before unl...

By 1999, fans of the alternative country rock sound had a lot to choose from. At the start of the decade, the mostly underground and regional scenes were known to college radio listeners and other non-mainstream outlets. But by 1999, major labels Geffen and Warner Brothers were putting out albums and developing artists. On Elektra, the Old 97s from Dallas, Texas released their second major label r...

A perfect pick for a Dig Me Out episode, Fretblanket never seemed to get the mainstream attention the way their peers did. Formed in Stourbridge, England when the members were still in high school, the band caught the attention of Polygram Records in ‘93 and signed a deal before singer/guitarist Will Copley had graduated. A year later, Junkfuel was released with the single “Twisted” gaining a mode...

Few bands have stayed artistically and commercially relevant over forty years into their career, but with the release of their new album Memento Mori in March 2023, Depeche Mode continue to defy the odds. In the 80s the band built a fanbase in Europe over their first few releases before entering the global stage with "People Are People" in 1984. By the end of the decade, they were regularly a top...

Diamond certified records , those that have sold ten million or more albums in the United States, are a rare achievement that few bands and artists can lay claim to. But as important as it is to talk about obscure and underappreciated 90s rock albums, we thought it was time to go in the opposite direction for a new series diving into the full albums of 90s rock Diamonds. With that, we start our Di...

Sophomore albums can be a difficult proposition. The standard refrain is you get a lifetime to make the first one and a few months to make the follow-up. In the case of Filter, it took a little longer, four years to be exact. Title of Record came out in 1999 in a much different musical landscape than their 1995 debut Short Bus. Luckily, their hard rock sound, with a touch of industrial, fit in wel...

Blessed with fire and passion on display through her voice and lyrics, the murder of Mia Zapata robbed the world of her potential. With The Gits , she and guitarist Joe Spleen, bass player Matt Dresdner, and drummer Steve Moriarty made grunge mixed with hardcore punk on their 1992 album Frenching The Bully. With only four years together, the debut record displays potential in the same way Bleach g...

There was never a question that Ivy would make it, though they did so with many strokes of luck, good fortune, and heart ache along the way. With talented songwriters Andy Chase and Adam Schlesinger writing sophisticated pop songs showcasing their love of ‘80s and ‘90s UK music, the only thing missing was a voice to go with the sounds. Chase’s girlfriend at the time (now wife), Dominique Durand, h...

Aside from Suede and Spacehog, few bands in the 90s embraced the glam sound as wholly as Lowcraft . Except Lowcraft wasn't from the UK, instead claiming Portland, Oregon in the U.S. as their home. The one and only album, 1999's Manticore, is baked with the sound and feel of Marc Bolan and T. Rex, David Bowie, and Mott the Hoople. How exactly? Can certain guitar chords and riffs sound glam? Sure, b...

With a lower register in the vein of Richard Butler or Ian Astbury, Chris Reed of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry dismissed goth comparison during the 80s and focused on their guitar driven post-punk sound. For the final release, 1991's Blasting Off, the band backing Reed is new, but the sound is familiar thanks to Reed's unique vocals, unfussy songwriting, and precise guitar paying that works in a variety...

Coming off the hit "Here and Now" from their debut Aurora Gory Alice, Letters To Cleo followed-up with the equally catchy Wholesale Meats and Fish. Lead single "Awake," with it's handclaps and catchy hook by lead singer Kay Hanley, is just one of many power-pop adjacent tunes that lean more towards the noisy side of the genre inhabited by The Posies and Matthew Sweet. But to pin down LTC would be...

Born in NYC but spending his formative years in Washington DC, Chad Clark’s passion for music was born when his dad dropped a pair of headphones on his son’s head and introduced him to the Beatles. In the mid-90s, Clark formed the artsy, indie rock outfit Smart Went Crazy with Abram Goodrich and Hilary Soldati, signed with Dischord Records and released an EP and two full lengths - 1995’s Now We’re...

Released in the shadow of her husband's death, Courtney Love and Hole delivered their sophomore album Live Through This in a tsunami of emotional turmoil. Propelled by three hit singles, the album would launch Love into stardom and influence a generation of visceral, outspoken musicians that took inspiration from songs about motherhood, abuse, postpartum depression, and other topics not found on B...

We've revisited plenty of albums released on major and independent labels from the 90s, but digging into self-released albums isn't something we've explored much - until now! Take New York City's Wünderband, who self-released their self-titled album in 1997. On the opening track, the band make their sound clear - punchy, catchy power-pop with some twists and turns. From the opening Aimee Mann call...