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1994

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What were you listening to in 1994? I ask because I just found an old tape from that year - with current and older stuff both - and it seems long enough ago now for people's tastes to have changed a lot. Were you cooler then than now? Happier?

― Tom, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

There seemed to be so many more possibilities in 1994... I was listening to Tricky, The Wu-Tang, Massive Attack, SeeFeel, The Aphex Twin, Ween, Laika, Underworld... since 94/95 everything feels as if it's been going backwards. Maybe that's just me... but everything felt as if was still up for grabs. It now feels like it's all already been grabbed.

― Johnathan, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Uh...*thinks*. Christ, that's a good question. Weird, but I can't really say exactly what. I guess I was listening to the God Machine a lot more, though.

Cooler? I'm always *so* cool. Happier? Same amiable level.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

That would be the end of high school for me. So I was totally fucking miserable and sliding into the industrial rock thing via Nin and Ministry and Skinny Puppy. I felt pretty rebelious in a school smokin' up to the Dead and Phish. Ha!

― bnw, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Good, answer, Johnathan. That sums up how I feel, though I wouldn't have realized it until I read it. So many bands combining genres, inventing new ones, reinventing them, refusing to be pidgeonholed... all this makes for a sporadic release of great albums, with a confusing mess of so-so ones. It is unclear whether I shall keep half my new cds or not. I can't figure out if I'll care about them in 10 years.

― , Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

In 1994 I was listening to NY Garage, Hip Hop, Portishead/Tricky , 'Acid Jazz', R&B.

I was less cool, but far far happier.

― David, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

In a sense Tom's question contains multitudes, because *so much* might (but might not) have changed in a life since then - so many rivers under a bridge, so many memories, so much bliss and regret. And that's just the Exeter fans. The pop aspect would only be an aspect of this, but (as I think TE implies) it might help us to see the rest of more clearly, perhaps in a momentary, epiphanic sort of way.

I was happier in that I was younger. I expect we were all younger, though I'm sure that doesn't mean we were all happier. I did think that Parklife was a very significant record then. I am still inclined to think that it was (is?) significant, but I don't *listen* to it now like I did then. I listened to it a *lot*. I had few other CDs (but lots of other things, of course). It seems odd, now, to have played that record so much - but no odder, perhaps, than whatever I listen to now will look in 2008. I shouldn't exaggerate the extent to which my taste (though I don't like the word 'taste', except as the title of that old, endlessly thrilling Ride song) has changed, though. It changes less than most people's.

I like early Ride records now more than I did then. I think I make more allowances for them now.

One extra thought: I think that perhaps I thought that lyrics were slightly more important then than I do now, and that I now think that melodies are slightly more important than I did then. I think I mean: I am more into lyrical simplicity now, and more into melodic perfection, or quality, or effort, or distinction. It's all 'songs', though, innit?

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I remember it being a good time for catchy house singles in the charts. I also listened to New Kingdom, early Eno, Tricky, drum 'an bass, 'Tago Mago',lots of blues records belonging to muso landlady.

96 - 99 were my bad years - in '94 I was nearly as content as I am now.

BUT NEVER COOL

― Geordie Racer, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Stuff I remember from mixtapes made around this time: "Paper Doll" by P.M. Dawn; lots of Beastie Boys; lots of P.E.; lots of Nirvana; Breeders "Driving On 9"; De La Soul's "Potholes In My Lawn"; Lloyd Cole's "Undressed." Elvis Costello's "Love For Tender"; 10,000 Maniacs "My Mother The War"; lots of Dead; Jane's Addiction "Been Caught Stealing"; Mazzy Star's "Halah"; Luna's "Slide"; Chet Baker's "But Not For Me."

Definitely cooler now. Happier? That's too complicated to sort out, probably.

― Mark, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

My goodness, you must be the coolest guy in the world. I mean, what could be cooler than 'Undressed'?

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Well it was an important year for me as i was turning 14 and started listening to so-called indie music so for me it was The Prodigy: Music For A Jilted Generation Blur: Parklife Radiohead: The Bends (or was that 1995?) Nirvana: Nevermind Metallica: The Black Album Boy I thought i was cool - i guess i was for a 13/14 yr old.

― dog latin, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

1994

some favourites

The Aloof - Cover The Crime (east West) 1994 UK Bark Psychosis - Hex (Circa) 1994 UK Beaumont Hannant - Sculptured (GPR) 1994 UK Biosphere - Patashnik (Apollo) 1994 NOR Codeine - The White Birch (Sub Pop) 1994 US Flying Saucer Attack - Further (Domino) 1994 UK The God Machine - One Last Laugh in A Place of Dying (Fiction) 1994 US/CZ Killing Joke - Pandemonium (Butterfly) 1994 UK La Bradford - A Stable Reference (Kranky) 1994 US Laika - Silver Apples on the Moon (Too Pure) 1994 UK & US Robert Leiner - Visions of the Past (Apollo) 1994 SWE Machine Head - Burn My Eyes (Roadrunner) 1994 US Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral (TVT/Island) 1994 US O’rang - Herd of Instinct (Echo) 1994 UK Portishead - Dummy (Go Beat) 1994 UK Scorn - Evanescence(Earache) 1994 UK Tiamat - Wildhoney (Century Media) 1994 SWE Underworld - Dub No Bass With My Head Man (Junior Boys) 1994 UK

For me 1994 was a pivotal change year for me, I started reading The Wire regularly, Peel was on form with post rock and jungle, Simon Reynolds was still writing interesting articles in the Maker and ofcourse more so in The Wire, Mixing it Radio 3 was on form.

I enjoyed jungle from Spring onwards - in 1994 the jungle albums i bought initially were compilation albums.

In rock two albums made a lasting impact Killing Joke were back with the brilliant - Pandemonium while Machine Head released the best thrash album since Master of Puppets. It was downhill from then onwards for Machine Head .

The God Machine - One Last Laugh in A Place of Dying - was an album that also stood out released after the sudden sad death of jimmy the guitarist.

Underworld's - debut was/is excellent, and the Melody Maker - suddenly discovered dance at the start of 1994 after ignoring it for most of 1993 ! (Progressive house was fading for me, both in the quality and quantity of tunes in 1994 - 1992/ 1993 were far better.)

La Bradford and Flying Saucer Attack were the key post rock artists for me.

and also that post rock compilation on virgin/ ambient series - was a deep listening experience.

Laika's debut - one of the most stunning and original albums of the decade.

O' rang and Bark Psychosis - both injected intoxicating sounds -

the way the guitars bleed on that O' rang album, mixed with Can and african rhythms. I challenge anyone to experience this album and not be moved both in mind and body.

Bark Psychosis - Hex - is acknowledged personal masterpiece of mine - the glacial guitar sounds and the space injected in to the music - this was important to 90s as Dif Juz, Lowlife, Talk Talk Arkane, Cocteau Twins - were to the 80s.

Scorn - Evanescence - was a revelation of deep beats, tribal beats and psychedelic guitars. -an overlooked album, that was deep and dark and dreamy.

Also NIN released their best album.

I first heard the sublime MBV alike Loveliescrushing on Peel in 1994.

Robert Leiner's album visions of the past - is one of the deepest albums i have ever experienced, the complex drones and ambient textures.

The Aloof - covering the crime was another favourite like New Order and Cabaret Voltaire updated for the 90s. So many influences, guitars, progressive, dub, techno, electronic.

By the end of 1994 saw the emergence of Tricky and Portishead and the trip hop scene.

I still have a number of Peel/ Mixing it 1994 tapes - and they are sublime.

I only later in the decade discovered the brilliant Tiamat - wildhoney - a music i was searching for in my head in 1994 but failed to find at the time, very epic, atmospheric, intense, spatial, textured and heavy.

Another discovery later on in the decade for me was Jeff Buckley's grace album - that seems to have influenced a wide range of bands including Sweden's Katatonia.

I was already liastening to alot of British techno/ IDM from back in autumn of 1992, so this was a continuation for me - however bought the Autechre album amber in the autumn of 1994, and was still listening to that Polygon Window bought in jan 1993- before the Aphex releases - a lot in 1994. Reload/ Global communications although earlier - also had a lasting impact.

For me 1994 was a reconnection of the possibilities of sound and as a 23/24 year old at the time - it was personal sound renewal for me - and one that completely divorced me from the main ethos of Melody Maker and NME for the rest of the decade.

(Why britpop and then dad rock was backed by the weeklies/Select/the public I will never now - the first time I heard Oasis I hated everything about them , their swagger, their reto-isms, the bloated pub rock - sing-a-long shite tunes it was Beatles Karoake - and before we knew we were flooded with twatty dull guitar bands - Shed 7 - being the lowest of the lo. - that Steve Lamacq and Chris Evans - were also two of the biggest peddlars of this filth!)

Happier/coolier? actually very similiar for me 2001 is becoming another pivotal year - a year of change and new possibilities, i am still following my own path, i am even more adrift from the NME than I was in 1994, and all the more better for it.

Happier - music wise from a personal point of view happier yes more than ever, more choice, more options, - the internet has opened up direct access to music that appeals to me - and getting a new computer back in early 2000 over a year ago was one of the best investments i made ever made. and in 2001 BT Internet anytime - flat fee monthly internet access with no added call charges is even better !

1994 one of the very finest years of music I have ever experienced I was privileged and am still grateful!

― DJ Martian, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I fell in love with Dub Reggae in 1994. That was probably the biggest musical change of my life -- maybe after "Psychocandy". Since then I've felt increasingly indifferent to much contemporary music -- there's still stuff I like, but since entering the world of Scratch, Tubby, Pablo et al., I don't really need any of it. I don't know... dub and reggae really changed my appreciation of music, and most of the stuff that moves me these days leads with a big fat rhythm. It's also probably the reason why I'm so appalled by the likes of Coldplay and Travis.

― Johnathan, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I think Tom only asked this question because he wants to laugh at my answer which is oh-so-expected (think: what seminal British album came out in 1994). SO I WON'T SAY IT. Instead, I'll say Madonna.

I listen to the same stuff nowadays though. My tastes never change. I'm much cooler now though then I was in 1994. I was 14, for christ's sake - how many 14 year olds are cool?

― Ally, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

long fin killie's 'houdini' came out then, so did pram's 'gravity' too pure was still on a roll in 94. other great things from 94 bailter space 'vortura' peter jefferies 'electricity' spectrum's 'highs lows and heavenly blows' heavenly 'decline and fall...' didn't charm of the highway strip come out in 94 too? slowdive pygmalion rocketship 'hey hey girl'.

i think i am always the same. years go by my mental condition does not become altered significantly.

― keith, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

oh wait houdini was 95, maybe buttergut was out by 94?

― keith, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

In 1994 I was listening to Nirvana. Yes, that is a full stop, a friend gave me a tape of Nevermind and In Utero and I didn't listen to anything else. Which is really sad.

― DG, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

That is sad. I listened to nothing but Nirvana in '94 too, and god was I sad. (I listened to Weezer too, actually). Graphing my happiness, it fell lower every year until about '94, and it's been going back up since. I was 14 in '94 too, and Ally's right that 14-yr olds just aren't cool, but some are really, really, really uncool. Some have huge glasses and a geeky haircut and 'integrity' (which keeps them from liking anything but Nirvana) and facial tics and wear tube socks and are just socially incompetent. Okay, maybe I was the only one (seemed it at the time). God knows if I'm particularly cool now (someone just said I look like a "hippie gangsta"), but I'm a helluva lot cooler than I was then. I still listen to Weezer, but otherwise my tastes have done an about-face. Hell, they've probably done an about-face just in the last year.

― Otis Wheeler, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

1994 was a bit crap for me too. All my friends were geeks (yes, genuine computer geek types not irritating indie kids who want to be computer geek types) and I was too scared (yes, scared, believe it or not) to investigate any non-chart music, because I had these scary images of all these indie types laughing at me for some unknown taste crime. This may seem silly now, but in my class there WAS a genuinely snobby viscious indie type, and he scared me. As I got older of course I became more confident and became totally indifferent to other people's criticism, but it annoys me that I didn't have the guts to strike out and really develop my own taste at the time. But on the other hand, if I had, I'd probably bought 'indie' music like The Cranberries, and that would have been REALLY embarrassing.

― DG, Wednesday, 18 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

"Hippie gangsta" is EXACTLY how I'm going to describe you from now on, Otie. That's the best description ever. I wish it could apply to me. Alas.

― Ally, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

1994. British Pop Hegemony. Like a Risk map full of Union Jacks. "Now my Heart is Full". Flashboys and street preachers. "Babies", of course. That was the time when I started my mixtapes with "Lenny Valentino". I was studying Rimbaud at school for my bac and reading about being 17 years old in 1870 and finding out things had not changed so much as Mtv wanted us to believe. My tastes were exploding exponentially, though. It was more of an inclusive evolution. I mostly accumulated tastes instead of replacing them. There are very little items in my record collection I would not gladly listen to today. The core remains the same, really. I was as cool as I am now. I was a dead ringer for Dave Vanian, and not ashamed of it. I was not happier. I still believed things changed. Bollocks.

― Simon, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

It has nothing to do with it, but as soon as I saw the post beginning with:

1994

some favourites

I intuitively knew it was dj Martian's. (Is that what having "a style" means? ;)

― Simon, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Another 14-year-old with a Nirvana jones. I remember '94 was when Green Day broke through, too, and I *still* love Dookie. Erm, also Soundgarden's Superunknown, Primus' Pork Soda, and other semi- mainstream nonsense. I was also discovering the Sex Pistols and bitching about that fuckin' dance music shit. Say heck no to techno (as the great Ricky Powell once advised). God I was dumb.

Less happy then, definitely, but cooler is pretty tough to judge. Is it ever cool to be an angst-ridden 14 year old, or for that matter a jaded 21 year old?

― Dave M., Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

1994. I was 22-23, let's see probably Aphex Twin, Underworld, Plastikman, lots of space jazz, dub and this crazy thing called jungle. All in all a very good year as had been the case from 1991 on, lots of raveing, very good drugs, getting back into reading science fiction, devouring new theory. Seems 1994 laid the groundwork for who I am today. Although in the end not as good as 1995 which had the added bonus of Ajax winning the Champions League, for a brief while it felt like a golden age was upon me :)

― Omar, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

For the first half of the year, loads and loads of post-shoegazing pyschedelia by the bucketload. The whole new crop of Spacemen3 solo projects- Spectrum, Spiritualized, Darkside, etc. Medicine, Boo Radleys, early Verve, that sort of thing.

Then something happened about halfway through the spring (It was probably drugs-related, as it was my "lost year") I suddenly stopped listening to modern music at all, and disappeared back up my own arse in a sea of '66 psychedelia. It started with getting out all my parents' old Beatles and Small Faces and Kinks and Creation records, but then started disappearing down the black hole of the 13th Floor Elevators, Shadows of Knight, The Seeds, the Sonics, and all that sort of thing.

The only modern music that permeated my little paisley partition of paradise until nearly 1996 was Blur, cause most of what they were doing at the time sounded just like the Itchycoo Park anyway.

Acid. I blame acid, completely. It was the year that NYC was flooded with that incredibly cheap, incredibly strong "ant acid" and we had a sheet in the freezer for most of the summer.

― kate the saint, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

1994...I was listening to stuff like Frank Black, Teenage Fanclub, Pavement, Lotion, Velocity Girl, Pond, Dinosaur Jr, Buffalo Tom, anything on Subpop! Went to my first gig that year, Dinosaur Jr at the Brixton Academy, it was so loud, I didn't go to another concert for at least a year after that! It was a crappy year, I was a complete misery...it's a good laugh to read now! Was doing my A- levels, and dropping out of university that year...I'm much cooler now! :)

― james edmund L, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

1994, I was 16, and recently converted to the smiths faith. So, it was that, the cure, joy division, new order, and lots of synthpop (erasure, psb, dm). Neither cooler or happier.

― fernando, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Urg, 94, happiness is not a loaded gun - april, no music, music died, everything too painful to listen to; later new tori amos, nin, a jjj totally wireless compilation, frente, pogues, u2, los rodgriguez, and my first forays into patti smith/velvet underground...oh yeah, the Natural Born Killers soundtrack. Was i happier then? Drunker, I guess, though getting mouth to mouth from yr mother is definitely a faux pas...no, a lot sadder, I mean fuck - I became an insurance clerk for 6 weeks - there's an indication of a mind in trouble.

― Geoff, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

1994, I was 16, and recently converted to the smiths faith. So, it was that, the cure, joy division, new order, and lots of synthpop (erasure, psb, dm).

Sorry to revisit past battles, but isn't this a whopping great non sequitur of the highest order? I would have seen the Smiths as a way of getting out of the Cure, not into them.

Neither cooler or happier. Hmm..

― Nick, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Call me a heartless bastard, but am I the only person in the world to whom Kurt Cobain's suicide meant, well... actually almost nothing? I can remember when it happened, probably most clearly because my housemate and I both actually thought it was some sort of hoax. It didn't affect me emotionally in any way.

― kate the saint, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

To Nick -- eh? Keep in mind that over here in America there was sort of a quartet of Towering British Alt Bands that it seemed (I will emphasize *SEEMED* before people complain) that everybody who was vaguely alternative listened to and obsessed over in equal measure from 1984 to somewhere in the early nineties. And they would be: Depeche Mode, New Order, the Cure, the Smiths. Hell, I got into all them around the same time in 1988-89 because of that, enough people kept talking about them etc.

So no, far from being mutually exclusive, the Cure and the Smiths are actually pretty intertwined here in the States. I know Robert and Morrissey couldn't stand each other, but plenty of fans not only stand them both, but love 'em both. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Unfair. I was about 12 at the time, which is even uncooler than 14, and I the only things I remember noticing from that period were SWV and TLC ('cos a friend was in to R&B) and Ace Of Bace and later The Cranberries and Green Day. So it hardly counts. If I knew then what I know now however, I would have been into:

jungle; trip hop; first wave British post-rock; second wave Chicago house; Warp; g-funk.

― Tim, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Kate: No, you have me to back you up in the "Didn't really care about Cobain" sweepstakes. I just didn't much like Nirvana save for a handful of songs, and Cobain himself annoyed me, so it was with a big shrug that I heard the news he shot himself. It's sad but...not really something that I cared about at all.

The funny thing was, at school the next day all these girls, girls I *knew* and hung out with from time to time, kept running up to me, "Keep the faith, thanks for wearing black in mourning, Kurt Cobain forever" and going all hysterical.

The reason this is funny is BECAUSE I WAS A GOTH AND WORE BLACK EVERY BLOODY DAY. And these people KNEW me, and KNEW that I only wore black! Weirdos :)

― Ally, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Prefer not to remember 1994 if I can. What I do remember - re: Kurt - is sitting in the Select office after his Rome (?) overdose and having what now seems an unnecessarily sick conversation about who would get on the cover if they died, or under what circumstances they would have to die to get on the cover. Cobain, of course, did make it on the cover when he managed to kill himself...

― Mark Morris, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Hmm, 1994. I was deep into various techno/hardcore compilations such as the Best of Techno series and the Speed Limit 140+ BPM series. I was also blindly insisting that the second Massive Attack album was bad because the only track I'd heard was "Karmacoma", which got on my nerves. (Big about-face and "OOPS!" on that one.) I also discovered Portishead (like everyone else), Orbital (via the criminally underrated _Snivilization_ and their remix of MBM's "Mindstream"), NIN's _The Downward Spiral_, _Music For The Jilted Generation_, _To Bring You My Love_ (HEAVEN), and some random Cranes album. I was warming to commercial hip-hop but still hadn't really purchased any (I was too busy filling holes in my Severed Heads collection).

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Mainstream alt-rock, which was actually quite good at the time. STP were still producing good singles. The Pumpkins hit with 1979 and the "Tonight, Tonight" video both of which were timeless. Was that the year of the Geggy Tah song about driving in my car? Because that song was crap. Right before the good alternative station in town (KJEE) started to get a bit wack. 14 at the time as well. I got my first pavement album in '94. '94 was also the year of the good Lollapalooza with Sonic Youth headlining, eh? That was good. That album was good. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" -- yes 94 was the year of the Pumpkins. I got all into indie in the next few years, but now I'm back at pop, and all the better for it. The difference? Now Nine Inch Nails (that was '94, too, eh? Downward Spiral) and crew don't *speak* to me. '94 was also, I think, when I got the best of Lou Reed album.

― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

1994? So I was, er, um....15! Or 16, for a bit. You'd never think I did Maths at university. So what was I listening to? Oh, I think Oasis and Blur and The Boo Radleys and Nirvana and Supergrass and stuff, and still REM. I don't listen to some of it now. I still listen to some of it now. I am happier. How do I know if I'm cooler though?

― Ally C, Thursday, 19 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

You'll always be cool.

― the pinefox, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

geez, 1994...that was the year music broke for me. i was 13, then 14, going from 8th to 9th grade, going from middle school to high school...at the beginning of the year all i listened to was the Who and my dad's woodstock album. i mean, thats ALL i listened to. i was really a late bloomer when it came to music, before that all i listened to was musical theater (dork, dork, dork) and in 7th grade i rented "Tommy" from the video store and fell in love with the Who. then that summer, at camp...a whole new world opened up for me. nine inch nails (which quickly became my favorite band, i was obsessed until 11th grade), green day, violent femmes, they might be giants... my best friend at the time also was going through an awakening, when high school started we used to tape 120 minutes every sunday night and watch it monday after school. every band we liked we'd go out and buy the next weekend. she got really into liz phair, juliana hatfield, belly...i got into other "industrial" bands, operation ivy, the cure, more classic rock, blur, porno for pyros and jane's addiction, i think i started listening to g.love and special sauce around then...basically, anything we could get our hands on. it helped that i started dating this guy who had the largest cd collection id seen at the time (about 300, kinda paltry when i think about it now). i thought i was the coolest, but in retrospect, i was pretty lame. i was just so excited about finding new music to love...its interesting that i saw this post now (i lurk, dont post at all really) because im kinda going through the same thing now...i "discovered" the smiths and morrissey about 4 or so years ago and until this fall listened to nothing else. at all. seriously. okay, maybe a little pulp, and a little manics. but mostly i was in a smiths induced musical coma. then someone handed me a modest mouse cd (interstate 8) this fall and made me listen to it... and i totally fell in love and kinda "woke up"...now im listening to all this new music to me that everyone else has been listening to for years (case in point: i just a month ago started listening to the magnetic fields. im pretty behind.) but im loving it! ill give anything anyone recommends a chance. so thats my story, sad to tell. yay 1994, and yay 2001, for me anyways.

― amy, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I think I pretty much listened to Polvo's "Today's Active Lifestyles" and "Celebrate the New Dark Age" exclusively throughout 1994. Maybe Swervedriver's "Mezcal Head".

― Tim Baier, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

1994 was the year I started writing about music. It was also the year before I started using the Internet. I think these two things have a bit to do with the cooler/happier thing and to do with the music I listened to then and now.

A longer post to follow on this sometime soon - I've been remiss in not answering my own question. It was *also* the year I bought a turntable and discovered old records for the first time, so a lot of time was spent in the cheaper sections of the Music And Video Exchange. Had I known at the time about the people who frequented those basements I wouldn't have been so eager.

― Tom, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

so a lot of time was spent in the cheaper sections of the Music And Video Exchange. Had I known at the time about the people who frequented those basements I wouldn't have been so eager. (Tom)

What do you mean by this?

― David, Friday, 20 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I listened to little of significance. Utterly uncool, happy at the start of the year, anything but by the end.

― Robin Carmody, Saturday, 21 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

David - worked at MVE for 3 years. A majority of visitors to the basement (& to the shops in general) are occasional bargain hunters. A minority are staggeringly unpleasant / have unspeakable personal hygiene / are borderline nazis / etc. Several of these are regular visitors. Combine that with the knowledge of the horrible state most of the goods that go down there arrive in and it's a wonder epidemics haven't started on Pembridge Road. Certainly the biggest of the bargain basements I've considered to be a no-go area since a customer walked in there and took a shit on the floor. Hope that answers your question!

― Tom, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Combine that with the knowledge of the horrible state most of the goods that go down there arrive in and it's a wonder epidemics haven't started on Pembridge Road. (Tom)

That's worrying. Are we talking thick coatings of dust or worse? And did you have to clean them up for resale?

One of the oddest (and best) things about those bargain basements were the 'lucky dip' sealed white plastic bags, each containing 100 12 inch records (a pound a bag ISTR).

― David, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Damp was generally the enemy, both pre-being sold in and in the basement. All very unhealthy.

― Tom, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Mariah Carey..I was listening to her for a long time from the early 90's to even now...I can't remember what i was listening to anhing else!

― Debbie, Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

six months pass...
I was very uninterested in most of what I knew of that was going on at the time. I was absorbed in listening to Arabic music: "New Sound" (a genre of formulaic Egyptian dance music that, for the most part, sucks--I got over it), George Wassouf (a Syrian pop snger who is not particularly well-respected by Arabic music snobs, but who I like at times), too much Warda, late Oum Kalthoum (which isn't really her best material--the best is from the late 30's until the very early 60's), "psychedelic" Abdel Halim Hafez, Samira Tewfic, Milhem Barakat, etc. No matter what I listen to most dominantly, there are always other things thrown in, so I'm sure there was some music from closer to home, but I don't remember specifically. One of my friends would stop by to play me various forms of electronica (actually a fairly narrow range of it), and I would almost always say, "I don't like it."

― DeRayMi, Tuesday, 6 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Nobody's mentioned DI Go Pop. "Footprints In Snow", the most nostalgic sounding song of the 90's.

1994 was the pivotal year of the decade. Agree with all the points DJ Martian made back in April on this thread.

― David Gunnip, Tuesday, 6 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

That was the year I visited Glasgow. "nuff said" - snapshot of 1994: I buy "Transient Random Noisebursts with Announcements" on vinyl and my glue-sniffer friends all assume it's techno.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 6 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Trumans Water

― Brian MacDonald, Tuesday, 6 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Velocity Girl, Sugar, Gumball, Soul Coughing, Pearl Jam, Liz Phair, Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, Archers of Loaf, and loads of other poop. My cool & happy quotients were @ an all-time low, though.

That was SEVEN years ago. Damn.

― David Raposa, Tuesday, 6 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

three weeks pass...
Tricky, Aphex Twin, Plastikman, Spiritualized, Orbital's snivilization, Medicine, Verve, Underworld, Flying Saucer Attack, Laika, Portishead, Kristen Hersh, Seefeel, Jungle eg 'Spiritual Aura'.

― stevo, Saturday, 1 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

wow...1994...

::fires up the way back machine of the mind...::

ameri-indie rock, which i had been introduced to (like everyone around my age it seems) via nevermind. big hits at the harvell household in 94: bee thousand, foolish, yank crime, and whatever nation of ulysses album came out that year. hiphop and pop-alternative via the radio, but i don't think i bought any of either. plenty of OLD stuff: old punk and hardcore and proto- indie, esp. - sst records, sonic yoof, the pixies. of course, by the end of 94, i would be taken to a RAVE (do you know where your children are right now?) and given a tape of JUNGLE, and then it was all over.

― jess, Saturday, 1 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Not sure - definitely not Nirvana or Pearl Jam. Already was on a retro kick and played very little actually from that time I think - except maybe John Wesley Harding? It was probably one of my least music obsessed years ever.

― Kim, Sunday, 2 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I spent the winter 1993/94 with a friend listening to the first Tindersticks album in my kitchen in a cloud of smoke.
I spent the summer of 1994 with the same friend on my balcony in another cloud of smoke listening to Swell's 41. Up the Stairs, In the keys, Music, Phone ringing, Music, Down the Stairs, Into the streets.
Obviously I was much cooler then and happier as well I guess. Yes definitely happier as it was easier to choose what to listen to as I had much less records. ;-)

― alex in mainhattan, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hmm, to do this I had to think of what girl I was going out with that year and then think of what albums I associate with her (which is always the easiest method for me)
So. Tindersticks, Gallon Drunk, Portishead, Jeff Buckley, Boo Radleys... Strangelove...
I think I first got into Nick Cave this year as well.

― DavidM, Monday, 3 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

three months pass...
Question posted ages ago but I cant help myself adding memories of 94 My memory is a bit hazy but for me I think it was the year for: Sha la la la la... Mr Jones- Counting Crows (93 release) Today- Smashing Pumpkins(93) All the tunes from Dookie- Green Day Lightning Crashes- Live or was that 95?? Radiohead Supergrove, Exponents and Muttonbirds(NZ bands) Mmmmm Mmmm Mmmmm Once there was a boy...- Crash Test Dummies And of course Pearl Jam and Nirvana Defintely not cooler but yeah I was a lot younger poorer dumber drunker and happier!

― kiwi, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Bloody hell Tom, you used to work at MVE? Must admit I never went down to the bargain basement in your day, but occasionally do so now. Quality of stuff there seems OK now, actually (clientele pretty much as upstairs) - very useful for filling gaps in one's collection if you're not too fussed. Major recommendation - usually have most of the Now That's What I Call Music series in stock (plus the CBS/WEA parallel Hits series), so very useful for anyone wanting a snapshot of pop from '83 onwards.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

mazzy, ministry, nin, cake, beasties(i think boutique had just come out?) Us by p. gabriel, soundgarden, pearl jam, green day... rock was starting its slide into irrelevancy but some good stuff in the gloaming

― Phong Wiedermeier, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I didn't listen to music til i was 14 and i was 13 then. So ner. But oh man, that Ajax team.

― Bob Zemko, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I was 19 and happy in spite of being very skint. i spent most of 1993 completely immersed in the music of Scott Walker so 1994 was a bit of a rebirth for me as far as music goes.

Stuff i like around that period include girls against boys, the breeders, pavement, jon spencer blues explosion, oasis (only for supersonic, mind, jeff buckley (was dragged to see him at a tiny club in Edinburgh by a friend)and Love

― Leigh, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

1994, my first yr in college. I listened to :
  1. Zumpano
  2. Lemonheads
  3. Kitchens
  4. Ride
  5. JAMC
  6. Smiths
  7. Moz
  8. Toad The Wet Sprocket
  9. Neds
  10. Satchel
  11. many more

― Poops McGee, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

like most others, nirvana, and other grunge rock stuff and also wanted to paint my entire bedroom black - not because of kurt, just because i wanted to!

i hope i'm a lot cooler now?

― Rach, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

In answer to Tom's original question, most played record that year (and possibly the following year) was without question "Selected Ambient Works Vol 2" by the Aphex Twin, an Oxford Tube favourite.

The rest of my list is wearily predictable, I'm afraid: Grace, Holy Bible, His 'n' Hers, Dummy, Protection, 36 Chambers, Dog Man Star, Tiger Bay, Silver Apples of the Moon, Downward Spiral, Ill Communication, Bluff Limbo, Vitalogy, Parklife, Talking Timbuktu, Patashnik, Aftermath, Wilmot, Lost and Found etc. Should be able to think of some more leftfield ones, but off the top of my head I can't - was that just because 1994 was the sort of year where the decent stuff actually sold?

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

1994? College! Velocity Girl. _Copper Blue_. Soul Coughing. _The Downward Spiral_. _Whip-Smart_. _Deep Six_. Archers of Loaf. Gumball! _Superunknown_! Totally miserable. (It wasn't because of the music.) (Or was it?) (Maybe because of Gumball.) (And "Like Suicide." And "Fourth of July.")

The more things change, the more I become half-heartedly nostalgic.

― Daver, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I was seventeen. I greatly enjoyed Pavement. Also I seem to remember spending loads of time listening to the Cocteaus and the Bunnymen, the former in particular. And Ride and Catherine Wheel. And Velocity Girl, Red House Painters, Kitchens of Distinction, and the Breeders. Plus I spent a lot of that winter listening to the Beatles—the only Beatles-listening period in my life, really—and I also recall having a momentary obsession with the Candyskins. Other stuff I remember buying that year: Elastica, first Psychedelic Furs record, Dirty, Isn’t Anything, and Men Without Hats. And Wally Pleasant.

― Nitsuh, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I was 28 doing a lot of long distance commuting. My list is broadly similar to Marcello's i.e Parklife, Dummy, SAW II. Also catching up with a lot of stuff from the previous year of course, Bjork, Wildwood, Lemonheads, Tindersticks. But what I listend to most was Promenade by the Divine Comedy, I used to play it back to back on my travels. How the mighty have fallen.

I actually bought Talking Timbuktu a couple of weeks ago, is his orther stuff (Ali Farke Toure ) worth searching out? I see that his project with Damon Blur get's a rave in Mojo this week.

― Billy Dods, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh, and World of Leather too. How could i forget them?

― Billy Dods, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

eleven months pass...
I 1994, I hated anything recent, and usually bought older albums from the 70s and 60s.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 23:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

hell yes am I cooler. I thought REM's Monster was one of the best albums ever made at the time.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 6 March 2003 00:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

one year passes...
best. fucking. year. ever.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 2 September 2004 11:08 (nineteen years ago) link

Maybe it was good for hiphop or dance. I don't know. I was a bit out of touch by then. For indie, it was rubbish. Not as bad as the following two years, but still.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 2 September 2004 11:37 (nineteen years ago) link

a heady mix of grunge-lite, britpop and BLURRRDDDDCLARRRRTTT JUNGLE TEKNAAAA

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Thursday, 2 September 2004 11:42 (nineteen years ago) link

I was 11.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 2 September 2004 11:52 (nineteen years ago) link

getting your 'Positive Education' under 'Narcotic Influence'

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Thursday, 2 September 2004 11:54 (nineteen years ago) link

narcotic influence was 1996

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Thursday, 2 September 2004 11:57 (nineteen years ago) link

compilations released in '95 feature it but whatever eh

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:01 (nineteen years ago) link

I had a flash of a theory yesterday that 1994 and 1997 were the best years of the nineties because they marked the beginning and end of a period where both dance/pop and rock/alternative were equally accepted. Pre-1994, dance and electronica was for druggies and weirdos and not considered "proper music". Post 1997, rock music was for boring old twats who hate fun.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:35 (nineteen years ago) link

1994 was also my transition from listening to whatever was in the charts to listening to Nirvana, Blur, Offspring, Prodigy, Orbital etc.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:36 (nineteen years ago) link

I get what you mean but it seems odd to think of the beginning and end being better than the middle. what kind of party goes like that?! ;)

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:38 (nineteen years ago) link

(xpost) Which were all in the charts in 1994.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:38 (nineteen years ago) link

I am trying to think, stevem. There must be one.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:39 (nineteen years ago) link

I get what you mean but it seems odd to think of the beginning and end being better than the middle. what kind of party goes like that?! ;)

the transition was more interesting. The middle was kind of all nice and settled and perhaps a little dull i.e. Britpop, Big Beat

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:44 (nineteen years ago) link

it's seen as a good year because of all the big stuff that happened in so many genres. kurt died and took much of the ethos of his music with him, green day and weezer laid the foundations for a decade of whiny emo punky/pop/rock/whatever, jungle lived, take that peaked, oasis entered, blur and suede on good form, manics meltdown, house and techno declined only to rise again next year, prodigy had a #1 album...i had a big hip hop re-awakening in '94 too thanks to seeing more of it on MTV Raps. all pretty seismic.

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:46 (nineteen years ago) link

argh here we go with that fucking 'big beat = dull' sentiment again, wtf

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:47 (nineteen years ago) link

Weird, I was just thinking about 1994 when I woke up today.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:51 (nineteen years ago) link

Do we have any big beat threads? I fancy an argument.

― R.I.M.A. (Barima), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:53 (nineteen years ago) link

my first ever ILM thread was about Big Beat i think

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:54 (nineteen years ago) link

In '94 I was listening to a lot of: Captain Beefheart, Pavement, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, John Zorn/Naked City, Sun Ra, Boredoms, Stereolab, Ween, and so on.

― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:58 (nineteen years ago) link

x-post
anyway big beat doesn't fit Dog Latin's theory seeing as it peaked (commercially at least) in 1998 no?

when i moved to london some of the very few records that i left behind were my big beat ones. i think i have big beat guilt.

― pete b. (pete b.), Thursday, 2 September 2004 12:59 (nineteen years ago) link

Basically, I was listening to a lot of alt-rock.

10 CDs I either bought or borrowed from friends in 1994:

Dambuilders, Encendedor
Green Day, Dookie
Morrissey, Vauxhall and I
Oasis, What's the Story (Morning Glory)
PJ Harvey, 4-Track Demos
R.E.M., Monster
Seal, Seal (1994)
Sonic Youth, Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star
Soul Coughing, Ruby Vroom
Veruca Salt, American Thighs

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:00 (nineteen years ago) link

I like big beat.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:01 (nineteen years ago) link

argh here we go with that fucking 'big beat = dull' sentiment again, wtf

Hey look, it's not everyday that I'll say Britpop was dull but I did for the sake of argument. I'm just saying that 1994 was when a whole load of exciting stuff was happening because everyone was coming to terms with "hey dance isn't really so bad after all" but after that it got watered down with shit like Bentley Rhythm Ace and stuff.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:01 (nineteen years ago) link

For some reason, when I heard Oasis in 1994, I became very interested in "British music," which I imagined was all glammy. I'm not sure that really lasted beyond liking a Manics song on a Sony compilation, though.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:02 (nineteen years ago) link

I'd say big beat peaked in 1997 with Dig Yr Own Hole and Fatboy.

― Jimmybommy JimmyK'KANG (Nick Southall), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:03 (nineteen years ago) link

i should've nominated 'Theme From Gutbuster' for the 00s poll

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:04 (nineteen years ago) link

Hey - I like that BRA one that goes 'la la, la la - I LIKE IT!'

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:05 (nineteen years ago) link

1997 is when the term "big beat" became known in the U.S., at any rate.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:06 (nineteen years ago) link

bentley's gonna sort you out! what a classic.

― pete b. (pete b.), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:07 (nineteen years ago) link

Big Beat was on the up in '94 due to the variuos attempts to emulate the Chemicals and there's an argument for the Prodge's 'Poison' to be made too. It peaked in '98 after we were done with Fatboy and the Propellerheads hooked up with Dame Shirley.

I was still listening to Now Compilations for the most part in '97 but the Prodge, Snoop and Dummy changed all that.

― R.I.M.A. (Barima), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:11 (nineteen years ago) link

interesting to note

The Wire - 1994 Records of the Year

Portishead - Dummy
Massive Attack - Protection
David Toop & Max Eastley - Buried Dreams
Peter Brotzmann - Die Like a Dog
Laika - Silver Apples of the Moon
Charles Gayle - Live at Disobey
Jeru the Damaaja - The Sun Rises in the East
John Oswald - Grayfolded
Orang - Herd of Instinct
Jan Garbarek/The Hilliard Ensemble - Officium
AMM - Newfoundland
Bill Frisell - Music for the Films of Buster Keaton
Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
Earthling - Nothing/Nothingness
FM Einheit/Caspar Brotzmann - Merry Christmas
Nick Cave - Let Love In
Orbital - Snivilization
Paul Schutze - The Surgery of Touch
4 Hero - Parallel Universe
Craig Mack - Flava in Ya Ear
Stereolab - Mars Audiac Quintet
Warren G - Regulate...G-Funk Era
Plastikman - Musik
Mu-ziq - Tango N'Vectif
Cheb Khaled - N'ssi N'ssi
Kristin Hersh - Hips and Makers
Robin Holloway - Concerto for Orchestra No.2
Trans-Global Underground - Internationsal Times
MC Solaar - Prose Combat
Boredoms - Chocolate Synthesizer
Tricky - Ponderosa
Jeff Buckley - Grace
God - The Anatomy of Addiction
Roni Size - Music Box
Fun-Da-Mental - Seize the Time
Suns of Arqa - Govinda's Dream (A Guy Called Gerald Remixes)
Blur - Parklife
Mouse ON Mars - Vulvaland
Scorn - Evanescence
Nirvana - Unpugged in New York
Ascension - Five Titles
Ken Ishii - Innerelements
Moody Boyz - Product of the Environment
Frnk Zappa - The Yellow Shark
Baaba Maal - Firin' In Fouta
Roger Sessions - Chamber Music
Metalheads - Inner City Life
Joshua Redman - Mood Swing
Bary Guy/London Jazz ComposersÕ Orchestra - Portraits
Jon Hassel & Bluescreen - Dressing for Pleasure

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:17 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh, oh, other stuff I was listening to in 1994:

Sugarcubes, Stick Around for Joy (after hearing this and the Bjork singles that were still in rotation -- "Human Behavior," "Big-Time Sensuality" -- I really wanted to buy Debut, but the one-star review in Rolling Stone put me off)

The Cure, Staring at the Sea: The Singles

and LEST I FORGET:

Reality Bites OST!

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:20 (nineteen years ago) link

re: Orang - Herd of Instinct

has this been nominated for the 90s albums list yet?, that album bleeds with sonic emotion

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:21 (nineteen years ago) link

Warren G in The Wire!

― pete b. (pete b.), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:21 (nineteen years ago) link

That's a pretty uninspiring list. The Face's isn't much better.

I'm sticking to my guns and saying that 1994 was rub.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:28 (nineteen years ago) link

do you hate Sugar?

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:47 (nineteen years ago) link

alba likes Sugarcubes and Sugababes

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:50 (nineteen years ago) link

That's like the inverse of 'Do you hate fun?', stevem

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:50 (nineteen years ago) link

'Copper Blue' always sticks out like a sore thumb when you look at NME's Albums Of The Year year by year for the 90s. I've still not heard it.

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Thursday, 2 September 2004 13:57 (nineteen years ago) link

I moved to London in the summer of 1994 - almost ten years ago to the day, so it all still seems very vivid. I remember being obsessed with Grace and Dummy and, erm, the Divine Comedy's Promenade. Also lots of Pavement and Aphex Twin and old seventies back catalogue stuff on CD: Buckley Snr, Drake, Eno, Cale, Martyn, Steely Dan etc. I was terribly daunted by the big city, skint and depressed.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 2 September 2004 14:03 (nineteen years ago) link

do you mean Grace as in 'Not Over Yet'?

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Thursday, 2 September 2004 14:04 (nineteen years ago) link

I hope so. God, that was a lovely track. This sort of stuff was all over those Now comps I mentioned, so they're responsible for my 90s dance education.

― R.I.M.A. (Barima), Thursday, 2 September 2004 14:06 (nineteen years ago) link

xpost

Sadly, no.

Jeff Buckley played in my local pub - the Red Lion - in Stevenage Old Town in the spring of 94, as a very weird date on his mini-tour to promote the Sin-e ep. Well, he played a lunchtime gig in the pub, had a kip under his big fur coat, and then played third on the bill to some local punk groups at the Bowes Lyon Youth Club in the evening. He was gorgeous.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 2 September 2004 14:12 (nineteen years ago) link

The Face's 80s lists are gonna be a big help soon...

Yeah, thought it was gonna be Buckley, but more Grace love makes us gladder.

― R.I.M.A. (Barima), Thursday, 2 September 2004 14:15 (nineteen years ago) link

Blur, Beasties, Soundgarden, Green Day, Senser, 'Bug Powder Dust', 'She Don't Use Jelly'... um, Credit To The Nation, 'Unplugged In New York', 'Regulate', being at the very least intrigued by jungle at a time when rave to me was something that came in outsized plastic tape packs and I pretended to like while sitting on top of the school bus home.

Select magazine is pretty pivotal in all of this, from my vantage point

― DJ Mencap0))), Thursday, 2 September 2004 14:19 (nineteen years ago) link

I had a crush that summer on a girl who wore green boots and Lemonheads and Sonic Youth t-shirts.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 2 September 2004 14:21 (nineteen years ago) link

Or no, never mind, that was 1993.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 2 September 2004 14:22 (nineteen years ago) link

So 1993.

― R.I.M.A. (Barima), Thursday, 2 September 2004 14:33 (nineteen years ago) link

cheap trick, ramones, kiss, PWEI, the muffs, ac/dc (always listen to them though)

― cw28 (cw28), Thursday, 2 September 2004 14:44 (nineteen years ago) link

i hated 'Regulate' and all stuff like it at the time. i loved 'Midnight Marauders' tho.

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Thursday, 2 September 2004 15:10 (nineteen years ago) link

Summer of '94 hits I liked:

"Closer," Nine Inch Nails
"The Big Empty," Stone Temple Pilots
"Come Out and Play," The Offspring

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 2 September 2004 15:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Best song of 94:

http://wizardishungry.com/mp3z/Teenage%20Bondage.mp3

― gainfully employed (ex machina), Thursday, 2 September 2004 15:14 (nineteen years ago) link

Select magazine is pretty pivotal in all of this, from my vantage point

OTMFM

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:16 (nineteen years ago) link

1. Gold Soundz - Pavement
2. Viewmaster - Eric's Trip
3. Over your shoulder - Dinosaur Jr
4. All Sideways - Scarce
5. From a Motel6 - Yo La Tengo
6. Untitled - Six Finger Satellite
7. Car Song - Madder Rose
8. Lowest Part is Free - Archers of Loaf
9. Tragic Carpet Ride - Polvo
10. Dump - Small 23
11. Untitled - Green Magnet School
12. I Send My Love To You - Palace Brothers
13. Surf Wax America - Weezer
14. Sick of Heaven - Sleepyhead
15. Skills of the Star Pilot - Butterglory
16. Sorry Again - Velocity Girl
17. Love Theme From Santo Gold - Lotion
18. Awaiting Eternity - Rose Chronicles

I made this into CD, I started a trhead about it. Anyway, this is what I liked in 1994.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Pretty much all those bands were on the Reading '94 poster I saw last night

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:45 (nineteen years ago) link

I must dig out my Sleepyhead CD's.

The untitled GMS and 6FS songs were from the "Declaration of Techno-colonial Independence" split-single.

Did the White Birch by Codiene come out in 1994?

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 2 September 2004 17:45 (nineteen years ago) link

I actually thought it was a terrible year for music while it was happening! I was wrong, of course, but still.

I remember it being an identity-crisis kind of year, musically--not for me personally but because the post-Nirvana alt-rock glut had cleaved a space between indie and mainstream-alt, and I f'in' HATED a lot of what got popular that year (Collective Soul, for one; NIN for another). Hip-hop lost me because I distrusted the "keepin' it real" aspect of it; it seemed more austere and less fun than it had been the previous few years. And dance music seemed less juicy, less fun, moving toward arena-techno and stadium house instead of the goofier, more fun stuff I'd been into. Then I went to First Avenue on the last Sunday of the year for their "best of 2004" night and was blown away by how much of the music was really good. I still prefer '91, '93, and '95, but yeah, great year.

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Thursday, 2 September 2004 21:36 (nineteen years ago) link

Matos is right of course. 1994 opened a lot of doors, but others closed behind it - shoegazing and grunge were replaced with trip hop and britpop. In a way it was the last time we'd see the back of the 80s-styles. Agreed about dance music too - stuff like the KLF couldn't have happened after 1994 because people were taking it seriously by then.

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 2 September 2004 23:33 (nineteen years ago) link

!! Who is 'people'?

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 2 September 2004 23:34 (nineteen years ago) link

"best. fucking. year. ever."

couldn't have put it any better.

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Friday, 3 September 2004 02:18 (nineteen years ago) link

if people were taking it (dance music) seriously after '94 then it was partly because of the deluge of 'rave cheese' that had infiltrated the charts, 'Sesame's Treet' 'Roobarb & Custard' 'We Are Raving' etc. - not that I blame the KLF for that as I'm not sure they inspired those records anymore than 'Charly' or whatever. And people look back fondly at them now but at the time it was pretty irritating.

Also 1994 was the first time I heard Scooter...

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Friday, 3 September 2004 08:28 (nineteen years ago) link

Of course 'Charly' inspired those records!

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 3 September 2004 08:33 (nineteen years ago) link

yeh - that's what i meant re: dance

pre-1994: Italo House, Kiddie Rave, Stadium Techno, Ragga Jungle
post-1994: Big Beat, D'n'B, Trance, Trip Hop

actually I think it was when it started getting serious that I went off dance music completely for a few years.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 3 September 2004 08:36 (nineteen years ago) link

well it wasn't the first or only tune to sample old kids TV but i guess it was the biggest hit (xpost)

May '93 to May '94 was my year off from dance music. I spent most of it listening to Pearl Jam, STP< Soundgarden and Senser. It didn't take much to get me into Jungle from Autumn '94 onwards but it wasn't until the following Summer that I started to like House and heard stuff like 'Acperience' and 'Higher State Of Consciousness' and even 'Strings Of Life' for the first time (shockah)

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Friday, 3 September 2004 08:40 (nineteen years ago) link

I still don't really understand, dog latin. Why is big beat more 'serious' than ragga jungle or italo house? And if you want really humourless 'serious' stuff then hello - Detroit techno?

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 3 September 2004 08:42 (nineteen years ago) link

i hit the uk in june after 12 months overland from australia thru s.e asia india etc. i went to nottinghill carnival for the first time and i saw and indulged with people DANCING to JUNGLE. i heard gilles p drop "inner city life". i bought d'n'b selection 2. best year evah.

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 3 September 2004 08:47 (nineteen years ago) link

and fuck me MATOS is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 3 September 2004 08:53 (nineteen years ago) link

By 94 the one-music-all-night-long monoculture was firmly established in clubland, which seemed to me like a massive disappointment – the balearic “if it sounds good we’ll play it” /"it’s all just dance music” ethos was truly dead (though I may be over-romanticising that anyway). Perhaps that’s what dog latin means – the (relative) disappearance of playfulness.

Wasn’t 94 also the start of the rise of handbag/glam house, the superstar dj and the return of dresscode elitism?

― Philter, Friday, 3 September 2004 09:00 (nineteen years ago) link

I still don't really understand, dog latin. Why is big beat more 'serious' than ragga jungle or italo house? And if you want really humourless 'serious' stuff then hello - Detroit techno?

I don't really remember Detroit Techno making that big of a commercial impact - it stayed underground. I guess Big Beat was a bit silly but it was featured in Q and Select and other supposedly "proper" music mags whereas Black Box wasn't. I'm just saying that suddenly dance was recognised as "proper" music as opposed to throwaway rubbish that was beneath song-based pop and rock.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:03 (nineteen years ago) link

i think that still went on - i went to Metalheadz in '96 and Goldie played Atmosfear's 'Dancin' In Outer Space' and other things you wouldn't expect - it was probably even more jazzier when they were at the Blue Note. Norman Cook and the Chemical Brothers retained Balearic Spirit at BBB and the Social, as another example - taking fun seriously seemed the modus operandi.

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:05 (nineteen years ago) link

philter described it best i think.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:05 (nineteen years ago) link

although "thats how it is", "east" were fighting against this tendency Philter - in London at least. You had the notion of freestyle djs emerging in the chemical bros, the big chill, the rumpus rooms etc etc.

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:06 (nineteen years ago) link

also i couldn't have imagined dance music really being discussed in something like The Guide or whatever pre-1994. Select had that dance section at the beginning of their magazine - that was such a neat idea. Bring back Select I say.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:07 (nineteen years ago) link

doglatin you are sounding a lot like Swells when he was banging on playlouder last year about how the seriousness ruined dance music. he even mentioned Black Box as well!

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:07 (nineteen years ago) link

Death of playfulness, end of the party, certainly.

I think two meanings of 'serious' are getting mixed up a bit here though. I would dispute that idea that dance music was not taken seriously by the music press until 1994.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:09 (nineteen years ago) link

Something about this sounds Geirish.

― R.I.M.A. (Barima), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:10 (nineteen years ago) link

But I should preface that by pointing out that I never think before I post.

― R.I.M.A. (Barima), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:10 (nineteen years ago) link

Seriously - I bought a fair few techno and breakbeat records in the late 80s and early 90s on the back of NME write ups.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:10 (nineteen years ago) link

how old were you in 94 dog latin?

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:12 (nineteen years ago) link

(NB. I'm pretty sure none of those write ups were by Steven Wells)

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:12 (nineteen years ago) link

here's that thread: pointing and laughing at dance music part 4912

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah, I was overgeneralising wildly and you're right to say that lots of messing with genre barriers was still going on (and it being big beat's m.o.) - though maybe it was a london ting: at the time I was (and still am) in Sheffield and it all just seemed so much more regimented than 2-3 years before. No place for amateurs (which ties in with stevem's "taking fun seriously" point).

― Philter, Friday, 3 September 2004 09:18 (nineteen years ago) link

re: I'm just saying that suddenly dance was recognised as "proper" music as opposed to throwaway rubbish that was beneath song-based pop and rock.

This was manifested with Melody Maker putting Underworld on the front cover and introducing an expanded dance section in early 1994. They had a big issue on electronic/ dance music.

Indeeed this proved so successful that a year later in Spring 1995, Muzik magazine was launched by IPC Media.

[In 1993, Melody Maker's dance music coverage was limited - and they were relatively slow on the uptaking of Brit Progressive House Scene which can be traced back to early Summer 1992 and Mixmag]

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:19 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah, well MM had been hopeless for dance music, but that was just MM's problem

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:22 (nineteen years ago) link

sim r to thread!

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:25 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm sure he'd agree.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:29 (nineteen years ago) link

i was 13/14 in 1994 so maybe i'm talking bull. but i can't think of that many big-selling dance albums (like Jilted or Snivilisation) coming out before 1994. Blue Lines maybe? Even Prodigy Experience didn't sell too good and was seen as one-hit-wonder kind of stuff.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:30 (nineteen years ago) link

'Ex:El' was a top ten album in 1991 although it's remit went beyond filling dancefloors obviously (and being one of the first dance albums to feature collabs with 'indie' vocalists gave it a commercial boost). Other than that 'white techno-orientated' dance/electronic did not sell so well at that point, but then there were hardly any actual albums of that stuff.

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:32 (nineteen years ago) link

Soul II Soul's first two albums probably sold more than 'Blue Lines' also.

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:33 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't think their being a relative lack of huge albums (or even good ones) means it wasn't serious. Dance is a singles-led genre. That's not necessarily equivalent with it being tacky and one hit wonderish.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:35 (nineteen years ago) link

UR to thread

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 3 September 2004 10:06 (nineteen years ago) link

actually i'm really drunk...what was i arguing against again?

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 3 September 2004 10:06 (nineteen years ago) link

eleven months pass...
Wasn't "a stable reference" by Labradford from 1995..? The "julius" 7" was from 1994 although i didn't discover Labradford until late 1995.

95% percent of my purchases from 1994 were from 1994 because there was so much good stuff coming out, whereas in the previous years i was buying a lot of old hardcore, metal and rap i'd previously missed out on.

Favorites from 1994 :

Alloy-paper thin front.ep.

Born Against/Man Is Teh Bastard-split 8".

Kyuss-welcome to sky valley.lp.

Lady Of Rage-afro puffs.12".

Nas-illmatic.lp.

O.C-word..life.lp.

Drive Like Jehu-yank crime.lp.

Indian Summer-7".

Swing Kids-7".

Universal Order Of Armageddon-12".

Universal Order Of Armageddon- lp on Kill Rock Stars.

Craig Mack etc-flava in ya remix.12".

Craig Mack-get down.12".

Notorious BIG-ready to die.lp.

Unwound-m.k ultra/totality.7".

Unwound-new plastic ideas.lp.

Unwound- 7" on Troubleman Records.

Beatnuts-street level.lp.

Gang Starr-hard to earn.lp.

Organized Konfusion-stress..lp.

Method Man-tical.lp.

Gravediggaz-6 feet deep.lp.

Soundgarden-superunknown.lp.

Outkast-southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.lp.

― Ellis, Wednesday, 17 August 2005 18:52 (eighteen years ago) link

Craig Mack etc-flava in ya remix.12".

Craig Mack-get down.12".

Notorious BIG-ready to die.lp.

I forget this stuff all came out in 1994. I didn't really start hearing Bad Boy stuff until 1997 or so.

― Confounded (Confounded), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 19:04 (eighteen years ago) link

i really do think this was the best year for music in my lifetime so far. if i had to name a list of ten favorite albums from the 90s, i could probably do all 94 and not feel remotely guilty. hell, singles too.

― strng hlkngtn, Wednesday, 17 August 2005 19:11 (eighteen years ago) link

Apart from those 2 12"s and "making moves with puff" the Craig Mack album on Bad Boy was pretty lame. He put out some splendid 12"s from 1999 to 2001, though. I always liked his sloppy-Redman style.

― Ellis, Wednesday, 17 August 2005 19:13 (eighteen years ago) link

personally, of course, it was absolute horrid and magical all at once, as being 16 tends to be.

― strng hlkngtn, Wednesday, 17 August 2005 19:14 (eighteen years ago) link

Bowie, Devo, Masonna, Boredoms, Royal Trux

― Outsider Enter Port City (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 19:18 (eighteen years ago) link

oh, and HARRY PUSSY!

― Outsider Enter Port City (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 19:24 (eighteen years ago) link

1994, 1995 and 1996 were great personal years for me. The last years of freedom before i had to deal with adult responsibilities and work out ways to make money.

That Bone Thugs and Harmony ep that i forget the name of that came out in 1994 was also great. "Foe da love of money" with that ridiculous Eazy E verse was a personal favorite.

― Ellis, Wednesday, 17 August 2005 19:31 (eighteen years ago) link

three years pass...

That year seemed especially exciting and full of promise. Rockers were listening to techno and the fresh wave of dub reissues. Experimentation was catching on, metal, dub, hip-hop and global ethnic music were all bed swapping. Based on just one single I felt like Tricky would be the start of a new breed of pop stars. This was before he and Goldie were tussling in a love triangle over Björk, already dissolving from public consciousness, other than as great names for pocket puppies.

― Fastnbulbous, Thursday, 18 September 2008 13:44 (fifteen years ago) link

Even stodgy The Wire magazine seemed to have a bit more whimsical spring in its step that year.

― Fastnbulbous, Thursday, 18 September 2008 13:55 (fifteen years ago) link

Stuck in traffic on 35W going toward Edina to work in a Wal-Mart portrait studio - "All I Wanna Do" by Sheryl Crow

Getting in high in some dudes' two-story apartment, playing that race car game on Nintendo, Leineys staying cold on the stoop outside - "Black No. 1" by Type O Negative

Buying gas at that store with the big fiberglass trout, off 35 a few miles above Albert Lea, on my way back for a weekend visit to Mizzou - "Mannequin Shop" by Paul Westerberg

Pulling up into the parking lot of Perkins off Riverside - "Seether" by Veruca Salt

Driving back home from the Depot after eight miserable hours of scanning vodka and Pig's Eye - "Interstate Love Song" by Stone Temple Pilots

Hanging out in Macalester lesbians' apartment, deciding if I want to adopt their cat - "Leaving Las Vegas" by Sheryl Crow

― Pleasant Plains, Thursday, 18 September 2008 14:08 (fifteen years ago) link

I remember thinking at the time that 94 was a great year for music. Some albums I loved (and still enjoy to varied degrees) were The Downward Spiral, Music For the Jilted Generation, Senser's Stacked Up and Troublegum. It was the year I turned 16.

― chap, Thursday, 18 September 2008 14:13 (fifteen years ago) link

My 1994 in singles, alphabetically:

alex party - saturday night party (read my lips)
artemisia - bits & pieces
atlantic ocean - waterfall
beck - loser
blue bamboo - a b c & d
blur - end of a century / girls & boys
bruce springsteen - streets of philadelphia
carleen anderson - nervous breakdown
counting crows - mr. jones
crystal waters - 100% pure love / ghetto day
dj shadow - lost and found
doop - doop
elastica - connection
elevator - shinny
elvis costello - sulky girl
fruit - the queen of old compton street
the grid - swamp thing
hed boys - girls and boys
jah wobble's invaders of the heart - the sun does rise
jx - son of a gun
kristine w - feel what you want
kristin hersh - your ghost
kylie minogue - confide in me
leena conquest - boundaries
loveland - let the music lift you up
mary j. blige - be happy
m beat/general levy - incredible
michelle gayle - sweetness
morrissey - the more you ignore me, the closer i get / hold onto your friends
motiv 8 - rockin' for myself
moving melodies (ethics) - la luna (to the beat of the drum)
m people - renaissance
mr. roy - something about you
neil young - philadelphia
nush - u girls
oasis - whatever / live forever / supersonic
omar - outside
the o.t. quartet - hold that sucker down
paul weller - hung up
pizzaman - trippin' on sunshine
portishead - sour times / numb
the pretenders - i'll stand by you / 977 / night in my veins
primal scream - rocks
prince - the most beautiful girl in the world
the prodigy - no good (start the dance)
r.e.m. - what's the frequency, kenneth
r.kelly - she's got that vibe
sister bliss - life's a bitch (can't get a man, can't get a job)
sonic youth - superstar
suede - stay together / we are the pigs / the wild ones
t-empo - saturday night sunday morning
tindersticks - kathleen
transglobal underground - taal zaman / protean
tricky - aftermath
warren g/nate dogg - regulate
whigfield - saturday night
youssou n'dour/neneh cherry - 7 seconds

― mike t-diva, Thursday, 18 September 2008 14:24 (fifteen years ago) link

I forgot Dummy came out in 94! One of my favourite albums to this day.

― chap, Thursday, 18 September 2008 14:25 (fifteen years ago) link

don't forget subliminal cuts mike ;)

― They're a '90s odd couple. And an odds-on choice for laughs. (blueski), Thursday, 18 September 2008 14:34 (fifteen years ago) link

Didn't hear that one until late December, when Pete Tong played it on his year-end round-up.... good old Patrick Prins, whatever happened to him...

― mike t-diva, Thursday, 18 September 2008 15:10 (fifteen years ago) link

five years pass...

Fuck me, 20 years ago.

― I can still taste the Taboo in my mouth when I hear those songs (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 17 January 2014 11:02 (ten years ago) link

Lush, Sloan, Belly, Pure, 54-40, Beastie Boys, Jeff Buckley, Hole, Liz Phair, Tori Amos, Blur, The Veldt, Public Enemy, the 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould soundtrack, the Trois Couleurs Bleu and Rouge soundtracks. One of my favourite albums from this year is by Stereolab but I had no idea who they were in '94, didn't get hip to them until '97 or so. Loved a lot of other stuff from this year, though Kurt's death means I have a very soft spot for Eugenius and felt that & Sloan's albums the closest to me as comforts (I'm just a month older than Kurt and it was very personal at the time...some in my social circle were far more affected than others, and things slowly started to change for me then).

― agincourtgirl, Friday, 17 January 2014 11:29 (ten years ago) link

LOL, it is so funny to read mine own posts from 2001, basically to see the self-censoring revision of the past in operation. And I understand why then-me was doing it, to justify her tastes and dislikes of that point in time. And how she was utterly and totally belied, as a few months ago, I found a box of cassettes in storage at my Mum's house, dating from that exact period. And though yes, it's true, I did listen to all the things I described myself loving in 1994, and the changes in my tastes I described *did* happen, it is not the whole story. I omitted all sorts of music that didn't fit with the narrative (industrial music taped off my Goth housemate, loads of techno from my Britishes boyfriend, other things I daren't even mention, oh dear, Bhangra and "ethno-beats" or whatevs it inspired that I wince at the cultural appropriation of, now) but was definitely in that box of cassettes from the mid-90s, and well worn with play.

Can I blame acid not just for changing my tastes, but also conveniently erasing my memory of the music that didn't fit the narrative of Who I Thought I Was at age 30? It wasn't acid that changed my tastes. It was ageing, and the cultural conservatism that "I'm a grown up now, honest" brings. 1994 is also the year I was kicked out of a mod band for liking "stuff that sounds like A Flock Of Seagulls" (default insult for anything with a drum machine.) Memories are unreliable, and always more about "who you believe yourself to have been" rather than "the person you were."

I dunno. 1992 was "my year" so 2012 was the year of "OMG, I can NOT believe this is 20 years old!!!!" so I guess I'm going to be used to the 20-year anniversaries that 2014 brings.

But LOL and RMDE and KMT and SMH and 30-year old me. God, you were such a snob. (and oh god, will 50 year old me kiss their teeth at now-me?)

― you're still in love with me and you don't know why (Branwell Bell), Friday, 17 January 2014 11:38 (ten years ago) link

I discovered Stereolab in 1993, because I remember a friend playing them at my leaving do (and posting me tapes of all their albums through 1994) but I seem to have conveniently forgotten that. I was obsessed - OBSESSED - with New Order during this period, because I'd had this whole series of delusions based around Bernard Sumner and "Barneywaves" controlling my thoughts when I was on the medication I was on, 92-94. I'm kind of astonished at my ability to forget these things. It's not like I abruptly stopped listening to Hole and Lush and stuff like that, either.

I'm really, really glad I found that box of cassettes last autumn. Because it's kind of a relief to call bullshit on the person I used to portray myself as being.

― you're still in love with me and you don't know why (Branwell Bell), Friday, 17 January 2014 11:44 (ten years ago) link

Fuck me, 20 years ago.

― I can still taste the Taboo in my mouth when I hear those songs (Scik Mouthy), Friday, January 17, 2014 11:02 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― The Robotic Policeman II (dog latin), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 11:54 (ten years ago) link

So this is often held up as a banner year for music. Is this true? It's the year I properly got into music outside of the chart countdown so my own ideas of what 1994 mean are probably highly embellished. Was it the "year that changed everything" as a recent NME headline says? Would your perspective be affected by age and geographical location? For 14-yo UK me, it did and still does feel kind of exceptional in terms of impactful albums. I'm sure many many ilxors disagree.

― The Robotic Policeman II (dog latin), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 11:57 (ten years ago) link

Definitely Maybe came out, which for better or worse (okay worse) had a gigantic impact on British music. We're still feeling it today really.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 12:07 (ten years ago) link

Like I'm trying to remember if Britain had an insatiable appetite for laddish stodge-rock pre-1994 but it doesn't feel like it, it's more a case of a latent market being blown right open.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 12:10 (ten years ago) link

I made a list on fb for this year recently; I shd paste it here. It was v 'alt-rock'

This is one of my fave years for movies incidentally. ..

― Drugs A. Money, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 12:12 (ten years ago) link

xpost It's easy to sneer at that album, and Britpop in general, but I don't remember 'Britpop' as a term really gaining currency until '95 / '96. Until then it just felt like UK indie music was moving very quickly away from baggy/shoegaze/fraggle and going for... something else(?). Dance music and the way it was being appreciated was changing too. It wasn't being seen as this dangerous outlier thing for people in fields and warehouses - there were PROPER ALBUMS coming out and being featured on Jools Holland and dance tents at festivals and things. The sound seemed to be upgrading rapidly too - compare Prodigy's first two albums; the difference between rave/ardkore/jungle and drum'n'bass/triphop.

― The Robotic Policeman II (dog latin), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 12:16 (ten years ago) link

1994 [Started by Tom in April 2001
Coping with Nostalgia, A Beginner's Guide [Started by tissp! (the impossible shortest specia) in August 2005

^^^LOL

― these birches is awful (Branwell Bell), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 12:17 (ten years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9pP8amMgMk

― cog, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 12:18 (ten years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9pP8amMgMk

― cog, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 12:18 (ten years ago) link

this was the year i changed my footwear from wine doc martens to adidas gazelles (or maybe that was 95)

― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 13:21 (ten years ago) link

Fuck me, 20 years ago.

― I can still taste the Taboo in my mouth when I hear those songs (Scik Mouthy), Friday, January 17, 2014 11:02 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

― The Robotic Policeman II (dog latin), Wednesday, January 29, 2014 6:54 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was 16 and this was a hugely transformative year for me in so many ways including musically. Thinking back the two groups I spent the most time listening to that year were Bikini Kill and Operation Ivy. Maybe the Pixies too. I really kind of can't believe this was 20 years ago. Shit.

― Airwrecka Bliptrap Blapmantis (ENBB), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 13:27 (ten years ago) link

x-post - Ha! I had both though my Docs were purple and I was super excited because my birthday that year was the first time my mom let me go into NYC with friends without parental supervision and the first thing I did was buy those damn shoes.

― Airwrecka Bliptrap Blapmantis (ENBB), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 13:30 (ten years ago) link

bands i was listening to - nirvana, pavement, beastie boys, oasis (hated blur and suede), soundgarden, sebadoh, sonic youth, manic street preachers, blues explosion, velvet underground, the posies, big star, teenage fanclub, buffalo tom. i remember buying "dummy" on cassette and being disappointed.

― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 13:42 (ten years ago) link

sudden urgent desire to go buy purple Docs cos I still never have

― (D1CK$) (sic), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 14:09 (ten years ago) link

:)

I haven't owned a pair since college tbh but I've been seriously rethinking that lately. I passed the DM store recently and was like, yeah, maybe it's time again.

Also, I just messaged my first boyfriend (who I met that year and with whom I am still friends) with "I JUST REALIZED THAT THE SUMMER WE MET WAS 20 YEARS AGO THIS YEAR." I just can't. Man.

― Airwrecka Bliptrap Blapmantis (ENBB), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 14:14 (ten years ago) link

I remember buying cassettes of The Downward Spiral, Superunknown and, er, Troublegum on the same day in 1994. That was a good day.

― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 14:15 (ten years ago) link

looked at DMs last night by bizarre coincidence. fucked if i'm paying 100 quid for a pair.

― Squidward Ka-Spel (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 14:17 (ten years ago) link

Oh shit Dummy came out this year too! Something of a landmark for me, first non-rock album I ever loved.

― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 14:19 (ten years ago) link

Unattributed youtube was Jovonn - Love Destination (forgot to identify it)

― cog, Wednesday, 29 January 2014 14:26 (ten years ago) link

Someone just tweeted that Live Through This is 20 this year (and p much on my birthday, no less) and man, do I feel old now.

― these birches is awful (Branwell Bell), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 17:23 (ten years ago) link

In 1994 I was 25 years old. I lived in Brooklyn until the end of the year. According to my Social Security report, I lived the entire year on $607. This actually isn't totally true - I was making it as a music critic. So thanks to the income I received that went unreported, I'm sure I at least doubled that.

I was writing for heavy metal and rock publications back then, and thanks to being a huge Promosexual (and always being in the Creem / Livewire offices) I was able to secure most of the music that came out new and not all of it was metal. So I am pretty sure that the following releases from that year were high on my list, even though I cannot find any end of year lists I might have officially put together at the time.

Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley
Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
Bolt Thrower - ...For Victory
Lisa Germano - Geek the Girl
Therapy? - Troublegum
Acid Bath - When the Kite String Pops
Killing Joke - Pandemonium
The Obsessed - The Church Within
King's X - Dogman
Grief - Come to Grief
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven
Prong - Cleansing
Bad Religion - Stranger Than Fiction
Rollins Band - Weight
Paramæcium - Exhumed of the Earth
Mother Tongue - Mother Tongue
Cop Shoot Cop - Release
Sick of It All - Scratch the Surface
Killdozer - Uncompromising War on Art Under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
Nailbomb - Point Blank
The Veldt - Afrodisiac
L7 - Hungry for Stink
Cows - Orphan's Tragedy
Front Line Assembly - Millennium
Biohazard - State of the World Address
Slayer - Divine Intervention
Pop Will Eat Itself - Dos Dedos Mis Amigos
Veruca Salt - American Thighs
Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies - The Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies
Wool - Box Set
Marilyn Manson - Portrait of an American Family
Wicked Maraya - Cycles
Course of Empire - Initiation
Helios Creed - Busting Through the Van Allan Belt
Luscious Jackson - Natural Ingredients
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Hole - Live Through This

I went through Rate Your Music to make sure of the year. Some of them I only remember listening to a lot because I did stories on them at the time.

To this day, I adore the Therapy?, Cop Shoot Cop and Mother Tongue albums quite a bit. Some of these I have not listened to in ages.

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Wednesday, 29 January 2014 18:13 (ten years ago) link

three years pass...

A pretty good year in retrospect. My fave was that Swell album. Such a trip.

Laurie Anderson - Bright Red
Blumfeld - L'Etat et Moi
Diabologum - Le Goût du Jour
Flowerpornoes - red nicht von Straßen, nicht von Zügen
Luna - Bewitched
Luscious Jackson - Natural Ingredients
Massive Attack - Protection
Nirvana - Unplugged
Portishead - Dummy
Swell - 41
Alan Vega / Alex Chilton / Ben Vaughn - Cubist Blues
Weezer - s/t

― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Monday, 16 October 2017 14:52 (six years ago) link

1994 is famous for being a banner year for a lot of people.

The difference between 1994 and 2001 seems so much greater than the difference between 2010 and 2017 for some reason.

― Shat Parp (dog latin), Monday, 16 October 2017 14:58 (six years ago) link

I love that Swell album as well! And Blumfeld!

― Evan, Monday, 16 October 2017 15:34 (six years ago) link

Dog Latin may remember I did a top 50 albums of 94 list once that absolutely nobody was interested in.
American Music Club - San Francisco
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume II ,
Bark Psychosis - Hex,
Black Crowes - Amorica
Blur - Parklife
Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
Deus - Worst Case Scenario ,
Disco Inferno - D.I. Go Pop,
Esoteric - Epistemological Despondency ,
Flying Saucer Attack - Further
Front Line Assembly - Millennium ,
FSOL - Lifeforms,
Global Communication - 76:14 ,
Godflesh - Selfless,
Grief - Come To Grief,
Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand ,
Hole - Live Through This
Jeff Buckley - Grace,
Kyuss - Welcome To Sky Valley ,
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible ,
Mark Lanegan - Whiskey for the Holy Ghost ,
Massive Attack - Protection
Neil Young - Sleeps With Angels
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Nirvana - Unplugged
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
Orbital - Snivilisation,
Palace Brothers - Palace Brothers
Pavement - Crooked Rain Crooked Rain,
Pearl Jam - Vitalogy ,
Portishead - Dummy,
Prodigy - Music for a Jilted Generation
Prong - Cleansing
Pulp - His N Hers
Rodan - Rusty,
Sabres Of Paradise - Haunted Dancehall
Sebadoh - Bakesale,
Senser - Stacked Up
Sick Of It All - Scratch The Surface
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Stereolab - Mars Audiac Quintet
Stone Roses - Second Coming
Suede - Dog Man Star
The God Machine - One Last Laugh in a Place of Dying ,
Therapy? - Troublegum
Thergothon - Stream From the Heavens ,
Three Mile Pilot - The Chief Assassin to the Sinister ,
Today Is the Day - Willpower ,
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman,
Warrior Soul - Space Age Playboys

I owned all but 2 of these at the time

― starving street dogs of punk rock (Odysseus), Monday, 16 October 2017 16:13 (six years ago) link

I haven't listened to most of them in a long while, but albums I still own from that year:

Mary Chapin Carpenter – Stones in the Road
Paula Cole - Harbinger
Elvis Costello – Brutal Youth
The Grays – Ro Sham Bo
Guided by Voices – Bee Thousand
Heavenly – The Decline and Fall of Heavenly
The Loud Family – The Tape of Only Linda
Massive Attack - Protection
The Mountain Goats – Zopilote Machine
Nas - Illmatic
Liz Phair – Whip-Smart
The Pretenders – Last of the Independents
Prince - Come
Rheostatics – Introducing Happiness
Veruca Salt – American Thighs

― iCloudius (cryptosicko), Monday, 16 October 2017 16:16 (six years ago) link

oh I had that veruca salt album. I sold it to a mate about 15/16 years ago who was desperate to own it. Wish I'd kept it

― starving street dogs of punk rock (Odysseus), Monday, 16 October 2017 16:18 (six years ago) link

Stray melodies from the Sleeps With Angels album still pop into my head now and then.

― dinnerboat, Monday, 16 October 2017 16:29 (six years ago) link

I remember liking it when it was new-ish, but when I went to listen to it a few years back I found the performances to be kind of lazy and plodding. It got sold in the Great Collection Purge of '15.

― iCloudius (cryptosicko), Monday, 16 October 2017 16:33 (six years ago) link

Yeah 1994 seems like a banner year, it was the high point of a lot of styles I feel a very strong connection with (black metal, doom, drum & bass, handbag house, ambient, hip-hop, acid trance) or maybe I was drawn to these genres precisely because they peaked at the stage in my life where I was particularly susceptible (and went out a lot more than at any other point in my life).

Btw the dumbest thing I did in 1994 was to miss Wu-Tang Clan on one of their first gigs abroad just after 36 Chambers came out, a friend of mine urged me to come and said they would be awesome but I hadn’t heard the album yet and passed.

― Siegbran, Monday, 16 October 2017 21:50 (six years ago) link

Faves at this moment probably "My Life" (Mary J Blige) and "My Life" (Iris DeMent).

At the time I was a grunge-addled child.

― geoffreyess, Monday, 16 October 2017 23:27 (six years ago) link

i was 2 and my parents listened to Siamese Dream a lot

― flappy bird, Monday, 16 October 2017 23:52 (six years ago) link

Jeff Buckley - Grace
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible
Mark Lanegan - Whiskey for the Holy Ghost
Neil Young - Sleeps With Angels
Stone Roses - Second Coming
Thergothon - Stream From the Heavens

1994 was a big year for Christian rock, huh

― airdnb (Tom Violence), Tuesday, 17 October 2017 00:27 (six years ago) link

i was 2 and my parents listened to Siamese Dream a lot

― flappy bird, Tuesday, October 17, 2017 12:52 AM (thirteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

!

― Shat Parp (dog latin), Tuesday, 17 October 2017 13:07 (six years ago) link

I'd been listening to the charts since 1990 but '94 was the year I became a proper teenager and aware of culture outside of daytime TV and commercial radio. I got a CD player and Blur's Parklife (a 'proper' album by a 'proper' band as opposed to Now Dance comps, I felt so grown up).
My friends and I all loved 'How To Make Friends and Influence People' by Terrorvision; they had a real cult following among teens in my area. We would play video games and listen to Cypress Hill and the Prodigy, knowing our parents would be appalled if they heard them.
We didn't have a lot of money so we'd buy singles from the cut-out bin at the local indie - a lucky dip really. Most were terrible, but some (dEUS) were fantastic.
That Christmas my grandparents came over from the States with a copy of Green Day's 'Dookie'. I was the coolest person ever thanks to that.

― Shat Parp (dog latin), Tuesday, 17 October 2017 13:15 (six years ago) link

1994 is the second best year of that decade for me, with 1997 being the best. Such a huge quantity of great records were released both years.

― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Tuesday, 17 October 2017 18:33 (six years ago) link

My friends and I all loved 'How To Make Friends and Influence People' by Terrorvision

Still a great record, IMO - I don't care what anyone days. Leagues ahead of their debut, and the best they ever got.

― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Tuesday, 17 October 2017 18:36 (six years ago) link

*says

― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Tuesday, 17 October 2017 18:36 (six years ago) link

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume II
Autechre - Amber
Blur - Parklife
Erasure - I Say I Say I Say
Gary Numan - Sacrifice
Global Communication - 76:14
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Tatay
Green Day - Dookie
Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand
Hole - Live Through This
Korn - Korn
Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley
Madonna - Bedtime Stories
Massive Attack - Protection
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
Orbital - Snivilisation
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Portishead - Dummy
Prince - Come
Pulp - His'n'Hers
R.E.M. - Monster
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Stereolab - Mars Audiac Quintet
Suede - Dog Man Star
Terrorvision - How to Make Friends and Influence People
The Cranberries - No Need to Argue
The Future Sound of London - Lifeforms
The Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation
The Smashing Pumpkins - Pisces Iscariot
The Stone Roses - Second Coming
The Wannadies - Be a Girl
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman
Weezer - Weezer

― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Tuesday, 17 October 2017 19:43 (six years ago) link

The Wannadies were pretty good. I heard HIT for the first time in ages recently. Great tune.

― Well bissogled trotters (Michael B), Tuesday, 17 October 2017 19:49 (six years ago) link

Oddly it reminded me of The Strokes but rocks far harder

― Well bissogled trotters (Michael B), Tuesday, 17 October 2017 19:50 (six years ago) link


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