Friday, February 29, 2008

Jawbox

Jawbox's eponymous LP is FLAWLESS.  FUCKING FLAWLESS!  If you haven't ever heard it, go buy it.  NOW.   
BEST
RECORD
EVER 
Unfortunately the jerk that uploaded the videos from that album ("Cornflake Girl" and "Mirrorful") as well as "Cooling Card" from "Your Own Special Sweetheart" disabled embedding...so I can't put these videos on my entry.  Why the fuck would you do this?  Thanks a lot, dick.  So all I can post is "Savory" from "Your Own Special Sweetheart."  You'll have to go to YouTube for the rest. 

The Roadrunner Evolution VHS Tape Tribute

One of my fondest memories of the 90's was the Roadrunner Records "Evolution" video sampler.  This compilation had videos from Type O, Sepultura, Life of Agony,  Black Train Jack, Machine Head, Dog Eat Dog, and Obituary, and was $1 or something at the store.  I watched this tape over and over again, so I thought I'd share it here for those of you who missed out on it the first time. Here are the videos, in the sequence they were found on the tape.-J.W. 






Thursday, February 28, 2008

Pixies

great band. it took me years to "get" the pixies. i remember kurt cobain swinging on frank black's nuts in interviews all the time. the video for "velouria" has to be the absolute lowest budget project in music video history. by the way, has anyone seen these guys recently? it looks like frank black and kim deal ate the other two members. frank black looks like he should join tenacious d whenever kyle gas finally strokes out.
-phillip

Rage Against The Machine

I can't really get down with them like I used to, but for a long time RATM was one of my favorite bands.  They've been playing shows again, so hopefully some new recordings will come out of that, since I liked everything up to and including "The Battle of Los Angeles." 
Most people know that these guys ditched their singer, and then hired the singer from another one of my favorite 90's bands, Soundgarden.  You would think that the collaboration would be wonderful, but as it turns out, it was mostly doo-doo. 
LOL at the fat kid going crazy in the "Freedom" video.  I'm right there with you, young one.  UUUHHHHHH!-J.W. 






Cypress Hill

Cypress Hill.  I'm not down with that "Rock Star" shit they're doing now, but back in the day, this was ill.  "Insane..." was so ubiquitous that at one point I heard my junior high school principal's wife singing it.  I guess she saw them on Saturday night live. -J.W. 






Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Type O Negative

i've had my ups and downs with type o negative. carnivore was always more my thing. when "black no.1" was in heavy rotation on the 'ball, i thought it was pretty goofy shit. i still liked the song, and giggled to myself when ever it or "christian woman" would come on. then "october rust" came out. i HATED october rust. its still my least favorite type o negative album to this day. it offended me so, that i refused pay the band any more attention what so ever. several years later i was in a serious long-term relationship with a girl who's favorite band happened to be type o negative. wouldnt you know it, but her favorite type o album was fucking october rust. that shit got played so much it drove me crazy and awakened all the animosity i had felt years before. i fucking hated this band. some time later i bought her "life is killing me" when it came out. my hatred had subsided, but now she was the one loathing them. i shelved this band until recently when my bass player hit a type o phase and jammed this shit for weeks at a time every time we left for tour. giving them a listen after a few years off and hearing their newer material was a breath of fresh air. me and type are in good standings as of now. looking back these videos are just as awesome/hilarious as i remember them. i still have to say i like carnivore better, though. sorry, chris.
-phillip


Machine Head

Machine Head was one of the definitive bands of my youth.  I remember watching the "Davidian" video on my Roadrunner Evolution video cassette.  That shit has basically every component you could want to make a great video.  Fire, footage of the band walking their dog, footage of the band playing live, footage of some black guy doing a feet first stage dive at a Machine Head show.  Too bad pretty much everything after "Burn My Eyes" sucked.  -J.W. 

Bjork










Biohazard

think biohazard was my first real foray into the world of hardcore. of course, back then i couldnt really tell the difference between this and metal, i just knew that bands like these had way more tattoos and possessed a real affection for bandannas and basket-ball jerseys. i got a friend's brother to buy me "state of the world address" and jammed it pretty constantly. this was the same time period as machine head's "burn my eyes". when i heard an announcement for a tour involving biohazard/machine head/slayer i was obsessed with seeing the heroes of headbanger's ball live and in the flesh. when i tried to break the news to my folks of my aspirations they promptly told me to fucking forget it. these videos are all pretty hilarious looking back on it. the video for "5 blocks to the subway" was always kinda funny, because from what i can tell they were pretty much roaming around prospect heights and acting like it was the toughest place on earth. regardless, i still jam biohazard. "punishment" makes me want to commit genocide.
-phillip
The videos for the songs off "Urban Discipline" are amazing in the fact that their artistry (in my opinion) actually exceeds the quality of the songs that they were made for.  And I like the songs!   "Punishment" is particularly great.  Tons of cameos from NYHC all-stars.  Other notes: Bobby Hambel is like a wild, caged animal.  "Judgement Night" is the most ingenious combination of rock and hip hop that has ever (or will ever) be made. 




Limp Bizkit

Any video tribute to the 90's wouldn't be complete without Limp Bizkit.  Ok, Fred Durst is a douche, the guitar player wears a corset and cosmetic contact lenses, and the other two guys are dime-a-dozen, interchangeable rock rap dudes..."Rollin'" is still really fucking catchy.  Plus the Durst man f'ed Britney, discovered Kenna, and starred in a video with Method Man (not to mention Pauly Shore).  File under: Good Things Happening To Bad People.  I think I'm going to go download all these songs and hide them on my ipod under Sepultura: Schizophrenia. 
P.S. I'm not really sure if all these came out in the 90's. 







Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Helmet

Great fucking band. these were the only videos i could dig up. i think me and jerry should start a "fuck universal music group" blog to vent our frustrations over getting repeatedly cock-blocked when trying to post vids. anywho, there's not a lot i can say about helmet other than they were truly awesome and a definitive 90's band that influenced countless bands after them. me and jerry actually saw them recently and it was insanely fun. page hamilton was kind of a dork, but he did nail winona ryder which makes him leaps and bounds cooler than you.
-phillip

Danzig

i traded this douchebag in my class a couple of shitty x-factor comic books for the cassingle of this g. danzig classic. i wore it out until i finally broke down and bought the whole live album. to be honest, the live album kinda sucks but i didnt know any better at the time. no one pulls off mesh quite like danzig. no one. viva metal elvis!!!
-phillip












Sepultura





Slayer

"Seasons in the Abyss" is the video that got me into Slayer.  It also got me into my favorite metal album of all time, "Seasons in the Abyss."  No, "Reign In Blood" is not the best Slayer album, sorry.  Anyway, Slayer really started to go downhill after SITA.  Their last somewhat good record was probably "Divine Intervention."  I watched this video for "Dittohead" frequently on Headbanger's Ball.  It is a good track and an awesome clip, but I found out it is about Rush Limbaugh or something (in a good way).  This is further evidence that, while they may have brought us some of the best tunes ever, Slayer is comprised of huge homos.   
PS All you people out there that thought Slayer was "making a comeback" with that crap album they put out last year, FUCK YOU.  That thing is a steaming pile of shit sewage.   Stop wasting your time and just go play "War Ensemble" on repeat. -J.W. 


Soundgarden

what a band. all of their material was top notch. i still say superunknown was one of the best records of the 90's. yeah, thats right, superunknown. it was like what, 15 tracks, and half of them were singles? i've always heard that chris cornell was a waiter at red lobster before he hit it big. you know just as well as i do that the rest of the waiters there probably made him sing "happy birthday" every single time one rolled in. "HERE'S YOUR CHEESE BISCUUUIITTSS!!! YOOOUU GUYS READY TO OOOORDEEERR???"
-phillip







Monday, February 25, 2008

Pantera

"far beyond driven" was one of the coolest things i had ever heard at the time. i think every dude of my generation who was into metal was into pantera. i remember watching those home videos and thinking, "wow, one day i hope i can be drunk all the time and break shit and gamble money on whether kirk windstein can drink a bunch of booze and hang out with slayer and break shit and do drugs...". as far as i'm concerned, vulgar display of power and far beyond driven are the only albums that matter, but since im a nice guy....
-phillip








Oasis

good band, backed hard. everyone thought they were some reincarnation of the beatles at the time cause they had stupid mod haircuts and round sunglasses. "dont look back in anger" was my favorite jam out of the lot. it was great cause noel sang and liam just got to bang on a tambourine like a dildo and make faces at the camera.
-phillip

p.s. if memory serves me correctly i gave my first finger-bang to the sweet backing of "wonderwall".



The Smashing Pumpkins

a definitive band of my youth. all three of these albums received copious amounts of play in my boom box. even though some of these singles weren't my favorites (*cough*disarm*cough*)
i never changed channels when these videos came on. one word- d'arcy.
-phillip








Lisa Loeb

i remember watching this video while waiting for the "jon stewart show" to come on all the time. its like mtv knew how to bum you out right before jon stewart or the state came on. everyone dissed on her glasses at the time. its weird, she never did it for me but looking back "i'd say"- WOULD.
-phillip

4 Non-Blondes

stupid fucking song. completely unavoidable at the time. there's a reason they were a one-hit wonder. great to sing acapella whilst drunk, but the video just reminds you that some people actually thought the "grunge dyke" look was cool. if i want to see 90's chicks dressed like shit i'll watch the breeders' "cannonball".
-phillip

Sunday, February 24, 2008

EMF

BRUTAL FUCKING PIT ACTION!!! say what you will about this song, that break hits fucking hard as demonstrated by the hundred or so amped euros doing their zany euro hop. this shit was in constant rotation when i was a kid. this along with jesus jones "right here" were inescapable. then again you didnt really want to get away from them. that "OOOHHH" still makes me want to run around and fucking clobber the unsuspecting.
-phillip

Entombed

Fuck the assholes who hate on them for the more rock and roll oriented approach they ended up taking.  Wolvering Blues kills.  Here we have the evidence. This song makes me want to eviscerate the gods and rob sugary confections from the mouths of babes.  Best song ever?  A definite contender.  -J.W. 




Carcass

God-fucking-damn.  From the only Carcass album I care about. -J.W. 

Obituary

This video is the shit.  It was on the semi-famous "Evolution" Roadrunner Record videos sampler.  It expresses how I feel about most things (I really don't care) while also reminding me that industrial pollution is pretty fucked up, even if you're in Obituary.  
Actually, I'm not really sure what this video is trying to say. Is it that mankind doesn't care, and this apathy will lead to an apocalyptic future where children play in sewage?   Is it that Obituary doesn't care about pollution?  I can totally see John Tardy driving down some backwoods Florida road, listening to Leprosy on his truck's tape deck and throwing Budweiser cans out the window.  Or is it that children just don't care about getting dirty? I'd consult the lyric sheet, but I think there are only four words used in this entire song. -J.W. 

Afghan Whigs

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Candlebox

this shit was huge. i wasnt a fan then, but it never really offended me. this is the sort of stuff that i came to realize arkansas cover bands were made of.
-phillip

Sunny Day Real Estate

This was the soundtrack to the latter days of my high school experience.  When the song came out 3 or 4 years before, I thought it was pretty weak.  Then again, I thought Slayer was the apex of modern music at the time...wait, I pretty much still do.  cool video regardless.-phillip 

Nine Inch Nails





Radiohead








Godflesh



Thursday, February 21, 2008

Failure


Hum





Morrissey

holy ambiguous sexuality, batman! morrissey is another one of those 90's staples that i felt was fruitier than richard simmons in a punch bowl at the time, but later became one of my favorites. i remember some of these videos getting casual play on 120 minutes, but i cant remember any of them seeing heavy rotation. they were probably enormous over in jolly ol' england. like depeche mode, i had some prior familiarity with the moz-father due to my sister's dingle-berry boyfriend. its funny to watch the progression of style from the earliest to the later videos. i remember wondering why these dudes with greaser cuts and neck tattoos were being led around by an obviously effeminate pied-piper. if you start with the video for "sing your life" you notice he 's totally rockabilly with a 2 and a half foot tall pomp, but by the time of "alma matters" his hair is way more constrained and he's dressing like james vanderbeek. maybe his power rests in his hair? maybe thats why those couple of 90's albums after "vauxhall and i" suck ass? those last two albums he released in 2003 and 2007 were pretty good, and wouldnt you know it....the hair got big again.
-phillip









Jackyl

Sadly, these were the only two Jackyl videos I could find. The video for "I Stand Alone" is amazing.-J.W.

little do the other members of my band know, but we will be covering "i stand alone" in the very near future. sing-a-long city!
-phillip

Megadeth


To some, it might be blasphemy, but I fucking hate Megadeth (outside from a few tracks).  This band really started to go downhill with the "Youthanasia" album, or however the fuck you spell it.  The title to that album was really clever.  So was the riff in "Train of Consequences" that sounded exactly like a train.   They played the video for "Train..." on Headbanger's Ball with an almost religious zeal, so I guess all the cleverness worked out well for these guys. 
The bass player in my band went through a phase about a year ago when pretty much all he listened to was Megadeth.  One time we were making a road trip and he put the entire Megadeth catalog on shuffle (even the newer albums).  I remember simultaneously wanting to kill him, myself, Dave Mustaine, and the entire world.  Anyway, fuck this band.  Enjoy. -J.W. 






Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Swervedriver

After the nirvana post, its time to get a little more obscure. i remember these videos exclusively from "120 minutes" and anytime i tried to bring this band up people would go, "who the fuck is swervedriver?". well, here they are.
-phillip

p.s. mezcal head was on the soundtrack for "road rage" along with rusty cage back when the playstation first came out.

Nirvana

for some reason nirvana doesn't really have the staying power with me as a lot of other bands from the era. sure i listened to the shit, but who didnt? i think i probably heard it SO much that there's little nostalgia factor to take in effect. unfortunately, this dude blowing his brains out has somehow perpetuated the career of that disastrous sow, courtney love. if you hadnt seen at least 75% of these videos in heavy rotation, you either a.) lived under a rock b.) didnt have cable c.) didnt have friends with cable.
-phillip

p.s. notice in the video for "the man who sold the world" kurt beefs the guitar solo. shit became a huge hit single and there's a big glaring mistake on it. its like having your picture put in the sunday paper with a giant zit on your face.






Beck

"Loser" was fucking everywhere! i didnt want to actually buy this album so i had a friend of mine make me a cassette. for you youngsters, this was the 90's version of "burning a cd". basically your rich friend had a fancy stereo with a dual cassette deck (or if he was really ballin' he had the cd/cassette combo) and would dub you all the albums that his rich parents bought his spoiled ass. this was always the same kid who owned the terror dome or the ninja turtles sewer playset. he was your friend and all, but deep down you fucking hated him for all the shit he had and would find any opportunity to call him out whenever he was a douche. anyway, remarkably i remember all the words to "loser".
-phillip

Weezer

when i was a kid it wasn't cool to like weezer, so i had to sneak it. coincidentally enough, when pinkerton bombed it became really cool to like weezer. i used to watch intently for the "say it ain't so" video. unfortunately, universal fucked me out of posting the "sweater song". i really wanted to post it so i could comment on rivers' awful medieval-serf-penis haircut.
-phillip


White Zombie

Unfortunately, universal music group are a bunch of uptight dong-huffers who wont let me post the rest of the white zombie catalog. we'll make do with these two great songs. this reminds me of a friend of mine who's mom freaked out and grounded him for two months when she found his copy of "la sexorcisto". dumbass should've hid it better. my porn piles may have gotten confiscated, but i'll be damned if my copies of "reign in blood" or "covenant" were ever discovered.
-phillip

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Rocket From the Crypt

man, i love this song. usually bands with horn sections send back breaking douche-chills careening down my spine, but RFTC was an esteemed exception. i remember this video airing occasionally, and even though i thought it was a wicked gay concept, the song was good enough to get me to watch it. i read not too long ago that the original video they shot was too shocking for mtv to air , so in protest they re-shot the thing with them trying to act as cuddly and homo as possible. great song, great album. do yourself a favor and pick up "scream dracula scream" if'n you don't already have it.

Bush

all my friends thought this was the greatest shit since pogs when it came out. i wasnt opposed to it, but it never really did anything for me. most of these videos were pretty popular. i actually got dragged to one of their shows by a girl who thought gavin rossdale was "so cute". they were on tour with two little known acts- no doubt and the goo goo dolls. needless to say, i had an awful time. on the other hand, i did get to make out with that girl. i guess mr. rossdale had done his part in getting her adolescent panties all soppy and left her ripe for the picking. unfortunately i hadnt quite perfected the art of "closing the deal" at the time, so a little tongue-twister had to suffice. to bush i say- thanks?
-phillip




Blind Melon

inescapable song. this video was on almost as much as "november rain" or "losing my religion". no one could really figure this out at the time. it was like some bizarre neo-hippy bullshit, the song didnt really have a catchy chorus and the dancing fat girl in the bee tutu ....well, lets face it...she sucks. thats why she got laughed at in the beginning. whats weirder is that several years prior, shannon hoon (the singer) was singing backups to none other than w. axl rose in the "don't cry" video. how does that happen? just like the fat retard from sublime, this guy dosed himself with a lethal spoonful of smack. whatever.
-phillip

AC/DC

AC/DC are true poets of rock.  Like a masterful haiku, their songs attain the highest levels of artistry while utilizing only the sparest of tools.  Plus, they are truly bad-ass.  Put them up against the heaviest metal band, and AC/DC will make them all look like a pack of 12 year old girls making their first trip to Rite-Aid for maxi pads.   Fucking pussies. 
This first song is from a film that sucked.  Enjoy. 


Alice in Chains

"What The Hell Have I" was another great track from the Last Action Hero Soundtrack. It is probably my favorite AIC song, as well as being one of the hardest songs ever written.  
"Would" was on the Singles soundtrack, in addition to being on Dirt.  It is a song about a guy who died from a heroin overdose, sung by a guy that was destined to die from a heroin overdose.   Good one. -J.W. 









Monday, February 18, 2008

Local H

this is one of those bands that i couldn't stand at the time, and though im still not particularly fond of them , i kinda like "bound for the floor" now. i always remember dudes saying "how come its just the two of them? i can clearly hear a bass player?". well, from what i remember, it was said that the guitar player installed bass pickups on his guitar so he could play both. i dont know about you, but that sounds like a triumphant load of bullshit to me. i've posted another, lesser known single of theirs here, but you probably don't care. its pretty much cat turds anyway.
-phillip

Morbid Angel

I heard Korn covers God of Emptiness live.  
The first time I ever heard this was on Beavis and Butthead. Everyone thought that show was cool, but all they were really doing was making fun of awesome shit.  This song has ridiculous lyrics about god knows what, animals slithering and creeping about hither and thither.  Despite this, it is truly evocative and makes me want to trip my grandmother and kick her in the ass in the name of SATAN.   Bad-ass. 
NOW LET THE CHILDREN COME TO ME! -J.W. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq4rqNV2388

R.E.M.

R.E.M., dedicated to Brian Wallace. -J.W. 












Depeche Mode

i didnt get into depeche mode until much later in life. however,in the early 90's my sister was dating this dude named "keith". keith looked like an iguana with bright red hair. my dad once referred to him as a "fire-headed faggot". he was a dj for some college radio station, so he had his pasty finger on the pulse of what was cool at the time. i heard depeche mode and morrissey through them. being into metallica and guns n' roses, i thought it was the pinnacle of homo-eroticism but i also had asked for the fine young cannibals album for x-mas in '88, so what did i know? that being said, i love "violator".
-phillip

Matthew Sweet

"Girlfriend" is a great fucking song. "Sick of Myself" isn't too shabby either.  I have a friend that loves Matthew Sweet and actually listens to some of his other songs, but I don't know anything about all that...I'm sticking with the hits here. -J.W. 


Sunday, February 17, 2008

Mr. Big

despite its obvious cheese-factor, i was pretty into this song. not really in a "get the record" sort of way, but more in a "oh cool, the mr. big video is on" way. i was always secretly suspicious of the lead singer's gender, and still question it to this day. the funny thing about mr. big was that it was like a laundry list of virtuoso musicians who hit it big with a corny ballad. on bass was billy sheehan who played in both steve vai and none other than "diamond" david lee roth's solo bands. on guitar was paul gilbert from racer x who was an 80's shred king. even after paul gilbert left, ritchie kotzen (another shred dude) stepped up to fill his spot. i know all this because im both a guitar and pop-culture nerd. now that i think about it, i should really check out some other mr. big material to see if its ballsier than this song....buuut i probably wont. enjoy.
-phillip

okay, edit- i scoured youtube some more and forgot that they released of cover of cat stevens' (or yusuf islam for you heathens) "wild world". im taking this as the answer to my previous question- mr. big was the sellout move to get the chicks and the cash. im sure it worked for a minute.

Sublime

more dumb dumb dumb white guy reggae. i knew so many people that treated this garbage like gospel. this was a phenomenon where the perpetually shirtless fat dude singer rode the H-horse out of town and the band didnt really get big until afterwards. whoopee. thats why the dick had to be superimposed in most of the videos. good fucking riddance. i've had my fingers crossed for over a decade that they don't unearth this turd's lost solo tapes or some shit. i could go the rest of my life without hearing anymore of this drivel.
-phillip



311

what was this, '97? some pretty fucking annoying songs. i got kicked out of my junior high and ended up finishing the semester out at a large junior high/high school in a rednecky satellite town outside of little rock called bryant. all the kids were like something out of dawson's creek except there was a large percentage of total trailer trash and everyone had a colloquial southern accent that sounded like nails on a chalkboard. lots of doofuses with bleach-blond caesar cuts and ball necklaces. this shit and sublime were fucking huge there. im sure this band had more videos from the 90's but i dont care to search for them. death to dumb white-guy reggae!
-phillip

Ugly Kid Joe

used to love this video. in case you haven't figured it out yet, i spent most of the decade in front of the television in the "family room" unsupervised for no less than 6 hours a day watching nothing but mtv. while all the other pussy kids my age were watching nickelodeon, disney channel, tgif, blossom, full house, or whatever broadcasted vomit was being aired, i studied the art of the music video. 1991 was a particularly intensive tv watching year for me, and this video got tons of air time. i remember being stoked when i heard it again in the theater while watching the "wayne's world" movie. its hard to believe whitfield crane went from this to singing in life of agony for a minute.
-phillip

Cat's in the Cradle, Phil!