While I don’t agree with Prolly about Tool’s Aenima being the Best album of the 90s . I loved Aenima, but personally felt Undertow and Opiate were better Tool releases and neither of the three hold a candle for best album of the 90s. Not that Tool didn’t put out 2 amazing albums and 1 EP.

Anyway… what prompted me to post was when John mentioned the Melvins, and I have to assume he’s talking about their grungy stoner metal classic Houdini. The blueprint for almost all current Doom & Stoner Metal.

It’s funny but I remember when Houdini came it, NO ONE lauded it as the (much deserving) classic it is regarded today. This was the Melvins’ first album for a major label at a time when “metal” was quickly becoming a 4 letter word. I think Kurt Cobain’s constant name dropping of the Melvins and their penchant for great graphics helped push this album a lot further and into more than a few teenage CD collections than it should have done in the “alternative” climate of the times. I personally remember a slew of friends picking this album up simply on the numerous Melvins mentions in Nirvana interviews, never hearing the band prior to buying the album. Unfortunately upon peeling the plastic and popping it into their CD player and expecting who knows what most of them just went “Huh!? this sucks it sounds like metal”. Houdini soon became a regular in almost every used CD bin in NYC, multiple copies even! In 1993 this was just way too heavy for the legions of kids (me included) who were turning their backs on all things heavy at the time, and way too slow and un-guitar hero enough for metal purists. This album I think for a lot of people sort of became a guilty pleasure around that time. A short sidestep back into head banging without it looking or feeling like a metal album. Tool had that same effect on me and I think a lot of people who were at the time in their “so over metal” period of adolescence. It was behind and ahead of the times all at once, that was it’s genius and I’m glad everyone finally came back around to it even if it took over a decade.

Those of you hankering for more Melvins should also pick up the recently re-issued Circus of Chaos (1986) album from Northern Cali thrashers Clown Alley. Clown Alley members Mark D and Lori “Lorax” Black all did time in the Melvins’ revolving door position of bass player. What’s amazing is listening to it now you can hear much of an influence this album was on Houdini (featuring Lorax on bass) AND more interestingly on Nirvana’s Bleach.

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And keeping with the theme of 90s albums under appreciated at the time of their release my mind drifted to Weezer’s Pinkerton.

We all know that this is now the blueprint for oh so many awful emo pop punk bands, but this had a long way to go before it reached that dubious honor! Pinkerton was paned when it came out because it wasn’t Weezer’s first album. I think El Scorcho saw radio and MTV airplay for maybe a month? This album was widely regarded as the death knell for Weezer at the time and used as the ultimate example of sophmore slump. Me? I loved this album from the day it came out. When I first listened to it I admit, I was like “ehh it’s not that good” But an hour later I noticed I had 4 or so different songs from the album stuck in my head. I went back re-listened to it and then I just couldn’t stop listening to the damn thing! The lyrics were earnest and the melodies were perfect. One of the best concerts I’ve ever been too was Weezer (still w/ Matt Sharp at the time) at Roseland and all they preformed were the Blue Album and Pinkerton in their entireties! But I digress, It was like 5 or 6 years before people started acknowledging how great of an album this really was. Unfortunately by then Pinkerton had also gone on to influence and inspire a whole slew of crappy bands littering the Myspace & Hot Topic wastelands with angular haircuts, cheesy lyrics and an emoer than you attitude.