90s alt rock

I Traded Spotify for a 60-Day CD Challenge: Why My “Slow Tech” Experiment Stuck

After ghosting Spotify for 60 days to revisit my ’90s-’00s CD collection, I discovered that physical media is more than a nostalgia trip—it’s a necessary “slow tech” tool for reclaiming focus from the algorithm.

It was the fall of 1993.

I was standing in the late, great Tower Records on the southeast corner of East 4th Street—that glorious temple of discovery—holding Porno for Pyros’ debut in one hand and Dinosaur Jr.’s Where You Been in the other. I had exactly seventeen dollars and change in my pocket. As a high school student, I could afford one CD, a slice of Ray’s pizza and $1.25 on my shiny new Metrocard for the F train home.

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Echoes of Emo: A Sunny Day Real Estate Retrospective

By Drew Rosen Leave a Comment

It was 1995. Or was it 1994?

I surveyed the room, angered by the sea of middle-aged music journalists opting to stand around in their horn-rimmed glasses while Sunny Day Real Estate brought their blend of Midwest emo to a few hundred of us at the Knitting Factory.

My buddy and I had waited what seemed like forever to see our favorite band in the Big Apple, and there was no way in hell that these scruffy and stiff “adults” were going to stop us from dancing our balls off.

So we moshed.

And slammed.

It was a pit of two, nowhere near enough elbows and knees flying in the air to sustain the momentum.

We were asked to stop nicely.

We were asked to stop not so nicely.

We were threatened to stop.

After the show, on the E train back to Queens, we talked about our disappointment in the crowd.

“That will NEVER be me,” the 18-year-old me declared.

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Forgotten 90s Alternative Rock Songs – Part II

By Drew Rosen Leave a Comment

When I brain-dumped some of my favorite forgotten 90s alternative rock songs, I never expected to receive so much love. But I should have known better: Gen X will never let the tunes that defined us die. In the spirit of keeping page load times in Google’s good graces, I present Forgotten 90s Alternative Rock Songs: PART II. Check out Part I here.

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Jimmy Eat World = Genre-Busting Sweetness

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It should be no surprise that the guy who loved Toad the Wet Sprocket and worshipped Sunny Day Real Estate fell in love with a band named Jimmy Eat World. But, hey, I love the Goo Goo Dolls, too. I guess I have a thing for verbose band names.

My first exposure to Jimmy Eat World came at the hands of Jerry Rubino, a part-time jock at the local radio station where I interned. He seemed older than most of the radio station employees and was probably no older than the age I am as I write this post.

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Grave Dancers Union: Unite and Fight!

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soul asylum album cover — Soul asylum album cover

Find me a better band name than Soul Asylum and a more extraordinary album title than “Grave Dancers Union.” Go ahead; I’ll wait.

The 80s act that blossomed into a 90s alternative rock force held significant influence over droves of Gen Xers, even if Soul Asylum is not as cool to reference as Nirvana, Peral Jam, Blind Melon…or any other of their chart-sharing counterparts. Soul Asylum’s hit single “Runaway Train” was a massive success, reaching number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and winning a Grammy for Best Rock Song.

And perhaps that was the problem.

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A Love Letter to My 90s Stereo Systems

By Drew Rosen 3 Comments

I fall in love with inanimate objects.

Tennis rackets, pens, sneakers, watches, bicycles, sunglasses, and so on. It’s not exactly unconditional love; my emotions can lead these objects to hang around past their expiration dates.

So consider this article a love letter, an amorous note to the stereos that helped me grow as a person and made my heart go pitter-patter. Because when it comes to 80s/90s stereo systems, I’m all in!

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90s alt rock

It was the fall of 1993.

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