While it has been widely ignored, the post Britpop / pre “The Libertines/The _____/garagey” band era was kind of a dark period in UK music. UK had just witness one of the greatest talent and musical explosions of all time in the early 90s but by the late 90s, those bands had all either broken up, started to suck or completely change their sound. During this time, bands found it hard to garner success, specially with the charts being dominated by the Spice Girls/Westlife/whatever. To put it into perspective, Stereophonics was considered one of the biggest acts from the UK rock scene during those days. Stereophonics!
Having said all that, here are ten bands I enjoyed from that era in no particular order.
Black Box Recorder
Combining Luke Haine’s excellent story telling skills with Sarah Nixey’s naughty principal voice, Black Box Recorder was one of my favorite acts during that era. Despite their distinctly English sound and song subjects, the band had several semi popular songs – The Facts of Life, The English Motorway System and England Made Me. The band broke up in 2003. They will forever be etched in my memory because I was listening to them when I got love tapped by a bus in Vancouver in 2001. Kind of ironic, given their band name.
Starsailor
“Don’t you know you’ve got your daddy’s eyes? Daddy was an alcoholic”
I think Starsailor was supposed to be a depressed version of Coldplay or something. Their lead singer, James Walsh had a big mouth and I think they ran with that to some great success in 2001. Their debut album was pretty good (and really dramatic). The band took an interesting turn with their second album when they had a pretty great disco track called Four to the Floor. They have had average success ever since.
Idlewild
Idlewild, along with Placebo and Stereophonics have the great distinction of being desperate enough to play a show in Edmonton. I will forever be thankful. One of Scotland’s finest exports in the late 90′s (and they had a lot of them), Idlewild had two very good albums in the early 2000s – 100 Broken Windows and The Remote Part, the latter of which was probably one of my favorite albums of 2002.
The Delgados
Speaking of Scottish music, The Delgados were another big act from that time period. Dark, wonderfully arranged and beautiful, their 2000 release The Great Eastern was simply one of the best albums from that decade.
Hefner
Speaking of dark music, who could ever forget Hefner, the lo-fi London band whose raw sound and amazing lyrics captured the hearts of all the file sharing irc rooms back in the day. Tales of love lost, personal tragedies and the prime minister routinely made their way into Darren Hayman’s tales. Simply put, they were amazing and I was so glad I saw Darren Hayman at Pop Montreal a few years ago.
Mansun
It’s so hard to describe Mansun. They are probably what happen when you combine literary degrees, dark humor and prog rock. The band was audacious enough to start their careers off with not one, but two concept albums that twist and turns like no other. Ambition was never Mansun’s flaw and they also wrote a song called “Anti Everything” which is still one of my favorite terms today. It’s a shame I’ll probably never get to see them live.
Looper
Looper was the solo project of Stuart David, who is best known as a member of Belle and Sebastian. He left the band in 1998 to form Looper which can only be described as Tweelectronic. Their debut record, Up a a Tree was one I listened to quite a bit. Not sure what quite happened to them.
Beth Orton
Perhaps best known for introducing folk-atronic, few indie singer-songwriters had more momentum than Beth Orton in the late 90s. Whether it was her well known album Central Reservation or her frequent associations with Beck and Ryan Adams, it seemed like Beth had the world at her finger tips. Her song It’s Not The Spotlight off the Stir the Echoes soundtrack has never left my rotation.
Cooper Temple Clause
Highly underrated rock act Cooper Temple Clause drew a lot of comparisons to Mansun when they first arrived and are responsible for the loudest show I have been to (before MBV). Their track Blind Pilots is one of my favorites and is accompanied by a wicked video starring MICHAEL FASSBENDER. Holy crap how random is that?
JJ72
“Whhhyyyyyyyyyy won’t it snoooooow, like they said it wooooooooould?”
These emo-ish sort of lyrics were from JJ72 an Irish version of Placebo, if Placebo went to a perfectly adjusted middle school. Nevertheless, their debut album was pretty good.
Woo! Thanks for joining me on this trip down memory lane.
