1990s grunge songs I hated the most

In 1990 I was in my mid-teens and in 1999 I was in my mid-twenties, so it's safe to say I was right within the target market for grunge back in the day.

In all honesty, most grunge music just sucked. While true it was definitely better than the glam rock that preceded it, it still had a boatload of suck.

These are the grunge hits from the '90s that I hated the most.

Silverchair - Tomorrow

I remember the first time I saw this band on MTV. I hated them. They sucked. To me, it was painfully obvious they were only on MTV because they "sounded grunge". Absolutely terrible.

Pearl Jam - Animal

There are a few songs I like from Pearl Jam, but this is one of their worst. This song literally sounds like an unfinished demo that was slapped together with hardly any thought at all. The only reason this got any airplay back in the day was because Pearl Jam was still hot at the time. Crap song.

Mad Season - River of Deceit

This is a slow, droning song with boring guitar tones and is a total yawn-fest from beginning to end.

Bush - Machine Head

This was one of the last grunge acts that was still out there before the whole scene died. Very bland, generic sound with a vocalist that sounds whiny as hell.

Alice in Chains - I Stay Away

This band, like Pearl Jam, has a few good songs, but this is not one of them. Very overprocessed sound and way too much vocal layering, making the whole song just sound annoying.

Hole - Violet

The only reason this act ever got anywhere is because the lead "singer" of this band was dating Kurt Cobain. This particular number features the lead "singer" belting out notes out-of-tune and sounding like she was in a drunken stupor while recording (which is probably true).

L7 - Pretend We're Dead

Anyone playing guitar for 3 weeks could have written this. Dumb song, dumb lyrics, off-key vocals. This song is a total pile of crap.

Temple of the Dog - Hunger Strike

Literally combine Pearl Jam + Soundgarden together. Great idea, right? Wrong. Bad idea. The vocals in this song clash in a real bad way and it never should have happened.

A small collection of '90s grunge songs that didn't suck

Aside from the more popular titles, here are a few that are actually pretty damned good.

Meat Puppets - Backwater

Technically not grunge but called grunge anyway because it was a rock song released that wasn't glam in the '90s. It's just a good rock song.

Veruca Salt - Seether

L7 sucked. Hole sucked. Veruca Salt did not. This was one of the few '90s grunge bands with girls in front that did it right.

Stone Temple Pilots - Vasoline

This song really captures the STP groove. I have absolutely no idea what the song is about, nor do I care. The guitars are perfect, the bass is loud and gritty, the drums are organic and beautiful, the vocals are mixed perfectly.

This song is just so damned good.

Oh, and another thing. I don't know who directed STP's videos back in the day, but the whole "throw random crap in a video and make it stylistically cool" was something few got right. Vasoline is done right. It's visually different and cool without being disturbing. It rides really close to being disturbing but doesn't cross the line. The director just did an awesome job there.

Was this STP's top song? Not by a long shot. But it's one of my favorites.

Guitar of the week #68 - Oscar Schmidt OS-300

A cheap Strat clone at a good price. A very good price.

The Oscar Schmidt OS-300 comes in a bunch of different finish options, and is the same price as the Squier Bullet Strat.

The guitar comes in natural finish, black, transparent blue, sunburst, seafoam green, or a purple burst.

Functionally, the OS-300 and Bullet Strat are basically identical and probably sound pretty much exactly the same.

If you're looking for a dirt cheap Strat clone to mod, the OS-300 is actually the better choice because it has a maple body. Or at least that's what the Amazon description for the guitar states.

I know for a fact that Squier Bullet Strat guitars have basswood bodies. Nice enough wood, but it dents very easily and it's also really easy to strip a screw hole when dealing with basswood.

Maple on the other hand, even if it's a soft maple (I'm not sure which on the OS-300,) can handle mods much better. If you need to drill an extra hole or cut out some area under the pick guard for whatever reason, you'll have an easier time dealing with the maple body compared to basswood.

It should also be easier to refinish the guitar, should you decide to change the body color.

In short, if you want a decent first Strat or something that will take to mods fairly easily, grab an OS-300.

Should bands even bother with physical media anymore?

Does anyone care if a band releases physical media anymore?

Maybe.

Let's talk about the compact disc for a moment.

Ever since the CD was introduced in the 1980s, audiophiles have always, repeat, always hated the format. And I know exactly why they hate it. It's because digital audio is "squashed," and the fidelity is vastly inferior compared to other media formats.

Today, the music CD is for all intents and purposes a totally dead format. Nobody plays CDs in cars anymore, instead opting just to play music directly from a smartphone or small portable player. Who would want to deal with discs when you can stuff so much more music on something so much smaller where the audio quality sounds the same if not better when using a file data format like FLAC?

Every audiophile knows, or at least should know, that nothing sounds as good as a freshly pressed vinyl record, provided you play it on a quality turntable. That is the gold standard of recorded audio, so to speak. Nothing before or since has been able to reproduce the how good fresh vinyl sounds.

I won't get into why vinyl sounds so good because I could write a tome on it, but in short, it is the audio that sounds best to humans.

Now aside from all that, from a band or artist's perspective, there are 3 things you need to know about vinyl:

1. Vinyl is the only physical audio media format worth paying for.
2. Audiophiles purposely seek out vinyl because it's just that damned good.
3. Vinyl is the only truly collectible audio format.

Some bands make compact cassettes, because there is a company out there who still makes them. All well and good, but... no. Bad choice.

You can obviously still make CDs. All you need is a computer with a CD burner for that.

But then there's vinyl.

On Amazon, vinyl shows up more than you might think.

So what's so damned cool about vinyl?

Well, I mentioned the collectible reason above, but there's something else.

The artwork.

There are vinyl collectors who don't even own record players. They buy vinyl records just because they look cool.

Out of every audio media format that's ever existed, a record album cover is, as far as I'm aware, the largest amount of space where a band can put dedicated artwork on it.

For example, on the Alice Cooper School's Out vinyl record, that actually looks like a real school desk and even opens up like a school desk.

If you're an artist or a band looking for something cool to sell, consider vinyl

There are certain things artists and bands can sell that are cool. T-shirts is one of them. Can't go wrong with that. There's also other little novelty items like mugs and little stuffed bears you could sell too.

But the vinyl... now that's a collectible right there, even if it's just a single and not a full album.

If you search Google for "create your own vinyl record", there are companies out there who will manufacture your record right now. And that's cool.

To answer the title question of this article, yes, bands should bother with physical media...

...but only if it's vinyl. To hell with the CD. I'm glad that media is dying. Optical discs are good for movies and data, but audio? Nah, that time has very much passed.

On a final note, I was never into vinyl, said honestly. But I totally respect the format, and just from a collectible point of view, the vinyl is just so damned cool. I am one of those people that would buy it just for the artwork.

Guitar of the week #67 - Gretsch FSR Two-Tone Electromatic Double Jet

Wow, what a looker.

There are regular Gretsch Electromatic Double Jet guitars normally seen in black, red and gold (the gold one in particular in amazing,) but then there's the special run Surf Green and White version, and wow, does it look good.

How many guitars do you know that could get away with a surf green front and white sides and back? And with gold hardware? It's only something Gretsch could do.

Gretsch has a knack for color. On any other guitar, this would not work, but on this Double Jet it totally does. And it's not a bad price, either.

Sleeper watch: Casio AQS800WD

This is a sleeper in Casio's lineup and I have to talk about this one.

For the first time I'm actually recommending an analog-digital timepiece. Ordinarily, I think ana-digi watches are awful. But this one is packed with so much stuff for such a good price that it's tough to pass up.

The first thing I'll mention is that this watch comes in many flavors. All the cases are the same but there's a huge amount of choice here. If you look at the Casio AQS800W models, you'll see black dial with "racing" orange or white numbers on the dial with the resin strap. If you look at the Casio AQS800WD, this is the sleeper piece.

Here's a rundown of the specs:

• 47.6mm lug-to-lug, 42mm case size, 10.6mm thick (quite slim for what this is)
• 100M water resist
• LED night light with afterglow
• World Time, 31 time zones with DST on/off
• 5 alarms
• Stopwatch
• Two countdown timers up to 99 minutes, 55 seconds with auto-repeat
• Full auto calendar up to year 2099
• Solar powered with battery charge indicator (very nice touch.) Battery lasts up to 10 months on full charge with no exposure to light
• Power save function (also a nice touch)

Now as for why the AQS800WD is the sleeper (the D indicates a metal bracelet), this is the feature:

• Neo-brite luminous hands and markers

I'll explain why this is so cool.

While true that having a backlight function and luminous hands/markers is redundant, the fact it actually has it on a watch packed with so many features is simply incredible.

Basically, the AQS800WD is a world traveler's watch, a diver's watch and a runner's watch all in one.

It is not easy to find a watch that does all this stuff all at once. If you were ever to call any timepiece the Swiss Army Knife of watches, the AQS800WD is it.

Are there any negatives? Yes, because no watch is perfect.

First, it doesn't have a second hand. The seconds are counted on the digital display. Yes, this means this watch does not tick. Or rather, it does tick, but only once per minute.

Second, the digital display is itty-bitty. Not the easiest thing to read. But the analog display is obviously very readable.

Third, between 6 and 7 o'clock or whenever the minute hand is between 25 to 35 minutes, the digital display is partially blocked. Not really a big deal, but slightly annoying.

Fourth, the bezel doesn't rotate. However, this is okay due to the fact the watch features two timers which is what a rotating bezel would be used for.

The resin non-metal version

From the models available, you're going to see orange-text, white-text and the insane all-red case version.

I have to admit, it's a very cool look for one reason: It totally looks like the tachometer gauge of a fast sports car. That's just badass.

With the resin version, you lose the metal bracelet and luminous hands/markers. Otherwise, it's functionally identical to metal version.

It should also be noted there is a huge weight difference between the metal and resin versions. The metal version is 89g in weight while the resin is just 33g.

Does the metal version have a metal case? No. The case is still painted resin, and that's why the watch weighs 89g and not over 100g.

Which should you go with?

In all honesty, both are great but the AQS800WD is the one with everything plus the lume.

What's my pick?

The silver dial version, which is the AQS800WD-7EV model.

The look of this one is spot-on for me as it's very monochromatic. Blacks, grays and silvers are all you see with no varying colors, save for the lume at night.

Yes, it's the same watch as the two above, just with a different appearance. Like I said, this particular model has a lot of variations to it.

The AQS800WD is obviously a sports watch first, so it's not like you could wear it with a suit, but for pretty much everything else you can think of, this is a great daily beater with some nice style to it.