By 1995, “Alternative” was the mainstream. I spent that Memorial Day at a music festival sponsored by WLUM, Milwaukee’s corporate modern rock radio station. Violent Femmes were the hometown headliners, but their most recent album, Rock! would never get an official domestic release (and is still not streaming anywhere); in fact, none of the bands I saw are on this mix. Next to the Femmes, the highlight was seeing the Ramones on the second stage on one of their last tours. They ran through 30 songs in 40 minutes, and more than made up for having to sit through the Flaming Lips (whom I’ve never cottoned to) and Thank You-era Duran Duran (yes, they played their versions of “911 Is A Joke” and “White Lines” from this misbegotten covers album).

However, I don’t mean to reduce an entire year to a single event, even if this particular one points to how alt-rock, after having built up considerable goodwill in the decade’s first half instantly began to curdle. Fortunately, a superb left-field hit would occasionally emerge amongst all the Live, Sponge and Alanis: “Connection”, “Down By the Water”, “Better Than Nothing”, “A Girl Like You”, “Queer”, “Judy Staring At The Sun” and “1979” are all tracks I first heard via rotation on WLUM, and all of them sound good today. Other tunes, like “Downtown Venus”, “Happy Sad” and “Somebody’s Crying” might not have fit that radio format, but they were present elsewhere—on other stations, in people’s cars or perhaps (gasp) even on MTV! Plus, Britpop was at its peak (if Oasis/Blur/Pulp aren’t your thing, try Echobelly), trip-hop was close to getting there (Tricky representing) and even a band as wacky as Southern Culture on the Skids was on a major label.

That summer, I occasionally worked a graveyard shift as a desk receptionist at the Biltmore, an early 20^th century hotel converted into a graduate and non-traditional student residence at Marquette. I was living at my parents’ south side home and it was a thrill to drive downtown late at night, secure street parking and sit behind the front desk in the building’s cavernous lobby until 3 AM (sometimes later), listening to music on the old boombox I donated to the post. I might have heard a few of these selections on the radio (incidentally, I still recall hearing WMSE airing Oscar the Grouch’s “I Love Trash” late one night there), although most of what I played came from dubbed cassettes (it’s where I absorbed stuff like Blue, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy and The Best of Blondie.) I mention it here because this experience felt parallel to the new music I was discovering elsewhere at the time—a sense of infinite possibility that naturally permeates the air when you’re twenty and in academic limbo between childhood and becoming a responsible adult. Stuff like folkie Eddi Reader’s ethereal, unusually electronic Batman Forever soundtrack cut, the Cardigans’ slightly loopy lounge pop, That Dog’s sophisticated take on indie-rock, Morphine’s lightness-cloaked-in-darkness—all were on the margins but undeniably in the air, exuding stimulation and promise the following years would often struggle to replicate.

1995: Feeling Good (For Now)

1. Elastica, “Connection”
2. P.M. Dawn, “Downtown Venus”
3. Jill Sobule, “Good Person Inside”
4. Jen Trynin, “Better Than Nothing”
5. That Dog, “He’s Kissing Christian”
6. PJ Harvey, “Down By The Water”
7. Ben Folds Five, “Best Imitation of Myself”
8. Teenage Fanclub, “Sparky’s Dream”
9. Chris Isaak, “Somebody’s Crying”
10. Autour de Lucie, “L’Accord Parfait”
11. The Smashing Pumpkins, “1979”
12. Saint Etienne, “He’s On The Phone”
13. Edwyn Collins, “A Girl Like You”
14. Kirsty MacColl, “Caroline”
15. Southern Culture on the Skids, “Camel Walk”
16. Garbage, “Queer”
17. kd lang, “Acquiesce”
18. Tricky, “Aftermath”
19. Morphine, “All Your Way”
20. Bjork, “I Miss You”
21. Eric Matthews, “Fanfare”
22. Pulp, “Something Changed”
23. Luna, “23 Minutes In Brussels”
24. Blur, “The Universal”
25. Pretty & Twisted, “Ride!”
26. Eddi Reader, “Nobody Lives Without Love”
27. The Cardigans, “Daddy’s Car”
28. Alison Moyet, “Solid Wood”
29. Towa Tei, “Luv Connection”
30. Echobelly, “King of the Kerb”
31. Erasure, “Fingers and Thumbs (Cold Summer’s Day)”
32. Grant McLennan, “Horsebreaker Star”
33. Pizzicato Five, “Happy Sad”
34. Suddenly, Tammy!, “Beautiful Dream”
35. Catherine Wheel & Tanya Donelly, “Judy Staring At The Sun”
36. Oasis, “Champagne Supernova”