Garbage isn’t strictly a 90s band like some on this list. They released albums in 2001 and 2005 and apparently have a long-awaited fifth record on the way in just a couple of months.
But their first two — and best — albums were released in ’95 and ’98 and that’s when I felt the biggest impact.
I think the tiny people who live inside my iTunes library and pick the random songs must be country music fans. Today’s track means almost a third of my Random Weekend selections have been by country artists even though country makes up maybe five or ten percent of my collection.
I have almost as many Bob Dylan songs as I have country songs (and a few that are both) and yet Dylan has yet to make an appearance here. Ah, the whims of chance.
I keep waiting for these Random Weekends to turn up something truly horrible or embarrassing, a song so pathetic that is forces my loyal readers to second-guess my value not just as a music lover but as a human being.
Hasn’t happened yet, which I guess speaks well of my music collection. But I’m only a month or so into this, so I know that moment is lurking out there.
Today’s artist is the second on this list whose music is confined to the 90s not because of the whims of the marketplace but because he died. The first was, of course, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain.
I wonder, had Kobain lived, if Nirvana would still be around today. And if not, would Dave Grohl still have gone on to form Foo Fighters, as celebrated a rock band as we have in 2012?
No Doubt is one of two bands on this list that feature lead singers who went on to solo fame in future decades. Gwen Stefani has enjoyed great success as both a performer and a fashion icon in the past decade. My daughters were just perusing her fashion line at Target.
But the Gwen Stefani of the 90s was a punk princess whose athletic front-woman posturing made No Doubt one of the most refreshing acts of the decade.
