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Song of the Day #3,919: ‘Watch Me Fall’ – Uncle Tupelo

Uncle Tupelo is regarded as the definitive alt-country band, pioneering a blend of folk rock and traditional country sounds. Great contemporary artists like Neko Case and Jason Isbell can be traced back to the music these guys put out in the early 90s.

Uncle Tupelo’s members are better known for their follow-up efforts, as Jay Farrar went on to form Son Volt and Jeff Tweedy achieved even bigger success with Wilco. When still together, they released four albums between 1990 and 1993. Still Feel Gone was their third.

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Song of the Day #3,918: ‘Letter to Memphis’ – Pixies

Noisy pop bands were big in the late 80s and early 90s, and the Pixies stand out as one of the most celebrated and influential of the bunch. I’m surprised to see I’ve never featured a Pixies song on the blog, given how often they’re referenced by bands I like.

‘Trompe Le Monde’ was the band’s fourth album and their last before the original lineup broke up. The band reunited ten years later without bassist Kim Deal and released two more albums this decade.

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Song of the Day #3,917: ‘I Don’t Know’ – Teenage Fanclub

These Decades weeks usually turn up a couple of artists I feel like I should like, whether or not that ends up happening.

For 1991, the lucky winner is Teenage Fanclub, the Scottish alternative pop act that released its breakthrough third album, titled Bandwagonesque, that year. Influenced by bands like The Beatles, The Byrds and Big Star, Teenage Fanclub paid as much attention to melody as the grunge guitar sound of the time.

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Song of the Day #3,916: ‘When You Sleep’ – My Bloody Valentine

Continuing my latest Decades installment, focusing on the year 1991, brings us to Irish band My Bloody Valentine’s sophomore release, Loveless.

My Bloody Valentine is considered the pioneer of the shoegazing genre, a type of alternative rock featuring heavy guitar distortion and muffled vocals. In fact, they might be the first, best and last example of a shoegazing band because the genre quickly fizzled out and branched into grunge on the one hand and Britpop on the other.

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Song of the Day #3,915: ‘Bought For a Song’ – Fountains of Wayne

When my Decades series gets around to 2003 (probably in a year or so), there’s no question one of my top albums from that year will be Fountains of Wayne’s Welcome Interstate Managers.

This is a great album to give anyone looking for an introduction to the band. From great power pop (‘Stacy’s Mom,’ ‘Bright Future in Sales,’ today’s SOTD) to beautiful acoustic tracks (‘Hackensack,’ ‘Valley Winter Song’) to charming love songs (‘Hey Julie’), this album serves up a little bit of everything.

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