I Love the 90's

I recently watched PJ20, the documentary about Pearl Jam that Cameron Crowe directed to commemorate the band's 20th anniversary, and I was struck by a few things as I watched the old footage and individual band interviews that compose the film:

• Ticketmaster really does wholly and unequivocally suck.

• Mike McCready can, and should, be forgiven for his poor haircut choices over the years for the way he plays that guitar.

• Eddie Vedder could possibly be one of the 10 coolest people to ever exist, ever.

• I know the words to a lot of Pearl Jam songs. Like, way more than I thought I did.

This got me thinking, as so many things in life tend to do, about 90's radio rock.  We are living in a time when the 90's are still too recent for some of these records to really be "cool" again, but I'm telling you, we really need to speed up the process. I mean, we can certainly leave a few things by the wayside (Del Amitri, Tonic and Smash Mouth, I'm looking at you), but some of these guys have got to start getting some praise.

Take exhibit A, the Gin Blossoms. Yes, "Follow You Down" and "Hey Jealousy" are cool, funny "ironic" songs to put on at parties, but have you heard "Til I Hear it From You" lately?! Are you kidding me?! These guys, along with some like-minded compatriots like Soul Asylum, Sponge and Fig Dish, really turned out some ridiculously awesome rock songs in the 90's. Some of these bands took that "verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge" formula and stepped it up a notch, or a lot of notches. Seaweed cranked out mid-paced rockers like nobody's business, and no one remembers. Jawbox and Shiner enslaved fuzz and distortion long before the Sonic Youth worshipping clones of the nu-grunge movement of late started overpopulating the stages of our Bonnaroos and Coachellas. That first Wallflowers record still gives me goosebumps. We should also bring back Goosebumps.

What PJ20 sparked in me was a month-long bender of Counting Crows, Matchbox 20, Third Eye Blind, Eve 6 and, uh, a couple Spin Doctors songs. This is what was on the radio when we were kids! Let's bring it back! Really, the 70's took rock to the next level commercially, the 80's begat an experimentation phase, and then the 90's came along and just perfected the formula. We exist in a floundering, confused age where for some reason, dudes with one earring and frosted tips no longer top the charts. Trent Reznor wants to be Danny Elfman. The Chili Peppers can't keep a guitarist. Billy Corgan is (more) crazy. Kurt Cobain is still dead. John Popper lost a lot of weight and is therefore neither A.) trustworthy or B.) recognizable as John Popper. Rivers Cuomo is….well, Weezer never stopped being awesome. But Dave Grohl can no longer carry the weight on his own. Someone needs to start buying Our Lady Peace records again. They're still a band! 

I have decided to embark upon a noble, courageous, perhaps fatal, quest to bring the BUM Equipment wearing, Pog playing, Nickelodeon watching days of yore back to the forefront of our beloved pop cultural landscape. I want to hear Semisonic at times when I am not leaving a bar after last call. I want the Goo Goo Dolls to stop headlinging state fairs with Fastball in states that you forget exist until a natural disaster occurs there. You can contact me via landline phone if you'd like to join my revolution. I have a Marcy Playground CD somewhere, and when I find it, I will play "Sex & Candy" as many times over for as many people as necessary for us to revert back to the utopia that was 1991-1998. I'll throw "The Freshman" by the Verve Pipe in there once in a while to change things up. Who's with me? Mark McGrath? Hello? Can anyone get me Mark McGrath's number?