Tag Archives: favorite albums

(Almost) Thirty Years On: April 1997

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There’s something to be said about finally finding your groove. So much stress and anxiety finally recedes into the background where you don’t need to constantly worry that it’ll come back to bite you in the ass when you’re not paying attention. HMV was the first job in ages where I wasn’t jumping ship, getting axed or finding it’s a terrible fit after six months, which meant that I could finally focus on what I wanted to focus on and not worry as much about the bills. It meant that I could allow myself a deeper focus on the writing and a calmer approach to life. Hell, I’d even started assisting in the ordering of stock by then, as my boss trusted me and appreciated my input. It was the first time in years where I didn’t feel like I was scrambling and flailing.

And I think one can see the difference in what I wrote at the time. While still a rough draft, it’s so much better than the work I was doing on my previous now-trunked works. I’d stumbled upon a style that resonated with me and I wanted to see how far I could go with it, and now I had the ability to make that happen.

Our Lady Peace, Clumsy, released 2 April 1997. The Canadian band’s second album was a huge hit in their own country but also a surprise hit here in the States with the two major singles, the snaky “Superman’s Dead” and the ballad “Clumsy”. It was a big seller at my store and even made it to the best-of wall at the end of the year. This one got a lot of play during my writing sessions as well.

The Chemical Brothers, Dig Your Own Hole, released 7 April 1997. It took forever, but when the new album dropped it was HUGE. You heard the new single “Block Rockin’ Beats” everywhere, all the time, to the point that maybe it was a little oversaturated, but it was such an amazing record it surpassed Exit Planet Dust in terms of popularity. The duo seemed to have found their niche, cleverly mixing electronic and analog sounds, and occasionally providing guest vocals, and the fans ate it up. It ended up on several year-end lists and still remains one of their most popular albums.

Sleater-Kinney, Dig Me Out, released 8 April 1997. Their first for the Kill Rock Stars label and the first with drummer Janet Weiss, you can tell that they went all out for this one. Loud, raucous, and full of heartbreak, it was a highly successful release for the college and alternative stations. This was one of my boss’ favorite albums of the year and he’d often play it out on the sales floor.

Depeche Mode, Ultra, released 14 April 1997. After a tumultuous couple of years, the band came back with an album that channeled both their old-school dark-themed style and their newer heavier sound. It’s a perfect fit and the record is one of my all-time favorites of theirs. This is one of the first albums I added to the ‘MU Legacy Soundtrack’ list — albums that I’d frequently come back to throughout my writing of the trilogy and its various versions over the years. It’s still my favorite of the 90s DM albums, even more so than Violator.

Soundtrack, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, released 15 April 1997. I went to this movie thinking that it was either going to be really funny or painfully repetitious and unfunny (as SNL skits tend to be for me), but I was pleasantly surprised by its ability to absolutely nail it as a loving pastiche of mid-60s Mod, yet still be absurdly silly at the same time. The end-credits music video of Austin’s band Ming Tea (Mike Myers, Suzanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet) was a perfect way to cap it all off.

Supergrass, In It for the Money, released 21 April 1997. It took me a while to grow into this album, as I’d only been a passing fan of their debut I Should Coco, but once I did, I was a fan thereafter. I’m pretty sure it was the lovely and Beatlesque “Late in the Day” (and its clever video) that caught my attention in the first place. It has a very autumnal sound, quieter and calmer than their debut and far more adventurous. This was another album that my boss loved and pushed on the sales floor.

Scud Mountain Boys, The Early Year, released 21 April 1997. I knew about this local (Northampton) band from listening to WAMH in the mid 90s, and this was a reissue of their first two albums that dropped in 1995. Their quiet alt-country sound fit in perfectly not only with the indie crowd but seemed to capture the sound of woodsy midwestern Massachusetts as well. Their cover of “Wichita Lineman” is absolutely stunning and is my favorite version of the song. This was another album that got a lot of play in the back room as well as during my writing sessions.

Delerium, Karma, released 22 April 1997. A side project of Rhys Fulber of Front Line Assembly, this band could have been just another Enigma copycat yet somehow broke through on the chillwave circuit with the gloriously lovely “Silence” single with Sarah McLachlan on vocals. The rest of the album is just as wonderful and ended up on my year-end favorites list; it was also another MU Legacy Soundtrack that got a lot of play over the next several years.

Future Bible Heroes, Memories of Love, released 29 April 1997. I remember first hearing the song “Lonely Days” on The River, an Adult Alternative station out of Andover MA, while driving home from work one night and immediately falling in love with its not-quite-retro sound. One of several side projects of Stephin Merritt (he of The Magnetic Fields among other things) and including vocalist Claudia Gonson and ex-Figures On a Beach musician Chris Ewen, Their indie pop sound manages to capture that early 80s synthpop style with oddball self-conscious lyricism (a Merritt hallmark) and catchy melodies. This would get a lot of play as well, and is of course an MU Legacy Soundtrack.

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Coming Up: In which a new writing project finally gets its own mixtape

(Almost) Thirty Years On: March 1997

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The mind is elastic, as they say. Sometimes you end up misremembering things, or you’re absolutely certain something happened in this order when it actually happened differently. If you look at the timestamp I wrote on the very first page of The Phoenix Effect, it says 3/7/97, 10:30pm. I almost always timestamped my longhand work, something I’ve done since the early days of the Infamous War Novel back in 1984, so it’s not as if I was making it up. Now, this goes completely against my firm belief that I started writing that novel in the food court at Solomon Pond Mall before my shift started.

Now, maybe I did, and the first attempt is full of scratch-outs and mistakes, and later on that evening I started over. Or maybe I actually did start writing it that evening and then started writing in the food court thereafter. Either way, it’s almost thirty years ago and unless I have any other notes, I’ll have to guess that it’s one of those because it’s all a bit fuzzy now.

ANYWAY! The important thing here is that I started a new novel in March of 1997 after finally deciding to trunk True Faith once and for all, and my aim here was to see if I could pull it off. I hadn’t completed a novel in years, and I was getting frustrated with myself for having all these unfinished and abandoned ideas gathering dust in crates in the boiler room in the basement. I still wanted to write this futuristic sci-fi idea, this spark that had appeared in 1993 and had never gone out. And now I had the time, a clear mind, a steady job and a computer to work on it.

Next thing was to start amassing the soundtrack I’d be listening to while writing it.

U2, Pop, released 3 March 1997. I remember the PolyGram Distribution rep being extremely let down by this album and really not doing much at all to push it to my boss Tom. U2 had become a band where you expected excellence and ever-increasing originality with every album, and that never works with any band at all. Me, however? I loved it! Sure, it’s not as grandiose as Achtung Baby or intriguing as Zooropa, and even the band members themselves admit that it’s a rushed project that should have had more time spent on it (they had to rush as another ridiculously huge tour was on the horizon). Personally I think this is when the “it’s cool to hate U2” really started. Regardless, I played the hell out of my promo copy over several years while writing not only TPE but the entire trilogy. On it’s own it’s full of fascinating sonic experimentation and intense lyricism. It wouldn’t have worked as a grandiose statement, and I think that bothered a lot of people.

Guster, Goldfly, released 4 March 1997. Local boys done good! This Somerville band was a fan favorite in the Boston area with their quirky sound (and their stick-less drummer), and the creepy yet catchy “Airport Song” was an immediate favorite on WFNX and WBCN and other MA stations. This was also their first major release after self-releasing their debut. They’re still going strong to this day.

Collective Soul, Disciplined Breakdown, released 11 March 1997. I’ll admit I’ve always been a fan of this band since hearing “Shine” back in 1993, and while they didn’t quite hit the same heights as their huge-selling self-titled album, they continued to release some really great music that I often came back to. They’re definitely part of that style I like to call ‘commercialternative’ (modern rock that’s easy on the ears and often played on your more adventurous AOR station — and I say this as a positive), but I’ve never gotten sick of them. And they just dropped a new album last week!

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Let’s Face It, released 11 March 1997. This album was a major breakthrough for them, as they fit in quite nicely with the ska-punk wave that was cresting right about this time (see also: Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger, Less Than Jake, and so on). “The Impression That I Get” was written to honor a friend who’d sadly been a victim of an abortion clinic shooting in Boston back in 1995 — I remember that happening as it took place just a few miles away from my apartment — and ended up being a big hit for them. It’s also a great album celebrating the Bay State, with a song about the sketchy-as-f*ck Mayor Curley (“The Rascal King”) and the local interstate (“1-2-8”).

Morphine, Like Swimming, released 11 March 1997. Alas, their last album before singer Mark Sandman passed away. They’re another local favorite that got a ton of play on WFNX and WBCN, and the catchy and amusing “Early to Bed” was a big favorite.

Soundtrack, Grosse Pointe Blank, released 13 March 1997. An oddball dark comedy with John Cusack and featuring a Gen-X friendly soundtrack of 80s college radio faves? It was a major favorite with my generation, and the soundtrack was a big hit that spring. It definitely helped that Violent Femmes’ “Blister in the Sun” was the big classic used multiple times in the film, giving the band a much needed boost. This one of course got a lot of play in the back room of the store.

Ben Folds Five, Whatever and Ever Amen, released 18 March 1997. When your debut album is so quirky yet brilliantly written, you kind of wonder how you can ever top it. Their follow-up does indeed feel a bit jaded in that classic Gen-X way — so much so that “The Battle of Who Could Care Less” perfectly encapsulates it while also being a radio favorite at the time. The unexpected hit from this one, of course, is the heart-rending ballad “Brick”.

Matthew Sweet, Blue Sky On Mars, released 25 March 1997. While his 1995 album 100% Fun got some minor play, it was this follow-up that gave him that extra added boost with a much more stylized and slightly psychedelic sound that made it a favorite on AOR stations.

Soundtrack, The Saint, released 25 March 1997. Val Kilmer’s reboot of the old Roger Moore TV show was surprisingly enjoyable even though it wasn’t the biggest hit. Like most action films of the late 90s, its soundtrack is full of twitchy electronica from Orbital, Underworld, Fluke, Sneaker Pimps and more.

Goldfinger, Hang-Ups, released 26 March 1997. I remember hearing “This Lonely Place” on WFNX quite a bit during my commute home from the store, and I grew to really like this perky and sunny track. They’re still around and released a new album early this year!

Third Eye Blind, Third Eye Blind, released 26 March 1997. Say what you will about this band and album (and those three singles you could not escape from over the next few years), I actually really liked this album because it showed that they weren’t just a one hit wonder. There are a lot of interesting deep cuts here including the opener and minor single “Losing a Whole Year” which I always liked. And now I can consider them a local band, heh.

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Coming up: In which I start listening to pretty much everything that comes through the back room at the record store.

(Almost) Thirty Years On: February 1997

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I spent most of the next month or so taking my time thinking about how to approach the futuristic sci-fi story idea I’d had in my head for the last couple of years. While True Faith was a step in the right direction, there were two things wrong with it. One, it felt like a swing and a miss; it had its moments but it felt too derivative and weak, like I wasn’t allowing myself to expand on the ideas and push boundaries. And two, now that I was no longer on speaking terms with its co-author, it was probably for the best that I start over from scratch.

So because of this, I had to approach the project from two different directions: I wanted it to be original and 100% from me, and I wanted to force myself out of my old writing styles and crutches and try something utterly new. And it was a single of a re-recorded track that became the spark that started it all.

Depeche Mode, “Barrel of a Gun” single, released 3 February 1997. The last couple of years had not been good for the band, considering they’d lost key member Alan Wilder after their last tour and almost lost lead singer Dave Gahan to drugs. We weren’t quite sure what to expect of the band, especially when they dropped this heavy and unsettling teaser track. And yet it was less a downward spiral and more of a hard road out of hell, a song of redemption that signaled a new sound and style for the band.

Texas, White On Blonde, released 3 February 1997. “Say What You Want” is one of those oh, THAT song! tracks that pops up on the radio now and again and you forget you really like it. This Scottish band dropped a fine single that got a lot of play both on MTV and on AOR stations, and the album was a moderate success for them. Some time later, the song would be re-released as a completely unexpected yet fascinating duet with the Wu-Tang Clan. I remember my boss really liking this album and giving it a lot of play out on the floor.

U2, “Discothéque” single, released 4 February 1997. At this point this band had settled into the well-trodden path of ‘release brilliant album –> put on an amazing live show –> how the hell do they follow this up?’, and this time they put out…a dance song? It took a lot of people by surprise. Instead of getting another rocker like “Zooropa” we got another discofied “Lemon”. [And let’s face it, the Passengers side project was met with headscratching and an ‘okay fine you’ve done your experimental thing, give us another rocker now’.] There were already rumors that the upcoming album was half-baked and incomplete, an utter mess and even more into their own navels than usual. And yet…somehow this became a huge hit despite all that.

Silverchair, Freak Show, released 4 February 1997. After the impressive and popular debut Frogstomp, this trio surprised everyone by coming out with something that was less peppy Pearl Jam and more swampy Alice in Chains. It’s a much darker and grungier album, prefaced by the snotty single “Freak” and followed up with the sludgy “Abuse Me”. I found this abrupt change intriguing enough that this album got quite a bit of play at the time.

The Offspring, Ixnay On the Hombre, released 4 February 1997. It took this punk band almost three years to follow up from the hugely successful Smash album, and when it finally dropped it was a much darker and more polished affair on a major label. It’s not quite as brash as its predecessor, and its songs feel a bit gloomier in comparison, especially the major hit “Gone Away”. It’s not a terrible album, but it’s definitely a step in a different direction that took time to get used to, and one they’d use to considerable success over the next several years.

Blur, Blur, released 10 February 1997. Another band in need of a change, this UK favorite felt like they’d overstayed their quirky ‘Cool Britannia’ moment and needed to adjust course away from Britpop if they wanted to keep going. And in the process, they wrote and recorded a guitar-heavy record that reveals their unexpected angular post-punk side that works perfectly. From the blistering favorite “Song 2” to the Bowie riff “MOR” to the twitchy “On Your Own”, it’s so different from the snarky Parklife and the glossy The Great Escape that its fans were utterly blown away by it. It remains a fan favorite to this day.

Veruca Salt, Eight Arms to Hold You, released 11 February 1997. A few years after their wonderfully poppy American Thighs with its catchy singles “Seether” and “Number One Blind”, they released their second album (its title a nod to the Beatles, of course) along with the equally catchy “Volcano Girls” that got a lot of play on alternative radio.

Poe, “Hello” single, released 11 February 1997. The song itself dates back to her 1995 debut, but it’s this full-band reimagining that contained the venom and power the original sorely lacked, and it became a radio favorite almost immediately. It’s also this version of the track that was the spark I needed to restart my sci-fi novel project. The lyrics are an obvious nod to the literary cyberpunk genre — so much so that it feels like a direct reference to the 1995 movie Johnny Mnemonic — and suddenly I had an idea: what if the soul can be shifted into a different body? Between that and a quick reread of the original Ghost in the Shell manga, I was off and running. And the rest is (a rather long) history.

Soundtrack, Lost Highway, released 18 February 1997. Even though my interest in David Lynch’s work had fallen by the wayside by this point, this soundtrack fascinated me with its heady mix of creepy instrumentals and intense industrial noise. I absolutely loved the Nine Inch Nails single “The Perfect Drug”, but also the Smashing Pumpkins track “Eye” which also got a considerable amount of play on WFNX.

Live, Secret Samadhi, released 18 February 1997. Another band that took its time working on the follow-up to a groundbreaking album, this was yet another one that detoured into a much darker realm. There’s the chunky-riff single “Lakini’s Juice”, the tender ballad “Turn My Head”, the weird “Freaks” and the gritty opener “Rattlesnakes”. It wasn’t as huge a hit as Throwing Copper was, but it did reasonably well.

Sneaker Pimps, Becoming X (US Edition), released 25 February 1997. I’d been waiting on this one since I’d first heard “6 Underground” at the end of last year, and had even talked the boss into ordering a few import copies beforehand, but when it finally landed in the US, it took off like a shot and became a huge favorite of the alternative crowd, especially those who were enamored of that dark and grimy trip-hop sound they’d heard from Tricky and Portishead. It’s a great album, sometimes unsettling and weird but always keeping your interest from start to finish. This also got a lot of repeat play for my writing sessions!

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Coming Up: In which I finally begin a new writing project that will keep me busy for the next two decades.

(Almost) Thirty Years On: January 1997

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As mentioned previously, I’m continuing with 1997 as it’s the first full year of my stay at HMV. Even though I’d technically started in late September 1996, I kind of consider those first couple of months a trial run, getting myself used to the job while at the same time dealing with a lot of personal change. Once that disconnect from the recent past was made permanent, I had a clean slate to work with, and I wasn’t going to squander it. I was still thinking about what my next writing project would be, yet I kept coming back to the original Vigil idea that intrigued me back in 1993. I let that stew for a little while, as first I had to work on something else: getting myself started in the first place!

I knew that the best way for me to kickstart my writing again was to use the motto I’d come up with during the summer of 1995: Just shut the f*ck up and DO it already. I’d already been writing lyrics and poetry, something I’d returned to during my stay at the radio station, and thought it was time for me to start lugging a few notebooks with me to work. I started heading in a half hour earlier than normal just so I could sit in the food court. At the start, I’d put on my headphones and listened to a few albums while writing a few lyrics and poems here and there, and it was right around the end of January that I felt it finally reconnected with me. [I remember it was a poem about the mall walkers I’d see every morning that finally pushed me across the line.]

Riverdance, released sometime in 1995-96, depending on which edition. I add this here at this time mainly because this had been such a huge thing on PBS over the Christmas season. It was their go-to for their fundraising drives and the soundtrack ended up getting some serious sales in the process. It was a go-to for the overhead speakers during the quieter mornings. The 1996 edition came out right during the height of the new-age/Celtic folk mini-boom, one that I’d dabbled in for a bit and was an inspiration and influence on True Faith and The Phoenix Effect.

Bjork, Telegram, released 14 January 1997. As a follow-up to her genre-bending second album Post, she dropped a remix collection that didn’t quite hit the same heights but did feature a re-recording of the single “I Miss You”, complete with a bonkers music video animated by John Krikfalusi of Ren & Stimpy fame. She’d follow up later in the year with a proper third album that, once again, defied expectations.

Jamiroquai, Travelling Without Moving, released 14 January 1997. Yes, that video, the one Jay Kay has just recently and humorously riffed on for a Beefeaters Gin advertisement. “Virtual Insanity” was a huge breakout single for his brand of Stevie Wonder-inspired funk, and the rest of the album is just as brilliant and amazing. Further singles “Cosmic Girl” and “Alright” were just as popular, and the closer “Do You Know Where You’re Coming From” — officially a drum-n-bass track by M-Beat with Jay Kay on vocals — is a stunner. This one got a ton of play in the back room of the store and also got some heavy spins during my writing sessions throughout the year. It’s one of my favorites of the year.

Daft Punk, Homework, released 17 January 1997. It took me a little while to get into Daft Punk as the first I’d heard of them was the single “Da Funk” which didn’t resonate with me at all. However, upon watching the highly creative and amusing Michel Gondry video for “Around the World”, I was finally won over. It would take a little while longer for me to finally add them to my collection, however!

The Verve Pipe, “The Freshmen” single, released 27 January 1997. This is the one Verve Pipe song everyone knows, considering it was so saturated on rock radio at this point, but thankfully it gave the excellent Villains album a second boost in sales. They’ll still happily roll this track out these days when they’re playing live…not bad for what was originally a deep cut on their 1992 indie debut!

Built to Spill, Perfect from Now On, released 28 January 1997. This indie band had been around for a few years by this point, but it was this record, their first for a major label, that caught everyone else’s attention. And it’s quite interesting in that it was a deliberate move away from their original sound, leaning more on sprawling melodies and experimentation.

David Bowie, Earthling, released 30 January 1997. This one interestingly polarizes fans, considering it’s his foray into electronic music. There’s a lot of drum-n-bass, industrial and house going on here, and I think that’s why it appealed to me. I’d been a passive fan but never went out of my way to pick up his back catalogue (other than a greatest hits collection or two), but this one fascinated the hell out of me and became one of my favorite albums of the year. It too got a lot of backroom play as well as being a writing soundtrack.

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Coming up: In which several new releases give me an unexpected creative spark.

Thirty Years On: November/December 1996

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The last few months of 1996 were infinitely better than that of the previous year…but at the same time there were still some massive bumps in the road that desperately needed repaving. The signs had become obvious in November when I’d begged off hanging out with certain friends simply out of exhaustion. I was still getting used to the fifty-mile commute and literally doing a ton of heavy lifting of boxes for the store, and had told them I’d been too tired to go out on the town. That seemed innocuous on its own, but somehow it ended up being one of many issues they’d had with me at the time. Now, mind you, I admitted I wasn’t perfect and still had a lot of growing up to do, but I had no idea how they felt about me primarily because they never told me in the first place. What I had assumed was a relatively decent friendship had somehow deteriorated to the point that they’d rather I not be around.

And to be brutally honest in retrospect, maybe they had a point and I did have my bad moments that I’m not proud of at all, but the fact remained that they said nothing, no context at all, and left me wondering what the hell I might have done wrong. Sure, it’s totally up to them whether or not they wanted to give me an explanation, and I’ve done the same before and since, but at some sign long before it got that bad would have been appreciated.

Anyway, it all came to a head at the start of the year — on my birthday, no less — that two separate phone calls devolved into arguments and finally into a “we’re done here”. And we’ve never crossed paths since.

On my way to work the next day, the local classic rock station chose to play Supertramp’s “Goodbye Stranger”. I found it extremely fitting, really. What could have been a sad ending and a possible spiral now felt like freedom to me. I’d been forced to disconnect with a deeply unhappy past, and now I had no more obstacles.

It was time to move on.

Three months later, I started writing The Phoenix Effect, kickstarting a project that would define my writing and self-publishing career.

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Mixtape, Untitled VII, created November 1996. I’d started this mix a few months earlier while working at my mom’s bank and finished it up at the store. The mix contains several songs from the 1995-96 era from Radiohead, Stabbing Westward, Cake, Ben Folds Five, Seal, Spacehog, The Verve Pipe, a few track from the Beatles’ Anthology volumes, and even the US version of the Sailor Moon theme song. It’s a three-cassette mix and it actually contains a few songs from early 1997 to fill out the back end. It’s an extremely solid mix and it got a lot of play over the next couple of years.

The Presidents of the United States of America, The Presidents of the United States of America II, released 5 November 1996. Their second album didn’t nearly hit the same heights as their bonkers debut, but it was no less silly and fun. I named my car the Mach 5 after this song and not after Speed Racer!

BT, 今 ima, released 5 November 1996. I first heard of BT via the single “Blue Skies” which featured Tori Amos on vocals, which got a lot of play on WFNX at the time. I still wasn’t completely on board with techno yet, but I remember the store playing this one on the speakers quite a bit at the time and selling relatively well. I’d become a fan in another few years and have followed him since.

The Lightning Seeds, Dizzy Heights, released 11 November 1996. If I recall, this was only available on import at first, and my boss Tom was a big fan of Ian Broudie’s work so we carried it. I thought his cover of The Turtles’ “You Showed Me” was absolutely great.

Tricky, Pre-Millennium Tension, released 11 November 1996. I’d heard of Tricky due to his previous album Maxinquaye, but I didn’t really pay much attention until this album came into the back room. I was absolutely floored by how dark and unsettling yet intriguing and creative this album was, and became a huge fan thereafter. It even got a bit of play during my writing sessions!

Belle and Sebastian, If You’re Feeling Sinister, released 18 November 1996. This Glaswegian collective drops a second album a mere five months after their debut, and by this time the American college radio stations were paying attention and playing several tracks off both.

DJ Shadow, Endtroducing…, released 19 November 1996. I remember this being huge at the store as well, because it blew so many minds. It was unlike any electronic album you’d heard before, created out of a basement full of obscure records and seamlessly stitched together to sound original. It’s not quite trip-hop, not quite techno, not quite jazz, but everything in between. Highly recommended.

Bush, Razorblade Suitcase, released 19 November 1996. Their follow-up to the massively popular Sixteen Stone seemed to suffer not from the sophomore slump but because it’s a much darker and angrier record. It’s less grunge and more heavy rock and sounds nothing like their previous hits (well, the single “Swallowed” kinda comes close). It didn’t do so well at the store, but I always really enjoyed it.

Barenaked Ladies, Rock Spectacle, released 19 November 1996. This was their second minor breakthrough, especially with the live version of “Brian Wilson” which got a lot of play on alternative and AOR stations at the time. It’s a great record that proves that they’ve always been a fun and stellar live band.

Enigma, Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!, released 20 November 1996. The new-agey electronic project’s third album did reasonably well with the single “Beyond the Invisible” and it of course got a lot of play during my writing sessions. The track “Why!…” caught my attention whenever it played out on the floor.

The Bloodhound Gang, One Fierce Beer Coaster, released 3 December 1996. The meathead rap-rock band’s second album could have been seen as their one-hit wonder with the goofy “Fire Water Burn”, deadpanning the titular Funkadelic lyrics and silly lines like “I’m not black like Barry White, no I am white like Frank Black is”, it got a lot of play on WFNX and WAAF and became a minor favorite. I remember some drunk guy coming up back looking for this album and I had to gently shoo him back out on the floor with CD in hand.

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…and so ended my first full year back in the hometown. Like I said, a bit of a bumpy road, but in all honesty it was a much-needed respite that allowed me to change for the better. Those disintegrating friendships did hurt, but it ended up clearing the way for me to follow my desires without distraction and perhaps also do a bit of overdue growing up. I chose to continue focusing on my writing, slowly figuring out where I wanted to go with it and moving forward the best way I could.

Coming Up: Yes, I’ve decided that I’m going to continue this series with 1997, mainly because the two years are interconnected in various ways. The start of my writing career, the start-over of my life, and so many great records that served as a soundtrack for it all. See you next week for it!

Thirty Years On: October 1996

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I’d say for the first month or so of this new job of mine, I took the same somewhat longer route to work as that was the easiest. That would change within a few months of course, once I got used to the area and learned several of the backroads. I also remember briefly contemplating finding a place closer to the store. Mind you, that was mostly a lingering itch to head back out on my own that I didn’t take entirely all that seriously, knowing that it was more important for me to continue getting out of debt, ensuring this job stayed permanent, and that I could perhaps save up more.

Mind you, when your position is the lone shipping/receiving clerk for the entire store and every single CD, cassette, import and box set goes through your hands, the temptation to spend said money on new releases is pretty damn high, I can tell you that. Thankfully I did get an associate discount of 30% off (basically buying it at cost) and the promos coming into the store were plentiful. This was back when there were six major distributors (I can still rattle them off: UNI (Universal), EMD (EMI), BMG, Sony, PGD (PolyGram), and WEA (Warner/Elektra/Atlantic), and UNI and PGD would merge in 1998), and I got to know their sales reps really well over the course of my stay there. Not only did I acquire several promos, I’d also get free tickets to shows! I pretty much owned that back room, having laid it out for ease of access for both me and my coworkers, and I got to know the UPS driver really well with all his daily visits.

It’s funny, really, how such a simple thing as a job I truly enjoyed would lift my spirits so much. Until then, I had no idea that could ever happen. I was still feeling out of place, caught between friendships that were slowly fading into obscurity, a crowded house with little privacy, a past I was trying to move on from, and writing projects that I was losing interest in. Yet I now had this bit of personal freedom that I could explore for the first time now that I had the time, money and impetus to do so. I found myself escaping more and more, even if it was just for a few hours, whether it was one of those backroad trips or a visit to Boston or to the Pioneer Valley. I had to do get out there and do something. And I had the perfect soundtrack for it now.

*

Fountains of Wayne, Fountains of Wayne, released 1 October 1996. This band from New Jersey (named after an actual store in Wayne NJ that sold fountains) featured none other than songwriter Adam Schlesinger, who we’d met previously as the writer for The Wonders’ “That Thing You Do”. “Radiation Vibe” got a lot of airplay on WHMP and WFNX and became their calling card until a some years later when the hugely popular “Stacy’s Mom” dropped. Their smart and clever pop sound is super infectious and they’re well worth checking out.

Republica, Republica, released 5 October 1996. This was the very first CD I bought at my own store via a gift certificate I’d won during an employee meeting for knowing way too much music trivia, heh. “Ready to Go” was a monster hit for the band and got played everywhere, both on alternative and commercial radio, and the vertigo-inducing video got a ton of play on MTV as well. It’s a super fun album that isn’t just great for partying but playing super loud.

Sneaker Pimps, “6 Underground” single, released 7 October 1996. Sometimes you hear a song on the radio and you literally stop in your tracks to say “what the hell am I hearing…??” This was one of them, and it was extremely popular on WFNX. The band offers up its own version of trip hop on this track from their debut album Becoming X that was originally released on 19 August in the UK, but wouldn’t be released in the States until the following February. It’s one of my top favorite tracks of the 90s and the album is highly recommended.

Elysian Fields, Bleed Your Cedar, released 8 October 1996. This was a promo I picked up purely out of curiosity as the sales rep had enjoyed it. They were like sultry and stylish slowcore, more noirish than Low but not quite leaping into goth grimness either. “Jack in the Box” was the single featured on WNFX but it was the swampy “Lady in the Lake” that became my favorite track. Singer Jennifer Charles would soon show up on several albums over the years as a guest vocalist, including Tweaker, Lovage, John Zorn, Foetus, Live, and more.

They Might Be Giants, Factory Showroom, released 8 October 1996. This band kind of fell by the wayside for me for a few years, partly because of their foray into much more serious music with 1994’s John Henry and their hiatus while John L and John F worked on solo projects. This, however, was a fine return to form with the funky single “S-E-X-X-Y”. This was another promo I picked up early on.

The Heads, No Talking Just Head, released 8 October 1996. This was an odd project by the now Byrne-less Talking Heads, recording an album full of guest singers like Johnette Napolitano, Debbie Harry, Shaun Ryder, Andy Partridge and more. It was apparently a sort of experiment to see if they could still carry on as a trio, yet nothing further came out of it.

Spice Girls, Spice, released 9 October 1996. I’ll admit I was not a fan of “Wannabe” partly because I could not escape the damn song. And yet somehow I found myself intrigued not by their sort of manufactured public image but their surprisingly catchy songs. The single “Say You’ll Be There” is a breezy and fun track full of soul, and the ballad “2 Become 1” (yes, it’s what you think it’s about) is actually quite a lovely production. It was so ridiculously popular at the store that I don’t think we ever returned any unsold copies for at least a couple years.

Phish, Billy Breathes, released 15 October 1996. I was of course familiar with this Vermont jam band via my college years, but I’d never actually gone out of my way to pick them up as that kind of thing wasn’t, well, my jam at the time. Although getting this as a promo changed that when I kept hearing the track “Free” on the radio. It’s a surprisingly catchy track that pulled me in. I was finally hooked and I’ve been a fan since. This album became a favorite during my writing sessions in the next few years.

The Lemonheads, Car Button Cloth, released 15 October 1996. This, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly the big hit they’d hoped it would be, and while it had a minor alt-rock radio hit with the single “If I Could Talk I’d Tell You”, it received mixed reviews and didn’t really do much afterwards. He’d put the band aside for the next several years and not resurface until 2006’s self-titled record.

The Monkees, Justus, released 15 October 1996. After their highly successful 1986 reunion and the occasional tours (often minus Mike Nesmith) thereafter, they decided to reunite once more for a full-on multimedia event celebrating their 30th anniversary, with not only an album of new tracks but also a TV special played up very similar to their old show of yore.

Paula Cole, This Fire, released 15 October 1996. You will of course know this album from its two huge singles “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone” and the theme from Dawson’s Creek, “I Don’t Want to Wait”, but it’s a surprisingly deep and varied record that’s worth checking out, such as with the spooky “Mississippi” (my favorite track off the album) and the sexy “Feelin’ Love”. Later in 1997 when I went to the Lilith Fair concert, she ended up being one of my favorite performers that night. She’s put out several other great records since.

Beth Orton, Trailer Park, released 21 October 1996. Another singer-songwriter that got a lot of radio play on WFNX and other alternative and AOR stations, the dreamlike and delicate “She Cries Your Name” is a lovely track and one of my favorites of that year. It’s an intriguing record that seamlessly marries electronica and folk in a way that no one expected, and it works amazingly well. Highly recommended.

The Beatles, Anthology 3, released 28 October 1996. The third and final volume alas did not feature a third “new” song, with its opening track instead being a George Martin overture that was originally written as an intro to Ringo’s “Don’t Pass Me By”, but instead showed up as incidental music near the start of the Yellow Submarine film. The rest of the album features both the well known and the obscure (and much bootlegged) from the White Album and the Abbey Road projects.

The Rutles, Archaeology, released 29 October 1996. Meanwhile, Neil Innes’ spot-on Beatles pastiche project riffs not only on the band but the reunion with tracks once again sounding almost but not quite like the original. The Pre-Fab Four’s music is a treat.

Wilco, Being There, released 29 October 1996. While their debut AM did capture the interest of the fans of their former band Uncle Tupelo, it was this unexpected double-disc project that brought them a much wider audience. They’d remain an alt-country band with a heavy Big Star influence, but they’d remain a huge favorite with every release.

Luscious Jackson, Fever In Fever Out, released 29 October 1996. I used to hear the “Naked Eye” track on WFNX all the time on the drive to work, and by this time they’d become a band to be reckoned with. They still had that inner city groove they’d created with the In Search of Manny EP only they’d become glossier and poppier in the process. This was a favorite at my store and we’d play it over the system quite often.

Soundtrack, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, released 29 October 1996. I’ll admit I’m not the biggest Baz Luhrmann fan, as I find most of his movies cloying and over the top, but I’ll admit that he hit paydirt with this version of the Shakespeare play. He managed to be clever about it in several ways, and the soundtrack is full of favorite radio hits like The Cardigans’ “Lovefool” and the peppy “You and Me Song” by the Wannadies. But it was the Garbage deep cut “#1 Crush” (originally the b-side of the “Vow” single) that caught my interest — it’s a seriously sexy track even though the lyrics get progressively more unsettling as it goes on.

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Coming Up: Ending the year on a slightly curious and strange note, and looking forward

Thirty Years On: September 1996

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The answer to my job frustrations lay in a newspaper want-ad my mom saw in the Sunday paper in the early half of September. A new record store was opening in the recently opened new mall in Marlborough — out in the middle of nowhere yet perfectly placed where I-280 and Route 495 meet, two major highways in the state. Solomon Pond Mall had been built earlier in the year and was still bringing in new tenants when the HMV chain chose to open one there. They’ve long been a UK institution yet began expanding in the US in the early 90s. I’d gone to the one in Harvard Square in Cambridge a few times during my time in Boston. And their selection was excellent: they weren’t afraid to carry titles that weren’t on the national charts, and many music nerds like me loved that.

Me? Work at a record store? I mean, come on. Have you met me??

Especially since I had both retail and shipping/receiving experience, which they were looking for. I sent in a resume immediately. They responded back quickly with interest, first with a quick phone pre-interview and then a second in-person interview later on with the manager. That would take place in the food court of the mall, and by the end of it I believed I was a shoo-in. They would call about a week later with an offer, which I of course accepted!

And then came the next problem to be solved: how the hell do I get there? That was also answered by my mom who knew a few car dealership owners due to her job and asked around. In short order, so we found a beater for me: a 1992 blue Chevy Cavalier for $2000. Paperwork signed and filed, I was ready to go on my first day, which was 23 September.

How do I know this date without looking it up? Because my first day was actually getting training at the Harvard Square store the day before Sheryl Crow’s self-titled second album came out. That was the first CD I ever processed, tagged and price-stickered for the company. I’d start the very next day at the Solomon Pond Mall store.

The next four years were going to be interesting. And my finances were definitely going to suffer damage if I wasn’t careful with my purchases. Thank heavens for promo copies, then!

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The London Suede, Coming Up, released 2 September 1996. I’d loved their first album but felt the second was a bit too out there for me, but this third album hit the sweet spot: the glam rock of the first album, the quirkiness of the second, and some stellar songwriting. This is fascinating, considering this was the first without their original guitarist Bernard Butler. It’s my second favorite album of theirs right after the first one.

REM, New Adventures in Hi-Fi, released 10 September 1996. This band, on the other hand, had fallen from my obsession radar by the time this album came out. While I did like Out of Time, I thought Automatic for the People was merely okay and Monster was a noisy mess. This album was a head-scratcher for me then, a collection of songs written and recorded during long and grueling tours fraught with health issues and whatnot. It’s not necessarily bad, but it’s patchy and contains a lot of filler. And yet this is the one that a lot of latter-era fans think is one of their best, and critics couldn’t say enough great things about it.

Billy Bragg, William Bloke, released 10 September 1996. Bragg hadn’t had a radio hit in a while and this one suffers from not really having one on it. He was a new dad now and he’d temporarily backed away from his overtly political lyrics in the process, making this one sound rather calm and sedate. It’s got some great deep cuts on it, however, including the lovely “Sugardaddy”.

Kula Shaker, K, released 16 September 1996. I first heard this band when WHMP played the “Tattva” single and I was immediately hooked by their 60s psychedelic pop sound that was less a caricature and more a loving nod to the style. I was also taken by the brilliant album cover created by comic artist Dave Gibbons (known for his work on Watchmen at the time). It’s pure psych-out bliss and one of my favorite albums of the 90s. They’d break up a few years later, but would reunite in the 00s, and their latest (this year’s Wormslayer) is another favorite I often revisit.

Space, Spiders, released 16 September 1996. Yet another one-hit wonder, at least on this side of the Atlantic, with the 60s inspired single “Female of the Species”, which would end up on the soundtrack for the first Austin Powers film. But it’s catchy as hell and worth checking out the rest of the album. It’s good 90s fun.

Tool, Ænima, released 17 September 1996. After three long years, the revered alt-metal band that stormed MTV with its weird-ass Brothers Quay/Jan Svankmajer-inspired videos finally returned with its second record that won over fans (and gained new ones) immediately. I wasn’t the biggest fan but I appreciated them enough to listen to this one now and again while at work. I even had a promo tee-shirt for this album!

Cake, Fashion Nugget, released 17 September 1996. I’d known about this band for a while, but it was the excellent single “The Distance” that got me hooked. [It was also the hilarious one-note guitar solo for their cover of “I Will Survive” that sold me.] I’d borrow the store copy and listen to it up back quite frequently, eventually getting my own copy which I still visit every now and again. It’s a really fun album full of quirky alt-rock melodies that get stuck in your head.

Various Artists, Hang the DJ: Modern Rock 1986, 1987 and 1988, released 17 September 1996. Most compilations revisiting the 80s tended to not be all that daring, staying safe with the same Soft Cell, Thomas Dolby, ABC and Berlin songs you expect. The track list for these three titles, on the other hand, looked like something I would have made back in the day! [In fact, the 1988 volume contains quite a few of the same tracks as my year-end Does Truth Dance? Does Truth Sing? mix.] I found these at the record store and immediately picked up all of them on cassette where they got a lot of play over the next couple of years.

Moby, Animal Rights, released 23 September 1996. Moby took an unexpected left turn far away from his well-known and well-loved electronic music by putting out a hardcore rock album that confused almost every fan of his. He did, however, release a surprisingly decent cover of the classic Mission of Burma song “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver” which got a lot of play on WFNX of course. [Sadly, the MTV version would take all the sting out of the song with the alternate line “that’s when I realize it’s over”, which still makes me wince.]

Fatboy Slim, Better Living Through Chemistry, released 23 September 1996. Before songs like “Praise You” and “Rockafeller Skank” permeated the airwaves and wouldn’t go away, he dropped a more sedate and lighthearted album that laid down the path he’d take on his electronic music career. The Who-sampled single “Going Out of My Head” got a significant amount of radio play at the time.

John Parish & Polly Jean Harvey, Dance Hall at Louse Point, released 23 September 1996. This one took me a while to get used to, as it’s not the sound of PJ Harvey that you’d expect. Parish was a former bandmate of hers, and they’d reconvened to put out what would basically be experimental torch songs, including a cover of the Leiber-Stoller song “Is That All There Is?” It was a critic favorite at the time, and I’ve eventually come around on it.

Weezer, Pinkerton, released 24 September 1996. I remember this one dividing fans and critics alike with its crunchier and heaver sound. Those who were expecting light pop gems like “Buddy Holly” and “Undone” instead got weird things like “El Scorcho” and “Pink Triangle”. I for one loved it, and would remain a fan ever since.

Soundtrack, That Thing You Do! released 24 September 1996. I knew this was going to be a pastiche on 60s pop with expected nods to the Beatles, but Tom Hanks pulls it off by making it a spot-on homage to the scene instead of a comic riff. It’s a really well-made film and one of my favorites of the decade. Even the music was bang on, with Adam Schlesinger’s excellent take on jangle pop as well as solo crooners and even jazz. This was one of the first promo CDs I’d get from the store!

Morcheeba, Who Can You Trust? released 24 September 1996. This band’s first album came out of nowhere and captured the attention of both critics and fans of trip-hop and chillwave electronic music with the great single “Trigger Hippie” that got a lot of play on WFNX at the time. I’d be a fan almost from the start.

Lamb, Lamb, released 30 September 1996. Believe it or not, I missed the boat the first time around on this band, though I’d finally catch on a short time later when my coworker Doug introduced me to the absolutely brilliant single “Gorecki”. [Yes, the character of Christine in the Bridgetown Trilogy is indeed named after this song.] By 1998 I was a big fan and they’d be on my “I’ll buy anything they release” shopping list. They’d also have pride of place on the Official Trilogy Soundtrack. Highly recommended.

The Chemical Brothers, “Setting Sun” single, released 30 September 1996. This duo had become a critic and fan favorite with their debut, 1995’s Exit Planet Dust, but they’d become even bigger with this teaser single that’s an obvious nod to the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” and also such a noisefest that you can’t help but blast it out of your car’s speakers. It would be another eight months before the follow-up record appeared, but at that point they’d become an MTV staple in the late 90s.

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Coming Up: The beginnings of a deeper (and more expensive) immersion

Thirty Years On: July/August 1996

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I spent most of the summer of 1996 not quite in stasis but not quite moving in any specific direction, to be honest. It was more of a ‘waiting for something to come along’ that I was slowly getting used to. I’d kept my promise to myself not to once again fall prey to becoming stuck in one place I wasn’t entirely happy being in out of necessity; instead I made it a point to look for new jobs outside of the area. I’d still have to figure out travel arrangements, whether it was to borrow someone’s car or look into buying my own beater. In the meantime I stuck with the temp job at my mom’s bank until further notice and focused all my energy on job searching…and writing.

At this point in time I was still trying to figure out what to do with True Faith, which had stalled since I’d moved home. I was still interested in it because it was related to my original Vigil idea from 1993, but I kind of felt like I’d lost the plot, literally. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with it, and I was constantly rewriting and revising it instead of moving it forward. It wasn’t close to my best writing and I knew it, so I was focusing on how best to rectify that. I really felt like I was holding myself back, but I wasn’t entirely sure how to break out of that either.

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Soul Coughing, Irresistible Bliss, released 9 July 1996. WHMP loved this album, especially the single “Super Bon Bon”, and so did WFNX whenever I listened to it during my road trips into Boston. My friend Chris was a huge fan highly recommended them to me, as they were less a straight-ahead alternative band and more of a poetry slam performance, complete with Mike Doughty’s weird yet captivating lyricism.

Soundtrack, Trainspotting: Music from the Motion Picture, released 9 July 1996. The movie was a massive hit everywhere (though I myself didn’t watch it until we rented it at some later point), and even the soundtrack was immensely popular, filled with such a wild assortment of music from Iggy Pop, Underworld, Blur, Primal Scream, and more. This also gave Iggy a huge boost in sales and popularity with the always great “Lust for Life” single.

Tonic, Lemon Parade, released 16 July 1996. This LA band could be seen as a one-hit wonder with the popular “If You Could Only See” single, and yet they’re still going strong today. This debut is a great record — the opener single “Open Up Your Eyes” is also a banger — and it’s worth checking out. I got to see them open for The Verve Pipe later in the year.

Chimera, Earth Loop, released 23 July 1996. I wouldn’t hear this for another few months when I finally found what would then be my dream job, and it was one of the first promo cds I’d snag. They were a sort of alternative-meets-trip-hop with a bit of shoegaze for flavor, and it’s an absolutely lovely record that became one of my favorites of the year.

Hooverphonic, A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular, released 29 July 1996. This is the album that started it all — and the only one with their original name ‘Hoover’ (before they changed it for obvious reasons) — and the amazing single “2Wicky” sold me right from the beginning for this Belgian group. They masterfully took the darker edges of trip hop and added a flair of elegance and beauty to it, and they’ve been a huge favorite of mine ever since. I highly recommend pretty much everything they’ve ever put out.

Eels, Beautiful Freak, released 13 August 1996. I was aware of Mark Oliver Everett’s music under the name ‘E’ (he had a minor alt-radio hit with “Hello Cruel World” in 1992), but I was drawn to his new project with the oddly catchy “Novocaine for the Soul” single. It became a huge hit on alt-rock radio and started a long and still-strong career for him.

Failure, Fantastic Planet, released 13 August 1996. The first time I heard “Stuck On You” was when I saw the video for it on MTV one day and was gobsmacked by just how flipping brilliant it was. It wasn’t just a banger of a track that felt like a punch in the face, the video was a dead-on riff on the opening credits to the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. I bought the album soon after and my mind was fully blown. It really is an amazing record from start to finish, heavy and loud and epic as hell. This album would be one of the first on my Official Soundtrack List to the Mendaihu Universe, and I would play it constantly while writing The Phoenix Effect and then the Bridgetown Trilogy over the next several years. I highly recommend owning this one.

Better Than Ezra, Friction, Baby, released 13 August 1996. After their popular debut, this was their equally great yet not exactly popular follow-up, and yet tracks like “Desperately Wanting” and “King of New Orleans” got significant amount of play on alt-rock radio for a good couple of years there.

Reel Big Fish, Turn the Radio Off, released 13 August 1996. Yet another ska-punk band of the 90s that cluttered up rock radio and MTV at the time, it was a super fun record regardless. “Sell Out” is one of my favorite songs of the late 90s and I remember I used to sing along to this one in the car all the time.

K’s Choice, Paradise in Me, released 20 August 1996. Another Belgian band, this time firmly entrenched in that 90s radio-friendly alt-rock sound complete with (yes) a one-hit wonder, the excellent “Not an Addict” that got play all over the place, even on VH1. I picked this one up on cassette and listened to it quite a bit at the time.

Tara MacLean, Silence, released 20 August 1996. Another singer I discovered during my upcoming new job, this Canadian singer was unfortunately overlooked by US radio at the time. She’s still going strong and has put out several albums, and recently a memoir. This one got a lot of play during my writing sessions as well.

Pearl Jam, No Code, released 27 August 1996. How do you follow up the massively popular Vitalogy album, all while very publicly boycotting Ticketmaster? By putting out something even weirder! It’s all over the place, containing both wonderful radio-ready singles like “Hail Hail” and “Who You Are”, folky tracks like “Off He Goes”, and dense soundscapes like “Lukin”. It remains a head-scratcher for a lot of people for it being all over the place. It’s the album of theirs I listen to least, but only because it can be a hard listen at times. They’d bounce back with the excellent Yield a few years later.

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Coming up: The start of the HMV 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