The day Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots both released classic albums

September 29, 2022

30 years ago today, September 29, 1992, was a great day for grunge rock. Alice in Chains released their second album and what many would call their greatest album, Dirt, and Stone Temple Pilots released their debut album, Core.

I’ve always found AIC’s “Would?” to be one of the most emotionally affecting songs of the grunge era. I love the coda (the part that begins, “Am I wrong?”) … when they shift to the relative major key with a sense of absolute determination.

“Them Bones”:

“Down in a Hole”:

STP’s “Plush”:

“Creep” (not the “Creep” I was blogging about in my last post!)

30 years of Radiohead’s “Creep”

September 21, 2022

Radiohead released their first single, “Creep” 30 years ago today, in 1992. 

At first it was a flop. BBC Radio considered it “too depressing” to play on the air. So the song didn’t belong in their home country, until it started getting played in other parts of the world — in Israel, Spain, Australia — and eventually the world realized that Radiohead is special …

Radiohead long refused to play “Creep” in concert, but here’s a live performance from 2006:

Last year Thom Yorke released a remix of “Creep,” slowed way down to make it 9 minutes long. A YouTube commenter says: “Feels like Thom just wanted all of us to know the endless pain and agony of playing Creep again and again.”

And now, here’s a revelatory reinvention: “Vintage Postmodern Jukebox” version by Haley Reinhart (see YouTube for info on the musicians)