March 30, 2023 by A.S. Van Dorston

30 years ago, Indie Rock expanded it’s scope into Post-Hardcore, Kosmische, Dream Pop, Art Pop, Math Rock, Ambient, Drone and more.

Top 100 Albums of 1993 | Breakdown: Genre Lists | V i deos | Movies | Books

In last year’s Fester’s Lucky 13: 1992 piece, I talked about not being very nostalgic for that year. Despite being young and dumb and full of excitement for exploring both new music and old music that I was catching up on as CD reissues and compilations of jazz, blues, soul and more ramped up, the early 90s were kind of weird. The type of bands I had taken for granted that I could see for under $10 at a small club or bar since 1987 suddenly were playing arenas. In 1993, the biggest selling alt bands, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, U2 and Tool all eventually made the top 50 in worldwide sales, but the top 10 was still dominated by Mariah Carey, Ace of Base, Aerosmith, Janet Jackson, Meat Loaf, Celine Dion and Garth Brooks.

Reading You’re With Stupid: kranky, Chicago and the Reinvention of Indie Music reminded me how vibrant the underground still was, and in most respects, has remained. While labels like kranky and Thrill Jockey were closely associated with Chicago, the majority of their roster were spread throughout the globe, and spanned all kinds of styles of music.

Nevertheless, there was still about 30 great albums, 70 very good, and another couple hundred good to pretty good ones, more than enough to keep most people busy. As always, there’s still buried treasures lurking beneath the surface waiting to be dug up.

Genre

While Grunge was morphing into just another form of mainstream rock and Stoner Rock was still early days, really the bulk of what was interesting was Indie Rock and Pop, which, at least in the underground, was thriving creatively, drawing from noise rock, post-hardcore punk, shoegaze, dream pop, space rock/kosmische, ambient, brewing up the origins of post-rock and many other interesting branches.

Comeback

This was a tough one. Long-dormant punk and post-punk bands were still several years away from their reunions for the most part. One exception was Buzzcocks with Trade Test Emissions. The album did not hold up to their glory days, but it was life-changing to be able to see them live when I thought I never would.

Debut

While technically Björk’s debut was an album of bubblegum folk pop and Eurodisco from when she was a tween in 1977, her real musical education began in the 80s in Icelandic post-punk bands like KUKL and The Sugarcubes. By the time of her coming out professionally as a solo artist, Björk was fully mature, with 13 years of experience under her belt, and knew exactly what she wanted to do and who she wanted to work with, moving to London to connect with hip Bristol producer Nellee Hooper (The Wild Bunch/Soul II Soul) and up-and-coming electronic breakbeat and tabla musician Talvin Singh. Debut was the beginning of a brilliant series of albums that crossed over avant-garde pop and electronic music to the mainstream.

Memoriam

“Georgia” Tom Dorsey (93), Dizzy Gillespie (75), Mick Ronson (46, Spiders from Mars), Billy Eckstine (78), Sun Ra (79), Conway Twitty (59), Mia Zapata (27, The Gits), Albert Collins (61), Jerry Edmonton (47, Steppenwolf) Frank Zappa (52), Michael Clarke (47, The Byrds).

Underrated

Considering the massive success Smashing Pumpkins achieved, it’s strange to me that The Catherine Wheel weren’t nearly as huge. Both bands were meticulous about getting just the right guitar tones, huge and expansive sounds that could fill stadiums. To me, Ride, Swervedriver and Catherine Wheel (and to a lesser extent, The Boo Radleys) represent an alternative timeline of how British guitar rock could/should have evolved. When the “Black Metallic” debut single debuted on MTV’s 120 Minutes, it seemed to have all the elements I loved in guitar rock — a shoegaze-influenced wall of sound, but with sharp edges instead of gauze, and still with plenty of riffs. Why these bands did not catch on instead of Baggy and Brit Pop could have been the subject of a BBC mystery — who killed the guitars? The fact that all three of these bands lost their teeth after 1993 can be partially laid at the feet of Suede, Blur and Oasis. At least we are left with the lost artifact of Catherine Wheel’s second album, a nearly perfect sounding piece of music even without any hits.

Disappointment

It’s nothing new, since U2 had been disappointing me since 1987. At one time one of my top three favorite bands, I found them taking themselves way too seriously on The Joshua Tree with their lumbering, overbearing songs. The once fiery band were trying on a more smoldering, brooding persona, and it was not a good look, even though it made them into superstars. The masses merely encouraged their absurd poses by rewarding the self-consciously fake Achtung Baby (1991) with even bigger sales. This lead U2 to put out their first truly, genuinely awful album, Zooropa. What an embarrassing turd. For a minute, the band themselves seemed embarrassed about it around the turn of the century, at a time when former acolytes Radiohead were showing them how to evolve and innovate with dignity. They didn’t learn, as they would release several more consecutive stinkers.

Surprise

Tom Waits was also my choice for 1992. How often can an artist surprise you? In Waits’ case, a lot. After the success of Bone Machine, he took a left turn in releasing an album of songs written for his collaboration with experimental theater director Robert Wilson, The Black Rider. Originally sung by the cast of the play, Waits’ recordings again show him in peak form, and I found the eerie, autumnal atmosphere even more compelling than his more popular and acclaimed previous album.

Fester’s Lucky 13 – The Best Albums of 1993

1. PJ Harvey – Rid Of Me (Island)

Polly Jean Harvey was born in a small seaside village in Dorset the same year I was, but in a town on the Mississippi. We both listened to Captain Beefheart as young kids, so I felt a connection to the music of PJ Harvey (the name of her band) even before I heard the first note of their debut album Dry (1992). After college I was working in a windowless office in a law firm doing mindless database work, and I had taped a picture of Polly on the wall next to one of Nick Cave, where they look like brother and sister. This was years before their fling. The powerful, fierce, wounded second album, recorded by Steve Albini, already had earned PJ Harvey a place in the pantheon of greats alongside the likes of Cave, Tom Waits and Patti Smith. From the simmering, whispered intro in the character of a menacing stalker to the explosive guitar and drums, only to be outdone by Harvey’s tremendous voice, the album is a masterclass in stark brutality and beauty. “Missed” is disarmingly heartwrenching, and from there, the band puts on a materclass of a truly original concoction of punk blues and noise rock that stalks, lurches and attacks in a ritualistic death dance. PJ Harvey subsequently recorded more complex, acclaimed, prettier and artier albums, but nothing would ever again match this album’s raw passion and fiery power.

2. Dog Faced Hermans – Hum Of Life (Project A Bomb)

In the late 80s, I was a fan of San Francisco based experimental noise/art punk band Tragic Mulatto, lead by Flatula Lee Roth, who contributed saxophone and tuba. Brass in punk that’s not ska related? Why the hell not! They broke up in 1990 after way too short a run, I had to get my fix from Amsterdam based post-punkers Dog Faced Hermans, with Marion Coutts on vocals, trumpet, bells and, wait for it . . . tuba! The sacred punk tuba has been passed on, though the bands actually overlapped with the Hermans forming in Edinburgh in 1986, with perhaps less irreverance than the Americans, but more spiky intensity. Their fourth album shows them in peak form, with no wave skronk (“The Hook and the Wire”) influenced by The Ex, mixed with some pleasing atmospheric numbers like “Wings” and “Madame la Mer” and towering epics like “Love is the Heart of Everything.” It may be an obscure choice for my #2 album, but it did make the RYM top 50, and seeing them live in the basement of the Speedboat Gallery in St. Paul and again at Lounge Ax in Chicago sealed the deal. I’m a fan for life, though alas they were to only put out one more album after this.

3. Tom Waits – The Black Rider (Island)

We really shouldn’t have to wait until this great artist is dead (hopefully that won’t be for a long time) to get to see proper issues of things like his live concert movie Big Time (1988) and a performance of The Black Rider. After the success of Bone Machine (1992), Tom Waits took a left turn in releasing an album of songs written for his collaboration with experimental theater director Robert Wilson, The Black Rider. Originally sung by the cast of the play, Waits’ recordings again show him in peak form, and I found the eerie, autumnal atmosphere even more compelling than his more popular and acclaimed previous album. Some of my all-time favorites are here, including the creepy title track (“I’ll drink your blood like wine”), the classically autumnal “November,” “Just the Right Bullets,” and “Crossroads.” Even seemingly incidental, mood setting theatrical pieces like “Oily Night” are supremely evocative, that one giving imagery of an onslaught of a skeleton army. Wait’s wife and songwriting partner Kathleen Brennan usually gets credit as the Grim Reaper vs. Waits’ Grand Weeper, but here, he masterfully inhabits the macabre better than on any other album in his long career.

4. Stereolab – Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements (Elektra)

While Stereolab had a relatively long-lasting career (they made it through the 90s and the 00s, though they sadly lost Mary Hansen who was killed by a truck in 2002), and would have more highly acclaimed albums, their second album of 11 (and a bajillion singles and EPs) is still my favorite, where they best balanced their cerebral neo-marxist post-structuralist lyrics with loving homages to Neu! and other avant-garde artists of the 60s and 70s, and pop songraft with just the right amount of fuzz on those wheezy old analog organs and strumming guitars. In his kranky records book, Bruce Adams wrote, if they “didn’t exist, it might be necessary to invent them to advance the narrative of this book.” Probably another band would have filled that vacuum, including their kosmische-loving labelmates Th Faith Healers, Pram and Laika, but no one else would have pulled it off with quite the same “je ne sais quoi.”

5. Melvins – Houdini (Atlantic)

The 90s major label feeding frenzy resulted in some amusing signings, like the Butthole Surfers, The Jesus Lizard and the Melvins. Not that they aren’t great bands. But it was highly unlikely their appeal would really cross over to a mainstream audience. Melvins clearly were signed to Atlantic on the strength of Kurt Cobain’s backing, often citing them as a key influence. He even lent a hand in production in the first of their Atlantic trilogy. Who knows how much he was actually involved, but Houdini is their most cohesive album in their entire extensive catalog. I might favor Bullhead (1991) as my favorite still, but this is up there.

6. Fugazi – In on the Kill Taker (Dischord)

It’s weird to think about how, by 1991’s Steady Diet of Nothing, I’d already started taking Fugazi for granted, with the slight disappointment that the album wasn’t as immediate as Repeater (1990). Fugazi never announced any official breakup. They simply stopped, after career highlight The Argument (2001). 22 years later it’s sinking in that we likely will never hear new music from them again. Hindsight shows how completely boss they were, both as a completely original sounding band, and their unwavering integrity, charging just $5 for shows, a refreshing exception of the grubby scrabbling for money and fame by so, so many bands in the 90s. Repeater ended up selling over 300,000 copies, more than most bands signed to major labels managed. It took a couple of attempts to record their third album (fourth if you count 13 Songs). One would have thought teaming up with Steve Albini would have been a good match, but somehow it didn’t click. The rerecorded final album was faster and dirtier sounding than their last one, and it’s their first to enter the Billboard charts. They turned down a $10 million advance from Atlantic, and a slot on Lollapalooza. All the members have kept busy with projects since then, and the band still hangs out as friends, and reportedly have played music together. The closest sounding thing to a reunion on record is MacKaye and Lally on Coriky (2020). Lally and Brendan Canty also put out a couple cool instrumental jazz-rock/art punk albums with Anthony Pirog as The Messthetics.

7. Björk – Debut (Elektra)

For Björk’s solo debut v.2 (she originally did a solo album as a tween), she had over 13 years of experience under her furry belt, resulting unsurprisingly with an adventurous powerhouse of an album that fuses the most current London and Bristol based downtempo electronic and dance-pop with her effervescently dreamy songs that leaves behind her previous band The Sugarcubes in the volcanic ashes of Iceland. It’s a nice preview of her future explorations with glitch techno, modern classical and other avant-garde influences, while also showcasing a batch of timeless pop songs in the form of “Venus as a Boy,” “Big Time Sensuality,” and “Human Behaviour.” I particularly dig the ethereal grooves on side 2 of “One Day,” “Aeroplane,” “Come to Me” and “The Anchor Song.” Artists like Thom Yorke were paying attention to those haunting vocal ululations on “Come to Me,” as evidenced on later songs like “How to Disappear Completely.” While many people laughed off her eccentricities as affected, 30 years later everyone knows that Björk is simply genuinely, unselfconsciously weird. Thank the Ásatrú gods for that, cuz the world needed it.

8. Seam – The Problem With Me (Touch And Go)

Bitch Magnet was an unruly, fascinating beast, someone underrated in the noise rock scene, but without a doubt a pivotal and influential band. They briefly had David Grubbs (Bastro, Gastr del Sol) as a member in 1989. See Jon Fine’s book Your Band Sucks: What I Saw at Indie Rock’s Failed Revolution (But Can No Longer Hear) (2015) for a full account of that band’s story. Leader Sooyoung Park formed Seam in Chapel Hill, initially with Lexi Mitchell and Mac McCaughan of Superchunk. He relocated to Chicago and the frequently shifting lineup included John McEntire (Bastro, Tortoise, The Sea And Cake) and Bundy K. Brown (Tortoise) in 1992. On their second album, the first for Touch and Go, Seam are at peak powers, their graceful and elegant sounding songs are some of the most beautiful you’ll ever hear associated with noise pop and slowcore. Other bands may have borrowed that formula for more widespread popularity, but no one’s really surpassed Seam.

9. Nirvana – In Utero (Geffen)

In many ways, Nirvana’s third and last album sounds like it could have come between Bleach (1989) and Nevermind (1991). It calls back to some of the sludgy moments of their debut, adding some prickly noise rock, foreshadowed by “Oh, the Guilt,” their split Touch and Go single with The Jesus Lizard. Yet there’s also enhanced melodic and lyrical sophistication. Cobain’s inability to deal with fame and success lead to this retreat, recording with Steve Albini. It’s certainly more brutishly loud at times than Nevermind, and for a long time, it was my favorite album. Time and hindsight shows the songs of Nevermind are more enduring, especially in comparison to the saggy midsection of “Dumb,” “Very Ape” and “Milk It.” But In Utero is still a great album with songs that have become embedded in the 90s rock canon.

10. The Afghan Whigs – Gentlemen (Elektra)

Cincinnati’s The Afghan Whigs were associated with grunge mainly because Sub Pop signed them for their second and third albums, Up In It (1990) and Congregation (1992), which showed them taking big creative leaps, as they began to integrate their interest in soul with darkly complex post-punk courtesy of Rick McCollum’s underrated guitar licks worthy of John McGeoch (Magazine/Siouxsie & the Banshees). The Uptown Avondale EP (1992) started a tradition of the band regularly doing fantastically haunting covers of soul classics. It kicks off with the cinematic scene-setting “If I Were Going” and the stuttering rhythm of the title track, which suggests the awkwardness portrayed on the album cover, as if the protagonist feels as clueless and inept in relationships as a kid. From there, the album really takes off with “Be Sweet,” “Debonair,” “When We Two Parted,” “What Jail Is Like” and “My Curse,” featuring lead vocals from Scrawl’s Marcy Mays. Greg Dulli’s meditations on love, sex, regret and heartbreak are in top gear for their fourth album and major label debut. While he is at times self-deprecating, not to mention self-flagellating, he also gives off oily, louche stalker vibes with the assistance of a mountain of cocaine. Some feel Black Love (1996) is even better, as it turns up the sinister, smoky atmospherics to eleven. Whichever your poison is, Gentlemen is about as classic as you can get in this era without being Nirvana.

11. Dinosaur Jr. – Where You Been (Sire/WB)

The first thing I did during my orientation week in college was apply for a radio show. Another aspiring DJ on my dorm floor, who bonded with me for a shared appreciation of Hüsker Dü and Sonic Youth, said I had to get the Dinosaur album, You’re Living All Over Me (1987), which came out the month before. They quickly edged out Sonic Youth as my favorite that fall, and as I spent a week in the hospital with a collapsed lung, I listened to songs like “Lung” (“nowhere to collapse from…”) over and over. And while the coincidence wasn’t profound, J. Mascis expressed existential angst and yearning better than anyone for me. Which is why I was so extremely, savagely disappointed by Green Mind (1991), which seemed completely lackluster to me. The band were too good to write off though, and I was duly excited enough for the next album that I bought the CD single of “Start Choppin.” I’m glad I did, cuz “Turnip Farm” and “Forget It” were just as worthy as the entire album, which arguably was their best batch of songs yet, even if Mascis will never surpass the fuzzed out desperation of his guitar solos on YLAOM.

12. Motorpsycho – Demon Box (Voices Of Wonder)

It’s amazing to think of how Trondheim, Norway’s Motorpsycho was once still a young, bright eyed and scruffy new band, formed in 1989, releasing a stoner/sludge metal, grunge psych debut Lobotomizer in 1991. They had a long road until they became the grizzled and stately psych prog behemoths we’ve known and worshipped for the past couple decades, but some fans still rate their second album, Demon Box as one of their favorites. It shows quite a wide range of influences that they’re still chewing on — noise rock (Sonic Youth/ Dinosaur Jr.) grunge (Melvins), sludge mixed with choppy post-hardcore Helmet riffs on “Feedtime.” The grinding rhythm and cadence of the screamy vocals of “Sheer Profoundity” recalls Big Black’s “Kerosene.” Fifteen years later they would record an album with Steve Albini. “Gutwrench” appears to represent an actual demon that’s crawled out of the box of Greek mythology. The 11:19 long “Mountain” is full on proto-metal/stoner rock, and “Tuesday Morning” is lovely psychedelic folk. “Step Inside Again” tackles industrial music of sorts, more along the lines of Throbbing Gristle at their most experimental, while “Plan #1” anticipates post-rock, and the title track is like the soundtrack to a splatterfest horror show. It’s also over 17 minutes long. Then we’ve got an honest to goodness indie pop song in “Junior.” Those surprised that a band would release such a sprawling, diverse double album just their second time out learned later that they were holding back, as the reissue has four discs full of music, including covers of Jefferson Airplane’s “The House at Pooneil Corners” and the Groundhogs’ “Cherry Red,” showing their roots dug deep into rock history, and would grow to anchor them for decades. | Bandcamp

13. Monster Magnet – Superjudge (A&M)

Of the three primary early architects of stoner rock (Kyuss and Sleep — Melvins were the eccentic grunkle of the scene, and Fu Manchu were a bit later), Red Bank, New Jersey’s Monster Magnet were the first to fully develop their sound, having already released two demo tapes in 1989 titled Forget About Life, I’m High on Dope, and I’m Stoned, What Ya Gonna Do About It?. Even fans familiar only with their most recent releases would instantly recognize Monster Magnet’s fusion of Hawkwind-inspired psych and Detroit heavy rock on those demos and their self-titled EP on Germany’s Glitterhouse records. Their official debut, Spine of God, also out on Glitterhouse in 1991 was arguably the first classic album of the scene, as Sleep and Kyuss were still developing their sounds on Volume One and Wretch that year. Their classics would emerge with Blues for the Red Sun (1992) and Sleep’s Holy Mountain (1992). Yet at the time, I was most excited about Monster Magnet’s major label debut (A&M), Superjudge, which I not unreasonably thought was going to kick off a heavy psych rennaissance. Instead, people seemed to turn their noses up at it, and the stoner psych scene would take many more years to develop until it ignited in the late 90s in Europe. The band would get the critical praise with Dopes to Infinity (1995) and even had a minor hit with “Space Lord” from Powertrip (1998). But my favorite always remained Superjudge — epic intro verse to “Cyclops Revolution” was unmatched by any other album that year — “Cut off your legs, for you are too slow / I cut off my hair, I won’t need it where I’m gonna go / As the nine heads bleed, over all that is mine / Kiss the mouth of the scorpion baby / ‘Cause Odin sayeth it’s time / The sound of ringing bells, of cars smacking into trees / The sign of brother power, coming down to me.” When the band slams into that last line, it’s a two-handed goat horn moment. I mean come on, who else rocked in such an entertaining way in 1993? The fusion of psychedelic silliness and genuine misanthropy is the best I’d heard since Mudhoney’s only great record, the 1988 Superfuzz Bigmuff EP. “I’m alive x3, not you . . . I’ve got mine x 3, fuck you.” It leads into the rifftastic “Twin Earth,” and later they include a somewhat obviously appropriate cover of Hawkwind’s “Brainstorm” at a time with too many indie doofs had no idea who Hawkwind were.

Top 100

PJ Harvey – Rid Of Me (Island) | UK | 10
Tom Waits – The Black Rider (Island) | USA | 10-
Stereolab – Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements (Duophonic) | UK | Bandcamp | 10-
Melvins – Houdini (Atlantic) | USA | 10-
Fugazi – In On The Kill Taker (Dischord) | USA | Bandcamp | 10-
Seam – The Problem With Me (Touch And Go) | USA | Bandcamp | 10-
Björk – Debut (Elektra) | Iceland | Bandcamp | 10-
Nirvana – In Utero (Geffen) | USA | 10-
Afghan Whigs – Gentlemen (Elektra) | USA | 10-
Dinosaur Jr. – Where You Been (Sire/WB) | USA | 10-
Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream (Virgin) | USA | 10-
Motorpsycho – Demon Box (Voices Of Wonder) | Norway | Bandcamp | 10-
Monster Magnet – Superjudge (A&M) | USA | 10-
The The – Dusk (Epic) | UK | 10-
Unwound – Fake Train (Kill Rock Stars) | USA | Bandcamp | 10-
Shrimp Boat – Cavale (Bar None) | USA | 10-
Walt Mink – Bareback Ride (Caroline) | USA | 10-
Th Faith Healers – Imaginary Friend (Too Pure/Elektra) | UK | 10-
The Flaming Lips – Transmissions From The Satellite Heart (WB) | USA | 10-
Catherine Wheel – Chrome (Mercury) | UK | 10-
Slowdive – Souvlaki (4AD) | UK | 10-
Motörhead – Bastards (RGS/Babylon) | UK | 10-
Swervedriver – Mezcal Head (A&M) | UK | 10-
Liz Phair – Exile In Guyville (Matador) | USA | 10-
Belly – Star (Sire/Reprise) | USA | 9+
Suede – Suede (Columbia) | UK | 9+
Majesty Crush – Love 15 (Dali/Numero) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+
Eleventh Dream Day – El Moodio (Atlantic) | USA | 9+
Screamfeeder – Burn Out Your Name (Survival/Poison City) | Australia | Bandcamp | 9+
Jellyfish – Spilt Milk (Charisma) | USA | 9+
Yo La Tengo – Painful (Matador/Atlantic) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+
Uncle Tupelo – Anodyne (Sire/Reprise) | USA | 9+
Buffalo Tom – Big Red Letter Day (Beggars Banquet) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+
Moonshake – Big Good Angel EP (Too Pure) | UK | 9+
Royal Trux – Cats And Dogs (Drag City) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+
Morphine – Cure for Pain (Rykodisc) | USA | 9+
Heavenly – Atta Girl EP (Sarah) | UK | Bandcamp | 9+
Kingston Wall – II (Trinity) | Finland | 9+
Earth – Earth 2 (Sub Pop) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+
Dog Faced Hermans – Hum Of Life (Project A Bomb) | Netherlands | Bandcamp | 9+
Cathedral – The Ethereal Mirror (Colulmbia ) | UK | Bandcamp | 9+
Redd Kross – Phaseshifter (This Way UP) | USA | 9+
Caspar Brötzmann Massaker – Koksofen (Our Choice) | Germany | 9+
Teenage Fanclub – Thirteen (Geffen) | UK | 9+
Adorable – Against Perfection (Creation) | UK | 9+
Death – Individual Thought Patterns (Earache) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+
Strange Boutique – Charm (Bedazzled) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+
Bettie Serveert – Palomine (Matador) | Netherlands | 9+
The Posies – Frosting On The Beater (DGC) | USA | 9+
Bruce Hornsby – Harbor Lights (RCA) | USA | 9+
Gallon Drunk – From the Heart of Town (Sire/Reprise) | UK | 9+
Ozric Tentacles – Jurassic Shift (Dovetail) | UK | Bandcamp | 9+
And Also The Trees – The Klaxon (Normal) | UK | Bandcamp | 9+
Pram – Iron Lung EP (Too Pure) | UK | 9+
Tad – Inhaler (Giant) | USA | 9+
Sentenced – North From Here (Spinefarm) | Finland | Bandcamp | 9+
Red House Painters – Red House Painters [Rollercoaster] (4AD) | USA | 9+
Coroner – Grin (Futurist/Noise) | Switzerland | 9+
The Spinanes – Manos (Sub Pop) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+
Paradise Lost – Icon (Music For Nations) | UK | 9+
Powder Monkeys – Smashed On A Knee (Dog Meat) | Australia | 9+
Labradford – Prazision LP (kranky) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+
Orbital – Orbital [Brown Album] (Internal/FFRR) | UK | Bandcamp | 9+
Sort Sol – Glamourpuss (Columbia) | Denmark | 9+
Sol Invictus – La Croix (Tursa) | UK | Bandcamp | 9+
Girls Against Boys – Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby (Touch And Go) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+
Seefeel – Quique (Too Pure) | UK | 9+
Morbid Angel – Covenant (Giant) | USA | 9+
Magic Dirt – Signs of Satanic Youth EP (Au-Go-Go) | Australia | Bandcamp | 9+
The Spacious Mind – Cosmic Minds at Play (Garageland) | Sweden | 9+
Ed Kuepper – Serene Machine (Hot) | Australia | 9+
Dead Can Dance – Into the Labyrinth (4AD) | Australia | 9+
Pestilence – Spheres (Roadrunner) | Netherlands | Bandcamp | 9+
The Ex + Tom Cora – And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders (Ex) | Netherlands | Bandcamp | 9+
Cranes – Forever (Dedicated ) | UK | 9+
Dwarves – Sugarfix (Sub Pop) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+
The Tea Party – Splendor Solis (EMI) | Canada | 9+
Mazzy Star – So Tonight That I Might See (Capitol) | UK | 9+
Insides – Euphoria (Guernica/4AD) | UK | Bandcamp | 9+
The Breeders – Last Splash (4AD/Elektra) | USA | 9+
A Tribe Called Quest – Midnight Marauders (Jive) | USA | 9+
The Loud Family – Plants And Birds And Rocks And Things (Alias) | USA | 9+
Polvo – Today’s Active Lifestyles (Merge) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+
Sol Invictus – Lex Talionis (Prophecy Productions) | UK | Bandcamp | 9+
Archers Of Loaf – Icky Mettle (Alias) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+
De La Soul – Buhloon Mindstate (Tommy Boy) | USA | 9+
Superchunk – On The Mouth (Matador) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+
Shellac – The Rude Gesture: A Pictorial History/Uranus EP (Touch And Go) | USA | 9+
Rush – Counterparts (Atlantic) | Canada | 9+
Cynic – Focus (Roadrunner) | USA | 9+
The Boo Radleys – Giant Steps (Creation/Columbia) | UK | 9+
Freakwater – Feels Like the Third Time (Thrill Jockey ) | USA | 9+
The Grifters – One Sock Missing (Shangri-La) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+
Fred J. Eaglesmith & The Flying Squirrels – Things Is Changin’ (Major) | USA | 9+
Radiohead – Pablo Honey (Capitol) | UK | Bandcamp | 9+
Velocity Girl – Copacetic (Sub Pop) | USA | 9+
Madder Rose – Bring It Down (Seed) | USA | 9+
Small 23 – True Zero Hook (Alias) | USA | 9+
Scrawl – Velvet Hammer (Simple Machines) | USA | 9+
Lycia – A Day in the Stark Corner (Projekt) | USA | Bandcamp | 9+

See full list here.

Breakdown: Genre Lists

As always, you can deep dive any of these these genres with the list search. While previously I had limited an album to one genre list, it didn’t accurately reflect the multi-genre nature of many of these albums. So this year an album will show up in multiple lists. I have a widget that automatically pulls from the database, so as albums are added and moved around in the future, this will reflect it.

Psych

Widely considered the pinnacle of shoegaze after My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, Slowdive’s Souvlaki is a hugely important album. Their debut album Just For A Day (1991) and preceding EPs were dreamier and gauzier than any of their pedal-gazing colleagues like Ride, and on their second album they nestle down even more into their ambient, spacey essence, even featuring Brian Eno as a guest on two tracks. This is not quite new age music though, rather than invoking waterfalls or quiet forests, they invoke gathering storm clouds, whirlpools into the abyss, and lost-in-space existential tension. A massively influential band who continue to be plagiarized three decades later.

Motorpsycho – Demon Box (Voices Of Wonder) | Norway | Bandcamp
Slowdive – Souvlaki (4AD) | UK
Royal Trux – Cats And Dogs (Drag City) | USA | Bandcamp
Sort Sol – Glamourpuss (Columbia) | Denmark
The Spacious Mind – Cosmic Minds at Play (Garageland) | Sweden
Mazzy Star – So Tonight That I Might See (Capitol) | UK
The Boo Radleys – Giant Steps (Creation/Columbia) | UK
Outskirts Of Infinity – The Altar of Elements (Dark Skies) | UK
Pram – The Stars Are So Big, The Earth Is So Small . . . Stay As You Are (Too Pure) | UK
Lida Husik – The Return of Red Emma (Shimmy Disc) | USA
Disco Inferno – The Last Dance EP (Rough Trade) | UK
Fly Ashtray – Tone Sensations of the Wondermen (Shimmy-Disc) | USA
Voivod – The Outer Limits (MCA/Metal Mind) | Canada

Psych Pop & Prog Pop

I’ve gone back and forth several times with the Flaming Lips, but ultimately the fanatical love friends of mine held for them brought me back repeatedly. While there were glimpses of potential greatness on their first three albums, they were buried under a lot of uninspired chaff. It wasn’t until In a Priest Driven Ambulance (1990) did they show how uplifting their irreverent noise/psych could be. Hit to Death in the Future Head (1992) was more hit (“Halloween on the Barbary Coast”) and miss, but Transmissions is arguably their best album so far. I don’t love that “She Don’t Use Jelly” is their breakthrough hit, which they would later perform at the Peach Pit in Beverly Hills 90210, where they earned the approval of 30 year-old high schooler Steve, “You know, I’ve never been a big fan of alternative music, but these guys rocked the house!” Lucky for the Lips, this was not their one-hit wonder career peak, as their next several albums got even better. Even Zaireeka, with four discs meant to be played on separate stereos, is amazing.

The The – Dusk (Epic) | UK
The Flaming Lips – Transmissions From The Satellite Heart (WB) | USA
Jellyfish – Spilt Milk (Charisma) | USA
The Luck Of Eden Hall – Belladonna Marmalade (Walrus) | USA | Bandcamp
IQ – Ever (Giant Electric Pea) | UK
The Dentists – Powdered Lobster Fiasco (Homestead) | UK
Poverty Stinks – Hello Sister (Poko) | Finland
Tears For Fears – Elemental (Mercury) | UK
Kate Bush – The Red Shoes (EMI) | UK

Noir (Folk, Garage, Psych, Punk, Surf)

After achieving a towering peak on his fifth album with the Bad Seeds, Tender Prey (1988), Nick Cave lost me with his Leonard Cohen/Scott Walker style crooning on The Good Son (1990). It speaks to his talent that the stiff, samey Henry’s Dream, while not as good as his earlier work, nor the much more fiery Let Love In (1994), is still a very good album. At some point most Nick Cave fans learn to just give in and absorb everything he does, because it’s all worthwhile. Except maybe that pretentious chore of a movie, 20,000 Days on Earth.

Gallon Drunk – From the Heart of Town (Sire/Reprise) | UK
Ed Kuepper – Serene Machine (Hot) | Australia
The Gun Club – Lucky Jim (Triple X) | USA
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Live Seeds (Mute/Elektra) | Australia
The Cruel Sea – The Honeymoon Is Over (Red Eye) | Australia
Dave Graney & The Coral Snakes – Night Of The Wolverine (Id) | Australia
The Blackeyed Susans – All Souls Alive (Torn & Frayed) | Australia
Beasts Of Bourbon – From The Belly Of The Beasts (Red Eye) | Australia

Prog

Coroner – Grin (Futurist/Noise) | Switzerland
Pestilence – Spheres (Roadrunner) | Netherlands | Bandcamp
Rush – Counterparts (Atlantic) | Canada
Cynic – Focus (Roadrunner) | USA
Tool – Undertow (Zoo) | USA
Anekdoten – Vemod (Virta) | Sweden
Savatage – Edge Of Thorns (Atlantic) | USA
Voivod – The Outer Limits (MCA/Metal Mind) | Canada
Anacrusis – Screams and Whispers (Metal Blade) | USA
Iceburn – Hephaestus (Revelation) | USA
NoMeansNo – Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy? (Alternative Tentacles) | Canada
Naked City – Radio (Avant) | USA
Pendragon – The Window of Life (Toff) | UK

Punk & Post-Punk

Scrawl.

PJ Harvey – Rid Of Me (Island) | UK
Fugazi – In On The Kill Taker (Dischord) | USA | Bandcamp
Majesty Crush – Love 15 (Dali/Numero) | USA | Bandcamp
Moonshake – Big Good Angel EP (Too Pure) | UK
Royal Trux – Cats And Dogs (Drag City) | USA | Bandcamp
Dog Faced Hermans – Hum Of Life (Project A Bomb) | Netherlands | Bandcamp
Redd Kross – Phaseshifter (This Way UP) | USA
Adorable – Against Perfection (Creation) | UK
And Also The Trees – The Klaxon (Normal) | UK | Bandcamp
Powder Monkeys – Smashed On A Knee (Dog Meat) | Australia
Sort Sol – Glamourpuss (Columbia) | Denmark
Girls Against Boys – Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby (Touch And Go) | USA | Bandcamp
The Ex + Tom Cora – And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders (Ex) | Netherlands | Bandcamp

Garage Rock

Gallon Drunk – From the Heart of Town (Sire/Reprise) | UK
Powder Monkeys – Smashed On A Knee (Dog Meat) | Australia
Magic Dirt – Signs of Satanic Youth EP (Au-Go-Go) | Australia | Bandcamp
Ed Kuepper – Serene Machine (Hot) | Australia
Dwarves – Sugarfix (Sub Pop) | USA | Bandcamp
The Grifters – One Sock Missing (Shangri-La) | USA | Bandcamp
The Gun Club – Lucky Jim (Triple X) | USA
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Extra Width (Matador) | USA
Bored! – Scuzz (Bang!) | Australia
Man Or Astro-Man? – Is It Man or Astro-Man? (Estrus ) | USA
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Live Seeds (Mute/Elektra) | Australia
The Cruel Sea – The Honeymoon Is Over (Red Eye) | Australia
Red Aunts – Drag (Sympathyfor the Record Industry) | USA

Hard Rock

Tumwater, Washington’s Unwound emerged in 1991 seemingly fully formed (though they had a head start as Giant Henry in 1988). They reflected a developing subgenre of sprawling post-hardcore noise rock and a touch of Discord style emo along with the likes of Drive Like Jehu and Rodan. After a self-titled cassette release, this is their first official full length, produced by Steve Fisk and released on Kill Rock Stars. The band had pedigree for sure, and while they caught my attention early on, they seemed to be pretty solidly under the radar. That changed as they evolved, incorporating post-rock and art rock elements, becoming more and more celebrated, with a six album run unmatched by few 90s bands, their final double album Leaves Turn Inside You (2001) considerd their peak. Their legend has continued to grow since, and they’ve reunited this year, with Numero Group commemmorating it with a 252-page clothbound book, Unwound: 1991-2091. Even I am not quite there as a fan to plunk the $75 for that, but Fake Train is certainly an essential starting point for their impressive sonic journey, evolving from a scruffy group of teens drunk on noise, Black Flag style fury, and even early grunge/sludge via Melvins and Nirvana.

Melvins – Houdini (Atlantic) | USA
Fugazi – In On The Kill Taker (Dischord) | USA | Bandcamp
Monster Magnet – Superjudge (A&M) | USA
Unwound – Fake Train (Kill Rock Stars) | USA | Bandcamp
Motörhead – Bastards (RGS/Babylon) | UK
Girls Against Boys – Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby (Touch And Go) | USA | Bandcamp
The Tea Party – Splendor Solis (EMI) | Canada
Polvo – Today’s Active Lifestyles (Merge) | USA | Bandcamp
Superchunk – On The Mouth (Matador) | USA | Bandcamp
Shellac – The Rude Gesture: A Pictorial History/Uranus EP (Touch And Go) | USA
Rush – Counterparts (Atlantic) | Canada
Don Caballero – For Respect (Touch And Go) | USA | Bandcamp
Pegboy – Fore EP (Quarterstick) | USA | Bandcamp

Stoner/Desert/Fuzz

I don’t listen to drone metal often, but when I do, I often go to the source, Earth. Along with Melvins’ Lysol (1992), it’s the album that kicked it all off for the likes of Sunn O))), Boris, Corrupted, Nadja, Khanate, Bong, Big Brave, etc. An acquired taste for sure, but recommended for those who rate the early experiments of La Monte Young, have actually listened to whale songs, or wonder what a recording of plate tectonics compressed from a billion years down to 73 minutes would sound like.

Melvins – Houdini (Atlantic) | USA
Monster Magnet – Superjudge (A&M) | USA
Kingston Wall – II (Trinity) | Finland
Earth – Earth 2 (Sub Pop) | USA | Bandcamp
Magic Dirt – Signs of Satanic Youth EP (Au-Go-Go) | Australia | Bandcamp
Snail – Snail (Big Deal) | USA | Bandcamp
Butthole Surfers – Independent Worm Saloon (Capitol) | USA

Heavy Metal

It was easy to assume a hard rock band that was accepted as a heavy metal band (though Lemmy protested that they were nothing of the sort, simply rock & roll of the nastiest strain) would be creatively spent in the 90s. After all, it happened to most of the giants, from Black Sabbath to Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and AC/DC. Yet the secret was that, while there were slight dips in quality with Rock ‘n’ Roll (1987) and March or Die (1992), Motörhead was actually at the peak of their powers on Bastards. Lemmy often said the early albums were a bit “ropey,” and it wasn’t just the production. His lyrics developed a rapier sharp wit that could shred the likes of Overkill and Ace of Spades to ribbons.

Motörhead – Bastards (RGS/Babylon) | UK
Paradise Lost – Icon (Music For Nations) | UK
Mercyful Fate – In the Shadows (Metal Blade) | Denmark | Bandcamp
Dio – Strange Highways (Reprise/Vertigo) | USA
Savatage – Edge Of Thorns (Atlantic) | USA
Voivod – The Outer Limits (MCA/Metal Mind) | Canada
Count Raven – High On Infinity (CyCloneEmpire) | Sweden
Anacrusis – Screams and Whispers (Metal Blade) | USA
Lost Breed – The Evil In You And Me (Hellhound/Shadow Kingdom) | USA | Bandcamp
Conception – Parallel Minds (Noise) | Norway
Rage – The Missing Link (Noise) | Germany
Iron Man – Black Night (Hellhound) | USA
Gamma Ray – Insanity and Genius (Noise) | Germany

Doom

Doom

Doom was in bloom in 1992. In my Doom Goes Pop (God May be Dead, but Doom Isn’t) timeline from 2013, I noted that Robert Lowe formed Solitude in Arlington, TX way back in 1987, later changing the name to Solitude Aeturnus. After the strong debut Into the Depths of Sorrow (1991), they got even better with their second album, surpassing major players like Candlemass, Saint Vitus, and even Black Sabbath. They extended their peak to Beyond The Crimson Horizon (1993), which made Decibel magazine’s Hall of Fame in 2012.

Cathedral – The Ethereal Mirror (Colulmbia ) | UK | Bandcamp
Paradise Lost – Icon (Music For Nations) | UK
Type O Negative – Bloody Kisses (Roadrunner) | USA
Count Raven – High On Infinity (CyCloneEmpire) | Sweden
Lost Breed – The Evil In You And Me (Hellhound/Shadow Kingdom) | USA | Bandcamp
Iron Man – Black Night (Hellhound) | USA
Crowbar – Crowbar (Pavement) | USA
Eyehategod – Take As Needed for Pain (Century Media) | USA
Anathema – Serenades (Peaceville) | UK
The Gathering – Always (Pavement) | Netherlands

Power Metal, Epic Adventure & Symphonic/Dark Romance Metal & uh Funk Metal

Starting with Helloween, Germany quickly became a power metal powerhouse, and was strong as ever, particularly the mighty Blind Guardian, who’s fourth album was winding up to heat a peak with their fifth in 1995. Amazingly, three decades later, they topped the Metal Archives poll with The God Machine. | Bandcamp

Praxis – Sacrifist (Subharmonic ) | USA | Bandcamp
Savatage – Edge Of Thorns (Atlantic) | USA
Fishbone – Give A Monkey A Brain and He’ll Swear He’s the Center of the Universe (Columbia) | USA
Primus – Pork Soda (Interscope) | USA
Conception – Parallel Minds (Noise) | Norway
Rage – The Missing Link (Noise) | Germany
Gamma Ray – Insanity and Genius (Noise) | Germany
Metal Church – Hanging in the Balance (Rising Sun) | USA
Riot – Nightbreaker (Sony) | USA
Praying Mantis – A Cry for the New World (Canyon) | UK
Saviour Machine – Saviour Machine (Massacre) | USA

Metal

I lost touch with most metal in the early 90s, not because there weren’t some good albums, like this one by Death, but because I was in a pattern of seeing indie bands because they were cheap and accessible, while a lot of metal bands were still playing larger venues with bigger ticket prices, or in the suburbs like the Thirsty Whale, inaccessible without a car. Death were one of the key bands on a mix tape I made a few years previously based on what I was turned on to via the metal show that came on right after my own punk radio show, so I always had time for them. I dug how their music on their fourth and fifth albums was getting more complex, helping pioneer what later would be called technical death metal, which had a fair bit of prog influence. The subgenre would continue to have relevance over two decades later with Revocation, Blood Incantation, Imperial Triumphant, Omnivortex, Cryptic Shift, Ulcerate and Stargazer. Their pioneering work would reach a peak with Symbolic (1995), and then they’d only have one more album before Chuck Schuldiner’s untimely death in 2001.

Earth – Earth 2 (Sub Pop) | USA | Bandcamp
Death – Individual Thought Patterns (Earache) | USA | Bandcamp
Sentenced – North From Here (Spinefarm) | Finland | Bandcamp
Coroner – Grin (Futurist/Noise) | Switzerland
Morbid Angel – Covenant (Giant) | USA
Pestilence – Spheres (Roadrunner) | Netherlands | Bandcamp
Cynic – Focus (Roadrunner) | USA
Entombed – Wolverine Blues (Earache/Columbia) | Sweden
Carcass – Heartwork (Earache) | UK | Bandcamp
Immortal – Pure Holocaust (Osmose) | Norway | Bandcamp
Edge Of Sanity – The Spectral Sorrows (Black Mark) | Sweden
Darkthrone – Under A Funeral Moon (Peaceville) | Norway | Bandcamp
Obliveon – Nemesis (Prodisk) | Canada
Atheist – Elements (Metal Blade) | USA | Bandcamp
Believer – Dimensions (Roadrunner) | USA
Dissection – The Somberlein (Nuclear Blast) | Sweden
Satyricon – Dark Medieval Times (Moonfog) | Norway | Bandcamp
Neurosis – Enemy Of The Sun (Alternative Tentacles) | USA
Sinister – Diabolical Summoning (Nuclear Blast) | Netherlands
Varathron – His Majesty at the Swamp (Cyber) | Greece | Bandcamp
Sigh – Scorn Defeat (Deathlike Sentence) | Japan
Crowbar – Crowbar (Pavement) | USA
Sepultura – Chaos A.D. (Roadrunner) | Brazil
Eyehategod – Take As Needed for Pain (Century Media) | USA
At The Gates – With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness (Deaf) | Sweden

Avant, Experimental, Post-Rock, Modern Classical, Drone

The Yank mirror of bleeding edge UK labels like Too Pure and Warp, the story of the kranky label began with this one, release number KRANK 001. You can read all about that story in You’re with Stupid: kranky, Chicago, and the Reinvention of Indie Music by label co-founder Bruce Adams, which came out November 2022. Like other bands credited as early influencers of post-rock (a term Simon Reynolds came up with that’s kind of the 90s version of art rock with less reliance on vocals and verse-chorus-verse structures), with it’s mix of ambient Eno, psych and kosmische via F/i and Cluster, and the gentle guitar strumming of Durutti Column and Felt’s early instrumental tracks. The band was destined to be massively influential, but never to achieve the success of some of their acolytes like Godspeed You Black Emperor and a slew of other bands. Such is life in the underground.

Tom Waits – The Black Rider (Island) | USA
Björk – Debut (Elektra) | Iceland | Bandcamp
Moonshake – Big Good Angel EP (Too Pure) | UK
Earth – Earth 2 (Sub Pop) | USA | Bandcamp
Dog Faced Hermans – Hum Of Life (Project A Bomb) | Netherlands | Bandcamp
Caspar Brötzmann Massaker – Koksofen (Our Choice) | Germany
Pram – Iron Lung EP (Too Pure) | UK
Labradford – Prazision LP (kranky) | USA | Bandcamp
Seefeel – Quique (Too Pure) | UK
The Ex + Tom Cora – And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders (Ex) | Netherlands | Bandcamp
Pram – The Stars Are So Big, The Earth Is So Small . . . Stay As You Are (Too Pure) | UK
Engine Kid – Astronaut EP (C/Z) | USA
Praxis – Sacrifist (Subharmonic ) | USA | Bandcamp

Industrial & Noise

There were no shortage of guitar heroes in the 90s. Despite the feeding frenzy to find the next million-selling alt rock band, there was still a good amount of creativity happening in indie rock. Ash Bowie fused the experimental noise of Sonic Youth, the firepower of Mission of Burma, and occasionally the questing awe of Fugazi into an alien sounding but still rifftastic arsenal of sounds. The songwriting, lyrics and vocals barely hold it together, as it happened with much indie rock, but man, that guitar playing was something to behold live. And “Tilebreaker” does have a sticky melody that’s burrowed itself into my brain for 30 years. The seven-plus minute “Stinger (Five Wigs)” and “Gemini Cusp” also hint that, along with the likes of Guided By Voices, they have a soft spot for prog.

PJ Harvey – Rid Of Me (Island) | UK
Motorpsycho – Demon Box (Voices Of Wonder) | Norway | Bandcamp
Unwound – Fake Train (Kill Rock Stars) | USA | Bandcamp
Royal Trux – Cats And Dogs (Drag City) | USA | Bandcamp
Caspar Brötzmann Massaker – Koksofen (Our Choice) | Germany
Tad – Inhaler (Giant) | USA
Girls Against Boys – Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby (Touch And Go) | USA | Bandcamp
Magic Dirt – Signs of Satanic Youth EP (Au-Go-Go) | Australia | Bandcamp
Polvo – Today’s Active Lifestyles (Merge) | USA | Bandcamp
Sol Invictus – Lex Talionis (Prophecy Productions) | UK | Bandcamp
Shellac – The Rude Gesture: A Pictorial History/Uranus EP (Touch And Go) | USA
Scrawl – Velvet Hammer (Simple Machines) | USA
Don Caballero – For Respect (Touch And Go) | USA | Bandcamp

Dream Pop & Shoegaze

More noise pop with Can-influenced motorik rhythms, Th Faith Healers were a looser, goosier garage punk variation of former labelmates Stereolab. Their dogged repetition might be a barrier some don’t want to cross, but in hindsight, given the entire Castle Face roster owes something to this band, they’re very accessible. Alas, they didn’t last long, nor did the subsequent project, Quickspace.

Stereolab – Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements (Duophonic) | UK | Bandcamp
Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream (Virgin) | USA
Th Faith Healers – Imaginary Friend (Too Pure/Elektra) | UK
Catherine Wheel – Chrome (Mercury) | UK
Slowdive – Souvlaki (4AD) | UK
Swervedriver – Mezcal Head (A&M) | UK
Belly – Star (Sire/Reprise) | USA
Majesty Crush – Love 15 (Dali/Numero) | USA | Bandcamp
Eleventh Dream Day – El Moodio (Atlantic) | USA
Yo La Tengo – Painful (Matador/Atlantic) | USA | Bandcamp
Adorable – Against Perfection (Creation) | UK
Red House Painters – Red House Painters [Rollercoaster] (4AD) | USA
Seefeel – Quique (Too Pure) | UK

Ambient, Art Pop, Dream Pop, New Age & Sophisti-Pop

As an early innovator who combined shoegaze, dream pop, ambient techno and dub as a major influencer on what would soon be known as post-rock, London’s Seefeel are relatively unheralded. While it was released in 1994, Polyfusia compiles the band’s first two EPs released on Too Pure in 1993, and is a good reference to where the band came from, and their links with labelmates Moonshake, Pram and Stereolab via kosmische influences. If the EPs are where they came from, their first full-length, Quique indicates where they were going, evolving from cyclically repetitive guitar-based textures to more electronic ambient sounds that partner well with Aphex Twin. The dubby basslines and exploratory ambient sounds sparked some giddy excitement when I first discovered it, as it felt like a glimpse into the future. With a move to electronic music label Warp records on 1995’s Succour, the future is precisely what Seefeel was shaping.

When Hope Sandoval joined Opal in 1987, David Roback (Rain Parade) was still figuring out their sound. It makes sense that once the project evolved away from the Paisley Underground roots of the band after Kendra Smith (The Dream Syndicate) left, they would change the name before releasing the Mazzy Star debut She Hangs Brightly (1990), unveiling their new hybrid of dream pop, psych folk and Cosmic Americana. The formula was perfected on their second album, and dug deep into popular culture with “Fade Into You” and “Into Dust” incorporated into innumeral bittersweet, melancholy and/or sexy scenes in film and TV. This overexposure made it easy to devalue this music, but 30 years later it still weaves an irresistably alluring spell.

Stereolab – Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements (Duophonic) | UK | Bandcamp
Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream (Virgin) | USA
The The – Dusk (Epic) | UK
Catherine Wheel – Chrome (Mercury) | UK
Slowdive – Souvlaki (4AD) | UK
Belly – Star (Sire/Reprise) | USA
Majesty Crush – Love 15 (Dali/Numero) | USA | Bandcamp
Eleventh Dream Day – El Moodio (Atlantic) | USA
Jellyfish – Spilt Milk (Charisma) | USA
Yo La Tengo – Painful (Matador/Atlantic) | USA | Bandcamp
Bruce Hornsby – Harbor Lights (RCA) | USA
Red House Painters – Red House Painters [Rollercoaster] (4AD) | USA
Labradford – Prazision LP (kranky) | USA | Bandcamp

Indie Pop & Jangle Pop

I’m reading You’re with Stupid: kranky, Chicago, and the Reinvention of Indie Music, and it’s triggering a lot of memories from when I first moved to Chicago in 1992. The local scene was obviously percolating to boiling in terms of big name bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Urge Overkill and Liz Phair, but the underground was doing just fine too. The first bands I started following were The Mercury Players and Shorty, with members of both eventually forming the acclaimed U.S. Maple, and Gastr del Sol (I was a fan of David Grubbs of Squirrel Bait, Slint and Bastro) and Shrimp Boat. Shrimp Boat formed back in 1985, when few of the members had much experience playing music. They mixed a diverse, seemingly conflicting bag of influences like Captain Beefheart rhythms, folky Americana, jazz-rock, bossa nova and Afro Pop. They had a small cult following who insisted everything the band did was gold, to the point where the NY avant-jazz label AUM Fidelity obsessively sifted through over 300 hours worth of rehearsal and live tapes and released the 4 disc Something Grand compilation in 2004. Personally I was satisfied with mostly listening to their third and last album, Cavale. Eight years of rehearsals and gigs paid off, as the band were now very proficient musicians, and this was the tightest they’d ever been, their technical precision a precursor to math rock, but with an easy flowing subtlety that was a preview of what would become The Sea And Cake, after Brad Wood would move on to focusing on his own Idful Studio and Liz Phair, Sam Prekop and Eric Claridge joining up with The Coctails’ Archer Prewitt and Gastr del Sol’s John McEntire (whou would also soon drum for Tortoise). The cross-pollination reminiscent of jazz bands and freeweeling experimentation is what kept the Chicago scene unique and special at it’s core, no matter what kind of blustering feuds were going on at the surface.

The The – Dusk (Epic) | UK
Shrimp Boat – Cavale (Bar None) | USA
Belly – Star (Sire/Reprise) | USA
Majesty Crush – Love 15 (Dali/Numero) | USA | Bandcamp
Buffalo Tom – Big Red Letter Day (Beggars Banquet) | USA | Bandcamp
Heavenly – Atta Girl EP (Sarah) | UK | Bandcamp
Teenage Fanclub – Thirteen (Geffen) | UK
Bettie Serveert – Palomine (Matador) | Netherlands
The Posies – Frosting On The Beater (DGC) | USA
Ed Kuepper – Serene Machine (Hot) | Australia
The Loud Family – Plants And Birds And Rocks And Things (Alias) | USA
Velocity Girl – Copacetic (Sub Pop) | USA
Madder Rose – Bring It Down (Seed) | USA

Power Pop

Power Pop

Walt Mink’s second album for Caroline remained under the radar and even less competently promoted than Miss Happiness (1992). With the explosion of indie/alt music in the 90s, things were a bit of a mess, with both indies (Caroline was also serving as farm team for Virgin such as with Smashing Pumpkins) and majors just seeing what sticks without doing any real work in promoting. It has some of their very best songs in “Frail,” “Turn,” “Fragile” and especially “Disappear” (“she lay in bed/and the songs rushed into her head / and time stood still for awhile / the dial glowed in the darkness and it filled her up with a dream / and time stood still for awhile”). “Sunnymede” features acoustic guitar and Joey Waronker either plays tablas or makes it sound like it, while “Tree in Orange” includes choral and string arrangements by That Dog, including Rachel and Petra Haden, and Joey’s sister Anna. The power pop of “Subway” and “What A Day” don’t hit me as hard as, say, the stately “Shine,” which seems like it should have been featured on a movie soundtrack. Sophia Coppola did direct the video for it, and Spike Jonze shot it. “Fragile” was on their first single, and I’ll never get tired of it, which calls back to John Kimbrough’s roots in hardcore punk with Bonded In Unity. It’s not technically hardcore, but if Jimi Hendrix had lived long enough to take a whack at it, it might have sounded like “Fragile.” “Turn” has some gloriously dizzying psychedelic phasing. The band was clearly at the top of their game, and it seemed appropriate that they were signed by Columbia. Things quickly went sideways when Waronker was poached by Beck, and they ended up switching to Atlantic, only to be mismanaged there too. But anyone lucky enough to catch the band live during those years got an unforgettable experience.

I slept on this Jellyfish album for a few years, and I blame the cover art. The garish saturated colors of their two albums screamed landfill major label alternative rock that haunted the super-discount used CD bins priced at five for a dollar. Also, I think I confused them with Blind Melon because of the similarity of the unfortunate looking child on the cover. It wasn’t until hearing Jason Falkner’s excellent solo debut three years later that I circled back to this, and realized I was wrong. Well, the cover art was still terrible, and the band’s jester costumes were ill advised. But they were awesome, like a combo of two of my first big childhood loves, ELO and Queen. After a Beach Boys/Queen acapella homage intro, “Joining a Fan Club” explodes like a box of pop rocks and Coke. The pacing of the overdriven power and prog pop is balanced by the lush, mellow psych pop tunes. Studio geeks rave about the production work of this album, and rightly so. It’s immaculate, and sounds less dated than some other productions that tie certain bands on a short leash to 1993. If only someone could have locked them in a basement so they could make at least a third album. I just realized Omnivore released a deluxe double edition in 2015. I want that.

Despite referencing the Big Star song in the title, the Glasgow based Teenage Fanclub are less indebted to the band than on their acclaimed Bandwagonesque (1991). While the songwriting isn’t quite as sticky, they have evolved their sound into a harder rocking version of power and jangle pop, accented with some noise pop. Many songs address the music biz, press, TV and radio that certainly anchors it to it’s time, but it was an important template for the rest of their career.

Washington band The Posies for the most part was a merely good power pop band in an era when the genre got fleeting mainstream attention (Weezer, Teenage Fanclub, Jellyfish, Sloan, Fountains of Wayne, Matthew Sweet), but most bands remained under the radar. I’d say for the most part, because on just one of their eight albums, their third, they released a classic, a nearly perfect piece of pop art that . It’s thanks to that why Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow got the honor of serving as part of Big Star off and on through the 90s and 00s.

Walt Mink – Bareback Ride (Caroline) | USA
Screamfeeder – Burn Out Your Name (Survival/Poison City) | Australia | Bandcamp
Jellyfish – Spilt Milk (Charisma) | USA
Buffalo Tom – Big Red Letter Day (Beggars Banquet) | USA | Bandcamp
Redd Kross – Phaseshifter (This Way UP) | USA
Teenage Fanclub – Thirteen (Geffen) | UK
The Posies – Frosting On The Beater (DGC) | USA
The Loud Family – Plants And Birds And Rocks And Things (Alias) | USA
Urge Overkill – Saturation (DGC) | USA
The Juliana Hatfield Three – Become What You Are (Atlantic) | USA
Sugar – Beaster EP (Rykodisc/Creation) | USA
Dramarama – Hi-Fi Sci-Fi (Chameleon) | USA
Elastica – Stutter EP (Geffen) | UK

Indie & Alt Rock

Compared to 21st century social media celebrity tussles, the kerfuffle that Liz Phair stirred up in the Chicago music scene in retrospect seems about as savage as a spat between Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie. A much needed female voice in a city teeming with toxic masculinity (the post-hardcore noise scene, whose gatekeepr Steve Albini dismissed Phair as a second-rate Rickie Lee Jones (“more talked about than heard, a persona completely unrooted in substance, and a fucking chore to listen to”), and the aspiring cock-rockers and inhabitants of Guyville, Urge Overkill (compared by Albini to Oingo Boingo, and Smashing Pumpkins to REO Speedwagon). She was an important part of a wave of women musicians, including Juliana Hatfield, the Spinanes, Scrawl, Bikini Kill, the Breeders, Velocity Girl, PJ Harvey, Bjork and others. Her low-key, stripped down musical approach was halfway between her Girly-Sound bedroom tapes and a garage band. What made her special was her lyrics that could be simultaneously provocative, vulnerable and horrifying, such as on “Fuck and Run” which both longs for a meaningful relationship, and reveals the implications of her sexual history starting as just a 12 year-old child. Subsequent albums polished up the music, but the raw-nerve songwriting was never surpassed.

It took me a few years to come around to the Spinanes because at the time, I saw them as an inferior version of Pod-era Breeders, and influenced by Beat Happening and K records, which I particularly disliked. However Rebecca Gates’ songwriting and voice won me over in the end. Their low key, spare indie pop was not credited as slowcore influencers, but they should have been. It also sounds appropriate next to Liz Phair’s stripped down debut, and inspired me to belatedly buy a copy of Rebecca Gates and the Consortium’s The Float (2012), which featured collaborations with members of Chicago’s Tortoise, Califone and others, and the closest she got to the magic of Manos.

I was a fan of Yo La Tengo from the beginning, with early songs like “The Forest Green” and “A Shy Dog” making regular appearances on mix tapes and my radio show. Their first five imperfect but perfectly enjoyable albums of indie, jangle pop, noise pop and folk rock always hinted at a future greatness. When they seemingly arrived at that summit with their sixth album, at the time my reaction was, “is that it?” I can see why the album, which is their most cohesive and consistently pretty sounding album, would get the acclaim. Music critic turned rocker Ira Kaplan had impeccible taste in pulling influences around him like a magpie indie scholar, this time incorporating the most recent trends in slowcore, dream pop and shoegaze. Yet it was all so dang subdued and sleepy, something I appreciated less at 23, and more later in life. One of the most low-key tracks also packed the most emotional whallop, the cover of The Only Ones’ “The Whole of the Law,” which outdid any of the tracks on their covers album Fakebook (1990). Their live shows got increasingly more boring, but their critical stock skyrocketed. They kept up the quality in their next three albums though, even offering up some good rockers, before settling into a late career blandness until shaking things up with their latest album, the prickly, experimental This Stupid World, that brings to mind the last couple efforts from Low.

While Smashing Pumpkins were reflecting influences from UK bands My Bloody Valentine and The Cure, UK bands like Catherine Wheel, Ride, The Boo Radleys and Swervedriver in turn were looking to the U.S. for influences in the likes of Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. Swervedriver were particularly hard rocking, putting out their greatest work on a series of EPs in 1990-91, hinting at a fusion of shoegaze, noise rock and even psychedelic stoner rock that anticipated some bands that would emerge two decades later. Raise (1991) and Mezcal Head didn’t quite fulfill the promise of those early EPs, but their second full-length does offer some enjoyable sounds, even if the band is already, unfortunately, in decline.

I’ve always had a rollercoaster like/hate/tolerate relationship with the Pumpkins. I was pleasantly surprised by their 1990 Sub Pop single “Tristessa” with the woogly psychedelic guitars and great drumming. Gish (1991) delivered on that promise, but their performance with Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam later that year did not. Even then Billy Corgan was a persnickety diva who did not perform well because he was in a snit about some trivial bullshit. Which is reflected in his juvenile lyrics. And yet, that gooey, delicious guitar tone. Via the influence of My Bloody Valentine, the tracks, recorded painstakingly with Butch Vig, are layered upon each other to the verge of suffocation, but for the most part, the sound on Siamese Dream is on the right side of heavy, and Jimmy Chamberlin is a beast.

PJ Harvey – Rid Of Me (Island) | UK
Fugazi – In On The Kill Taker (Dischord) | USA | Bandcamp
Seam – The Problem With Me (Touch And Go) | USA | Bandcamp
Nirvana – In Utero (Geffen) | USA
Afghan Whigs – Gentlemen (Elektra) | USA
Dinosaur Jr. – Where You Been (Sire/WB) | USA
Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream (Virgin) | USA
Motorpsycho – Demon Box (Voices Of Wonder) | Norway | Bandcamp
The The – Dusk (Epic) | UK
Unwound – Fake Train (Kill Rock Stars) | USA | Bandcamp
Walt Mink – Bareback Ride (Caroline) | USA
The Flaming Lips – Transmissions From The Satellite Heart (WB) | USA
Swervedriver – Mezcal Head (A&M) | UK
Liz Phair – Exile In Guyville (Matador) | USA
Belly – Star (Sire/Reprise) | USA
Suede – Suede (Columbia) | UK
Eleventh Dream Day – El Moodio (Atlantic) | USA
Screamfeeder – Burn Out Your Name (Survival/Poison City) | Australia | Bandcamp
Yo La Tengo – Painful (Matador/Atlantic) | USA | Bandcamp
Uncle Tupelo – Anodyne (Sire/Reprise) | USA

Global, Reggae, Dub & Afrobeat

Moonshake – Big Good Angel EP (Too Pure) | UK
Dead Can Dance – Into the Labyrinth (4AD) | Australia
Ali Farka Touré – The Source (Hannibal/World Circuit) | Mali
African Head Charge – In Pursuit of Shashamane Land (On-U) | UK | Bandcamp
Geoffrey Oryema – Beat the Border (Real World) | Uganda | Bandcamp
Baka Beyond – Spirit of the Forest (Hannibal) | Cameroon
Transglobal Underground – Dream of 100 Nations (Nation) | UK | Bandcamp
Khaled – N’ssi N’ssi (Mango) | Algeria
Caetano Veloso & Gilberto Gil – Tropicália 2 (Elektra) | Brazil
Oumou Sangare – Ko Sira (World Circuit) | Mali
Ry Cooder & V.M. Bhatt – A Meeting by the River (Water Lily Acoustics) | India/USA
Hepcat – Out of Nowhere (Moon Records ) | USA

Electronic

Orbital – Orbital [Brown Album] (Internal/FFRR) | UK | Bandcamp
Seefeel – Quique (Too Pure) | UK
Chris & Cosey – Muzik Fantastique! (PIAS) | UK
African Head Charge – In Pursuit of Shashamane Land (On-U) | UK | Bandcamp
Autechre – Incunabula (Warp) | UK | Bandcamp
A Guy Called Gerald – 28 Gun Bad Boy (Juice Box ) | UK | Bandcamp
Transglobal Underground – Dream of 100 Nations (Nation) | UK | Bandcamp
Superconductor – Hit Songs For Girls (Boner) | UK
U2 – Zooropa (Island) | Ireland

R&B, Soul & Funk

Paul Weller – Wild Wood (Go!) | UK
Meshell Ndegeocello – Plantation Lullabies (Maverick) | USA
Paul Weller – Wild Wood (Go!) | UK
Pizzicato Five – Bassanova 2001 (Columbia) | Japan
Medeski, Martin & Wood – It’s a Jungle in Here (Gramavision) | USA
Basehead – Not In Kansas Anymore (Imago) | USA
Jamiroquai – Emergency on Planet Earth (Sony) | UK
Lenny Kravitz – Are You Gonna Go My Way (Virgin) | USA
PM Dawn – The Bliss Album? (Polygram) | USA

Hip Hop & Rap

While Queens, NY’s A Tribe Called Quest’s massive influence peaked on The Low End Theory (1991), they just about hold that peak with their third album. Their albums hold up just a bit better than De La Soul because they don’t let throwaway skits to interrupt the flow. While it seemed their story ended with the disappointing fifth album The Love Movement (1998), they released one last album, 22 years later, triumphantly nearly matching their peak work on We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your service (2016).

A Tribe Called Quest – Midnight Marauders (Jive) | USA
De La Soul – Buhloon Mindstate (Tommy Boy) | USA
Meshell Ndegeocello – Plantation Lullabies (Maverick) | USA
Digable Planets – Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space) (Pendulum) | USA
Guru – Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1 (Chrysalis) | USA
Wu-Tang Clan – Enter the Wu-Tang – 36 Chambers (Loud) | USA
The Jungle Brothers – J. Beez Wit The Remedy (WB) | USA
Del the Funky Homosapien – No Need for Alarm (Elektra) | USA | Bandcamp
Queen Latifah – Black Reign (Motown) | USA
Paris – Sleeping with the Enemy (Scarface) | USA
Naughty by Nature – 19 Naughty III (Tommy Boy) | USA
The Roots – Organix (Remedy) | USA | Bandcamp
Apache Indian – No Reservations (4th & Broadway) | UK

Folk & Americana

Eleventh Dream Day – El Moodio (Atlantic) | USA
Uncle Tupelo – Anodyne (Sire/Reprise) | USA
Red House Painters – Red House Painters [Rollercoaster] (4AD) | USA
Sol Invictus – La Croix (Tursa) | UK | Bandcamp
Ed Kuepper – Serene Machine (Hot) | Australia
The Tea Party – Splendor Solis (EMI) | Canada
Mazzy Star – So Tonight That I Might See (Capitol) | UK
Sol Invictus – Lex Talionis (Prophecy Productions) | UK | Bandcamp
Freakwater – Feels Like the Third Time (Thrill Jockey ) | USA
Fred J. Eaglesmith & The Flying Squirrels – Things Is Changin’ (Major) | USA
Guided By Voices – Vampire On Titus (Scat) | USA | Bandcamp
Butterfly Child – Onomatopoeia (Rough Trade) | UK
New Model Army – The Love Of Hopeless Causes (Epic) | UK

Country, Country Blues/Psych/Rock/Soul

Uncle Tupelo – Anodyne (Sire/Reprise) | USA
Freakwater – Feels Like the Third Time (Thrill Jockey ) | USA
Fred J. Eaglesmith & The Flying Squirrels – Things Is Changin’ (Major) | USA
Dwight Yoakam – This Time (Reprise) | USA
The Walkabouts – Satisfied Mind (Creativeman) | USA
Emmylou Harris – Cowgirl’s Prayer (Elektra) | USA
The Palace Brothers – There Is No One What Will Take Care Of You (Drag City) | USA

Jazz, Jazz Fusion

Pestilence – Spheres (Roadrunner) | Netherlands | Bandcamp
Cynic – Focus (Roadrunner) | USA
X-Legged Sally – Killed by Charity (Sub Rosa) | Belgium | Bandcamp
Iceburn – Hephaestus (Revelation) | USA
Naked City – Radio (Avant) | USA
Atheist – Elements (Metal Blade) | USA | Bandcamp
Aziza Mustafa Zadeh – Always (Columbia) | Azerbaijan | Bandcamp
Tipographica – Tipographica (God Mountain) | Japan
Cassandra Wilson – Blue Light ‘Til Dawn (Blue Note) | USA
Medeski, Martin & Wood – It’s a Jungle in Here (Gramavision) | USA
Jamiroquai – Emergency on Planet Earth (Sony) | UK

Non-Metal For Metalheads

Tom Waits – The Black Rider (Island) | USA
Moonshake – Big Good Angel EP (Too Pure) | UK
Dog Faced Hermans – Hum Of Life (Project A Bomb) | Netherlands | Bandcamp
Caspar Brötzmann Massaker – Koksofen (Our Choice) | Germany
Pram – Iron Lung EP (Too Pure) | UK
The Ex + Tom Cora – And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders (Ex) | Netherlands | Bandcamp
Sol Invictus – Lex Talionis (Prophecy Productions) | UK | Bandcamp
Pram – The Stars Are So Big, The Earth Is So Small . . . Stay As You Are (Too Pure) | UK
Chris & Cosey – Muzik Fantastique! (PIAS) | UK
Praxis – Sacrifist (Subharmonic ) | USA | Bandcamp
Disco Inferno – The Last Dance EP (Rough Trade) | UK
Scorn – Colossus (Earache) | UK | Bandcamp
Devil Doll – The Sacrilege of Fatal Arms (Hurdy Gurdy) | Slovenia

Labels

Elektra (10)
Sub Pop (9)
Caroline (8)
Virgin (8)
WB (7)
American (6)
Columbia (6)
4AD (5)
Dischord (5)
Matador (5)

Videos

Shows

PJ Harvey, Moonshake, First Avenue
Shellac, Lounge Ax, 7/22
Walt Mink, Metro, 1/16
Pere Ubu, Metro, 6/4
Swervedriver, Aragon, 12/10
Slowdive & Catherine Wheel, Metro, 8/21
Fugazi, Aragon, 9/3
Buzzcocks, Metro, 11/19
Monster Magnet, Lounge Ax, 8/10
The Flaming Lips, Aragon, 7/17
Melvins, Aragon, 10/16
Sugar, Aragon, 4/30
Liz Phair & Seam, Lounge Ax, 5/8

The Posies, Red Red Meat, Bad Brains, Shrimp Boat, The Flying Luttenbachers, The Mercury Players, Dinosaur Jr., Gallon Drunk, Yo La Tengo, The Fall, The Breeders, Girls Against Boys, Uncle Tupelo, Arcwelder, Medicine, Brainiac, .

Movies

This is apparently what I liked in my early 20s — pretentious, twisted black comedies that show in arthouse theaters. From the director of Jesus of Montreal (1989), Canadian director Denys Arcand portrays romance with far more diversity (there’s gay and lesbian characters) and realism than schmaltzy American fare like Singles (1992). Plus, it’s kinky and has a serial killer running around. Edmonton – where romance goes to die. Reservoir Dogs and True Romance have stood the test of time better, probably, but I’d have to watch them again to say for sure, so this list stands as is.

Love & Human Remains – Denys Arcand (drama)
Manhattan Murder Mystery – Woody Allen (suspense/comedy)
Mi Vida Loca – Allison Anders (drama)
Faraway, So Close! – Wim Wenders (drama)
Bodies, Rest & Motion – Michael Steinberg (comedy/romance)
Jamon Jamon – Bigas Luna (erotica)
Groundhog Day – Harold Ramis (comedy/romance)
Flirt – Hal Hartley (comedy)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me – David Lynch (suspense/drama)
Reservoir Dogs – Quentin Tarrantino (thriller)
A Christmas Story – Bob Clark (comedy)
The Wedding Banquet – Ang Lee (comedy/romance)
Dazed And Confused – Richard Linklater (comedy)

Bubbling under: Short Cuts, True Romance, The Age of Innocence, A Bronx Tale, Farewell, My Concubine, Gettysburg, King of the Hill, Much Ado About Nothing, Passion Fish, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Totally Fucked Up, The Voyeur, When Pigs Fly.

Television

I still didn’t really watch TV then, as I didn’t have cable. I rented a lot of VHS movies from the video store.

Books

Cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson evolves his craft to stay more fresh and contemporary than any of his sci-fi cronies in the 90s. The Hugo-nominated Virtual Light is the first of the Bridge trilogy, where he explores the socio-political and cultural developments of a post-industrial near-future (2006!) world where post-earthquake California is split into NoCal and SoCal, and post-earthquake Tokyo was rebuilt with nanotechnology. A shantytown has developed around the abandoned San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, while inhabitants simultaneously operate in a highly advanced world in cyberspace known as Kowloon Walled City. Former rent-a-cop Berry Rydell and bike messenger Chevette Washington stumble upon a pair of sunglasses that are more valuable than they realize for the information they can access in DatAmerica, and soon the pair of misfits are on the run. Other colorful characters include Rei Toei, an AI pop star, and Shinya Yamazaki, an existential sociologist.

William Gibson – Virtual Light
Irvine Welsh – Trainspotting
Terry Pratchett – Men at Arms
Octavia E. Butler – Parable of the Sower
Kim Stanley Robinson – Green Mars
Laurell K. Hamilton – Guilty Pleasures
Annie Proulx – The Shipping News
Edward Said – Culture and Imperialism
Roddy Doyle – Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Margaret Atwood – The Robber Bride
Wilhelmina Baird – Crashcourse
David Eddings – The Shining Ones
Jeffrey Eugenides – The Virgin Suicides

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