The peopled all gathered around the radio OR The best artist of the 90s

[Stone]

Who do you think the best (i.e., your favorite) musical artist was of the 90s?

I've been listening to Archers of Loaf lately and right now at least, they get my vote. Most of their music was fairly accessible while still having some angular guitar playing. Their first few releases Icky Mettle, Vs. the Greatest of All Time EP, and Vee Vee (one of the most overlooked and unerrated albums of the 90s, if you ask me) are all top notch and still keep my interest today. Their other releases are in the "very good" category for me.

Runners up for me would be Pavement, Bedhead, Beastie Boys, Fugazi, Flaming Lips and Built To Spill. There're probably a few that I'm not thinking of, but those came to mind.

[-Jar-]

"Web in Front" is one of the best little tunes ever written. I don't remember any 7" creating such a buzz at our college station. Everyone was playing that.

but as for my pick?

it's very close between Hum and the Flaming Lips.

I suppose I'll go with Hum. Track for track, their albums YOU'D PREFER AN ASTRONAUT and DOWNWARD IS HEAVENWARD just clean up as far as catchy, tuneful, chunky, dense, atmpospheric alternative rock. They're pretty much the perfect combination of everything I like in music. The Flaming Lips, while awesome and amazing, to me, just don't deliver consistently from track to track. For every "Turn it On," "Bad Days" and "Spiderbite Song" there are throwaways that I never really have the urge to listen to. Hum's last two albums are so competely excellent that I have to go and give them the nod.

Then there's David Yow of the Jesus Lizard sitting over there in the corner glaring at me.. "After all the raving you've done over the years over GOAT and LIAR you're going to pick HUM??"


:-)

[Stone]

Come back, you PJ Harvey-lovin', Bjork-lovin', post-deletin' emeffer.

[-Jar-]

Come back, you PJ Harvey-lovin', Bjork-lovin', post-deletin' emeffer.

the problem is, people start to think you're insane for replying to non-existent posts..

[Stone]

the problem is, people start to think you're insane for replying to non-existent posts..

They already think I'm insane, so what's the difference?

[-Jar-]

1. Hum
2. Flaming Lips
3. Mercury Rev
4. The Jesus Lizard
5. Radiohead
6. Pavement
7. Kyuss
8. Dinosaur Jr.
9. Tool
10.Melvins


can never stop at 1.

[MindGoneHaywire]

No clear frontrunner. I'd say Beck, Nirvana, the Muffs, Johnny Cash, Nick Cave, the Beastie Boys, Green Day, and Bob Mould's solo work as well as Sugar.

[Davey]

Come back, you PJ Harvey-lovin', Bjork-lovin', post-deletin' emeffer.

PJ is my choice

[Dusty Chalk]

Dang. I wasn't even the line of fire, and I still flinched on that one.

Why you boycotting? You just don't like losing? So start a thread about something topical.

EDIT: Never mind, I see you did (the one about the Slackers).

Yeah, for once, it was kinda nice here today.

In answer to the original question -- I have no idea. Diary of Dreams rules, though. I be digging them.

[Davey]

Why you boycotting? You just don't like losing? So start a thread about something topical.

Well, like I said, I was only weakly boycotting. I'm just not too interested in music contests so wasn't responding to many of them. Not really a criticism, though. People can post whatever makes them happy, and the polls seem to be pretty popular. And I did make a post about The Slackers today which is topical, no?

Hey Stone, this Electelane is pretty cool. Pretty strange, but cool. A lot of VU/Feelies type sound running through it, at least on first impresion. Kind of like Life Without Buildings. Nice guitar sound. Has anyone here talked about the Ambulance Ltd yet? Listened to that one at Stinkweeds today and it is some very cool pop along the lines of Beulah. Debut album from another strong NY band. Was gonna get it but got the Electelane The Power Out instead.

[newtrix1]

Pearl Jam

[nobody]

Picking one artist out of an entire decade is really tough, impossible really. On my short list would be Nirvana, Beck, Erykah Badu, and many more. Hell, not too many would probably put him on the list, but for my money the Reverend Horton Heat has given me more musical pleasure than most and can always be counted on for a high quality release or concert. Sure, nothing too new, but damn if it don't still sound good when done this well.

Still, if I gotta pick one, I'm going to go with Massive Attack. They really came out with 3 highly inventive, original, classic albums during the decade with Blue Lines, Protection and Mezanine. Even the dubbed No Protection was great. They realy were a big leader in getting new styles of music out there. Without these guys and Portishead, trip hop, or whatever you want to call it would have never happened. Trip hop in turn opened the door for a whole slew of electronic artists and helped pave the way for some of the more creative instrumental hip hop stuff. To a lot of folks this stuff has gotten run into the ground, but personally I think the musical horizon would be severly diminished without it.