Psychozoic Hymnal 12 - 90's Not
Nirvana
Not enough has been said about lead singer Kurt Cobain’s “I found this and it works for me like this” songwriting. Somewhere near “Anyeurism” he developed song progressions too, or a form of progression he could stand for. The band brought what they had to the fragments, then practised until it moved, or wouldn’t play at all. But it was always about engaging with the fragments. This gave them angles others did not, and pop. Pop‐wise it was original not once but repeatedly; as rock it was strong but synthetic not organic. Though most comfortable with the electricity, they were more complete without, where the drums could stir the guitars, not pin them.
Radiohead
If you think guitars, drums and songs make rock, Radiohead are rock (so is some Joan Baez). And some think shouting and banging is rock, but I say there’s art in the analysis of numb response to educated and dislocated grievance. But of course the result is beautiful detail, with hyper‐sensitive respect between all, which is a new Steely Dan. As they craft those studio sounds, under which rithm clatters and blurts. While an increasingly self‐aware self‐loathing yearns, sighs… remember, Kraftwerk loved their electronics. Thirty years on and people still don’t seem to know what it meant or means. It was special. And some people will call anything with drums “rock”.
System Of A Down
This was mostly hard rock, not the metal many took it for. The downtuned guitars a feature that backed rock‐rap seizures, or jerked in when distrust became a howl. On top was a cut up of moves; chanting, prog dropouts, double speed moves, and melodic fragments that may have had folk origins but got caught up in the ache and frenzy. Two lanes of plea and declamation to drag the listener in one way or another. Work and thought pulls this into coherent musical tracks with an unlikely pop appeal, if perhaps lacking a dynamic. Too late for the hymnal, verges on canonical.
Spirit Caravan
They were taglined on posters as a modern Black Sabbath, which may have at the time made sense for an audience, but not much else. A heavy and committed variant of seventies hard rock, think Montrose, so half‐speed drums, they lead unusual with short electric guitar shapes not as intro but integrated (handout, that and dual guitars edge heavy also). Shaped to songs of spiritual ills—also original given their hard rock was of hardcore origin. Perhaps these thoughts were more to be explored than directly expressive. Part of the mapped but unsaluted heavy trails hacked by St. Vitus. Had they arrived thirty years earlier they’d be legend, but at the time were lucky to raise twenty audience, half of who were there for the beer.