1996

I can't say I remember a whole lot from 1996. That was a Jr. High year, and the sheer awkwardness of Jr. High prevented too much from sticking to my memory banks. I do recall listening to a lot of Oasis, Wallflowers, and a bunch of ska. Five years later my musical priorities shifted and I had to backtrack. So while I can recite to you the lyrics of What's the Story Morning Glory, THESE are the don't-miss tunes of '96 that, tragically, usually were missed.

Ninety Pound Wuss - "Something Must Break"
90lb Wuss did punk the right way: brashly, fastly, and funly. In subseqent years frontman Jeff Suffering led the band down more experimental routes with outstanding but underappreciated results, but with their self-titled Tooth & Nail debut we've got Wuss in all of their punk rawk glory.

Cat Power - "Nude as the News"
My favorite song about Jesse Jackson's lovechild.

Jawbox - "Spoiler"
When you hear about an indie-label band hopping to a major you might assume their next releases will be overproduced and uninspired. But Jawbox's -- in my opinion, at least -- two best albums were released on Atlantic records (though Atlantic didn't really think so; they dropped Jawbox after their 1996 self-titled album because they felt there weren't any marketable singles). So don't be so quick to criticize the "sell outs," unless it actually turns out that their new albums are indeed overproduced and uninspired.

Jeremy Enigk - "Shade and the Black Hat"
There's a thin line between ambitiousness and pretentiousness, but as long as it's perfectly executed it really doesn't matter. Enigk, during Sunny Day Real Estate's first hiatus, recorded Return of the Frog Queen with a 21-piece orchestra. It's initially difficult to imagine his howly octave-too-high voice meshing with classical instruments, but somehow it all sounds completely brilliant and epic (even though the entire album only clocks in at twenty-nine minutes).

The Lassie Foundation - "I Can be Her Man"
Probably leaning more on the pretentious side (after all, who mentions the name of their own band in their very first track in their very first release?), The Lassie Foundation came together in 1996 on the back end of that British pseudo-glam shoegazey thing. The West Coast is too cool for that though, and rather than being all dreary about their rock 'n' roll the Foundation opted to define themselves in a more sweetmellow SoCal manner. Eventually they would dust off their fuzz, but a dozen years ago haze was hip.