Category Archives: post-college years

Thirty Years On: May/June 1996

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The summer of 1996 was full of unexpected changes. The biggest one being the one other time I ever ragequit a job. The radio station gig ended one sunny morning when I was due to head over for a shift, only to be told that my hours would be cut to a few on the weekends. [For some weird reason, radio has always been like that across the board, and it sucks.] My evangelical boss didn’t just cut my hours but said I’d only been hired until she could get someone else for weekday mornings, then also refused to help me sign up for unemployment benefits (she claimed I’d never worked full time when I often worked over 32 per week). The day I quit, my replacement was there looking a bit sheepish with the boss nowhere to be found. I handed over the key and never went back.

Thankfully, my mom managed to get me a temporary part-time position at the bank she worked at, scanning older signature cards into their recently built-up database. I held that job for maybe a few months at most, just something to put in my account and help pay off my debts until something better came along. [That, of course, would arrive in early September, thanks again to my mom seeing an ad in the paper for ‘something I might enjoy’. More on that soon enough.]

This is also right about the time I really took a shine to the local road trips. I still didn’t own a car at this time, and would borrow my mom’s car for the afternoon until I had to pick her up at the end of her shift. After a few weeks I realized, hey, why not drive around town, maybe head up to the Four Corner Store in New Hampshire, just for the hell of it? I didn’t have to wait for my local friend to be available at this point, I could just…do it on my own. By the end of summer, I was constantly borrowing someone’s car to head up to Toadstool Books in Keene, or wherever. I realized I was no longer stalled out at home, doing nothing but listening to music, attempting to take my writing seriously, and wishing I was elsewhere. Even if it was just a small round trip on the back roads of New England, it was much better than nothing.

Ash, 1977, released 6 May 1996. WHMP was a big fan of this Irish band and played the “Goldfinger” single quite a bit at the time. I liked that they were grunge-adjacent, yet based firmly in the 90s Britpop scene, a mix of both genres that I enjoyed.

Butthole Surfers, Electriclarryland, released 6 May 1996. I of course knew about this band since my high school days, but I don’t think anyone, even the band, expected “Pepper” to be as big of a hit as it was. It’s their most radio-friendly song (and that’s saying something), and somehow most stations had to work around the band name, often referring them to as “BH Surfers” or just “the Surfers”.

The Cure, Wild Mood Swings, released 7 May 1996. After a four-year wait between albums (not including their live albums), they somehow managed to split the fanbase with what is either an enjoyable and brightly produced album or an overly long and directionless mess. Unfortunately I was in the latter crowd, as it felt like the band had completely lost their way. Mind you, it does have a few great songs like “Strange Attraction” and “Gone!” but it still feels like a swing and a miss for me.

Soundtrack, Mission: Impossible, released 14 May 1996. The new Tom Cruise action flick — one of many in the 90s that mined the TV shows of old and updated them with gritty realism — was surprisingly enjoyable and well made, and the two other guys from U2 updated its well-known Lalo Schifrin theme song into something groovy and electronic.

Manic Street Preachers, Everything Must Go, released 20 May 1996. The band had just gotten over the shocking disappearance of their guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards, and had decided to soldier on as a trio. What could have been a hard road turned into a brilliant release — figuratively and literally — and earned them the Mercury Prize in 1997. The title track remains one of their best and most loved songs, and they’ve had a very successful career in the UK since then.

The Wallflowers, Bringing Down the Horse, released 21 May 1996. After a debut that fell flat, the band came back swinging with a massively successful second record full of radio hits that still get played like “One Headlight”, “6th Avenue Heartache” and “3 Marlenas”. They may not have reached the same heights afterwards, but singer Jakob Dylan still releases new stuff under the name.

Soundgarden, Down On the Upside, released 21 May 1996. The heavy grunge band’s last album before breaking up, it was a surprisingly strong release considering they’d had to follow up the massively successful Superunknown. There are several super strong songs here like “Burden in My Hand” and “Blow Up the Outside World”, not to mention the amusing “Ty Cobb”.

Duncan Sheik, Duncan Sheik, released 4 June 1996. I’ve been mentioning this album lately, but it really is a fascinating release and a shockingly impressive debut. Again: it could have been a one-hit wonder, this time with his catchy mid-tempo “Barely Breathing” that crossed over to several genre stations, but one listen to the entire record and you realize just how brilliant of a songwriter he is. The dreamy “She Runs Away”, the mercurial “In the Absence of Sun”, the pondering “Days Go By”…the entire record is highly recommended and one of my favorite albums of the 90s.

Squirrel Nut Zippers, Hot, released 4 June 1996. You couldn’t escape the kitschy swing-jazz holler of “Hell” that summer — yes, another 90s one-hit wonder — but the album is good silly fun. They, alongside Brian Setzer and others, managed to revive the whole retro swing craze in the late 90s.

Belle and Sebastian, Tigermilk, released 6 June 1996. The birth of 90s twee chamber pop as we know it, this Scottish collective literally wrote and recorded this album as a school project for a class in music business, and yet it garnered such a huge following (thanks to BBC DJs John Peel and Mark Radcliffe) that they became a full-fledged band and began a long and successful career.

Beck, Odelay, released 18 June 1996. How do you follow up with the massively successful stoner-rap weirdness of “Loser” and Mellow Gold? By teaming up with The Dust Brothers and recording an absolutely smashing tour de force that still gets high praise years later as one of his best works. From the groovy “Devils Haircut” to the funky “Where It’s At” to the jazzy “The New Pollution”, this album might be all over the place but it works amazingly well.

Primitive Radio Gods, Rocket, released 18 June 1996. Yet another one-hit wonder with the quirky song with the unforgettable title “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand” (which appears absolutely nowhere in the song itself but was borrowed from Canadian singer Bruce Cockburn), the band did not plan for it to be such a massive and memorable hit even despite its clever and quotable lyrics and an appearance on the soundtrack to the Jim Carrey movie The Cable Guy. They might have disappeared from public view, but they’re actually still around and self-releasing their works online.

Screaming Trees, Dust, released 25 June 1996. It seemed that several of the grunge bands of the early 90s were splitting up around this time for one reason or another — some reasons sadder than others, unfortunately — but Screaming Trees tried to soldier on. They were dropped by their label after this record, which didn’t come close to the same heights as their earlier records, but they did have a minor radio hit with the bluesy “All I Know” which got a lot of play on WHMP. They’d eventually split in 2000.

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Coming up: Filling in the hours and looking beyond

Thirty Years On: April 1996

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I’d like to think that by April 1996 I’d gotten settled enough back at home. I’d come to the conclusion that my plan to move back to Boston might take a lot longer than expected (what with my crippling debt and all) so I chose instead to refocus on what I could change at that point. I’d gotten the frustrations of 1995 out of my system and started looking forward. Eventually I’d get there.

April 1996 was also the first time I actually had a significant tax return! Well, it was $200, but that was big money for someone who formerly had to scrounge for a few weeks to save that much. And I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it: buy myself a PC.

Granted, it was a used PC bought at a chop shop that had Windows 3.1 and came with a monochrome CRT monitor, but that’s all I needed. The only games I’d play on it were Solitaire and FreeCell anyway! No, this was a long-term investment, one I’d be using constantly for my writing from here on in. I set it up on my desk in the bedroom and it stayed there maybe for about two months before I decided in early fall to move it downstairs into the basement. [Part of the decision for the move was that the PC’s fan was rather loud and would keep my family awake if I worked at night, but the main reason for it was the desire to find a writing spot where I wouldn’t be interrupted or have everyone looking over my shoulder. And where else but in the same place my dad had his work area?]

By the end of April I’d transcribed some of those recent exercise story ideas and expanded on a few more just to see where they went. I may have tried working on True Faith a bit more as well. I had no idea that I’d be working down there for nearly nine years more, but that was the beginning of it all. That was where I started taking my writing even more seriously. In another year I’d be starting in on The Phoenix Effect, which would of course be revised and rewritten as the Bridgetown Trilogy.

Cracker, The Golden Age, released 2 April 1996. Even though alternative radio had pretty much latched onto “Low” (from 1993’s Kerosene Hat) as their one hit wonder, David Lowery’s project continued on providing us with catchy yet slightly offbeat tunes such as “I Hate My Generation” which got a decent amount of play on WHMP.

Beastie Boys, The In Sound from Way Out!, released 2 April 1996. After the huge success of 1994’s Ill Communication, the band took an unexpected left turn into…groovy funk? By now we’d known that they weren’t just meathead rappers but proficient instrumentalists, but this album was such an unexpected release that it barely got any notice other than fans and those digging their jazzy side.

Semisonic, Great Divide, released 9 April 1996. Before their huge success with 1998’s Feeling Strangely Fine and “Closing Time”, they dropped their first official album that got just a little bit of play with songs like “FNT” and “Across the Great Divide”. WHMP really liked this record.

Various Artists, Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks, released 9 April 1996. This was a super fun compilation aimed squarely at us Gen X-ers who grew up watching these animated tunes during our Saturday cartoon binge. It’s full of great stuff by Blind Melon (“3 Is a Magic Number”), Better Than Ezra (“Conjunction Junction”), Pavement (“No More Kings”), and my personal favorite which I’ve posted above.

Local H, As Good As Dead, released 16 April 1996. Yet another 90s band that could conceivably be seen as a one hit wonder (this is that “copacetic” song, natch) if it wasn’t for the fact that they’re still around and recording really great noise rock, still as a duo. They’re definitely a band worth checking out.

Rage Against the Machine, Evil Empire, released 16 April 1996. I admit I was not a Rage fan for a good number of years. To me they were merely okay…I appreciated what they were about but it did nothing for me personally. I eventually came around in 1999 with their Battle of Los Angeles album. Meanwhile, you could not escape hearing tracks from this album on WHMP and WFNX like “People of the Sun” and “Bulls on Parade”.

Geggy Tah, Sacred Cow, released 23 April 1996. Now this was definitely a 90s one hit wonder, but it’s so goofy and positive and such an earworm that it’s worth hearing. Who knew that a song about a good driving experience could be such a fun hit?

Spoon, Telephono, released 23 April 1996. Well before their rise to indie fame in the early 00s, this band dropped their first album that became a favorite with their fans and the hip indie crowd. To me they were a band I’d constantly hear about but never actually hear on the radio. I may have heard one or two tracks from this on WHMP or WAMH, but not very often.

Orbital, In Sides, released 29 April 1996. I fell in love with the single “The Box” as soon as I saw its brilliant video (featuring the always amazing Tilda Swinton as a time-traveling alien). I’d dub this album onto cassette in a few months when I started at HMV, and eventually buy it used a short time later. It’s my favorite Orbital album as it hits that sweet spot of electronica that I can chill to. I highly recommend it.

Dave Matthews Band, Crash, released 30 April 1996. Most alternative radio stations absolutely loved 1994’s Under the Table and Dreaming, so when this new album dropped, it was a huge success not just on radio but on MTV as well. It’s got so many of his biggest and most memorable tracks on it like the quirky opener “So Much to Say” (I love singing along to this one!), the lovely “Crash Into Me”, the weird “Too Much” and the memorable deep cut “Tripping Billies”. It’s my favorite DMB album, actually! This is right up there with The Verve Pipe’s Villains and Collective Soul’s self-titled as part of that mid-90s “commercialternative” sound (as I call it) that seamlessly crossed barriers from alt rock to pop/rock radio with records that would become long-standing hits.

Soundtrack, The Craft, released 30 April 1996. I went to see this movie at the Sony in Leominster that I formerly worked at and was pleasantly surprised that they’d actually done their homework in regards to witchcraft. Sure, it’s your classic standard 90s horror flick complete with a hip soundtrack, but it was good fun nonetheless. And like a lot of 90s horror flick soundtracks, it’s full of current bands doing fantastic covers, like Our Lady Peace doing the Beatles, Heather Nova doing Peter Gabriel’s “I Have the Touch” and Love Spit Love doing The Smiths’ “How Soon Is Now” (soon to be appropriated by the similarly witch-themed TV show Charmed). It’s a fun soundtrack worth checking out.

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Coming up: Summer moods and unexpected changes

Thirty Years On: March 1996

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By this time I’d been working not-quite-fulltime at the radio station, doing the morning shifts from 5:30am to noon, and also on Sunday afternoons to prep the religious programming on the AM station that still ran from dawn to dusk. I was on my own for the most part until the GM came in and nitpicked any slight errors I’d made. Let’s just say that she was one of those evangelicals that threw stones first and leave it at that, shall we? Anyway, it wasn’t the most exciting of jobs and as before, I was never on air, but it gave me time to play around with a few ideas. I revived my poetry and lyric writing, something I hadn’t done for a good year or so. I watched Sailor Moon on the station TV in the morning (this was when anime was finally becoming more popular and mainstream in the US instead of a niche thing). I read books and comics I’d been buying recently. I drew maps and comic ideas. Anything to get my mind moving instead of spiraling into self-pity.

This is when I’d come up with the idea of priming the creative pump, so to speak. While I was getting caught up on the Great Transcription Project, I was also playing around with various ideas longhand. We had scrap paper galore in the studio and I used it to let my mind come up with ideas. They didn’t have to go anywhere, it was just an exercise to get myself back into creative shape. I came up with about a dozen story ideas, none of which went anywhere in the long run, but the exercise did its job: I felt the creative spark reignite, and I was ready to start writing again.

I should also state that at this point, my then-gf (and cowriter on True Faith) and I had broken up though we did stay in touch, very occasionally meeting up with a few mutual friends to do things. I also met up with a few people via online New Age chatrooms and had a brief friendship with someone who gave me a lot of positive insight on my ideas that would eventually become a part of The Phoenix Effect in the future. So it wasn’t as if I’d cut myself off from the world; it was more that I felt a bit lost and trying to find my footing. These weren’t the most fulfilling of connections, but they were needed at the time and helped me stay out of that funk I’d been in a few months previous.

Lush, Lovelife, released 5 March 1996. The band’s last album before breaking up, it was also their most radio-friendly and popular, especially with the single “Ladykillers”. They still attained most of their dreampop/shoegaze sound, but it felt forced and overly polished to me, however.

Various Artists, WHORE: Tribute to Wire, released 5 March 1996. Around this time I’d started listening to my old standby college radio station, WAMH at Amherst College. I had to get used to the fact that they weren’t playing the post-punk-influenced alternative stuff I’d fallen in love with back in the 80s but was now fully immersed in indie rock that I was only vaguely resonating with. They’d play a few tracks off this one now and again, especially Band of Susan’s cover of the brilliant “Ahead”.

Stereolab, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, released 11 March 1996. I bought this one via Columbia House as I’d always liked them but never quite got around to ever buying anything from them! I’d heard “The Noise of Carpet” on 120 Minutes and that sold them for me. I still get the track stuck in my head now and again.

Cocteau Twins, Milk & Kisses, released 15 March 1996. Believe it or not, I wouldn’t own this for a good year or so! I was more of an early-era, pre-Heaven Or Las Vegas fan and felt their later work lacked the dreamlike sound I loved so much. It would end up being their final album as they would break up soon after.

The Beatles, Anthology 2, released 18 March 1996. I remember the ‘new’ Beatles single, “Real Love”, was supposed to drop on Valentines Day or thereabouts but got delayed, instead dropping a week or so before the second volume of the Anthology series. This one fascinates me, as it dials back the live and interstitial content that was prevalent on the first volume and focuses on the interesting alternate takes, like the trippy first take of “Tomorrow Never Knows”. At this point there was still a rumor that a third ‘new’ song would be on the third volume, but alas, time and technology kept that from happening.

Barenaked Ladies, Born On a Pirate Ship, released 19 March 1996. Before the hugely popular Stunt from 1998, this album opened the door much wider for this beloved Canadian band, with the single “The Old Apartment” getting major airplay on the radio over the next year or so.

Love and Rockets, Sweet FA, released 19 March 1996. Story goes that they’d recorded a significant portion of this album project when a fire consumed the studio they’d been working in. Guitars were burnt to a crisp (thus the album cover) and friend Genesis P-Orridge suffered injuries because of it, but in the end they soldiered on and came out with a sleek album that wasn’t quite a return to their psych rock origins or the techno of their previous album, and “Sweet Lover Hangover” became a radio favorite.

Tracy Bonham, The Burdens of Being Upright, released 19 March 1996. She’d become a local favorite in Boston with her indie-released The Liverpool Sessions EP, and for her major label debut she came out with guns blazing and several songs that became favorites on the local alternative stations like the blistering opener “Mother Mother”, the catchy “The One” and the oddball singalong “Sharks Can’t Sleep”. She’s still active as a musician and putting out her own works.

Superdrag, Regretfully Yours, released 26 March 1996. This band could be seen as a one hit wonder with its clever “Sucked Out” (a song about selling out, natch), but there’s a lot more going on with this band than just being a whiny Gen-Xer. They’re actually quite an excellent powerpop band worth checking out, and their amazing about-face with 1998’s Head Trip in Every Key (done specifically as an anti-“Sucked Out” album which did its job by having the label drop them soon after) is highly recommended.

Stone Temple Pilots, Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, released 26 March 1996. STP, on the other hand, seemed to be on the verge of self-immolation, as the first hints of Scott Weiland’s self-destructiveness came to the fore. This is a druggy haze of an album because of that. It’s not my favorite of theirs and a bit of a hard listen because it feels so sloppy, especially after the wonderful Purple from 1994, but it does have its finer moments like the above single that got a lot of play at the time.

Guided By Voices, Under the Bushes Under the Stars, released 26 March 1996. This is their ninth(?) album so I kind of gave up on trying to catch up with their work, but they finally resonated with me with the lovely “Official Ironmen Rally Song” single that got a lot of play not only on WAMH but on WHMP as well. I did get this song down on one of my radio source tapes somewhere, but it would be quite a few years more before I finally downloaded this album.

The Verve Pipe, Villains, released 26 March 1996. I immediately fell in love with this album not because of the ridiculously popular single “The Freshmen” but because of their other radio/video tracks “Photograph” and “Cup of Tea”, both of which would show up on one of my favorite mixtapes later in the year. It really is an amazing album, and Brian Vander Ark’s songwriting is at its highest here. I bought this one via Columbia House and played the hell out of it over the next several years, as it became one of my all-time favorite 90s records and became a frequent go-to for my writing sessions, especially when working on The Phoenix Effect and the Bridgetown Trilogy. I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.

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Coming up: The birth of the writing nook.

Thirty Years On: January-February 1996

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I remember how I started 1996: two friends and I had gone out to see Jumanji at a local theater on New Years Eve — and that, by the way, was also when I saw the teaser trailer for Independence Day for the first time and thought ‘HOLY CRAP I need to see this’ — and followed it up by heading over to someone’s house to play pool in the basement. Between the three of us, the past year had sucked major ass in varying ways. You’ve already heard the story of how I’d moved back in with my family after failing to stay in Boston. Suffice it to say, we’d been so thankful to get the hell out of 1995 that we ended up completely missing the clock ticking midnight until about a half hour after the fact. We just wanted it to be over.

I’d been lucky in that I was able to transfer from my job at Sony Theater in Somerville to the one in Leominster (although borrowing a car could be tricky), though that would only last a few months and end in late fall when I somehow had landed a job at the very same local radio station I’d worked at back in 1988. Same responsibilities: monitor the satellite feed, take the readings, play the local commercials, and play with/feed the cat that had been somewhat adopted by the station owners. And still get yelled at by the station manager when I messed up the most minor thing ever. I spent most of those slow hours working on the office PC continuing my Great Transcription Project, typing out (and in effect reliving) most of the juvenilia I’d written from my high school days up to the present. And maybe working on True Faith when I had a moment, though that one was suffering from writer’s block and massive rewrites. And somewhere in all of that, I’d get out of the massive debt I was in.

But on a somewhat positive note, I’d managed to reconnect with that high school friend who also lived in town, and we often went on road trips, mainly to drive around, smoke, listen to a lot of music, and make half-assed plans to move out to Ohio where one of our mutual friends lived at the time.

It wasn’t the best of times, but it was certainly a step in the right direction.

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Cibo Matto, Viva! La Woman, released 16 January 1996. This was an early Columbia House purchase when I chose to rejoin, partly because I thought this was a good way to keep in touch with the music I liked. I didn’t listen to it nearly as much as I thought I would but I did like the “Sugar Water” single a lot.

Radiohead, “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” single, released 22 January 1996. The last single from their brilliant 1995 album The Bends — an album said friend and I would constantly listen to in the car — and the ssong seemed to perfectly encapsulate our moods at the time: it absolutely sucked that we were stuck where we were but we looked forward to the positive moments.

Tori Amos, Boys for Pele, released 23 January 1996. Tori’s music had always had that element of odd quirkiness, but this particular record really went in a strange direction, not to mention that it’s a super long one as well. Still, I did appreciate what she was doing and actually liked this one quite a bit.

Stabbing Westward, Wither Blister Burn & Peel, released 23 January 1996. I’d been a passive fan of their first album, but this was the one that really captured my interest. WHMP — the alternative station out of Northampton that we both listened to at the time — played “What Do I Have to Do?” quite heavily, enough that I ended up getting this one through Columbia House as well. This would soon become a frequent writing session album in a few months, once I finally owned my own PC and moved it down to the basement.

Ministry, Filth Pig, released 30 January 1996. I was at odds with this album, because it didn’t quite feel like the Ministry I used to love. It felt like they’d stayed in the ‘less industrial, more metal’ direction they’d explored with Psalm 69. I never played this one all that much, but I did appreciate their oddball cover of Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay”.

Voice of the Beehive, Sex & Misery, released 12 February 1996. This was their last album, but it was a great way to go! They’d gone from jangle pop to Britpop-infused rhythms to sugary dance rock here, and it’s super fun. “Scary Kisses” got a lot of play on WHMP at the time.

Gin Blossoms, Congratulations I’m Sorry, released 13 February 1996. After their extremely popular debut, they came extremely close to knocking it out of the park a second time with this sophomore album. It wasn’t as popular, but it does contain the big single “Follow You Down” which still gets played a lot. I was always a bigger fan of the other single “Day Job” which seems to be forgotten these days.

Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Come Find Yourself, released 20 February 1996. There were a lot of one hit wonders in the mid 90s, and this was a big one, partly because of its clever use of sampling multiple Quentin Tarantino movies. It’s actually a fun album, and they’d show up a few years later with a banger track on the Titan AE soundtrack.

Goldfinger, Goldfinger, released 21 February 1996. I’d say partial thanks to the success of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, the pop-punk-ska hybrid did really well around this time, with several bands coming up with radio hits, like “Here in Your Bedroom”. They had a couple of really great albums in the 90s that I owned.

Brainiac, Hissing Prigs in Static Couture, released 26 February 1996. This was a favorite of the friend I mentioned above, and my reaction was: what if Ween decided to sound like Jon Spencer Blues Explosion? Weird half-assed punk infused with blues and heavily filtered through distortion. It’s not an easy listen, but it is a fascinating one.

The Refreshments, Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy, released 27 February 1996. Yet another one hit wonder with the extremely catchy singalong-able “Banditos”. This one got a lot of play in the late 90s and probably still shows up on (ugh I’m old) “songs from the 80s, 90s and today” stations. Silly light-hearted fun.

Cowboy Junkies, Lay It Down, released 27 February 1996. This band had somewhat fallen off the radar for a few years after their brilliant Trinity Session album, and this was a surprising switch to a more radio-friendly Adult Alternative sound, and “A Common Disaster” was an unexpected hit for them.

Bad Religion, The Gray Race, released 27 February 1996. How do you follow up with an unexpectedly popular album like Stranger Than Fiction? By staying true to your goals like Gregg Graffin would, coming out with another banger punk album. It only got some minor airplay with “A Walk” and some of the band felt they phoned it in, but despite that it’s a fan favorite.

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Coming up: future plans, writing goals, unexpected inspirations, and the start of the solo road trips

The Boston Years Continued: Slacker Central, Part XXXII

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I’ve told this story before: I started the summer with the best of intentions, and I even had a solid plan that I was putting into place: when Z moved out, one of my friends from college (who’d been looking to move back to Boston) would take his place as roommate. I was even thinking maybe I could find some freelance writing work somewhere, even if I started at the bottom. (Hell, I even tried my hand at writing a short story to see if I could sell it.)

Unfortunately, it all completely unraveled at once in the latter half of the month: the short story was a terrible mess, the freelance work was thin on the ground, I was getting even deeper in debt and our phone got cut off, and to top it off, my potential roommate had a falling out with Z when they crossed paths and he ragequit the idea all too quickly.

That’s pretty much the point where I finally gave up. I said fuck it, you’ve defeated me. I’m done. I made alternate plans: I talked to my boss at the theater and had him put in a good word at another one closer to my hometown so I’d at least have a job waiting for me. I started packing things up, throwing things out, and making plans to head home.

I don’t think I was as emotionally in the crapper as I was a few years previous when I left college, but my self-confidence definitely took a deep hit. I was more pissed off than depressed, to be honest. I made another plan with best intentions: I’d live at home for maybe six months or a year, and turn it around.

I had to start over. Again.

Whale, We Care, released 1 August 1995. This oddball Swedish band was hard to pin down; were they techno? Were they alternative? Were they just a mashup of bizarre noises and lyrics? Their one hit, the infectious and noisy “Hobo Humpin Slobo Babe” made no sense at all, but it’s definitely a 90s classic.

Letters to Cleo, Wholesale Meats and Fish, released 1 August 1995. This Boston band’s second album was an unexpected turn in a harder and punkier direction may have surprised some fans, but its raw energy made it a super fun album to listen to on a hot summer day, especially with the catchy “Awake” single.

Ben Folds Five, Ben Folds Five, released 8 August 1995. I wouldn’t hear of this band for maybe another month or so, but I was absolutely sold by the single “Underground” which was an absolutely hilarious pisstake on all things indie in the 90s. Once I bought the cd — from Folds himself when a friend and I saw him live in Northampton in January 1996 — it became one of my frequent go-to albums for several months afterwards.

Blur, “Country House” single and Oasis, “Roll with It” single, released 15 August 1995. These are bound together by fate and music history as the singles that turned the tide of Britpop…mainly due to all the UK music papers pitting the two against each other as the Ultimate Showdown. Which would hit number one on the charts first, the light and goofy Blur track with the Benny Hill pastiche video, or the bluesy and rocking Oasis song? Personally I thought the Oasis song was better (and I think (What’s the Story) Morning Glory is a better album than The Great Escape), but the Blur track was clearly the winner on the charts.

Garbage, Garbage, released 15 August 1995. The debut album is released and it blows almost everyone’s minds with its brilliance. Butch Vig has always been a great producer having helmed Nirvana’s Nevermind, but this band was his deliberate about-face: he wanted to take what he’d known in the early 90s and push it in a completely new direction. The result is dark, foreboding, sexy, humorous, and absolutely epic in sound and scope. It’s a hell of a great start for a band that’s been going strong ever since. Highly recommended.

Blind Melon, Soup, released 15 August 1995. The band’s last album, dropped mere months before lead singer Shannon Hoon’s death, doesn’t quite hit the same heights as their self-titled debut, but it does something unexpected: it leans heavily on the funk grooves and the exciting melodies that made that same first album so wonderful past their ubiquitious “No Rain” single.

Rancid, …And Out Come the Wolves, released 17 August 1995. One of the several East Bay punk bands of the 90s (its members were once part of the influential Operation Ivy), this particular group helped reintroduce the classic punk style to alternative radio in that decade, influencing even more punk revival bands in the process. Their third album was a surprise success with three big singles, including the skank-heavy “Time Bomb”, which still gets play to this day.

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Next up: One life over, another one beginning.

The Boston Years Continued: Slacker Central, Part XXX

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The summer movie season begins at the Somerville Sony Theatre, which means a constantly packed building, which means a mountain of dropped popcorn and forgotten drink cups to clean up quickly after each show. [Hint: Use an electric leaf blower at the back row and it all tumbles down to the front, making it quicker and easier to sweep and toss.] It also means me staying after shift several nights a week to watch all the exciting new films dropping, sometimes multiple viewings. Because why the hell not? D was back home and I had nothing better to do.

I did a lot of walking that summer as well. There were a few evenings where I’d missed the last Orange Line T into town and would have to walk back to Allston. That was intriguing in itself, because I’d never been a long distance walker before, and my apartment was about three miles away. I did it, though, and multiple times.

But what I did most that time was start the Great Transcription Project. I’ve mentioned this many times before, and this was where it all began for me as a writer using a PC. I’d always written longhand in the past, and having uninterrupted use of one for an entire summer was an enticement I could not pass up. But where to start…? I decided that perhaps I should start from the beginning? Or a beginning, at any rate. I’d transcribed my poems and lyrics a few years earlier on typewriter, but this was where I went one further and started transcribing my juvenilia: the Infamous War Novel, Belief in Fate, the several abandoned ideas, and what the hell, a cleaner version of the poems again! I had a ton of time when I wasn’t at work, so I got some 3″ floppies from my sister and set about working. [And yes, even then I had a PC distraction: I taught myself how to properly play solitaire, and played several hands before, during and after writing sessions.]

I also played around with Bridgetown a bit more. Even though True Faith took place in a different city named NewCanta (which is mentioned in passing several times in the Bridgetown Trilogy), I knew I wanted to return to this other city as well. Whether it would be in this novel or elsewhere was unknown at this point. One summer afternoon I expanded on a map of the city I’d drawn back in the Shoebox for Vigil, and I’d often refer to that one while writing outtakes and ideas.

Mixtape, Untitled VI, created June 1995. This by far is one of my favorite mixtapes I’d made during the Boston Years, and it got a hell of a lot of play on my Walkman. It’s mostly a mix of recent songs in my collection and stuff taped off the radio, and all of them songs I knew would fit perfectly on a summer mix. I also love the fact that each side ends with bizarre short songs. [When I first got a CDW drive for my own PC during the Belfry years, this was the first mix I remade onto CD, adding several extra tracks from the same era.]

U2, “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” single, released 5 June 1995. I remember hearing this for the first time on WBCN, as the band was close friends with the DJ Carter Alan who’d championed them way back in the early 80s, and had given him the track as a world premiere. It’s a fascinating and wild track that contains the noisy style of Achtung Baby but with a more experimental sound, something they’d expand on a short while later on their Passengers side project.

Soundtrack, Batman Forever, released 6 June 1995. The U2 song was of course from this soundtrack…which also contained what would become Seal’s biggest ever hit, “Kiss from a Rose”. I have to admit this was my favorite of the 90s Batman movies because it chose not to take itself seriously at all, yet avoids the corniness of the 60s show. I must have seen this movie at least four or five times that summer.

Catherine Wheel, Happy Days, released 6 June 1995. This band’s third album may not have hit the heights that Ferment and Chrome did with their classic singles, but it’s mostly because they’d moved away from the trippy dreampop of those albums and focused more on harder alt-rock. The single “Waydown” is wild and weird, but it’s the lovely “Judy Staring at the Sun” which features Tanya Donelly that got them major radio play.

Soul Asylum, Let Your Dim Light Shine, released 6 June 1995. While not as popular as Grave Dancers Union from a few years previous, this did contain the single “Misery” which got quite a lot of play that summer. This was a band that was heading the same direction as Goo Goo Dolls, becoming less punk and more AOR.

Jennifer Trynin, Cockamamie, released 13 June 1995. A local guitarist and a burgeoning desktop publisher, she had a minor hit with the quirky and fun “Better Than Nothing” on WFNX and WBCN. She had a very short but interesting solo career but has popped up over the years as a session musician. Well worth checking out.

Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill, released 13 June 1995. I remember hearing “You Oughta Know” on WFNX while taking the T home one afternoon and thinking damn, this is the kind of pissed off attitude that’s missing in alternative rock these days. [I mean, it was there, it was just that it had become solely owned by the alt-metal bands starting to come out.] I signed onto this one pretty quickly and constantly listened to this album that summer.

Jill Sobule, Jill Sobule, released 13 June 1995. I was already familiar with her music by this time, having seen her opening up for Joe Jackson back in 1991 for her Things Here Are Different album, but this was the breakthrough she had with the classic and funny “I Kissed a Girl”.

Bjork, Post, released 13 June 1995. I was a bit late in buying this one, getting it from Columbia House a few months later, but I loved it once I had it. It’s probably my favorite of her solo records, not quite as quirky as Debut and not as weird as her later work. “Hyperballad” has also become my favorite of her songs.

The Verve, A Northern Soul, released 20 June 1995. A few years before their ubiquitous single “Bittersweet Symphony”, this was a minor hit on alternative radio, showcasing their more swirly Stones-y Britpop sound. “This Is Music” got a bit of play here and there at the time.

Ben Lee, Grandpaw Would, released 22 June 1995. So how do you react to a sixteen year old who writes damn catchy indie pop…for a solo career after breaking up his previous band? Aside from oh god I’m old, I mean, heh. “Pop Queen” got a bit of minor play.

The Chemical Brothers, Exit Planet Dust, released 26 June 1995. This duo’s first album was so groundbreaking it blew away so many other electronic bands at the time. It’s a perfect blend of blissed-out rave, creative sampling, and surprisingly catchy melodies. Like Fatboy Slim soon after, this was a band made for the dance floor that also work just fine coming out of your speakers at home. Highly recommended.

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Next up: A strict deadline, just to see if I can do it. [Spoilers: I do! With time to spare!]

The Boston Years Continued: Slacker Central, Part XXIX

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May was the month of Best Laid Plans, I suppose. With D moving back home for the summer, we agreed that it would be a great idea if I held onto her PC until she came back in autumn. That would give me the impetus to work on True Faith when I had time off from work. That wouldn’t happen until the end of the month, however. In the meantime, I’d moved my pallet bed from the window across the room and put my desk up next to it, just like I had in college, and made it a point to work there as much as possible. I think it was also about this time that Z had started making plans to move out at the end of the summer to San Francisco. This meant that I would either need to find a new roommate or make alternate plans once again, and it wasn’t something I wanted to think of right now.

In the meantime, life went on at the theater and at home. I’d started a collection of movie posters that I’d snag after the run was over and put up on my own wall. I also decided that maybe I should thin out my music collection a bit and see if I can get some extra money from it. Alas, that went about how you’d expect — far less cash than I’d hoped — but every little bit helped.

But damn it all, I did not want to move back home. I wanted to stay in Boston. I needed to stay in Boston, one way or another.

The Apples in Stereo, Fun Trick Noisemaker, released 2 May 1995. I think it was about this time I’d heard about the Elephant 6 Recording Company — a lose collective of several bands including this one with a love for 60 bubblegum pop — and they’d amassed a cult following with this album and others.

Soundtrack, Rob Roy, released 2 May 1995. One of many movies out this year focused on British history (real and otherwise) that were all quite enjoyable. I really liked the soundtrack for this one and would eventually get it on cassette.

Tracy Bonham, The Liverpool Sessions EP, released 7 May 1995. An Oregonian taking up residence in the Boston area thanks to Brett Milano from The Boston Phoenix, she had a sizeable following in the area and WFNX had her on constant rotation with “Dandelion” and an early version of “The One”. This EP would help her get signed to a major the following year.

Filter, Short Bus, released 8 May 1995. a Nine Inch Nails-adjacent band (singer-guitarist Richard Patrick was NIN’s touring guitarist for a few years), they may not have been as desperately dark as them but they certainly were just as loud and aggressive. The single “Hey Man, Nice Shot” was a huge hit despite its creepy inspiration, and continued to have a measure of success for years afterwards.

Supergrass, I Should Coco, released 15 May 1995. On a much lighter note, we had these three goofballs recording irresistibly fun and very British pop and had a major hit with their single “Alright”, which still gets a lot of play to this day. It’s a super fun album, and the rest of their discography is just as amazing.

Pulp, “Common People” single, released 22 May 1995. A teaser single for this band’s upcoming album, it became their most famous song and in my opinion one of the best “fuck rich people” songs ever written. The band has created a brilliant song with a super catchy and upbeat sound counterpointing Jarvis Cocker’s snide lyrics. One of the best songs of the 90s.

Soundtrack, Braveheart, released 23 May 1995. Another movie steeped in British history (real and otherwise), it gave Mel Gibson a much needed career boost, even if the story played fast and loose with actual facts. The soundtrack was highly acclaimed and still gets the occasional play on classical stations!

Low, Long Division, released 23 May 1995. One of their best early albums, although it took me a few years to catch up to that fact! This may not have gotten all that much airplay on stations like WFNX, but the college stations loved it.

Moonpools and Caterpillars, Lucky Dumpling, released 23 May 1995. I always got the song “Hear” mixed up with Letters to Cleo, and perhaps that’s why this band didn’t quite get the levels of success that LtC did, but it’s a fun album full of bubblegummy alternapop worth checking out.

Everclear, Sparkle and Fade, released 23 May 1995. This breakthrough for the band, their first on a major label, contained some of their best and well known songs like “Santa Monica” (which still gets radio play these days). Art Alexakis’ ‘therapy on public display’ lyric style might be a bit much for some, but it’s a great album despite that.

Soundtrack, Johnny Mnemonic, released 26 May 1995. Believe it or not, this movie was a huge influence on my writing True Faith. Sort of based on a William Gibson short story, directed by visual artist Robert Longo and cast with several unexpected names like Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, Ice-T, Henry Rollins and Takeshi Kitano, it’s a glorious mess but it’s also a hell of a lot of fun and is surprisingly creative in its own way. It’s a really great soundtrack as well.

God Lives Underwater, God Lives Underwater EP, released 31 May 1995. This band’s single “No More Love” played at the end credits of the above movie, which definitely helped get their name out there. This band was a fascinating industrial/synth/alt-metal band that sounded more like KMFDM than Ministry and while they were only around for a few years, their discography is full of great and impressively creative sounds.

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Next up: In which the Great Transcription Project begins, and Bridgetown gets a major upgrade.

The Boston Years Continued: Slacker Central, Part XXVIII

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By this time I was spending a lot of down time at work — that is, staying after my shift to watch the new films coming out. D was finishing up her own semester as Emerson and making plans to head back home for the summer, so we hung out when and where we could, whether it was at her dorm room (the last time I’d visit Charlesgate at that) or at my apartment. We talked a lot about what we wanted True Faith to be — sometimes argued about it as well — and worked on it when and where we could. The clock was ticking down and once again I’d be on my own.

This time, I wasn’t about to spiral into yet another one of my moods if I could help it.

Guided By Voices, Alien Lanes, released 4 April 1995. This was a band I’d always hear about but rarely ever hear on the radio except for the occasional rare play of a single or a deep cut. “Motor Away” caught on here and there, however, and this album ended up on many critics’ best-of lists.

KMFDM, Nihil, released 4 April 1995. This was one of the first bands I’d heard that revived that industrial techno sound that did so well in Europe, turned up the volume and the speed, and made it the soundtrack to several movies based on video games. “Juke Joint Jezebel” was featured on the wonderfully terrible Mortal Kombat.

The Dandy Warhols, Dandys Rule OK, released 6 April 1995. The first Dandys album is definitely grittier than their follow-up albums that would get more attention and airplay. Their pop sensibilities are already to the fore here, however.

White Zombie, Astro Creep: 2000, released 11 April 1995. Whenever “More Human Than Human” came on WFNX, I’d turn it up loud because it demands it. It’s such a badass song and its constant play helped give singer Rob Zombie the attention to go solo soon after.

Hum, You’d Prefer an Astronaut, released 11 April 1995. Another track worth turning up loud, “Stars” was such a great tune for the summer. This band took the sound of grunge and turned it into something palatable to cross-genre radio, and the album ended up a cult favorite of many. Well worth checking out.

Oasis, “Some Might Say” single, released 24 April 1995. A teaser single for the new album, this one sounded heavier and less glam than their previous singles. There was a buzz going on that this next album would be one of their best, and I couldn’t wait.

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Next up: Alone again and finding inspiration…and looking back

The Boston Years Continued: Slacker Central, Part XXVII

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Life continued apace at the Brighton Ave apartment, though I’m pretty sure the connection between Z and I would get strained at times. Between him practicing his keyboard at all hours of the night (he was also an extremely loud foot-tapper when he played, so there was also that thunk thunk thunk when he really got into the groove), and my barely making enough money to pay for a lot of the bills and the occasional actual food cooked in the apartment, we’d irritate each other quite often. Not enough for any loud arguments, because I’d do my usual hide-in-the-bedroom when things got stressful.

I mean, at the time I’d like to think I wasn’t feeling depressed or desperate like I had at the Shoebox apartment, and I was in a slightly better mood with a steady job and a girlfriend, but to be honest things could have been a lot better. I knew they could, I was just too damn broke and in debt to achieve it.

Which is pretty much why around this time I started hyperfocusing on my writing. Not on the daily just yet, but getting there. The first thing I had to do was remain focused on whatever project I was working on instead of sliding all over the place at whim.

Plus, March provided me with one hell of a great soundtrack.

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Annie Lennox, Medusa, released 6 March 1995. Annie’s second solo album is one of covers, and this too ended up a big hit for her, especially with the lovely version of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” which also ended up playing during the closing credits of the Sandra Bullock film The Net — one of many computer-themed movies that would come out that summer, many of which would partly inspire the AI subplot of True Faith.

Radiohead, The Bends, released 13 March 1995. The last thing this band wanted to do was record another “Creep” so they headed in an all new direction with this stellar record that really is worth all the accolades it’s received over the years. It’s full of tension, irritation, delicacy and tenderness, an album with equal parts anger and love. Highly recommended. I got this one via Columbia House at some point and played the hell out of it for several years afterwards, it becoming a major mainstay in the Belfry writing sessions.

Matthew Sweet, 100% Fun, released 14 March 1995. After the dense and odd Altered Beast, Sweet returned with a sunshiney pop album that’s full of fun and addictive melodies. “Sick of Myself” was the big radio hit at the time.

Goo Goo Dolls, A Boy Named Goo, released 14 March 1995. A few years before their major breakthrough “Iris”, this album gave them the ability to open that door and head on through. It’s a great album that carries a hint of their former punkish roots but also hints at the stellar songwriting they’d be known for in the future.

Mad Season, Above, released 14 March 1995. A sort-of supergroup with Layne Staley from Alice in Chains and Mike McCready from Pearl Jam, their one album could have been a by the numbers PNW grunge album but instead they took the tenderest and most introspective parts of their own bands and created a lovely record worth owning. Highly recommended.

Collective Soul, Collective Soul, released 14 March 1995. Hardly anyone expected this band’s second album to hit the heights that it did, considering their first album was good but not entirely memorable. This album, on the other hand, just kept on kicking out one hit single after the next, with “December”, “Gel”, “Smashing Young Man”, “Where the River Flows” and “The World I Know”. This too would end up getting major Belfry writing session play in the early years. It’s well worth checking out.

Moby, Everything Is Wrong, released 14 March 1995. Moby had been known in the electronic genre a bit of an oddball who made shockingly lush music that could easily be used as movie scores, and this was the record that captured many people’s attention.

Garbage, “Vow” single, released 20 March 1995. I of course knew who Butch Vig was due to his several high-status album productions like Nevermind, and I’d expected his own band to be just as great, and I was not let down. This single introduced many people to their unique sound — not quite grunge, not quite commercial alternative, but just as heavy and hella sexy.

Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, brainbloodvolume, released 21 March 1995. This band’s final album is often overlooked and forgotten as their previous album Are You Normal hadn’t done all that well either, but this became one of my favorite albums of that summer when I’d found a promo copy on cassette. It’s an album worth listening to at top volume, as it’s absolutely overflowing with energy and spirit. Every time I heard “All I Ask of Myself Is That I Hold Together” on WFNX I’d crank it up. Well worth a listen.

Our Lady Peace, Naveed, released 21 March 1995. This band, like fellow Canadians Moist, wouldn’t get that much attention around this time, but this one’s a great opening salvo for the group. Their own brand of alternative rock was twitchy yet introspective at the same time.

Joan Osborne, Relish, released 21 March 1995. Joan’s debut owes a lot to the Laurel Canyon folk and rock of the 70s, but she manages to update that sound into something fresh and fun, inserting an element of Bonnie Raitt-like blues into the mix. You’ll still hear “One of Us” on the radio, but the lovely “St. Theresa” and the sexy “Right Hand Man” is also worth checking out.

Morphine, Yes, released 21 March 1995. This band drops another album full of their unique sound of sparse and bassy blues rock, and it was a big hit on the Boston stations, especially with the single “Honey White”.

Elastica, Elastica, released 24 March 1995. Yes, I’m still annoyed all these years later that they shamelessly stole from Wire’s “Three Girl Rhumba” for their biggest hit. Primarily because “Connection” got so much airplay and the first several times I heard it my reaction was ‘wow, they’re playing an obscure Wire tra–oh, wait.” That said, this is a surprisingly catchy and fun album that actually was worth all the attention it got.

Silverchair, Frogstomp, released 27 March 1995. I believe this was first band that gave me the feeling that I’d waited far too long to start a music career, heh. For a teenage trio, this album is frighteningly intense and superbly crafted from start to finish. They of course ended up on my ‘will buy anything from them’ list.

Soundtrack, Tank Girl, released 28 March 1995. I was excited about this movie, considering I was quite aware of Jamie Hewlett’s bonkers comic book about a trigger-happy punk girl living in the outback and hanging with mutant kangaroos. It was ‘what if the apocalypse was bizarre and hilarious instead of all doom and gloom?’ Sadly the movie didn’t quite capture it, having been severely watered down to be palatable to the normies, but it was a lot of fun and I sat through it several times after work. The soundtrack is amazing, however, featuring fantastic tracks from Bjork, Bush, Portishead, Belly, and a goofy cover of “Let’s Do it (Let’s Fall in Love)” with Joan Jett and Paul Westerberg.

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Coming up: Coming to a close, making some decisions.

The Boston Years Continued: Slacker Central, Part XXVI

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In classic Gen Xer fashion, my life went into a comfortable if financially strapped stasis for the time being. In other words, this will do until something better comes along, which usually meant staying in that mode until further notice because a) employment choices weren’t all that great then, and b) being given that bit of a mental and emotional reprieve was better than being in constant desperation. When I wasn’t with D and I wasn’t working, I was at the apartment on Brighton Ave, listening to WFNX and WBCN and keeping myself entertained one way or another, renting videos from Tower Records now and again, and playing around with story ideas. Two Thousand would resurface now and again, and so would the Infamous War Novel, but they wouldn’t stay for long.

I also continued on my reading kick, something I hadn’t done in ages. It was about this time that I picked up a three-in-one reprint of the first three Robotech novels, which I enjoyed. I read a few more Stephen King novels, and maybe a few things that I’d take out of the Boston Public Library.

But mostly I remember staying after my shift to watch movies. Some of them were super enjoyable, some were absolutely terrible, but it kept me occupied and I got free food out of it!

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PJ Harvey, “Down By the Water” single, released 6 February 1995. This teaser single was such a massive hit when it dropped that it still gets played on alt-rock radio to this day. I remember the theater I worked at — which had acquired the Sony brand at this point — played this a lot in between movies on its Sony-branded music feed.

Slowdive, Pygmalion, released 6 February 1995. This one came and went super quick, and it’s not your typical shoegaze record from this band. It’s more ambient electronica than anything else, but it’s a fascinating album on its own.

Extreme, Waiting for the Punchline, released 7 February 1995. Being that they were pretty much a local Boston band, I’d hear “Hip Today” on WBCN quite a bit, even though it’s not one of their big hits. This was their last album for a good number of years, while guitarist Nuno Bettencourt went solo and Gary Cherone hung out with Van Halen.

Fury in the Slaughterhouse, The Hearing and the Sense of Balance, released 13 February 1995. This German band may not have gotten a lot of notice aside from a few of their alt-rock radio hits like this track (which got a lot of WFNX play), but they’re still around and rocking strong. One of my favorite tracks of the year.

The Tragically Hip, Day for Night, released 14 February 1995. This is the one with one of their biggest hits, the simple yet gorgeous “Grace, Too”, which I remember MuchMusic playing quite a bit. It took a few years before I’d finally get this one during my HMV years, but it remains one of my favorite tracks of theirs.

The The, Hanky Panky, released 14 February 1995. Matt Johnson’s album of Hank Williams covers might have been a head-scratcher for many fans — including me — but it’s a surprisingly solid record, showing just how deep Johnson’s influences went.

Belly, King, released 14 February 1995. The second and then-last Belly album saw Tanya Donelly continuing her wave of shimmering and poppy alt-rock, though this one feels a bit darker, as if she’d chosen to include just a dash of her Throwing Muses chops in there for good measure. “Super-Connected’ was one of my favorite tracks of the year.

Tricky, Maxinquaye, released 20 February 1995. I wouldn’t hear this one all that much on the radio unless I was listening to one of WFNX’s specialty shows, but I’d hear “Overcome” soon on the Strange Days soundtrack, which would become one of my favorites later in the year. I remember it getting a lot of critical accolades at the time. Not bad for a debut!

Radiohead, “High and Dry” single, released 27 February 1995. After the oddness of their My Iron Lung EP from late 1994, this second teaser single for their upcoming album was a lot more radio friendly, and became a long-standing alt-rock staple. They made two videos for this one: a more straightforward one that I’d posted here, and a surprisingly MTV-friendly one full of saturated colors and a weird plot-line involving a car bomb.

PJ Harvey, To Bring You My Love, released 27 February 1995. This was essentially her breakthrough record after a few great but uncommercial records. She never got rid of or towned down the aura of weirdness that she’d been known for, but in writing more radio-ready tracks, her fanbase expanded considerably.

Mike Watt, Ball-Hog or Tugboat?, released 28 February 1995. After the breakup of fIREHOSE, Watt chose to continue working on several side projects, including this solo debut filled with cameos from Evan Dando, Eddie Vedder, Frank Blank, Mark Lanegan,Dave Pirner, and more. It’s a wild and often hilarious album worth checking out.

Better Than Ezra, Deluxe, released 28 February 1995. This was an amazing debut for this band, showcasing their stellar songwriting and ability to create catchy and hooky alt-rock tunes. “In the Blood” is a great driving track, and “Good” is the singalong that still gets played ot this day. Highly recommended.

Jewel, Pieces of You, released 28 February 1995. A busker from Alaska? Sure, why not? She came out of nowhere with the lovely and delicate “Who Will Save Your Soul” that first got play on alternative radio but soon spread everywhere, becoming one of the biggest selling albums of the 90s.

Del Amitri, Twisted, released 28 February 1995. Another breakthrough, albeit somewhat minor, was this band’s fourth album with the insanely catchy “Roll to Me” single that became one of their biggest hits, even with the ridiculously terrible video that the band themselves have always hated. It’s a great record and worth checking out.

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Up next: Springtime comes and so do the classic albums