Ugh. That’s all I can really say about this year. Not really my scene at all.
I like both the Bush and Foo Fighters songs. I’ll go with Bush, since I think Foo Fighters will get more votes.
As always, a list of some of my personal favorite “alternative” songs from the year: Sleater-Kinney, “Get Up”; Pavement, “Spit On A Stranger”; Ian Brown, “Neptune”; The Flaming Lips, “Race for the Prize”; Supergrass, “Pumping On Your Stereo”; The Divine Comedy, “Gin-Soaked Boy”; Marshall Crenshaw, “Television Light”.
I’m pretty sure I voted for Everlast in the 1998 poll, so I’m going to exclude that one from my options this year, and I don’t remember the Bush, Foo Fighters, or Limp Bizkit songs at all.
So out of the remainder… dammit all, at least the Blink-182 song is catchy and fun to sing along to.
Would have been nice if “You Get What You Give” by New Radicals were here. I’m torn by Foo Fighters or Sugar Ray.
Went with Sugar Ray since Foo Fighters will do alright.
As I’m wanting to actually cast a vote for each year, and not cop out by abstaining, I halfheartedly went with Foo Fighters. They were just slightly ahead of Everlast.
Ugh is right, I’m another half-hearted vote for the Foo Fighters.
I picked Learn to Fly, even though it’s inferior to the similarly-titled Tom Petty song. Sugar Ray is dead-ass last. How that fucking band ever got popular is way beyond my comprehension.
Wow. I voted Foo, but I may have gone for Blink 182 in another mood. Yet another year I’ll take the pop charts over the modern rock, but that one was also pretty rough.
Scar Tissue is legend
For me, “Scar Tissue” is about 100x better than the rest of these songs combined. I know we’ve all been moaning about the rise of Crap-Alt one-hit wonders like Semisonic and Candlebox but this slate of candidates is truly vile. Limp Bizkit, Creed, and Lit? Is this Frat-Rock or Alt-Rock?
RHCP “Scar Tissue” gets my vote, not a bad little song. Sugar Ray’s “Every Morning”, OTOH, is the very opposite of a good song.
Now to Playlist Research for the also-rans; sadly there’s a lot of cringe inducing songs on the 1999 list:
Cringe inducing, but at least a somewhat catchy tune - Kid Rock’s “Cowboy”
Cringe inducing, but at least a decent bass line - Limp Bizkit’s “Nookie”
Cringe inducing with no redeeming qualities what-so-ever - Offspring’s “Pretty Fly for a White Guy”
From the also-rans, I clearly remember at the time liking Moby’s Bodyrock, as well as Sixpence None the Richer “Kiss Me”, and The Goo Goo Dolls’ “Slide” (and kind of still do like all 3)
But, will I once again peeve everyone again and pick Creed’s “One” as my favorite also ran? No, because although that song did get a lot of repeat clicks on my CD player at the time, a tender love ballad got even more - The Chemical Brother’s “Let Forever Be”, which had the Chemical Brothers only good Music Video…except perhaps for their “Believe”, or their Star Guitar, or “Block Rockin’ Beats”, or…oh hell, admit it, they have a lot of good videos.
I’ve always wondered if there are actually people who like Foo Fighters. Apparently there are. How about that.
I mean, it’s not that there’s anything WRONG with them, it’s just that the music seems to be written specifically to be boring.
So “Scar Tissue” it is.
Close race between “Scar Tissue” and “Learn to Fly”.
Did you check out the other songs on the list besides “Scar Tissue”? Even if you think the Foo Fighters are boring, their song is still miles ahead of the others. Overall, Modern/Alternative Rock was not in good shape at the end of the 90s.
I like Creed overall, so I’m going with Higher. Obviously that puts me in the minority… but I’m used to that.
I’m not sure what’s so bad about Foo Fighters. The songs I’ve heard (those on the radio) are solid listening.
Learn to Fly by a goddamn mile.
I know there were better songs than this on the alt stations in 1999.
Went with “What It’s Like” but not out of any strong conviction.
I’m far more of a Foo fan that RHCP…but that’s due to personal taste, as Foos are just more my brand of music. In this case, I have to give it to Scar Tissue…it’s one of my faves by RHCPs, and I think Learn to Fly is one of the Foos’ lamer hits.
Which brings something to mind, actually…don’t think I saw Everlong on any of these lists. That seems remiss.