Dig Me Out: 90s Rock Dig Me Out

The 1994 album Foolish by Superchunk might be the defining indie rock album of the 1990s. Raw musical energy paired with introspective lyrics and hooks that grab hold from the first track to the last. The band's signature blend of punk and pop shines through in every distorted chord or note that guitarist and lead singer Mac McCaughan sings or strums, creating an album that feels both urgent and timeless. Tracks like "Driveway to Driveway" and "Like a Fool" showcase the band's knack for crafting sneakily catchy melodies while maintaining the emotional depth of a record that famously followed the breakup of McCaughan and bassist Laura Balance. The end result is a vital record that defines the 1990s indie rock sound.
 
Songs In This Episode
Intro - Water Wings
17:23 - Driveway to Driveway
29:41 - Why Do You Have to Put a Date on Everything
35:07 - Kicked In
40:18 - Like A Fool
Outro - The First Part
 
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When Muse released their debut album Showbiz in 1999, the Radiohead and Jeff Buckley comparison were unavoidable. Lumped in with Coldplay, Paloalto, Ours, and other bands whose male vocalists utilized a falsetto, the band never actually quite fit in, and their trajectory in the 2000s is evidence they were thinking bigger. While so many music critics were happy to cast aspersions of Matthew Bellamy for his vocal approach, the actual music got less attention than it deserved. Only a three piece, the rhythm section of bassist Chris Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard were largely overlooked, which is a shame. Plenty has been written about Bellamy's vocals, but combined with the melodic bass lines often harmonizing with the vocal, or the variety in Howard's playing, that slyly incorporates non-rock rhythms like on the tango-influenced "Uno," the band is much more adventurous than any of its contemporaries.
 
Songs In This Episode
Intro - Sunburn
16:11 - Muscle Museum
23:39 - Falling Down
30:20 - Uno
Outro - Sober
 
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In 1992, INXS released Welcome to Wherever You Are and instead of touring, headed back into the studio for a quick follow-up. 1993's Full Moon, Dirty Hearts was the result, a mixed bag of innovation incorporating bass grooves on tracks like "The Gift" and "Cut Your Roses Down" while still writing anthemic choruses on tracks like "Days of Rust" and "Time." In the midst of the grunge takeover of America, it's not surprising the album didn't fare well with radio or the charts. While guest vocalists Ray Charles and Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders are welcome, their inclusion didn't push the needle. Revisiting the album, it's an interesting crossroads of what the band was and the sounds of the decade to come, with electronic elements sneaking in that wouldn't sound out of place later in the decade.
 
Songs In This Episode
Intro - The Gift
21:17 - Time
25:13 - Cut Your Roses Down
32:16 - Kill The Pain
41:12 - Please (You Got That...)
Outro - Days of Rust
 
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All the way back in season seven, we reviewed Save Ferris’s 1997 release It Means Everything, the first ska album discussed on a deep dive for the podcast. Seven years later, we catch up with Save Ferris lead singer Monique Powell who discusses how she joined the ska-punk band, the highs and lows of signing to a major label, what it was like being on the road with artists like Sugar Ray and The Offspring in the late ‘90s and the current status of the band. During the interview, we briefly discussed the legal fight Powell was engaged in with former members which led to Powell taking ownership of the group and retroactively being given co-songwriting credits for songs that appeared on It Means Everything and 1999’s Modified. To read more about the case, read the 2019 Forbes magazine feature.
 
Songs in this Episode:
Intro - The World Is New
30:47 - Come On Eileen
Outro - The World Is New
 
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Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com.
 

Rock music genres often get reduced to a "Big Four." For Grunge, it was Alice In Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden. For Thrash, Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, and Slayer made the grade. In 90s Britpop, Oasis, Blur, Pulp and Suede got the nod. But as if often the case, the bands on the cusp are often as interesting or even more-so thanks to being just outside the spotlight. In the case of Supergrass, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones creep in as influences like their Britpop contemporaries, but the energetic attitude and willingness to embrace the chaos of The Who's rhythm section and the concise songwriting perfection of The Kinks helps their second album, 1997's In It for the Money, exceed not just their debut, but most of the Britpop catalog. Looking at the charts, it's not hard to see why killer singles like "Richard III," "Cheapskate," "Sun Hits The Sky" and "Late in the Day" failed to impact American radio and pop culture consciousness. While Blur had "woo-hoos" and Third Eye Blind had "do do do's," Supergrass ditched guitar solos for theremins and vintage synthesizers, constructing layered pop gems that deserve revisiting.
 
Songs In This Episode
Intro - In It for the Money
27:40 - Sun Hits the Sky
31:42 - You Can See Me
35:45 - Going Out
40:08 - Tonight
Outro - Richard III
 
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You're forgiven if you tried to search for Pollen on the internet and struggled to find this band. Besides the numerous bands named Pollen, there is also the issue of their debut 1998 album The Glorious Couch Life not appearing on streaming services, rendering it hard to find for the average music listener. That's a shame, because throughout the record, Pollen finds the combination of indie rock energy tinged with a little garage and some danceable rhythms, topped with catchy melodies and smart lyrics. Shades of American bands like Superchunk, Guided By Voices, Beck, Death Cab For Cutie, and Sebadoh peak through, as well as Australian contemporaries like Screamfeeder, Ratcat, Ammonia, and Moler, permeate the sound, from the propulsive "Greater Than" and "Sin as Fast as You Can" to the angular "Walruses to Whales" and quirky "Settle the Score on the Dancefloor."
 
Songs In This Episode
Intro - Million Destinations
12:25 - Sin as Fast as You Can
16:18 - Brighter Day
21:28 - Settle the Score on the Dancefloor
25:08 - Soma and Nerves of Steel
27:56 - Special Features
Outro - Not Rocket Science
 
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Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com.