1. “Suedehead” – Morrissey: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

1. “Suedehead” – Morrissey

(From the album Viva Hate)

1988

Following the dissolution of The Smiths, Morrissey quickly launched his solo career, forming a songwriting partnership with producer Stephen Street and heading into the studio with Street and guitarist Vini Reilly (of the Durutti Column) and drummer Andrew Paresi to begin work on Morrissey’s solo debut album Viva Hate. While Viva Hate did not exactly sound like the work of The Smiths, most notably because of the use of synthesizers, the sound of Morrissey’s solo debut also did not stray too far afield of the final Smiths’ album Strangeways, Here We Come. This makes sense both from a commercial standpoint (The Smiths were as popular as ever when they broke up) and from a creative one (Stephen Street had produced the Strangeways, Here We Come album). Indeed, the beginning of the songwriting partnership between Morrissey and Street has its origins in Johnny Marr’s decision to leave The Smiths. After Marr left the group Street sent Morrissey some demo tracks he had written as potential B-sides for the Strangeways, Here We Come singles. Morrissey liked them and decided to enlist Street as his new creative partner for his solo debut. The lead single for Viva Hate, released a month ahead of the album and Morrissey’s first solo work, was the song “Suedehead”. Musically “Suedehead” featured a guitar part written by Street and played by Reilly that was reminiscent of Johnny Marr’s style of playing without openly copying it and it gave the song a sound that was both familiar, yet different, for fans of The Smiths to associate with Morrissey as a solo artist. Lyrically, Morrissey delved into the suedehead subculture, a dressier 70’s offshoot of the skinhead movement, and explored the troubled relationship between the song’s protagonist and their suedehead lover. “Suedehead” was an immediate success, peaking at #5 in the UK, which was a higher chart position than any single released by The Smiths. This success meant that any lingering doubts about whether Morrissey could succeed without Marr were put to rest and that the release of Viva Hate was highly anticipated. Morrissey earned attention from other quarters as well (namely the Special Branch counter-terrorism unit of the London Metropolitan Police) due to the album’s closing track “Margaret On The Guillotine”, which spoke of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s death as a “wonderful dream”. Still, with the possible exception of the Special Branch (and likely Margaret Thatcher), Viva Hate was well received and much of that positive reception was built off the success of “Suedehead”.

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6. “Become You” – Indigo Girls: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

6. “Become You” – Indigo Girls

(From the album Become You)

2002

The late 1990’s found the Indigo Girls drifting a little bit, searching for their place in a music scene dominated by nu-metal and boy bands. After all, the neo-folk scene of the late 80’s that had birthed them was long gone and, while Indigo Girls had been spiritual cousins to the alternative rock of the early 90’s, they had never really been sonically similar. Furthermore, at only a decade in they weren’t really quite long enough in the game to be seen as a revered influence on artists yet either. So, in 1997 Indigo Girls released the somewhat scattershot Shaming On The Sun, while their more varied Come On Now Social was released in 1999. Both albums found the Indigo Girls trying to move beyond the folk genre they were primarily known for, more successfully on Come On Now Social than on Shaming Of The Sun, but neither were seen as complete successes by critics and many fans (although both are still good listens). However, these experiments blending their folk roots with other genres really pays off on their first album of the new millennium, 2002’s Become You, which felt like both a return to form and a step forward for the duo. Become You found Indigo Girls pulling back to their more classic folk and Americana influences while still keeping some of the sense of experimentation of their previous few albums and the result is their best album since at least Swamp Ophelia. This return to form can be heard all over the album. Ray opens the set with the warm soul of “Moment Of Forgiveness” and offers other highlights like the folk/punk of “Yield” and the dark-toned Latin flavor of “Nuevas Senoritas”. Meanwhile Saliers offers up the lilting ballad “She’s Saving Me” and the yearning, spiritual “Our Deliverance”. However, the best moment on the record may well be Amy Ray’s title track “Become You”, a jaunty folk number with just a touch of a martial tone and an insightful lyric about the balance between keeping and honoring the culture of the American south while moving beyond its racism, bigotry, and oppression. “Become You” is not only a highlight of this album but one of the best songs in the entire Indigo Girls discography.

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6. “Slide” – Goo Goo Dolls: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

6. “Slide” – Goo Goo Dolls

(From the album Dizzy Up The Girl)

1998

The massive success of “Iris” set up the release of the Goo Goo Dolls next album Dizzy Up The Girl as a major release. Goo Goo Dolls released the second single from the album, a song called “Slide”, a week ahead of the album’s release. “Slide” was the perfect follow up single to “Iris” as it was a faster, more uptempo song, and so noticeably different, and yet still familiar enough to easily appeal to fans of “Iris”. The success of “Slide” allowed the Goo Goo Dolls to build on the momentum of “Name” and “Iris” without that success coming in the form of another ballad. And “Slide” was another major success for the band, hitting #8 in the US (#1 on the alt charts) and doing well in other areas as well. The band was able to follow up the success of “Slide” with three more reasonably successful singles in the more rock-oriented “Dizzy”, the darker-tinged ballad “Black Balloon” and the pop/rock of “Broadway”. “Dizzy” reached the US alt rock Top 10 while “Black Balloon” went to #16 and “Broadway” hit #24 on the US Top 40 pop charts. Dizzy Up The Girl crossed fully over into the mainstream but by the late 1990’s the line between alternative rock and mainstream rock was almost completely gone. Alt rock was mainstream rock and bands like Goo Goo Dolls were able to walk comfortably in both worlds.

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7. “Jesus Forgive Me (For The Things I’m About To Say)” – Concrete Blonde: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

7. “Jesus Forgive Me (For The Things I’m About To Say)” – Concrete Blonde

(From the album Mexican Moon)

1993

Concrete Blonde followed up 1982’s Walking In London relatively quickly, releasing Mexican Moon only a year later. Mexican Moon is similar in overall tone and sound to Walking In London and has several standout tracks. The best of these may be the album’s centerpiece “Jesus Forgive Me (For The Things I’m About To Say)”. The song opens with a brief a cappella section that really allows Napolitano to show off her vocal chops before turning into a huge-sounding, stomping rocker that features both Mankey’s wah-effected guitar and Napolitano’s emotive and expressive voice as its main characteristics. It is a song that feels familiar to several others in Concrete Blonde’s but still has its own unique sound. “Jesus Forgive Me (For The Things I’m About To Say)” however was not released as a single. To promote Mexican Moon the song “Heal It Up” was released as the single and proved to be something of a commercial disappointment. “Heal It Up” hit #16 on the US alt rock charts, a decent showing, but unlike many past Concrete Blonde singles “Heal It Up” did not chart well in other territories. Disappointed by the sales of the single and album Napolitano brought the band to an end in 1994. This hiatus proved to be relatively brief though when Napolitano and Mankey reunited to record an album with the L.A. band Los Illegals in 1997. However, after that album – Concrete Blonde Y Los Illegals was released Concrete Blonde broke back up. The band reunited once more in the early 00’s and recorded two more records, Group Therapy and Mojave, before calling it quits again in 2006. Since that time the band has occasionally reunited to play a few shows or go on brief tours but has largely been dormant.

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7. “Indie Cindy” – Pixies: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

7. “Indie Cindy” – Pixies

(From the album Indie Cindy)

2014

After more than a decade apart the Pixies reunited to play shows in 2004. During their time away the alternative rock scene that the Pixies helped launch had become the mainstream. Indeed, during that time the Pixies had gone from a cool cult band with a small, devoted following to revered pioneers of a scene that changed music and their 2004 reunion tour showed it, becoming one of the biggest and most successful tours of the year. The Pixies spent the next decade playing festivals, occasional tours, and releasing old material in new packages. However, in spite of playing with the Pixies during this time bassist Kim Deal still was more interested in her own band The Breeders (and still had issues with the other band members, especially Black Francis) and so in 2013 she left the band. Two weeks later the Pixies released the new song “Bagboy”. The new few months saw the Pixies release 3 EP’s of new music (with Simon “Ding” Archer on bass). These EP’s were then eventually compiled into a new Pixies album, released in 2014 and titled Indie Cindy. The title track “Indie Cindy” is one of the highlights and finds the band opening with an almost country vibe before the song alternates between chaotic near-spoken rant-like verses and a chorus that has a sweet, breezy quality with nicely sung lyrics. “Indie Cindy” is reminiscent of classic era Pixies but isn’t quite a retread of that sound. Indeed, the album Indie Cindy was a success, even without a big crossover hit single (likely reflecting the now legendary status of the band and the long gap since their last album) as it hit #6 in the UK and #23 in the US, easily their highest American chart position. The coming years would see a full-blown return of the Pixies as a working band. First they hired former A Perfect Circle bassist Paz Lenchantin as their permanent bassist (bringing a female voice and presence back into the band) then released a series of albums: Head Carrier in 2016, Beneath The Eyrie in 2020, and Doggerel in 2022.

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6. “Is She Weird” – Pixies: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

6. “Is She Weird” – Pixies

(From the album Bossanova)

1990

While many would argue that the Pixies had their creative peak with the twin masterpieces Surfer Rosa and Doolittle, their commercial peak came with 1990’s Bossanova, an album that had to overcome several obstacles just to be made. The tension between Black Francis and Kim Deal had continued to build over the tour in support of Doolittle and so when Francis, Santiago, and Lovering moved from Boston to Los Angeles to record the new album Kim Deal decided to not go with them. Instead Deal stayed in the UK to work on an album with her new side project The Breeders. Ultimately, Deal did rejoin the other Pixies in L.A. to record Bossanova but unlike past albums most of the songs for Bossanova were not written ahead of time and so most of the songs had been written by Black Francis while in the studio during the early phases of recording when Deal was absent and so her presence on Bossanova is notably less than on earlier Pixies records. Several other weird issues at the Pixies’ initial recording studio in L.A. plagued the early recording of the album as well and ultimately, via a chance encounter with Rick Rubin, a better studio was found and the recording finally went more smoothly and finished. In spite of its somewhat difficult birth Bossanova was the Pixies most successful album yet, going to #3 in the UK and breaking into the American Top 100 at #70. Both singles from the album – “Velouria” and “Dig For Fire” – also did well in the UK and on the US modern rock charts as well, with “Velouria” even cracking the UK Top 30. One of Bossanova’s more interesting deeper cuts is “Is She Weird”, a song that is part demented surf rock, part crazed intensity, but all Pixies. Proving once again that the Pixies had a unique sound and magic that was all their own. A year later Pixies returned to the studio to record 1991’s Trompe Le Monde, an album that continued to find Kim Deal playing a diminished role within the band. Trompe Le Monde was another critical success however and once again found the band scoring an alt rock hit, this time with their cover of The Jesus & Mary Chain’s “Head On”. The Pixies toured in support of the album and then signed on as the opening act for U2’s massive Zoo TV Tour. However, tensions between all of the members built up over these tours and when the support dates for U2 were over the Pixies decided to take a break to work on other projects. A year later during an interview with the BBC Black Francis announced that the band was over. He had not informed the other members of his decision. After the interview, Black Francis phoned Joey Santiago to inform him. He then notified both Kim Deal and David Lovering of the band’s end via fax. The Pixies wouldn’t play together for a decade and wouldn’t put out any new music for twice that time.

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5. “Here Comes Your Man” – Pixies: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

5. “Here Comes Your Man” – Pixies

(From the album Doolittle)

1989

The second single from Doolittle was “Here Comes Your Man”, one of the catchiest and most pop-oriented songs ever released by the Pixies. While “Here Comes Your Man” was still clearly the work of the Pixies, full of unexpected moments, unconventional dynamics shifts, and almost completely unlike anything else at the time; it also seemed to tie back into the era of early rock and roll and pre-British Invasion pop without directly paying homage to it. “Here Comes Your Man” also tied back into the sound of the band’s most successful pre-Doolittle song “Gigantic”, by prominently featuring Kim Deal’s vocals and bass playing. While Black Francis takes the vocal lead on “Here Comes Your Man” Deal provides both secondary and backing vocals that give the song a unique quality, while the song is propelled forward by Deal’s bouncy bass groove. “Here Comes Your Man” did even better than “Monkey Gone To Heaven” did, hitting #3 on the US alt rock charts and #54 in Britain. Although few, if any, knew it at the time the new sound the Pixies were pioneering was going to become much of the blueprint for the sound of alternative rock in the 1990’s. The Pixies were different from the “big” college rock and indie bands of the 80’s. They didn’t have the cinematic scale of U2 or the anthemic scope of Simple Minds or Peter Gabriel. They also didn’t have the witty literacy of The Smiths or the obscure beauty of R.E.M. The Pixies were raw and emotional, surreal and surly, blending sweet melodies with crazed intensity, and using unconventional non-linear lyrics and dramatic loud-soft-loud dynamics. The sound that would break the alternative into the mainstream was being established and a major shift in what was acceptable to a mainstream audience was just around the corner and the Pixies were playing a big part in that shift.

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1. “Levitate Me” – Pixies: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

1. “Levitate Me” – Pixies

(From the album Come On Pilgrim)

1987

The legend and the impact of the Pixies are both much bigger than their commercial impact ever was. Formed in 1986 in Boston, Massachusetts by the quartet of Black Francis, Joey Santiago, Kim Deal, and David Lovering, the Pixies combined a wide array of musical styles that included everything from punk, surf rock, noise rock, Christian rock, college rock and beyond, and twists them into something that was very unique. The Pixies mix of the catchy and the abrasive would also become a major influence on the grunge and alt rock that would explode into the mainstream in America in the 1990’s. However, their first break came not in the US but in the UK. Renowned British indie label 4AD had signed Throwing Muses as their first American band a year earlier. Throwing Muses were also from Boston and when the Pixies opened a show for Throwing Muses it kicked off a chain of events that eventually led to the Pixies recording their famous demo the “Purple Tape” and then it finding its way into the hands of 4AD President Ivo Watts-Russell. Pixies were then signed to 4AD and eight of the seventeen songs from the Purple Tape were then remixed and released as the Pixies debut album (or EP or mini-album, depending on who you ask) Come On Pilgrim. Many of the songs on Come On Pilgrim dealt with religious themes or used religious imagery (often of the more disturbing variety). This interest in religious themes and imagery was carried over to the album’s cover art of a man wearing a hairshirt and to the album’s title Come On Pilgrim which was lifted from a Christian rock song by Larry Norman who had been one of Black Francis’ early musical heroes. The phrase “come on pilgrim” can also be found in the closing track “Levitate Me”, a song that encapsulates the Pixies early sound and style very well. “Levitate Me” is both undeniably weird and undeniably catchy. The lyrics evoke images and feelings more than any literal story (a hallmark of Pixies’ songs) and showcases Black Francis’ vocal style, which is almost genderless in tone and shifts from whine to sing to snarl almost instantaneously. While not as prominent as in other Pixies’ songs “Levitate Me” also finds the band exploring the start/stop and loud-soft-loud dynamics that the Pixies, and later 90’s music more broadly, become known for.

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