In the early 90s I picked up the Screeching Weasel album Boogadaboogadaboogada! on a whim. I instantly fell in love with the band and the label they were on, Lookout!. I started to pick up albums just because they were on Lookout!. Back then you couldn’t listen to an album before you bought it. There was no internet to get a preview of songs, I was just buying albums on a whim. I loved almost every Lookout! album, from Mr. T Experience, The Donnas, Squirtgun, and maybe a little band you might have heard of called Green Day. Sadly this week Lookout! Records is calling it quits. It’s sad, but they really haven’t been the label they were in the 90s for some time now.

This weeks video is from The Queers. They are another of those great Lookout! bands, and this song is so yummy yummy catchy.

I remember the day my college roommate played the Counting Crows, August and Everything After album for me for the first time. We bought a ton of cds that first year of college. My roommate had a crush on the record store girl, I was just in love with the music of the 90s. I never heard of the Counting Crows when my roommate brought it home, but I went out and bought it the next day. I had to have my own copy. Then “Mr. Jones” started to get some major MTV play, and the rest is history. I’ve been a little disappointed with the Counting Crows albums since August and Everything After, but that album was perfect.

I was a little late to the game with the Pixies. By the time I discovered them, they were broken up. I have since grown to love them. My first exposure to Black Francis, or Frank Black, or whatever he want to call himself was his self titled solo album. I’m surprised it took me this long to get to Frank Black. He was one of my favorites in the early 90s. In recent years he has almost became too prolific. He has put out at least an album a year since 1998, and some years even two album. I haven’t been able to keep up with them. I would probably prefer an album every three years with just the best songs written in those three years, but that could just be me. So I’m not too familiar with Frank Black’s latest work, but his albums in the early 90s were some of my favorites.

I wasn’t a huge Verve Pipe fan, but I loved their album Villains. By 1996 when this album came out, many of the lesser known bands that I loved were getting major airplay on the radio. As a result, much music from this era I still can’t stand from hearing it too much, including this song.

“Hey Jealousy” wasn’t my favorite song on New Miserable Experience, but I loved that album. Every time I listen to it, it brings me back to the many college parties I went to my freshman year of college. It was actually pretty hard to get into parties as a freshman if you didn’t have boobs, or brought along someone with boobs. Luckily for me my roommate was a football player, so I was able to get into a few. That’s probably all I remember of that year of college, and that’s probably not a good thing.

Back in the mid 90s just being from the Seattle area was almost a ticket to stardom. The Posies were one of those bands that didn’t get as big as they should have. Frosting on the Beater was an amazing album. The Posies are still out there making music. Their last album, Blood/Candy, was released last year. While it’s good, it doesn’t compare to Frosting on the Beater.

I’ve always loved The Afghan Whigs, but for some reason, never bought any of their albums.

Elvis Costello has been so prolific over the years, everybody probably has a favorite song by the hall of famer. I have many. My favorite Elvis album, Brutal Youth, came out in the early 90s—around the same time all my flashback videos are from. “Sulky Girl” was probably the biggest hit off of Brutal Youth. It’s such a great album that doesn’t have a single bad song on it.

Altered Beast is such a great album. It would be my favorite Matthew Sweet album if Girlfriend wasn’t ever made. The cd was glued into my cd player for most of the 90s. “Ugly Truth Rock” was the first video off of Altered Beast. When I think of 90s music videos, I always think of that blue car driving around the desert. The video starts at the 1:18 mark. I couldn’t find a better quality version of the video, so you get a little bonus with a classic 120 Minutes intro by Lewis Largent and a little clip of a Matthew Sweet interview.

I only saw Mr. T Experience videos on MTV a couple of times, but it didn’t take much for me to get hooked. They are one of my favorites, but sadly they aren’t releasing albums as often nowadays. The lead singer, Dr. Frank, has been spending his time writing novels. I have read both of his books King Dork and Andromeda Klein, and will probably read anything he writes.