.vinyl me please and the 90s

Back in September I decided to join Vinyl Me Please. It's an online vinyl club for vinyl lovers. You can select how long you'd like to sign up for (I chose a year) and every month you get an album free of shipping. Then once a month VMP has something called the "membership store." On this day you better log in as soon as it opens otherwise the chances of getting what you really want are slim. They sell merch, turntables, and limited editions of records. After your select what you want in your cart, you receive a confirmation email when your package is ready to be shipped. When they opened their membership store in December I went a little overboard. Why? It was mostly 90s albums which were my high school years!

Everyone remembers what music they listened to in high school. Some of it was cringe-worthy (the big Europop explosion ugh) but some of it was great (my friends would always look to me at lunch to humor them with some Woo-Ha! Busta Rhymes lyrics). Whatever you make of it, those were years you never forget. Here are the 8 albums I ordered from the membership store....

1) Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
Remember first discovering her music? It was the summer of 1995 when my grandparents watched my brother and I since my parents were away. They gave each of us spending money one day for the mall. Because Ill Communication was sold out at FYE, Alanis was my other choice. The stand-out track for me was "Ironic" but was so miserable when it became over-played. As I got older "You Learn" really grew on me as I put it as a throwback on mix tapes for people. At one point I bought the acoustic version of this album which is really fantastic but lost it somehow. This album brings back memories of being 14 and jumping on my best friend's trampoline. To think "You Oughta Know" was in reference to Dave Coulier. Dave Coulier!

2) A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders
I never listened to them in high school. This is simple wanting to extend my hip-hop / r&b collection. Listening to this album yesterday just blew me away. Highly recommended.

3) Cat Power - Moon Pix
Chan Marshall was introduced to me in college by a Canadian pen pal. My favorite CP song of all time is "Metal Heart." There's just something so eerie and haunting about that song. I love it.

4) Oasis - What's the Story Morning Glory
When I took Art I freshman year our teacher let us listen to the radio. Wonder Wall and Supernova always came on during our block. So I equate this particular class with Oasis. Overall it's my favorite Oasis cd. Even some of my non-loving music friends had this particular cd in their collection. If you want to discover Oasis, start with this one. And Definitely Maybe of course.

5) Eels - Electro-shock Blues
This cd is just bizarre, depressing, and dream-like all combined. Some of the songs are catchy like "Hospital Food" and some sound like lullabies or tall tales "Ps - You Rock My World." I kind of discovered this band on my own in college. When I visited my friend in Virginia, I remember buying this in Richmond's Plan 9 as it barely left my discman for weeks upon returning home.

6) TLC - CrazySexyCool
Who did not reenact these songs with their best friends at weekend parties? I remember my friend having her 15th birthday down the shore and this album was on rotation most of the night. We'd crack up laughing at the phone call track every time (there's a surprise ending), squatting to the floor trying to do the "Diggin On You" dance, and taking turns singing different verses of "Waterfalls." Those were the days when P. Diddy was called Sean Puffy Combs and hip hop artists were dropping in on a track for a "yeah" or an "uh-huh." That was collaboration 90s style.

7) Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
I'm surprised I got into them SOOOO LATE. I heard the song "Cut Your Hair" when I saw the Brady Bunch Movie in the mid-90s and dug it. I'm also surprised because they were on Matador records which is the same label as Liz Phair was at the time. At least I'm into them now. Rob Sheffield constantly talked about Pavement when I read Love is a Mix Tape so that made me want to investigate the band more. I love the song "Debaser," especially the beginning intro. It gets me pumped for Friday nights and the weekend.

8) Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary
I think Carrie Brownstein was good friends with one of the band members who taught her guitar? I'm going to have to edit this post until I look this up because it will drive me nuts. Anyway this was more of a discovery buy. I didn't know anything about the band but heard a lot about them. Their style is pop / punk / emo. Not my favorite genre of music. Some songs stand out more than others. I did recommend this band to my brother who is majorly into this particular genre.

Nada Surf - High / Low
This was the Vinyl Me Please "Album of the Month" for January. The first thing I thought was, "Does this album contain the song Popular?!" It does indeed. Although I was never popular in high school I can laugh at it's sarcastic tone, especially the video. This vinyl is golden yellow and the artwork is a black and white still of the band. Rad stuff.

So there you have it. Since I went a bit overboard in December I'm heavily cutting back this month on albums from the store. That and the fact that I barely know any of the artists in January's shop. Until the next entry, what were some of your favorite bands / albums in high school?