SHINE: 20 Brilliant Indie Hits

This became a franchise that spawned several more Shine compilations, however subsequent volumes focused almost exclusively on contemporary Britpop hits with the odd Madchester classic thrown-in. The inclusion of Dino Jr, Green Day and some earlier pre-Britpop songs were very welcome here.

i think "getting away with it" just edges out "regret"

Smiths or House of Love for me, but the theme here seems to be "what can we license?"

This poll was made apropos of 'Do You Remember The First Time' popping into my head this morning. I've got a lot of love for tracks by House of Love, Charlatans, Suede and even the Dodgy song. Less-so the tunes I might have appreciated more at the time - I don't need to hear the two big Blurasis tunes ever again.

I think I'll go for Pulp, just over the Smiths with runners-up being Blur, Oasis, the Charlatans and Shed Seven (I've always been a big Sheds fan & especially of their debut, but really couldn't justify going for Speakeasy over Pulp or the others). Love Electronic & Elastica as well. James are good but I'm not overly fond of Sit Down. I love New Order but never cared much for Regret.

Pulp easily

Jaysus

How Soon is Now is a decent tune but I can't vote for Morrisey. Connection has the most groove and momentum of the rest of this limp bunch.

Really tempted to vote for Grebo faves, Jesus Jones, just to be perverse.

Gaz Coombes was robbed.

i remember when this fucker and it's probable sequels was on the jukebox in every pub you went in

landfill was treated cruelly in retrospect

i think "getting away with it" just edges out "regret"

Same

Youtube comment on "Feel the Pain":

Mode7_
1 year ago
My grandma was going through her cd's recently and she found this and other stuff like Soundgarden and Green Day. I knew all the other cd's she pulled out, but I think this might be one of my new favorites.

I have to say I don't really get why the compilers chose to stick Dinosaur Jr in there.

The more embarrassing and revealing question would be: how many of these tracks did you actually own in album/single form!

i think "getting away with it" just edges out "regret"

Same

Same

Blur - "Parklife" - bought
Oasis - "Cigarettes & Alcohol" - album given to me by my brother thinking they looked 'like something you'd like'
New Order - "Regret" - bought
The Cranberries - "Zombie" - got a free promo while working at a record shop
Suede - "Animal Nitrate" - got a free promo while working at a record shop
Elastica - "Connection" - got a free promo while working at a record shop
Pulp - "Do You Remember the First Time?" - got a free promo while working at a record shop
Dodgy - "So Let Me Go Far" - NOPE
Shed Seven - "Speakeasy" - NOPE
Green Day - "Welcome to Paradise" - NOPE
The Smiths - "How Soon Is Now?" - bought
James - "Sit Down" - bought
Electronic - "Getting Away with It" - bought
The Wonder Stuff - "The Size of a Cow" - NOPE (but I did pay money for 8-Legged Groove Machine so the shame is still mine)
The Farm - "All Together Now" - I think I may have bought this second hand
Inspiral Carpets - "Dragging Me Down" - NOPE
The Charlatans - "Weirdo" - got a free promo while working at a record shop (but I did pay money for the one with The Only One I Know on it)
Jesus Jones - "International Bright Young Thing" - bought
Dinosaur Jr. - "Feel the Pain" - NOPE
The House of Love - "Shine On" - I think I may have bought this second hand

Owned: 14
Paid money for: 8 (albeit 2 second hand)

Conclusion: working for a record shop is really dangerous for your record collection

xp Yeah Dino Jr really sticks out on this one. Green Day too, I guess

Green Day being followed by The Smiths - you can almost see Moz roll his eyes.

I have to say I don't really get why the compilers chose to stick Dinosaur Jr in there.

Even they knew the limitations of British indie, obv.

I've only paid money for the Green Day album, 'Regret' I had on a few compilations and also on the New Order Best Of, so that counts as well. I'd guess I had about a third on them on copied cassette at various points though. Everything after 'Welcome To Paradise' would have been old hat and lame by the time this comp even came out.

(Actually if you include Now compilations that I paid for the ratio is probably higher)

My sick indie shame:

I have owned at some point all the songs on this apart from New Order, Cranberries, Electronic, The Farm and Jesus Jones

and I like the New Order and Electronic songs, just never actually bought them

Voted Regret

Shine 7 had Burden in My Hand by Soundgarden on it, think they always chucked in some token American rock on those things

Which one was Regret?

Only one of these I paid for was Parklife, on the album. Was more of a grunger/metaller.

Burden in my hand is a tuuune, but it shares a late 60s psychedelic sensibility with some of this stuff.

the one I'm most likely to actually listen to today is probably Elastica tbh. I still love that album

i remember when this fucker and it's probable sequels was on the jukebox in every pub you went in

For a long time they were they Abba Gold of compilations, they just stayed in there forever. There aren't many CD jukeboxes left but I bet you the vast majority of those remaining still have at least one Shine comp on them. There are probably some sitting in actual landfill with the Shine compilations still inside.

Don't think I ever owned one of the Shine comps but did have a few of the (slightly) superior Indie Top 20 comps.

Fair play to Shine though, they were up to volume 7 by the end of 1996 and six of them had a Shed Seven song on it

I had loads of Indie Top 20s at one point

though i was pretty much 100% indie and deeply invested in britpop at this point, I never felt the need to own a shine or an indie top 20, suppose I already had all the tracks i wanted and was familiar with the rest from the radio.

my cousin otoh had a collection of all the shine cds up to 8 i think

Burden in my hand is a tuuune, but it shares a late 60s psychedelic sensibility with some of this stuff.

― chap, Thursday, 10 September 2020 14:34 (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

An exhilarating vocal turn from the big man and no mistake

Regret was kind of inexorably linked in my mind as the soundtrack to depressing score draws in the then-Endsleigh League division 1 on Sundays on ITV

My indie hell continues:

I did own Shine 2, although tbf to myself, I bought it for a couple of quid in a second hand shop because it had I think 2 songs on it I liked and it was cheaper than buying the singles

truly the pre-Napster era was another country

some of these are brilliant, but none of these are indie

unless, as i strongly suspect, the word "indie" means something different across the pond

it is 2020, let us contemplate the strange case of what Indie means

This is very much what I think of as indie.

1995 UK definition of "indie" was definitely different from 1995 North American definition of "indie" but I feel like the present-day North American definition of "indie" has actually become closer to the British one. I don't expect lo-fi production and noisy guitars when someone refers to a contemporary band as "indie".

the word "indie" means "signed to a subsidiary of warner music group"

These compilations didn't even exist in the country I was living at the time, so the only choice was to buy albums (singles tended to only be available on import - and buying an import CD single could be as expensive as buying a cassette anyway; it was only something you'd do for a band you *really* loved).

I'm still kind of o_0 at how much disposable income I spent on music during this period (and that's even with a staff discount, when they weren't outright promos) - the thought of spending this much money on music just feels alien to me now, in fact I feel kind of outraged at the price bubble around these small pieces of plastic in the early 90s. Like, if I overspent on albums, I would end up living on ramen noodles the last week of the month - and yet I did do it routinely. Yikes.

yeah the term hasn't had any logical or factual meaning behind it anywhere since around 1990... it's just a vibe maaaaan

the word Indie, since at least the release of these CDs and actually long before, refers to this kind of music as played by Indie DJs at Indie discos and of course you can sit like King Canute trying to hold back the tide of 30 plus years of usage but, well, i wouldn't bother

so for non UK-ers, the competing compilation brand was The Best... Album In The World... Ever! series which ran from 95-98... volume 1 is

Supergrass – "Alright"
Blur – "Girls and Boys"
Elastica – "Waking Up"
Ash – "Girl From Mars"
Oasis – "Whatever"
Edwyn Collins – "A Girl Like You"
The Charlatans – "The Only One I Know"
Pulp – "Do You Remember the First Time?"
McAlmont & Butler – "Yes"
Morrissey – "Everyday Is Like Sunday"
Radiohead – "High and Dry"
The Cranberries – "Zombie"
The Smashing Pumpkins – "Today"
Manic Street Preachers – "La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)"
James – "Sit Down"
The Boo Radleys – "Wake Up Boo!"
Suede – "Animal Nitrate"
The Verve – "This is Music"
Inspiral Carpets – "I Want You"
Therapy? – "Screamager"

The Smiths – "This Charming Man"
The Jesus & Mary Chain – "April Skies"
Oasis – "Supersonic"
The Stone Roses – "Fools Gold" (Original version)
Stereo MC's – "Connected"
The Prodigy – "Out of Space"
The Shamen – "Destination Eschaton" (Beatmasters 7" remix)
New Order – "True Faith '94"
The Chemical Brothers – "Leave Home"
Fluke – "Bullet"
Primal Scream – "Loaded"
EMF – "Unbelievable"
Jesus Jones – "Real, Real, Real"
Depeche Mode – "Personal Jesus" (7" version)
Blur – "Chemical World"
The Levellers – "15 Years"
The Auteurs – "Lenny Valentino"
Skunk Anansie – "I Can Dream"
Dreadzone – "Captain Dread"
The Future Sound of London – "Lifeforms"

some of these songs were released on indie labels fwiw (at least in the UK) so it's not "none"

but yeah, welcome to 1990!

weird how much overlap there is actually... that pumpkins/manics bit RULEZ

ah yeah I had that one too. some nice indie-dance crossover selections too

A lot more good tunes on that one.

my god following the majesty of McAlmont & Butler with moz... the humanity...

Would actually have paid money for that The Best... Album In The World... Ever! one - but we've already established I have a pavlovian response to all that indie-dance crossover stuff - hahaha I mean it has EMF's Unbelievable, but the Shamen track is ridiculous.

the word "indie" means "signed to a subsidiary of warner music group"

Tbf, it never referred strictly to the status of labels on either side of the pond. I don't think a bluegrass artist on an independent label (itself a vague concept) would have been what I'd expect if someone told me about an indie band in 1995. I wouldn't even expect a progressive metal band on an independent label if someone told me about a new indie rock band.

Stuff like Dreadzone makes me quite fondly nostalgic, even though I was indifferent at best at the time.

If there is only one vote for Jesus Jones, it me.

Although not the most anachronistic inclusion, I'm more than a little baffled at the inclusion of a track from Doubt on a compilation from 1995. Jesus Jones felt like they'd happened eight million years ago at that point, IIRC.

Unless the hits from that album had just kept on a-rollin' in the UK? They most certainly did not in the US.

unfortunately there were only 8 Brilliant Indie Hits in 1995 so the numbers had to be made up

From worst to best

The Cranberries - "Zombie"
Shed Seven - "Speakeasy"
The Wonder Stuff - "The Size of a Cow"
Electronic - "Getting Away with It"
James - "Sit Down"
Green Day - "Welcome to Paradise"
Jesus Jones - "International Bright Young Thing"
The Farm - "All Together Now"
Dodgy - "So Let Me Go Far"
The House of Love - "Shine On"
Inspiral Carpets - "Dragging Me Down"
Oasis - "Cigarettes & Alcohol"
The Charlatans - "Weirdo"
Blur - "Parklife"
Dinosaur Jr. - "Feel the Pain"
Suede - "Animal Nitrate"
New Order - "Regret"
The Smiths - "How Soon Is Now?"
Elastica - "Connection"
Pulp - "Do You Remember the First Time?"

this kind of music as played by Indie DJs at Indie discos

is this a thing that happened in the u.s.? probably accounts for the different usage of the word on either side of the ocean

maybe it would help if you think of it like indie (UK) = alternative (US)?

ah yeah I had that one too. some nice indie-dance crossover selections too

Oh god, you've just reminded me I owned this one

https://img.discogs.com/QalHdwQrg9jhgMsf5S1VRGghFag=/fit-in/504x492/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-895370-1185321628.jpeg.jpg

https://img.discogs.com/VuCoc9kUWLZ0pHePTpfm-lEbo8g=/fit-in/564x439/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-895370-1185321658.jpeg.jpg

I had Happy Daze vol 2. tbh there are some classics on that one fuiud

to give it it's strictest definition, if you can tippex the band name on a pencil case AND find it in camden market on a badge BUT NOT A WOVEN PATCH then it is indie, anything else is pop or metal and not for you.

i hear some College Rock wasn't made by Colleges either

i think "getting away with it" just edges out "regret"

Same

Same

Same

since my brain worked out the melody lift from Love My Way, i can't listen to Getting Away With It any more :-(
always thought Disappointed was superior actually!

Connection

"Getting Away with It."

green day feels very out of place here

Getting Away With It or Animal Nitrate.

On a compilation that features The Cranberries, Shed Seven and Dodgy it's something to say that Parklife is the most annoying thing here.

if you google "getting away with it", guess what you get? a song by james! which is quite good, actually.

btw i also voted for it.

Tbf, it never referred strictly to the status of labels on either side of the pond. 

iirc the NME's weekly Indie chart referred strictly to distribution, so if Food Records didn't go through EMI's in-house distributor, Jesus Jones and Blur would have counted, but if a fanzine cassette got into shops bc a mate worked at Warners and helped them out, it was disqualified

this definitely meant that Kylie Minogue records frequently topped the Indie chart, being on the sole-ownership concern Pete Waterman Limited

although ironically, "Indie" Kylie's records never troubled that chart

Ha, yeah, I thought of stating that chart as an exception. "Indie" DID always have that economic meaning but it was also used as a shorthand for a style of rock music on both sides of the Atlantic.

Back in the early 90s people used to tell me 'alternative' was just the American name for 'indie'.

But I think of like, Faith No More and I dunno Primus being 'alternative'.

this is almost the same tracklist as the naked chef compilation which is real

This was the first compilation I ever bought! on tape. don't think I'd heard Suede before that point and Animal Nitrate just blew most of the rest away, but I have overwhelming fondness for nearly all other tracks on here purely for nostalgic reasons. except Cigarettes and Alcohol.

and Sit Down, which I hate obviously, but probably didn't mind the first 3 or 4 times i heard it

hang on, when was Now 26? that had Laid on it, maybe that was my first comp.

If there is only one vote for Jesus Jones Zombie, it me.

I think Now 26 was about 1993... is that the one with Creep on it?

Is the "How soon is now" a mid 90s remix or something?

green day

Cigarettes and Alcohol

best Oasis song, basically perfect tune

DL, yes, that's the one. 1993! And Play Dead right after So Natural!

I swear I will take some of those Now tracklistings to my grave. Have we ever put lord the UK Nows? Vaguely remember a US one happening

“Put lord” = polled

I went through a phase of listening to them all in order until it hit approx the year 2000. The year 1999 was the absolute nadir for chart music.
Madonna never on any Now btw. Probably other obvious exclusions too?

Suede or Electronic probably.

Never particularly cared for Suede but saw what must have been several of their earliest gigs when they'd be first on at the Bull & Gate with about five people watching. Then very quickly they'd have this posse of enthusiastic female supporters who'd stand by the stage even when the place was mostly empty, which was pretty unusual for third on the bill, or.indeed any 'indie' groups then.

Madonna never on any Now btw. Probably other obvious exclusions too?

Think Michel Jackson only has one appearance for similar reasons

Yeah, was thinking of MJ. I revise my former statement btw, I think I only listened to all the Nows of the 90s.

The Hits Album often featured songs by artists such as Madonna, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and other big international artists that did not appear on rival Now compilations, and it was probably for this reason the albums were equally popular throughout the 1980s.

i think "getting away with it" just edges out "regret"
Same

Same

Same

The opposite

"Getting Away With It" is the dictionary definition of "less than the sum of its parts"

Yeah, but those are big parts

CAAL's top five looks spot-on, but I voted Suede of course

Madonna, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston

That's one hell of a five to have locked in.

The song here I loved the most at one point is How Soon Is Now but I can't bring myself to vote for anything Morrissey-related at this point.

CAAL's list is approximately right but I never need to hear Parklife again and *whispers* I quite like Size Of A Cow (I don't expect anyone to agree with me on this) so I have mentally swapped them - though even I will concede there is no way the latter should be above Weirdo. Don't really care about the Charlatans but I could listen to the intro of Weirdo on loop for hours. Shame he starts singing.

Going to leave it to a last-minute whim whether to vote Pulp or Elastica.

(OK I just watched the Size Of A Cow video on youtube and maybe now I understand why everyone else hates them, that is one annoying-seeming bunch of people there)

I never bought any Shines because the tracklistings seemed too obvious to spend money on, plus my friends had a bunch which I could've just asked to tape except I was too much of a snob, but I did have Steve Lamacq's "Weekenders" compilation so yeah, I lose.

(I think I got it for a quid, tbf, plucked out of a bargain bin because a couple of the otherwise quite obvious tracks appeared in a remixed form which sounded potentially interesting, but I still lose)

The Indie Top 20s were mostly before my time - think the last came out in '96 so Shine (1995-1998) may even have killed them off, though I didn't really notice them pre-Shine so they may already have run out of steam or marketing money - but I have the '88 one (Wire! Cardiacs! HMHB! ACR! Sonic Youth! The Shamen, hi Branwell; that explains why I knew "Jesus Loves Amerika" already) and it is bronzed to hell now, one of only a couple of bronzed CDs I've noticed in my collection. Hope the whole series didn't do that.

'Weirdo' made me think the Charlatans were good

they're not a bad band necessarily, but Weirdo is definitely one of their very best

I secretly thought Size of a Cow was an out of character good song at the time but he wasn't called Hunt for nothing

Yeah, the Indie Top 20 series started very indie and gradually got more & more mainstream although even the later volumes would still throw up the odd track by the likes of The Cramps or Urusei Yatsura xps

Hi, Space Cadet! Wow, that sounds like a great compilation. I have weird feelings about Jesus Loves Amerika, but it makes sense that's where you encountered it.

After going down the memory hole of YouTube over the past few days, I'm very sheepishly admitting that I kinda wanna change my vote to Jesus Jones not Electronic. (Especially after seeing how much love the latter is getting on this thread.) Yes, they were a shameless Shamen rip-off act, but that was some Pavlovian nostalgia to hear them again.

I wasn't fond of Size of a Cow, but going back and listening to the singles from Eight-Legged Groove Machine, I did kind of recapture the frothy joy of what I liked about The Wonder Stuff. Were The Wonder Stuff Grebo? Should I start a Grebo thread to hash out what Grebo was, because Stirmonster never told me anything except what Grebo *wasn't*.

This stuff is silly pop joy:

https://youtu.be/cY446CO6USQ

https://youtu.be/7Aw-JYtdW4o

But listening to this with an adult's ear rather than a teenager's, the monetary preoccupation in these singles really kind of stands out - like at the time, it really passed me by, but now I'm really wondering if this is unironic celebration of Thatcher-era 80s greed, or if it's a politically charged lampooning of the attitudes expressed in the songs. They never struck me as a political band, far more a silly jokes bants-type band. But looking back on it now, I don't know?

I sometimes wonder about Jesus Jones. What we're they about? What were their hopes and dreams? Was it baggy? Was it industrial? Was it grebo? Indie? Pop? Were they more like PWEI or more like EMF? What exactly were they going for? Just what was the deal?

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/27896382e82c4ea7e34e2c4fda97d92f8a152c96/0_529_3564_3969/master/3564.jpg

this reveals little

haha especially if the photo worked

It's weird because Jesus Jones were so astonishingly successful - especially in the States but seemed to fit nowhere in the UK music press's plan for what music was doing at the time.

It wasn't that they didn't come from a scene - as I said on the Shamen thread, they shamelessly piggybacked off the Shamen's work. It was more that they weren't legible as belonging to a music press standardised Thing - the way that the music press presented Baggy, or presented Shoegaze or Britpop or The New Wave Of New Wave as being "a-ha, we, the music press have spotted The Next Trend".

They just combined a bunch of stuff that was zeitgeisty and popular, and combined it with a heartthrob looks singer, and had this skyrocketing success that the Uk music press didn't know where to assign.

I'm just glad the Tatu cover of How Soon Is Now exists

WTF is “grebo”???

WTF is "grebo"? Obviously it is the music favored by diving birds of the order Podicipediformes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grebe?wprov=sfla1

No one knows what Grebo is, or where it came from, or what it means. They will only ever tell me what it isn't.

How Soon Is Now came out like 10 years before all these other songs so im assuming it's some remix from the grosse point blank soundtrack or something

it got reissued in 92 with a fancy 2cd single package when the label released a greatest hits set

https://www.discogs.com/The-Smiths-How-Soon-Is-Now/release/490493

https://www.discogs.com/The-Smiths-How-Soon-Is-Now/release/490503

Also I feel like this series always had a side strategy of padding out new tracks with indie disco classics.

xps The Smiths singles compilation came out in 1995.

Oddly Pulp's has the most warm evocative vibe, it actually reminds me of the era and conjured up some of the old late-teens early-90s magic, perhaps purely because it wasn't played as often as some of those other bangers.

Great video too

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

I wrote a thing about DYRTFT a few years back, re-reading it, it's not a very good thing, however might be good for a dive into the track

https://pulpsongs.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/129-do-you-remember-the-first-time/

Dodgy were in most respects pretty shit, but I do miss the days when a band could have a hit with something so unabashedly and uncynically exuberant and positive as Staying Out For The Summer. It's definitely a song that could only have come out when it did, even if it was a straight sixties rip off

Dodgy winning Gary Crowley's demo clash on GLR five weeks running with Lovebirds. The shit ya remember, although not the song itself without going to YouTube. I'm curious to hear that demo again now.

Dodgy were embarrassing but actually not *that* bad as a band, not good enough for me to ever consider buying any of their records, but respect due for filling a particular niche well.

Before they embraced Britpop, bleached hair and ripping off the Rugrats theme tune, they cast themselves as ganja-worshipping caravan-dweller types. I remember being quite underwhelmed by their very non-psychedelic sound once I eventually got to hear 'So Let Me Go Far', although it has a certain charm that's grown on me, I'll admit. 'In A Room' was not a bad single either

also, they have definitely written their own Wikipedia page

Dodgy is such a terrible name for a band

It really is.
In A Room was surprisingly good, considering.

'Good Enough' was the worst of the Britpop era big hits

but staying out for the summer was good

Haha, after Kinder's reccommendation, I actually went and checked it out because I don't think I'd ever heard it, and I wish you could see my face right now?

I wanted to turn it off around 40 seconds in, but I stuck it out to 1.13 to see if they ever got to a chorus, but the whole thing is just so... ~not for Branwells~

(It does genuinely make me wonder, how much of the stuff I do have positive feelings towards these days, is based mostly on nostalgia for how I felt when I first heard it. Like, how many of the bands where I felt "this is my favourite thing!!!" in 1992, if I were hearing them for the first time now, would they even be something I even liked, let alone ~my favourite band~?)

((Like, if I first heard e.g. Kenickie or Lush for the first time today, I think I would still respond positively to it. But if I heard Blur or Suede for the first time, I'm genuinely not sure.))

'Good Enough' was the worst of the Britpop era big hits

It's up against some fairly stiff competition. For me, "Dancing in the Moonlight" just edges it out in the ghastliness stakes.

xp, you talking about 'In A Room', Branwell? I'm almost certain that's my favourite of Dodgy's singles, which is medium praise indeed but nevertheless

I don't count Dancing In The Moonlight as Britpop at all really - not even in the right era

with a lot of this kind of stuff, especially mid 90s Britpop, you wouldn't really be able to get away with that style of songwriting past 2009 at a large push. even back then, you had shite like 'She's So Lovely' by Scouting For Girls getting into the charts. I might be wrong here - I don't really listen to Radio X but maybe there are still loads of UK guitar pop bands singing about sunny days and cups of tea and factory work and charity shops?

Yeah, DL, it was In A Room and my reaction was not good. I'm sorry! (I tried the Summery one, too, and it was just too much like a cheap lager advert. No, no, no.)

BTW, did you get a chance to listen to The Shamen singles I suggested for you on the Jesus Jones thread? I don't know if you'd like the tracks or not, but I think it would reveal more about the connection between the two bands' sound at the time.

not even in the right era

Oh? What's the cut-off point?

21st August 1997

summink like that. summer 94 to end of 96 I'd say was peak Britpop by my reckoning,with a bit of give and take. DITM was during the darkside era of 2000

xxxp yup, see my reply in the JJ thread

oh god, yeah, In A Room is certainly not objectively "good", sorry Branwell! i think i hate Staying Out For The Summer so much that I remembered In A Room as being pretty tolerable. I should have caveated that I doubt I've heard it since i was a teen... might give it a listen now...!

actually no, it was Good Enough that's the absolute worst.

yeah, staying out for the summer is harmless, I remember it fondly as the theme music to Glastonbury 1995 on channel 4

Good Enough is awful. SOFTS is harmless fluff. In A Room was catchy. Melodies Haunt You was kinda sweet. So Let Me Go Far was passable. They were not a good band, but my rose tinted specs put some of these songs in a nicer light for me

No one knows what Grebo is, or where it came from, or what it means. They will only ever tell me what it isn't.

Grebo was the pre-grunge grungey rock sound of early PWEI and Gaye Bikers on Acid and etc

― no ifs, no buts, no scampo nation (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 16 August 2020 12:23 (four weeks ago)

Grebo being a variant/corrupting of "greaser" I think

― no ifs, no buts, no scampo nation (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 16 August 2020 12:24 (four weeks ago)

To me grebo was associated with the Wonder Stuff and Neds Atomic Dustbin. It was the opposite of sexy

― I am using your worlds, Sunday, 16 August 2020 19:26 (four weeks ago)

NV OTM, grebo was Gaye Bykers On Acid and the pre-drum-machine version of PWEI

― poparse's eye (sic), Sunday, 16 August 2020 20:15 (four weeks ago)

Did you honestly not understand my post as a joke, or do you just feel compelled to explain things to me?

When I was at school, a good few years after grebo had come and gone, "grebo" was used as a catch-all pejorative for anyone who was into rock music

Attempting to watch the GBoA film is a good way to ensure you never want to ask the question ever again.

In a way I can respect grebo as a version of rock n roll entirely free from aspirations towards cool or authenticity or ideals of any kind beyond perhaps low grade hedonism. Some might say that makes it inherently rubbish, and they may be right but um.. what was I saying?

everyone is saying "grebo this," and "grebo that." but no one is saying "worship this" and "jericho that."

Sounds like music that is FUN!!!
Was on emmadle farm douring milking lol!
Too cute in tartan!! X

(I was inspired to look up that Wonderstuff track on YT)

A housemate at uni 99/01 was very into grebo, think it was his musical coming of age and he hadn't moved on. When we went to his childhood house one time we found his bedroom wall had the quote "if the writer Hunter S. Thompson had been a presiding influence over The Beatles, then they might have looked and sounded like The Wonder Stuff" written in giant letters, covering one of his bedroom walls.

Are we gonna redo the whole Shamen thread on the Shine thread? Yay! Bless Will Sin's grebo haircut!

DL, I actually suspect that it was the other way around - the grebo, as a term was something that predated the music genre? Like, it's a type of teenager that has been around since the 70s (or time immemorial) - long, unkempt hair, ripped jeans or long shorts, highly invested in a troglodyte concept of 'RAWK!' and the primacy of the guitar riff. I was aware, from reading the NME/MM was Grebo Music was, but didn't know what a grebo was - so I looked it up in contemporary sources and slang dictionaries, and that's what came up. Because my parents moved to NY in 79, and that's where I spent my teens (the 80s) the word I learned for that type of person was "Hesher". Not quite a metalhead, but definitely HARD RAWK!

Maybe I should revive the Grebo: S/D thread to talk about this - I've always had an interest in hybrids, things that are neither quite one-thing-or-the-other. And so I'm intrigued by all these not-rock-not-dance-kinda-both bands from around the time my musical taste was forming. So bands who would have a ~dance element to their music~ and use drum machines (or even have drummers who were prepared to enter that Jaki Liebezeit 'the drummer is the machine' zone - like, that is what was *good* about the Stone Roses, they had a phenomenal drummer, the rest of it was rockist bullshit, but the beats Reni played were fantastic, and the Can-like dynamics he used when they played those long, 10-minute jams were what made the band interesting) - were far more interesting to me than the Classic Britpop Guitar Band.

So, to take a troglodyte Grebo guitar and stick that on top of a house beat? (If you listen to the guitar riff in e.g. Make It Mine, without the beat, it's indistinguishable from a Nuggets / Pebbles / Troggs troglodyte garage rock riff.) That's really my sweet spot. In a way that 'greasy long-haired dudes worshiping the Beatles' really isn't.

I fully admit that ~thinking in genre~ is not my natural mode of engaging with music, and I find it quite difficult, so... it's likely I will not do it correctly here.

Genres aren't objective facts tbh, if kids are including yr Jesus Joneses and stuff in their notion of "Grebo" now then so be it

I forgot Crazyhead. I don't think I ever knowingly heard Crazyhead. When the Cult decided to cosplay metal that was kinda Grebo adjacent too I guess

I saw the Shamen live probably around first album period, even back then they were too sampler and psyche oriented to be Grebo I think. That "Make It Mine" riff is chunky tho. I got a bit obsessed with the silly video for it

Haha, TBF, I'm 50 and from his self-descriptions I'm pretty sure DL (and his schoolmates) are pushing 40 now, so I don't think any of us are kids around here, ha ha!

That's what The Shamen themselves were saying in interviews - that they totally didn't fit in the C-86 scene coz they loved their samplers and electronic drum kits too much - and they didn't fit in the Scottish RAWK! scene (as it were) either because they were too psychedelic.

Which video for Make It Mine? The very ~cybery~ one with the blonde twins, or the RAWK GAWDS!!! live one?

Blonde twins who I had a mild crush on and the very weird cheap video intercuts of Shamen heads staring oùt at you

The twins were totally cute, and the Shamen heads were ~floating in the noosphere, maaaan~ but what I want to know is... who was the mysterious Third Shamen in the video? I have never figured that out.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/655f9a14b6db86ee00cc3483519a327b/8cdd1823f989a1d5-72/s1280x1920/a223b73b263e8b31c71f35095967644a691cdfd3.png

The bloke on the left - I am pretty certain that is not Mr C, totally wrong eye colour and facial shape. (Obv the bloke in the centre is Colin, still in his Private Gripweed hair/glasses combo, and Will on the right with the dreads, but WHOOOO is this mysterious Third Shamen, is he even real - is he a manifestation of their collective shamanic subconscious, a spirit guide - what?)

(Apologies, I am now totally derailing this thread, and I should take myself back to the Shamen thread - I did try to talk about the Stones Roses and Dodgy, sorry I really did my best.)

There were 4 Shamens originally, I guess I assumed this was a transitional phase

More importantly what are the twins saying???

No, he's not one of the other original Four Shamen. (The others were the MacKenzie brothers - no, not Bob and Doug, they had more Scottishy names, Derek and Keith IIRC - and sometimes a blonde girl called Alison and sometimes a darkhaired dude named Peter? Here is a picture of the original Four Shamen: https://www.last.fm/music/The+Shamen/+images/0ea5b54213f556beaa78bd8b9e3a484a it is not one of those dudes)

They had already gone to a Two Shamen stage by Phorward because it's just Will and Colin in the You Me and Everything video - this new Third Shamen is ... a total rando! I'm sure it's a hugely important reference to some obscure bit of esoteric or paranormal or heremetic lore, as it turns out *everything* in their videos usually is.

That's probably what the twins are saying, too, some super-important esoteric secret lore.

Wait! Wait! It might be Evil Eddie (Richards, as apparently there are multiple Evil Eddies)?

a man who single-handedly contributed more to music than everybody on this poll

Also looks a bit like Neil McLellan who went on to work with The Prodigy (and is credited on the Make it Mine single)

https://theprodigy.info/members/others.html

It could be either of them TBH, I am so bad with faces - wish I could find a younger pic of Evil Eddie Richards, as my prosopagnosia is so bad that they both just look like bald older men with thick eyebrows.

But, as I said - the seemingly most random and inexplicable bits of Shamen references turn out to be the most important part of all! It probably is someone hugely important and groundbreaking in dance music.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

I thought my Dino Jr vote might be lonelier. Good to see red-blooded American rock and roll holding its own.

I haven't heard All Together Now in forever so I've got now clue if it's aged well, but I remember liking it and am a little sad it got zero votes.

*no clue

I had the 2x cassette of Now 26 and much prefer Creep in that context of Eurodance hits etc over Pablo Honey

Is Welcome to Paradise the Cookie version or Kerplunk? :)

^ fuckin' autocorrect. making Green Day album titles more reasonable.

I had Now 24 also. Not sure which one was better, leaning 26 tho. Have you polled all the Now comps yet? What about Spoon man by Underworld vs. Spoonman by Soundgarden? :)

heartwarming to see so many supporters of the For Britain Movement who still feel comfortable on ILM

xps it's the Dookie one

Now 24 had a lot of decent moody dance tunes on it iirc

Finding it hilarious that 25 years later, Suede and Elastica are both raking in 4x more votes than Blur (or indeed Oasis!). S/he who laughs last, laughs longest.

I do actually like James - Sit Down and The Farm - Altogether Now far more than a whole heap of stuff that *did* get votes, but still. Obviously not enough to vote for them.

(I still do wish I'd voted for Jesus Jones)

I remember 'Sit Down' being popular with the people who helped run the local church youth club when I was a kid. Always hear it as having Christian connotations therefore. Altogether Now, less so, but they've both plough a furrow of unity, hope, smile-on-your-brother togetherness etc that was at-odds with the nihilistic hedonism of UK rave culture and Gen X rock

I don't know, sounds pretty PLUR man

Maybe 'Come Together', 'Sweet Harmony' etc also count here, but those felt more ethereal, detached: huggy ecstasy "mate I love you" sentiments rather than anything particularly earnest

Branwell beat me to it there

"Altogether Now" was a UK baggy song about the first world war. A slow rave tune for veteran's day. Have we had a thread for 'Hit singles with weird concepts' yet?

Just realised for the first time in like 20 years that it is All Together Now, not Altogether Now, which really changes the meaning for me?!?!?

*30 years

Blur and Oasis being rated so low is down to being massively massively overplayed I'm sure. People voting Smiths in 2020 is baffling. Zombie getting the same amount of votes as Weirdo is an affront. That DIno Jr song isn't really that good. House Of Love should have been higher - song still sounds great even today. Glad Green Day got some votes - WTP is probably my favourite song by them

Is there a difference between Altogether and All Together? Hmmm.....

All Together Now = everyone pitch in and do this at the same time

Altogether Now = endless, eternal, forever now of infinite cosmic space, maaaaaan

I went with Shine On in the end although I don't think I ever warmed to the re-recorded version, which this presumably is, but probably just for churlish corny indie fuxor reasons.

3 votes for 'Zombie' and 2 for 'At The Link It's Easy' pls explain your reasoning here.

Honestly I had not heard All Together Now in decades, and trying to put it on now - you know, fun baggy beat, that's cool - but it's really impossible to listen to the lyrics or watch the codgers in the pub NOW - without some weird intrusive voice in the back of my head going POPPIES POPPPIES POOPPPPPIIIIIIEEESSSSSSS

And I know that's pretty much the opposite message of the song, but WWI imagery in the UK has become so irrevocably tainted these days that I just can't.

OTM. It’s why a song like this sounds so quaint in today’s context.

(I still do wish I'd voted for Jesus Jones)

well, at least i wasn't alone.
i still listen to JJ and still enjoy the albums when the urge kicks in.
they still put on a cracking live show if you ever get the chance.

so for non UK-ers, the competing compilation brand was The Best... Album In The World... Ever! series which ran from 95-98... volume 1 is

Supergrass – "Alright"
Blur – "Girls and Boys"
Elastica – "Waking Up"
Ash – "Girl From Mars"
Oasis – "Whatever"
Edwyn Collins – "A Girl Like You"
The Charlatans – "The Only One I Know"
Pulp – "Do You Remember the First Time?"
McAlmont & Butler – "Yes"
Morrissey – "Everyday Is Like Sunday"
Radiohead – "High and Dry"
The Cranberries – "Zombie"
The Smashing Pumpkins – "Today"
Manic Street Preachers – "La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)"
James – "Sit Down"
The Boo Radleys – "Wake Up Boo!"
Suede – "Animal Nitrate"
The Verve – "This is Music"
Inspiral Carpets – "I Want You"
Therapy? – "Screamager"

The Smiths – "This Charming Man"
The Jesus & Mary Chain – "April Skies"
Oasis – "Supersonic"
The Stone Roses – "Fools Gold" (Original version)
Stereo MC's – "Connected"
The Prodigy – "Out of Space"
The Shamen – "Destination Eschaton" (Beatmasters 7" remix)
New Order – "True Faith '94"
The Chemical Brothers – "Leave Home"
Fluke – "Bullet"
Primal Scream – "Loaded"
EMF – "Unbelievable"
Jesus Jones – "Real, Real, Real"
Depeche Mode – "Personal Jesus" (7" version)
Blur – "Chemical World"
The Levellers – "15 Years"
The Auteurs – "Lenny Valentino"
Skunk Anansie – "I Can Dream"
Dreadzone – "Captain Dread"
The Future Sound of London – "Lifeforms"

this was a really big deal for me, this one. Seven years old in 1995, getting my music taste from TOTP and The Chart Show, and this being one that my parents would let me borrow for my own bedroom because they already had most of the parent albums this stuff appeared on. I wonder how much of this stuff I actually like and how much of it is residual fondness and nostalgia.

I'm sure I had one of those. Would've been discounted to no more than £2.99 otherwise I wouldn't have had the means. Shine (1) was the only Shine I ever bought despite being basically the target market for it.

Think it was Volume 6 which is odd because it contains some of my most-detested songs (Smile, Cast, Dodgy) and lots of the good ones I'd have had on albums anyway. Must've been for that sweet FSOL cut idk.

Volume 7 is horrendous, don't even look at it

I'm finding it hard to believe they'd released 7 of these things by 1996. Were they pumping one out every 3 months?

(PS quite like a few of the ones on Vol 7)...

Speaking of which, anyone remember the Volume booklet/CD compilations? I only had Vol.11 but it was responsible for me getting into a ton of bands

http://www.bandplanet.co.uk/Oldsite/Compilations/Volume.htm

Didn't have any of those but did get (and still have) all the Trance Europe Express ones

https://img.discogs.com/9Wdr3qGj0DM0RIyUOCI7PXBgPcM=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-85763-1201824859.jpeg.jpg

vol 7 was 1998, heading dangerously into Robbie Williams/ Texas/Travis territory iirc

Ugh Texas

Is this where I confess I actually had a huge soft spot for Travis, they were totally inoffensive but also comforting in the same way that oatmeal porridge is comforting on a cold morning.

(Also, they were extraordinarily kind blokes and at least 2 of them were fans of a former band of mine so I am probably biased.)

xps discogs has different details on Shine 7 but yeah there was a point c1997 where Britpop split into AOR tedium and more progressive OK Computer/Vanishing Point type stuff

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Shine-7/release/1304398

sorry dl I thought you were talking about the 'Best... Album in the World' series. I was, just then!

ah i c. apols

I think I'm scarred by repeated workplace Radio 2/Virgin Radio in the late 90s/early 2000 so the first few jangly seconds of Why Does It Always Rain On Me provoke an actual eye-twitch. Have A Nice Day by Stereophonics is the same but even worse

heartwarming to see so many supporters of the For Britain Movement who still feel comfortable on ILM

Hey, I was doing my part to make America great again.

Travis were unlucky in that they had some great pop moments, but faded just as the bands who were to be big got a kind of permanence. Yeah, if I never hear "whydoesitalwayzetc" again that's gonna be fine, but it's the only one that get plaid.

xpost oh you just said so..

That "Trance Europe" (LP) set was the only purchase where the record clerk was all "You don't want that you want THIS compilation"

"um, yes I do!" and gave him my paddington bear stare (trust me, you don't want that..) (the stare, that is)..

Anyway, I have no idea what that other comp was, but I don't think it had Aphex on it (and I'd not heard any at that point).

Eeeee, I was just looking up 'what happened to Aphex Twin?' and that was not a fun thing to find out.

Is this where I confess I actually had a huge soft spot for Travis, they were totally inoffensive but also comforting in the same way that oatmeal porridge is comforting on a cold morning.

(Also, they were extraordinarily kind blokes and at least 2 of them were fans of a former band of mine so I am probably biased.)

― Grebo Jones (Branwell with an N)

Maybe time to repeat my apocryphal Travis anecdote - some of my brother's mates knew where Fran Healy lived in North London, so obviously a bunch of them stand outside drunkenly serenading him with "Why Does It Always Rain On Me" late one evening. He bursts out of the front door in his dressing gown and chases them down the road yelling "It's gonna be raining fists when I catch you cunts!"

A ha hahahaha, great - totally on Fran's side here, TBH!

xp would this have been somewhere round Muswell Hill/East Finchley? when I lived in Muswell Hill around '04-07 my landlord (who seemed to own half the street) told me someone from Travis had been a tenant of his

FYI the 'Greatest Album In The World Ever' series was huge here too. I'd sooner have sawn my arm off than even glance at one but that's neither here or there.

Cl Poo - in my admittedly flaky memory it's Crouch End, so not far off...

I always wanted this Volume CD but couldn't ever find it

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Sharks-Patrol-These-Waters-The-Best-Of-Volume-Part-2/release/590105

that is a decent comp. always liked the comedy Mindless Drug Hoover song

feel like I saw that one a lot in 2nd hand shops at the time. I only had one of those, Volume 13

I looked for it in Magpie and HMV and Andy's at least once a week, no joy :(

used to see the various Trance ones and always was tempted as the track listings were always impressive, but never did.

i did pick this one up a couple of years ago in a charity shop, and its bloody brilliant, especially the Orb mix :

https://www.discogs.com/Darren-Emerson-Alex-Paterson-TEXtures/master/22621

Oh, I had that "Sharks" one, a bunch of great tracks - Possibly the best Sleeper one.. And so on, ymmv, and ...

xps discogs has different details on Shine 7 but yeah there was a point c1997 where Britpop split into AOR tedium and more progressive OK Computer/Vanishing Point type stuff

― Specific Ocean Blue (dog latin), Thursday, September 17, 2020 8:18 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Well, by then it had already split into songs that sound like showtunes and madchester-informed dadrock a couple of years prior.

The split that interests me was, at what point did dance music and indie stop being seen as ~stuff consumed by the same people~? Because I can remember in the start of the 90s, when I first started reading Select Magazine, they’d be as likely to cover the KLF or the Shamen as Ride or Slowdive - both Mark Gardener and Richard D James were pin-ups in their pull-out section. And when they first started playing around with the idea of what would become ‘BritPop’ - they named St Etienne alongside Suede.

A ton of these early indie comps do have dance-rock and even dance - FSOL being on one of them noted above!

At what point did that stop, bcz by the end of the 90s, it was all guitars?

Was the dividing line the moment that him out of Kula Shaker did a track with The Prodigy? Was that the moment people decided they had to pick a side?

I'm guessing the wheels fell off that particular utopian idea around 99 with trance and UK garage dominating the dance scene here and a general post Britpop lull. But it was sort of illusory as well throughout the 90s.

The moved closer together and diverged in terms of audiences throughout the next decade, first with electroclash and DFA etc and then again around 07-09.

Take this can of worms to the "what would you rather eat" thread?

idk, after Oasis "britpop" splinters off into enough disparate directions that it's a fairly useless term for talking about music made at the end of the 90's.

From what I recall, Select was always very favourable to dance music, or at least electronica, big beat, IDM etc. They also did a four pager about the Spice Girls when they first came out. But as Matt DC says, that magazine, the scene and its fans, we're opposed to the commercial excesses of Ibiza trance and pop-garage for some reason.

*cough* for some reason *cough*

Was the dividing line the moment that him out of Kula Shaker did a track with The Prodigy? Was that the moment people decided they had to pick a side?

― Grebo Jones (Branwell with an N),

Dividing lines are really blurry. There may be more of a split along provincial/cosmopolitan lines than indie/dance. OTOH by 1996 or so John Barry's influence was a key marker of "Britishness" across multiple styles. The Texas and Robbie Williams territory mentioned above, but also the Manic Street Preachers, Massive Attack and Space etc. Everything on the radio had a fucking orchestra, Even Ash did a song called Goldfinger.

Think for a lot of indie kids those big beat hits prominently featuring guitars/Oasis/Crispian Mills might have been the moment they realized they didn't want to pick a side. The dance ppl who might have said 'we told you so' said "big beat sucks" iirc.

At the end of the 90's the fashion was to mix it up though wasn't it?

dont think so, there was lots of mixing it up in the early 90s but it felt very tribal by late 90s, despite many crossovers

probably due in part to the fact Tim Burgess just was t born to sing on a dance tune

like that whole "let's get this Britpop singer on a big beat track" craze felt forced, a bit "if we must" rather than "this is our artistic calling". late 90s attempts to fuse rock and dance often made a hash job of mashing the weakest elements of both into each other

these last posts are both true, but also Life Is Sweet is a tune.

you'd often get distorted power riffs forced over these lolloping groove break loops and they just didn't work together. also:
Ash recruited a full time turntablist to scratch awkwardly over their songs.
The Prodigy earnestly tried to reinvent themselves as edgy punk rockers, but they came off more clownish and infantile than they ever had.
I agree that Soulwax, LCD, DFA etc going back to new wave and disco for inspiration a few years later was when indie-dance started working again. Having trouble trying to think of very much crossover stuff from 97-01 that did it particularly well... Gorillaz I guess? Never really got them though

I don't hate Life Is Sweet or even that Noel Gallagher one he did with CBros but neither project felt necessary beyond 'we need something to please the indie rockers'

A whole bunch of shitty guitar bands trying to ~go Radiohead~ and then Radiohead going fully IDM, haha?

hey ho .. and there was me loving DiV and their need for crappy vocals.

Having trouble trying to think of very much crossover stuff from 97-01 that did it particularly well... Gorillaz I guess?
― Specific Ocean Blue (dog latin)

Certainly 'Guerrilla'

I had completely forgotten DiV ever existed.

I am clearly confused. (Also vibrating!)

*not a murderer tho

there seemed to be a real sense in the late 90s that the whole idea of searching out unexpected influences was pretentious and wanky, and that being 4 lads with lead / rhythm / bass / drums was the authentic way to make music. as ever I blame John Harris for this.

Xxp The Juantrip album on F Communications was another. Capitol K etc

This reminds me of the p4k britpop albums list where they prefaced half the entries with a disclaimer of "this isn't really a britpop album, but..."
And it's no wonder I mean no way we're there 50 good britpop albums. There may not have been 20 good britpop albums. Still, I attribute at least some of the confusion to the first name that ppl associate with the style also being the band that killed it off almost instantaneously.

Xxp The Juantrip album on F Communications was another. Capitol K etc

sorry, but do not get how that's relevant here.
one of the most strange dance infused psych excess albums ever.

Oh right, I forgot he was French. Nevermind. Not that strange a record tho imo.

He sings like John Lennon doesn't he? Can't understand a word of it but as I recall it's all gibberish anyhow 😅