The Nineties End All Over Again

There was a time when I would have greeted news of a Lollapalooza cancellation with the mocking indifference we used to bring to all things back in the 20th century's terminal decade. And to have touted the new tour lineup, a walker brigade featuring Morrissey, Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips, and the reunited Pixies, would have been merely to speak of the past and its phantoms. But truly a cultural moment has passed, or more likely been fulfilled, when the alt.rock fans of Generation X, listless and underachieving to the last, can't even muster enough interest to keep Perry Farrell's barge afloat. Is there to be no second act for the icons of the nineties? No last-minute Perot/Stockdale ticket in '04? A boy's will is the wind's will, and the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts. Lamar(!), Donna Tartt, Kriss Kross, Lorena Bobbitt, Felix Trinidad, Jaye Davidson—we shall not see your like again.

Comments

[dude]

Lousy slackers. Now take the boomers, they can keep their dinosaur bands going for decades. I mean Steve Miller still comes to town every summer. And that "bye bye american pie" guy. When did he have that one hit anyway, 30 years ago? Every summer like the crickets they're here.

Sort of would have liked to see Morissey actually, but I'm afraid the "no new crap!" impulse would be too great.

[Ken Shultz]

"Morrissey, Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips, and the reunited Pixies"

Who doesn't belong in that list? It's Sonic Youth; they're still fresh people. They played a live set on KCRW a couple of weeks ago just before they played LA; it was great. I never get tired of their old stuff, and the new stuff is still fresh.

P.S. They're still fresh.

[TWC]

Boomers and dinos is right, dude. We got it goin' on.

Zipping across Utah at an illegal pace an evening or two ago (with a silent radar detector) I finally ran out of gas in Mesquite Nevada (me not the truck--used to be able to drive all night).

Since room rates were cheap I booked one. As I was carrying the snoozing cherubs (yeah we got a late start) into the room I noticed a life size poster announcing that no less than PAUL REVERE AND THE RAIDERS wuz booked at the Casa Blanca Hotel in Mesquite for the 4th of July. Get Down!

Oh, wait, no that was the 3rd of July. They'll be in Fountain Hills Az on the 4th (don't worry, FH is upscale enuff for any long haired drug crazed hippie freak turned SUV driving upper middle class chardonnay drinking stiff).

Although I have to admit that Mesquite is a step up from Laughlin (dude, that place has grown) and that the frikkin' Indians, even with Donald, can't compete with Vegas for plain ass pizazz (not to mention the rest of Nevada), it still must be quite a come down to be strummin' the guitar at a casino in Mesquite while day dreaming of the days of wine and roses.

And hey, Don McClean is a great artist. Saw him at The Troubador in 1969.

If you don't think so, I refer you to two of his classic pieces. The Grave and Everybody Loves Me Baby.

[Kraorh]

Fortunately, "Curiosa," the traveling festival headlined by none other than the Cure, is selling strong, and will be near a town near you soon. See also Interpol, Melissa Auf der Mauer, and Mogwai. Maybe not star-studded as Lollapaloolza, but hey, this will only be one evening, not a two-day onslaught. Also, tickets don't cost in excess of $50.

[twc]

Now pay attention here (hear that in a Foghorn Leghorn voice). Alla yu war hating anti-imperialist libertarians lissun up. Don Mc Clean wrote this song for you. It is a staple at our 4th of July bashes.

Pay careful attention to the part where he says the "anarchists are all enslaved" (US Representative Ed Royce really liked that line) and "when land is seized in the people's name".

Everybody Loves Me Baby

One, two, three, four!

Fortune has me well in hand, armies 'wait my command

My gold lies in a foreign land buried deep beneath the sand

The angels guide my ev'ry prayer, my enemies are sick or dead

But all the victories I've led haven't brought you to my bed

CHORUS:

You see, everybody loves me, baby, what's the matter with you? Won'tcha tell me what did I do to offend you?

Now the purest race I've bred to be to live in my democracy

And the highest human pedigree awaits the first-born boy baby

And my face on ev'ry coin engraved, the anarchists are all enslaved

My own flag is forever waved by the grateful people I have saved

CHORUS:

You see, everybody loves me, baby, what's the matter with you?

Won'tcha tell me what did I do to offend you?

Now, no man is beyond my claim when land is seized in the people's name

By evil men who rob and maim, if war is hell, I'm not to blame!

Why, you can't blame me, I'm Heaven's child, I'm the second son of Mary mild

And I'm twice removed from Oscar Wilde, but he didn't mind, why, he just smiled

Yes, and the ocean parts when I walk through, and the clouds dissolve and the sky turns blue

I'm held in very great value by everyone I meet but you

'cause I've used my talents as I could, I've done some bad, I've done some good

I did a whole lot better than they thought I would so, c'mon and treat me like you should!

Because everybody loves me, baby, what's the matter with you?

Won'tcha tell me what did I do to offend you?

[Jim Murphy]

Plain and simple--with the exception of Sonic Youth and the Pixies (who were playing only limited dates if I remember correctly) the lineup sucked. The two day format was a bad idea from the start--I attended all of the previous Lollapalooza events and a couple of years the ticket was subtitled "Take the Day off with Lollapalooza". If they're expecting me to take *two* days off, they've got to do better in terms of the lineup.

I'm much more excited to see the aforementioned Cure show and Ozzfest, which features (in addition to the ageless freak of nature that is Ozzy) Slayer, Judas Priest reunited with longtime lead singer Rob Halford, and a number of solid, up and coming bands.

I think this was more of a case of a bad product being roundly rejected by the marketplace than any sort of death knell for 90's nostalgia....

[Julian Sanchez]

Harsh on the Flaming Lips there, no Tim? Their last one made my rotation for a few weeks, still gets put on occasionally.

[Mackey]

Mojo Nixon + Summerfest = Very Good Times.

Added bonus: pirogis!

[pdf]

Fuck Lollapalooza. I went to the first one, skipped all the others. If PJ Harvey tours by herself, though, I'll go.

I will be at Ozzfest this summer, headbanging and throwing the horns up with all the other gray-haired metalheads whose dreams have finally come true. (Halford back with Priest, another original-four-members Sabbath reunion, and Slayer on the same bill? That's even better than the Iron Maiden/Motorhead/Dio bill I saw at Madison Square Garden last year.)

[Lisa Simpson]

"Lamar(!), Donna Tartt, Kriss Kross, Lorena Bobbitt, Felix Trinidad, Jaye Davidson?we shall not see your like again."

I'm solidly GenX (b. 1973) and I don't know who any of these people are, besides LB and Kriss Kross (not to be confused with Red(d?) Kross of the dumb-amusing 1991 B-movie Spirit of '76). Too many to Google so I shall probably remain ignorant. Oh, and Kriss Kross-type groups, we shall always see their like.

[Vigilance Matters]

Gen X's quit paying for music years ago. We went from "I want my MTV" to "I want my MP3" in record (45, not LP) time.

Blame Jello. And Perry? Get a real job!

[B.P.]

Help is on the way, backward-lookers -- VH1 will be premiering "I Love the 90's" on July 12. Nostalgia sure doesn't have much of a turnaround time anymore.

[kevrob]

It is at times like this that "it could only be worse in Milwaukee" is double-plus-untrue.

Summerfest starts on June 24. Ten days of tunes. http://www.summerfest.com

A wonderful non-profit rents the Festival Park from the city, and squeezes sponsorship dollars out of every conceivable company. A day-pass is $11.00, when it isn't discounted or even free. Sure, if you want a seat at the Ampitheatre for the headlining act, you pay extra, but those prices are lower than the same acts get on the other legs of their tours, and the bands topping the bills at the other stages are great, too. If I feel like seeing Prince on Thursday, I can get a lawn seat for $25, but I may just go see Liz Phair for nothing extra. Other "side stage acts" I might check on: Shelby Lynne, Los Lobos, Fountains of Wayne...

I love summer.

Kevin

[joe]

The thing is, BP, none of those bands were actually popular in the 90s.

[ron]

another vote for ozzfest here. considering its actually the first time ozzfest has even had a good lineup... its a fucking AMAZING lineup. not a bad band on the main stage this year, although i could take or leave superjoint ritual.

tickets are fucking expensive as a motherfuck though.

[John]

Maybe this means that Gen X will actually get lives and not live in the past like the babyboom. Lets be honest, a lot of these bands just weren't that great. How many people actually listen to their Pixies records anymore? How many people actually ever bought a Flaming Lips record? Even if you did, do you still want to spend $80 to sit in the hot sun and see them now? Most of these guys were lucky to play in tune when they were in their prime. Good ridence.

[Franklin Harris]

"Lamar(!), Donna Tartt, Kriss Kross, Lorena Bobbitt, Felix Trinidad, Jaye Davidson?we shall not see your like again."

Not so fast. VH1, the network where today is yesterday, will air "I Love the '90s" next month.

Some say it's too soon, but I'm just waiting for "I Love May 14th, 2002."

[grylliade]

A week ago I got to see Cracker/Camper van Beethoven perform at a little club here in Knoxville, for $12 a ticket. They were just kicking off a new tour; don't know where else they'll be stopping, or if anyone else actually likes these bands. But it's well worth seeing. It's just Dave Lowery, Johnny Hickman, and Jonathan Segel ? no drums, mainly two or three guitars and a violin ? but it's a lot of fun to see these guys in concert.

[hilly]

wellfellow and joe: I'll swallow my usual overheated retorts and Bjork/Einar comparisons (Bjork's still quite with us, and I was listening to The Sugarcubes in 1988) and, in the interest of promoting cross-Pixie-fan-comity, submit that personal friction caused by Black's self-promotion may have killed the band.

That's not to impugn his worth as a musical artist; he's just not so much my cup of tea. I still think Deal's work with both the Breeders and the Amps is better than Black's material. This is, mind you, the girl who's sang with Sonic Youth and has produced Guided By Voices.

[Julian Sanchez]

Eh, I think that with the exception of Morrisey, the claim that these are "80s bands" misfires. Yeah, the Lips formed in the 80s, but except Yoshimi, even more recent, all their stuff I still listen to (Clouds Taste Metallic; Soft Bulletin) is from the 90s. Surfer Rosa was 88, and Doolittle (still the best Pixies album for my money) was 89, so they were definitely still fresh in the early 90s, and there were plenty of wide-eyed high school kids who only discovered them around the same time as, say, Weezer. Sonic Youth you've got a stronger case, but again the really seminal album, Daydream Nation, was 88 and took a while to percolate into popular consciouness--and the band put out a couple less-groundbreaking but still strong albums (Washing Machine comes to mind) throughout the 90s.

'Course, given my age, I wasn't actually listening to any of these bands during the 80s, so maybe I'm just inclined to think of them as 90s bands since that's when I came of age musically, so to speak.

[troubalert]

Side Note:

Sonic Youth has a new record out. "Sonic Nurse"
The couple songs I've heard are great. Picthfork gave it an 8.5 outta 10.
Hardly crusty.

[Phil]

How many people actually listen to their Pixies records anymore?

I've got at least 20 Pixies tunes permanently ensconced on my iPod, plus the entire set from their live show in Minneapolis back in April. Not to mention a load of Frank Black solo material and Breeders stuff. I'm 34, FWIW.

I can't imagine anyone not still listening to the Pixies. (And it's not like I live in the past -- I buy plenty of new music.) Even Trompe Le Monde is worth several dozen Nickelbacks, Three Doors Downs, Limp Bizkits and The Callings put together.

[Douglas Fletcher]

"They'll be in Fountain Hills Az on the 4th (don't worry, FH is upscale enuff for any long haired drug crazed hippie freak turned SUV driving upper middle class chardonnay drinking stiff)."

Yeah Fountain Hills is upscale but the band is going to be at the Ft. McDowell casino, on the Yavupai reservation. You get more old ladies and rednecks from Mesa in there than yuppies any day of the week.

[Ken Shultz]

When I graduated from high school, Sonic Youth had a video in circulation on MTV's "120 Minutes" promoting "Evol" when it came out in 1986, and, I suspect, that's when most of the people who liked them back in the 80's first became aware of their existence. For those of you who haven't heard them, in a couple of ways, their music is like Free Jazz, and not just in form. You're either going to love it or you're going to hate it. Sonic Youth's live performance from June 10th in the KCRW studio, the one I mentioned above, is now archived on KCRW's website. I just heard Nick Harcourt say that they're streaming the performance in both video and audio format.

Here?s the link:

http://kcrwmusic.com/cgi-bin/db/kcrw.pl?show_code=mb&air_date=6/10/04&tmplt_type=show

[Ken Shultz]

Libertarian Purity Cops Beware!

KCRW is NPR

[Brock]

I agree that one day would have been much better than two, but the lineup didn't suck. Day 1 was the stronger of the two, IMO, Morrissey, Modest Mouse, Sonic Youth, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and Broken Social Scene. What pisses me off most about this is that when they cancelled Field Day last year, they refunded the ticket price, but not the assorted ticketmaster fees, and I suspect they will do that again (and I realize Ticketmaster didn't cancel the event, etc, but it's still annoying).

[John]

Phil,

I will give you that the Pixies are a lot better than the bands you mention. But that says more about those bands than it does the Pixies. I used to really like them, but they just don't seem to have aged as well as some of the other bands of their era. I will take The Replacements Wiskey Town or Uncle Tupelo over the Pixies any day.

[Russ D]

That 2-day idea was just stupid. There's X number of people interested in the shows and putting it on 2 days just cut the sales in half for each day. Plus it seems a lot of people who would want to see one of these shows would also want to (and rather) see the Cure show. And what's the point of seeing an abbreviated Flaming Lips set.

[Call me snake]

Posts like Cavanaugh's are the main reason I keep tuning in to Reason...from this great paragraph on the 90's to Walker's recent excellent essay on the bronson/eastwood film genre, keep up the good cultural work.

[John]

Russ,

Big outdoor festivals in my experience almost always suck. The sound is never that good. The bandS are too far away from the crowd to really interact with them, the sets are always abreviated and chances are you are not going to like half of the bands there. Even when I have seen people I worship like Van Morrison and Ray Charles at big outdoor festivals, their sets always disapointed me. You are right, let bands tour alone in appropriate venues so that the people who like them can see them. STOP TRYING TO RELIVE WOODSTOCK!!

[JimInNOVA]

HFStival, an anual all-day stadium-filling orgy of alt rock here in DC is usually a good show. They went to a 2-day format one year, and the suckass quotent went so high that they've been doing single-day shows ever since. Usually there's enough other stuff around when bands like Coldplay take the stage, and eminem went on last so that we could all leave before his set without missing anything good. The last couple of years haven't been as good (Jay Z and The Cure on the same stage? WTF?), but I have hopes that they'll bring in good bands again before I get too old to enjoy it.

[Russ D]

Couple other points:

Festivals like Summerfest in Milwaukee are awesome; sadly there aren't many of them. You can sort of come and go as you please, the price is reasonable, lots to do, take the kids if you have to, etc.

I saw Elvis Costello in downtown Chicago last summer for free and he played 90 minutes. NINETY MINUTES! Shocked the hell out of me, he was notorious for playing 45 minute sets in the late 70's. Those free shows are usually an hour, tops.

The shed in the Chicago area won't allow tailagting (village ordinance). Probably not a big deal for the typical show that starts at 8 and goes for 3-4 hours. But an all-day festival that costs 40-50 bucks damn well better allow you to bring you a grill and cooler and do a little car camping if you're gonna be there for 14-15 hours. Possibly another case of government ruining it by placating a few NIMBYs who seem concerned about a back yard that isn't their own. When the shed goes out of business, I'm sure they'll be raising taxes to make up for the lost revenue.

[aix42]

Some echos: Two days sucks. They scheduled Toronto on a Wed/Thur [?] Morrissey has never been big, Sonic Youth has some respect, but never big sales. The Flaming Lips have grown into brilliant artists, which means they don't sell a lot of records. Great line 'bout waiting 30 minute to piss out the $6 water [10 CDN!!]. Best memories for me were all the funky stockings the alternachicks wore and L7's 'Smell the Magic' T-shirts.

[joe]

'Sort of would have liked to see Morissey actually, but I'm afraid the "no new crap!" impulse would be too great.'

"Irish Blood English Heart" is as good as the old Smiths stuff, and better than a lot of his 90s solo stuff.

And the Pixies sound even better today.

[hilly]

Hopefully Frank Black has gotten over himself and rightfully acknowledged Kim Deal as the Lennon of the group.

[s.m. koppelman]

See, and back in '88 I thought of "Daydream Nation" as the start of a slow decline. Anyhow, how could it be seminal if it was their first LP for a major after some 8 years on indies? It's a little like saying Husker Du didn't hit its stride until "Candy Apple Grey". For me, "EVOL" and "Sister" were Sonic Youth's peak though they've certainly done a good job of staying engaged since. They've been making decent-enough records for at least as long as the Stones did, which deserves some kind of medal or something.

And for those of us who think "Doolittle" was the last Pixies record worth hearing, that puts the end of their crucial years in '89. Weezer's debut came at an entirely different time in my life, literally years after I stopped expecting anything from the Pixies. Thank goodness I was buying CDs by the time "Trompe Le Monde" came out, what with its two or three decent cuts. Lordy. The Amps elpee is better than post-Doolittle Pixies. The friggin' Amps!

And my second year in college, which was also firmly pre-1990s, I remember a guy down the hall from me high as a kite and raving about the Flaming Lips. I didn't get it then any more than I do now. Seemed kinda soulless.

But sure, chacun a son gout, as they say.

[Aaron]

I'm still listening to the Pixies and even bought tix for their Aragon Ballroom show in November. Saw Sonic Youth last summer and they were awesome. No way am I paying big $$$ to see a mega line up at some soulless joint like the Tweeter Center. Those all-day multiband things suck big time. My only regret is that the extortionists at TicketMaster didn't lose more money on the deal.

[joe]

hilly,

they all ruled. Frank's solo stuff ruled. Why you gotta be hatin?

[s.m. koppelman]

All it really says is that the Lollapalooza generation is too busy paying mortgages to go to two-day festivals, and anyway, those diaper changing stations on the Port-a-Johns are pretty skeevy.

The reconstituted Pixies are drawing crowds on their own, and even if Sonic Youth has run out of ideas and the Flaming Lips still have yet to incorporate actual human emotion into a song, they manage to sell tickets, too. Just not for all-day (much less two-day) outdoor festivals.

Same as the boomer nostaligia acts, really. Don't worry. In twenty years you'll still be able to go to your local amphitheater to catch a package tour of "Frank Black and the New Pixies", "The Pink Robot Band Feat. Wayne Coyne" and the folk trio of "Stipe, Merchant & Farrell" doing all their 80s hits.

[Gadfly]

I'm too old to even know who the Pixies are. However, I spawned an all-dressed-in-black daughter who went to a pooza event in Somerset, Sconsin a few years ago. She vowed she'd never go back. Aside from the lousy weather, two girls by themselves in a campground of testesterone charged skinheads (she spent part of the night in the hospital when a car ran over their tent) letting it all hang out turned out to be no fun at all. To top it off, cops stationed on every exit road had a field day, checking every car and arresting over 300 people for various minor violations.

[Brian Zimmerman]

How can one neglect Suck in any roundup of 90s nostalgia?

[wellfellow]

Props to Joe for giving props to Frank! I'll take Frank post-pixies anyday.

[jc]

"Morrissey, Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips, and the reunited Pixies"

All these artists muiscal peaks are from the EIGHTIES, not the 20th century's terminal decade. The Flaming Lips "Hear It Is" is still one of my all-time faves.

[MALAK]

KRISS KROSS?!?!?!?!? Arrghggh!

[Russ D]

Can I put a plug in for Rocket From The Tombs even though it has nothing to do with lollapalooka?

[Lisa Simpson]

Hey, that's Noo (or Nu) Wayv to you. Oh, and:

"As a member-supported, non-commercial station, its 50,000 subscribers provide KCRW with the largest single source of financial support. In turn, KCRW and other member stations provide National Public Radio (NPR) with more than half of its operating budget." http://www.kcrw.com/about/

[Fenimore Cooper]

"Missing Persons, Human League, Talking Heads, Blondie, Devo, Kajagoogoo, Gogo's, Softsell, Culture Club, Thompson Twins, Bananarama, A Flock of Seagulls, Gary Numan, Berlin, Vapors, Wall of Voodoo, The Cars, Duran Duran, Modern English, Thomas Dolby, etc, etc, etc."

Now *that's* what I call an 80s lineup. Still put Gary Numan's "Cars" into my MP3 rotation now and then.

Tim's right -- thank god our generation's not trying to relive memories through expensive three-hour-plus experiences.

[kevrob]

KCRW's NPR membership might be forgiveable, if they weren't licensed to an entity owned by the State of California, Santa Monica College.

*grumble...grumble... dadgum gubmints shouldn'tna oughta own newspapers, nor TV stations, nor radio stations, nor dadgum COLLEGES, neither!*

My favorite college stations, WMSE amd WFUV, have the good sense to be owned by private colleges, even if `FUV is part of NPR. But that costs them cash. The subsidies go from CPB to program developers and such.

The Pixies were playing on the juke at my local pizza joint tonight. I made a joke about the Lollapacancellation, and apparently word had not yet reached the pierced and tattooed doughslingers. Several were crestfallen.

Read H&R. It boosts your street cred.

Kevin

[Rick Barton]

Well, I know it's mostly 80s, but does anyone else here like New Wave music a lot?

Missing Persons, Human League, Talking Heads, Blondie, Devo, Kajagoogoo, Gogo's, Softsell, Culture Club, Thompson Twins, Bananarama, A Flock of Seagulls, Gary Numan, Berlin, Vapors, Wall of Voodoo, The Cars, Duran Duran, Modern English, Thomas Dolby, etc, etc, etc.

The genera seems like a very special phenomenon to me. It was hyper-creative with lots of appealing style and verve. It was also a lot of fun and the girls were really cute as well!

[ThurstonMoore's Part Time Bitc]

Daydream Nation was released on an indie label; I forget the name (Blast First?) but they no longer exist. That album and all their other indies were re-released on Geffen.

Goo was probably their best album; Dirty was the last album with any real energy. I've liked their later stuff but it lacked something, some sort of oomph.