Minneapolis- A Music Haven?!
Now everyone who was alive in the 90s knows that Seattle was the birth place of the music that ended the 80s metal- the Grunge movement. Bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and others created and popularized this new music about the darker side of life. You cannot turn on any rock radio station and not hear songs like "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Alive", "Even Flow", "In Bloom", etc. Clearly, Seattle earns a spot on in rock music's heart.
When I mention Minneapolis, most of you think of it as just a place in Minnesota. What you may not know is that Minneapolis was a rock music source of 90s mainstream alternative. The bands Semisonic and Soul Asylum were great mainstream bands whose songs are still listenable.
"Misery" and "Runaway Train" are two great tracks by Soul Asylum. They have even had the honor of being parodied by Weird Al Yankovic with his release of "Syndicated Inc." (parody of "Misery") off the album Bad Hair Day.
Semisonic has had a few good songs, but simply put, none are better than "Closing Time" off Feeling Strangely Fine. The lyrics are great:
"Closing time, open all the doors and let you out into the world;...
"Closing time, time for you to go out to the places you will be from;...
"Closing time, every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end"
The melody is extremely catchy, as most mainstream alternative classics are. The piano opening, bridge, and closing mold perfectly to the distorted power chords of the tune. Someone compared this song to being great like "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day (pre-sell out era). This is a very valid comparison in my opinion because this song is almost a decade old, but has the feeling like you can listen to it for many years to come. I still enjoy listening to this song from time to time and play ad lib solos to it.
Another band was The Rembrandts, who only really had one huge hit in "I'll Be There For You", which was popularized by the shoe Friends. New up-and-comers Motion City Soundtrack also hail from Minneapolis.
Maybe it's time to consider Minneapolis a landmark in the history of rock-n-roll.
P.S.- I want to add the lead guitarist from Pearl Jam to the list of shredders (top 10), but I am not sure if it's Stone Gossard or Mike McCready or both (the website is very confusing to me and I'm dead tired)
When I mention Minneapolis, most of you think of it as just a place in Minnesota. What you may not know is that Minneapolis was a rock music source of 90s mainstream alternative. The bands Semisonic and Soul Asylum were great mainstream bands whose songs are still listenable.
"Misery" and "Runaway Train" are two great tracks by Soul Asylum. They have even had the honor of being parodied by Weird Al Yankovic with his release of "Syndicated Inc." (parody of "Misery") off the album Bad Hair Day.
Semisonic has had a few good songs, but simply put, none are better than "Closing Time" off Feeling Strangely Fine. The lyrics are great:
"Closing time, open all the doors and let you out into the world;...
"Closing time, time for you to go out to the places you will be from;...
"Closing time, every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end"
The melody is extremely catchy, as most mainstream alternative classics are. The piano opening, bridge, and closing mold perfectly to the distorted power chords of the tune. Someone compared this song to being great like "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day (pre-sell out era). This is a very valid comparison in my opinion because this song is almost a decade old, but has the feeling like you can listen to it for many years to come. I still enjoy listening to this song from time to time and play ad lib solos to it.
Another band was The Rembrandts, who only really had one huge hit in "I'll Be There For You", which was popularized by the shoe Friends. New up-and-comers Motion City Soundtrack also hail from Minneapolis.
Maybe it's time to consider Minneapolis a landmark in the history of rock-n-roll.
P.S.- I want to add the lead guitarist from Pearl Jam to the list of shredders (top 10), but I am not sure if it's Stone Gossard or Mike McCready or both (the website is very confusing to me and I'm dead tired)
posted by Anonymous at 2/27/2006 10:38:00 PM
5 Comments:
the pre-sellout part was me.
sadly, yes Prince was from Minneapolis. i will leave him out for rock's sake.
the hair wasn't the bad part, it was the outfits. hair and metal go hand in hand- you can do that insane head spin while shredding.
i liked grunge, the music was good and there are classic songs in the bunch of hall of fame worthy artists.
Minneapolis gave us Prince, the Time, and Information Society too.
beamish:
i opted to leave prince off the list. elijah mentioned him.
i've never heard of the other bands you mentioned. any recommended tracks?
believe it or not - our family spent much time in the seattle area and we are grunge fans - except for the nerd child who calls us mama and papa. one of my favorite seattle sounds is of course, hootie and the blowfish.
beamish is right about prince - a class by himself. of course, wherever men are shorter AND prettier than me, they are in a class by themselves...
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