Flashback: Billboard's Modern Rock Chart 20 Years Ago This Week (8/13/94)

Basket Case.

Man, 1994 was my favorite summer ever but that was in no way because or associated with what was charting at the time. That said, I was listening to that Frente song just last week.

Basket Case
Undone
Girls & Boys
Stay

The rest suck. Where's Sponge?

Sponge was '95.

This was my first summer of music listening, so I have a fond spot for nearly all of these (except I've never heard of that Spin Doctors song before).

My favorite at the time was indeed the Counting Crows (I even bought the DGC rarities CD), so voting that.

amazing how as last as '94 Seal could score hits on this chart

I was kidding about Sponge but they did have two good songs.

also lol Candlebox

I actually will still ride for "Einstein on the Beach", stands up as one of the Counting Crows best singles. I wish they'd have strove more for that kind of joyful sound instead of the mopey shit they decided to focus on.

Saints is prob my favorite.

I dont think I've heard every song on this but I still remember this moment. The magic was there but it was starting to fade a little...

I don't mind "Fall Down"

Alfred.

I had cassingles of:

Girls & Boys
Undone
Far Behind

And the CD single of Vasoline because it had a couple cuts from their Unplugged performance on it.

Ok so Dambuilders were kind of the American dEUS

Fall Down is...not v good.

Maybe the Dambuilders can team up with Sufjan Stevens and finish a 50-state song series.

checked to see if that was the Toad single I like, but that's All I Want. seems like I like a lot of their singles though.
That Love Spit Love track is decent too.

Kim Deal though.

Nothing about Toad the Wet Sprocket was good.

I got me so down, I got me a HEADACHE

I still love "Vasoline". Big dumb fun.

Forgot about "Big Empty", actually a nice groove once they finally get to it...

Can't believe I'm doing this but I'm voting Counting Crows.

God I love "Saints," but I had to make sure "Am I Wrong?" got at least one vote.

Fear is the greater Toad album... All I Want, Walk on the Water, Hold Her Down

There's something a little uncomfortable about remembering this stuff for me. I'm trying to work out why. ("Vaseline" vs "Closer" vs "Black Hole Sun", probably; could be the first time I vote for NIN.)

at the time, adored frank black (tho prob not that song), loved closer and boys & girls, liked the sweater song and saints (tho loved the rest by the breeders more), tolerated all i wanna do and had searing hatred for everything else on the list.

now? probably give it to... vasoline lol

I don't know this Counting Crows song at all, although I'm really familiar with "Round Here" and "Mr. Jones". Did it do anything in Canada? Why is it named after the Glass opera?

I want to fuck you like an animal...

sung by David Bowie

I don't know this Counting Crows song at all, although I'm really familiar with "Round Here" and "Mr. Jones". Did it do anything in Canada? Why is it named after the Glass opera?

The Counting Crows song was on a random "rarities" compilation album from Geffen (Hole, Beck, Weezer [the excellent "Jamie"], a few others on there... including a different version of Nevermind's "Stay Away" in which the only change is the title and chorus to "Pay to Play"). If I recall the liner notes from 20 years ago correctly, Adam Duritz said they left it off August & Everything After because it wasn't "mopey enough," but maybe he made a mistake and it should've been included after all.

Regarding title, he said: "It sort of takes the idea of, what if you're someone who's a brilliant mathematician like Albert Einstein or any of us doing creative work on something that seems so clean and brilliant, and then it turns out to be an atomic bomb."

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=5143

I heard Love Spit Love's Smiths cover more than "Am I Wrong"

"headache" is a jam...hard to vote against "Girls & Boys" though even though I'm not the hugest Blur fan...

basket case is usually my answer but man i'm kinda considering "closer"

Headache, just over the 2 STPs

it should be noted the full title of #1 is "Einstein On The Beach (For An Eggman)"

i did a top 100 singles of '94 a while back, this is how i ranked 'em:
http://narrowcast.blogspot.com/2012/07/1994-reconsidered.html

6. Green Day - "Basket Case"
14. Stone Temple Pilots - "Big Empty"
26. Seal - "Prayer For The Dying"
27. The Dambuilders - "Shrine"
29. Toad The Wet Sprocket - "Fall Down"
36. Stone Temple Pilots - "Vasoline"
51. Counting Crows - "Einstein On The Beach (For An Eggman)"
54. Frank Black - "Headache"
55. Nine Inch Nails - "Closer"
74. The Breeders - "Saints"
79. Sheryl Crow - "All I Wanna Do"
99. The Offspring - "Come Out And Play"

post also reveals the embarrassing number of parent albums for the poll options that i've listened to.

I agree: the best radio year of the nineties (I don't count '91 as the nineties).

Finalists:

Green Day - Basket Case
Stone Temple Pilots - Vasoline
Offspring - Come Out & Play
Seal - Prayer for the Dying
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
Toad the Wet Sprocket - Fall Down
Frank Black - Headache
Blur - Girls & Boys

Will vote for "Girls & Boys," which at the time felt like both a farewell to Brit swish-pop out of which the modern rock was comprised for so many years and as island of sanity after this chart got bleak (quick).

Speaking of Frank Black: TOTY is damn good, isn't it? I'd forgotten about it until I bought a used copy in April. Last time I ever cared about him.

Some decent stuff here. "Far Behind" my most hated - stupid and thrashingly attention-seeky and it never went away. I SAID MAY EE AY EE AY AY AY AH YEAH I didn't MEAN to hurt you OH SO BLEAH, etc etc etc for the rest of the decade.

what is this Dambuilders song?

jesus christ @ this list. sheryl crow, i guess?

how would you know Dambuilders but not know that song? that's, like, their only semi-hit.

I don't know them!

Listening now...the video stars The Cure as they would look in '96.

as mid-90s alt rock bands with violinists go, they're no Geraldine Fibbers, but i always liked "Shrine," was a 120 Minutes staple that whole summer

"burn this bridge" is a pretty fun attempt at a pop hit, lots of wacky hooks on it

"btb" being the single from the follow-up dambuilders album

Love that Dambuilders record. Saw them open for Better Than Ezra in mid-1995.

Far Behind was my summer of '94 jam. MTV played it nonstop. His off-key singing is a little embarrassing looking back.

"Closer" by like a gajillion miles.

I've never even been that much of a NIN fan, but I heard that song about a month ago and it sounded better than ever.

Weezer - Undone (The Sweater Song)
Blur - Girls & Boys
Nine Inch Nails - Closer
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
Stone Temple Pilots - Vasoline
Green Day - Basket Case
Stone Temple Pilots - Big Empty

One of my favourite songs ever ("Closer") and one of my most hated songs ever ("Vaseline") in the same poll!

the Dambuilders debut Encendedor is one of my favorite albums of the 90s so I voted for "Shrine". on that album I love "Kill Haole Day" and "Slo-Mo Kikaida" even more.

Dambuilders!

Gotta go for "Stay", because that was the first time I'd seen a woman with glasses front a music video, and I was in LOVE. The song is cool too, I love the transition from the hurriedly paced verses to the slow and wistful chorus.

Love that Dambuilders record. Saw them open for Better Than Ezra in mid-1995.

My old band opened for the Dambuilders the following year. Circle of life iirc.

saints > vasoline > closer > undone > far behind (how'd they sneak a power ballad onto alt-rock radio??) > black hole sun

the Dambuilders debut Encendedor is one of my favorite albums of the 90s so I voted for "Shrine". on that album I love "Kill Haole Day" and "Slo-Mo Kikaida" even more.

"Idaho," "Delaware," and "Colin's Heroes" are also great tracks on that record.

My old band opened for the Dambuilders the following year. Circle of life iirc.

A band called Enormous played before the Dambuilders at my 1995 show.

Let's also not forget Ruby Red and "Smooth Control" sandwiched in between Encendedor and Against the Stars.

Ruby Red is front-to-back fantastic, and included the shoulda-been-huge "Teenage Loser Anthem." Too on the nose in 1995?

The first half of Against the Stars ("Digitize" through "You'll Never Know") is a brilliant straight-up pop record, one of the best of the decade. The second half is delightfully wonky as well, but the contrast is jarring.

Just listened to the Spin Doctors song. No idea how that charted or what station would play it. And this was after "Two Princes" and "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" failed to chart.

failed to chart where?

Alternative charts

Basket Case with Undone (Sweater Song) in a close second

Basket Case is the weakest of the Dookie singles imo. Only memorable part is the genderfuck whore line

i guess the dookie singles all rank equally to me, right now i'd say

she
when i come around
longview
basket case
welcome to paradise

idk. INSOMNIAC is the far superior record. deep cuts. "Armatage Shanks"

i mean this might be the greatest song billie joe ever wrote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltPoaiS8ePM

stay

loving all this dambuilders talk tho. i met those guys when they toured australia for ruby red. absolutely lovely people. teenage loser anthem was the big song here (though only drive by kiss was released as a single)

wtf is labour of love doing here

Dambuilders catalog all very worthy. They were a Boston band so I saw them many times, always a great show. At one point they were working on 50 songs for 50 states and got 15 done.

Dave Derby put out some good stuff under the name Brilliantine as well as solo. I never got into Joan Wasser's subsequent work.

I still love the Love Spit Love albums.

"the 90s": still regret missing the Dambuilders, Weezer, Lush tour

Voted NIN. I'm not a huge fan but everything comes together on this track. It's a pretty great production that still holds up v well. The final section, where layers are continually added, is fantastic.

The downward spiral is one of the first albums I owned with such a huge quality gap between the singles (closer, march of he push, hurt) and the rest of the album. I don't think there's a single deep cut I've listened to more than once. The dead souls cover would've fit perfectly on it.

mocking typos is kind of petty but on the real "march of he push" is a great song title

I hate almost every song on this list, like, a LOT

LOL. Damn autocorrect. Lousy smarch weather

The downward spiral is one of the first albums I owned with such a huge quality gap between the singles (closer, march of he push, hurt) and the rest of the album.

For me it's very strong from start ("Mr. Self Destruct"!) to finish except maybe one or two songs. "Heresy" would have made a great single too.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I don't count '91 as the nineties
Well even if you did, '94 radio > '91 radio

I don't count '91 as the nineties

oh Alfred, never change

Well even if you did, '94 radio > '91 radio

This. I think modern rock radio was playing "I'm Too Sexy" in 1991.

c'mon, dudes: it's the same reason why what we know as The Eighties didn't really start until 1983

And the '60s on February 9, 1964.

the day my aunt Jeannette got her first car

The only songs on here I would actively choose to play are Seal, NIN and the STP songs. (I don't remember that Breeders song at all but I generally like them so maybe that one, too.)

prefer the album version of "Saints."

just as the 2000's did not begin and the nineties did not end until 9/11/2001

that doesn't count all the decades that were only 3 years long. we're in the 2070s now.

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

I forgot the Saints single was mixed differently. Voted for album version anyways.