Welcome to My Weekly Mixtape, a podcast that
takes the classic mixtape approach to building
a modern playlist. I'm your host, Brian Colburn.
Joining me once again as guest curator is my
former Toon Styles podcast co -host, Mr. J Sweet
J. Welcome back, my friend. Thank you, man. I
feel like Alec Baldwin. I'm part of the five
-timers club, right? That I've been with you
five times now, right? Do you get a five -timer
jacket now? I don't know. I think you owe me
a jacket, yes. I guess that means it's time for
me to look up some jacket making podcasts. Well,
let's do this. Let's get it out of the way. They
won't be jacket. It'll be board shorts. There
you go. Board shorts, five timer board shorts.
That's right. Sweet. Well, tonight you and I
are going to be talking about a topic that I'm
sure is near and dear to both of our hearts.
And that is something that it's kind of a weird
topic when you really think about it, because
it's so. subjective tonight we're creating the
ultimate underrated 90s rock mixtape and to me
that really casts a wide net over countless musical
genres so first of all jay i guess my question
would be how do you personally define an underrated
90s rock song Well, I'll say this. You texted
me shortly before we began and said, well, I've
looked at all of my selections and not one of
them has cracked the top 40. So I said, oh, it's
going to be that kind of a podcast. But for me,
I think that, you know, they're not necessarily
that they hadn't cracked. Obviously, like not
having that billboard heft behind them kind of
speaks a little bit to the underratedness of
it all. But I think too is. Even though that
if you crack into the top 40 and you hit, you
know, mid -level, if you feel like for me, I
felt like a few of these are a little bit more
deserving, a little bit more accolades than,
oh, well, yeah, they peaked at like, you know,
number 38 on the top 40 or something to that
effect. You know, that kind of thing. So that's
what it meant to me. And that's interesting because
the word underrated, like I said, it's a very
subjective word. So it's realistic. that somebody
who listens to this show could honestly, truly
believe that Green Day, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Counting
Crows, in the scheme of 90s music, when you're
comparing them to the Mariah Careys and the Boyz
II Men, the real chart leaders of the decade,
one could make an argument that those bands are
quote -unquote underrated, and you could probably
make... A decent case for it. But my approach
was like I had texted you earlier. I kind of
wanted to go for the bands that might make listeners
of this show go, what? Why haven't I heard that
name in a long time? And then when they hear
the song, have that moment, that musical spider
web cleared from their brain like, oh, my God,
I used to rock this song all the time. I haven't
heard this in decades. And I'm hoping that we
can kind of. bring some of these songs back into
the conversation because i feel like some of
these bands weren't at the level of green day
pearl jam nirvana and counting crows but maybe
should have been okay i'm looking forward to
hearing what you came up with because i know
you mentioned rock at the top of the show but
i've got a couple of them that are like r &b
and some of them that are pop as well because
the 90s was my radio wheelhouse that was where
I was spinning records at clubs and stuff still
before CDs really took over the mix and digital
really took over the DJ business. And saying
that to say that a couple of the dance music,
what they call electric dance music or electronic
dance music these days, which we just called
dance music back in the 90s, made it onto my
list as well. Okay, I do have a few songs that
could conceivably blur the line between rock,
pop, and dance. So I'll just leave it at that.
But in my mind, when I thought of underrated
90s rock, it was what I was listening to throughout
the 90s. And it was a lot of the underground
bands that got a lot of love on college radio,
but never made that jump to mainstream radio.
And if they did, it was a minor MTV video hit
or a minor radio hit. But on college radio, these
songs, if you were a fan of college radio in
the 90s. these might actually be the overrated
90s rock mix. That's right. Because if you listen
to college radio, a lot of these are going to
be very familiar to you. Oh, man, they sold out,
man. Listen, I mean, so, you know, and I'm sure,
you know, any of the listeners that followed
you over, which I would think would be a good
number of them from the Toon Styles days. My
radio experience, I was a spoiled, rotten radio
kid. I didn't work at a college radio station.
I worked at a professional student run, but it
was a professional formatted, not this hour we're
going to play alternative stuff, this hour we're
going to play indie, this hour we're going to
play country, this hour. It wasn't that kind
of thing. It was a top 40, and then right around
midstream, we shifted because the music changed.
The music of the 90s changed. And alternative
became the big thing. So we initiated that format
flip. So I've got a whole bunch of those kind
of songs too. And I'm sure you and I are going
to match up on a few of them. So I'm looking
forward to it. I'm curious to see where we match
up and where we actually disagree. So let's get
down to business. Tonight, as I mentioned at
the top of the show, Jay and I will be curating
an underrated 90s rock mixtape, and we'll use
the old cassette deck approach. Jay, as my special
guest, will begin side A with his first song
choice, and then I'll add a song that I feel
best follows up that choice. We'll then flip
-flop choosing songs until we've mapped out 10
songs for side A. We'll then give our mixtape
a proverbial flip, And we'll map outside, be
only this time I'll kick things off with Jay
choosing second. Our overall goal for the episode
is to craft the best underrated 90s rock mixtape
possible through only 20 songs. And at the end
of the show, you can take our conversation to
the next level by visiting the episode page at
myweeklymixtape .com to give our final mixtape
a listen via the embedded playlist. And if you
like what you're hearing on the show, you can
help me out by either telling a friend. leaving
the show a five -star review wherever you're
tuning in, or becoming a Patreon mixtaper at
patreon .com forward slash myweeklymixtape. There
you can enjoy ad -free episodes of the show,
become a future guest, and so much more. Now,
Jay, a few of the Patreon mixtapers chimed in
with songs they would use to kick off our underrated
90s rock mixtape, and I want to give a few quick
shout -outs. Tom Hutchinson chimed in with Mustard
Plugs' You, Everclear's Heroin Girl, and Therapy's
Nowhere. The Voodoo Child, David Lee Smith chimed
in with Badlands' Three Day Funk. Sean Goff chimed
in with Built to Spills' I Would Hurt a Fly,
saying it starts off a bit slow and moody because,
of course it does, but he likes how it builds
through the course of the song. And he also points
out that in real life, you might have trouble
fitting all 10 songs on one side using this track.
It is over six minutes. Great choice. And Chad
LaMassa chimed in with Whale's Hobo Humpin' Slobo
Babe. He called it a super fun track that maybe
was a Beavis and Butthead video. He wasn't 100
% sure on that one. Chad, one, great song choice.
And two, it 100 % was a Beavis and Butthead video.
Ending with Beavis proclaiming, Whoa, look at
that. I didn't know chicks in videos wore underpants.
I absolutely love the pick. Thank you. I worked
on that for about an hour before we logged on
here. So just remember, if you want to chime
in for future My Weekly Mixtape episodes, join
the Mixtaper family at patreon .com forward slash
My Weekly Mixtape. So Jay, with that musical
food for thought out in the atmosphere, I'm officially
pressing the record button on our mixtape and
the floor is yours. Why don't you dive into the
song you chose to kick off, Side A. That's a
great honor. And it's a really hard choice. So
back in, you know, we could have gone 100 ,000
different ways because I get to start the whole
thing. But I think something that this held dear
to my heart is 1995 when REM put out Monster.
The radio station that I had mentioned before
that I worked at on the SU campus had flipped
formats to an alternative pop station. We kicked
everything off with What's the Frequency, Kenneth,
which was a fantastic song. I think ultimately
a lot of people could go back and forth on whether
or not REM is overrated, underrated, or perfectly
rated. You know, that's a debate we could do
a whole separate podcast on. But for me, I think
that Monster was a deeply underrated album. And
I went with Strange Currencies off of that album.
Wow. As a great song. I love the melody of it.
I love Michael Stipe's really, really passionate
vocals. He tends to do that regularly with his
music. But with this song, he really poured on
the emotion and the passion that you felt in
the lyrics. Now, I'll say this. REM was not the
first band that came to mind for me. But when
you mention it, it actually makes sense because
REM is one of those bands that's just so... friggin
influential and they had the time where what
they were doing was top 40 pretty much every
time and i'm talking about from stand through
losing my religion shiny happy people automatic
through the people i feel like they had a good
string of hits however in the scope of rock music
even though they were again an arena selling
band I feel like the scope of their catalog as
a whole is underrated. There was a section where
they were a mainstream all over the place. And
I feel like strange currencies was, it was definitely
a top 100, not a top 40 single should have been
because I'll just go out ahead and say it. I
actually like strange currencies more than everybody
hurts. Yeah. I'm sorry. I, I just love the song.
And it's kind of a slower way to start things
out, which is really interesting because usually
people go for something more like, let's hit
the ground running. And you kind of easing into
this one. We're going to ramp it up. Initially,
when we went through this, when you and I started
originally kind of throwing this idea around,
I was thinking, you know, songs like Black Cat
by Janet Jackson or En Vogue. Oh, why am I pulling
a blank on the title of the song? Free Your Mind?
Free Your Mind. That's the one. Thank you. Yeah,
I'm getting old, man. It's enough for my brain.
But those kind of songs, and the argument could
be made, well, yeah, maybe they weren't as...
Those are perfect songs, by the way, that blur
the lines between pop, R &B, and rock, right?
Yes. Especially Black Cat, Free Your Mind, the
really hard -driving guitar riffs. And in the
scope of rock and roll music, maybe not so much
of an underrated song because they were all over
the radio. But they are really good. They are
really good songs. See, and here we go. The word
underrated is so subjective that I can't argue
it because what's underrated to one person is
overrated to the other. So but what I'm going
to do is I'm going to follow you up on. a couple
of instances here you went with rem and you went
with a slower song so some people will argue
that rem isn't underrated and you started off
with a slower tune so i'm going to follow you
up with a song that's also slow but with an artist
that to some people they might say who other
people might go what are you crazy and the people
that are going to say what are you crazy are
definitely those who are blues fans, because
I've already talked about this artist twice,
both on episode 55, the Ultimate Modern Blues
Rock Playlist with Jax Hollow, as well as episode
60, which was my interview with legendary blues
guitarist Walter Trout. And this artist guested
on the title track to Walter's new album, Broken,
and I'm going to go with Beth Hart. But I'm going
to go off of her 1999 album, Screaming for My
Supper. And I'm going to go with her only pop
radio hit, which reached number 90 on the Billboard
U .S. Hot 100. And I'm going to go with L .A.
Song, Out of This Town. Absolutely beautiful
pop rock ballad. And her voice is so stunning
and so soaring in this song. It blows my mind
that she didn't have more Billboard Hot 100 success.
the success and notoriety that she deserves through
the blues scene. So blues fans listening to this
episode are going to be kind of going, well,
Beth Hart's kind of a household name. And yes,
she is in the blues world, but in the pop rock
billboard, hot 100, this was her only visit there.
And I mean, look, she has got such an incredible
voice in 2022. She put out an album of all Led
Zeppelin covers and she just slayed it. But.
L .A.'s song just hits me every single time I
hear it on an emotional level and kind of the
same way Strange Currencies does. So I feel like
it's an answer to that song on several levels.
Well, that's a great tune and a great pick, too.
I think, like I said, you had texted me earlier
and you said, yeah, there's not one that really
cracked the top 40 here. And I started sweating
like that Key & Peele skit where he's got the
sweat pouring down and water dashing up. That
was me. All right, I'm not going to know a lot
of these, but yeah, what a fantastic song. And
yeah, that does follow up Strange Currencies
really, really well. And I know we talked about
Janet Jackson, talked a little bit about En Vogue
and having that female voice and how that distinction
is made between crossing genres for Janet and
En Vogue with the pop and rock world. And you're
talking about blues and rock and independent
alternative stuff as well, which is just, it
sums it all up nicely. Uh -huh. Well, that puts
me in a position. How do we follow that? Let's
start to ramp this up a little bit hotter. A
lot of the songs that I came up with, too, are
probably songs that you wouldn't have recognized
if not for the fact that they had come off of
really good soundtracks of decent movies. And
the 90s put out a lot of great music -related
soundtracks. And I'm looking right at you, Empire
Records. So we're going to talk a little bit
about Edwin Collins and Never Met a Girl Like
You. That song is very retro for what it was.
It had a really distinct sound to it that was
very retro, very, what you would say, 60s, right?
Like mid -late 60s. Yep. That rock feel of it.
And what a great song. You would, if not for
the Empire Records soundtrack, you probably wouldn't
have known that it existed and the popularity
of how that movie did. What a fantastic pick.
I love the Empire Records soundtrack. I actually
had Sugar High in my list as an underrated song
that really didn't get any airplay. So to me,
the underrated nature of that song was the fact
that it was in the movie. And anyone who's a
fan of the movie loves that song. It's the finale,
the band on top of Empire Records. And it just.
I love that song so much. A girl like you, this
played into this vibe that came out in the mid
nineties that urge overkill also helped usher
in when they did the cover of girl, you'll be
a woman soon. Yeah. The Neil diamond song for
Pulp Fiction. I feel like urge overkill and a
girl like you really go back to back. Well, absolutely.
And you know what? crap i'm just gonna do it
i'm gonna put urge overkill in next because that
those two back to back is a vibe and it's also
a soundtrack song and i'll be completely honest
jay this one wasn't even in my bank but as soon
as you mentioned edwin collins it was like girl
you'll be a woman soon has to come on next and
looking it up as we speak it only hit number
59 on the billboard us hot 100 so it falls into
my criteria so i didn't just do a 180 on myself
here so i'm very thankful for that but yeah i
absolutely love the pick and you can also kind
of go if you really wanted to dive into it tito
and tarantula back to the house that love built
from desperado you can go down that oh my gosh
another really under like we could totally do
like a 90 soundtrack thing similar to episode
uh 19 that I did with Ryan Pack from the Soundtrack
Your Life podcast. But yeah, I have to follow
up a girl like you with Urge Overkill's cover
of Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon. Well, now that
you've done that, that gives me a perfect place
for this next tune that I've picked. And it 100
% sums up the best of all worlds kind of thing,
where we're talking rap, R &B, maybe hip hop
and rock and roll as well. And I'm going back
to Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. Okay. With
their wild side because of the sample that they
took from the Velvet Underground, right? Yeah.
Wow. You're pulling the Marky. I'll be honest.
I did not expect that at all. But there is the
rock vibe using the Lou Reed Velvet Underground
sample. Now that to me, I think that was a top
10 hit regardless. But when people mention Marky
Mark and the Funky Bunch, they're going right
to Good Vibrations. So this is one of those songs
that might fall under that category of, did you
know there was another hit in the 90s? Because
I remember this video a lot, but as time has
looked back upon the Funky Bunch, I think it
is all Good Vibrations, and I feel like this
one does get overlooked. Well, I don't have anything.
I have almost 30 songs in my list, but I don't
have anything that's going to naturally flow
out of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. But this
is the second half of the side, so I could do
a little bit of a pivot here. And here's a sentence
that I never thought would come out of my mouth.
We're going to go from Marky Mark. I can't even
say it. We're going to go from Marky Mark and
the Funky Bunch to 1996. and the Squirrel Nut
Zippers. Let's Go Hell from 1996 is hot. It reached
number 13 on the alternative airplay charts,
but surprisingly, at least around the New York
area, this song was all over radio. Never cracked
the top 100. Shocking to me that that's the case.
And this song, definitely, there was that moment
in the 90s. where you had the Squirrel Nut Zippers.
And then when you really wanted to go more into
the swing, you had the Brian Setzer Orchestra.
You had Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Big Bad Voodoo
Daddy, Royal Crown Review. You had this movement
that I felt like came out of nowhere and left
just as quick. But Hell is one of those songs
that seemingly overstayed that movement. And
in 2010, ska punk band Streetlight Manifesto
covered that song for the 99 Songs of Revolution
Volume 1 album. And if you're a TV fan, Lucifer,
there was a episode called Bloody Celestial Karaoke
Jam, and the whole cast performed this song.
So it's still, and that was only back in 2021,
so this song is still relevant that many years
later. And I feel like this was Squirrel Nut
Zipper's I mean, they have amazing music, perennial
favorites. They have a lot of stuff post -Hell.
But I feel like in most people's musical lexicon,
Squirrel Nut Zipper starts and stops at Hell.
And that kind of sucks. So hopefully this will
get people going down that Spotify or Apple Music
rabbit hole and listening to some of the other
really incredible music they have. And yes, I
do want to fully concede. that in no way, shape,
or form does this make any sense coming out of
Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. No, I think I
did that on purpose. Bastard. But I think, but
it is such a great, you know, I kind of wanted
to piggyback off of what you were talking about,
that mid -90s, like smack dab 95, 96, there was
that period where you were getting Squirrel Nut
Zippers and Cherry Poppin' Daddies and Big Bad
Voodoo Daddy and all that. It's like a flash
in the pan kind of thing. And it could have been
so much more, but I think it morphed back into
the ska pop punk kind of era where you get your
gold finger here in your bedroom, which is the
song that I'm going to follow you up with. All
right. Okay. It's another great song. Great horns.
and some real good meat behind it. I could have
gone with Mighty Mighty Boss Tones, but I think
in terms of underrated, I think you couldn't
have gotten out of the door without getting bombarded
with the impression that I got. So I think Goldfinger
is a better choice there. Absolutely love this
band. John Feldman is a genius in the studio.
He's worked with everybody from Blink -182 to
Avril Lavigne, and he just knows. what that pop
punk sound is supposed to sound like. And he
did so much with Goldfinger. Goldfinger, to me,
is one of those bands, they're one of my favorites
from the scene. And John is definitely a bucket
list guest to have on My Weekly Mixtape at some
point, because I'd love to pick his brain about
what he's done in the studio, as well as what
he's done with Goldfinger. To me, this is one
of those bands that I didn't even consider for
underrated. Because I've listened to every single
one of their albums. I own their entire discography.
So in my world, I know so much. I've seen them
so many times live. They're at that level that
there's no way they could possibly be underrated.
As soon as you said it, I went, hmm. And I looked
at Here in Your Bedroom. And it only cracked
47 on the Hot 100. And that shocks me. Criminally
low. Absolutely shocks me. This band should be
massive. They're so much fun. I mean, you think
about songs like Superman and Mabel, and you
can go into Wasted from some of their more recent
albums. And the album they did with Travis Barker
on the drums, 2017's The Knife, they're just
as relevant as they were when they first came
out. So to me, never would I have thought to
put Goldfinger on here, but it's an absolutely
perfect pick. And what I'm going to do is I'm
going to keep this kind of upbeat vibe we've
got going out. I'm going to pull the horns out
of it, but I'm going to keep that pop punk indie
power pop element at play. And yes, it's kind
of all of that. This song is power pop perfection,
period. When I think of what a perfect power
pop song is. Across all decades. I go to Bye
Bye Love by The Cars. I go to Stacy's Mom by
Fountains of Wayne. And off of 1996's Regretfully
Yours, I go with Super Drags Sucked Out. That's
a great tune. It reached number 17 on the Billboard
Modern Rock Tracks chart. And that was it. And
this song is just power pop perfection. Was that
not used in American Pie? I know. james laid
was the big song from the american pie movies
and that's also my bank of songs tonight that
i might talk about at some point mine too spoiler
yeah maybe might be a spoiler there i don't remember
if sucked out was in it but it was that type
of vibe and that type of sound at that time where
if it wasn't it really should have been it's
one of those songs that as soon as it starts
your feet are tapping and you just feel Good.
Absolutely. It puts a smile on my face every
time I hear it, just like here in your bedroom
and just like hell. So coming out of Goldfinger's
here in your bedroom, who sucked out the feeling?
Superdrag. That is great. That's a great pick.
Again, that's another one of my favorites from
that era as well. And from there, I could go
in a couple of different directions with that.
I could stay in that genre, in that feel, or
I can take it in a different direction. and kind
of go off of that old 90s soundtrack magic. And
I think I may do that. I think I'm going to go
with Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitter. Oh! Now
that song, I did that song with the band up in
Albany with Even the Odd. And that song always
got huge movement. Everybody loved when we covered
that song. But mostly if you think about like,
there's not, again, you talk about, is it overrated?
Is it underrated? It's one of those songs that
in pockets, a lot, a lot of people will know
it, but don't know that they know it until they
hear it. I'll be perfectly honest with you. That
song was about to make my bank. And then I saw
it and I had to cut it. I had like 40 something
songs and I said, I need to narrow this down
somehow. And this one actually reached. number
38 so i use that as just a criteria to thin out
my playlist a little bit but this was definitely
in my bank my old cover band in the mid -2000s
used to play this song at the beginning of the
night because as soon as you did people's faces
would just light up with joy and the song is
just so catchy it's that power pop with a little
drop of punk that comes out of sucked out so
perfectly and I don't understand how Harvey Danger
didn't stick around at a bigger level after that
song, because this song was everywhere. And I
can tell you right now that there are bands throughout
at least the New Jersey area that are still playing
Flagpole Sitta at every show. It's got this timeless
energy to it. Right. I want to say the song had
something to do with disturbing behavior. It
might not have been in the movie, but I just
remember it. Something to do with that movie.
Maybe it was the trailers. They were pumping
that movie like crazy on MTV at the time. It's
typical of Hollyweird, right? To grab a song
and use it in their promotional material, but
it won't be on the soundtrack. But they've done
that many times before. So you're probably right.
Disturbing behavior. I do know that it was used
for the theme song of Peep Show, which was a
British sitcom, and was also later used on Scooby
-Doo 2 Monsters Unleashed. There's one scene
in that movie that my wife and I, to this day,
laugh at hysterically. I don't even know the
plot of the movie. We just remember this scene.
They were dealing with this haunted house or
something. shaggy and scooby walk into a room
and there's this ghost he's like i am the cotton
candy ghost and it's like scooby goes rotten
randy and then the ghost just gets this scared
look on his face and it cuts back to them and
they just like ate the whole ghost we watched
that with the kids recently and i laughed so
hard as if i had never seen it before because
i loved scooby -doo growing up as a kid so we
saw both the movies When they came out, because
that was like our childhood nostalgia coming
out. Sure. Anyway, Harvey danger flagpole SIDA.
There are still cover bands around New Jersey
right now playing this song every weekend. There's
a timeless energy to it. And I think to close
outside a, I am going to go with a song that
was kind of the basis for me wanting to put this
episode together because I was listening to the
album and I think it's what I actually texted
you. A picture of the album being like, dude,
when's the last time you heard this? And I'm
going to go back to 1996. This song reached number
14 on the U .S. Modern Rock Chart. And they had
another single from the album, Down Together,
hit number 38. But I'm going off of 1996's Fizzy
Fuzzy Big and Buzzy. I'm going with the Refreshments
Banditos to close out Side A. This group only
had three full -length albums. They had the independently
released Wheelie, Fizzy Fuzzy, and then 1997's
The Bottle and Fresh Horses. Unfortunately, the
refreshments are no more, but they live through
Roger Klein and the Peacemakers, who have definitely
revisited refreshment songs throughout the years.
An incredible artist, incredible songwriter.
This was an incredible album. That, to me, was,
as a whole, one of the biggest underrated albums
of the 90s. And I'm just going to go with the
song that hopefully would be the most familiar
to anybody who's not a refreshments fan. And
if you go back and you're listening to this and
you go, Oh, I remember banditos. I liked that
song. You have to give the entire fizzy, fuzzy,
big and buzzy a listen because it is just an
absolute gem of an album. And I think the perfect
exclamation point to close outside a, we have
talked about this song, particularly in this
band and how underrated they have been. It is
criminal. How. Unfortunately, the band did not
take off to the stratosphere like they should
have. Because you're right, Fizzy Fuzzy Big and
Buzzy was a damn good album. I remember that
was one of the first or second records that I
added as a programming director at the time when
the station flipped formats out. And it was,
I said, this song is awesome. And everybody else
kind of poo -pooed it. Said, I don't know. It's
kind of. All right, we'll see. And unfortunately
I was wrong. It didn't go anywhere, but it was
a great song. It really was. I love every note
of banditos is such a, is one of my, one of the
special places in my musical heart. Yeah. The
entire album to me, that's one of those ones
that if I put it on, I have to listen to the
whole thing all the way through. And anytime
one song from it comes on for me. When my playlist
is going at random, I find myself ending the
randomness of my playlist and going and putting
the album on from the beginning. Yeah. Because
anytime I get a chance to listen to it all the
way through, it's like, let me take this opportunity.
It's that good. Definitely. Well, there you have
it, folks. Side A of our ultimate 90s underrated
rock mixtape, which kicked off with R .E .M.'s
Strange Currencies. Beth Hart's L .A. song, Out
of This Town. Edwin Collins, A Girl Like You,
Urge Overkill's Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon,
Mark... He can't say it with a straight face,
kids. Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch's Wild Side.
Look, if it didn't have the Lou Reed sample in
the song, I would have probably called... I was
about to say, I would have pulled the veto card
on that. I've never done it before. But you got
me with Lou Reed. But back to the songs. Squirrel
Nut Zippers Hell, Goldfingers Here in Your Bedroom,
Super Drag Sucked Out, Harvey Danger's Flagpole
Sitta, and The Refreshments Banditos. Head over
to myweeklymixtape .com to hear all the songs
we've discussed in this mix through the playlist
embedded on the episode page. And now, Jay, I
get the honor to kick off Side B, and I'm going
to bring a little bit more rock. We started off
side A on a mellow note. Yes. I want to go to
the opposite of that. I want to get people's
energy and adrenaline pumping right from the
get -go. And I'm going to go with a song by a
band that it's my favorite song from this band,
but it's not their biggest hit. And the song
came out in 96 and reached number 64 on the Billboard
Hot 100. However, two years earlier, in 1994,
They had two different songs hit number 55 and
number 41, respectively, on the Billboard charts.
So all three of these very popular songs were
top 100 hits, but none were a top 40, which makes
my cutoff. The two songs that made number 55
and number 41, respectively, were Molly, 16 Candles,
and Plowed. The band I'm talking about is Sponge.
But the song I'm going with is Wax -A -Static.
To sell Angelina, the title track of 1996 is
Wax -A -Static. I know Jason Whistle from the
It's Not That Bad and There Can Only Be One podcast
is a huge fan of New Pop Sunday. Sponge is still
going strong to this day. To me, it's one of
those bands that when people think of rotting
pinata, they think of it being one of those very
popular, almost seminal 90s albums. judging by
the numbers they were not they did not have a
top 40 hit so they reached my criteria for underrated
and wax ecstatic's just my favorite song by them
so it's a great song the the guitar intro riff
is amazing and it hits you right in the chest
that drum beat coming in right out of it that
absolutely like yeah and again we i mentioned
this now this is the third song i think it's
criminal how badly they did not take off molly
is i i gotta Maybe it's because of the nostalgia
about Molly Ringwald. Maybe it's that that kind
of puts that on a different level for me. But
that song is so good that you can't. How do you
not snap your fingers and say you make it in
love? They're a great band across the board.
I just don't feel like they got as much push
as they should have. And they had the ammunition
to back that up. The three songs that were top
100 hits, I feel like should have been higher.
Agreed. It blew my mind that none of these three
were top 40 hits. The only thing I can say that
maybe was a factor is the fact that it was a
crowded market at the time. And there were so
many great bands in that vein that there's only
so many numbers that you can have. Right. And
just like... All eras and all decades, Billboard's
Hot 100 is filled with a lot of pop and a lot
of R &B. But being we're keeping this on the
rock side of things, you really needed to cut
through a lot of different genres to crack that
top 40 as a rock band, which, as we're seeing
tonight, is not as easy as it sounds. Definitely.
Because the top 40 was... Overrun by Mariah Carey,
Boyz II Men, all of these endless strings of
number one hits. Rock music was as a whole underrated
in the 90s. At least judging by the Billboard
Hot 100's lens. That's right. Because you can't
look at anybody and be like Nirvana's Nevermind
is an underrated album. That just sounds weird
coming out of my mouth. But when you compare
it to the album sales that were happening for
the biggest R &B pop. dance, and even country
Garth Brooks. Right. Right. You even want to
go achy, breaky heart. These were crossover songs
that the rock music really had to work extra
hard to cut through. And sponge is just one of
those ones that didn't. And therefore are underrated
to me. Agreed. Agreed. Well, coming out of that,
Brian, I say we can go, I can go. I have two
tunes that I'm looking at right now that I really
want to really would be remiss if this wasn't
included on this list. So it's dependent on how.
They're both kind of down -tempo -ish tunes,
and both a little bit dark, but one's a little
bit darker than the other. And I think I might
go, let's go down that road for a minute and
visit The Possum Kingdom by the Toadies. Oh!
When that song popped on the radio, I thought
to myself, this cannot be good. The subject matter
is a little bit, a little dark, makes me a little
nervous, but... The song itself is simplicity.
It's got those great dark, crunchy chords. And
the lead singer vocalizations over that, it doesn't
really get into the really great part of the
song until it gets to the chorus of, I can promise
you I will treat you well, my sweet angel, so
help me Jesus. Mm -hmm. Yeah. And it just soars.
His voice is great. It's perfect for the song.
And I think that song encapsulates the Toadies.
Really, really well. Could not agree more. My
old cover band in the 2000s used to play this
song again. First set right around when I had
mentioned Flagpole Siddha, the Toadies. God,
I remember in our set lists, we used to go from
Toadies Possum Kingdom directly into Wheatus'
Teenage Dirtbag. However, that came out in 2000,
so I can't use it in this list. Right. So I'm
going to go with another song that I think taps
into that same energy. where the music is upbeat
and happy, but the lyrical nature is a little
darker. And it's a song that is by a group that
this is definitely their biggest hit, reached
number five on the Billboard Modern Rock chart
and number 27 on the Billboard Mainstream chart.
And it's a group that I think just overall is
criminally underrated once again. From 1992's
Puzzle, we're going to go with Dada and Disneyland.
D -I -Z -Z -K -N -E -E. And then you know how
to spell land. So you didn't get sued. Exactly.
But that song was just so, when you listen to
the lyrics, it's this really catchy indie rock
tune with these really depressing, sad lyrics.
There was a perfect musical yin and yang and
the push and pull between the upbeat nature of
the song and its tone. is similar to that of
the toadies possum kingdom, while maybe a little
less visceral in the chorus. It's definitely
a little bit more, I don't want to say soft,
but it's definitely more, it's not as heavy as
the toadies possum kingdom, but it's definitely
stays down that vein. And musically, I think
coming out of sponge into toadies into Dada is
definitely telling a story here on side B so
far. I love it. I love it. So we're, we're, Coming
out of a Disneyland, and we can still talk about
a little bit, you know, we could stay in that
groove a little bit that we've got established
here. How about, this is a band that I think
also should have gone much further than it did.
When I think, this might be a stretch, but in
my brain, when I think of this band, I'm thinking
about how they were kind of almost miscategorized,
almost like a Cinderella, where they kind of
got lumped into the hair metal era, but they
were so much more than that. And I think when
you think of a meat puppets band, they are not
your classic quote unquote alternative band.
They just were like the cult very much. So like
a real grungy rock band. And I'm going with Blackwater.
Yes. Thank you. Somebody had to say it, right?
This was definitely on my list. Meat puppets
have a massive. discography their first album
came out in 1982 their most recent album was
i want to say 2019 they have a massive discography
of music but it was them working with nirvana
on the unplugged special that really kind of
pulled them into the alternative mtv universe
and then 94 is too high to die capitalized on
it and they became kind of part of that scene
12 years into the band's run yeah so to meet
puppet fans it's ridiculous that we're saying
this because they're still at it and doing amazing
things however in the grand scheme of music in
the 90s this song is friggin underrated as hell
absolutely it's one of those ones that i bet
you there's some people that are going i don't
think i've ever heard this song but as soon as
you hear that guitar riff you're like oh wait
a minute i remember this i didn't know this was
who did that because it was all over radio at
the time exactly and i think what i'm going to
do to follow that up is i'm going to bring it
slightly down but kind of in the same vibe in
the same era and we talked about harvey danger's
flagpole city being attached to the disturbing
behavior trailers i'm going to go with a song
that specifically from the Disturbing Behavior
soundtrack, as well as the band's 1998 album,
Holiday Man. And I'm going to go with The Fly's
Got You Where I Want You. Reach number four on
the US bubbling under Hot 100 singles chart.
This song mixed that alternative rock sound with,
I don't even know what you call it at the end,
this kind of reggae kind of... sublime type delivery
over heavy guitars and the riff is so simplistic
and so repetitive the song is e to a that's it
and yet it's hypnotizing and it pulls you in
slowly the song continuously builds and the vocals
the falsetto hits in the chorus it kind of brings
you in and out of this driving verse into this
beautiful chorus then into this reggae over heavy
guitars into this big bombastic closing this
song covered a lot of ground and i'm shocked
that with the movie exposure and the soundtrack
exposure that the flies didn't do more and got
you where i want you is just a hell of a tune
so i think coming out of backwater it's a nice
fit as well yeah i like it a lot i um again you
mentioned Holiday Man in 1998, Disturbing Behavior
starring, was it James Marsden was in that from
X -Men? Very, very cool. And then when you follow
up, they had their second single, She's So Huge,
right? Adam Paskowitz, his voice is unbelievable
and it fit in that genre perfectly. Yeah, She's
So Huge did a little bit of damage on the alternative
airplay charts, but it was nothing. Compared
to the punch that Got You Where I Want You was.
So She's So Huge would also fit under that possibly
two hit wonders. That's right. Category. Because
this would be the forgotten hit. I have Holiday
Man. I think the entire album is actually really
good. And they did put out another album after
Holiday Man. Only two years later, it was called
Out of My Way, I think. And then that was it,
unfortunately. great band great song and uh kind
of leaving you for the second half of this side
you can kind of take this in any direction you
want i think because the song ends kind of heavy
kind of upbeat a little bit we're coming out
of the slower backwater kind of mid -tempo -y
type thing you can kind of bring it down more
you could start working it back up for the second
half of side b here I think you mentioned a band
that I want to use. And another one of them that
I had kind of an inkling flash across my head
on side A of this fantastic tape. I think that
this band had some really good songs to come
out. This one, I think, was relatively overlooked.
And it's unfortunate what has happened to this
band. And that plays no small factor into it.
you know, the lead singer is no longer with us,
but still the music is really good. And we were
talking about, uh, songs like super drag sucked
out. And I think this song fits perfectly next
to a song like that. So this is a good place
to kind of put this back into the mix. We're
going to talk about sublimes wrong way. Ooh.
Okay. I absolutely love the song. It's another
one of those, you know, dark lyrics and dark
subject matter, but the. The tone is poppy and
very bouncy, and you've got that ska pop punk
kind of feel to it. So it's a great way to kind
of take the side of the tape to the next level.
I absolutely love this pick, and Sublime was
tragically cut short. I feel like Sublime would
have been one of the biggest bands of the 90s,
especially the latter half, into the 2000s. Had
Bradley Knoll not sadly passed. I feel like this
has been a very long time coming. Sublime has
still been around. They've been doing the thing
with Rome for many years. Sure. Just this past
December, Sublime reunited with, are you ready
for it? Jacob Knoll, Bradley's son, is now singing
for Sublime. And if you look at some of the videos
that are out of what they did. sublime is back
and oh my god he brings the same nuances that
his father had with a youthful energy to it i
think sublime is going to come back big time
i really just they've always been a fantastic
group i've loved everything they've done with
rome and i know they're doing some shows throughout
2024 as like farewell to sublime with rome and
sublime is now popping up on festivals with jacob
on vocals and I'm here for it. I mean, look,
if you're going to continue the legacy, why not
Bradley's son? Definitely. You can't get better
than that. So I love this pick. And coming out
of it, I'm going to go with one that's not necessarily,
I'm going to pull the ska part out of this. And
this song was originally recorded in 1995 for
the band's Bumper to Bumper album. but then became
popular four years later in 1999 when the band
re -recorded the track for Nasty Little Thoughts.
You might remember this group as the band who
sang Kick Some Ass and Jay and Silent Bob's Strike
Back, but we are going back to 1999. The song
reached number four on the U .S. bubbling under
Hot 100 singles. Stroke 9, Little Black Backpack.
So much fun. This is one of those songs, again,
it features that falsetto that I talked about
in The Fly's Got You Where I Want You. And we
mentioned Wheatus. Obviously, they're not in
the 90s. But that falsetto that was worked into
alternative music towards the latter half of
the decade. Stroke 9 does it so well. This song's
got the off time for the verses and then just
the happy -go -lucky bouncy chorus. Colburn and
Company's played this song randomly over the
years. And if the audience is our age, you see
at least half the room light up like, oh my God,
I haven't heard this song in so long. And they
know every single word to it. And to me, I wish
more people did because kick some ass is a great
song. Vacuum bag. Stroke nine is a great band.
And the fact that they never cracked the top
100 again, shocks me. Absolutely. Little black
backpack. That's a great tune as a great pick.
And yeah, a lot of people. A lot of the indie
culture knows kick some ass and not necessarily
the stroke stroke nines. Yeah, they're just they're
supremely underrated bands completely. And we
could we could talk to Jim Santoro about that
all day. I'm sure he would he would agree with
us on that. Yeah. Jim is the author of the underrated
rock book and the underrated rock book, too.
You know, he has been on the show before. Obviously,
he's that when he sees this episode out there,
he's going to be like, guys. The hell, man. I
am still over here. We will definitely be having
Jim back on again soon, but obviously be sure
to check out those books if you want to read
about a lot of great underrated rock albums.
But Jay, what are you going to come out a little
black backpack with? I'm going to take a hard
left here. It's not quite the Marky Mark and
the Funky Bunch hard left, but I'm going to go
in a bit of a different direction. We're going
to keep that poppy feel with the light kind of
bounce to it. And let's go back to Big Audio
Dynamite and Rush. Whoa. It's another one of
those early 90s tunes that, you know, was used
all over the place, I'm sure, in all sorts of
trailers and commercials and such. And it's got
the fallout of the rift between The Clash and,
you know, how Joe Strummer decided that they
were going to do a more pop thing versus a more
punk thing. We ended up with Big Audio Dynamite.
That we did. This is a group that was, I'll just
go ahead and say it, ahead of its time. I think
this song did crack the top 40, though. I'm pretty
sure it did. Yeah, I was not, in full honesty,
in 1991, I was not listening to as much Big Audio
Dynamite as I was Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers,
Pearl Jam, Nirvana. I was, as a freshman in high
school, in that phase of life. Looking back,
I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of mad at myself
because this is a great album. And when I discovered
it a few years later, I realized what I had missed
out on. But coming out of it, I have two songs
I want to go with here because this is my last
pick of the night. Do I lean into that dancey
kind of vibe? Or do I pull it back to the rock
side of things? Just a little bit. Either way,
I have an answer. I mean, help me out, Jay. What
would you do in this situation? Would you lean
into the dance or would you pivot back to the
rock? Help me out. Because I'm literally 100
% torn on these two songs. I love them both.
I don't know, man. I don't think we've got enough
dance on this record yet. I would lean a little
bit more to that side, I guess. Okay, so then
I'm going to say the song that I was going to
because people would be like, what the hell was
the other one? So the other one. There's already
a full episode of My Weekly Mixtape dedicated
to this artist, so I don't feel as guilty. I
was going to put Letters to Cleo's Here and Now
from 1995's Aurora Goriales. Yep. Episode 44,
Kay Hanley and I had just such an amazing discussion.
If you're a fan of Letters to Cleo, please, please,
please go check out that episode. Check out their
new music. Kay is a national treasure. Let me
stroke My Weekly Mixtape for a minute because
that interview was fantastic and I loved listening.
to her and then talking about her interactions
with Adam Schlesinger and the, I mean the, the
emotion that came out of that. Just so good.
Well, thank you, man. Yeah. That, that whole
interview, that was one of my, honestly, one
of my favorite moments as a podcaster. That interview
was just on another level. Yeah. You should be
proud of my man. That was a good one. Thank you.
All right. So with a hundred percent love going
out to letters to Cleo, I'll lean into the dance.
And this is, I had mentioned this at the top
of the show. Cause you had said you had pop and
dance in your mind. This was the song that to
me blurs the line between rock and dance came
out in 1996. And this band had two hits from
this album. They had one track called drop dead
gorgeous, which reached number 93 on the U S
billboard hot 100. But I'm going to go with the
song that reached number 56. And I'm going to
go with Republic is ready to go. Now, this is
a song that you hear in stadiums. You hear it
in sports promos. You hear it in movie trailers
and movies, TV shows. When you hear the song,
most people are going to go, oh, I know this
from this or from that or from here or from there
because the song is everywhere. Yet, I don't
think people talk about this song as much as
they should. The song didn't even crack the top
40, and yet it's a stadium anthem. Oh, yeah.
It was on Jock Rock, right? Or Jock Jams? Yeah,
that was on Jock Jams Volume 3. So here's the
song that's kind of rock because you've got that
and you got the acoustic guitar in the beginning,
but it's up against songs like Tribal Dance by
2 Unlimited and Come on, Ride the Train by Quad
City DJs. And it worked as a Jock Jam, but it
also worked as an alternative rock song. Yep.
Because of the acoustic guitar and her voice
is so just perfect. It had that little bit of
raspiness, a little bit of distortion to it.
Almost sounded like she was singing through a
megaphone at times. I love that effect in the
90s. And this is one of those songs that you
could play in a dance club and a rock club and
pull it off seamlessly. So as my last contribution
tonight, coming out of Big Audio Dynamite, we're
going to go with Republic is Ready to Go. That's
fantastic. It's a great, great band overlooked.
Big time. I think, again, if you're a sports
fanatic of any kind, you've come across that
song, at least snippets of it. We rocked that
song hard in the college days back when they
flipped formats back from Alternative to Top
40. So, you know, it was a great record. And
it really, I'm not ashamed to say, I would use
that before tests. I'd get pumped up. You know,
that was my pump -up mix tape that I would listen
to before tests. Okay. And I should probably
point out. to our friends listening in the UK,
they might be throwing their hands up in the
air because Republica is from the UK and they
are a lot bigger there than they are here in
the US. So this is definitely coming from a underrated
in the US perspective because I think that, I
mean, they have a greatest hits album out. So
they probably are a lot bigger in the UK and
a lot more widely known. So to our friends that
are listening in the UK, I apologize. But here
in the US, they are criminally underrated. You
can throw a band like that, you know, like a
Republica in with the Chumbawamba, right? Because,
again, they're huge over in England and they
didn't make it over here, which is unfortunate
because that song, everybody knows that song.
Everybody knows Tub Thumbing. Yeah, but the thing
is, tub thumping is not indicative of Chumbawamba
as a band at all. And I think that's the problem.
They did not have another tub thumping because
that's not what Chumbawamba is as a band. That's
right. That's the issue there. Very much like
how we've kind of hinted at Smash Mouth with
Walking on the Sun, how that was just a complete
departure from the rest of their sound. I'm going
to be perfectly honest, Jay, when you were leading
up to Sublime's Wrong Way and you talked about
the singer passing, I really thought you were
talking about Smash Mouth's Walking on the Sun
because everybody knows All -Star in the 2000s.
But this was pre -All -Star. And at the time,
Walking on the Sun was a very underrated rock
radio staple. Yep. And then, of course, they
did the entirety of the Shrek soundtracks. Yes.
Yes. And rest in peace, Steve. So, you know,
but also it kind of feels like Sugar Ray. Sugar
Ray did a total 180 from Lemonade and Brownies
into Fly and Every Morning. That's right. And
all the other stuff they did post Lemonade and
Brownies. Mean Machine and Rhyme Stealer are
a completely different band. Sugar Ray toured
with Korn. Yeah, that's crazy to me. Prior to
Sugar Ray going out with Pop Axe. And it's such
a 180. I think we talked about that on TuneStyle's
second episode, Musical 180s. That's definitely
one of them. So Jay, now, we have talked about
19 different, unique, underrated 90s artists,
and you get to close things out. What Marky Mark
and the Funky Bucks sound? And why is it good
vibrations? No, you'd go with You Gotta Believe
if you're going to pick another underrated Marky
Mark song. I would probably pick something from
his Steel Dragon era. I don't know. No, it's
a tough one. Honey, what are we coming out of
Republica with? That's a high -energy, up -tempo
song. You know, I really want to go with Matthew
Sweet here. No relation. But I don't know if
I want to go with Girlfriend or if I want to
go with Sick of Myself. Because both of them
were criminally underrated songs. That's going
to be our catchphrase for tonight. You know what?
Let's go with Sick of Myself just because it
has that drive to it. I love that song. One of
my first college bands covered that. I love playing
bass to that one. There is a real groove to that
song. And you and I are both big Bowling for
Soup fans. Yep. They do a great cover of it.
I'm Sick of Myself is just one of those songs
that I think had its moment on top 40 radio,
but didn't truly represent how amazing of an
artist Matthew Sweet is. Because Girlfriend was
just, again, such another unique, incredible
song. And he's done so much since then. Yeah.
But 100 % Fun was really his biggest dabble.
With the charts as it reached number two on the
Billboard Modern Rock charts. I think you're
right. But even then, it wasn't much. And how
he's so consistently amazing. It's, again, crowded
market. And, you know, there are only so many
top 40 slots to hand out. But you get he was
on that the mid 90s. They did cartoons. Like,
they got a bunch of Saturday morning cartoon
soundtracks. And he did the Scooby -Doo theme
song. Yeah, that is one of my absolute favorite
90s compilations between his version of Scooby
-Doo's Where Are You? You had Sponge, somebody
we talked about at the beginning of the side,
doing Go Speed Racer Go. You had Julianna Hatfield
doing Josie and the Pussycats. You had the Ramones
doing Spider -Man. Violent Femmes doing Eep Op
Ork Aha means I love you from the Jetsons. We
also talked about Sublime in this side. They
did Hong Kong Fooey. You had Face to Face doing
the punk cover of I'm Popeye the Sailor Man and
Dig doing Fat Albert's theme, which Dig was actually
in my list as well tonight. Oh, very cool. We
didn't get to it. And then finally you had Wax
doing Happy Happy Joy Joy. Seriously, this compilation
is 90s. alternative rock perfection because it's
just oozing with nostalgia, but felt so fresh
and modern. You could rock it from start to finish.
Talk about an underrated compilation of the nineties.
This is just frigging amazing. Yeah, definitely.
Totally sidebarred with that, but there you have
it, folks. Side B of our ultimate underrated
90s rock songs mixtape, which kicked off with
Sponge's Wax -A -Static to sell Angelina, Toadie's
Possum Kingdom, Dada's Disneyland, Neat Puppet's
Backwater, The Fly's Got You Where I Want You,
Sublime's Wrong Way, Stroke Nine's Little Black
Backpack, Big Audio Dynamite's Rush, Republica's
Ready to Go, and Matthew Sweets, Sick of Myself,
No Relation to Jay. Head over to myweeklymixtape
.com to hear all the songs we've discussed in
this mix through the playlist embedded on the
episode page. Jay, as always a blast. I'll get
working on that jacket. I'm going to see if maybe
I could start knitting something out of yarn
or whatever. I'll figure something out. That'll
work great for Chicago weather. Yeah. Thank you
for being a five -time guest. Looking forward
to six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Well, thanks
for having me back on my friend. It's always
a pleasure. And as proven before, we could just
sit here and talk music all day. Yeah. I think
81 episodes of tune styles would prove that.
And then some, but thank you again, dude, looking
forward to the next time. And to everyone out
there listening, remember you can find my weekly
mixtape on almost all the social media haunts
at. My Weekly Mixtape. You can also head to myweeklymixtape
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again for listening, and until next time, enjoy
the tunes.