Modern Rock #1 Hits of 1996

I would hardly equate music elitism to a pissing contest. You would rarely ever find a nerd or hipster engaging in something so plebian.

you don't actually know any nerds or hipsters, do you

i'm not sure lorax knows any humans

no shots at anyone, obv, but there is something getting a little unnervering about the onion-style I CONSUME SO MUCH POP CULTURE OM NOM NOM going around ILX and elsewhere. That site iCheckMovies is a little weird when I get updates about how many movies my friends torrented that night.

a friend and I have been talking for years about a project, it'd have to last five years at least to have any meaning, where you only listen to one album a year. Not just once - daily, maybe, maybe several times a day, maybe only once or twice a week, but just one album. You get to pick, it can be something new that you hold out for the release in March or whatever, or you can go with something you either already like or have been curious about. But one. That is your listening for that year.

that sounds like torture to me. i'd rather abstain from music entirely that be stuck with the same thing over and over.

"The Year Of Living Michael Jackson's Dangerously," now available on Kindle

Yeah, I was gonna say. Torturous. OTOH, I've been doing pretty well with only really listening to a small handful of new albums for the last several years. Between severely diminishing returns and a wealth of old stuff I still haven't properly dug into, I don't feel like I'm missing out at all.

But one. That is your listening for that year.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sZMt9C6BL.jpg

Mac Miller is ugly as fuck

Late '95 into '96 was my breakthrough era for discovering alt-rock radio and broadening my tastes beyond Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, and Bob Dylan....all of whom I still spin more regularly than anything in this list.

Oasis, "Wonderwall" - - - this is easily the best song here but i won't vote for it, god did i hear this thing too many times
Smashing Pumpkins, "1979" - - - very good but never quite got the giganto-praise it got, there are way better songs on this album
Alanis Morissette, "Ironic" - - - good, again not my favorite on JLP but don't mind hearing it, the chorus is just a monster
Oasis, "Champagne Supernova" - - - along with "Triumph" one of the first things that i sat watching MTV hoping they'd play it again
Cranberries, "Salvation" - - - blergh, not the worst thing but the bleating vocal is quite distracting
Tracy Bonham, "Mother, Mother" - - - don't remember
Dishwalla, "Counting Blue Cars" - - - i think i liked this the first 10 or so times i heard it, then soured instantly into deep dislike
Butthole Surfers, "Pepper" - - - okay. kind of coasting on goodwill towards the band at this point. wow is that a dated vocal effect.
Primitive Radio Gods, "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth..." - - - dated vocal effects strike again. great sample though.
Pearl Jam, "Who You Are" - - - a grower, solid album track on a solid album, bizarre idea about a single though. 99x went with "red mosquito."
311, "Down" - - - ha, this might've been the first new song to make me sit up and take notice that year, god knows why. "change the channel whenever that wack show the real world's on." i think i'm voting for this although it's no "do you right."
Eels, "Novocaine for the Soul" - - - this is good.
Sublime, "What I Got" - - - separate from how annoying this band and its fans were, this is a good song. i remember being much more fond of an alternate mix or live-in-the-studio version or something that got played a lot more, originally, and has now vanished, am i making this up?
Bush, "Swallowed" - - - bad. almost weird al level parody of sludgy, plodding grunge rock. "greedy fly" or "cold contagious" please.

but yeah would have obviously voted for "bulls on parade" had it made #1

Am I remembering correctly that Dishwalla's "It's Going To Take Some Time This Time" off of If I Were A Carpenter got a good bit of radio play before "Counting Blue Cars" did? At any rate, it was a much better song. Maybe because it wasn't their song.

Sublime, "What I Got" - - - separate from how annoying this band and its fans were, this is a good song. i remember being much more fond of an alternate mix or live-in-the-studio version or something that got played a lot more, originally, and has now vanished, am i making this up?

yeah the drum machine-driven David Kahne mix was the one that was a hit, but some stations also played "What I Got (Reprise)" from the end of the album, which was produced by Paul Leary from the Bhole Surfers and has some of his distinctive WOOOOOOP guitar licks.

I think i might cut J0rdan out of my life forever for saying Dishwalla is better than eels

yeah the drum machine-driven David Kahne mix was the one that was a hit, but some stations also played "What I Got (Reprise)" from the end of the album, which was produced by Paul Leary from the Bhole Surfers and has some of his distinctive WOOOOOOP guitar licks.

― --niccimanewhore (some dude), Sunday, May 27, 2012 11:59 AM Bookmark

Aha!!! yes! This is exactly what I'm thinking of. Way better IMO.

PL also produced/played on the Meat Puppets' "Scum," so the Leary woop was all over radio in that period

"the Leary woop" would have made a decent band name, not sure when though.

But that's super interesting, I love those little things that start to explain how a whole period sort of sounded the same despite notionally different genres and songwriting voices etc.

that sounds like torture to me. i'd rather abstain from music entirely that be stuck with the same thing over and over.

well, that'd be the thing about it: changing your perspective on how you listen, what you listen for. shedding the need for novelty & trading it for intense focus. listening from places besides the pleasure center. picking something that rewards close, sustained attention. this is more a thought-exercise than anything else though, nobody's gonna actually do this, especially not with pop music - if I were going to actually try it it'd be with Dad Lied von der Erde or something

I dunno -- I could spend a year listening to Chic's Risque.

good poll idea btw

I could maybe listen to Royal Trux's Accelerator for a year, but I'm pretty sure I'd never want to hear it again after that.

(Two years away from being back on-topic.)

i read somewhere it was supposed to be something like 10,000 days

-- omar little, Wednesday, August 6, 2008 3:02 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

thats awful

― and what, Wednesday, August 6, 2008 3:05 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this isn't a comedy.... this movie is fucked up

― and what, Wednesday, August 6, 2008 3:06 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well, that'd be the thing about it: changing your perspective on how you listen, what you listen for. shedding the need for novelty & trading it for intense focus.

or you could spend a couple years listening to "air mixes"

PL also produced/played on the Meat Puppets' "Scum," so the Leary woop was all over radio in that period

Which reminds me: was "Backwater" 96? Between that & Peppe/Natural One and Phone booth/Your Woman, I'm thinking once again that 96 might actually be a great year. Also lol that this is the 3rd 1996 thread started in the last few weeks.

Anyways my preferences are p locksteppy:

Pepper
1979
Standing Outside an etc
Novocaine for the Soul
Salvation

"Backwater" was '93-4, but was still reasonably big on the radio in '96.

(Not counting Wonderwall cuz it was on the last poll)

Xp oh wow that's way earlier than I remember it

It was a sleeper hit, not taking off until after the Kirkwoods' guest shot on the Nirvana "Unplugged".

or you could spend a couple years listening to "air mixes"

Acceptable, but you'll outgrow them once you really listen to some Bizkit.

I did gloss over another reason why someone would write and publish top 100 lists - being OCD and bored - a much less interesting diagnosis to discuss than vane or attention/approval-seeking (something there certainly isn't a lack of in the hipster community).

The result of hipster publications earnestly tooting these lists is always the same though - elitism at its finest.

OCD... hm yeah I guess that's me to some extent. I guess it could be worse... I notice a lot of the elitist "my dick is bigger than yours" overtones in the writing on a lot of blogger's "top 25/50/100 albums of the year" lists.

Not necessarily noticing this on some dude's 1996 post... I'm thinking of stuff I saw last December for the "best of 2011" stuff.

I voted for "Swallowed" because "1979" will probably win.

Great thing about a top 100 vs a top 10 at least is time capsule extensiveness of coverage...some dude pulled out stuff like "I Was Wrong" that actually really define how 1996 sounds in my head even though that's not a song that I would have brought to mind.

You really don't have to defend some dude's list with anyone but the guy who paradoxically was really self-righteous about how making & posting lists is a really self-righteous thing to do. Meaning you really don't have to defend some dude's list.

"Backwater" is definitely better than every song in this poll.

i voted for "1979" but only because i didn't see the tracy bonham song. i hope that gets some votes.

yeah I actually didn't hate Mother Mother; iirc it used the soft-loud kind of thing in a way more extreme fashion than most alt-rock radio anthems did.

1979. everything else here is straight garbage.

oh wait i didnt see pepper. that was enjoyable for the wtf-ness of the buttholes on the radio and it's not half-bad in and of itself.

"pepper", half out of affection for the butthole surfers that were, half cuz i really do love it (even now)

also dig "wonderwall", "1979" and the reprise version of "what i got"

despite that, these polls have done a lot to disabuse me of the notion that i enjoy modern rock hits

modern rock #5s through #20s >>>>>>>>>>> modern rock #1s

" I would hardly equate music elitism to a pissing contest. You would rarely ever find a nerd or hipster engaging in something so plebian."

you don't actually know any nerds or hipsters, do you ― that is a weird thing to bring up over lean cuisine (DJP)

I was literally referring to a pissing contest. Not some metaphorical bull shit but some guys whipping out their schlongs in a bar. Maybe you know some nerds and hipsters that do this. I must be going to all the wrong bars.

Or maybe I'm missing out e everytime I avoid an Animal Collective concert

I'm glad you specified, because it's so hard to tell when people use the phrase 'pissing contest' whether they're using it literally or metaphorically. Because both usages are equally common, I find.

You're right Deric. I realized that I'd probably needed extra specification after the fact. But I would never have said hipster/nerds do not engage in metaphorical pissing contests, especiallly since I was referencing Some Dude's jokey post about whipping out his music collection.

Also, Some Dude, your list didn't irritate me in the slightest. I just used it as an opportunity to editorialize hipster nerds and their pitchforks. I can't even remember what's on your list.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I was confused as to why you chose this thread in particular to do your editorializing, but I understand now: the presence of a list.

Dad Lied von der Erde

slept-on typo by me btw

Drummer for Gay Dad Lied von der Erde.

Was gonna say. Not familiar with the piece, but it sounded like a collaboration between some neoclassical composer and Bright Eyes.