Why Not? Modern Rock #14 Hits (1994-1998)

Have always wanted to vote Radiohead in a poll.

That is one of my least favourite Radiohead songs of all time; considering voting Scooby Snacks just to be perverse.

one of these:

R.E.M. – Strange Currencies (6/3/95)
The Cure – Mint Car (7/27/96)
Matthew Sweet – Where You Get Love (4/5/97)
Third Eye Blind – Graduate (10/4/97)

I've never heard that Matthew Sweet.

Several songs I like (REM, 3EB, Sweet, McLachlan) but I gotta rep for the Goldfinger song as a forgotten gem that I thought really should've caught on more

abstain

Grant Lee Buffalo – Mockingbirds (10/15/94)
Collective Soul – Gel (3/11/95)
Blues Traveler – Run-Around (5/20/95)
R.E.M. – Strange Currencies (6/3/95)

These were all great singles (even if I'd usually only admit to loving two or at most three of them)

peaked at no. 14?

Iirc the Matthew Sweet and Goldfinger videos both took place in space and were both featured on MTV's awesome short-lived "12 Angry Viewers" (where a jury watched and debated new videos and picked the best at the end of the week -- one week winner was Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy").

At first glance none of these really stand out to me but I'll go ahead and vote for "Graduate" (even though the other 4 singles from 3EB's debut are far superior)

This is an impressive list given that they all peaked at #14. I didn't even listen to that much modern rock radio at this time and still know most of these. I like "Graduate" but I'm voting for "Banditos"

lol lol lol. this probably does paint a better picture of what alt.rock radio actually sounded like than alot of the #1 lists. blown away that 'run-around' peaked at #14 - does it just seem like it was a MUCH bigger hit cuz it crossed over? cuz that is one fart that has lingered. the way radio clung to 'karma police' as the one ok computer track they were comfortable w/ is kinda hilarious, look how late in the game that peak is, like all the year end lists and grammy love just compounded the 'fuck we gotta play something from it' problem.

voted 'sweet surrender' over 'radiation vibe'.

lol, this Stabbing Westward video. I like the band mutiny anyway.

voted 'sweet surrender' over 'radiation vibe'.

haha, I was about to do the same. I like the Matthew Sweet track but it isn't even the best song on that album, by a long shot.

12 angry viewers was pretty great and pissed off and terrified the record companies considerably. they shit canned it pretty quickly and then did that legendary quasi-12 angry viewers w/ janeane garofalo, chris kattan, denis leary, and jon stewart where mtv picked some old videos from acts they didn't need in anymore and said they were removing them from the library cuz they were so awful or whatever. this happened:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2ZkTvLdH2o

what i remember most from this was that jon stewart was clearly the most effortlessly funniest in the room.

Should I be embarrased that I really like Red Hot Chilli Peppers' version of "Love Rollercoaster" and that it's proabably my favorite song of theirs? I think it's the kazoos.

Blue Sky on Mars is his first post-Lloyd/Quine album, right?

That is one of my least favourite Radiohead songs of all time

Not one of my favourites either, still shits on everything else.

Has to be Radiation Vibe, as that chorus is sublime

Mockingbirds was a close #2 for me, followed by Sweet Surrender. Love this Anton Corbijn-directed human parrots video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVnWAkOGxK0

xxxp correct, and notably it lays off the lengthier solos. Overall I think I like it better than "100% Fun" or "Altered Beast."

ENOUGH ABOUT YOU
LET'S TALK ABOUT LIIIIIFE FOR A WHIIIIILE

Hmm. You got me curious. I don't think he's a distinctive songwriter.

I first heard that Goldfinger song on 12 Angry Viewers. It was a takeoff on Alien, something burst out of his chest at the end IIRC.

WHY ARE YOU SO PETRIFIED OF SILENCE?
HERE, CAN YOU HANDLE THIS?
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Keep in mind YMMV depending on your Brendan O'Brien tolerance level.

Have always maintained that stuff that peaked in Modern Rock 10-20 or so would be a) way more representative and b) way better, and this list basically confirms that. There aren't so many stone cold classics here, but almost everything here is listenable and pleasant IMO (courting disaster here based on the reception when i went way out on a limb and claimed "nothing as it seems" was "decent"). I don't know the Grant Lee Buffalo, Cranberries, Dandelion, Cure, or Stabbing Westward joints.

The only straight garbage here that I know is "Gel," easily the worst of their 'heavy' type hits. "Run-Around" is lousy with overplay, agreed with balls that it was bigger on other formats or maybe just never left the fucking rotation. There was a moment when I thought the chorus was at least catchy but that's long gone. "Love Rollercoaster," which recently came up on Popular with the LL Cool J song off the same soundtrack, pretty much baffled me at the time - I'd gotten into alt-rock too late to really catch the Bloodsugarsexmagik era, so the idea that RHCP could just automatically get a hit for nasally keening into a karaoke machine didn't really add up. Chorus sounds okay I guess? Third Eye Blind and Goldfinger had better songs around at the same time, but I still like these.

I've already defended the Alanis, Refreshments, 311, and Matthew Sweet tracks elsewhere I think, and am kinda afraid to check out Jewel because I have a feeling that I will find myself kind of tapping my foot and going "hey, that's not so bad!" whereas it was pretty clear in 1996 that that shit was the ENEMY. "Sweet Surrender" is a real sleeper hit with me, kind of went by me at the time but dug it up for 50 Memorable Songs Of The Late 1990s That Apparently Only You Remember, Even Though They Were Totally On The Radio And Stuff and found I liked it much better than any of those other Surfacing singles.

I retain an indefensible fondness for "Scooby Snacks" and their other, eponymous hit, though they are both kind of measurably obnoxious with the whiff of incipient bro-itude.

Torn between Fountains of Wayne and Alanis.

Yeah, I would love a Spotify playlist of '90s Modern Rock that peaked between 10-20. Lots of great, familiar but half-forgotten songs that haven't been totally run into the ground

The "50 Memorable..." thread was my first stab in that direction, but it got way better almost immediately when people started hitting it with all this hip hop and R&B that was totally off my radar at the time. The associated Spotfiy playlist kinda suffers from a lot of stuff not being on Spotify (or only in karaoke versions) but maybe some tracks would be good points for "Start Radio."

Link: http://open.spotify.com/user/doctorcasino/playlist/2taIeJ0IhYbdEJWgGXJBsK

"Let Down" peaked all the way down at #29 on 9/13/97. There must be a best of OKC poll somewhere

Oh, just do a Trees Of Savernake poll and be done with it, LimbsKing ;-)

Lot of stuff I don't remember on here. Thinking Scooby Snacks vs. Sweet Surrender vs. Love Rollercoaster

Sweet Surrender reminds me of Possession; both those >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> anything else Sarah did post-breakthrough

shit it's radiation vibe by like a mile.

I hate to miss a chance to vote for "Strange Currencies," which in my mind represents R.E.M. saying to the world, "We finally realized that 'Everybody Hurts' is terrible and we want to make it up to you by remaking it as a much better song," but yeah, "Radiation Vibe" crushes everything else on here like a grape. One of the five or ten songs of the era that when I first heard it it just made me stop short and go GUH! WHAT IS THIS BEAUTIFUL THING.

I would've voted for "Radiation Vibe," too, as I love the hell out of it, but it (to me) suffers from a) not being as good as the McLachlan song, as in if you asked me to pick one of the two to hear right now, I would choose hers, and b) not being as good as the songs from that album that should have been singles, "I've Got A Flair" and "Leave The Biker."

radiation vibe is a p cool jam

Wow, "Where You Get Love" - completely forgot about that song's existence until now, but I can remember every bit of it. It feels like a repressed memory just resurfaced. But why would I repress it? Maybe something horrible happened to me when this song was playing and that memory will resurface soon.

Anyone remember some controversy with the Sweet Surrender video? I vaguely remember it getting banned for some reason.

Say what you will about "Stacy's Mom," I'm glad it went huge because it would have been a great pop tragedy for Fountains of Wayne to be have been a forgotten '90s act that never had a hit, when in fact their first two records are deeply wonderful all the way down to the throwaway cuts. ("Hat and Feet.")

Sink to the Bottom also got a speck of airplay in '96.

I haven't given FOW any attention since buying Welcome Interstate Managers and forgetting about it. So the catalog is worth exploring, right? I've lost my aptitude for supercatchy songs/okay band.

Always liked Karma Police. Mint Car is a guilty pleasure.

Rollercoaster of Love is the best thing RHCP ever did by miles.

That is one of my least favourite Radiohead songs of all time

Heh, totally the opposite for me, it's possibly my favourite Radiohead single. Going with that although I like 'Radiation Vibe' a lot and I think 'Strange Currencies' is a forgotten gem as far as R.E.M. singles go.

Radio overplayed Kenneth & Bang/Blame off Monster, but Star 69, Currencies, Crush w/Eyeliner are all solid singles.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

duh, there's no way karma police will not win this so i'm voting fountains of wayne.

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

"the field" almost doubled radiohead's vote count! surprising.

I guess not surprising, but it is the best one.