Eve's Plum - Cherry Alive

 #Eve's Plum #Colleen Fitzpatrick #alternative rock #power pop #grunge #1990s

Eve's Plum was a rock band that originated in 1991 in New York City. They released two albums and various singles in the mid-1990s, before disbanding in 1998. Michael Kotch and his twin brother Ben Kotch had been looking to start a band and needed a singer and bassist. After Colleen Fitzpatrick met Michael while both were in school at New York University, she eventually became the group's singer; Fitzpatrick, who had studied dance previously, had recently had some success with a leading role in John Waters' 1988 film, Hairspray, which went on to become a cult classic. The band went through several bass players. The name "Eve's Plum" was derived from Eve Plumb, the actress who most notably portrayed Jan Brady on The Brady Bunch.
The group was signed to Sony Records in 1992, and in 1993, their debut album, "Envy", was released. Its first single (arguably its most popular) was "Blue", which had the good fortune to have its music video appear in an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head. Two additional singles were released from Envy, "Die Like Someone" and "I Want It All". After some difficulty locating the right bass player, Theo Mack joined the group. Another single, "Eye", appeared on the soundtrack to "Higher Learning".
The band's second album, "Cherry Alive", was released in 1995. While developing the album, the band recorded a cover version of "If I Can't Have You" which found its way onto a compilation album, "Spirit Of 73 Rock for Choice". Two singles were promoted from Cherry Alive, though not very well: "Wishing the Day Away" and "Jesus Loves You". Not successful commercially, the band did not receive further support from their label and were subsequently dropped. They performed for some time thereafter, but this was the beginning of the end. They recorded "Save a Prayer" for a Duran Duran tribute album in 1998, but the band was not really viable. Its members moved on to other projects. Fitzpatrick has had some success with solo albums under the name Vitamin C, as well as acting parts in several films.  From: https://www.last.fm/music/Eve%27s+Plum/+wiki

Tracy Bonham - Jumping Bean

 #Tracy Bonham #alternative rock #post-grunge #singer-songwriter #1990s

Woman to Woman: Erin Harkes chats with Tracy Bonham
When offered the opportunity to interview Tracy Bonham, I jumped at the chance. As I struggled to teach myself how to play guitar in my college dorm room back in the 90s, this powerhouse musician of the Lilith Fair era was an inspiration to me. Thankfully, and not surprisingly, she was an absolute delight to talk with. She was also super patient with the technical difficulties and all the times throughout the discussion where I made it about me.
Me: Obviously you’re best known for “Mother, Mother,” a song I love. The first time I heard it I was in the car with my mother, so it was just perfect. She was like, “Oh, this is a nice song” with a hint of passive aggression. And then you started screaming at her and I thought, “Tracy and I are best friends now.”
Tracy: That’s an awesome story—really cool. No one has ever told me that.
Me: I’m sure you know how moms can be. They’re like, “Oh, maybe you should write a song like this for me.” Then it got to the chorus and I thought, Maybe I will…
Tracy:  That’s great. That’s awesome.
Me: But beyond that, which work would you say you’re most proud of?
Tracy: It’s gonna sound so stupid, but I’m really proud of my body of work. I can’t choose one song because they’re all a timestamp of who I was at that moment. When I look back, I see it as a kaleidoscope or a tapestry of who I am. And I like knowing that I have many albums out there—not as many as I should have in my almost 30 years of doing this—but at least I have a nice handful.
Me: I’m sure it’s hard to choose just one. I know that when you’re known for one particular thing, sometimes people tend to overlook your other labors of love.
Tracy: Yeah, that happens all the time.
Me: But I’m glad to hear that you’re proud of all your work because that’s not very common. Sometimes you have a couple of stinkers that you’d rather nobody ever heard.
Tracy: Oh, I went through that. I thought my second album, “Down Here,” was a stinker for a long time. Then it happened to come up on my playlist or my iTunes while I was driving and I forced myself to listen to the whole thing. I was like, Wait a minute. I actually LIKE this. I had to come around. I needed time away from that one.
Me: That makes sense. I also have a song I didn’t like that much, but then my friends would tell me “That’s my favorite song on the album!” Maybe that would be somebody else’s favorite, too.
Tracy: Yes, exactly. You have to give it up at some point. It’s like letting your kids go off to college. You have to let them go.
Me: And I do think of songs as my children, so it’s funny that you said that. When somebody asks me my favorite song, I ask them, “Do you have kids? Which one is your favorite?” Then they get it. Except once in a while, somebody says, “Kyle’s my favorite,” and I’m like, “Okay, you ruined the question.”
Tracy: That’s hilarious.
From: https://nippertown.com/2022/06/28/woman-to-woman-erin-harkes-interviews-tracy-bonham/

Black Moth - Moonbow

 #Black Moth #Harriet Hyde #stoner rock #heavy metal #hard rock #grunge #alternative rock #indie rock #music video

Posed by one scribe as 'an onslaught of monumental riff sorcery and serpentine grace' Black Moth rose from the Leeds underground scene at the end of 2010, indulging their love for both Sabbath sulphur and Stooges squalor. Equal parts horror movie atmosphere, thunderous drive and maverick spark, with Harriet Bevan's biting and beguiling voice leading the charge.  From: https://blackmothband.bandcamp.com/

This weekend, Leeds-via-London stoner metallers Black Moth will play their final shows. After breaking onto the scene in 2012 with debut full-length The Killing Jar, they harnessed the power of the occult and the morose with a healthy dose of Black Sabbath, Nick Cave and Uncle Acid to become one of the brightest lights in the British stoner/doom scene. However, such is life, circumstances didn't work in their favour. Their final album, Anatomical Venus, was recorded a year before it was eventually released, which ultimately slowed the band's momentum – leaving over three years between records.
"The album was done but we weren’t out there promoting it," vocalist Harriet Hyde tells Kerrang! from the comfort of a north London pub. "Although we did some really nice things off the back of it. We toured with L7, played with Sleep, which for us were ultimates. Hearing Donita (Sparks, L7 vocalist) say to the crowd that I was their frozen embryo child (laughs)… It genuinely made me cry.” Couple the delay with the fact that Black Moth's lineup are split across England – two members living in London, and three living in Leeds – made touring and rehearsal a trying ordeal.
"I quit so many jobs because we’d been offered a tour, and you can only do that for so long. What’s sad is you’ve got five people who have this incredible chemistry for making music together, but it all ends up being frustrating because you can’t scrape two hours together on a Friday night." Logistically, it became impossible to carry on. Harriet herself was burning out, using every available holiday she had to go on tour, she never found time to actually rest. "There was a heartbreaking moment where we were playing Vienna on tour and I was desperate to go see Vienna. Did I see it? Did I fuck!" she laughs. "I saw the back of a van then a venue, then we left." Ultimately, Harriet wrote the band an email, calling time on Black Moth. Admitting it was a hard pill to swallow initially, the rest of the band agreed that the band should leave it at the three albums they're proud of, instead of "pissing it away and falling out."
From: https://www.kerrang.com/a-farewell-to-the-perverted-darkness-of-black-moth

Drain S.T.H. - I Don't Mind

 #Drain S.T.H. #heavy metal #grunge #alternative metal #hard rock #nu metal #Swedish #1990s

The all-female hard rock/heavy metal band Drain S.T.H. was formed in 1993 in Stockholm, Sweden (hence the S.T.H., added to avoid confusion with a similarly named American band), and featured singer Maria Sjöholm, guitarist Flavia Canel, bassist Anna Kjellberg, and drummer/vocalist Martina Axén. Displaying an unabashed worship of Alice in Chains, their independent 1996 debut, Horror Wrestling, was dominated by uncompromising grinds of slow, down-tuned guitars, which were then topped with Sjöholm and Axén's beautifully chilling vocal harmonies. Coupled with the band's impressive live performances and supermodel looks, this soon drew the attention of Mercury Records subsidiary The Enclave, which repackaged and re-released the album worldwide two years later with an additional three tracks. The far more accessible follow-up, 1999's Freaks of Nature, shed much of the band's excessive Alice in Chains influences of old and flirted with traces of programmed percussion and even rap, thereby forging a more distinctive sonic identity. But despite extensive touring both in Europe and America (including a lengthy jaunt with that year's Ozzfest) and attaining decent radio airplay in support, Drain S.T.H. never managed to break out of the metal underground, perhaps because they were simply too drop-dead gorgeous to be taken seriously by the notoriously chauvinistic metal masses.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/drain-sth-mn0000806089/biography

Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun

 #Soundgarden #Chris Cornell #grunge #heavy metal #alternative metal #hard rock #alternative rock #punk metal #1990s #music video

When the world lost Chris Cornell in 2017, we lost one of the greatest voices in rock. Probably the greatest singing voice in all of rock ever, in fact – Axl Rose, Alice Cooper and Eddie Vedder are among those who cite him as the single greatest singer we ever had. Kurt Cobain used to try to sing like him. Cornell fronted Soundgarden, a massive influence on the grunge world (although, more experimental and musically talented than a lot of their peers, they rejected the grunge label as a marketing gimmick), then Audioslave with former members of Rage Against The Machine, as well as releasing a bunch of solo albums. He fit a lot into his tragically-cut-short life. He owned a Parisian restaurant and a record label. He did the only James Bond theme to ever go to Number One in the UK. He co-wrote a screenplay. He introduced Eddie Vedder to the rest of Pearl Jam. Garbage wrote a song about him. Two romantic comedies took their titles from his lyrics. Through it all, he battled with addiction issues and crippling depression, two subjects he spoke openly about and did his best to help others through. When an artist takes their own life like Cornell did, it’s tempting to look back through everything they did for clues and statements of intent – something Cornell was very aware of, telling Rolling Stone after Cobain’s death “It’s sort of a morbid exchange when somebody who is a writer like that dies, and then everyone starts picking through all their lyrics.” Happily, Black Hole Sun is, by Cornell’s own admission, largely devoid of meaning, just a magnificent songwriter letting words take him where they take him, accompanied by both melodic and thunderous guitar, and it’s awesome, and everyone in the video has big terrifying eyes.

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Oh shit, it’s all kicking in. Of the song itself, Cornell said, “If you read the lyrics to the verses, it’s sort of surreal, esoteric word painting. It was written very quickly. It was stream of consciousness. I wasn’t trying to say anything specific; I was really writing to the feel of the music and accepting whatever came out.”

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Oh nooooooo, it’s not nice, the man with the eyes is scary. Director Howard Greenhalgh, the man behind this grossness, has also worked with Iron Maiden, Muse, Placebo and System Of A Down.

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'Boiling heat' accompanied by a pot boiling over is the most on-the-nose moment in the video. Greenhalgh said in a 2010 interview "With anything, it’s the lyrics that are everything. You pray that there are good lyrics in a track because that leads you immediately to what you’re going to do."

0.50
Cornell’s being all creepy and all. “I ate some cottage cheese that turned, and I wrote those lyrics” he said of Black Hole Sun. “It's just sort of a surreal dreamscape, a weird, play-with-the-title kind of song. Lyrically it’s probably the closest to me just playing with words for words' sake, of anything I’ve written. I guess it worked for a lot of people who heard it, but I have no idea how you’d begin to take that one literally."

0.57
In comes the chorus. “It’s funny because hits are usually sort of congruent, sort of an identifiable lyric idea, and that song pretty much had none” Cornell told RIP Magazine. “The chorus lyric is kind of beautiful and easy to remember. Other than that, I sure didn’t have an understanding of it after I wrote it. There was no real idea to get across."

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Despite claiming a lot of the song to not really mean anything, the line 'Times are gone for honest men' was one that had a bit more to it for Cornell. “It seems like noble people are quashed” he said in an interview.

1.45
All the weird disorienting shifting layers come courtesy of Greenhalgh, a special effects dude that puts together hella high-end car commercials and stuff. One of the first videos he did was Liberation by the Pet Shop Boys, which used at-the-time pioneering video game style graphics. It looks very dated now, but blew minds at the time.

1.55
“No one seems to get this, but Black Hole Sun is sad,” said Cornell. “But because the melody is really pretty, everyone thinks it’s almost chipper, which is ridiculous."

3.18
Some of these effects don’t quite hold up in futuristic 2019, but bear in mind this video was made in 1994, 25 years ago. Computers could only show about six colours, and all weighed a quarter of a ton or more, and cost a million quid.

3.39
What does the title even mean? Cornell told Entertainment Weekly in 2014 that it came from a misheard news report. “I had misheard a news anchor, and I thought he said ‘black hole sun,’ but he said something else. So I was corrected, but after that I thought, ‘Well, he didn’t say it, but I heard it.’”

4.47
Kim Thayil told Guitar Magazine in 1996: “We've been disappointed with most of our videos. There were a couple we were really satisfied with – Black Hole Sun we were satisfied with, and Jesus Christ Pose as well. Most of the others we were like, ‘Well, whatever.’”

5.20
Cornell and the rest of the band didn’t think they had a hit on their hands, let alone the song that would become most synonymous with them. “I didn’t think in terms of hits then, and I didn’t think tempo-wise or lyrically as Black Hole Sun being something that could be a hit” he said in 2014. “Maybe a single at some point late in the release, like an afterthought single. Sometimes when a record has been out for a while, right before the record company decides to stop promoting it, they’ll do one last single that’s different, like something for the fans or whatever. That’s what I thought Black Hole Sun would be. But once we started mixing and mastering it and playing it for friends and the record company, everyone was singling that song out. So it started to occur to us that it might be a single that would have broader appeal. But definitely not lyrically. When I think of hit songs, they have to be somewhat anthemic in the world of rock, and I didn’t see Black Hole Sun as being that.”

From: https://www.kerrang.com/a-deep-dive-into-the-video-for-soundgardens-black-hole-sun

Black Hole Sun is a song by the American rock band Soundgarden. Written by frontman Chris Cornell, the song was released in 1994 as the third single from the band's album Superunknown. The surreal and apocalyptic music video for Black Hole Sun was directed by British video director Howard Greenhalgh, and produced by Megan Hollister for Why Not Films. The video follows a suburban neighborhood and its vain inhabitants with comically exaggerated grins, which are eventually swallowed up when the Sun suddenly turns into a black hole, while the band performs the song somewhere in an open field. In an online chat, the band stated that the video was “entirely the director's idea,” and that it was one of the few videos the band was satisfied with.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hole_Sun

Whale - Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe

 #Whale #alternative rock #experimental rock #indie rock #grunge #noise rock #electronic #trip-hop #1990s #Swedish #music video 

Whale was a Swedish alternative rock group active from 1992 to 1999. Musician, record producer, and sound engineer Gordon Cyrus and comedian, actor, musician and radio and television personality Henrik Schyffert met while working on a commercial and decided to collaborate on a music track. Schyffert recruited his then-girlfriend, Cia Berg, to perform vocals. The band enjoyed some success, particularly in the European market. Their first single, 1993's "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe", was positively received by critics and received heavy spins in the Euro dance club scene and saturation airplay on MTV. The music video for "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe", directed by Mark Pellington, won the first MTV Europe Music Award for Best Video in 1994.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_(band)