The Alternative 90s, the AV Club's Retrospective: 1998

Today, we continue the journey through a remarkable period of music history. This series is meant as a companion/reaction piece to Steven Hyden’s Whatever Happened To Alternative Nation? Accurately subtitled as “One man’s year-by-year journey into 90s rock.” You can get this highly recommend work on Kindle for just $2.99. Do it!

Look back for previous editions where we covered part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, and part 8.

Where did we go? Alas, though I finished reading Hyden’s book, I clearly ran out of gas on posting as it's been nearly two months since part 8. Why? Well, that’s easy. The 1998 chapter, sadly, appropriately, focuses exclusively on the nü-metal genre, specifically the bands Korn and Limp Bizkit. So it’s no wonder I did not rush to the keyboard to write about it.

Yet this week, I randomly came across a social media posting of the Limp Bizkit video for “Nookie,” and decided to let it play. Maybe I had misjudged the band because they simply weren’t as good as what came before them. If you hate yourself, you can watch the video here.

My goodness. If there was any misjudgment on my part, it was that I couldn’t fathom a song that bad had ever become a major hit. (In retrospect, I was grossly unkind to Alanis Morissette. The bottom was fathoms below what she had created.) Everything about this is pathetic. It is weeks-old warmed-over store-brand mac and cheese. The lyrics, the music, the vocals, Fred Durst’s dopey facial expression… right down to the “arrest” at the end of the video. I don’t even know what to say.

 

Anyway… Hyden addresses this moment in time wistfully, noting that he had in effect aged out of the zeitgeist, and talks about how he already couldn’t relate to those kids born after Back to the Future was released. He personally had already moved on from Grunge before then, but the world followed suit. 

“For the next several years, a new wave of bands systematically wiped away the gains alternative rock had made in the early ‘90s. Grunge was consumed by a new beast, and vomited back up with the most rank, least edible chunks of metal and hip-hop… Nü-metal beat grunge at its own game; you could feel sorry for yourself without worrying about other people. In fact, other people were the problem.” 

The “feel your pain” portion of the 90s was officially over, and vengeance was upon us.

 

Which, OK, fine. There was a rebellion against caring about other people’s concerns (that quite obviously continues to this day). But did the music have to be so pathetic? Hyden: “You didn’t have to be ignorant of rock history in order to appreciate it, but it definitely helped to be free of preconceived notions of what ‘good’ music was supposed to sound like if you wanted to be a Korn fan.” Perhaps it needed to be terrible music. Because if your driving sense of self as a music fan is to connect with something selfish and unenlightened, the quality of what you listen to will inherently belong to the lowest common denominator. Actual ability is an afterthought or even a snooty way to look down on the individual.

 

Hyden notes that Soundgarden and Nirvana were done. Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam were in new, less important chapters. I’d add that Smashing Pumpkins lost the plot with "Adore." Yet, he takes a short detour to talk about all the good things bubbling up over these late 90s years. 1999 was a stronger year, and I’ll touch on more examples then, but we still got “Hello Nasty,” a shocking triumph from the Beastie Boys in their third complete reinvention, and “Psyence Fiction” from U.N.K.L.E., a worthwhile electronic/rock/rap collaboration led by James Lavelle and DJ Shadow with participation from a gaggle of credible alternative musicians.

 

Back to the task at hand, though. Hyden laments, “After a while, [grunge] was just this passé thing I made fun of in order to make people think I was never silly enough to treat it seriously. But deep down, I couldn’t forgive Korn, Limp Bizkit, Creed, Godsmack, and all the rest for what they did to the Alternative Nation.” I don’t align with the first part. I still see grunge as music that mattered and lives frequently on my stereo/car/headphones/RockBand game today. But it’s true that the steering wheel was handed over to the lowest common denominator bands who lacked everything that this music genre was supposed to deliver.

Hyden closes by telling the story of his blistering review of a 2002 Korn concert, and how the cornucopia of backlash from idiots became a badge of honor for him. It’s amusing, but sad on many levels, especially what it portended. Hyden summarizes his feelings: “I’ll never get Korn and Limp Bizkit. I’ll always consider nü-metal a symptom of the nihilism, self-absorption, and arrogance percolating in the American culture in the late ‘90s, before it flowered into something really ugly a few years later.”

The nice thing is that, looking at this book 15 years after its publication, we at least can say that these bands have faded into obscurity. The sad thing is, the movement they surfed in on has only proliferated into all aspects of life, most obviously in politics.

 

The original "red hat" of ignorance

Things will get even worse as we get into 1999, but I’m going to try to balance my time on that last edition on the sparks of hope, joy, and brilliance that were emerging all the same. We’re here for the great tunes, after all…

100 Days, 100 Coen Brothers One-liners

his was something I did back in 2018 – each day I posted a different one-line quote from a Coen Brothers movie. This went on for 100 straight days. It was a fun little endeavor, even though only certain quotes seemed to get engagement.

As Twitter is basically slowly dying, and because it was a fair amount of work, I thought I’d codify them on this here blog. The experience will certainly be different as I'm dumping all 100 quotes at once. But I guess we're not into the whole brevity thing here.

Tell me in the comments any of:

• Which is your favorite(s)
• Which one I forgot
• Which new one-liners post 2018 are worthy of inclusion

Here’s the list. Enjoy!

1. “Sometimes your career’s gotta come first.”
2. “Oh, George, not the livestock.”
3. “I’m sickadah high hat!”
4. “Strictly speaking, I’m never supposed to do THIS. But do you have any better ideas?”
5. “It’s a Radisson, so it’s nice.”
6. “The story is ludicrious!”
7. “I’m not here representing HardBodies.”
8. “I’m not afraid of you anymore, Marty.”
9. “You wanna play The Gaslight…!”
10. “He told them not to look at the facts, but at the meaning of the facts. Then he said facts had no meaning.”
11. “You two are just dumber than a bag of hammers.”
12. “Yeah, I got a rash, man.”
13. “I could tell you some stories.”
14. “I’m not sure I agree with you 100% on your police work there, Lou.”
15. “Would you hold still please, sir.”
16. “Hey, look. I’m really happy for the gig, but who wrote this?”
17. “Everyone is so goddamn smart. Well, we’ll go out to Miller’s Crossing and we’ll see who’s smart.”
18. “Government do take a bite, don’t she?” <DING!>
19. “I thought you might be worried about the security… of your shit.”
20. “You know what you are? An enthusiast.”
21. “You’re a smooth smoothie, ya know?”
22. “Son, you got a panty on your head.”
23. “”Also we know, that this is your homework.”
24. “Sex? He’s a man. We wrestled!”
25. “Mr. Musburger is so nice, I’,m gonna give him a double-stich anyway.”
26. “OK. I’m with you fellas.”
27. “Look in your heart! Look in your heart!”
28. “I’m already home, Glen.”
29. “Jean and Scottie never have to worry.”
30. “You’re obviously not a golfer.”
31. “And stay outta the Woolsworth!”
32. “Nothing more foolish than a man chasing his hat.”
33. “Leads? Yeah, I’ll just check with the boys at the crime lab. They’ve got four more detectives on it. They’ve got us working in shifts!”
34. “I don’t see a lot of money here.”
35. “Do you take advantage of the new freedoms?”
36. “We’re just about to start the robbery proper.”
37. “Thank God your mammy died giving birth. If she’d have seen you she’d have died of shame.”
38. “Hey Tom, what’s the rumpus?”
39. “You gotta eat a breakfast. I’ll make you some eggs. <GHCIUWw>”
40. “Well no, unless round is funny.”
41. “Calmner’n you are.”
42. “We’re not a bank, Jerry.”
43. “How are we supposed to do reform when we’s the incumbent?”
44. “Look upon me! I’ll show you the life of the mind!”
45. “Don’t be fatuous, Jeffrey.”
46. “Let me just sit here a minute.”
47. “I’ve never seen you here before. I like that in a woman.”
48. “That lake as not my doin’.”
49. “OK, yeah, so there’s that, too.”
50. “We released ourselves on our own recognizance.”
51. “This is a bummer, man.”
52. “Who cares about fifth Earl of Bathsdrop and Lady Higgenbottome and who killed Nigel Grinchgibbons?”
53. “I slaughtered this horse last Tuesday. I’m afraid she’s startin’ to turn.”
54. “Tan Ciera! Tan Ciera!”
55. “I’ve had a rough night, and I hate the fuckin’ Eagles, man.”
56. “What’s the most you’ve ever lost on a coin toss?”
57. “We’re set to pop, hon.”
58. “They don’t drink milkshakes, I assure you.”
59. “It’s all part of your sick Cynthia thing.”
60. “Who looks stupid now?”
61. “I’ve always found that writing comes from great inner pain.”
62. “Well, I could say we should talk about this when you’re less angry, but that would be… that’d be… when would that be?”
63. “Nobody knows anybody. Not that well.”
64. “Oh my fuck. I just killed a fucking spook.”
65. “And for what? For a little bit of money. There’s more to life then a little money, you know. Don’t you know that? And here ya are, and it’s a beautiful day. Well, I just don’t understand it.”
66. “The more you look, the less you really know. It’s a fact, a true fact. In a way, it’s the only fact there is.”
67. “I’m just gonna go find a cash machine.”
68. “Ain’t got no radio.”
69. “Close your eyes, ladies, I’m coming in!”
70. “Now, let me ask you a question. Would an imbecile come up with this?”
71. “We go to pancakes house.”
72. “I’m fucking hungry now, yanknow?!”
73. “You’re not wrong, Walter, you’re just an asshole.”
74. “Youse fancypants. All a youse.”
75. “Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.”
76. “Up! Up on your feet! We don’t crawl here at Hudsucker Industries.”
77. “We ate sand…”
78. “He’s seen the same things I’ve seen, and it’s certainly made an impression on me.”
79. “So you have no frame of reference here.”
80. “Heavens to Betsy, Birdy!”
81. “Is that some kind of Eastern thing?”
82. “I’ll be taking these Huggies, and… whatever cash you got.”
83. “You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me.”
84. “No, I just… think I’m gonna barf.”
85.  “You don’t hold elected office in this town. You run it because people think you do. They stop thinking it, you stop running it.”
86. “You’re killing your father, Larry!”
87. “And the doc went on to explain that this woman, who looke das fertile as the Tennessee Valley, could bear no young. Her insides were a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase.”
88. “Me, I don’t talk much. I just cut the hair.”
89. “Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you int o a life of aimless wanderin’?”
90. “Oh boy, how you gonna keep ‘em down on the farm once they’ve seen Karl Hungus?”
91. “In Russia, they got it all mapped out so that everyone pulls for everyone else… that’s the theory anyway. But what I know about it is Texas, and down here, you’re on your own.”
92. “You ain’t go a license to kill bookies, and today I ain’t sellin’ any. So take your flunky and dangle.”
93. “There’s what’s right, and there’s what’s right, and never the twain shall meet.”
94. “Well come on down here, hammerhead, and I’ll show it to ya!”
95. “If you point a gun at someone, you better make sure you shoot him. And if you shoot him, you’d better make sure he’s dead. Because if he isn’t then he’s gonna get up and try to kill you.”
96. “And if a frog had wings it wouldn’t bump its ass a-hoppin’.”
97. “I’ve spoken my peace, and counted to three.”
98. “OK, then.”
99. “Au revoir…”
100. “Fuck it, Dude… let’s go bowling.”