'indie' modern rock radio hits of 1994

xp totally forgot those New Adventures in Hi-Fi singles did well. their relevance seemed to taper off so quickly after Monster that it's easy to think that's their last genuinely popular release, even though it's kind of awful.

Monster was their last multiplatinum #1 album, yeah.

Wow, really didn't know that the Meat Puppets ever had this sort of success. Did the Afghan Whigs have any hits in this era?

Folk Implosion's "Natural One": #4 in 1995.

― Hoisin Murphy (jaymc), Thursday, February 4, 2010 11:32 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ah, good one. Sebadoh's only charting song, "The Ocean," was in '96, which feels like a really late outlier compared the most of the other bands here.

'Flame' got into the UK Top 30 even later than that IIRC.

xxp "Debonair" got to #18 Modern Rock in '93.

So weird seeing Lou Barlow on TOTP. xp

also "Honky's Ladder' (#29) in '96. weirdly "Gentlemen" didn't chart, although that was the only one I heard at the time from MTV play.

Wow, Billboard has one of the worst websites I've ever seen.

Oh, also! Veruca Salt's "Seether": #8 Modern Rock in '94. I interned at Minty Fresh Records during the summer of '98, and they were still living off the success of that song.

I should reiterate for British people, in most cases these songs only charted on the Modern Rock chart, which meant only they were getting airplay from "modern rock" or "alternative rock" radio stations. They weren't showing up on any Casey Kasem countdowns.

so why is pavement on here and not nirvana? weird critieria issues?

Kurt Cobain died.

did these show up on casey kasem countdowns?

xpost lol

rick dees' famous fake intro to "feel the pain"

Urge Overkill sort of fit in here don't they?

Definitely Bull in the Heather for me although that's mainly because Kathleen Hanna is in the video and that was at the height of my BK/KH obsession. I did like the Dino Jr song though. Have always hated Pavement.

Urge Overkill kinda fit -- 2 MR hits in '93, then "Girl You'll Be A Woman Soon" in '94 and one more in '95

I love "Bull In The Heather" and frequently champion Jet Set-era Sonic Youth on this board, but I ultimately voted for "Feel The Pain," which is so great and singular in the context of Dinosaur Jr.'s discography, nothing else quite like it.

Honorable mention that SY's 5th and final MR hit was also in '94, that weird version of "Superstar" from the Carpenters tribute album that for some reason was in that Juno movie.

GYBAWS was super-big tho, coz of pulp fiction, feels a bit different to me

The Flaming Lips' "She Don't Use Jelly" hit in '93 and that Meat Puppets song were played constantly on the "modern rock" radio station that I listened to at the time.

I remember Urge Overkill having a single that got played a lot around that time (not GYBAWS) and can even picture the video but can't remember what it was. Anyone?

probably "Sister Havana"? that's the only one I remember hearing a lot, albeit mainly on 120 Minutes.

Yes! Thank you :D. This was also the time when I would sneak downstairs to watch 120 Mins. every single week so that's probably where I heard/saw it too.

Other things from around that time that might fit:

Anything off Live Through This, Longview or Weezer Blue album?

'Come Out And Play' also I'd've assumed? (also fits the paying dues on indie label theme behind the actual poll)

Also the radio station I mentioned had this thing at the time where ppl would vote for the best new song of the week and some aspie has put them all online. The ones listed for 1994:

Stay (Far Away, So Close) U2 Jan-94
Divine Hammer Breeders Feb-94
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Crash Test Dummies Feb-94
Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town Pearl Jam Feb-94
God Tori Amos Feb-94
No Excuses Alice In Chains Mar-94
You Candlebox Mar-94
Return To Innocence Enigma Mar-94
The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get Morrissey Mar-94
Spoonman Soundgarden Mar-94
Gentlemen Afghan Whigs Apr-94
Longview Green Day Apr-94
Backwater Meat Puppets Apr-94
Yellow Ledbetter Pearl Jam Apr-94
Miss World Hole May-94
Selling The Drama Live May-94
Closer Nine Inch Nails May-94
Big Empty Stone Temple Pilots May-94
Sabotage Beastie Boys Jun-94
Girls & Boys Blur Jun-94
Shine Collective Soul Jun-94
Come Out And Play Offspring Jun-94
Vasoline Stone Temple Pilots Jun-94
Far Behind Candlebox Jul-94
New Age Girl Dead Eye Dick Jul-94
Labour Of Love Frente! Jul-94
Basket Case Green Day Jul-94
I Alone Live Aug-94
Am I Wrong Love Spit Love Aug-94
All I Want To Do Sheryl Crow Aug-94
Undone-The Sweater Song Weezer Aug-94
Zombie Cranberries Sep-94
Feel The Pain Dinosaur Jr Sep-94
Madam Butterfly Malcolm McLaren Sep-94
Self Esteem Offspring Sep-94
What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? R.E.M. Sep-94
Interstate Love Song Stone Temple Pilots Sep-94
Welcome To Paradise Green Day Oct-94
Doll Parts Hole Oct-94
Beautiful Girl INXS Oct-94
About A Girl (unplugged) Nirvana Oct-94
Seether Veruca Salt Oct-94
Spin The Black Circle Pearl Jam Nov-94
Tremor Christ Pearl Jam Nov-94
Landslide Smashing Pumpkins Nov-94
Lightning Crashes Live Dec-94
The Man Who Sold The World (unplugged) Nirvana Dec-94
Voodoo Lady Ween Dec-94
Buddy Holly Weezer Dec-94

lol Candlebox!!

I know most of these don't fit the whole "US indie/Our Band Could Be Your Life angle of the above 5" thing but interesting nonetheless. hopefully.

New Age Girl Dead Eye Dick Jul-94

^ Don't have a clue what this is, but it doesn't look good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEDw9xgSmSc

oh shit I completely forgot about that song. wow.

Think I might pass on that?

she don't eat meat but SHE SURE LIKE THE BONE

With lyrics as awesome as those I don't see how you could possibly not want to give it a listen.

Ew.

oh come on, it was funny, it was the '90s

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/23/Rev105-2.png

Candlebox was the beginning of the end, i.e. the first wave of post-grunge.

Q101, the Chicago alt-rock station, has had a thing for the past few years where they play their top 101 songs of each year they've been around (since 1993) during the last couple of weeks of the year, and then people vote on their favorite year, which they then replay on New Years Eve. Each time they've done it, 1994 has won.

That playlist:
http://www.rocklists.com/q101-1994.html

ENBB's list is ridic, would make a good poll

Madam Butterfly Malcolm McLaren Sep-94

This is from 1985 -- had no idea it was revived nine years later.

Maybe a big influence on Pinkerton, but '94's too early for that.

ftp ftw

I owned all Frank Black's 90s albums and don't remember that song at all. Wd vote Pavement but also wanted to murmur nostalgically in response to the mention of Seether and Divine Hammer, which is what I was actually listening to in '94 (Pavement was next year's obsession - guess you can tell I was always a year behind, seeing as DH was on Last Splash in '93).

Pretty sure I heard "Headache" before I ever heard a Pixies song.

headache is catchy as fuck.

all these songs are str8 fire.

i was hugely into Frank Black at this point -- still love his first two solo albums. What the heck happened?
but yeah, this is a nice list of songs. all good. would never turn off a single one of them were they to come up on the radio.

i had no idea who meat puppets were at that time, i kinda slotted them in with, like, better than ezra and stuff until someone schooled me at some pt. "feel the pain" is just great (and easy to play on the guitar too, v important to me as a teenager). still have never gotten much out of pavement to this day. the last two i remember being kind of disappointing songs by ppl i would have otherwise fought to the death for, at the time.

I heard "Hang On To Your Ego" before I heard a) the Pixies or b) the original, as that one got played on the UK's evening slightly-indie show, as did "Men In Black" and "I Don't Want To Hurt You", but I must've missed "Headache" if it ever got played. (xp)

i was hugely into Frank Black at this point -- still love his first two solo albums. What the heck happened?

His shit got tired? I loved the first album at the time, but even with the cool new filigrees he was already repeating his I-saw-aliens-after-smoking-weed shtick.