An absolute must read for music fans

I've always loved the Pixies. In the 1990s, REM went down, then way up and then back down again.

 

Plus, the 80s gave us Big Audio Dynamite!

 

The 80s almost killed me.

Let's not recall them quite so fondly.

 

U2 was already a mega-act well before grunge hit. INXS reached their peak with "Kick" in Oct. 1987. REM was reaching mega-status as well before the flannel revolution arrived.

 

You wanna try that again with the correct use of the quote function? And since you brought it up, I will remind you that the frontman for Gov't Mule is considered to be one of the best guitar players of all-time. He's even ranked ahead of the incredibly overrated Edge on a Rolling Stone list of the top 100 guitar players. Not bad for a guy who is an unknown to the mass of uneducated music donks like yourself.

 

The intro/1990 piece was a little long, so I'll have to come back to it, but he made a few interesting points so far.

He's right about the crappy pop music of 1989 and 1990. At that time, I was listening to a lot of "classic rock" type stuff or some harder-edge heavy metal, like Metallica. Anyone else remember Helmet? Anthrax?

For me, the eye-opener for 1990s-style rock came my senior year of high school (I graduated in 1990), when I saw Neil Young and Crazy Horse go on Saturday Night Live and just blast out a killer version of "Rockin' in the Free World."

That was the first "grunge" song I heard.

To that point, I had always thought of Neil in his late 1960s/early 1970s singer-songwriter mode, with a few occasional guitar blowouts like "Cinnamon Girl" and "Cowgirl in the Sand." But this new song rocked AND took shots at some of the Reagan/Bush bullshit that was prevalent then. I was hooked.

Thanks for the link, Jay ... will definitely be reading more later.

 

Anthrax had a devoted following in a group of quasi friends during my high school years, and I remember buying the Helmet CD with In the Meantime and Unsung. Lost it long ago, though.

 

Never said the Edge was a great guitarist, and I thought you brought up songwriters, not guitar players.

 

In metal circles, Alice In Chains does the same.

 

Went to a Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax show sometime around 90-91. It kicked ass. I was also into Iron Maiden, old school Metallica and Sepultura. Thought GNR were a bunch of pussies (Use Your Illusion proved it).

When grunge hit, Smells Like Teen Spirit was a good tune, but wasn't into the rest of Nirvana. Loved Alice In Chains and still do

 

I brought up good music, thus your struggle to keep up.

 

Ditto to most of this, aside from disliking GNR. Thought the Illusion twins showed how brilliant they could be.

Recently caught the Anthrax/Megadeth/Slayer tour. All three bands still crush, though Anthrax was only given 35 minutes to play, Dave Mustaine still can't sing at all, and Slayer was awesome but almost ruined by rednecks sitting around us.

As for Helmet: saw them a couple years ago opening on the . . . wait for it . . . the Sebastian Bach/Guns 'N' Roses (Axl and a bunch of schleps) Tour.