That @%#$ 90's alternative mix, or: Generation X=X+1, ad infinitum

[slipjig3]

Yeahhhh, so remember that 90's alternative nostalgia mix I was obsessing over several years back? The one that snowballed from one disc to four to seven to eight to nine, which I swore was the last revision until I coughed up Disc Ten one day? And then ten was it, the last straw, no way was I doing any more because frankly there was no more to do?

Show of hands, all you who didn't see this coming. Anyone? You over there in the back? Hello?

I would like to take a moment to blame someone who isn't me for this: rain_herself and I were at the local Verizon store for her complimentary phone upgrade last month, and she struck up a conversation with the guy behind the counter, who as it turns out is in a 90's cover band. She naturally flagged me over, mentioned the Alt 90's Mega Mix o' Hades-Spawned Decade-Long Speed-Freak-Flavored Obsessive Tinkering, and he in turn said that he wouldn't mind a copy when I offered. That, of course, made me think of the one or two liiiiittle details I always thought needed fixing in the playlists and what better time to do so and let me just take a peek in here and long story short I found myself with a neck cramp and two more discs.

Twelve discs now. TWELVE. What the Jesus monkey-fuck, people? I've joked about it before, but I think I've truly crossed over into the realm of the pathological on this one. It's gotten to where I can't even see the steeple on my original intent behind the mix (nostalgia triggers), having drifted through a nebulous "being representative of the blah blah blah" period and into an educational one, should I ever strike up a conversation with a Millenial who's recently gotten into the music of the time and would like to know more. (I shouldn't have been surprised that there's a large subset of the current generation who's into 90's alternative the way my crowd embraced 60's psychedelica at that age.) I'm at the point where I'm thinking of starting a new sub-mix of the stuff that fits the scope I started with. So, like the first mix I made ten or twelve years ago, only better. Something has gone desperately wrong.

Now to be fair, I do think I actually made the mix better this time around, not just bigger. Among other improvements:

• Added some missing artists who really should have been there all along; No Doubt, Morrissey and Phish are probably the biggest corrected oversights (how did I not have Phish, for frick's sake?), but I also tossed in Big Head Todd and the Monsters, the Meat Puppets, Lush, Eve's Plum, Fastball, Bad Religion, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, and a mess of others, emphasis on "mess." (Still couldn't choke down Del Amitri, the Rembrandts, or the Mighty Mighty Bosstones; given that even the Cranberries made the cut, that's saying something.)


• Pared down the last two repeated artists, so the artist listing for each of the 235 tracks is now unique.


• Swapped out some tracks for hopefully better choices by the same artists (e.g. taking out "Found Out About You" in favor of "Hey Jealousy," "Anna Begins" in favor of "Round Here," "Caught a Lite Sneeze" in favor of "Crucify," stuff like that).


• Made sure cover art and and other info is correct


• Resequenced the whole damn thing; if nothing else, I wanted "Closing Time" back at the very end, where it belongs.

​I have to say, though, that while I can justify the expansion enough to let myself sleep at night, I'm not so sure the jump to 12 discs is merited here. there's a handful of tracks, like the Wallflowers, where I'm stretching the concept of "alternative" a little too far into the mainstream. I could probably find a disc's worth of cuts and bring the whole shebang back down to 11, but I think I'm going to burst an important blood vessel if I think about this any longer, so feel free to chime in if you're at all inclined. And yes, I'm including the full playlist, so that you may gaze upon my madness and, I dunno, point and throw peanuts. Seems fitting at this point.

Disc A

1) "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)," The Proclaimers

2) "Here & Now," Letters To Cleo

3) "Sour Times," Portishead

4) "Stupid Girl," Garbage

5) "Sleeping Satellite," Tasmin Archer

6) "The Distance," Cake

7) "Here's Where the Story Ends," The Sundays

8) "Dizz Knee Land," Dada

9) "More Human Than Human," White Zombie

10) "Brick," Ben Folds Five

11) "Backwater," Meat Puppets

12) "Hey Baby," Maggie Estep

13) "American Music," Violent Femmes

14) "Shy," Ani DiFranco

15) "Early to Bed," Morphine

16) "Tomorrow," Silverchair

17) "Hello," Poe

18) "Flagpole Sitta," Harvey Danger

19) "Stay (I Missed You)," Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories

20) "Round Here," Counting Crows

Disc B

1) "Hunger Strike," Temple of the Dog

2) "Big Bang Baby," Stone Temple Pilots

3) "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get," Morrissey

4) "Female Of The Species," Space

5) "Violet," Hole

6) "I Kissed a Girl," Jill Sobule

7) "Love Spreads," The Stone Roses

8) "Wail," The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

9) "Crucify," Tori Amos

10) "Radiation Vibe," Fountains of Wayne

11) "Mrs. Robinson," The Lemonheads

12) "Ponderosa," Tricky

13) "Ready to Go," Republica

14) "'74-'75," The Connells

15) "Two Princes," Spin Doctors

16) "Human Behaviour," Björk

17) "New Age Girl," Deadeye Dick

18) "Runaway Train," Soul Asylum

19) "Save Tonight," Eagle Eye Cherry

20) "Tubthumping," Chumbawamba

Disc C

1) "Laid," James

2) "The Beautiful People," Marilyn Manson

3) "Brimful of Asha," Cornershop

4) "Inside Out," Eve 6

5) "El Scorcho," Weezer

6) "You Got Me Floatin'," P.M. Dawn

7) "You Suck," The Murmurs

8) "Connection," Elastica

9) "If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night)," Me'shell NdegeOcello

10) "Longview," Green Day

11) "Happy Song," The Nixons

12) "Bull in the Heather," Sonic Youth

13) "I Know," Dionne Farris

14) "Spoonman," Soundgarden

15) "Supernova," Liz Phair

16) "Barely Breathing," Duncan Sheik

17) "Dream," Forest For the Trees

18) "Happier," Jennifer Trynin

19) "Bitch," Meredith Brooks

20) "Counting Blue Cars," Dishwalla

Disc D

1) "Song 2," Blur

2) "Connected," Stereo MCs

3) "Big Me," Foo Fighters

4) "Disarm," Smashing Pumpkins

5) "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead," XTC

6) "Your Ghost," Kristin Hersh

7) "I Got A Girl," Tripping Daisy

8) "Slowly, Slowly," Magnapop

9) "Missing," Everything But The Girl

10) "Mother Mother," Tracy Bonham

11) "If You Could Only See," Tonic

12) "Hypocrite," Lush

13) "Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand," Primitive Radio Gods

14) "Hell," Squirrel Nut Zippers

15) "You Oughta Know," Alanis Morissette

16) "Liar," Henry Rollins Band

17) "Detachable Penis (LP Version)," King Missile

18) "6 Underground," Sneaker Pimps

19) "Closer," Nine Inch Nails

20) "Hook," Blues Traveller

Disc E

1) "Sure Shot," Beastie Boys

2) "Right Here Right Now," Jesus Jones

3) "She Don't Use Jelly," The Flaming Lips

4) "Daughters of the Kaos," Luscious Jackson

5) "You Get What You Give," New Radicals

6) "Low," Cracker

7) "Common People," Pulp

8) "Pepper," Butthole Surfers

9) "Name," Goo Goo Dolls

10) "The Return Of Pan," The Waterboys

11) "In the Meantime," Spacehog

12) "Clumsy," Our Lady Peace

13) "Funky Ceili (Bridie's Song)," Black 47

14) "Plowed," Sponge

15) "One Headlight," The Wallflowers

16) "novocaine for the soul," Eels

17) "Because the Night," 10,000 Maniacs

18) "If God Will Send His Angels," U2

19) "Selling The Drama," Live

Disc F

1) "Loser," Beck

2) "Drive," R.E.M.

3) "the fun lovin criminal," Fun Lovin Criminals

4) "Carnival," Natalie Merchant

5) "Bittersweet Symphony," The Verve

6) "Santa Monica," Everclear

7) "Sometimes Always," The Jesus And Mary Chain

8) "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)," Digable Planets

9) "A Girl Like You," Edwyn Collins

10) "Little Fluffy Clouds," The Orb

11) "California," Wax

12) "The Way," Fastball

13) "River of Deceit," Mad Season

14) "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover," Sophie B. Hawkins

15) "Feel The Pain," Dinosaur Jr.

16) "Girlfriend," Matthew Sweet

17) "Sex On Wheelz," My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult

18) "Possession," Sarah McLachlan

19) "Breakfast at Tiffany's," Deep Blue Something

Disc G

1) "Hey Jealousy," Gin Blossoms

2) "Shine," Collective Soul

3) "Natural One," Folk Implosion

4) "I'm Not Afraid," Fleming & John

5) "Your Woman," White Town

6) "Sleep To Dream," Fiona Apple

7) "Sunny Came Home," Shawn Colvin

8) "Been Caught Stealing," Jane's Addiction

9) "Tattva," Kula Shaker

10) "Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago," Soul Coughing

11) "Karmacoma," Massive Attack

12) "Sober," Tool

13) "Three Little Pigs," Green Jelly

14) "Peaches," Presidents of the United States of America

15) "Jesus Freak," DC Talk

16) "Push," Matchbox 20

17) "Walk This World," Heather Nova

18) "Lullaby," Shawn Mullins

19) "The Freshmen," The Verve Pipe

Disc H

1) "Good," Better Than Ezra

2) "Spin The Bottle," The Juliana Hatfield Three

3) "Galileo," Indigo Girls

4) "Bulls On Parade," Rage Against The Machine

5) "Sample in a Jar," Phish

6) "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe," Whale

7) "No Rain," Blind Melon

8) "possum kingdom," Toadies

9) "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)," Us3

10) "Broken Hearted Savior," Big Head Todd and the Monsters

11) "Digging in the Dirt," Peter Gabriel

12) "Twiggy Twiggy," Pizzicato Five

13) "What I Got," Sublime

14) "Kiss The Rain," Billie Myers

15) "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver," Primus

16) "History Repeating," Propellerheads

17) "I Want It All," Eve's Plum

18) "Dream All Day," The Posies

19) "Jump Around," House of Pain

20) "What's Up," 4 Non Blondes

Disc I

1) "Hippy Chick," Soho

2) "Seether," Veruca Salt

3) "Lovefool," The Cardigans

4) "Everything Zen," Bush

5) "Something's Always Wrong," Toad The Wet Sprocket

6) "Sucked Out," Superdrag

7) "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm," Crash Test Dummies

8) "Popular," Nada Surf

9) "Would?" Alice In Chains

10) "Long Way Down (Look What the Cat Drug In)," Michael Penn

11) "Zombie," The Cranberries

12) "Insane In The Brain," Cypress Hill

13) "She Cries Your Name," Beth Orton

14) "Stars," Hum

15) "Sex And Candy," Marcy Playground

16) "Shame," Stabbing Westward

17) "Labour of Love," Frente!

18) "I'm Free," The Soup Dragons

19) "St. Teresa," Joan Osborne

20) "Birdhouse In Your Soul," They Might Be Giants

Disc J

1) "Give It Away," Red Hot Chili Peppers

2) "Cannonball," The Breeders

3) "Blood Makes Noise," Suzanne Vega

4) "On and On," Longpigs

5) "Banditos," The Refreshments

6) "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart," Sinéad O'Connor

7) "Rush," Big Audio Dynamite II

8) "Everything Falls Apart," Dog's Eye View

9) "Everybody Knows," Concrete Blonde

10) "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth," Dandy Warhols

11) "Voodoo Lady," Ween

12) "Setting Sun," Chemical Brothers

13) "Cumbersome," Seven Mary Three

14) "Constant Craving," k. d. lang

15) "Legend of a Cowgirl," Imani Coppola

16) "Down," 311

17) "Pets," Porno for Pyros

18) "Place Your Hands," Reef

19) "Ruby Soho," Rancid

20) "Unbelieveable," EMF

Disc K

1) "Come Out and Play," Offspring

2) "Red Right Hand," Nick Cave

3) "Fade into You," Mazzy Star

4) "The Old Apartment," Barenaked Ladies

5) "If I Had Only a Brain," MC 900 Ft Jesus

6) "Virtual Insanity," Jamiroquai

7) "Friends of P.," The Rentals

8) "Bury My Lovely," October Project

9) "In Bloom," Nirvana

10) "If You Don't Love Me (I'll Kill Myself)," Pete Droge

11) "Not An Addict," K's Choice

12) "What Would You Say," Dave Matthews Band

13) "Dyslexic Heart," Paul Westerberg

14) "Last Goodbye," Jeff Buckley

15) "Cut Your Hair," Pavement

16) "Down By The Water," PJ Harvey

17) "Spiderwebs," No Doubt

18) "Kiss Them For Me," Siouxie And The Banshees

19) "X-French T-Shirt," Shudder to Think

Disc L

1) "There She Goes," The La's

2) "Even Flow," Pearl Jam

3) "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon," Urge Overkill

4) "Feed the Tree," Belly

5) "You," Candlebox

6) "Fire Water Burn," The Bloodhound Gang

7) "Flood," Jars Of Clay

8) "Infected," Bad Religion

9) "Chocolate Cake," Crowded House

10) "The Gentleman Who Fell," Milla

11) "Nearly Lost You," Screaming Trees

12) "Way Down Now," World Party

13) "Wonderwall," Oasis

14) "Tennessee," Arrested Development

15) "High And Dry," Radiohead

16) "Pretend We're Dead," L7

17) "Send Me on My Way," Rusted Root

18) "Hey Man Nice Shot," Filter

19) "Closing Time," Semisonic

Comments

[collacentaur.livejournal.com]

I think I just experienced a flashback montage of my adolescence.

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Mission accomplished!

[gows.livejournal.com]

THIS. Hello, last couple years of high school, my entire college career, and early adulthood. Oh god.

[blimix.livejournal.com]

In light of recent information, "Closing Time" might more properly belong at the beginning.

But then, nostalgia isn't about recent information.

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Heh. A valid point. I think I'd still stick it at the end, regardless.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Why do I picture this being advertised on late-night TV by Time-Life?

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Don't think it hadn't crossed my mind. At one point I was considering writing up liner notes, until the rational part of my brain threatened to murder me if I tried it. (I'm still considering a chronologically sorted version, though.)

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

So's mine. (The hard copy, anyway.)

[yendi]

how did I not have Phish, for frick's sake

Because sometimes quality trumps comprehensiveness? ;-)

Seriously, this is a holy-shit level of work. I've got a good chunk of these, need to get some others, and need to not ever be earwormed by some others. The line between alternative and mainstream in the '90s was fascinating (aside from The Wallflowers, see Farris, Green Day, etc).

Oh, and when you expand again (because we all know you're thinking about it already), a vote here for 7-Year Bitch's "M.I.A," of course.

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Phish isn't that bad; the main reason I'm shocked they didn't make it in already is because they were SUCH a staple of the college station I listened to at the time (WONY in Oneonta, NY) that if we're going by the original nostalgia trigger definition, "Sample in a Jar" at the very least is a shoo-in.

And I admit to nothing regarding disc 13. I will certainly not mention any list on a yellow legal pad that I might or might not have on my bedside table. ("M.I.A." duly added for consideration.)

[gows.livejournal.com]

Some Hammerbox, perhaps?

And dear god, I'm so fucking tired of hearing "Closer." My ex LOVED that song to pieces, and I was never all that fond of it.

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I get that. "Closer" is in the camp of stuff that's still overplayed two decades later, thanks to filmmakers who use it as a shorthand for "dark and pervy." But here's the background behind its inclusion (and a little slice of the curatorial process):

First of all, "Closer" is a recent addition. The previous version had "Head Like a Hole" for Nine Inch Nails, which was fine until I discovered that Pretty Hate Machine came out in 1989, not 1990 as I'd thought. (There is one 80's release on the mix, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by the Proclaimers, but it gets a pass because its widespread popularity came after its appearance in Benny and Joon.) Now, my sweet spot for inclusion has always been songs that were all over the place back in the day but haven't really been heard much since, which is why Live is represented by "Selling the Drama" instead of, say, "Lightning Crashes." For that reason I could have gone with "March of the Pigs" or something else from The Downward Spiral, but I ran into a problem I've hit on occasion, which is this: when do you go with the iconic title, overplayed or not? For example, the very early versions of the mix included "Beercan" by Beck, because that song represents a very specific time in my life, having been played for a month or so and from what I can tell not once since; however, I knew in my heart that any 90's alternative mix that doesn't have "Loser" on it is inherently, well, wrong. (I hedged for years by including both, but I finally relented and stopped giving Beck an exception bye with this version.) And that's why I eventually settled on "Closer," even though it's pretty well inescapable everywhere else. All that said, I might just swap it out for "The Perfect Drug," once I get the mashup between that and Taylor Swift out of my head.

Hammerbox duly added to the list, by the way. Thanks!

[magnifelyn.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is pretty unbelievable, and a super great playlist from a very significant time in my own life. It made me feel kinda misty to see October Project on here, because well... they were the main soundtrack to our eight months in that Rochester apartment where we embarked on our whole new life...

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Pretty important segment of my life as well. October Project is a band I'm rather surprised I hadn't embraced at the time, seeing as they're right up my proverbial alley. Over the last few months, however, they've been creeping into my consciousness like so much warm honey (especially "Sunday Morning Yellow Sky").

[ckd]

I was a little off-kilter as far as my music listening during the 90s for various reasons, but I still recognize a heck of a lot of this list. (And any list that includes "Birdhouse", well, my LJ fullname field is what it is....)

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Hee! The 90's college music wave was such an odd time, with mainstream and underground bleeding into each other so hard that even the Butthole Surfers had a hit. And yeah, no way I wasn't putting "Birdhouse" on there. :)

[felisdemens.livejournal.com]

Good call swapping "Anna Begins" for the execrable "Round Here".

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Just to clarify, "Anna Begins" came out, and "Round Here" went in; I agree that the former is a better song, but it got zero airplay, unlike the latter, which wasn't pounded to death like "Mr. Jones" was. (Hey! I like "Round Here"!)

[felisdemens.livejournal.com]

I see your reasoning, but "Round Here" sounds like "Call James Herriott, Duritz is calving breech!"

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

*nose-beverage* Point taken. Still, better than "Mr. Jones," a.k.a. "Hey Adam, Van Morrison called. He wants his muttonchops back."

[felisdemens.livejournal.com]

http://youtu.be/iyplYdV7pKY

[rubian77.livejournal.com]

Wow. I've only heard of about half of these...

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

At this stage, there are a few I didn't really know prior to this project, but close to all of them are tracks I remember from alt-rock radio and/or MTV during the period in question. If you're anything like me, I'd be willing to bet you'd recognize more than you think if you heard them.

[rubian77.livejournal.com]

Fun fact: Alternative music was kind of hard to come by where I lived from 1988-1996 (only rap was harder to find).

When I first went away to college in '96, I had no television and there were no alternative radio stations...only pop songs. I heard the Macarena and some Celine Dion song written by the same guy who writes Meatloaf's songs, aaaaand tuned the dial to NPR for the next five years.

Bonus fact: Many of the songs I do know here, I only know because of mixes that you've sent to me or songs that you played on your show....

I think you should totally upload these songs somewhere so that those of us who want this mix can download them. (Some of the songs I actually have.)

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

That...is not a good time to be cut off from college radio! I'm so sorry! (I was in a small town in the middle of nowhere, but it was a small town with two colleges, thank gods.)

I might find some way to make it available. I finally assembled all of the mp3s in one place to save myself from the endless CD burns I've been doing for a decade, in favor of "here, hand me that flash drive of yours." Needless to say, the folder is HYUUUGE, and file-sharing sites get sticky about storing copyrighted material, but there may be some way to get stuff to folks who want it. Will ponder.

[rubian77.livejournal.com]

Google Drive, maybe?

Alternatively, I can mail you a flash drive, you can load it up wth the MP3's, and mail it back to me. I'll even enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope for your convenience. :P

[tnjade.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is wonderful. I'll have to work on this tomorrow. Thank you!!