#1 modern rock hits of 1997

what a shit heap.

a nightmare i never want to relive

good christ

(voted discotheque)

better than now.

1. chumba
2. everclear
3. 3rd eye

the only three songs i could listen to without wanting to punch myself into unconsciousness are "Sex And Candy," "The Impression That I Get" and "Lakini's Juice."

I'm gonna go with Lakini's Juice just because it was such a sick move for Live to come back from the wussiest, lamest radio crossover schlock record with a totally weird, aggro HELMET rip-off, like 4 years after Helmet failed to crossover

better than now.

― xhuxk, Sunday, May 3, 2009 3:40 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

when you're right, you're right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_one_modern_rock_hits_of_2008

i can't tell you how half of those songs go.

why do people like 3rd eye blind? that song is terrible.

My friend calls Third Eye Blind music "Dubba Dubba" music because of this:

Third Eye Blind - "Semi-Charmed Life"

fucking duh

The late '90s was such a bad time for music, I wish people would stop talking about it.

Walking on one Headlight.

I smell sex and candy, but I get up again, I'm not the only one. well I will. I would die for you, and we can drive it home like a birdie in the sky. I want something else, I think you like to be the victim. That's the impression that I get.

Bosstones, easy peasy.

Worst mixtape ever. Seriously, what a nightmare.

There are only three tolerable songs here -- the two by U2, and "Push".

when you're right, you're right.

Well, I'd say each list has about a 25% hit rate (= about three decent songs), but even though I haven't heard every song on the 2008 list, I'm willing to bet the farm that none of them are even 0.00001% as horrible as "Sex and Candy".

"Fly" obv

SUGAR RAY & SUPERCAT FLY TRIBUTE THREAD

What is with the 3eB apologists on this board. I just saw them at Bamboozle and I almost puked in my mouth

I must admit I have the hook of "The Impression That I Get" stuck in my head fairly often and don't mind its presence

Surprised to see no Radiohead songs in there, but it's "Staring At The Sun" then. A great song from a not-so-great album.

third eye blind, and it ain't even close

Oy, slim pickins indeed.

Going with "Walking on the Sun" if only for that organ hook (which was originally someone else's, right? Perez Prado or somebody?)

What is with the 3eB apologists on this board. I just saw them at Bamboozle and I almost puked in my mouth

Contrarian for contrarian's own sake.

Surely, I praised them on AMA as the best American band I had heard for ages, but I quickly realized that I was wrong. "Semi Charmed Life" is still a nice and catchy pop song, though, but nothing I'd vote for here.

U2 - "Discothèque"
Live - "Lakini's Juice"
Wallflowers - "One Headlight"
Mighty Mighty Bosstones - "The Impression That I Get"
Sugar Ray - "Fly"
Everclear - "Everything To Everyone"

^^^ wouldn't change the channel on any of these today. There's better singles from that Everclear album though, and I'd trade "Impression" for "Rascal King."

For years and years "Discotheque" was the only thing I'd give U2 as a decent song.

Vote is a tossup between "One Headlight" and "Fly." OH seems like a final manifestation of something deeply mid-90s (grungey attitude, Hootie palette - "Old Man And Me" is contemporary with this stuff)... whereas "Fly" points the way to the sunny hits of the last few years of the decade. Hrm.

Smashmouth easy, Bosstones 2nd

ha ha, i always remember why i was so into grindcore and hardcore when a poll like this comes up.

also voted for the only band i remotely respect, that being the Chumbawumba.

C'wamba, for subversive jarhead vibe

i don't know when this came out (probly 98 or so), but i actually owned this at the time:
http://fusionanomaly.net/negativlandchumbawambaabcsofanarchism.jpg

so we can all at least agree that the Verve Pipe is awful

Followup single "Villains" was okay but "The Freshman" is horrible. I'm sure there's a thread that heaped systematic abuse on it, don't know if it's recent or old but it definitely involves a lot of people from the Verve Pipe's hometown complaining that they'd been flogging that same song for ages.

The Verve Pipe's "The Freshman" vs. Pearl Jam's "Last Kiss"

well, The Freshmen is. this - http://www.last.fm/music/The+Verve+Pipe/_/Spoonful+of+Sugar - is pretty bad too, but not in the same way.

xp

"Villains" though might have some of the most banal lyrics ever visited upon alt-rock:

And as i'm searching for the story
subscription card falls to the floor
i'm losing interest more and more

To pick it up i'm bending over
out of the corner of my eye
I see a pair of blazing thighs

I straighten up to look her over
and up my back a shooting pain
it's bound to settle in my brain

Beats the maudlin dickishness of "Freshman" though.

About half of these are better than almost everything that's currently on Top 40 radio, and about 2/3's of these were top 40 crossovers which does not happen nearly as often these days with modern rock hits.

what i genuinely like = "Semi-Chamred Life" is in my top 100 singles ever, so thats my obvious vote. I hear "Sex And Candy" as a Pavement ripoff, and I've never had problems with bands trying to sound like Pavement. I'm okay with "#1 Crush" and "Impression." "Tubthumping" is really catchy.

"One Headlight" is almost good except it's so fucking slow and repetitive and I kinda hate the production.. If it were 3 minutes instead of 5 I'd enjoy it a lot better. I keep hearing "Fly" by Sugar Ray at the grocery store and it makes me want to punch babies. I hope I never hear that Everclear song again. For a few weeks maybe 2 or 3 years ago, I thought I would give the singles on U2's "Pop" album another chance, which was a big mistake.. I fucking hate "Lakini's Juice." I can imagine those dudes sitting around in the studio while recording being all like "Yeah man! this song fukin ROCKS!" and nodding their heads to this piece of shit they were putting together.. Oh by the way, speaking of Live I could have sworn the godawful "Turn My Head" also charted as a modern rock #1.. but I guess not.

"Push" and "The Freshmen" are interesting cases because I know their shitty, but what changes for me over time is simply how shitty.. Sometimes I can deal with them in small doses, and other times it hits me right in the gut.. omg painful..

"Lakini's Juice" C or D?

"Photograph" by The Verve Pipe is a good song.

what a shit heap.

― proxymuzak (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, May 3, 2009 3:33 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

a nightmare i never want to relive

― proxymuzak (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, May 3, 2009 3:36 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark

voted Chumba fwiw

I'm gonna go with Lakini's Juice just because it was such a sick move for Live to come back from the wussiest, lamest radio crossover schlock record with a totally weird, aggro HELMET rip-off, like 4 years after Helmet failed to crossover

This followed up this single with "Turn My Head" which is actually wussier than "Lightning Crashes" ..

"Staring," 3EB, "Fly," Smash Mouth, "Tubthumping" still sound OK, though I wouldn't call any of it great. I voted Chumbawamba.

Ha, I totally voted for "The Freshmen".

Am not hearing the Pavement-Marcy Playground connection.

FOR THE LIFE OF ME I CANNOT REMEMBER

Marcy Playground were from the small suburb that my parents moved to after raising me mostly in the city. one of the songs on their first album is about a girl who threw herself into a shallow creek near my house.

also, one of my friends at the time of 'Sex & Candy' was in a cover band of sorts and the talent show committee wouldn't let them do that song. so they made it 'Cheese & Candy,' which is something i've never failed to roffle at.

Water 4 the Pool was so much better than the Verve Pipe.

semi-charmed life is a bad song btw

doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo-doo

okay this song is terrible

i don't think i've heard the freakout version and how the hell did "fly" only get 3 votes?

Sugar Ray - "Fly" 3
The Verve Pipe - "The Freshmen" 3

srsly???

I am curious who voted for matchbox 20

i'm surprised "discotheque" isn't up there with more votes. though i can understand the appeal of "tubthumping" as long as we're talking very limited doses.

Sugar Ray - "Fly" 3
The Verve Pipe - "The Freshmen" 3

srsly???

― The Reverend, Wednesday, September 15, 2010 2:31 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Chumbawumba are like the Mekons or something aren't they?

i love that thing at the beginning of the album version of "tubthumping" (which is my fav of these tracks JUST BTW) with the whole "i thought it mattered. i thought that MUSIC mattered. but does it? bollocks. not compared to how people matter." it's like they knew how completely and gloriously they were selling out w/ that record.

lol i like "semi-charmed life" too, esp. since i saw it on like, land before time commercials and shit.

so sad I missed this one.

Great thread. Some dude's "Born to Run" comparison basically defines "Semi-Charmed Life" for me now, I have cited it several times in an attempt to get people to appreciate the song.

can't believe my old thread started the shitheap of the ilx front page this month

WE LEARNED IT FROM YOU, OKAY??????? WE LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU!

u_u

What are you even talking about? Those threads are awesome even if they're completely full of shit.

Thanks for the inspiration! I loves me some modern rock trivia.

Sugar Ray - "Fly" 3
The Verve Pipe - "The Freshmen" 3

srsly???

― The Reverend, Wednesday, September 15, 2010 2:31 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, September 15, 2010 12:39 AM Bookmark

wtf is a verve pipe

oh come on

there's no way anyone was every lucky enough not to hear "The Freshmen".

no I mean literally what is a verve pipe

Ugh, "The Freshmen" seemed to be ubiquitous for years. It's biggest crime, though, was obscuring the fact that the Verve Pipe had actually put out a pretty decent single beforehand ("Photograph").

we should poll Bands Produced by Jerry Harrison.

xp - lol, oh. I have no clue.

xxxpost

Something you might use to bludgeon Richard Ashcroft to death?

I think it is a pipe... with verve

is it some sort of stupid phallic/sexual slang like Pearl Jam

wait

what?

omg, me too!

In an early promotional interview, Vedder said that the name "Pearl Jam" was a reference to his great-grandmother Pearl, who was married to a Native American and had a special recipe for peyote-laced jam.[18] In a 2006 Rolling Stone cover story however, Vedder admitted that this story was "total bullshit", even though he indeed had a great-grandma named Pearl. Ament and McCready explained that Ament came up with "pearl", and that the band later settled on "Pearl Jam" after attending a concert by Neil Young, in which he extended his songs as improvisations of 15–20 minutes in length,[2] a practice known as jamming.

^^^lies

the only way that story could be better is if a band called Mookie Blaylock sold 10 million albums

have you heard of this Neil Young and this "jamming" that he does lol

xp

I ranked these things, the best modern rock year since 1993.

The summer "Fly" was big I worked the counter at a burger kiosk in a theme park, that fucking song played three times an hour. The only songs that come close to my hatred are Sixpence None The Richer's two hits, which each played more than once an hour on the Safeway store radio when I worked there. Not so bad during normal shifts but twice a month I worked overnight on Friday alone. Just me and Christian pop-rock.

I haven't actually heard "Fly" in 20 years but I'm pretty sure I could karaoke it without lyrics with no trouble.

My roommate from 1997 played bass in a cover band that had "Push" in its repertoire (as well as Better Than Ezra's "Good"). I'd almost put that Wallflowers in the same bland-rock genre with the other two, but I've always loved that song more than I could explain.

Also, I forgot that Smash Mouth ever had another song on the radio. In hindsight, I always used to get "Walking on the Sun" mixed up with Space's "Female of the Species".

remember that smash mouth song "then the morning comes"? basically a rewrite of "walkin' on the sun"

it was also the first big smash mouth hit that was mostly ignored by alternative radio

This was the summer when I started commuting from Ann Arbor to Detroit every day and 2/3 of these songs made up the entire playlist of 89X out of Windsor, Ontario. Smashmouth and the Bosstones are probably the only ones I'd leave on if I heard them on the radio now.

it's so sad how so many alternative stations are basically 'hard' adult contemporary stations now

could have sworn that Shaggy was the guest on "Fly". some Mandala Effect shit going on there.

feel bad that Everclear was shut out here. I only had the two CDs by them but they were a pretty fun group. It's weird that they're fading into obscurity while Weezer continues to be massive. hell, Everclear even recorded an abominable covers album before they did - they even had the good sense to do "The Boys are Back in Town"

loved basically all this shit back in the day. 103.1 the Buzz

Walking on one Headlight.

I smell sex and candy, but I get up again, I'm not the only one. well I will. I would die for you, and we can drive it home like a birdie in the sky. I want something else, I think you like to be the victim. That's the impression that I get.

― james k polk, Sunday, May 3, 2009 3:05 AM (nine years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

some Mandala Effect shit going on there.

i'm having some mandela effect shit about the name of this effect

This was a pretty damn good year apart from "The Freshman", I still love many of these songs

i don't remember "the freshmen" but i'm sure if i put it on it will be instant recognition

still waiting for the "freshman" voters to explain themselves itt

i just checked and ah its that song. don't really think its thew orst thing on this list

"the freshmen" is a lot of fun to sing at karaoke but no room on earth will ever want to hear it

that reminds me that i did surprisingly well with m20's "long day" a few weeks ago, tho tbf the audience consisted of abt six people and we were all riding a shared late-90s-deep-radio-cut thing, it was great

i have no idea why #1 crush didn't roll this considering it's the only good song on the list