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Back To The 90's, Girlfriend!


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Ok, I sat out the entire 90s . I hated grunge and went all acoustic blues for the entire decade. I evidently missed some good shit

Like what I just got hip to, the Matthew Sweet album Girlfriend. Great power pop with killer guitar tones. Does anyone else here like that album and guitar sounds? I wish it rocked just a touch harder but I just now discovered it and spun it while working out in the home gym this AM.

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Great album! some killer songs on there.  There's a deluxe edition that includes an acoustic version of the album that was a radio promo - a local station used to play tracks from it. As stupid as it sounds, i always got a kick out of the vinyl sounds he used to indicate the 'sides' of the album.

Stupid trivia - 'Winona' was about Ms. Ryder, and the story was that she thought it was a little creepy.

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7 hours ago, Jakeboy said:

Ok, I sat out the entire 90s . I hated grunge

Yeah, same here. I got into Phish and some other jam bands then, and really dug in deep with blues rock. I started following the blues circuit too. I hated ‘90s radio with a passion. Every now and then you’d hear something cool like Girlfriend or Shakin’ the Blues from The Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies, some Black Crowes or Blues Traveler, but essentially  ‘90s mainstream music sucked to me,

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I’ve always said the only good music that came from the 90’s was Alice In Chains and Soundgarden. Of course that’s just a generalized blanket statement, but for the most part its how I feel. It seemed that anyone with two fingers and an opposing thumb could be a rock star.

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I was starting a career, getting married, having kids, so missed most of the 90s (and beyond). 

That said, I did manage to come out of the decade with some favorite albums, just not in the whole grunge or "acoustic version" genre.  Cowboy Junkies, Aimee Mann, No Doubt (Rock Steady has been on constant rotation since it came out)... but not much.  Recently came across more jazzy hip-hoppy US3.

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Way to catch up there, granpa!

It's a great record. The sidemen (Richard Lloyd/Television and Robert Quine/Richard Hell and the Voidoids) make this album grind a little harder than most,, "singer-songwriter" offeringsl  Check out the follow-up, "100% Fun." Also, check out his earlier band, The Golden Palominos.

There are tons more bands from that era that have a similar, distorto-pop approach (Teenage Fanclub, The Posies, Enuff'z'Nuff, Redd Kross, Silver Sun, Lemonheads, Gin Blossoms, Gigolo Aunts, Fountains of Wayne, Material Issue...).

Check out Big Star, Badfinger, Raspberries for bands you missed in the 70's. Shit ton in the 80's, too.

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2 hours ago, RobB said:

Way to catch up there, granpa!

It's a great record. The sidemen (Richard Lloyd/Television and Robert Quine/Richard Hell and the Voidoids) make this album grind a little harder than most,, "singer-songwriter" offeringsl  Check out the follow-up, "100% Fun." Also, check out his earlier band, The Golden Palominos.

There are tons more bands from that era that have a similar, distorto-pop approach (Teenage Fanclub, The Posies, Enuff'z'Nuff, Redd Kross, Silver Sun, Lemonheads, Gin Blossoms, Gigolo Aunts, Fountains of Wayne, Material Issue...).

Check out Big Star, Badfinger, Raspberries for bands you missed in the 70's. Shit ton in the 80's, too.

Granpa! Funny shit.

You named some good 'uns in there.

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2 hours ago, RobB said:

Way to catch up there, granpa!

It's a great record. The sidemen (Richard Lloyd/Television and Robert Quine/Richard Hell and the Voidoids) make this album grind a little harder than most,, "singer-songwriter" offeringsl  Check out the follow-up, "100% Fun." Also, check out his earlier band, The Golden Palominos.

I always loved those two albums, but I find 100% Fun gets more play than Girlfriend, in no small part because I've always loved Brendan O'Brien's work as an engineer. That album has a great sound and mix!

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I started with grunge, but moved to more melodic things like power pop and CanConRock (Sloan, Thrush Hermit, Superfriendz). I recently went back and started to listen to Superdrag and related (John Davis' solo stuff and The Lees of Memory). Made me think of Sloan (more vocally than musically) and Matthew Sweet (kinda both vocally and musically, maybe a little more power though). Check 'em out too!

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I posted a response to Mark's original post with links to 4-5 videos from various post-"Girlfriend" albums, but something must have glitched because I'm not seeing it now (??).

At any rate, I've been a big fan since the pre-release debut of that one, and have caught Matthew on every US tour since '93.  He's had lots of killer lead guitarists out with him (it's kind of been a rotating slot for a number of years), but my favorite of the more than a dozen he's had out with the band is Dennis Taylor.  The guy NAILS everything on "Girlfriend" - both the Lloyd and Quine parts, as well as the Greg Leisz steel parts.

Definitely check out YouTube for some of his heavier later stuff...

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2 minutes ago, Sugartune said:

I started with grunge, but moved to more melodic things like power pop and CanConRock (Sloan, Thrush Hermit, Superfriendz). I recently went back and started to listen to Superdrag and related (John Davis' solo stuff and The Lees of Memory). Made me think of Sloan (more vocally than musically) and Matthew Sweet (kinda both vocally and musically, maybe a little more power though). Check 'em out too!

Superfriendz!!! Loved 'em. That guy was a simply amazing showman. I saw them at Zaphod's in Ottawa and he blew me away. Flashing Cameras his band after was good as well, but I preferred SF.

I'm happy Sloan is still playing and putting out new stuff! And still good too. :)

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4 minutes ago, cmatthes said:

I posted a response to Mark's original post with links to 4-5 videos from various post-"Girlfriend" albums, but something must have glitched because I'm not seeing it now (??).

At any rate, I've been a big fan since the pre-release debut of that one, and have caught Matthew on every US tour since '93.  He's had lots of killer lead guitarists out with him (it's kind of been a rotating slot for a number of years), but my favorite of the more than a dozen he's had out with the band is Dennis Taylor.  The guy NAILS everything on "Girlfriend" - both the Lloyd and Quine parts, as well as the Greg Leisz steel parts.

Definitely check out YouTube for some of his heavier later stuff...

What are his more rocking albums? Like girlfriend a lot, but when I checked out some other stuff is was a little too mellow.

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I may have missed Lee Iacocca's musical efforts in the 70's and 80's but I did NOT miss the 90's musical offerings. Being in Seattle in late 80's- early 90's I caught onto bands like Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and a few other of the alt/grunge offerings. But the 90's saw me really venturing out of the hair metal and hard rock niche I preferred in the 80's.  Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, De La Soul, Weezer, Faith No More, Rage Against The Machine, Tool, Marilyn Manson and Stone Temple Pilots. Some bands from the 80's carried over and made profound impressions on me with their work in the 90's- Butthole Surfers, the Pixies and Pantera come to mind.

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2 minutes ago, sonic1974 said:

Superfriendz!!! Loved 'em. That guy was a simply amazing showman. I saw them at Zaphod's in Ottawa and he blew me away. Flashing Cameras his band after was good as well, but I preferred SF.

I'm happy Sloan is still playing and putting out new stuff! And still good too. :)

I never stopped loving all those murderecords related bands, Sloan especially, but also Local Rabbits and Hardship Post, The Inbreds, Jale, Sloan, Superfriendz, Thrush Hermit 

Superfriendz dude - Matt "Guitar" Murphy. He used to rock a Rickenbacker 481 and I've wanted one ever since seeing him sling one in the mid 90's. It was Flashing Lights. I do like them, but it is certainly a different flavour. Super awesome guitarist. 

Check out TUNS. It's Chris Murphy from Sloan, Mike O'Neil from Inbreds and Matt Murphy. 

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Responding to almost every band mentioned in this thread...

Who?

I went from 22-32 in the 90s, for reference.  So right in the heart of a target market.  Ah, well.  I was pretty hip on Veggie Tales and Thomas the Tank Engine.

 

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3 hours ago, RobB said:

Way to catch up there, granpa!

It's a great record. The sidemen (Richard Lloyd/Television and Robert Quine/Richard Hell and the Voidoids) make this album grind a little harder than most,, "singer-songwriter" offeringsl  Check out the follow-up, "100% Fun." Also, check out his earlier band, The Golden Palominos.

There are tons more bands from that era that have a similar, distorto-pop approach (Teenage Fanclub, The Posies, Enuff'z'Nuff, Redd Kross, Silver Sun, Lemonheads, Gin Blossoms, Gigolo Aunts, Fountains of Wayne, Material Issue...).

Check out Big Star, Badfinger, Raspberries for bands you missed in the 70's. Shit ton in the 80's, too.

Guilty as charged, Rob! Been a grandparent...prefer Pop-pop...for nearly 5 years now. I didn’t miss much in the 70s ...know and love those bands and a bunch in the 80s too. But the 90s  are a different story. I will check out some of those 90s bands you listed. Love the guitars on Girlfriend. 

I have always been a HUGE Tom Petty fan and was even slow on the uptake with his 90s output. That has been thoroughly rectified.

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1 hour ago, Jakeboy said:

I have always been a HUGE Tom Petty fan and was even slow on the uptake with his 90s output. That has been thoroughly rectified.

Speaking of TP, I've been around your old lower Sussex stompin' grounds recently and will be back this weekend.  There's a Saturday night album performance of "Damn The Torpedoes" in its entirety by a group that tours nationally, not as a "dress the part, play the part, sound the part" tribute act, but one of those "nail every lick and part on the recording" bands.  They're supposedly excellent, and I think I may be able to convince my wife and neighbors to join me at the Freeman Stage (Fenwick/Selbyville).

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2 hours ago, Toadroller said:

Responding to almost every band mentioned in this thread...

Who?

I went from 22-32 in the 90s, for reference.  So right in the heart of a target market.  Ah, well.  I was pretty hip on Veggie Tales and Thomas the Tank Engine.

 

The bands that Sugertune and I mentioned are Canadian, so we can let you slide on that. Friggin' Americans. ha. :)

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2 hours ago, Sugartune said:

I never stopped loving all those murderecords related bands, Sloan especially, but also Local Rabbits and Hardship Post, The Inbreds, Jale, Sloan, Superfriendz, Thrush Hermit 

Superfriendz dude - Matt "Guitar" Murphy. He used to rock a Rickenbacker 481 and I've wanted one ever since seeing him sling one in the mid 90's. It was Flashing Lights. I do like them, but it is certainly a different flavour. Super awesome guitarist. 

Check out TUNS. It's Chris Murphy from Sloan, Mike O'Neil from Inbreds and Matt Murphy. 

Yeah, I loved Kombinator from Inbreds, Don't have any sense of time, what a tune! TUNS are cool for sure. I got to see a lot of those bands, some awesome shows!

I went through a long period where I wasn't listening to any new stuff. the last 2 or 3 months though I'm starting to get into newer stuff, and even newer sounding stuff, not just bands that sound like bands I used to listen to, ha.

Currently super into boygenius. Kinda mopey, but their songs built into cool moments.

This week is our big music festival in Ottawa, Bluesfest. Despite the name, it's actually more of an all around "anything goes" music fest, I have a pass for the whole festival, going to be awesome.

On Friday it's Jason Isbell (used to be in Drive By Truckers) I'm very excited, he's awesome live.

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3 hours ago, Toadroller said:

Responding to almost every band mentioned in this thread...

Who?

I went from 22-32 in the 90s, for reference.  So right in the heart of a target market.  Ah, well.  I was pretty hip on Veggie Tales and Thomas the Tank Engine.

 

So...which was your favorite Thomas narrator--Ringo, George Carlin, or Alec Baldwin? 😁

 

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I generally hated the 90's culture. But there were some 80's bands I followed into the 90's, Faith No More, Anthrax (with John Bush), Toto (finally with Lukather as lead singer), Living Colour, Mr. Bungle, Suicidal Tendencies, Infectious Grooves, Sting, 24-7 Spyz, Fishbone and yes, I once dug the Red Hot Chilli Peppers (I still like the Mother's Milk album), Duran Duran (I liked Warren Cuccurullo's playing). There still a lot of 70's stuff for me to discover. Hey it still was pre-internet days when "discovering" something still was fun. I also had something for jazz/fusion and also discovered 50's/60's jazz stuff, always loved the raw big band stuff (like the "Streets of San Francisco" theme).

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1 minute ago, Hamer_SS_guy said:

I also had something for jazz/fusion and also discovered 50's/60's jazz stuff, always loved the raw big band stuff (like the "Streets of San Francisco" theme).

Always great stuff there!

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3 hours ago, cmatthes said:

Speaking of TP, I've been around your old lower Sussex stompin' grounds recently and will be back this weekend.  There's a Saturday night album performance of "Damn The Torpedoes" in its entirety by a group that tours nationally, not as a "dress the part, play the part, sound the part" tribute act, but one of those "nail every lick and part on the recording" bands.  They're supposedly excellent, and I think I may be able to convince my wife and neighbors to join me at the Freeman Stage (Fenwick/Selbyville).

Chris, That sounds wonderful! Have a great time!  DTT is one of my fave albums EVER!

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