Nostalgia Friday: Alt Rock

Back in the mid 90’s, my musical taste was rather limited. It mainly consisted of what was on the radio, Green Day, and the Goo Goo Dolls. Yes, you read right, the Goo Goo Dolls. After admitting that, any musical cred I previously had probably went down the drain. Actually, come to think of it, I still listen to the Goo Goo Dolls. Okay, NOW any musical cred I have is officially down the drain.

Now that my musical tastes have matured just a wee bit (and I mean that in the most ironic of terms) I can now reflect back on the magical era of nine-o and appreciate some of the great alternative rock that came out.

Alternative rock is a curious genre. It’s not quite rock your socks off rock like it’s predecessors in the 80’s, but also not quite as depressing as the grunge that came out in the early 90’s. I made you want to kick ass while feeling slightly suicidal, a mixture of two extremes from the previous time eras. It rocked hard, but was kind of depressing. Actually, a lot of alt rock was depressing, and still is. Sad lyrics, deep thoughts, and a lot of whining about the ladies. Alt rock was like the emo of the 90’s, the only difference being that members of an alt band weren’t pussies. They actually had hard riffs and talent. Instead of seeing a Dashboard Confessionals asshole singing on stage, you got to see people on stage who rocked the fuck out.

A lot of music came from this genre, music I now wish I would have appreciated back then instead of today, but then again I can’t really be too hard on myself, I was only 10 back then.



I wasn’t aware that this song was made in 1985 for a while, but if you didn’t know, you would have thought it came straight from some post-grunge, Seattle angst band. Instead, Dramarama belted out this bad ass song like a bad relationship that threw the chair out the window. Or like the verbal vomit I just spat out. All you hear is desperation in the song, from the changes in chords to the howling yet whiny lyrics. The song takes you for a ride, on the edge of tumultuous times with a lover. The end result is plain awesome.

Then Dramarama became a political band. Poopy.



Melancholy at it’s hardest. Feel the Pain is a bi-polar tour de force in music, with tempo changes that make my head spin. At first, the song seems like a Collective Soul track, but thirty times more depressing. Then, out of no where, the rush picks up and you’re left with clean mini solos that break up all the monotony of the steady verses. When it’s over, you feel like you’ve been on a Prozac induced joy ride. (And ignore the Rock Band video part of it, this was the cleanest version I could find on Youtube).



I’m not sure if HUM qualifies as alt rock, because wikipedia dubs them as ‘space rock.’ I’m guessing space rock paved the way for bands like Finch, At the Drive In, and Thursday, but I would like to say HUM has some alt rock. Basically, mix in ladies with planets and stars, add some minor chords, and boom, you have a recipe for an alt (space) rock favorite.



Garbage was alt rock before they got more and more ‘European’, which is ironic considering three of their members are from Green Bay. Oh, and Shirley Manson is hot, and I’ve had some beers while writing this, so I’m just throwing it in.

I had more songs on this list, but I felt that any other writing would have sounded too forced, so for now, these songs make things all gravy. I know it ain’t sports, but I like it.