90s Music Roundtable - Part 1 - Transcript

https://bit.ly/90sPart1

Music Rewind welcomes three previous guests to participate in a 90s Music Roundtable. This is another in our Roundtable series discussing various music topics.

Our guests bring questions on the topic to the table and our panel of self-proclaimed experts discuss and have fun with the conversation. This panel kicks off with a key question: “How has 90s music impacted what you consider to be good music?” Part 2 will release in two weeks.

Panel:

Michael Boroski - S1-Episode 5; Pearl Jam-Vs: https://bit.ly/PJ_Vs

Danny Prokup - S1-Episode 10; Sunny Day Real Estate-Diary: https://bit.ly/SDRE_Diary

Dom Brown - Episode S1-Episode 4; DMX-It’s Dark and Hell is Hot: https://bit.ly/DMX_Ruff_Ryders

Stephen Epley - Host/Moderator/All Around Great Guy

Transcript as follows:

Participant #1:

Hello and welcome to season two of Music Rewind, a podcast where we look to tell the stories behind our favorite albums. I'm your host, Steve Epley, and in each episode, I will invite a guest on them to tell us about their favorite music album, how they discovered it, and what makes it special to them. Today on Music Rewind, we are bringing you something a bit different. Another roundtable bonus episode. This time, we are bringing back some previous guests to talk 90s music. First up is Michael Boroski from our discussion of Pearl Jam versus how are you doing? Thanks for having me back, man. Next up is Don Brown from our episode of DMX. It's dark and hell is hot. Hey, Steve, thanks for having me back as well. I'm excited to talk about 90s music and hear from the fellows and fellowship. And finishing out our roundtable is Danny Prokup from our episode of Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary. Thanks for having me back, Steve. Looking forward to diving in. Nice music with you guys. Yeah, thanks, gentlemen, and I appreciate you joining us today. So what we'll be doing this evening is every member of our ragtag group of 90s music scholars has a few questions for the roundtable. We'll use those questions to kickstart the conversation and either praise or mock our colleagues on their musical tastes. And as our moderator, I'm going to go with Dom for the first question. I thought your first one was pretty good. Lead off. Yeah, no one told me I had to read. Yeah, that's it to you via text or email. I thought I sent it via email. Here we go. Perfect. All right, guys, so the first question I had is how's Night's music impacted your perception of what you guys consider is good music. You guys think about that? You want me to take it? See, yeah, go for it. Dom. It's a great question because I heard a lot of times, I've read this a few times, but people's perception of what they consider good music kind of solidifies at like 16 or 17 and you sort of make those basis or make those choices off what you were listening to then and obviously where you all grew up in that time. But still, to me, I think that it definitely considers good music because even stuff I listen to now, newer bands, I can trace the sound that I like back to those bands that I first fell in love with in the 90s. So there are some times where you kind of hear something, you're like, oh, that's derivative, not realizing that every band that you ever listen to is derivative. But I think it pretty much shapes what I listen to now. Sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. I will admit that's a very good take on that because if you look at what's happening, like right now in the hip hop and RnB genre, you're seeing a lot of that, right? You're seeing a lot of songs that were older songs that are now being recycled. I mean, you listen to, like, what's on the Top 40 songs or whatever, and it's a lot of old school 90s music, beats and melodies. And actually, I think one of the Billboard Hot 100 songs is by an artist named Lotto. And she's from Atlanta, actually, and her song is Big Energy, but it's a sample of Mariah Carey's song. I think it's honey, I think the song is anyway, it's the number one song in the country, and it's a 90s Refresh or early 2000s refresh song. So we're starting to see that really across a lot of genres and even, like, an alternative and those really pop up rock bands. You're seeing a lot of that, too. So I think there's a lot of validity in that statement. I put money on the fact that that Mariah Carey song probably samples something from the absolutely, it did. And that you could trace it all the way back even further. Yes. Now, is that the one when she's on the jet ski, that video? Yeah, that's it. Okay. Great memory. I'm sorry. She's in the 90s, apparently. What's? It a lot of times on mute. Michael. Yeah. I like your voice, too. I know we're talking about later about kind of stuff that we don't listen to a lot or anything like that, but yeah, I'll get to that later. But I really do, like, I'm all about the girls singers and the girl groups and stuff from the 90s. But, yeah, I guess to kind of go on with that, I guess, for my answer on that. I think it impacted a lot because we were growing up, it was like, all right, well, you just have your parents music. And then so my parents was like, all right, class crack. Class crack. Class crack class. And because of, honestly, MTV and staying up and watching stuff, it got me to expand my different type of music. There wasn't a lot of soul music or RnB or anything like that being played at the house. But because of TV Rats and, like, 120 minutes and stuff like that on MTV in the 90s, there's so many different genres that now, because of what I listened to in the 90s, it pushed to me. There's so many different ways of different things I listen to now. And that's one of the hardest things now, is there's just so much out there, and it's so good that I feel like I only get through one record one or two times, and that's it. And I think back when I was, like, 16, how I would go buy a CD or something, I'd listen to it, like, 50 times. And that was just because of what happened in the then just the crossover of different genres, too, that happened. I mean, you look what happened with the Judgment Night soundtrack. Where you had, like, rap and rock together, Tell My Life, then Lincoln Park showed up and then those bands kind of keep pushing over and I guess you could even go farther back, I guess, in the 80s with Aaron Smith and Run DMC. But there's just so many people playing on stuff like Jack White playing on Beyonce's record. It's just because of what happened in the 90s. It expanded your palate, I guess, your taste, where there's just so much more to digest, I guess because of the different things that we listened to back then. You hit on something really keen to me. Is that Leaking Park discussion? Because Steve knows this. I was really close to doing Hybrid Theory by Leaking Park as my album to review DMX because that thing, it was captivating. It was something fresh for me, obviously not growing up in a household that necessarily listened to a rock like that, but just kind of hear a different perspective from them. I mean, it was amazing. And then you got that just from them in general. And then you had the crossover album with them in JayZ Collision Course, which is amazing in itself, in its own right. Yeah, that's a very good statement on that, for sure. What's interesting about that, too is, Margaret, you had mentioned like the Judgment Night soundtrack when you had Pro Jam and onyx, I think, with Impairing an Anthrax and Public Enemy and some of those things. But I think for the first time for me and you had mentioned Markup, too, about like, TV raps and then it was like 120 minutes or different ways that you got music. There wasn't really and I don't know if it was just growing up in a small town or everybody else had the same thing, but there was really no, you could listen to Public Enemy, you could listen to the Beastie Boys, you could listen to Nirvana. There was no, I guess, divide on what you could or could not. What was cool if you were metalhead or something, this is what you had to listen to. Or if you like hiphop, this is what you had to listen to. You kind of listen to everything. And what I think is cool about that is when you see artists, especially from the lot of other artists, did it too. But in generations past, we had like the Rolling Stones had some of the blues guys open up for them and stuff that obviously impacted them and had their records. But in the 90s, when you had Lala Paluz, obviously is a big example. When you have Public Enemy opening for Ministry and then you've got Body Count and then Ice Cube and some of those bands where you could kind of be a fan of everything. Because I think there was blurred lines of what you could and could not, in quotes, listen to, I guess. And that like Robin Thick Blurred Lines. I was going to make that joke, but I figured it was too easy. If you don't make it, I'll always make it. If it's too cheesy, I got him in a lot of trouble in the fallout from that. Oh, my goodness. Right? Yeah. I think what was the model's name? Emily Radikowski. I mean, it was like one of the most toxic filming sessions that he was groping her and everything. Yeah. Not good. Not at all. So my answer on that, Dom, I took it in a different direction as far as what 90s music impacted your perception of good music. Because the 90s really became my first realization of prepackaged pop music, all those one hit wonders and prepackaged kind of boy bands and girl bands that really don't stand the test of time. You got one single out of them and they're gone, and it's really kind of terrible. I'm thinking like Gerardo and just other things off the top of my head. But those things that were unfortunately dominating the charge, you got your Chumb of wambas and your other things in there. And that showed me how good the other stuff was. When you've got Pearl Jam and Nirvana or the Pumpkins or whomever, mariah Carey, Belting Boys to Men Harmonizing, you've got true talent versus the let's just put some pretty people on a screen and sell a video types of things. So that highlighted the good music and really highlighted the bad music, in my opinion. Yeah. The Milli Vanilli's of the world. There you go. Poster child for what I was just talking about. That's interesting though, Steve, because I think that also speaks to sort of the evolution or maturity of being a music listener is because you might have fallen in love with, say, the Public Enemies or Nirvana, but then by the end of the decade, you have some of those bands who are marketed because they now look like those bands are now sound like those bands. So when you say those production houses or whatever, you've got the guys now who we all have long hair, we all have ripped jeans. We might not be from Seattle once you get to the middle of late 90s, but we're going to look like it. We might not be from New York, but we're going to look like it. We're going to dress in Khakis and Converse because Dre has been rapping about it for a decade. So it's interesting that you said that, because a lot of that music is extremely popular towards the end of the decade. So it's interesting to see that there's a point in time where you're like, yeah, that's manufactured. And not for me, even though there's bands that are still huge to this day. I'm talking about Creed and, you know, I am limp biscuit. But you know what I mean? There's rage, right? And then there's limp biscuit. And people are going to argue that they're both on the same plane. And to me, that it's completely different. Yes, thank you. They're completely different. But you've also got true talent that succumbs to that. And I'll throw Mariah Carey out there, in my opinion. I mean, she owned the 90s. Her voice was amazing. And then as she goes along, I think she even did some rapping. And she changed a lot of her music persona. I don't know who she is. I don't know her personally. What I see on the screen are here. And what she did later in her career is not the same as what she did in the was phenomenal for her. And I think that she kind of took advice from people who are trying to change her to fit what was selling. That's a great point, because like you said, when she first came out early 90s, she was more like a pop singer, I always be my baby type songs and stuff like that. And then toward the latter half of the 90s, early 2000s, it was more of that hip hop influencer. R Amp B. It's a single with ODB, right? Yeah. Me and Mariah go back like babies and pacifiers. Come on. It's a classic line, man. Rest in peace, ODB. There we go. You got your unplugged special. That was something miraculous there. That was beautiful. And I couldn't picture that person. And the thing she was doing there, it was wonderful. Do something with ODB and those lyrics. I don't know. She made a ton of money off that song, though. Jeez. That's what it comes down to. It's all about where the money resides.

Participant #1:

I'll ask my first one, I guess. What was the most underappreciated album or song from the 90s? Do you want me to answer this for me? Go and answer. But I'll say it's okay if you have a couple. Yeah, I do. Many of these questions might have multiple answers and stuff per person. That's the question for me for a song. And these guys are always kind of like second fiddle to The Four Horsemen of Grunge. And I always thought, like, some of the pilots, vaseline was always just like a very underrated song. And it's like one of my favorite songs from the 90s. It's like, to me, their best song. And then also a couple, just honestly, anything by Whole. And I know I'll probably get some pushback, like with Company Love, but I think that first couple of old records are really good. Good morning. Yeah. And then I want to mention these guys just because I think more people should talk about them because there's one record and I'll give a shout out to my buddy Adam Swisher on this one who found the CD for us at Music Land. The band is called Four Squirrels and the record is called Example. It came out in 1995 and it came out like, I think it was like, two weeks before the guys were coming back from a gig at CBGB's in New York City, and they're coming back to Florida, and they're from Jacksonville, and their tire blew out in their van and two other guys died out of the band, or three of the guys, the lead singer in all of them. And the album came out two weeks later. And what's really creepy is he wrote a song about Kirk O Bain on there, and if you listen to the lyrics, it's about his death and everything, and then this guy's dead. Steve, check them out.

Participant #1:

It's grungy, but it's just a good rock band. And I just think they're unappreciated because we just found out about them by a guess because our buddy thought it was a funny name for a band, and then it turned out to be, like, really good record. And yeah, I just don't think that those guys could have been something big or they could have just been garbage. I don't know. I mean, we'll never know because the guys died in the band. So those are just a couple of things that I was thinking of for that. Yeah, I'll check them out. I've got one single, but then one album for an album. Hand on the torch from us three. You might remember the song Cantaloupe Bob Get Funky? Yeah, that's actually a really good album. The lead track is always a classic to me, but it samples. Blakely Quintet, a great jazz quartet. But just check out that whole album. It's really great. But then there's a Tom Petty song that I think did not get the love it deserved, which was Walls from the she's, the one soundtrack. Great song. I love that song. It's one of my favorite Tom Petty songs, but it's never in anyone's front and center for Tom Petty. I think it should be. That was written during the wildflowers, right? The session. Is that on the expanded one? Yeah, it is. That whole era for him when he got together is just fantastic. It's a great song, Steve. That actually is in my top 25 songs of the year when that song came out. Oh, yeah, that excel document I sent you. Super cool. I've always loved Walls, the Tom Petty channel. Occasionally you'll get some demo track versions of it. Pretty neat to listen to. Don, what about yours, man, mine is tough. Gosh, there's so many good ones. Honestly, I want to go a little cheesy route here, and obviously mine is going to be a little more hip hop focus, but I'm going to go with I Get Around by Tupac, featuring Digital Planets. Yeah. It was Shock G who refers of course, he was two artists, shock G and he was also Humpty Dumpty.

Participant #1:

Yeah, exactly. Digital Underground, right? Yes. Planets would be a good one for one hit. One.

Participant #1:

It's just one of those songs. Like, to this day, when I hear it, no matter what I'm doing, it just makes me just feel good. It makes me just want to get excited. I could be having the worst day ever. And I hear that song and it just takes me to a whole another space and I'm in it. I'm excited, I'm feeling better. Life could be a shitty day. The day just becomes better and I'm going for it. That's the lyrics that might get you in trouble this day and age. That's absolutely true. Absolutely true. Yeah, there's definitely some obviously sexually suggested conversations that might lead to some I hate to say it, but like some Bill Cosby type tendencies or anything.

Participant #1:

It's bad. It means drinking and all this and that and all that. But just the overall theme of the song and just like his message in it and then the melodies and the punchlines tupac gives you that and obviously it shows you why he was one of the most gifted songwriters of our generation. And obviously it was taken too soon from us for he had a lot of good music left to give us, which he still gave us a ton of great music even after his death. As soon as you mentioned the name of that it's one of those songs you mentioned the title and it ends is in my Head. I'm singing along, I'm hearing the beats. It's just one of those songs that is the surrounding piano at the beginning tops right into your head. And a great video, too. Funny video at that. So much so there was a couple of movies that actually tried to kind of play off of the video and incorporate into the film. So it was pretty good. That would be my one. Well, that'd be the one I would call out. I mean, there's so many others you can name, but I think that one kind of, for me, just resonates. How about you, Danny? It's hard for me because I was looking around at some stuff and I think the 90s had some of the when I think of underappreciated albums or songs or even bands is a lot of things that get lumped into sort of the one hit wonder. So just for fun, I looked up, like, the one hit wonders of the It's bands like Blind Melon. They had some really good records or two really good records. But there are so called a one hit wonder. Even a band like the Screaming Trees and the lead singer just passed away, mark Lannigan. But Sweet Oblivion, that record is very underappreciated to me. And I was actually talking about it with a buddy of mine and he was like, well, that's their most famous record. And I was looking at it. It sold like 300,000 copies even though it had a quote unquote hit single on it. So not everybody knows it. But a band for me that I love and I've seen they're getting a little bit more, I guess, not publicity, but people are newer bands, especially in the hardcore area, believe it or not, are name checking them. But a band from Champagne, Illinois called You'd Prefer An Astronaut. That record, I think, is just a masterpiece of sort of shoe gaze. Great songwriting, great lyrics, great band. So I would definitely put them up there as one of those. But like I said, there's so many underappreciated bands. When you dive into it in the 90s, it's a very fruitful area. I know that's why we're talking about it. But even like I said, one hit wonder is like you talk about, like, the Toadies. The album Possum Kingdom is a great record, but you might know one song, fountains of Wayne, Harvey Danger. All these bands that you're going through, all my seem stars written down. I got Harvey Danger flag folded. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'll stop.

Participant #1:

I thought you're going to say not a surge, honestly, because that's a band that now that I'm thinking about it, it's probably one of the most unappreciated bands of the 90s because Popular doesn't even sound like the rest of their catalog. And I would argue their catalog is so good. And I would say it's not even in the top three on that album. I think Stalemate is the best one on that top three song by those guys. Yes. And I had mentioned their album, The Weight Is a Gift on my Sonny Day episode. Steve, they're still a band that's putting out great stuff. Yeah, their stuff is so, yeah. Dan, I thought for sure that's who you're going to say it was not a surf. Because just because Popular just got remade by I've got so many bands, I'm like somebody remade Popular. Yeah. The band is called Pompom Squad, and it's a girl that leads singer of the band. And she redid the entire video with her of all the main characters and the guy from not a surface in it playing guitar and stuff. So it's pretty cool. Check it out. I'm sure it's on YouTube and stuff, but, yeah, her album came out last year. The band is called Pom Pom Squad, and it's kind of like a grittier Olivia Rodrigo, who was kind of like the big hit singer from last year, the 18 year old girl who like, I can't think of a driver's license was a song something else. But like, this girl, it's kind of like rougher. It's more alternative, I guess. It's pretty good. What question you got for us, Danny? We sort of touched on this a little bit when we were talking about the Judgment 9th soundtrack, but to me, the 90s were sort of like soundtracks played a huge role. I remember there were parts, there were times where I would have a soundtrack or somebody would be playing a soundtrack to a movie I didn't even know existed, but the soundtrack was awesome. So the question is, what's sort of the best soundtrack or compilation album of the Think? One a and one B for me is the single soundtrack and then the Crow soundtrack. So single soundtrack, it's sort of all the bands from Seattle except for two, paul Westerberg, lead singer of The Replacements from Minnesota, and then Smashing Pumpkins here from Chicago, but sort of encapsulated that whole Seattle sound and you name them, they're on it. And then The Crow soundtrack I thought was great. It had The Cure and Nine Inch Nails. Stone Temple Pilots is also on it. Mike, you'd mentioned them before, but just put them on as a record and let them play all the way through, even if you haven't seen the movie or don't care for the movie, but two amazing soundtracks for me. Yeah, I totally agree. Singles is the one I put down. I mean, that's one of my favorite movies ever. It's one of the reasons I wanted to move to Seattle when I was a kid. Besides, the music was like the and when my wife and I lived there last May, we went to the apartment where the garage is at and everything and stood pictures in front of it. But yeah, that soundtrack, I mean, only one song on that soundtrack is actually on an actual album. So, like, everything that's on there is those bands gave those songs up to be on that soundtrack, which is pretty cool. And then I got to agree with you on The Crow, I'm not like a big fan of Helmet, but that Helmet song on there is really that record is Betty. Yeah, very underappreciated, going back to underappreciated albums of the 90s. Yeah, but yeah, those two, even the Clueless soundtrack was pretty good, honestly, when I was looking at it, like thinking of the Clue soundtrack or Can't Hardly Wait when you have like now I'm going to blank on it, but The Replacements are on that, guns And Roses is on it and I forget who blanket Radio Head. I know, way to bring that up. Oh, and then Romeo and Juliet. Wasn't that in the 90s, too? That was the Leonard DiCaprio one. That was a pretty good soundtrack, too. Yeah, that had that song, that pop one hit wonder

Participant #1:

cardigans Love Fool. Yeah, that was the one that I lost at, which is a cover song, by the way. Oh, is it By The Laws? I'll go with mine. I've got three that I just wanted to mention just because you kind of have to I'm going to say the Forest Gump has to be out there. Oh, yeah. It's not 90s music, but it came out in the 90s. Yeah, but the other two above the rim, fantastic soundtrack with Regulate and Afro Puffs and just several great tracks on there. But then my favorite is The Commitments and again, not 90s music per se, but came out in the it is a soundtrack I still listen to to this day. Such amazing soul music from this Irish band out of nowhere. So great movie, great soundtrack. Dom, are you still with us, or are you having connection issues? So what's your best soundtrack compilation? He's on the move. You're on the move. I'd say, for me, it's a tough choice. I got several albums that really resonate with me as far as in the 90s. You have a lot of good soundtrack compilation albums. So I would say, though, for me, one that kind of thing about childhood sticks to me is it's a little bit different because it wasn't just, like, strictly, like, one genre, but he got Game Out, and it was a film by Spike Lee that came out to 98. So you got some RMB, you got some jazz, you got a little bit of everything on it. And for me, that one kind of resonated with me and stuck with me because it was just a different amount of type of music that was on that one album. I mean, you had some orchestra stuff. You had some R and D and some old school, some blues cut off there at the end. But, yeah, I agree. Yeah, that's a great soundtrack. Steven Stills, he got Game Song. Oh, was he really? Yeah, I'm looking at the soundtrack right now. I was like, Oh, Stephen Stills. Cool. All right, I'll ask Mike first question here. What band or artist best represents the you not just everybody. Just what's your band that just represents the me. I already mentioned them earlier, but Smashing Pumpkins and Mariah Carey, those two just to me, are 90s up and down. I know they've both done things after the 90s, but that's really where, to me, their strongest were. I hear them. It takes you right back to high school. I got to say, there's a lot of Miriam Carey talk on this that I was not expecting at all. No, I got to go back and study up.

Participant #1:

Carry on. How many? Number one, find out elvis or something. Yeah, no, I'm saying think of the question. It represents the 90s between her. They were in the pop music in RV.

Participant #1:

Nobody really knows. I mean, I know he's country, but even a person doesn't listen to country like me. Oh, no, garth Brooks needs to be mentioned in this. Absolutely. Because I didn't really care for country, but I could tell you, I could probably name 15 Garth Brooks songs that I can't get out of my head. No offenses as an album was gigantic in the Illinois Valley, at least, let alone globally.

Participant #1:

To me, it's like it's like, split, honestly, because the beginning of the 90s, it would have been Nirvana that would have, like, to me, represented the first half, and then the second half was like, radiohead. That's just to me, because let's be honest, when the shit, the music kind of just started disappear. That was decent. Probably like, 96, 97. They kind of, like, picked up and kind of took the torch with the bends and an okay computer. When did okay computer come out? Yeah. So I don't know. The 90s is weird because especially when it comes to music for alternative, it's like the first five years is the grunge and the good alternative and stuff, and then you get, like, your second tier guys and your third tier, and by the time it's the second half of the 90s, you're at Limp Biscuit and Corn and Creed and acoustic Creed, which is what the hell was that fair name? You're right. When you think about it right now, you've got 90 to 94, at least for me, would have been fourth grade through 8th grade, and then 94 through 98 was high school. So it's like almost two separate chunks of the decade that are completely different days of the new. The acoustic green. Yeah, but they're more the acoustic alice and Chains. Well, they had Alison. Chains hadn't Unplugged, so they had their acoustic. And honestly, the only reason I think I even liked that Touch, Peel and Burn song or whatever it was, is because the guys from acousticult back home would always cover, and it was pretty cool to see guys that you knew play something really well. But that's a whole other thing.

Participant #1:

Yeah. I got to go with two albums for the 90s, for me, if I think about it, is never Mind in The Chronic, just I think they sort of encapsulate. I know they're maybe an easy way to go, but they sort of encapsulate. What is great about the 90s, you've got two records that still stand the test of time. I mean, so much so that Dre was the Super Bowl.

Participant #1:

Hope you're okay over there. Don Verizon is telling me right now, I'm getting horrible service right now. And Tethered, whatever,

Participant #1:

it'll cut in now, and then we get the voices. It's funny shit. Do we want to postpone? Do we want to do something when he's got more time to do it or better connection? I was thinking if he answers this and we can kind of the three of us and we can bring him back, have them sit and then come back. I don't know. I'm just trying to think of it, actually. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good suggestion. The three of you kind of roll with it. Be really disappointed if we don't talk about the Cherry Pop and Daddy Squirrel Nuts. Are we going to talk about the swing revolution? I learned how to swing dance in college because that's how fucking was sky. Real big fish. Hey, they're on the one hit wonder list for me. The bucket company is going to give me a lot of money and everything is going to be all right.

Participant #1:

We're going to keep rolling. He's going to try and log back in later when he gets to a stable place. Are we all looking for a stable place? I can't argue that should I go back and answer the records for the 90s, or should we just pick up somewhere when he gets back on it's the artist or band that represents a dan, not the album. Can't even read. I thought you got, like, a 36 on the reading part of your I was listening to the question that was answered and not reading off a script, and I had people behind the fourth wall there, buddy. The question that was answered or asked, what band or artist best represents 90s music to you? It doesn't say album. I accept your answer, though. Dan. That's fine. No, I think it's a good answer. I am the moderator. I wear the cape. I make the fucking swoosh noises. This is mine. I wear the kites in his family. Should we talk about Crash Test, Dummies and Superman now, I promised my wife we would mention Crash Test, Dummies, Superman's, dead Fuel, Mike, isn't it? Oh, no, it's RL. Marissa's coworker that she's working with, her brother was a bass player. My good buddy, his cousin is the founder of I don't know if they're 90s or 2000s, but the band Chevell, they had the song Send the Pain Below. I think they're the odds. Yeah. Early 2000s. Yeah. I think that first blahki. Saw him a couple of times live. He said, they're fantastic live. But what's funny is he was the founder of the band, and he came up with the name. Right. So then he was going to leave the band, and he sold the name to the other guys, and they paid them crap, tons of money. And I was like, you named it after a car that's already trademarked, and you still got paid for it? Yeah. Genius. Genius. We'll continue on with some questions. I'll ask another one here. What's a banner album that didn't click with you in the 90s that you grew to appreciate later in life? I think I can answer this one. When I was in high school you can say it's. Okay. I know I hated sublime. Hated sublime with a fiery, hot passion in high school. And then I don't know, maybe I smoked enough weed in college to understand it or something. But now I dig it. I mean, it's nice, relaxing stuff. It's not terrible. It's not the first thing I would put on, but I just remember people in school, like, wearing sublime stuff and just be like, oh, this band is just garbage. It reminded me at the time of, like, Steve, you'll probably be mad, but Jimmy Buffett I hate Jimmy Buffett as well. But I really did. I got into supply more later because I thought listening to him, like, play guitar, he's a better guitar player than I gave him credit for, especially on the acoustic. It's kind of like the same thing. Like, I'm not a huge Zack Brown fan, but that guy can freaking shred on acoustic guitar. It's so appreciative, especially when I've tried and failed to play the guitar at least ten times in my life. And his lyrics are kind of corny and all that stuff, but it's some good stuff that you can always put on at a party and people are going to go like, I'd be like, Turn that off. Well, when I was at parties in high school, even, obviously I didn't get invited to a lot of them because I always hated Sublime. But, yeah, that is a ban for sure. I got into, like way later. I listened to a lot of Sublime senior year. It was heavy on rotation in the garage. I got to go with Tool, believe it or not. I loved Undertow, I love Sober and some of those early songs, but then, for whatever reason, it didn't click with me. I liked what I heard, but I never dug deep into them. And then, as Michael Can attest to is recently especially, we went to see them now, three years ago now, Michael. Yeah, 2018 on the Fear in Auckland, whatever the new record is called. Sorry, but yeah, there are a band that I went through and then just once, I listened and dug deeper into it and heard it. It's everything I love. I don't know why it didn't click with me first. I think there was just so much other things going on and I like the singles and everything, but I never did my due diligence and listen to the full records more than a handful of times. And, yeah, it was a big mess on my part and they're obviously fantastic band, but it just didn't click with me at first for some reason. I got to agree with you on that, too. I was into Undertow and then I don't think you and I ever listened to Anemia, like, ever when we were in high school, and then I didn't really care for them. And then a perfect circle came out when we were in college and I was like, Oh, man, I forgot that Maynard has a fantastic voice. And I'm like, Maybe I should go back and listen to the other cool stuff. And I got into that and like, Opiate and that live. It was like Live and kind of like oddball stuff because they did No Quarter Live on that disk and I freaking love Led Zeppelin. And the No Quarter was really cool how they did that. That was the other one I was thinking, too, Dan, was to yes. You know what? Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't know if it was something because to me, there were one of those bands where you were either obsessed with them or you didn't like them. There was no, oh, I like a couple of songs. Like, their fans are so dedicated and so all in, and I think for me, it was like I remember growing up, what I thought was awesome is like Sober the video was on 120 minutes and it was on Headbanger's Ball. I was like, this is awesome. But the stop animation was just a great video. But yeah, and then seeing them live is just amazing. Tool is another van that was heavy rotation in Hank's Garage. That's exactly, I think, how I got into them a lot more, too. Was walking over after a couple of drinks at my house to go over to the Hanks Garage two blocks down for a couple more drinks. And then I'd come in and you guys would be rocking anema or anima I never know how to yeah. I'm not sure how it's actually pronounced, those two albums thing. Yeah, that one. And Undertow were just amazing albums. My live experience with Tool was less than stellar. It's one of the worst concerts I've ever been to. Really? Yes. I saw him out in Hawaii, and bands often come to Hawaii and put on a half ass show, like, just enough to pay for their vacation and call it a day. And they did it on the, uh, campus and there was no alcohol right off the bat. There was just a lot of angry people. And then the concert was very weird. There was a moment where there's like a 20 minutes bass solo where Maynard turn around and play PlayStation for 20 minutes and everyone stone sober. So we're like, what the hell are we doing? It wasn't even a good base solo. It was literally done, done for 20 minutes. It was just terrible. And most people left early. That was on the tour for Schism. Lateralis got that album, which was an OK album. I don't think it was as good as their previous ones, but I haven't really listened to them since. They kind of faded from my playlist. See, that's funny because I like Lateral. It's my favorite. Well, I was just going to say, Steve, give the new record Fair inoculum a Chance. Because that's really when that came out, two years ago now already, or whenever that was going to be. I think it was 2019. Okay. Because came up the next year, I was like, yeah, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to listen to this. And I was like, holy cow, this is just a fantastic record. And then went back and sort of caught up and then saw them live and they ended up putting on a good show. It's kind of cool when the bands from then are now older, maybe sober, for the guys who couldn't really pull it off when they were not sober, not insinuating anything from those guys, and they put on a good show. Yeah. Steve I would say as a guy who likes Floyd, those last three records are very progressive. It takes the whole ten minutes to get into the song. But Parable and Parabola like Opilateralis to me, is like some of the best progression and lyrics kind of altogether from them. But that's just like, my opinion, man. That concert just sucked my enjoyment of Tool out of it. A bad concert will do that some time for sure. Because we were so pumped for it. Yeah, we were really looking forward to that. The show Danny and I went to, I was actually at the flu when I went to it, and I told my wife about it after. And for Christmas this year, she bought me tickets to go see Tool with her. She wants to go see it. She was like, man, the way you and Danny talked about that show, she's like, I want to go. So we're going, I think, in a couple of weeks, the United Center to go see them just because we were so it was a good show to me. That was great. If they come out and they say they're going to do Undertowe and it's an entirety, I'm there. You'd be lucky if you get a song from Undertow one or two. It's funny, though, you mentioned seeing a ban that totally turned you off in a 90s band that I saw, and it turns out it was in a tumultuous time for them. But the Red Hot Chili Peppers, it was early two thousand s. And I think what soured it for me is that Queens of the Stone Age was opening up, and I don't even know if their record was out yet. Queens was pretty new, maybe rated R, I think is their first record, had just come out, but they blew them out of the water. Queens was amazing, and I don't know if the Peppers are just having a bad night or if it was just I was having a bad night, but it was like, oh, I don't want to listen to them. They definitely went through some turmoil, though, so you might have caught them in there. I agree, though, because I saw him the only time I've ever seen him was that Lala, like in 2006 or seven or something like that. And people are like, Oh, man, I can't wait to see the Peppers when they come around this year. And I was like, Man, I kind of thought they sucked live. They seemed like they were just phoning it in. They seem like we're like, too good to be at La Paluza. La Paluza kind of made you guys the headline boundary when like seven or eight. And it's a festival set, so your hits mainly, and they did fine. I mean, everybody enjoyed it. It wasn't something I was going to write home about, but I mean, it was an enjoyable show. Yeah, well, and again, with a band like that who well documented, substance abuse and all that kind of stuff, and the turmoil with everybody, you don't know if it was what was going on behind the stage or behind the scenes, rather. There's a lot of bands that I'll say, oh, I love them live and somebody like, well, when I saw him, he could barely speak. The singer couldn't speak or the guitar player wasn't there. And you're like, Oh, well, then I guess you had a bad experience. My answer for this question is Weezer. Blue album was pretty popular in the late ninety s and I never just latched onto it. I heard Buddy Holly was everywhere and I thought it was an okay track, but it just kind of never really jumped out at me. And when the Green album came out that I got, let me give these guys a fair shot. Listen to it. Love the Green album. So I went back, bought the Blue Album, and then it was like, oh, okay, this is actually really damn good. I stuck with Weezer for many years. What do you think about Pinkerton? Because that to me, that's my favorite record from them. That's just like the indie weird guy answer for those guys. Always, though I'm not the biggest fan of it. The Blue album to me is kind of their pinnacle. It's just a great album. The Green album is great too, but just not as good. The Red one wasn't bad. I would put that on the same level as Pinkerton. And then I know they've got some other ones in there that I just haven't listened to. But yeah, shake your head. I know I can't, because anything after Malladre is really tough to listen to. I don't know if this is in defensive Weezer, because I feel the same way you do, but what I find interesting is that even when I say it's like, oh my God, there are lyrics, all the music sounds great, and then the lyrics and then you go back and you're like, wait, I'm defending a band. Or the lyrics. And then their biggest hits are about unraveling a sweater looking like Buddy Holly riding a surfboard to work. Right? And then Fingerton has got some real questionable shit on it. So now they're singing about pork and beans and I'm all of a sudden upset because it's not intellectual enough for me. Pick up a song, beverly Hills. The Red album is really good. Well, do you know that? You want to talk about dorky spreadsheets? He has Excel documents with programmed stuff. He can make a song out of this Excel document that he has put together from all these different lyrics together. Yeah, because when he went to Harvard and he came back, he was like, I can write a pop song. This is exactly how you do it, ABC. And he just goes to this thing and you can just create them. Which I thought, well, in a way that's kind of genius. In another way, it's like, man, that's just like the Laziest writing I've ever heard. I got to see them about a year or two before I got married down here in Atlanta. And it was actually a really good show. I felt really old being there. So this would have been 20, 10, 20 09, somewhere in there. Because me and my buddy, we didn't fit in with the young kids. We didn't fit in with the dads who brought their kids, and we were just kind of somewhere in the middle. But it was actually a really good show. And during Hash Pipe, he actually brought in children's orchestra from one of the local middle schools, and they actually played Hash Pipe on their kid instruments. And it was really neat, like a very avant garde sort of way to play one of their hits. Yeah, we'll see. I thought they were boring. Sorry. They played down at ISU, and it was them, Tenacious D and Jimmy World and the best bands concert ever. I don't know what is the best band that day was Tenacious D. Like, the two guys with acoustic guitars was the best band that day. And I just was like I was so disappointed because I wanted them to be good, like, live. But he just didn't say anything and he just played the songs and then was like, Thank you, and then walked off stage. But I don't know, I like RadioHeads, too, and they do the same thing. I guess my honorable mention for this particular question was The Beastie Boys. So those are guys that I never clicked on, but then later on, they were huge in the barracks, in the army barracks. They were inescapable Oh, Hello, Nasty. Was that a huge record in 98? Well, Communication is one of my favorite records of the 90s that I was going to talk about. Sure Shot, So What You Want. Yeah, those are great songs, but they didn't click with me then. But later on and I got to see them at Bonneroo, and they were fantastic. Have you seen the Apple documentary thing that they have about the BC boys? No. It's the two surviving members, and they basically talk about their history and, like, a live concert type setting, and it's got, like, clips and all their stuff from the beginning to, like, when I just know Yelp is the guy who died. I can't remember what his brat name was. Adam Karrak. But it's really good. Next time you buy an iPhone, they give you, like, a year free of Apple TV. I would suggest to watch that thing. It's really good. All right, so, Mike, what's the question for you? So in your mind, what's the most, like, overplayed album or song that you hear from the you're just kind of like this again. I would say my album is I'll probably get some slack for this, even though I really like this band, but I really like their first four records a lot is the Black Album from Metallica. You're not wrong there. That was the first record CD I ever bought, like, physically bought. And then I would say songs, and it's kind of funny because both these bands have the same song name and it's radiohead and Stanton pilots creep. Like, those songs are so overplayed and they just bugged me and then anything No Doubt does. I've decided that the further I've gotten away from, the more I dislike No Doubt. I don't know if it's because of her solo stuff or what, but just now I just can't listen to Don't Sleep or any of that stuff. It's just her voices. Yeah. I don't know what happened. They never bothered me. But now her voice is just so grading to me now. Yeah. You don't like her rapping? B-A-N-A-N-A-S. That's the only way I know how to spell it. Yes. What I was going to say for this one is it's sacrilegious of me to say, but I almost think it smells Like Teen Spirit. And let me explain before the pitchforks come out, to me, it's canon and it's one of the greatest songs ever written. But if I was going to sit down and listen to Nirvana, I'm not going to play it. If it comes on, I'm going to listen to it. But if I want somebody to know the essence of Nirvana, it's the same way it becomes their way to heaven for our generation. I love the song. It's fantastic. It's one of the greatest songs ever written. But if I want somebody to turn somebody on to Led Zeppelin, it's not their way. If I want Nirvana now, I might play Smells Like Teen Spirit, but there's so many better songs and there's so many if somebody's like, oh, you like 90s music here. Smells Like Teen Spirit, like, okay, I get it. You don't necessarily have to hear it again. I don't have to hear Back in Black ever again because it's in my DNA. So it's just one of those songs. I don't know. It's one of those things where Nirvana now is like a myth. It's like the Beatles. They're both overrated and underrated because people just take it for granted that they're great, and some people say it without even listening to it or diving into the music. And I think that's sort of where it Smells Like Teen Spirit falls in. I think a lot of people like it because they're supposed to, and when you take away sort of that cultural and sort of the songwriting aspect of it and don't really listen to it, it sort of loses meaning. And I think that's sort of where that song is now for me. Again, it's one of my favorite songs, but if it comes out, I don't necessarily need to hear it or I'm not going to go back, man, I got to hear Nirvana. I got to hear Smells Like Teen Spirit. It's the same way with Stairway, it's the same way with Back in Black. It's completely fair. Yeah. And like you said, that they're almost like a myth. It's like for the Batman trailer when I can't remember it's on a plane. I think it is that they're doing, but it's like, it's not them. It's not Nirvana, but it's somebody covering it. And it's one of those creepy, slowed down, like, yeah, I think more people were excited that it was a Nirvana cover because it was like, Oh, my God, it's Nirvana more than it was the Batman. I said that to Marissa. I go, do you know what song this is? And she's like, No, I don't really recognize it. And I was like, Oh, man. But guys our age are just like, I'll go see the Batman. They just put that in the background the whole time. But they are they're like a mess. They're not even we are talking about the 90s, so we should sound like four old Gen X guys complaining about Stay off my lawn. But I think it's one of those things where I guess the same way that we would walk around with Led Zeppelin shirts, we could be into it, but somebody out when you could buy a Led Zeppelin shirt at Target. And now that's Nirvana and that's bands that are still not to say that it doesn't matter and that people like music is timeless, obviously. And if you fall in love with Led Zeppelin, like we all have, you fall in love with it. I guess what I'm saying is that if it becomes superficial, becomes background, where now it Smells Like Teen Spirit is in the grocery store. It's sort of like, that wasn't supposed to happen. Like when my mom says, Oh, I like that. That Smells Like Teen Spirit song. It's like, yeah, when I was a kid, it was like, all this noises, so it's just so annoying. And I can't believe you listen to that. I remember when he died, we were coming home from Disney World and I had my headphones on and my mom's like, Wake your brother up. And I'm like, what? It's like that Kirk bang. I killed himself. And I was like, what? And she's like, Yeah, he's dead. And I'm like, Wait, what? And then now she's like, I really like that. Nirvana, Pearl Jam and all those bands are pretty good. I would like to go see the Pearl Jam. I'm like, now it's like, we can never listen to this again because you live in your teen and you're so angsty. Like, this is our music. You can't have it. And now it's like, Oh, it's good. I like it. It's a good melody to it. My mom, by the way, is a 75 year old Jewish woman, so it sounds like he's fair. It's got a good melody. I don't like what he's saying about Libido, who has a speedo on I don't understand. Just to go back to it, I just think it's one of those things where it's just become part of again. It's like hearing the Beatles. Like, you instantly know every song by them. They're almost like Christmas carols at this point to everyone on the face of the earth. Whether they have never heard the Beatles before or if you've heard them 500 times or 5 million times, you know the songs are in your DNA. To me, that is Stairway. That is never mind. I mean, that smells like teen spirits, so it's sort of, like, overplayed. I don't know. Can you really play those songs enough? But they're not something I need to necessarily sit down and listen to frequently just because they're ingrained in myself. Yeah, both your Swords of Kings, Beer and the Black Album from Metallica, I think that's completely fair because those were just as the question is overplayed. They were saturated 100%. And then both of those bands, when you listen to more the stuff that's not on the radio, that's when you discover why they're such great bands. What we should say, too, they were played or overplayed with good reason. Right. They're phenomenal artists, they're phenomenal records. Whatever you want. The argument about Metallica I'll die on a hill for Metallica. They were one of the best thrash metal bands ever. They became a really good, hard rock band. That's my take on it. Do what? That reload. But, I mean, they were played and overplayed for views. Is that a St. Anger flag behind you? What a terrible I'll give. Death Magnetic is a pretty good record, but it was a better return to form. But St. Anchor. Yes. St. Anger was so bad. You got to hear that. Drumming is bad. Yeah, there's the drumming was bad. And there's no guitar solos. No, you have great guitar players. Like, give two really good guitar players in the band, maybe they need to day the state. If you watch that documentary, Some Kind of Monster, Kirk Hammett's like, Why don't we have guitar solos? And Lars says something like, well, that's trendy. Everybody does that. That's why you have a lead guitarist. You're the one who creates a skill that these guys have. Use it. We want to hear it black for the wonderful lyrics of Suicide. No, I'm listening for the guitar solos. Well, I think what really lost me is when we were on The Unforgiven Part Seven, and you're like, Okay, we get the idea. Didn't that kid get out of that fucking box? What happened? Like, you had to be out by then, right? What, did they celebrate their 30th anniversary two years ago or something? Is their tour right now 40? Yeah. Sorry, I meant 40, not 30. Sorry. Well, the Black Album last year was 30 years old. Yeah. So they're doing something right. They're a kickass band. Oh, they're fantastic live. I mean, fireworks and just, like, rotating stage, and they still sound great live. Not like he's the greatest singer in the world anyways, but he's not supposed to be. He's supposed to go out there and growl and snap and I think he's underrated then. Snaps are bad. Yes, but I think he's underrated. He's got his style. As soon as you hear him, you know him. Speaking of Live, though, I mean, I've seen him three times. My first concert was up at Pet Catonica with them and they were fantastic. And then I saw them at Bonneroo, they headlined and it was a great, fantastic set. The first bonus I went to, but then in the middle of that, it's another Hawaii trip. Saw him out in Hawaii. It sucked, really, with Monster Magnet opening for them. And there was no Pyro. It was a pisspoor venue and it was just I don't know, people were sitting. Yes, I got to see him. This was probably when Loaded Reload were coming out. So the opener, Kid Rock opened, then Seven Dust and then Metallica. So that tells you how long ago this was. And it was a smaller venue, I think it might have been at the Allstate Arena out here. And it was just unbelievable. They came out and I think they might have played two songs from Load or Reload, whatever record was at the time, but everything else was just straight, everything you wanted to hear from them. And like you said, the Pyro with one the Flashpots and everything. The Pyrotechnic stuff is amazing. Yeah, well, you had also there, when I saw them at Pekatonica in 98, they actually said, we feel like playing old shit. And they did and it was fantastic. Everyone loved it. Whereas in Hawaii let's hear the hits from Load and Reload. There's hits on there. I don't think you could put together headphones from those two records. I was just going to say Fuel. So when I used to do I used to work for represent a client that was had an NHRA team and that was played at every starting line, at every track

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song. It's not the worst song. We had guitar solos on those albums, so if we had my brother on here, he'd be fighting. He likes loading Reloads. He's had a big conversation with me and Danny about it and we're like, no, you can't convince us. He's listening to Ride The Lightning and Master, I assume. Yes. Like I said before, I had to compartmentalize. I had to say, this isn't the band that did that. This is a great hard rock band. So would I rather listen to Load and Reload? I Can't Stand by St. Anger? No. Stanger's Bad. Well, Death Magnetic is great, and the last one is good, too. Now I'm blanking. Isn't that Deaf Magnetic? No, I don't think they've had anything since then. Yeah, well and you got to acknowledge the tipping point for them. When Cliff Burton died in 85, that was really the end of their thrash. A Hardwired Hardwired has got some great tunes on it. Yeah, that's got some good jams on there, because is that the one that lady Gaga sang with them from that record on. I don't know about Lady Gaga except anything that you or your wife told me. It was on Moss. It into a flame they did, and she came out in one of the coolest metal shirts I've ever seen, and I've been searching for it ever since. I can't find it. It was probably four grand. Oh, yeah. It was probably made for her. All right, I'm going to go with my overplay songs here. I went with a couple of songs, but to preface this, I worked in a truck stop. I worked at SAP Brothers for three years in high school. Love it. So there's two songs here that I never, ever want to hear again, and one is Blue by Leanne Rhimes. You may not remember that one, but that was playing. Oh, I know it. Yeah, it's like a Yodel song, but the main one is All I Want to do from Cheryl Crow. Yeah, I'm with you. Really? Okay. I can't stand that song anymore. It was maybe good at the time for the couple of MTV plays, but that song is just I don't know, maybe it crosses over to too many fringe genres of country and pop and I don't know, whatever, but it's just I hate that song. Well, it's one of those things that was played everywhere. You couldn't escape. It's always in a bar because it's such a bar song, too. That's it. Yeah. It's such a dive bar song that in friends and little places. Yeah, sorry about that. Yes, friends and loan places. I don't think I could that was the one nice thing about my wedding, is we did not have anybody who gets married from Illinois Valley. That song is 100% polite. I enjoy it when I'm three sheets to the wind and everyone's just singing along. It's Piano Man, the dive bar song. Right. But I don't necessarily ever want to hear that one again. It's a special time of entertainment, though, when someone sings that karaoke and no one in the crowd joins in. Yeah, just leave them up there to die, apparently, because they have friends. Because that one you have to have, like, a crowd sing that one, for sure. Oh, man, that's like up there singing American Pie and you realize there's three verses that you didn't realize existed. Yeah. Can I just do the chorus? We could talk about 70 songs that I never need to hear again. That would be one of them.

Participant #1:

I'd like to thank you for listening to this part of our 90s music roundtable. The full three hour episode is already up on our Patreon, otherwise the next part will be out in a few weeks. What music topics should we cover in future bonus episodes? Let us know on our socials. Thanks again for listening. And as I always say, listen to the full album. Until next time,

Participant #1:

A podcast from the Sidereal Media Group. Back to you, Anchors.

https://musicrewind.podbean.com/e/bonus-90s-music-roundtable-part-1/