Underrated Alternative Rock

Nine 90s Bands That SHOULD'VE Been Huge

By: JSwiftX

he 90s is my favorite time period in music, primarily due to the proliferation of GOOD alternative rock during the decade.

From Weezer and the Smashing Pumpkins to My Bloody Valentine and Archers of Loaf, there was an absolute TON of great alt rock music getting released on practically a weekly basis. And while a lot of bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam became immortal rock acts, a lot of other bands, despite being tremendously talented, just kind of came onto the scene and fizzled out, almost as quickly as they arrived.

Today, I would like to pay homage to alt rock acts of the latter category, giving them the recognition and approbation they oh-so retroactively deserve. These are the bands that achieved temporary fame, but could not sustain it, despite being outstanding musicians that, in many instances, managed to make music FAR beyond their heyday. Heck, some of these bands are still together and releasing albums, if you can believe it!

These bands are the unsung, unheralded and underappreciated acts that helped make the 90s the absolute greatest epoch EVER in the history of alternative music. And now, it is time to shine a much-deserved spotlight on their criminally underrated achievements and efforts. Hey, twenty years late is better than never, isn't it?

Comments

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I've been saying that RJ needed more music articles for as long as I've been around. It's nice to see that yours has gotten some respect. I've always loved the Toadies (I'm from Dallas, though and they're pretty popular around there with those around my age). Nada Surf has a great cover of the Pixies' "Where is My Mind." I can say that I've heard of Wax, but all of the others are, as yet, mysteries to me. You've given me work to do, sir! Thanks for this one. Big thumbs up.

I was with you up until the Weezer bashing! Just kidding. I must say, they've been my number 1 band since '94 so I feel a strong need to stick up for them... especially since everybody seems to be jumping on the "what happened to Weezer?" bandwagon. I'm just glad they keep making music. You'll miss them when they're gone. It's too bad The Rentals' last album wasn't what I was hoping for. Also, don't forget to mention Maya Rudolph on one of those Moogs. Great list man; loved reading the entire thing. I love that 90's look all those videos have.

You didn't mention that Petra Haden was also in that dog. who I think was an underrated 90s group too.

I knew that song "Stars", but I wasn't sure who sung it. I hear it on the retro music lunch shows.

I remember when "Wax Ecstatic" came out KROQ use to play it all the time.

I think Reacharound was a really underrated 90s band.

pfff...yeah, "groovy".

Taste in music is just a subjective thing. And none of this readily pops out to me as anything extraordinary than alot of other more popular bands. Granted, this clearly isn't a big enough sample to make a final judgement and I am not suggesting its bad music. But when folks start playing that game of "well so and so is realer music because they aren't popular," it comes off as a bit pretentious and elitist. And there is nothing more I hate than music snobs (not suggesting that's you)

Nada surf is still around releasing albums. Wax' s video for California was directed by spike jones and is was only 30 seconds of footage in slow mo. Beavis and butthead contributed to the controversy with the whole fire thing.

sponge was a awsome band with where song splowed.

I bought Rotting Pinata and personally I felt it sounded horrible. I liked their radio hits but the rest of the album stunk. Then Sponge did a cover of Speed Racer's Theme on the Saturday Morning: Cartoon's Greatest Hits soundtrack. It was horrendous. Wax and the Toadies were on that album also. Toadies are good. Never heard of Greta or Quicksand.

Personally I disagree with a lot of your musical assessments, but to each his own. I like Weezer but that doesn't mean I can't like the Rentals too.

My favorite underrated band was Letters to Cleo. I guess they were too upbeat for the 90's.

Your "What do they sound like?" lines are priceless. Thanks for reminding me of these bands, going to look some up now.

That Wax video was controversial when it aired. It got banned from daytime airings.

alternative rock got me into music big time, even though I discovered 70s and 80s alternative and prefer it over the 90s. This decade was awesome nevertheless.

Read the whole list thinking the Rentals should be on here and behold! you have them last, good stuff, very nice list.

Good list... the 90's alt-grunge/rock is totally the decade for music, man.
The only reason I know or heard of "Sponge" is because of "The Craft" soundtrack from the song (or cover) "All This And Nothing" (a cover from Psychedelic Furs). The only other bands I heard of were The Rentals & The Toadies. I thought The Toadies were Australian, but maybe that's Toad & the Wet Sprocket?

There's some great Canadian alt rock bands that should have been more popular than they deserved, like 'Tea Party', 'The Tragically Hip', 'Moist', 'Treble Charger', & 'The Watchmen'... but nobody really knew about them outside Canada & the small bordering states that could pick up Canadian stations or USA stations that would play 'em.

I don't remember any of these guys but I like Greta and the Rentals. Nice article.

Quicksand are an awesome band.

Whoa,good article,man. I vaguely remember The Toadies' Possum Kingdom but The Rentals I definitively remember. I'm going to track down those latter Hum albums.

great article man you were dead on on the discreptions of there sounds.

There are only 2 in that list that I'm even remotely familiar with. I saw the slobo babe vid a number of times on "normal" airings on MTV, then saw it on B&B later.
I remember the video with the flaming guy running around, from when it was on B&B.

Beyond that, none of those are remotely familiar to me.

(Big dramatic pause here)...Dead?! 90's alt rock is anything but dead, JSwiftX. I see you have a pretty good taste in music, infact I'm going to have to find some of these albums on amazon now (namely Nada Surfer and The Rentals). Nice article although (and beleive me, it pains me to say this) I can see why some of these bands were over looked. Some people just don't understand good alt rock. Thumbs up dude. Rock on!

The most underrated 90's band was Daisycutter. They were friggin' super.

It is a well known fact that there is no correlation between talent and success in the music business. That's not to say that no talented musicians ever make it big, if fact several genuinely talented performers who have topped the charts, but then again there are also many mediocre acts that have topped the charts as well. The worst part, however, is that there are alot of talented performs out there who just never made it in the biz.

Great article. It definitely makes me miss stuff like 120 minutes and alternative nation. I wish there was still a channel for shows like that.

I still pop in Rubberneck once in a while. Great 90s rock. Another band from the era I'd never heard of until this past year is Jellyfish. Great power pop akin to Badfinger or Cheap Trick.

Apparently the main guy from that group wrote a lot of stuff for J-pop idols Puffy Ami Yumi.