Dig Me Out - The 90's Rock Podcast

If we told you that a soul/blues singer from Detroit released a record on Sub Pop on 1996 backed by funk rockers Big Chief, who had themselves just released an album influenced by 70s Blaxploitation films, you'd think we'd have a crazy game of Mad Libs going on. But the end result of Thornetta Davis' debut solo album Sunday Morning Music is much more traditional than expected, find space between the 1990s neo soul of Maxwell, D'Angelo and Erykah Badu, and the new wave of young American blues artists like Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepard.   Songs In This Episode:   Intro - Helpless 10:38 - Only One 13:58 - Cry 21:01 - And I Spin Outro - Come Go With Me   Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon. Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com.  

If there is a new episode of Dig Me Out in your feed on a Thursday, that can only mean one thing - we sharing with you a preview of our latest Dig Me Out '80s episodes. With the help our Patreon Board of Directors and Steering Committee tiers, we're revisiting another album from the 1980s based on suggestions and votes of our patrons. This month we're checking out the 1989 album Freedom by Neil Young. Join the DMO Union for as little as $2 a month and get access to bonus content like this episode, vote in our album review polls, get exclusive merchandise and more! Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon. Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com.

Touring festivals were all the rage in the 1990s, with Lollapalooza kicking things off in 1991, following by Lilith Fair, the H.O.R.D.E. Tour, Ozzfest, Family Values Tour and others. We're heading back to 1995 to revisit the Warped Tour, from those who attended it and those who played it, gaining insight on the various line-up incarnations of the 90s, as well as the evolving line-up of artists, that started as a pop-punk-ska skate boarding, but morphed into a broader "youth-oriented" festival thanks to co-founder Kevin Lyman. We learn the various quirks (daily line-up shuffling!), the queasy (no showering for days! port-a-potties!) and the community that was built over twenty-five years of the Warped Tour.   Songs In This Episode:   Intro - Al's War by Less Than Jake Outro - History Of A Boring Town by Less Than Jake   Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon. Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com.    

When singer/guitarist Toni Halliday and multi-instrumentalist Dean Garcia paired up to form Curve in 1989, they already had established bonafides in the music world with previous releases on Anxious Records, set-up by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics. While those efforts failed to connect, their three 1991 EPs gained enough momentum that the 1992 debut album Doppelgänger, with assistance from soon to be in-demand producer Flood, was primed for widespread acclaim and respectable sales. Doppelgänger cracked the top twenty UK album chart, but their sound, an at times hypnotic combination of noisy-pop, shoegaze, dreamy textures and Madchester big beats, failed to connect with a larger audience, a sound that years later Garbage would refine for the mid-nineties radio waves. But for all the forward thinking and ahead-of-its-time accolades, there is a decidedly 1990s time stamp to the wall of sound approach, especially in the layered drums and percussion that left us equally fatigued and fascinated.   Songs In This

If you are checking us out for the first time, you'll quickly learn what our regular listeners already know: reggae and/or ska were not our thing back in the 1990s. Now, we're not going to claim to have fully converted to fandom, but the 1996 album Forever = 1 Day by Fighting Gravity left us with positive vibes. When the band locks into a relaxed mid-tempo groove, we're fully on board. When they occasionally pick up the pace to skanking speeds, or slow to a new age crawl, we found less reason to stay engaged. We got to explore all sides of the band, as well as the dig into the touring regional band phenomenon prevalent in the 1990s with access to cheap CD replication and an established college fraternity circuit that will no doubt come up again in future episodes.   Songs In This Episode:   Intro - One Day 12:20 - Fools And Kings 21:35 - Ted's River Song 31:22 - Quiet Angel Outro - Mission Bells   Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon. Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.c

Maybe you listened to Modest Mouse in 1996 or 1997 and thought, yes, this band will invade the public consciousness with a catchy single in the 2000s, launching them into elite status as a festival headliner, collaborate with a legendary guitarist, and influence a new generation of artists like Silversun Pickups, Future Islands, Car Seat Headrest and more. Most likely like us, you didn't, and figured a solid career in the indie music world was their destiny. We're okay with not foreseeing what may end up being the underground's last stab at infiltrating the mainstream, and decided to revisit for our second "Origins" roundtable the early years of Modest Mouse in the 1990s. Isaac Brock's unique songwriting style is present immediately, but the refinement of later years hasn't happened, allowing for exploration and experimentation across expansive (re: long) albums. It's in 1997's sophomore album The Lonesome Crowded West that the band gels, the focus sharpens, and the seeds of what were to come begin to sprout

Albums made in 1990 or 1991 often have the "sound" of the 80s in their production - lots of reverb on the drums, particular guitar effects, etc. Sometimes in reviewing albums from this period, it can date the album, pinning it down to a certain time instead of receiving the "timeless" accolade that so many well-regarded albums receive. But what if big, booming reverb gives the album a personality instead of a stamp? That's the case with the 1990 album Bloodletting by Concrete Blonde, who mined the vampire novels of Anne Rice to deliver an album that matches lyrical content with its musical approach. "Goth" is the term thrown around, and the album plays with dark themes matched with occasional dissonance. But what is really on display is a singer fully in command of their voice, constructing unique melodies, wrapped around a diverse selection of songwriting styles and approaches that deliver over and over again.   Songs In This Episode:   Intro - The Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) 17:47 - Tomorrow, Wendy

Movie soundtracks, as we have learned, come in all shapes and sizes. The 1994 Backbeat soundtrack is an interesting concept - get a bunch of well-respected alternative musicians of the day, and have them tackle early cover songs played by The Beatles. The list is impressive even today: Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum and Greg Dulli of The Afghan Whigs sharing vocal duties, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and Don Fleming of Gumball handling the guitars, Mike Mills of R.E.M. on bass guitar and vocals, and Dave Grohl, then of Nirvana, later of Foo Fighters, pounding away on the drums. On the one hand, you'd love to hear what this band could do with the restriction of making these period specific recordings to fit the film, or what actual Beatles tunes might sound like. On the other, hearing the band stick to the format, and tear through two-minute rock 'n roll classics is its own special thing. We hope they were having fun, because the energy and enthusiasm for the material is evident, leaving us to wonder what would/c

By the end of the 90s, a number of bands had penetrated the mainstream with ambitious, layered albums. Like with OK Computer, The Soft Bulletin, Deserter's Songs and Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, dEUS took a turn on their third album, 1999's The Ideal Crash. Dialing down the Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart influences and incorporating contemporary sounds from trip-hop, electronica and alternative rock slot The Ideal Crash nicely alongside the aforementioned, even managing to find spots for banjos and theremins. But like so many bands utilizing the compact disc format, too much of a good thing can be a negative, as the band often turns what could be a three minute gem into five-plus minutes.   Songs In This Episode:   Intro - Put The Freaks Up Front 11:44 - Instant Street 16:03 - The Ideal Crash 27:33 - Everybody's Weird Outro - Magdalena   Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon. Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com.  

If there is a new episode of Dig Me Out in your feed on a Thursday, that can only mean one thing - we sharing with you a preview of our latest Dig Me Out '80s episodes. With the help our Patreon Board of Directors and Steering Committee tiers, we're revisiting another album from the 1980s based on suggestions and votes of our patrons. This month we're checking out the 1983 album Flick Of The Switch by AC/DC. Join the DMO Union for as little as $2 a month and get access to bonus content like this episode, vote in our album review polls, get exclusive merchandise and more! Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon. Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com.

We're kicking off a new roundtable series with Slim Moon and Kill Rock Stars, who shares with the history of the Olympia, Washington (now Portland, Oregon) independent label that has been home to an amazing roster of musicians and bands, including Sleater-Kinney, Unwound, Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, The Decemberists, Elliott Smith, Huggy Bear, Mary Lou Lord, Gossip, Deerhoof and many more. We discuss how the label got started, leaning on K Records founder Calvin Johnson for advice, the riotgrrl scene and bands in Olympia, how bands were discovered, the impact of success with Elliott Smith and the importance of legacy catalogs, the end of the decade digital music revolution, and so much more.   Songs In This Episode:   Intro - New Energy by Unwound 3:45 - Words and Guitar by Sleater-Kinney 1:07:45 - Between The Bars by Elliott Smith Outro - I Could Have Loved You by The Peechees   Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon. Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com.  

In 1991, Material Issue released their long-in-the-works debut album International Pop Overthrow. Along with bands and artists like Jellyfish, Matthew Sweet, The Posies, Redd Kross, major labels were taking chances on the hard-to-pin-down genre known as Power Pop, and the future looked bright until the steamroller known as Nirvana arrived in the fall. Rather than scoop up the next Big Star or Cheap Trick influenced outfit, the next Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains were the priority, and Beatles, Byrds and Badfinger devotees rarely found their favorite bands on mainstream radio or MTV. In retrospect, that might be what makes an album like IPO so listenable after so many years.   Songs In This Episode:   Intro - Valerie Loves Me 13:12 - Diane 18:02 - This Far Before 22:27 - This Letter Outro - Li'l Christine   Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon. Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com.  

What's your memory of The Verve Pipe? Are they filed away with the alternative rock one-hit wonders of the 90s thanks to the single "The Freshman"? Are they lumped in with other mid-decade "alt rock" bands like Live and Bush? Did you see them in their early indie days when the were Midwest up-and-comers? Did you bother to check out their 1999 post-hit follow-up album? Did you check out more than the singles? As listeners who reassess with an ear on the past and present, the 1996 album Villain provides lots to chew on. Album tracks reveal divergences into slightly more adventures territory while the singles show off noisy guitar licks and tones that sound foreign compared to the modern Top 40.   Songs On This Episode:   Intro - Cup Of Tea 18:01 - The Freshman 23:11 - Villains 26:39 - Photograph 37:28 - Real Outro - Barely (If At All)     Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon. Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com.

The 1991 album Spiderland by Slint has taken on icon status since release, the bridge between Sonic Youth noise, Velvet Underground drone, Joy Division dread and the 1990s wave of post, math, indie and other alternative rock sub-genres. Like so many revered albums discovered via slow burn over years thanks to the accolades of musicians and rock journalists, the influence of Spiderland can be heard in bits and pieces in dozens of bands, yet tracing them back to the source leads us to a perplexing conclusion - what happens when an album of modest creation becomes mythic when listening with fresh years decades after the release?   Songs In This Episode:   Intro - Breadcrumb Trail 8:49 - Good Morning Captain 25:06 - Nosferatu Man 35:33 - Washer Outro - For Dinner...   Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon. Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com    

Twenty-five years after the release, Mike Gent of The Figgs stops by to tells us about their 1994 release Low-Fi At Society High. From the small town of Saratoga Springs in upstate New York, The Figgs spent years writing, recording and playing out long before the rest of the nation got a taste of their punk, mod, power-pop and rock sound that recalls the best of Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, Cheap Trick and The Jam, treading familiar ground with an updated take. We discuss their brief tenure on the Imago label, recording with producer Don Gehman (R.E.M., John Mellencamp, Hootie and the Blowfish), hooking up with legendary new wave/pub rocker Graham Parker to be his backing band, and much, much more.   Songs In This Episode:   Intro - Favorite Shirt 25:25 - Stood Up 38:47 - Step Back Let's Go Pop 1:16:16 - Tint Outro - Chevy Nova   Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon. Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com    

We often discuss production as an aspect of what makes a record sound good to our ears, but the truth is that different styles of music often demand different production choices. On the 1995 sophomore album Hi Fi Way by You Am I, terms like organic or immediate get tossed around to describe the sound of a band that gives a performance not fussed over, but clearly considered. With Sonic Youth's Lee Renaldo behind the board, the band gets the most of out their limited recording schedule, as every instrument gets a chance to shine with minimal overdubs and effects. While other 90s alternative rock bands might have taken the opportunity to layer track upon track or head down indulgent tangents, You Am I focus on melody and concise song structures, resulting in an album that surpasses their debut in every way.   Songs In This Episode:   Intro - She Digs Her 11:43 - The Applecross Wing Commander 15:15 - Handwasher 19:19 - Pizza Guy 26:45 - Ain't Gone And Open Outro - Jewels And Bullets   Support the podc

Some bands and artists leave you wanting more, with only a single album to their name. In some cases, they are one-off side projects or solo releases that act as an outlet for material not in-line with the primary band. Sometimes, personalities clash and bands quickly implode. In other cases, tragedy strikes down an artist at the start of their career. The 1990s, like every other decade, have their share of unique "one and done" albums from bands and artists for all different reasons. We revisit those lesser known albums worthy of revisiting, talk about those that came with hype but slipped off the radar, as well as those that didn't live up to it, our wish list for sophomore albums that will never come, and our personal favorite one and done albums of the decade.   Songs In This Episode:   Intro - Last Goodbye by Jeff Buckley 9:53 - Life's A Gas (T. Rex cover) by Replicants 20:30 - Shake My Tree by Coverdale/Page 30:20 - Burning Tree by Burning Tree 41:01 - Pushing Forward Back by Temple Of The Dog

The 1997 album Nothing Feels Good by The Promise Ring lays at an interesting crossroad. On the one hand, vocalist Davey Von Bohlen can grind on a melodic hook like a power pop pro, giving the listener plenty of ear candy on this tightly constructed record, while backed by a tight and creative rhythm section that never looses the groove. On the other hand, there are enough jarring structures, repetitious lyrics and twin-guitar abrasiveness to keep the hardcore kids happy. With vet J. Robbins behind the board, they definitely add some muscle, but it's not the clean and beefy guitar sounds he would get out of Braid, or what Jimmy Ear World would accomplish with Clarity, leaving us slightly underwhelmed.   Songs In This Episode:   Intro - Nothing Feels Good 14:35 - Perfect Lines 19:06 - Is This Thing On? 20:56 - Raspberry Rush Outro - Pink Chimneys   To support the podcast, join us at Patreon for bonus content and more. Facebook / Twitter / Instagram   Zazzle Merch Store   http://www.digmeoutpodcast.co

By the time of their 2000 album Odyssey Number Five, Brisbane, Australia's Powderfinger had sharpened their sound and created an album that found a balance between sweet radio friendly alternative rock hooks and melodies, while also giving headphone listeners interesting bits to revisit the album over and over again. At home, this lead to a string of chart topping albums and singles, but abroad, the band failed to find a foothold. Not surprising, considering the band drew not from the popular sounds of the moment, but from a wide range of influences, both in terms of songwriting and production. With veteran producer Nick DiDia behind the board, the band swiftly moves from Oasis balladry to bluesy riffing to arena anthems with ease, finding cohesion among them all, albeit with perhaps too much cohesion among the tempos from song to song.   Songs In This Episode:   Intro - My Happiness 17:19 - My Kind Of Scene 20:30 - Up And Down And Back Again 25:09 - Like A Dog 35:57 - Thrillology Outro - Waiting For

By the time of their fifth album Everclear from 1991, American Music Club was anything but a household name. If you caught their single "Rise" on late on night on MTV, or by chance on an adventurous radio station, you are among a lucky few. Considering the musical landscape for rock, where 80s hair/glam metal was still dominant while ascendent alternative had yet to be come a proper decade-defining brand name, it's easy to see why you may have missed it. AMC evokes ideas of genres without ever settling on one, making mainstream classification all but impossible. Touches of Americana thanks to acoustic guitars, but not really any twang. Downbeat and bleak slowcore until Mark Eitzel furiously strums an acoustic in bursts of kinetic release. The album feels timeless, yet could easily be the recollection of a single night of boozing and fury. It did make Rolling Stone take notice, granting the album "of the year" consideration and naming Mark Eitzel the preeminent songwriter of the moment, so maybe it's time ever