J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. plays with Nirvana at St. VitusMan, the '90s were so great. Remember the '90s? Damn, the '90s, man. The '90s were 20 years ago. Crazy how it makes you think. Crazy how it makes you feel old. Remember Nirvana? Remember The Offspring? Remember Marilyn Manson? Remember Radiohead? Remember Outkast? It's the 20th anniversary of the '90s this week—and the next 300 or so weeks to come. But especially this week. This week was the most 20th annivesary of the '90s weeks, and we unintentionally commemorated it by posting lots of '90s content on this Geocities 2.0 weblog page of ours (LOL! Remember Geocities! Angelfire! Netscape! Lycos! AltaVista!). Anyway, check out some of the best '90s stuff we published this week, Noisey's '90s week, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the '90s, because a lot of it is really cool, just like the '90s:
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WHY WE NEED TO STOP TALKING ABOUT KURT COBAIN
Photo by Bruce PavittIf you’ve been near anyone with even a passing interest in music over the last few days, you won’t have failed to notice that last Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death. Also the 5th anniversary of the 15th anniversary of his death, and the 10th anniversary of the 10th anniversary, such is the fervor with which the media like to mark his passing.I SAW NIRVANA PLAY TO TWO HUNDRED PEOPLE, IN 2014
Everyone was seemingly zonked out of their minds at the venue, including a teetering Annie Clark and a giggly crowd pogoing along to the Seattle band's classic output. I joined, and tried my best not to slam into Mascis, Carrie Brownstein, Butch Vig, Jack Endino, and countless others as I maneuvered around the venue. I did OK, but was too knee deep in whiskey to really take score.
DAISY BERKOWITZ: PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN EX-MARILYN MANSON MEMBER
"Our bus broke down once in the middle of nowhere. A place called Two Guns, Arizona. Our driver got out and walked to this gas station that we could see in the distance. I couldn’t tell how far away it was. It looked like a couple miles. It looked like he had been walking all day. So we were hanging out in this spot and there was nothing to do. So we got out. I walked down this hill and I found a cow carcass and its head and hooves were missing."COMMEMORATE THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF ‘SMASH’ BY WATCHING THE OFFSPRING’S INCREDIBLY AWKWARD TRL APPEARANCE
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The Offspring’s 1994 album Smash album was released 20 years ago today. The album broke out like crazy, selling 20 million copies and providing enough income to keep a steady stream of various drugs flowing through the Epitaph offices for years to come. Today, there’s an interesting divide over Smash. Some will list it as being a hugely influential 90s punk record. Others will write it off as too juvenile, a Punk Rock for Dummies, if you will. And then there are some people who have no idea what the fuck it is.
RADIOHEAD IS FOR BORING NERDS
No date has ever ended in sex which started with some nerd’s dinner conversation about how Kid A foreshadowed 9/11 (which is a real thing that Radiohead supernerd Chuck Klosterman believes). Or the Radiohead binary theory which hypothesizes that their 1997 album OK Computer and their 2007 album In Rainbows form together perfectly to create a decade-spanning mega-album. Wow! What are the odds that one album full of computer noise bullshit would vaguely sound like another album full of computer noise bullshit? What geniuses!
LINKIN PARK: HUNTING FOR THE PERFECT BEAT
"There’s so much music out there; there’s so much stuff that sounds like Haim or CHVRCHES or Vampire Weekend that I’m full. The thing I’m hungry for is not that. I turn on the rock station in L.A. and it sounds like Disney commercial music. And I’m confused by that. The dude from Foster the People was literally a jingle writer. No disrespect, but for me to make that stuff was kind of out of the question. I stepped back and said, 'What’s the thing I want to hear that nobody else is making, and what’s the thing that we are uniquely positioned to make?' We threw out our old demos, and I talked to the guys and basically asked them to get in touch with who their 15-year-old self was."
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF BILLY CORGAN LOSING HIS GODDAMN MIND SINCE THE LAST BRIEF HISTORY OF BILLY CORGAN LOSING HIS GODDAMN MIND
About a month ago, we provided a very helpful/sad roundup of all the ways in which Smashing Pumpkins frontonlyman Billy Corgan has publicly embarrassed himself over the last decade. We were hoping that spotlighting this fall from grace would be something of an eye-opener for Billy, sort of like that intervention your family had for your uncle Walter. But it seems to have had the opposite effect. Lately, Billy has been doubling down on his eccentric behavior, upping his own eccentricity. In a way, you’ve got to hand it to the guy—he goes further off the deep end by 9 AM than most people do in a lifetime. Here is a brief rundown of all the batshit things he’s done since our last rundown of all the batshit things he’s done.
WATCH OUTKAST'S COACHELLA SET FROM LAST NIGHT
So the big question: Did it deliver? Maybe not if you were there and to actually see it you had to navigate like 80 billion people whose favorite Outkast song is totally that one they used to listen to while doing jello shots or whatever. But absolutely in the sense that André 3000 and Big Boi (from the e-looks of it) put on a fucking great show and were totally into it and you can rage to this and cry tears of joy in your living room whenever you want thanks to the power of the Internet.Remember the '90s? You do now. Thanks for enjoying unintentional '90s week on Noisey!
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DAISY BERKOWITZ: PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN EX-MARILYN MANSON MEMBER
"Our bus broke down once in the middle of nowhere. A place called Two Guns, Arizona. Our driver got out and walked to this gas station that we could see in the distance. I couldn’t tell how far away it was. It looked like a couple miles. It looked like he had been walking all day. So we were hanging out in this spot and there was nothing to do. So we got out. I walked down this hill and I found a cow carcass and its head and hooves were missing."COMMEMORATE THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF ‘SMASH’ BY WATCHING THE OFFSPRING’S INCREDIBLY AWKWARD TRL APPEARANCEThe Offspring’s 1994 album Smash album was released 20 years ago today. The album broke out like crazy, selling 20 million copies and providing enough income to keep a steady stream of various drugs flowing through the Epitaph offices for years to come. Today, there’s an interesting divide over Smash. Some will list it as being a hugely influential 90s punk record. Others will write it off as too juvenile, a Punk Rock for Dummies, if you will. And then there are some people who have no idea what the fuck it is.
RADIOHEAD IS FOR BORING NERDS
No date has ever ended in sex which started with some nerd’s dinner conversation about how Kid A foreshadowed 9/11 (which is a real thing that Radiohead supernerd Chuck Klosterman believes). Or the Radiohead binary theory which hypothesizes that their 1997 album OK Computer and their 2007 album In Rainbows form together perfectly to create a decade-spanning mega-album. Wow! What are the odds that one album full of computer noise bullshit would vaguely sound like another album full of computer noise bullshit? What geniuses!
LINKIN PARK: HUNTING FOR THE PERFECT BEAT
"There’s so much music out there; there’s so much stuff that sounds like Haim or CHVRCHES or Vampire Weekend that I’m full. The thing I’m hungry for is not that. I turn on the rock station in L.A. and it sounds like Disney commercial music. And I’m confused by that. The dude from Foster the People was literally a jingle writer. No disrespect, but for me to make that stuff was kind of out of the question. I stepped back and said, 'What’s the thing I want to hear that nobody else is making, and what’s the thing that we are uniquely positioned to make?' We threw out our old demos, and I talked to the guys and basically asked them to get in touch with who their 15-year-old self was."
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BILLY CORGAN LOSING HIS GODDAMN MIND SINCE THE LAST BRIEF HISTORY OF BILLY CORGAN LOSING HIS GODDAMN MIND
About a month ago, we provided a very helpful/sad roundup of all the ways in which Smashing Pumpkins frontonlyman Billy Corgan has publicly embarrassed himself over the last decade. We were hoping that spotlighting this fall from grace would be something of an eye-opener for Billy, sort of like that intervention your family had for your uncle Walter. But it seems to have had the opposite effect. Lately, Billy has been doubling down on his eccentric behavior, upping his own eccentricity. In a way, you’ve got to hand it to the guy—he goes further off the deep end by 9 AM than most people do in a lifetime. Here is a brief rundown of all the batshit things he’s done since our last rundown of all the batshit things he’s done.
WATCH OUTKAST'S COACHELLA SET FROM LAST NIGHT
So the big question: Did it deliver? Maybe not if you were there and to actually see it you had to navigate like 80 billion people whose favorite Outkast song is totally that one they used to listen to while doing jello shots or whatever. But absolutely in the sense that André 3000 and Big Boi (from the e-looks of it) put on a fucking great show and were totally into it and you can rage to this and cry tears of joy in your living room whenever you want thanks to the power of the Internet.Remember the '90s? You do now. Thanks for enjoying unintentional '90s week on Noisey!
