After having lived through the resurrection of the music of first the 70s, then the 80s, I’m finally starting to see a revival of the music of the 90s.
Not grunge, though; something more exciting than that. Something I feel was lost in the explosion of grunge and industrial bands in the mid-90s: a more personal and experimental music, music that was quirky and strange, full of distortion, but not aggressive.
I’m thinking of the time period from about 1988 through 1993, when a series of bands came out (Pavement, the Pixies, the Meat Puppets) that made jangly, weird music. In another universe, their music would have formed the core of 90s alternative, and bands like Limp Bizkit might never have been inflicted on us.
So it warms the cockles of my old cynical heart to hear that kind of music being made again. A slew of younger bands have released albums that fit right into that early-90s mold, for example: Speedy Ortiz, The Joy Formidable, and Parquet Courts
Here’s hoping the revival lasts, and I get to hear what might have dominated the 90s had the Seattle Sound not crushed everything else under its Doc Martens.
