Modern Rock #1 Hits of 1999

god i can even summon up the chorus of that one in my head still

destroy me with bombs

Yes, most of these songs never went away. You could probably turn on any alternative radio station right now and here 4 of these back-to-back without a second thought.

you know I still love Surrender ("Out of Control" made my singles list).

"Surrender" is awesomely underrated. "Dream On," "Let Forever Be," "Music: Response" are all good. "Come With Us" also gets a bad rap... I don't think the Chems started to go downhill until "Galvanize" was on Budweiser commercials.

oh Come With Us is fantastic, probably their last truly great album IMO (although they've had great tracks since, with "Galvanize" being one of them)

LOL, "Learn to Fly" was only #1 for one week. Contrast to last year, when the Foos registered a #1 roughly half the year.

Okay, alternative albums from '99 that I'll rep for: Beta Band's 3 EPs (which, I guess, collects pre-'99 stuff, technically), Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's I See A Darkness, Cibo Matto's Stereotype A, Folk Implosion - One Part Lullaby, Fugazi - Instrument, that Handsome Boy Modeling School album, June of 44 - Anahata, Mr. Bungle's California, Jim O'Rourke - Eureka, Sam Prekop's first solo joint, Trux - Veterans Of disorder, Solex - Pick Up, Stereolab - Cobra and Phases..., US Maple's Talker...and the albums I mentioned before (including the correctly-recalled surfeit of E6 material). And Sneakster's Pseudo-Nouveau, but that's the album my friend did with Mark Clifford, so I might be biased about that one. Very little of that is even close to the style of the mainstream modern rock of the day, though, I guess.

"Rope" >>>>>>>>>>>> "Learn To Fly"

I played the first volume of that damn Magnetic Fields album all through Thanksgiving and New Year's.

oh shit, I'd forgotten about 3 EPs, I was all over that and HBMS and Mr Bungle

I don't know if I ever heard the entirety of Stereotype A because I hated the first song on it so much; no one listened to them for boring songs, we wanted more unhinged screaming about food.

dudes, Kleenex Girl Wonder's masterpiece PONYOAK was released in 1999, making it automatically a great year for music

Have not thought about Kleenex Girl Wonder in literally a decade til now.

yeah I still hate Stereotype A

I mean, compare it to "Apple" and "Beef Jerky" and it's basically "who are you and what did you do to the awesomely weird band that put out Viva! La Woman"

Stereotype A is no match for Viva!, but it's a grower and I like it a lot. And I've probably grown more fond of it over time. Changing the formula was probably a huge misstep for their popularity, though.

I didn't listen to Ponyoak much, but Kleenex Girl Wonder's Graham Smith Is The Coolest Person Alive is one of the unsung great albums of the '90s, comparable to GBV in their prime, imo.

yeah Stereotype was a huge falloff

er Stereotype A

Have not thought about Kleenex Girl Wonder in literally a decade til now.

Do yourself a favor and listen to "Tendency Right Foot Forward" again today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzK9B29cjPU

1999, I salute you.

SHUT UP AND EEEEEEAT
TOO BAD NO BON APPETIT
SHUT UP AND EEEEEEAT
YOU KNOW MY LOVE IS SWEET

extra sugar
extra salt
extra oil and MSG

this is one of the best albums in the world

I remain convinced that, if Graham Smith had named his band literally anything other than Kleenex Girl Wonder, he could've been huge. That name is a hell of a hurdle for most people to jump.

yeah that might top The Rock*A*Teens as one of the most self-sabotaging band names of the '90s

I'mma issue a "trust me" memo, imploring everyone who loved Viva! La Woman to give Stereotype A another chance, particularly if you haven't heard it since '99. And maybe just pretend it's a different band. Because it really only suffers in comparison but it's solid when taken on its own terms. Feel free to blast me afterwards if I'm wrong.

this is my story about All The Small Things

qd

http://photos.weddingbycolor.com/p/000/003/415/m/5354/p/photo/15472.jpg

― Planned Perrintweet (some dude), Wednesday, January 18, 2012 7:03 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

surprises let me know she cares

― markers, Wednesday, January 18, 2012 7:06 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

x-post - That's amazing.

markers post vmic etc.

lol what was the rose petal pic in reference to? Just curious.

the first half of the couplet "surprises let me know she cares" is "she left me roses by the stairs"

Oh, duh.

I thought he just busted that out of nowhere. Still good though.

haha oh sorry -- we were talking about the song on this thread: Now That's What I Call A Music Poll! Vol. 40 (U.S.)

I don't really like What's My Age Again. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

yeah that's the one big blink hit i don't like. "turned on the tv during a bj, then called the girl's mom to say her husband's gay, ain't i a cute lil' bastard" with nothing special in the music.

listening to Surrender now, I think my biggest problem is that after the HUUUUUUUUGE drums of Exit Planet Dust and Dig Your Own Hole, most of the rhythm tracks just sound limp and tired

also I had forgotten what Bernard Sumner sounded like on the verses of "Out Of Control", lol

xp: I never actually paid attention to the lyrics of "What's My Age Again"

Neither have I. I just don't really like the tune.

xp: I never actually paid attention to the lyrics of "What's My Age Again"

― that is a weird thing to bring up over lean cuisine (DJP), Tuesday, May 29, 2012 1:07 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

someone was quoting them to me recently with no inflection and i was like 'wait... what the hell is that'. id never listened to the lyrics

I guess I could give Surrender a fresh listen too, but I mostly remember really driving rhythm tracks and deep, pulsating bass. Maybe less of the SNARE GO BANG INSIDE YOUR HEAD than the previous stuff. Acceptable trade.

that's funny to me because it always seemed so lyric-driven to me. i kind of like the way the music starts off sounding like the most wistful coming-of-age mersh emo thing ever before becoming a bunch of dick jokes, for better or worse it's Blink in a nutshell.

Why did ppl only go as far back with these are 88/89? Is that when the modern rock lists began or something?

yeah Billboard only started published a Modern Rock chart in 1988 (and iirc didn't have any rock singles charts before 1981)

Booooo.

boo what? history?

ENBB's disappointed we can't go farther back.

^^

oh ok

lol boo history!

;)

wow I'd forgotten how TERRIBLE "Let Forever Be" is

maybe if someone has back issues of CMJ they can dig up 80s college rock charts

this is the most frustrating album; I think "Hey Boy Hey Girl" is one of the best tracks they ever did but everything else on Surrender just screams "mediocre time filler" to me

LFB's an instance of the video being so rad that it made me like the song

the Mercury Rev collab is still the only thing of MR's I've ever heard -- ick.