You Oughta Know

A bonus track from gMcD's favorite album of 1995.

I have a lot of issues with this song (mostly involving the words that compromise its lyrics), but this live performance from the 1996 Grammys was positively Nyroesque.



"We will be hearing from these two women for a long, long time."
- TWAS re: Alanis and Jewel, 1/4/96.

Tomorrow brings another month and another year.

Wake Up Boo!

The Boo Radleys, with my final song from 1995.

Victoria

The Old 97's, from a free SF show I attended a few weeks ago.

Until I Hear It From You

The Gin Blossoms from the Empire Records soundtrack..



I like this song. And I'm pretty sure T. Keene had a hand in writing it.

Try Try Try

1995 CE. Julian Cope's final hit.



20 Mothers and Interpreter were Julian's last "normal" albums before he fell off the tracks, so to speak.

Tom Courtenay

Alternate version of a Yo La Tengo song from Electr-O-Pura



I wasn't that big on this song, until I heard this acoustic version with Georgia singing. Now it's one of my most favorite YLT songs.

Sick of Myself

Your MTV 120 Minutes world premier from Matthew Sweet.



My favorite part of the musical "Girlfriend" was when the organist played the intro of this song (which isn't from Girlfriend the album btw) during the baseball scene. Best riff of 1995, hands down!

Rattled By The Rush

My favorite Pavement track from the underrated Wowie Zowie.



This video was banned by MTV because the camera movement made people dizzy. Just like Tommy Roe.

Radio Jejune

The Sugarplastic



These guys were kind of polarizing when they toured with the Loud Family in 1996, but I thought they matched up well with the LF. And still think the world needs more bands like the Sugarplastic.

Pillow Fight

More 1995 from The 6ths.



This song was sung by Mitch Easter, who didn't sing many songs during the 1990s.

Philosophy is a walk on slippery rocks

More self-titled 1995 from the Ben Folds Five



The iTunes playlist that's accompanying this series of posts has a series of songs where the artist name is the same as the album name. The Charlatans by The Charlatans, Duffy by Duffy, Elliott Smith by Elliott Smith, Garbage by Garbage, and now Ben Folds Five by the Ben Folds Five. Self-titled albums probably aren't that rare, but it seems like a coincidence to have a long stretch of them all in a row.

My other P song from 1995 was "Proto-Pretty" by the Wondermints from the album The Wondermints -- a cool tune that I couldn't find on youtube.

Only Happy When It Rains

More self-titled Garbage from 1995.

Needle In The Hay

More self-titled 1995 from Elliott Smith.

Need a little time to wake up

What's the story morning glory?



Did anyone ever tell Noel that his no-talent brother and loser band were dragging him down? He could've been the new Johnny Bravo.

MTV Song

Speaking of stolen glory songs from 1995, here's Anton Barbeau performing "MTV Song" with the Corner Laughers at the 12 Bar Club in London a few months ago.



There's also this HD version with Morris and Andy (aka the two Egyptians that weren't Robyn) from around the same time. Nice to see Anton revisiting his back catalog. Waterbugs & Beetles was the first CD I bought by him, many years ago. Contrary to years of public speculation, I am not the Steve who was standing behind/beside him with a tape recorder. Anton wrote this song before he knew who I was.

London Girls

(Stephen) Duffy's "London Girls". Another lost song from 1995



Stephen Duffy released the album Duffy under the name "Duffy", which causes confusion nowadays between Stephen and the other (more famous) Duffy (who hasn't released her self-titled album yet!).

Anyway, I think Duffy is the best thing Duffy ever did, with or without the Lilac Time. The album was produced by Mitch Easter at his Drive In Studio in NC with instrumental backing by the Velvet Crush during the same sessions that produced Teenage Symphonies To God and released on BMG/Indolent during the height of Britpop (same week as Oasis v. Blur).

"London Girls" is a celebration of London and Britpop that was recorded in the U.S.A. with a bunch of Americans. One year later, Alex James did a one-off single with Stephen Duffy (as Me Me Me) called "Hanging Around". One year after that, Pavement made an album with Mitch Easter and Blur made a record that sounded like Pavement, so both Blur and Pavement were copying Stephen Duffy. Woo hoo!

King & Caroline

GBV's 1995 national TV debut on the Jon Stewart show.



This classic GBV lineup is reforming to tour the USA in the Fall.

Just Lookin'

As a fan of these "original" Charlatans, I was predisposed to not like Charlatans UK for no other reason than their non-original name. But they won me over with songs like this one.




This is from their self-titled fourth album which should not be confused with the self-titled debut by the Other Charlatans. They couldn't even come up with original album titles -- but they could rock!

I Must Be High

The first song on the first Wilco album and the best thing they ever did.

High and Dry

Whatever happened to this band? They used to be pretty good.

Girl From Mars

Do you remember a time Tim Wheeler knew a girl from Mars?



Another song that I heard on the radio and had to stop the car to find out what it was. Can't go wrong with a title like "Girl From [x]"!

Friends of P

My sixth song from 1995 is "Friends of P" by The Rentals. Here's their Live 105 performance of the song, with kids moshing to Moog-rock in a near perfect 1995 time capsule.



This is the first in a series of songs that I first heard on alternative rock radio. There were a lot of cool radio songs in 1995.

Emperor Of The Bathroom

My fifth song from 1995 is "Emperor Of The Bathroom" by the Minus 5.



The Minus Five were formed as a one-off music collective fronted by Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck, and fifteen years later they've put out ten albums, a few eps, and many assorted compilation tracks. They've even recorded more albums than the Young Fresh Fellows.

At the end of this song, Scott mentions that he didn't understand why this song wasn't a big hit, and I don't either. It was one of my favorite songs of 1995 (better than anything on Monster, as I said at the time) and is still one of my favorite McCaughey penned tracks.

Discolite

The D song from my 1995 mix was "Discolite" by Teenage Fanclub.



I found it strange during the Summer of Britpop when their weekly music papers were raving about Oasis, Blur, Pulp, etc. while completely ignoring Teenage Fanclub. I'd put Grand Prix up against the best of any of those other bands, even though it's my fourth favorite Fanclub album.

Country House

Remember the Blur vs. Oasis Britpop feud? I was solidly on Team Blur, and happy when this song hit number one over "Roll With It" and made Noel wish that Damon and Alex would "catch aids and die".



Back in the day, I thought The Great Escape sounded like a lost Kinks record from the mid-60s. "Country House" is essentially the Kinks' "House In The Country" and "Charmless Man" is essentially "Well Respected Man", but the rest of the album hasn't aged that well (at least for me). But give me "Country House" over "Roll With It" any day of the week.

Blue, why don't you stay behind?

Most of these songs come from the "best of 1995" mix tape that I made at the end of the year. Here are The Jayhawks on John Stewart show when he and they were both a lot younger.



I remember hearing "Blue" on the radio when it was new and thinking it was some lost Elton John song from the early 70s. That chorus is straight out of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", but the first three songs on Tomorrow The Green Grass still blow me away.

Nineteen Ninety Five

Back to the years for the month of August. I was working my way through the fives, so next up in 1995. This month marks the 15th anniversary of the O.J. verdict, the Blur/Oasis Britpop feud, and the death of Jerry Garcia. Not one of my favorite years, but there were some good songs in '95. And this was one of them.



"Empire Records" may be one of the worst movies ever, but it had a really good soundtrack.