who do you think is the best of the 90s?
Chief’s Domain - http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~ravi
If I have to limit it to just one:
Dave Matthews Band.
“ChrisCTP-…the sweetheart of the SDMB…” --Diane
Chris’ Homepage: Domestic Bliss
Even though they started out in the 80’s, I’d have to say R.E.M. Great musicians, great lyrics, influenced a lot of other bands that came along in the 90’s, and commercially successful. They can almost be solely credited for bringing alternative music into the mainstream.
“It is impossible to experience one’s own death objectively and still carry a tune.” – Woody Allen from Getting Even
I suppose the definition requires the band to have started in the Nineties as well. Or become popular in the Nineties. Otherwise, any still existing band would do.
Well, let’s see then.
5 minutes of deep, deep thought
Hard to say. My pick for now would be Foo Fighters or Therapy?. However, I might get back with more later.
Coldfire
“You know how complex women are”
- Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
Beatles (*Anthologies[/])! 
Well, I will tell you the “Most Important” band of the '90s, since “Best Band” is so subjective…
NIRVANA. Redefined a generation’s thought patterns and made Top 40 loud for the first time in ages. Their influence will be felt for ages.
Yer pal,
Satan
Aggreed, Satan.
Coldfire
“You know how complex women are”
- Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
Professor J.L. Mott’s Cakewalk Orchestra and Ragtime Syncopators at Niblo’s Garden Theatre, Metropolitan Hotel, corner of Broadway and Prince Street, New York City.
Oh, hell. Did you mean the NINETEEN nineties?
Uke
Except for the spelling of the word ‘Agreed’
Coldfire
“You know how complex women are”
- Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
(waxing nostalgic)Greatful Dead.(/waxing nostalgic)
Satan: I think the most important moniker is equally subjective.
While I like and admire Nirvana, they had NO impact on my playing/writing nor any of my band mates/friends. I’m sure they have influenced many people, I’m just saying it’s no less subjective then me saying the best and most influential band of the 90’s is definetly Cathedral. After all they really launched a whole new genre of music and simply flat-out RULE.
Sake: As much as I like Lee Dorian’s crew, you really have to go back to Sabbath to see what they were getting at. And while, sure, punk rawk a la Nirvana had also been done, it had not reached the scales of popularity or influence that Cobain and company managed.
Besides, a ton of other bands helped keep stoner/doom rock alive while Dorian was still in grinders Napalm Death…
The various projects with Wino - St. Vitus and The Obsessed and Chicago’s Trouble come to mind, and in fact, I love both of those bands more than Cathedral, but then again we’re getting into “favorite” as opposed to “important” again.
It’s refreshing that you’re familiar with the band. Gaz is a damn Guitar Wizard and Lee is farther out-there (and a better singer - oh, yeah, and the lyrics are amazing) than Ozzy ever was. Yeah, their roots are Sabbath, but whose ain’t??
Trouble, St. Vitus, Hawkwind and The Obsessed were all huge influences on the band, but they sound NOTHING like any of them, even remotely. Cathedral’s first album was groundbreaking. It came out in 1991 and still crushes me every single time I listen to it, right from the first flute note.
Since they have become big (they are HUGE in Europe and Japan) doom bands have come crawling out of the woodwork. It should hit the States real soon.
Most of the bands I’ve been in have had musical influences all over the map (from Dead Can Dance to Deicide), but the end result is always hard for reviewers to pin down. I always cringe when someone shows me a show review where the writer feels he/she MUST compare us with a string of bands, like:
“Sort of Captain Beyond-meets-The Doors-meets-Tool-meets-Tori Amos” I mean, what the hell’s that??
A bad reviewer, that’s what.