Hey! Remember the 90s? The Flannel Album

Gwar
"Road Behind"
I don't think that I ever actually owned a Gwar album. I mostly dug them through Brady, who I know at least had two of their CDs. What I did have, though, was a copy of their first video, "Live from Antarctica." That's classic and I wonder why we have "Phallus in Wonderland," but not this classic Gwar vid on DVD. No matter... this track spoofs the power ballad, but manages to be one of the best examples of how to meld bone crunching metal with a slow brooding melody. Plus, you can't beat that ending. "Sad whale, baby..."

Beck
"Loser"
Ah, the theme song for Generation-X. Quick... name one other track from Beck's debut, "Mellow Gold." See? Didn't think you could. But just about everyone had a copy of this album for this one song. Can you blame them? It's damned near the perfect embodiment of everything that the mid-ninties was about. The pennacle of self-loathing. This album, along with Radiohead's "Pablo Honey" have the dubious honor of being the last big albums that Americans went out en masse to pick up for one friggin' song. But, damn, they were good songs!

Belly
"Feed the Tree"
I've heard this song about a million and a half times. Hell, I've been known to sing along with the "Take Your Hat Off Boy When You're Talking to Me," part. But it wasn't until I started working on getting crap ready for the release of this comp. that I realized that I have absolutely no idea  what this song is about. Email me if you have an explanation... I'm stumped (no pun intended).

Deadeye Dick
"New Age Girl"
Back in the day, "The X" would latch onto a novelty song and just play the living hell out of it. I remember this "Wet Dreams" song that they'd play every single day at like 1:45 as I was driving home from class. There were a few of them that were particularly memorable (I'll touch on at least one more later!), but the case of Deadeye Dick's "New Age Girl" (some erroneously call it, "Mary Moon") is a special one. In fact, this song is a pretty decent pop rock tune. I think that the combination of unnaturally heavy rotation on stations like "The X" and a feature spot in "Dumb and Dumber" really had a negative affect on this tune. Is it a humorous song? Sure, but it's still a pretty good one.

The Fun Lovin' Criminals
"Scooby Snacks"
Gangsta rap interpreted by well educated suburban kids proves to be surprisingly sinister and cool. Hijacking Tarantino and Hannah-Barbara, these guys show you just how badass upper-middle class kids wish they were.

Luscious Jackson
"Naked Eye"
Eschewing the pop/glamour/riot grrl rock of their rocking femme peers, LJ carve their own niche in the alt.-rock world with a track that is not punk, pop or rap, but, at the same time, is all three. These gals got rhythm. These gals got harmony. These gals got the goods to rock your anus in a way that could only be pulled off in the 90s.

Paw
"Jessie"
So, about a month ago I was standing alone in the living room with my hand down the back of my pants. Tricia walked in and asked me what I was doing. I replied, "Scratchin' my ass." Then, all of a sudden like an epiphany from above, I broke off (in the style of this song) "Scratch my ass, scratch my ass, scratch my ass!" I had a revelation and absolutely HAD to find this song that I had forgotten about. Is it great? Well... no. But I'll bet that you heard it a million freakin' times back in '93 and haven't thought about it since.

Primitive Radio Gods
"Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand"
Probably the only sample based tune to ever really cross over into the middle-aged audience. I remember Letterman being all about this tune and he would bust out into it at random times for like a solid month. This is the type of song that wreaks havoc on the MP3 player in Tricia's car due to the length of the file tag.

The Rugburns
"Me and Eddie Vedder"
Okay, we're back into X-103 territory. Once again, we have a novelty song that got an insane amount of airplay. For good reason, though. You don't get much more 90s than a song that name checks Eddie Vedder and offers a nostalgic, pop-culture ode to 8-track tapes.

Sponge
"Plowed"
I remember hearing the lead singer of this band explaining that the title of their album, "Rotting Pinata" was some kinda cryptic reference to G.G. Allin and thinking that they were a little more hard core than I thought. I never really dug this song at the time, but now I think that they were less of an outgrowth of the Seattle/Grunge scene and more of a pre-curser to the punk rock revival (ala Rancid, Offspring and Green Day). Pretty good track.

The Toadies
"Possum Kingdom"
The Toadies were the kinda almost popular bands that always got second billing at the X-Fest shows back in the day. They had two songs... this one and "I Come from the Water" and they're both pretty good. Really, it's just too damned clean and safe to appeal to the true fans of 90s alt. rock, but I'll be damned if it's not catchy. So help me, Jesus.

Tripping Daisy
"I Gotta Girl"
I'm here to tell you that the rest of the CD, "Elastic Fircracker" is total crap. Trust me. This track, however, was one serious happy accident on the part of Tripping Daisy. Crass, snotty, rude and rockin' all at the same time.

Beastie Boys
"Sabotage"
Following up the slick production of "Paul's Boutique" with "Check Your Head," the Beasties proved that world-weary growl of the Grunge movement was not restricted to the world of 90s rock. The Boys upped the ante for the rap world with live, lo-fi instrumentation and kitschy, retro-cool visuals.

Blind Melon
"Tones of Home"
Shannon Hoon, the Hoosier State's favorite dead, junkie son will forever be known as the lead singer for the band who did "the bee girl song." That's too bad, because the man was actually a pretty good vocalist and the band did its damndest to bring a country-fried element to the world of alt. rock in the 90s. While this single received far less airplay than "No Rain," it's a much better showcase of the band's potential.

Concrete Blonde
"Joey"
Don't know much about this group, but I do have to say they sound like a less rocking Heart. Makes me wanna see some high kicks set to rokken guitar!

Cornershop
"Brimful of Asha"
I thought that I'd never heard this song until I heard the chorus, "Everyone needs a bosom for a pillow." It's a weird one. It's all about Bollywood musicals as the lifeblood and hope of India and it name checks like two dozen Hindi singers. Weird, but infinitely groovable. 

4 Non-Blondes
"What's Up?"
Were these gals lesbians? I dunno. Was that chick seriously trying to bring stove pipe hats back into fashion? I can't really say. What I can tell you, however, is that the name of this song is NOT "What's Going On." Yeah, yeah, I know. It's practically the only discernable lyric you'll hear, but nevertheless for some inexplicable reason they decided to call it "What's Up?" Seriously... look.

Filter
"Take a Picture"
Filter is the band that did the hard rockin' song, "Hey Man, Nice Shot" about the infamous R. Budd Dwyer suicide video. It's pretty surprising then that they also did this "senior class video montage" staple. I don't know if it ever was, but this song really needed to be licensed by Polaroid.

Presidents of the United States of America
"Lump"
The song that wouldn't die in 1995. A 90s Seattle band, PUSA went against the grain with a decidedly upbeat sound. These guys knew one thing that other Seattle grungers learned all too late. All gloom, all the time will only get you one place... inside your greenhouse at 8:56 a.m.... and I mean ALL OVER the inside of your greenhouse at 8:56 a.m.

About the Artwork:
Pretty self explanatory, but please note the use of two familiar fonts from the 90s. The top line is in the same typeface as the Nirvana logo. The bottom line is in the Alice in Chains album title typeface.