Day 0773 - G.Love and the Special Sauce

G.Love and the Special Sauce "G.Love and the Special Sauce" (1994)

Interesting sound.  G.Love were a white hip-hop group, but made the wise move of not trying to fake it like they were 'legit gangsta'.  The group instead combine guitars, upright bass and drums to create a sound that would be more at home at the beach or the skate park than in the ghetto.

There are touches of jazz and blues backing the tracks about girls (Baby's Got Sauce), brews (Cold Beverage) and even a touch of conscious rap (This Ain't Living).   Wouldn't be out of home in your record collection somewhere between Sublime and the Fun Loving Criminals.

Day 0772 - Yank Crime

Drive Like Jehu "Yank Crime" (1994)

Drive Like Jehu was formed following the dissolution of Jehu's member's previous bands Pitchfork and Night Soil Man.   Guitarist/singer John Reis also formed the horn-backed rollocking rock band Rocket from the Crypt (more on them in a future post).

This the second of Jehu's two albums and it is a whirlwind of guitars.  Pounding out riffs with hardcore intensity, but with quick rhythm and timing changes overlaid with screamed vocals that makes this seem like a blueprint for early Dillinger Escape Plan, but unfortunately probably also egged on a few of the emo and screamo bands in the 00s.

The group broke up after this and the band members went onto other individual artistic pursuits.

Day 0771 - Parklife

Blur “Parklife” (1994) – got it

Blur were feeling reinvigorated following the release of their second album “Modern Life is Rubbish”.  It hadn’t broken records with its sale figures, but was critically well received and the band felt they were on the right track.  As soon as they’d finished that record, singer Damon Albarn started writing a large number of songs and the band worked at demoing them.  They got back in the studio with producer Stephen Street as soon as they could, and most of the album was recorded fairly quickly.

Aside from the opening track “Girls and Boys” which has a bit of a European dance/disco vibe to it, and one or two of the more grand tracks like “To the End”, this album is British through and through.  In fact even "Girls and Boys starts" with a line about “following the herd to Greece on holiday”, sounding like the start of episode of “Boozed up Brits Abroad”.   

The Britishness continues with the “oi oi oi” punky rock of “Bank Holiday”, the brass band waltz of instrumental “the Debt Collector” (as well as brassy bass embellishments on the title track and rocking "Jubilee"), the pastoral harpsicord of “Clover over Dover” and of course Albarn’s almost aggressively cockney/mockney accent pushing into the songs.  Even bassist Alex James' composition "Far Out" sounds like it would be at home in a 1960s Pink Floyd club gig in swinging London.

It's a brilliant album (if maybe a track or so too long).  They do copy Modern Life a bit with the overall sound and having a couple of fun instrumental 'interludes', but with "Girls and Boys" and the loungey stylings of "To the end" they were definitely forging new ground.

Day 0770 - Smash

 The Offspring "Smash" (1994) - got it

 

One of a group of more polished, catchy “pop punk” bands to emerge in the mid 90s (along with bands such as Green Day and Rancid).  

The band had signed to Epitaph records and were recording this, their third album on a tight budget.  Money was so tight that they had to constantly call the studio to utilise downtime between other bands' sessions in order to get a discounted rate of their studio time.  Several of the songs were worked out in the space of a couple of nights to make economical use of the time they had.

The band’s previous album had only sold around 15,000 copies, so they were under no illusions of their music finding a place on mainstream radio or MTV.   Lead single “Come Out and Play” changed all that, becoming a hit.  The album sold millions of copies, effectively setting up Epitaph and the Offspring (though they would soon depart for a major label) for the next few  years.  Guitarist Noodles was working as a school janitor and promised his boss not to quit until the end of the year.  He said that kids who had seen him on MTV would be surprised to see him cleaning.

When the band first started, singer Dexter Holland was on drums... which I find odd, because his high-pitched yell is so distinctive, it makes sense to have him on vocals.

The first track proper "Nitro (Youth Energy)" starts with a surf-rock style drum intro but then kicks into fast punk rock with mildly nihilistic lyrics.  Tracks like "Bad Habit" and "Self Esteem" show the band's humorous, slightly puerile side.   Track "Genocide" has a chord sequence that they seem to have reused on at least the subsequent couple of albums, so I'm not sure if that was an intentional through-line for their albums, or just plagiarising themselves.

While the band would come to be known for a string of novelty pop-punk hits (Pretty Fly for a White Guy, Original Prankster, Hit That), on Smash they were still pretty serious, if catchy, punk business.  

Day 0769 - Superunknown

Soundgarden "Superunknown" (1994) - got it

This album feels like: if the Beatles were the result of a really good acid trip; this is the flip side.  The bad trip that takes you to dark places... but still in a melodic, imaginative way.

Soundgarden had always had a pretty good mix of Black Sabbath (big fuzzy, sludgey riffs) and Led Zeppelin (skilled, virtuosic musicians, and of course Cornell's Plant-esque wail) but with this album they added a heavy dose of the Beatles.  The title track sounds musically like something that could fit on a modernised version of "Revolver" until the chorus riff kicks in and things get dark and heavy.  "Black Hole Sun" is the most obvious link, with its slightly trippy guitar, drawling drugged vocal and lyrics that are obscure but paint a disturbing picture.  

There's middle-eastern and Indian elements on songs "Half" and "Head Down", and plenty of Soundgarden heavy-riffing on songs like "My Wave", "Spoonman" (featuring a spoon solo, don't cha know) and "Fourth of July" that, with its slow, inexorable riff, sounds like the audio equivalent of the end of the world!

This is a favourite album of mine, and has been since high school.   At its base it is just a great collection of songs that sits together coherently (even its 73 minute running time doesn't really put me off).  This was a band ready to try everything: they'd have different tunings, their songs would be in time signatures ranging from 6/4 to 15/8, they experimented with different overdubs and recording techniques, and all 4 members contributed compositions.

Some people will view the band as being mostly about singer/guitarist Chris Cornell, but that is not fair on any level.  Yes he is a phenomenal singer and a great songwriter, but Soundgarden wouldn't be Soundgarden without Ben Shephard's sludgey, ugly bass; Kim Thayil's riffs and wild and colourful lead guitar, and Matt Cameron on drums.   

I'll chuck a little gush here about Matt because I truly love his drumming.  Like Jimmy Chamberlain from the Smashing Pumpkins, or Mitch Mitchell from Jimi Hendrix's band, Matt is a jazz-influenced drummer who can put some rock power into his playing.  He plays parts that fit the song like a glove without being too showy, and it's only when you listen closely that you realise he's constantly evolving those parts throughout the song and playing quite tricky little bits and pieces.  

Day 0768 - Definitely Maybe

Oasis "Definitely Maybe" (1994)

I had a bit of a fail.  Got mixed up and listened to "(What's the Story) Morning Glory" instead (I had thought it was odd that this album would be omitted from the list).  I'll put my write up of that one aside for when it does turn up here.

Onwards and upwards though, and the things you learn.  For a band synonymous with the Gallagher brothers, neither of them was in Oasis when it first started (originally under the name the Rain).   Liam was invited to sing for the group and, after watching a show, Noel managed to convinced them to not only let him join, but to let him become sole songwriter.

The band set about recording their first album, but the first attempt was deemed a failure even after attempts to tweak the results in post-production.  The band tried again, recording in the same room as each other to give everything an 'as live' feel and then overdubbing the heck out of things.   The record company still weren't happy and eventually the recordings were handed to engineer/producer Owen Morris.  Morris was given more or less free reign and managed to shape the album into the brash piece of rawk-n-roll it is.

The album is a lot less poppy than the band's later offerings, though "Live Forever" and slightly out-of-place acoustic closer "Married With Children" provide a bit of melody.   There's a lot of the standard rock recipe of excesses here with the band even going so far as to title one track "Alcohol and Cigarettes".   Liam kind of goes overboard with nasally stretching out of his sung vowels.  Luckily he seemed to rope that in a bit in subsequent albums.

Day 0767 - CrazySexyCool

TLC "CrazySexyCool" (1994)

TLC were started by Crystal Jones and her manager when they had the idea to put together a girl-group with a hip-hop image.  They enlisted Lisa ‘left-eye’ Lopes and Tionne Watkins and started shopping around management and producers.  The band’s name was made up from the first letter of each member’s first name.   Before they could be signed, Jones was ousted from the group and Rozonda Thomas was bought on board.  She was given the nickname 'Chilli' to keep the TLC moniker intact.
                                              
After a successful debut “Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip” the group set about recording their second album.  They cast aside the energetic, colourful ‘teen’ image from the first album to recast themselves as a more sultry, adult group.  This, mixed with their genre-mixing of RnB, soul and hip hop would create a blueprint for future artists such as Destiny Child, Pussycat Dolls etc.

To my ears "Waterfalls" is the most obvious hit on the album, so not surprising that it was chosen as a single.

Despite the group's success, they filed for bankruptcy the next year, partly due to the reported unfairness of their contracts and partly due to Left-eye having set fire to the mansion of her football player boyfriend... oddly, the two reconciled and went back to dating after that!