Drinking In L.A. * Steal My Sunshine * In The Meantime * Get What You Give * Novocaine For The Soul

Apparently the guy co-wrote "The Game of Love" by Michelle Branch & Santana, which was a pretty good song.

didn't know that, but this totally checks out.

you can even hear the 'new radicals' version of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bJrHl4TeN0

i still cant understand why this didn't make the album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq9jzRWoMGY

xp
Actually both songs were written by the same two guys -- Gregg Alexander and songwriting partner Rick Nowels (...Nowels is huge -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Nowels)

All these songs got used on the soundtrack to late 90s football computer games.

new radicals fucking suck.

ban

wow, i really like "a love like that," reminds me of "advice for the young at heart."

I'm surprised Eels charted that high at Modern Rock!

Autumn '96 was a weird time maaaaaan...

Len ftw

"Drinking In L.A" is a song that benefits from not being heard on the radio constantly. My parents bought the album it came from (!) and I remember it being very diffuse and actually good in some places?

"Steal My Sunshine" would be a million times better if it was just a chorus and isntrumental verses.

"Get What You Give" is a great melody but the smugness of the lyrics and performance put me off, "Life Is A Rollercoaster" is probably a better song written by Alexander.

"In The Meantime" makes me think of the advert from the 90s that used only the good part of the song, and now discovering that the good part is a sample it feels a bit pointless. Good bassline but another terrible vocal.

I really liked that Eels album at the time but I dread to think how I would feel returning to it. Everything after "Electro-Shock Blues" has been disappointing and that's tainted my opinion.

I feel like in a parallel universe there would be room for the single mix of "Mmmbop" here and probably something from Garbage Version 2.0 album.

the scratchy voice verses on 'steal my sunshine' are essential to its appeal

'get what you give' is earnest not smug

len ftw x2

daisies of the galaxy was good tho, boxed. kinda feel like E has been writing the same song forever tho

Fun Fact: For a few months when it was new I thought the guy on "Steal My Sunshine" was Perry Farrell (didn't see the vid until way later).

kinder at 11:03 28 Jun 18

No no no no no
'get what you give' is an absolute travesty, should be a Ronan Keating song

"Get What You Give" is a great melody but the smugness of the lyrics and performance put me off, "Life Is A Rollercoaster" is probably a better song written by Alexander.

now I have no idea if i already knew that or not

One song that I feel kinda fits in this group, but is pretty much unknown outside of Canada is BTK's Peppyrock, though it did show up on some random soundtracks and compilations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2qEwePLQgI

If this is a genre, it's one I'd lost interest in by the time of Len and New Radicals, but I was very much there for Spacehog and Eels. The Spacehog guy wearing a skirt on Letterman was very cool to me as a kid. Mr. Narrator, this is David Bowie to me, and whatnot. Also The Chinese Album was a big deal for me and I still find it a good listen, esp. the Michael Stipe feature:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asDJVXtb5ZA

That said, I have a friend "Alan" who seems to think Spacehog are the most soulless and opportunistic band of all time, he probably knows some stuff I don't know.

Come on now, where is 1000 Clowns? There's your post-Beck semi-ironic white boy hiphop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtoR-LXChIk

ha that's my fave part of the song and now that i'm aware of the source fuck spacehog.

― Hunt3r, Thursday, June 28, 2018 2:58 PM (four hours ago)

That's exactly how I felt about Len the first time I heard the instrumental break in "More, More, More".
Except in Len's case, the sample is basically the whole song.

At least Spacehog wrote that epic bassline... "In The Meantime" would have made a great Blur single. The rest of that album was terrible though.

^Re: Len -- uh, that's what makes it brilliant. It's best deployment of a sample in a pop song I can think of.

this earlyish Black Eyed Peas track definitely shares that same floaty, melty, telephone tone vibe as a lot of songs ITT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH8FctYMM80

Len is the definite winner out of a strong group here.
Better Days (And the Bottom Drops Out) by Citizen King deserves a mention also.

Something else great about "Steal My Sunshine" is how the verse w/the female vox sort of taps into that '90s lo-fi indie-pop vein -- K Records, Dub Narcotic, Land of the Loops, etc., etc. ...all of which has gone unmentioned in all the above talk about "pop songs w/beats" -- for good reason, as these were not hits! -- though Beck recorded One Foot in the Grave w/Calvin Johnson prior to Mellow Gold (so it all ties back together)!

Now I want a playlist titled Indulging in My Self-Defeat: Twee Vox & Breakbeats, 1994-1999

What the hell am I doing / Drinking an IPA in a kitchen in L.A. / At (almost) 42

Yeah i can't keep hating on 'in the meantime' i was trying to get my appreciation back to secret. fail. i still like it.

Speaking of Bran Van:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm622tnjmjM

Except in Len's case, the sample is basically the whole song

Uh no it’s not... it’s the bridge

Speaking of Bran Van:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm622tnjmjM

― pomenitul, viernes 29 de junio de 2018 4:15 (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I do not understand, what does this has to do with Bran van?

Len ftw

As close to this as dEUS came

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

I do not understand, what does this has to do with Bran van?

Going through mid-year best of features, Caroline Rose's "Soul No. 5" is the spiritual descendant of this aesthetic, rock anthem + cautious embrace of hip hop. Though I don't think I'd have made the connection without seeing this thread 'cause I kinda repress memories of this era in 90s music

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

At first I thought the difference was that Rose has a layer of sarcasm. But a lot of these songs felt like they had a layer of sarcasm at the time, but the sarcasm has burned off and it feels earnest in retrospect.

I do not understand, what does this has to do with Bran van?

James Di Salvio is featured in it.

Absolute Radio on in the office today - we've had Len and the New Radicals so far (NR sounding GREAT)

At first I thought the difference was that Rose has a layer of sarcasm. But a lot of these songs felt like they had a layer of sarcasm at the time, but the sarcasm has burned off and it feels earnest in retrospect.

― Mungolian Jerryset (bendy), Friday, June 29, 2018 12:27 PM (forty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah I'm not getting a whole lot of sarcasm from these, more naivety, jejeune

Fan of the first two (Canadian), tired of the third, don't know the other two. If "How Bizarre" were listed, that'd get my vote; as is, "Steal My Sunshine." (I don't think I'd include "Loser" here, probably not "1979" either.)

Except in Len's case, the sample is basically the whole song

Uh no it’s not... it’s the bridge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nntd2fgMUYw

thinkfaceemoji

i really dislike that song as it edges things really closely to Toploader territory but there's no denying it's a Sunny D

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/34324828_10160551886875385_3571852312689246208_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=0f1b7925563ba9c1e7b5017f393c3699&oe=5BB1E4F7

I feel like a good example of a modern take on this sound would be Only Real, which also mixes it with a bit of King Krule and Mac Demarco:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q5nFR-EW7U

But it definitely has strong touches of Bran Van, Len and some New Radicals in there.

i was singing the ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooeooh bit from in the meantime in the shower this morning

i just youtubed drinking in la because i didn't remember it. i'm pretty sure i've never heard it before, and fuuuuuk, no way.

I revisited it again this morning as well. I'm mainly indifferent, but the way it interpolates "Gin & Juice" pushes it into the No column -- that's some Dynamite Hack shit, avant la lettre.

It's almost more akin to something like "Lazy Sunday" (an SNL Digital Short™) than it is a pop song.

I don't think I had ever seen the music video for it before. Want to try and identify all the records shown? 1:35 and 2:17

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

There's:

David Bowie - Heroes
Connie Francis - Sing Along with Connie Francis
Commodores - self titled
Toronto - Get It On Credit

What are Gregg Alexander's other good songs? I tried getting into the New Radicals album recently and I thought it was kind of annoying but I know he's written a handful of songs that I like.

Rivers Cuomo covered one of them on a demo collection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYNA-SKrYiY