005 - Tabloid decoys, pitiful excuses.

To quote Al Pacino in Ocean's Thirteen, "THIS is why we have soft openings." I apologize for the delay in getting something new up here. We're still working out the kinks of our updating system and dividing up the duties related to this blog. Please bear with us, we'll have it right soon enough.

But enough with that, let's get on with the music, shall we?

This evening will mark this blog's first 90s live show since it's inception, as both myself and Christina will be attending that night's Eve 6 show at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ, along with friend-of-the-blog Amanda, who's probably the biggest Eve 6 fan of the three of us. We're all greatly looking forward to the show, and I've spent the last month or so re-acclimating myself with Eve 6's debut, self-titled CD.



(Photo: Courtney Campbell)

Eve6.com | Eve 6 Media HQ | Myspace | Amazon | iTunes

This CD was instantly a favorite of mine when it came out in 1998. There was something about it that made it different from the rest of the pop-punk junk that was starting to dominate the airwaves. For one, the single "Inside Out" had a video featuring a girl on roller skates that I instantly had some sort of weird crush/infatuation with. Hey, I was a teenage boy, and she was cute, what can I say.

Secondly, Eve 6 made liberal use of muted chords, giving their music a kind of "heavier" tone than most of their pop-punk brethren and a start-stop-y feel that instantly appealed to myself (and apparently many others as well, as the album would eventually go platinum.)

But most of all, the lyrics were what set it apart from the rest of the rock music scene at the time. "Inside Out" was the first single, and while I liked (and still do like) that song, it wasn't the first obsession I had from that album. That title belonged to the second single, "Leech." "Leech" was not as instantly popular was "Inside Out," and I remember staying up late waiting for MTV to play the video, because they seemed to only play it at about 2 AM. The lyrics completely made the song for me - how often do you hear a chorus to a pop-rock song using words like "congruent"? The song is a lyrical masterpiece, and most Eve 6 songs have a lyrical content unlike anyone else then or now.

[Listen]

[Download] Eve 6 - How Much Longer?

---

[Listen]

[Download] Eve 6 - Leech

004 - Did I Tell You, You’re Wonderful?

This post is about Adam Ant. Yes, the same Adam Ant pictured below.


Amazon | iTunes

Don’t laugh. You’re probably thinking to yourself, what the hell is he doing featured in this blog? I thought the ‘90s were the new ‘80s? That song “Goody Two Shoes” is so obviously 1982!

Apparently, contributing the song “Beat My Guest” to the soundtrack of 1998’s SLC Punk wasn’t the only thing Adam Ant did in the ‘90s. For a surprise musical comeback, Ant stripped off his outrageous outfits, washed off the striped face paint, and focused on some alternative rock. Nice.

Enter “Wonderful”: A US Top 40 hit single from 1995 that I had totally forgotten about up until one day last week. As soon as I heard the 30-second preview of the song on iLike, I instantly remembered every single word, and I thought to myself “WOW! THAT WAS ADAM ANT?!”

So give it a listen, and be surprised yourself. I can almost guarantee you’ll remember it, and fall in love with “Wonderful” all over again.

[Listen]
[Download] Adam Ant - Wonderful

Here’s a random trivia fact: Adam Ant was MTV’s first ever MTV VJ. (Way back when MTV used to play music videos!)

003 - Someday I'll Go Dancing On The Moon

Okay, so we all remember New Radicals, right? You Get What You Give, big summer hit in '99? "Fashion shoots with Beck and Hanson/Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson/You're all fakes, run to your mansions/Come around, we'll kick your asses"? Not a bad song at all, really a perfect summer hit, and a perfectly normal one-hit-wonder type song.

That song is not what this post is about.

See, contrary to popular belief, New Radicals did release a second single. And in my personal opinion, it's much better than You Get What You Give. It's far less upbeat, which in part explains it's lack of mass appeal (The fact that frontman Gregg Alexander had already broken the band up probably had a good bit to do with it as well).

(Photo: Jill Greenberg) Official Site | Amazon | iTunes

"Someday We'll Know" was released as a single in the fall of '99, and I, like everyone else, didn't pay much attention. In fact, it wasn't until earlier this year when I heard it on one of the generic Muzak CDs my work gets that I even paid it any attention at all. Hearing it at least once a day for three months straight helped to burn the song into my brain, and I'm glad it's yet to leave.



The song got a brief shot at the spotlight when it was covered by Mandy Moore and Jon Foreman for the movie A Walk To Remember a few years back, and also recieved the cover treatment by Hall & Oates. The latter cover is surprisingly not bad if you're into that sort of thing. The former...not as much. And neither match the original. But don't take my word for it, check it out below.

[Listen]
New Radicals - Someday We'll Know

002 - Who Sucked Out the Feeling?

Thank you, Josh, for that lovely introduction post. Now I'm just gonna jump right in with a post about Superdrag. 'Coz that's the only way to do it, right? There shouldn't have to be any testing the water or anything like that. Let's just dive head first into Superdrag!

(Photo: Stewart Pack)
Official Site | Myspace | Flickr | eMusic | iTunes | Amazon

In the early months of '97, I had written a letter to the band Superdrag, asking them for the lyrics to their hit single "Sucked Out." I wasn't really expecting to hear back from the band, but then one day I receive a postcard in the mail of a retro-looking woman with perfect eye make-up blowing a gigantic bubble with her gum.

The postcard read:

"In your eyes you've already spread my theighs now and you're rockin to the next big thing."

Christina - hope that ans. your question. Look for a new record Aug '97 & check out the Flesh Vehicle tape. It's my side project w/ all the same guys in the band available througth the Fan Club which your are now in.

Take Care - Tom Pappas"

I was stoked. I used to blast my "Regretfully Yours" cassette tape as loud as my crappy alarm clock/stereo would let me.

You might remember hearing the song "Sucked Out" on the radio in 1996, and thanks to the folks at Google Pages, I was able to upload it for you.

[Listen]
[Download mp3] Superdrag - Sucked Out

Sorry, this download will only be available for the next 7 days. So please, give "Sucked Out" a listen while you can. And if you enjoy it, please tell us your thoughts!

001 - Welcome, my friends.

(Stock Photo: Byron Hardy)

So we're finally here. An idea bourne of a recent re-obsession with the music of the late 1990s and a mutual need to share music and stories has finally reached fruition in the form of this blog. Welcome to The 90s Are The New 80s.

There's still some cleanup work to do (a blog roll, figuring out the RSS feed nonsense that I don't understand, and a general tidying up of the layout and design, for instance), but we're alive and kicking! There's not much to see right now, but I beg of you, come back and check us out on a regular basis. We've both got quite an extensive collection of music from the 90s that you may have liked but not heard recently, or not even known about at all. Music that deserves a chance.

For the time being, we'll be uploading onto yousendit or zshare or something like that. I'm not a big fan of those types of services, but thus is life. Bandwidth requires money, which is in short supply on our end for now. As this blog grows (hopefully), one of our first projects we'll work on will be getting our own space to host music. Please bear with us until that time.

As we mentioned in our little "about us" section to your right, we decided to create this blog out of a love of the music. When we post up songs, it's because we love what we hear. Please, wherever possible, support the artists who create this music. Buy their CDs, go to their shows, buy a t-shirt, something. Show them the love. We'll try to make it as easy as possible for you from our end by posting iTunes and/or Amazon links, mentioning tour dates, linking to their official sites, and so on.

We'll be posting our normal-type posts in the near future, but I just couldn't wait to at least get something up to say hello and welcome to our little corner of the internet. Please bookmark us and return frequently, we're confidant that you'll like what you see. Stay tuned and thank you for visiting!