30 years ago today (April 26), my favorite band released one of my favorite albums. In 1994 my 14th birthday had just passed, I was getting even more into music, and A Date with the Smithereens was MINDBLOWING then. And to me, it still is. This is a RIPPER of a fucking album. From the opening of War for My Mind to lighter tracks to maybe one of my favorite songs of all TIME, Sleep the Night Away.
A Date is also an interesting look back at peak Big Record Label as the rise of big 90s bands like Nirvana (who LOVED the Smithereens, they'd play their tape in their tour van) and kinda 80s rock like the Smithereens (despite being British Invasion flavored) taking a bit of a backseat to heavier, newer rock bands. I loved both.
And 30 years later, I STILL play this one REGULARLY. They recently put out a box set with four 45s and a bunch of extra songs - I don't have the box, but I heard the extra songs, and they are AWESOME.
RIP Pat DiNizio, and long live the Smithereens (who still perform and tour with other singers, something I'm sure Pat would have loved).
This week's #TuneTuesday is #TheOpener, the first song you remember hearing live. That's an easy one for me - my first show was Foo Fighters at UMBC in 1996, I was 16. They opened with "Enough Space", but the song I vividly remember was "This is a Call" - still an incredible song all these years later. I had the album, loved it, and was floored to hear it live. RIPPER of a set, too - and it's online here: https://youtu.be/uQncL1LfPYQ
I have another one for #TuneTuesday and #SameTitleDifferentSong. This one often comes to mind for me, too. The third one is missing the 'ing' but I'm still counting it, especially since Dave played for Tom and they were friends. I love the SHIT outta all THREE of these songs.
Surprised I missed saying something on the exact date (Jan 25, 1994) but 30 years ago as of that date, my favorite album of all time was released. The Smithereens may be my favorite band overall & I love their albums, but my favorite album is Too High to Die by the Meat Puppets.
1994 was a great year for music. Superunknown, Jar of Flies, Downward Spiral, just everything else amazing from that year. Too High is incredible. I can always play it, any time of day or night. It's my teen years imprinting my music tastes for the rest of my life, and they have.
Still blown away 30 years later at how damn cool this song is, hearing this when I was 14 when it came out in 1994 was mindblowing. The wild creeping walking bassline, the odd riffs and changes, the guitar and bass flair- just a crazy, fantastic song. What a piece of music.
There's a lot of reasons why the Smithereens are my favorite band, and songs like this are big ones.
I've been a big fan of Stone Temple Pilots since the early 90s -- I was 12 when their first record came out. And I loved how psychedelic they got with the next albums.
I saw them BRIEFLY years later at a free secret show on Miami Beach - my friend and I raced there last minute & caught maybe 4 songs. Still one of the greatest shows I've ever seen. BEYOND tight. Effortless.
These are my 24 favorite STP songs. They'd make a killer double album. 12 songs per disc.
Today of course marks the 30th anniversary of nine inch nails' legendary record The Downward Spiral. This masterpiece of an album was released March 8, 1994, and was a pretty intense thing for 14 year old me to hear.
This photo is from Instagram - Trent just posted it, saying what 28 year old him had to say still excites him but breaks his heart. It's a dark album, man. All the pigs are still lined up.
I've been a huge Foo Fighters fan since early on (I was a big Nirvana fan in the 90s too). I was psyched to get to see Foo in 1996 (edit: originally said 1995) at UMBC (a college!) right after the first album, and then again a couple years later, when they were at a big arena show.
Yesterday I went through and made a fully chronological playlist of ALL my favorite Foo songs-- 49 of them on this list. Even covers and b-sides in here - might be something you haven't heard yet! Dave is a great songwriter. No ballads or anything too light, ALL (mostly) heavier ones here.
Soundgarden's 'Superunknown' still sounds just as amazing as it did when I bought the CD from Circuit City in 1994 when I was 14. Easily one of the greatest albums of all time. That day, I bought my first 3 CDs ever -- the others being Jar of Flies and Versus. What a YEAR for music 1994 was.
I had this badass Soundgarden "Kickstand" shirt around 1995 probably that was done by an artist called Pushead. I wore it til it fell apart. Wish I still had it 😂 They sell for a lot now (see attached sold eBay listing, not mine).
That back graphic! 🔥 What a SONG, too. That first line, "Kickstand, you broke loose and I threw up" it's just like 🤯
Soundgarden were on another LEVEL with this album.
As a teen I listened to a ton of Sonic Youth. They were my best friend's favorite band, too. I saw em at Lollapalooza '95- 🤯 by '95 they already had a bunch of 80s albums (ok, not my favorites) Dirty in '92 (classic), Experimental Jet Set in '94 (my fave?) & did songs from '95's great Washing Machine too.
I think my favorite SY song is this one, "Starfield Road" - this show is from '96.
"Only Happy When It Rains" by Garbage was released in 1995 on their self-titled album. This alt-rock hit is known for its dark lyrics and Shirley Manson's captivating vocals.
#TheMetalDogArticleList #BLABBERMOUTH
HELMET Shares 'Big Shot' Music Video
... The track is taken from the band's latest studio album, "Left", ...released... Friday, November 10...
I have a funny story, it's pretty long, but just - wild things happen in life sometimes.
I was 19 and my friends and I were in a band in Maryland in 1999 (as I had been since around 1993. I played bass and was one of the band's 3 singers, along with the other guitarists). The drummer was driving his truck to take us all to see Fuel (just looked up the date/venue, thanks, internet - it was May 21, 1999, and we were going to Recher Theatre in Towson, Maryland).
We dug Fuel but weren't familiar with the other bands opening. So we see Fuel, and Finger Eleven opened for them also (who we liked as well, maybe more later? I'm not sure if we did by then?) and also this other band that I didn't know.
So after this first band plays, I see them sitting over at their merch table. Their show had been really good! So I walk up and I'm looking at their stuff. And one of the guys in the band points at the CD on the table (his own album) and just calmly goes, "you should buy it. It's good". And I laughed, and was like, okay. But only if all you guys sign it. And they're like, HELL yeah! They all signed it. I still have it.
That band was then called Virgos Merlot (originally called The Devine, and eventually just Virgos). I later heard them a little on the radio ("Gain" mostly). The lead singer and main songwriter for The Devine, Virgos Merlot AND Virgos was a dude named Brett Hestla. The album was good. DAMN good (for the late 90s).
But keep in mind that Brett Hestla can fucking SING. And he can fucking WRITE GREAT SONGS. And keep in mind, they are BETTER live-- Virgos Merlot could PLAY these songs. The recording is great, and pretty solid, but really doesn't even fully capture how cool they were live. (If you wanna hear the full Signs of a Vacant Soul album, the link is at the end of this post - even just the first song.. the dynamics - check the end of the song, it's a sonic ASSAULT. And the album has a couple decent ballads, too.)
(Also, another YouTube link below- Virgos Merlot did a demo for Til Tuesday's "Voices Carry" and it RIPS. Just a demo. But it's worth a listen.)
Flash forward a few years. I'm in another band in the mid-2000s, another STATE, as I now lived in Florida. (The band I was in at that point sounded kinda more like Fuel -- the one in 1999 didn't, we sounded more like Weezer).
Anyway, my band in the early/mid-2000s often played this club in Fort Lauderdale and Virgos (what they're called then) comes to town. And my band opens for them! Wild. (Couldn't find the date of the show and I don't even remember the name of the venue then to look it up- just a club. My old bands have all been scrubbed from the internet by time, and so have this venue's dates, apparently.)
Back then, Virgos had recently done another album called The Path of Least Resistance (that was REALLY damn good- the FIRST link below is just to "Ammunition", probably my favorite song on the album -- it has a real STP feel).
Path only has that one link on YouTube, the songs aren't even split off haha. Ah, the 2000s. And check that soaring vocal hook RIGHT off the bat in "Collapse", the album's first song, if you listen - the album is GREAT.
Brett was around doing other stuff for a while (I think he was friends with one of the guys in Creed- they were from Florida too). I think even Path gets a little Christian-y (I'm not sure) - but it sounds STELLAR. Just love the guy's voice and songwriting. If you want a SOLID rock band, man, this stuff is ridiculous.
Brett might still put stuff out, I should look it up. Or he might just produce more now. What a singer and songwriter though. Like, WAY better than Creed. Frustrating that bands like this got overlooked and stuff like Creed got so big.
Anyway, if you've read this whole thing, kudos, and hope you dig these tracks.
I lived in New Hampshire for many years and we'd go to Boston for shows a lot- at T.T. the Bears (closed now 😢) and the Midway Cafe.
I saw The Gravel Pit at T.T.'s back in the early 2000s (a band made up of a singer/songwriter GENIUS, Jed Parish, and members of The Figgs).
Not sure how much (if any) The Gravel Pit got around outside of Massachusetts, but their album Silver Gorilla from 1999 is a modern rock MASTERPIECE. Jed's VOICE, LYRICS, and the arrangements-- give it a listen:
Revisiting Poster Children today because @communalsauce reminded me of them the other day. (Never forget bands you used to listen to!) Back in 1995, their album 'Junior Citizen' blew my friends and my minds-- we were obsessed with it. I had a band or two back then I played bass in. We'd cover 'Drug I Need' (track 5) and I'd sing it-- what a song. The whole ALBUM is a VIBE and still gives me chills (those first few tracks!!) It's kinda Pixies, kinda something else. If you like wild, weird rock music (like I do), this is for you.