Billy Corgan formed the Smashing Pumpkins in Chicago in 1988 with a clear idea: stack melody on top of aggression, trust the arrangement over the raw take. From Gish to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the band placed craft and ambition on equal footing.
Supergrass hit UK number 2 in March 1997 with Richard III: Sawmills sessions with John Cornfield, In It for the Money, menace after the Alright grin.
On a Portland street in the rain, neon smeared, Riffs and Beats finds Elliott Smith with a small acoustic.
The Hives' Hate To Say I Told You So, from Veni Vidi Vicious (Burning Heart, 2000), put Fagersta garage punk on international radio in matching black-and-white suits.
In April 1997, In It for the Money set aside the grin of Alright and recorded a darker, wider Supergrass.
Gaz Coombes left Supergrass in 2010 and built a solo catalogue from Here Come the Bombs to Turn the Car Around: same Oxford ear for a hook, tighter studio craft.
Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting places Iggy Pop and Underworld in a Scottish comedown, and the soundtrack directs as hard as the camera.
At Phoenix Festival 1996 near Stratford-upon-Avon, The Prodigy headlined in peak Firestarter form under July sun on a bill with Bowie.
In 1997, MTV's Inside Radiohead follows Thom Yorke through the OK Computer year. Parlophone releases the album. Arena dates are booked. Yorke already talks about alienation, touring burnout, and songs made from guitar, laptop, and dread.
The Undertones’ Teenage Kicks (Derry, 1978) is two minutes twenty-eight of plain desire that John Peel called one of his favourite records.
