Best 90's North American middle-of-the-road/post-grunge band

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intedomine

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One of the sweetst genres of music out there....endlessly and immensely enjoyable.

Here's a few for your consideration:


Gin Blossoms
Better Than Ezra
Collective Soul
Toad The Wet Sprocket
Tonic
Counting Crows
The Rembrandts
Dishwalla
Everclear
Fuel
Goo Goo Dolls
The Refreshments
Crash test Dummies
The Verve Pipe
The Wallflowers
Vertical Horizon

Most of these acts would've only had about one proper hit and most of 'em are pretty much forgotten. Worth reminsicing though.

Who was the greatest?

For me, it's gotta be "Gin Mill, Rain Fall, What do you remember if at all?"

The legendary Gin Blossoms
 
Third Eye Blind.

Their eponymous debut was, although nothing groundbreaking, very solid and quite enjoyable all the way through, with the hits 'Semi-Charmed Life', 'How's It Gonna Be', and 'Jumper', and album tracks like 'Narcolepsy', 'London, 'Motorcycle Drive By', and what I thin is the best song on the record, 'The Background'. Easily their best record.

Their sophmore effort 'Blue' was about half 'pretty enjoyable' and half filler. 'Deep Inside Of You, 'Slow Motion', 'Wounded', 'Never Let You Go', 'Red Summer Sun', and 'Ode To Maybe' are standouts.

Their third effort, 'Out Of The Vein', fell flat save a for a very small handful of songs. Their original lead guitarist, Kevin Cadogen, was a big part of their sound on the first two records and he was out of the band by the this record, and it took the band down several notches imo.
 
The problem with nearly all of those bands you listed is that they all sounded pretty much the same. Middle-of-the-road for me means mediocre. They never set themselves apart from all those other mid 90s bands enough to have any staying power. A handful of good songs to hear on the radio once in awhile or to dig out of the back of the closet for nostalgia's sake, but nothing that's going to be really memorable. Some of them may still be around, but they're playing at amusement parks and fairs and things like that.

Everclear's first few albums were pretty good (Sparkle and Fade was one of my favorite early teenage albums), but then they got popular and self-destructed, and now the only original member still in the band is Art Alexakis.

Counting Crows remain commercially successful to some degree, but they've mellowed out a bit too much for me. I think Adam Duritz is a good songwriter, but musically they've fizzled a bit. Who knows. They've got a new album coming out that I might check out.

After the Refreshments broke up, Roger Clyne went on to form Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, and he's doing pretty well for himself on a smaller scale, writing the kind of songs he wants to and touring quite a bit.
 
Love the Wallflowers and Toad. Counting Crows of course, and Everclear pre-Slow Motion Daydream. Other than that, I like a few songs here and there.

Third Eye Blind has had some stellar moments, too.
 
stp ftw

but compared to that list, they are a bit more on the "rocking" end

out of the choices, i say everclear, art alexakis is pretty handy at writing a catchy pop hook and they had a string of good radio jams between 1994 and 2000
 
At one point, "Bringing Down the Horse" was one of my favorite albums- and then I realized that Jakob Dylan was a terrible lyricist. Several of the bands listed above made some great songs; hearing them takes me back to a very specific time in my life.
 
Some of the most boring, forgetable songs were written by those bands.

Better Than Ezra wrote a few good songs and Toad was great, the rest of list will never make it to my iPod even I was throwing a nostalgic 90's themed party where we all dressed up as members of 90210.
 
BonoIsMyMuse said:
The problem with nearly all of those bands you listed is that they all sounded pretty much the same. Middle-of-the-road for me means mediocre. They never set themselves apart from all those other mid 90s bands enough to have any staying power. A handful of good songs to hear on the radio once in awhile or to dig out of the back of the closet for nostalgia's sake, but nothing that's going to be really memorable. Some of them may still be around, but they're playing at amusement parks and fairs and things like that.
Click to expand...

:up:

Once you've heard one, you've heard 'em all.
 
Gin Blossoms - found out about you, follow you down
Better Than Ezra - Good? I'm not even sure :lol:
Collective Soul - I like that blue album to an extent.
Toad The Wet Sprocket - All I Want, awesome song! walk on the ocean, fall down.
Tonic - Future Says Run? That's all I know.
Counting Crows - mr. jones, round here, long december...
The Rembrandts - friends song? catchy. lol
Goo Goo Dolls - name, long way down (twister OST), iris, slide, here is gone... I know more here!
Crash test Dummies - mmmmmmmmmmmmm :hmm:
The Wallflowers - one headlight

The Goo Goo Dolls are probably my favorite from that list just cos I know and like more songs of theirs compared to the others. But I'm not crazy about them either.

I'd like to echo bollox and say STP was my overall favorite. Although, I considered them grunge with Core and Purple, the only albums I have.
 
The Gin Blossoms "New Miserable Experience" is a great album. Anyone in this thread writing them off as forgettable needs to go check this album out.

For me, Toad the Wet Sprocket is the mediocre band with two or three songs I really love. I never thought they were as good as a lot of other people made them out to be.

I also really love the Goo Goo Dolls "A Boy Named Goo." Another album chock full of really good songs, most thankfully less ubiquitous and mellow than "Name."

I can handle Counting Crows in small doses, and they have two or three songs I really love, but man, does Adam Duritz have one of the most annoying voices ever, or what?

I never liked Stone Temple Pilots, but I think they should be excluded from this thread as the thread title implies POST-grunge. :wink:

I didn't know anything by the Refreshments until a friend played me "Banditos," a song I still love to this day. They also did the theme song for the TV show "King of the Hill," which I think is pretty funny.

And what -- no Hootie?

: ducks to avoid thrown tomatoes :
 
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corianderstem said:
The Gin Blossoms "New Miserable Experience" is a great album. Anyone in this thread writing them off as forgettable needs to go check this album out.

For me, Toad the Wet Sprocket is the mediocre band with two or three songs I really love. I never thought they were as good as a lot of other people made them out to be.

I also really love the Goo Goo Dolls "A Boy Named Goo." Another album chock full of really good songs, most thankfully less ubiquitous and mellow than "Name."

I can handle Counting Crows in small doses, and they have two or three songs I really love, but man, does Adam Duritz have one of the most annoying voices ever, or what?

I never liked Stone Temple Pilots, but I think they should be excluded from this thread as the thread title implies POST-grunge. :wink:

I didn't know anything by the Refreshments until a friend played me "Banditos," a song I still love to this day. They also did the theme song for the TV show "King of the Hill," which I think is pretty funny.

And what -- no Hootie?

: ducks to avoid thrown tomatoes :
Click to expand...

New Miserable Experience is indeed timeless, and I can't believe I left out Hootie and STP.

Gin Blossoms released a new album last year entitled Major Lodge Victory. The first single from that release, Learning The Hard Way, is a cracker.
 
corianderstem said:
The Gin Blossoms "New Miserable Experience" is a great album. Anyone in this thread writing them off as forgettable needs to go check this album out.
Click to expand...

I think that title says it all.
 
The only one of those bands I really like is Goo Goo Dolls. Used to love them but I don't listen to them much anymore. Iris is a beautiful song though.
 
Hootie and the Blowfish are playing at the golf course two towns from here*





(* I live in the middle of nowhere)

I do still own New Miserable Experience and Third Eye Blind's first album. They're not horrible. I dust them off every once in awhile. They're also not timeless, though. These bands are like Twinkies. A Twinkie can be tasty now and then, but they've got no nutritional value. If you eat too many of them, they give you a stomachache.

I saw the Goo Goo Dolls at the peak of the their popularity and thought they were horrible. The same for the Wallflowers when they opened for Counting Crows.

I'd add Semisonic to the list. Feeling Strangely Fine has some great songs on it, but they were on the whole forgettable. I'd go as far as to put Live in this category (for which some around here will toss things at me, I know), as well as Blues Traveler.

One good album isn't enough anymore. An artist has to be able to evolve but also put out consistently good material. I think (and deeply hope) we'll be having this same discussion about all these boys with eyeliner bands in five or eight years.
 
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corianderstem said:
The Gin Blossoms "New Miserable Experience" is a great album. Anyone in this thread writing them off as forgettable needs to go check this album out.
Click to expand...

There was something about them, for sure. They were played forever on the radio during my first years in university. Bus anthems :drool:

Collective Soul were my secret indulgence for a while. Ed Roland is a bit of mastermind. Okay, mini-mastermind :wink:

corianderstem said:

And what -- no Hootie?

: ducks to avoid thrown tomatoes :
Click to expand...

I fucking hated Hootie :angry:
 
No matchbox 20 love?

They were played around here because they were from Orlando... just like the Backstreet Boys :barf:
 
This thread is kind of a who's who of What Nearly Killed Rock In The 90's.

Don't complain about the massive rise and surging popularity of hip-hop, rap, electronica or cheesy pop (or any mix of the above) and then trumpet these bands.


Thank you.
:wink:
 
Whatever happened to the Primitive Radio Gods? And Chumbawumba? And The Verve Pipe, not to be confused with the Verve...wtf is a Verv anyway?


ETA: verve: Energy and enthusiasm in the expression of ideas, especially in artistic performance or composition:

Oh.
 
img-display.tcl
 
Earnie Shavers said:
This thread is kind of a who's who of What Nearly Killed Rock In The 90's.

Don't complain about the massive rise and surging popularity of hip-hop, rap, electronica or cheesy pop (or any mix of the above) and then trumpet these bands.
Click to expand...

Oh, I'm not trumpeting...I'm barely clarineting :wink:
 
Oh man, Jesus Jones! I cannot stand "Right Here, Right Now" anymore, but there are a couple of songs from that album I still like. Man, my friends and I played that CD way too much freshman year of college.

And I could have lived just fine without ever being reminded of that horrid song "The Freshman" by The Verve Pipe, thank you very much. :yuck:

I worked in a record (uh ... CD) shop in the mall for a while after I graduated from college in 1995. I was always afraid of a freak earthquake hitting central Wisconsin, and I would die a horrible death buried under 6,646,732 copies of Hootie and the Blowfish's "Cracked Rear View" and Alanis Morrisette's "Jagged Little Pill." Man, talk about ubiquitous.
 
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