Garbage were founded by legendary Nirvana producer Butch Vig and had flame-haired ex Goodbye Mr Mackenzie siren Shirley Manson up front so they were never doomed to failure. This is taken from the band's second #album Version 2.0 which produced 5 top 20 hits.
2. Suffocate - Feeder
Starting off life as an acoustic ballad on Feeder's debut album, Polythene, Suffocate was re-recorded and given the full epic strings and all treatment for a stand alone single release in 1998. Despite the heavily commercial sound, the single only crept into the Top 40 at #37, though had this been released a few years later would have been in no doubt a Top 10 hit. The single version is included here and was also featured on their Singles compilation.
3. A.M. 180 - Grandaddy
The most well known track on media darlings' Grandaddy's Under The Western Freeway album. One of four singles released from the album, this peaked at #104 in the UK chart. Although they always remained a cult concern, their following album, The Sophtware Slump, would see them attain a degree of commercial success. AM 180 can also be heard in the film 28 Days Later.
4. Red Right Hand - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Of all Cave's many tracks spanning the last four decades, this is probably the one everyone knows having been used in a variety of films and television programmes - usually those involving bloody deaths and murder. The track was originally released on Cave's 1994 Top 10 album Let Love In and hit #68 on UK single release the same year.
5. The Dancer - Naomi
Despite supporting Saint Etienne, Beth Orton and, er, Hurricane #1 and coverage in the music weeklies, success wasn't to be for Naomi, who now performs under the name Naomi Phoenix. This was taken from her only album, Liquid.
6. Buddy - Snapper
Indie rock from New Zealand taken from the soundtrack of the film 'Topless Women Talk About Their Lives'. Snapper themselves released two albums in 1992 and 1996.
7. Tonite It Shows - Mercury Rev
Another appearance from Deserter's Songs - V2 rinsed the album dry with 4 single releases in the UK alone and sold on every other magazine covermount. Good job the album is a timeless classic...
8. Derwent River Star - The Paradise Motel
Experimental pop from Australia, this was taken from their second album Flight Paths. Despite disbanding at the turn of the millennium, the band recently reformed
9. Take Me Back - Babybird
Much misunderstood, on release of the ubiquitous You're Gorgeous in 1996, not many people knew that Stephen Jones had released five albums in the year leading up to their breakthrough containing lo-fi, experimental alternative music. Jones' commercial reign continued for the next couple of years culminating in his 1998 release, There's Something Going On. However, Jones killed off the album by releasing the fiercely uncommercial Bad Old Man as its lead single; by the time two more radio friendly singles had been released, despite them both charting higher, momentum had been lost and Babybird never regained their mainstream popularity. Take Me Back is from that album which peaked at #28 in 1998. Babybird continue and with royalty cheques pouring in from THAT single and for The F Word, now theme tune to the TV show of the same name, Jones won't care much about not selling many records anymore.
10. Hexagon Eye - Cable
Cable's 1997 single Freeze The Atlantic should have provided them with a big hit after its heavy usage on a Sprite commercial. Instead, the single stalled at #44 and the band eventually split after the release of their second album Sub-Lingual containing this track.
11. The Underdogs- Rialto
Formed from the ashes of Kinky Machine, Rialto were a poor man's Pulp who received considerable promotion and press attention around their eponymous album. On the verge of big things after the Top 40 success of singles Untouchable and Monday Morning 5:19, the record company politics delayed the album and it stalled at #21 with no further single successes. More albums followed but it was a case of Sales, 519.
12. Search's End - The Wiseguys
Forever ingrained in the public's consciouness thanks to Ooh La La and Start The Commotion from various commercials and movies, Wiseguys also released an album, The Antidote, containing this piece of work.
13. Heavy Transit - Sound 5
Sound 5 were formed from two members of early 90s acid rave pop group Candy Flip who were most famous for their trippy version of Strawberry Fields Forever. Despite tremendous radio play for Sound 5's debut single, the Lightning Seeds-esque Ala Kaboo, the band never caught on and their album No Illicit Dancing sank without trace.
14. Attack - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Closing track from the punk blues' stalwarts sixth album Acme, released at the height of their mid to late 90s commercial success.
15. The Rhyme - The Strike Boys
The Strike Boys are a German electronic duo who have released four albums, a bunch of 12"s and created a score of remixes over the last 15 years. This is from their debut album Selected Funks. Released a single on Wall Of Sound, The Rhyme reached #179 in the UK chart.
16. Number Cruncher (The Porridge Gun Mix) - The Egg
The one exclusive on this CD is this remix of a track originally available on The Egg's album Travelator. Always an underground electronic band, The Egg scored a surprise Top 3 hit in 2006 when the Tocadisco remix of their track Walking Away was mashed up with David Guetta's Love Don't Let Me Go.
17. Disco Dolly - Space
For a couple of years, Liverpool's Space were one of the UK's biggest bands. Their album Spiders had produced 4 big hits and their second album Tin Planet started off well with two more Top 10 singles and a spot in the Top 3. Then it all suddenly went very pear shaped; the album's popularity was very short lived and guitarist Jamie Murphy soon suffered a very public meltdown. A new single, Diary Of A Wimp, in 2000, unexpectedly bombed when it only hit #48 and Gut Records refused to release what would have been their third album. Perhaps one of the biggest riches to rags stories in 90s indie, Space never recovered and one neglected album later in 2004, Space were no more. Still, their hits were big enough to warrant sufficient incoming royalties for a while yet...Disco Dolly was featured on the Tin Planet album and actually should have been released as the third single.
No comments:
Post a Comment