The quintessential 90s thread!

[Janszoon]

From the people that brought you "Tubthumping" comes this underrated gem. I actually had this album on CD back in the late 90s, bizarrely enough. Pretty musically eclectic stuff for mainstream pop rock, the electro-disco beat mixed with rock guitars and trumpets is a cool combination IMO.

And if you aren't familiar with the band, their history is a wild trip to look into. They went from an anarchist punk band with album titles like "Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records" to being remembered as cheesy 90s one-hit wonder.

I always liked "Amnesia" (and "Tubthumping" even though it was eventually overplayed). Back when that album came out, I had a coworker who had been a fan for years before and I remember him telling all about how different their older stuff was. I've always been curious about it but I never got around to giving it a listen.

[Janszoon]

Here's another early 90s one from the time when the likes of Poison and MC Hammer ruled the airwaves and alternative music was primarily found on college radio stations. On the album version of this song she says "fuck off" instead of "get lost".

[Lexi Darling]

Here's another early 90s one from the time when the likes of Poison and MC Hammer ruled the airwaves and alternative music was primarily found on college radio stations. On the album version of this song she says "fuck off" instead of "get lost".

I dig it! I have a feeling this is gonna be stuck in my head later today.

This thread needs more rap, so here's a 90s classic.

This was just a bit before my time in terms of when it was new, but it bangs regardless of my own lack of personal nostalgia. And as a former moshpit warrior myself I like that the song was inspired by mosh culture.

[jimmy jazz]

Spice Girls vs All Saints was a thing.

Spice Girls much bigger but All Saints had the better tunes imo.

Pure Shores was an amazing track as well. Just seen William Orbit produced it so that explains it a bit. Think he did some of Madonna's Ray of Light album, that was great too. Might even be her best album.

[Lexi Darling]

I remember when the Ray of Light album came out, the title track and Frozen were huge, super nostalgic for me.

I prefer 80s Madonna on the whole but for the 90s and beyond, I would agree with your assessment.

[Janszoon]

I dig it! I have a feeling this is gonna be stuck in my head later today.

It's a good one. I feel like it's somewhat forgotten for some reason.

This thread needs more rap, so here's a 90s classic.

This was just a bit before my time in terms of when it was new, but it bangs regardless of my own lack of personal nostalgia. And as a former moshpit warrior myself I like that the song was inspired by mosh culture.

I love that song, and for me it is fairly nostalgic. There is definitely a hardcore punk influence on it. The NYC band Biohazard are actually in the video and the two groups collaborated on a hardcore/hip hop crossover track on the Judgement Night soundtrack.

Speaking of hip hop, I worked in a movie theater in high school and one night when I was cleaning one of the theaters I found the cassingle (remember those? lol) for Nine's "Whutcha Want" on the floor. I wasn't much of a hip hop fan at the time and definitely wasn't into the grittier stuff, but I ended up loving this song and it certainly played a role in me getting more interested in different kinds of hip hop.

[Gandalf]

One of the first songs and music videos I have vivid memories of as a kid. It was probably around when I started paying more attention to music.

Siobhan Fahey was supposedly wasted drunk for her part in the music video, which makes it more interesting now. 

[innerspaceboy]

I spent the 90s ravenously consuming music, primarily by bicycling around my neighborhood, retrieving discarded tape cassettes which had been eaten by car stereos and thrown out the window into the gutters, bringing them home, re-shelling the cassettes and carefully re-spooling them, and listening to what I'd found. I spent my summers handwriting the lyrics in pencil pressing "PLAY - STOP - REWIND - PLAY - STOP - REWIND..." and in the days before the internet it was years before I could identify the artists and tracks. Many were obscure DJ remixes so that took a ton of extra work to transcribe and research. Many remixes, like Live - White, Discussion (Sam Sever Remix) and Depeche Mode - Walking In My Shoes (Random Carpet Mix) were worlds apart from the original album cuts.

I don't want to flood the thread but I've compiled my favorite examples from my logs and included YouTube links below.

1000 Homo DJs - Supernaut (Trent Reznor vocal version)
Babylon Zoo - Spaceman (Capital Mix - Touched By The Zupervarians)
Moby - Go (Rainforest Mix)
Depeche Mode - Walking In My Shoes (Random Carpet Mix)
Abigail ‎– Smells Like Teen Spirit (Club Mix ‎– 1994)
Power-Pill (Aphex Twin) - Pac-Man (Power-Pill Mix)
BT feat. Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing - Never Gonna Come Back Down (full-length album version)
The Crypt Keeper ‎- The Crypt Jam
Mousse T. - Horny
Live - White, Discussion (Sam Sever Remix)
Ram Jam - Black Betty (Rough 'n Ready Remix)
Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400 (Original Version)

In 2016, I spent a summer going through the broadcast archives of my favorite college radio station from high school, 90.5 WBER out of Henrietta, NY, and assembled a double-CD set of my favorite broadcast oddities and alternative cuts. I designed album packaging and everything and love queuing it up on my server for summer drives to reminisce.

Here's the set list of that double-CD set:

Disc 1

1-01 Folk Implosion - Natural One
1-02 Wildchild - Renegade Master
1-03 Ash - Kung Fu
1-04 Hum - Stars
1-05 Primitive Radio Gods - Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand
1-06 BT feat. Mike Doughty - Never Gonna Come Back Down
1-07 Reverand Horton Heat - It's Martini Time
1-08 King Missile - Cheesecake Truck
1-09 Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hell
1-10 The Breeders - Cannonball
1-11 Keoki - Me
1-12 808 State - 10x10
1-13 Edelweiss - Raumschiff Edelweiss <-- Austrian Star Trek tribute house music complete with rapping in Klingon
1-14 Soul Coughing - Super Bon Bon (Propellerheads Mix)
1-15 Ween - Voodoo Lady
1-16 King Missile - Jesus Was Way Cool
1-17 Touch and Go - Would You

Disc 2

2-01 Lucious Jackson - Naked Eye
2-02 K's Choice - Not an Addict
2-03 King Missile - Sensitive Artist
2-04 King Missile - Detachable Penis
2-05 Soul Coughing - Circles
2-06 Nada Surf - Popular
2-07 Geggy Tah - Whoever You Are
2-08 Babylon Zoo - Spaceman
2-09 PJ Harvey - Down By the Water
2-10 The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds
2-11 Shriekback - Nemesis
2-12 Sequencial - House of the Dead <-- heavily samples Army of Darkness
2-13 Trio - Da Da Da
2-14 Cibo Matto - Know Your Chicken
2-15 God Lives Underwater - All Wrong
2-16 The Rentals - Friends of P

[Janszoon]

Here's the set list of that double-CD set:

Disc 1

1-01 Folk Implosion - Natural One
1-02 Wildchild - Renegade Master
1-03 Ash - Kung Fu
1-04 Hum - Stars
1-05 Primitive Radio Gods - Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand
1-06 BT feat. Mike Doughty - Never Gonna Come Back Down
1-07 Reverand Horton Heat - It's Martini Time
1-08 King Missile - Cheesecake Truck
1-09 Squirrel Nut Zippers - Hell
1-10 The Breeders - Cannonball
1-11 Keoki - Me
1-12 808 State - 10x10
1-13 Edelweiss - Raumschiff Edelweiss <-- Austrian Star Trek tribute house music complete with rapping in Klingon
1-14 Soul Coughing - Super Bon Bon (Propellerheads Mix)
1-15 Ween - Voodoo Lady
1-16 King Missile - Jesus Was Way Cool
1-17 Touch and Go - Would You

Disc 2

2-01 Lucious Jackson - Naked Eye
2-02 K's Choice - Not an Addict
2-03 King Missile - Sensitive Artist
2-04 King Missile - Detachable Penis
2-05 Soul Coughing - Circles
2-06 Nada Surf - Popular
2-07 Geggy Tah - Whoever You Are
2-08 Babylon Zoo - Spaceman
2-09 PJ Harvey - Down By the Water
2-10 The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds
2-11 Shriekback - Nemesis
2-12 Sequencial - House of the Dead <-- heavily samples Army of Darkness
2-13 Trio - Da Da Da
2-14 Cibo Matto - Know Your Chicken
2-15 God Lives Underwater - All Wrong
2-16 The Rentals - Friends of P

That's a great list! A lot of of those are favorites of mine from that era (well "Dad Da Da" is technically from the 80s but it was re-popularized by that great VW ad in the 90s). I loved all three of Soul Coughing's albums and a lot Squirrel Nut Zippers output and a ton of Ween (I think I've seen them more times live than any other band). "Not an Addict" is such an underappreciated song. "Little Fluffy Clouds" seems to be less forgotten, but still a great track. And "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand" is one of the best singles of the 90s imo, I wish Primitive Radio Gods had done more like it.

[Lexi Darling]

Some absolute classics on that list, yeah. I also like Soul Coughing and SNZ, and I love the inclusion of Hum and The Rentals, both great bands.

[SGR]

How'd I not see this thread until now? Here are some '90s house classics:

[innerspaceboy]

LOVE Renegade Master!

I'm a huge Soul Coughing fan. I have all of their albums, all 14 of M Doughty's solo efforts, plus 16 of the surviving Soul Coughing live shows, including their first-ever performance (at The Knitting Factory) and their demo cassette, and 14 surviving Mike Doughty live shows.  And I tracked down the SC trilogy on vinyl.

[Lexi Darling]

My introduction to Soul Coughing was this music video they aired on Cartoon Network back in 1998. When I got into the band proper in college I was overwhelmed by nostalgia when I realized they did that song. 

[SGR]

LOVE Renegade Master!

It's an old-school house classic. It's still getting sampled and remixed to this day. My all time favorite house mix samples it as well, 46:30 into the video. If you dig highly layered and textured electronic/house music, you'd probably dig this mix too - I was never really big on Lady Gaga/Arianna Grande's "Rain on Me", but this mix samples it and makes it sound absolutely immaculate:

[innerspaceboy]

It's an old-school house classic. It's still getting sampled and remixed to this day. My all time favorite house mix samples it as well, 46:30 into the video. If you dig highly layered and textured electronic/house music, you'd probably dig this mix too - I was never really big on Lady Gaga/Arianna Grande's "Rain on Me", but this mix samples it and makes it sound absolutely immaculate:

I was glad to see you post it - I'm a fan of the Fatboy Slim Old Skool Mix of Renegade Master and shared it to a few subreddits a few weeks ago. WBER played that edit often in 1997.