SPIN Alternative Record Guide (1995) Top 100 Alternative Albums (1-50)

I mean, all the other big Cobain-championed bands made it in -- Meat Puppets, Shonen Knife, Vaselines, Raincoats, Flipper, Wipers...

Plus there's the Mudhoney connection!

And the Melvins were even sampled on Beck's 'Mellow Gold!' (in the bottom 50 of the top 100!) They weren't some total obscurity in alternative circles

I for one will continue listneing to Sia albums for the hidden gem

Stone Temple Pilots, Alice In Chains, Screaming Trees all made it in, maybe the Melvins expert didn't make deadline? Anthologies have all kinds of problems. Most surprising absence I've noticed: Miles Davis--- considering that they've got Derek Bailey, Ornette, Sun Ra, Sonny Sharrock, Kip Hanrahan even.

And Albert Ayler!

And John Zorn.

Does anyone else remember a syndicated TV show that aired around the time this Spin book came out--it was a weird political show set in a diner where stock characters like the Waitress and the Blue Collar guy mouthed usually right-leaning positions? Once a week or so Spin editor Eric Weisbard would sit with the host at the diner and talk about issues and stuff. Came on right after the Rush Limbaugh tv show.

always thought it was a little weird that Zappa wasn't included, maybe nobody wanted to wade through that discography.

I mean, and I think this goes into the Squeeze clause, Zappa was really only "alternative" from like 1966 to 1971, and then spent the next 20 years of his life being jazz-prog for Guitar World readers and novelty pop for everyone else. Miles Davis was the vanguard of hard bop and modal jazz and cool jazz – basically "traditional jazz music as we know it" by 1995. His days of an vanguard that would fit the definition of the SPIN guide was maybe 1969 to 1973, four years that are surrounded by a career that goes back nearly 20 years in either direction

Surely you mean 1975? Agharta is p "alternative"

Yeah Miles' electric period 1969-75 was a huge influence on the postpunk NYC scene from Contortions to Material James Blood Ulmer Defunkt and on down to ESG Konk Liquid Liquid and a dozen other forgotten bands.

Ok, yeah, extend Miles through maybe Dark Magus in 1977? Still

Ornette's in

of the people m coleman mentions only material get an entry (unless contortions are filled somewhere i haven't guessed yet)

this was my jam in the 80s so i was used to it being omitted -- seems odder now than it did then

could be wrong, but miles' electric period might not have been so universally beloved in the 80s-90s as it is now? seems like it took a while to really sink in.

miles' electric period might not have been so universally beloved in the 80s-90s as it is now

it was

Mark S is right, this period was largely forgotten in the alt 90s in fact one of the things that first drew me to ILM ca 2004 was the love for NYC punk funk no wave my jam and personal inspiration/obsession

I reviewed a big CD reissue of 70s Miles in the late 90s and got the idea that people still didn't quite know how to process something like Agharta or He Loved Him Madly. #directionsinmusic

greg tate was writing about it all in the late 80s

(the wire was also but i had sight of our sales figures so i know we were not exactly shifting the scales any)

Think this may be partly a US/UK difference - Soulwax reissued Liquid Liquid in the 1990s, SoulJazz reissued ESG same sort of time, so they def weren't ignored or forgotten groups in Britain (ESG had also been spun a lot at the Hacienda).

Beastie Boys/Luscious Jackson were hyping ESG at the height of the Grand Royal era. LJ used to cover ESG stuff live.

my intro to Miles' electric/funk period was a huge retrospective in Motorbooty, doesn't get any more 90s alt than that

hmm iirc Bitches Brew was the only Jazz album on that Rolling Stone Best 100 Albums of the Past 20 Years list in '87. Maybe Miles was too much of a token artist for SPIN at that point.

Miles was also cited by aural auteurs of the DJ-producer persuasion (mostly in Wire but still) re the cutnpaste flow, never mind the turntables----do we really think his electric music made less of a widespread, sometimes deep impression on musos and other listeners of the 90s than the guys who did get in, than Bailey and Zorn, say? C'mon, it's a gap. But maybe the Miles reviewer didn't make deadline either,

why is the complete on the corner session box like $200 now

I would kill for every back issue of Motorbooty.

Christgau wrote about Dark Magus, Panthalassa, and Black Beauty in the late '90s; it's how I learned about the first album.

xpost Ridiculous box, if it's the one I heard: goes way past anything relevant to the original LP, just because he was recording so much in the same time frame. xxpost It's not like Miles don't and didn't get no respect plenty of elsewheres, but having all those electric albums in the Guide might have been a revelation to some, and handy to more.

Yeah xgau covered Miles pretty well, incl. the comeback.

why is the complete on the corner session box like $200 now

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Wednesday, March 15, 2017 1:58 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bc it's out of print iirc

Ridiculous box, if it's the one I heard: goes way past anything relevant to the original LP, just because he was recording so much in the same time frame

otm, the material from these sessions got issued across like four albums iirc

Right, and four distinctly different albums!

columbia does all this cool miles stuff that immediately goes out of print

https://www.discogs.com/Miles-Davis-The-Complete-Columbia-Album-Collection/release/2019307

Prob cos Miles heads already have all or as much of that stuff as they can afford, and then some.

Columbia can then backdoor sell the deleted Complete dognose where (Russia, Japan?)

The oligarchs prob already got it all also.

Columbia used to reissue the metal-spine Miles boxes as much cheaper longbox-shaped sets. But the On the Corner set apparently didn't sell well enough to justify a cheaper reissue (and it was prohibitively expensive when it was in print, iirc).

yeah, a few of those sets could be had for very cheap at some point (maybe still) but things like OTC and the cellar door tapes never got a cheaper reissue afaik. which is lame.

I have that miles columbia box, whiney

i do regret not buying the OTC box and the other ones but I couldnt afford it. I only have the in a silent way box. The complete columbia only has the actual albums

I would kill for every back issue of Motorbooty.

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Wednesday, March 15, 2017 11:00 AM (two hours ago)

twice, even

big chief were kind of bad tho

OTC box is definitely the best one imo

Big Chief is a bit like Kyuss in what they were doing kinda fit more to the late 90s than when the records were actually coming out. The guitar playing and riffs on those Big Chief records are great. They are one of those bands I liked much more years later and have listened to them quite a bit the past few years.

Big Chief definitely fits along side the stoner rock bands like Fu Manchu, Clutch, Kyuss etc. than the grunge bands.

I fucking loved Big Chief!

re: big chief

i dug the early singles ("chrome helmet", "get down & double check", "time dirt money", the surprisingly good "superstupid" cover), but the albums were relatively short on punk energy & hooks. and the fake blaxploitation shtick never sat right. prescient in retrospect, tho.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

So unfucking fair to have to (with Whiney's Glock at my head) vote for just one, but: VU & Nico---what other has such range & depth, groovy toons & scary sounds incl. some of the words etc., so limber & locked etc.? And even if there are several, can't vote for more than one, but mention 'em anyway.

VU & Nico---what other has such range & depth, groovy toons & scary sounds incl. some of the words etc., so limber & locked etc.?

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