Top 5 New Discoveries 2019

5. Silver Scooter - Orleans Parish

Peek-A-Boo Records, 1999

I picked up this album when I discovered that Peek-a-Boo records still has their catalog up at 90s prices, so I finally splurged on this album that's almost been in my collection for forever. It did not disappoint. There's something unusually polished and sweet about this album that belies Silver Scooter's super-whiny-emo reputation. This is just solid pop, start to finish.

4. Ethel Meserve - The Milton Abandonment

Tree Records, 1997

Yet another great 90s record. I've had half these songs on tape for 20+ years, and I finally tracked down a copy (they were going for $100 on amazon there for a while). Great, mathy, intense 90s goodness. I read somewhere they are doing a box set reissue? Sign me up.

3. Shudder to Think - Live From Home

Team Love Records, 2009

A 2009 reunion live record that somehow manages to hit ALL the Shudder to Think high notes. File under: Live albums that put the studio versions to shame.

2. Madder Rose - Panic On

Seed Records / Atlantic, 1994

I bought my very first indie 7" at Goodwill in about 1994 or so. I bought it because I vaguely had heard the band name Madder Rose, and the record was yellow vinyl, which blew my teenage mind.  I still have it. I managed to pick up this CD in the dollar bin this year, and it blew my non-teenage mind at the 90s pop goodness within. This is the lost cousin of Velocity Girl, Belly, and Juliana Hatfield. This CD brought 1994 right back to my speakers and I love it dearly. It's a gem from start to finish.

1. Red Stars Theory - Life in a Bubble Can Be Beautiful

Touch and Go Records, 1999

I saw Red Stars Theory and Modest Mouse in the basement of a Salt Lake City coffee house in late summer of '97. While Modest Mouse was fun, Red Stars Theory was the hit of the night, with their dense, swirly, violin-driven epics. I remember Seth Warren joining Modest Mouse for a few songs, including (then-unreleased) Jesus Christ Was an Only Child.

Unfortunately, (if I remember correctly) they didn't have merch at the show, and I tracked down an EP to find it disappointing. Their next album, But Sleep Came Slowly was a good-but-not-great listen.

I picked this up on a whim, because I had recently been re-listening to But Sleep... and enjoying it. This is the one. This is the album where they made good on the promises made at that basement show in '97. This is the band that made Modest Mouse look like second fiddle (violin pun). This album stretches out the depths hinted at in RST's first album, or some of the more jammy violin-led bits of The Moon and Antarctica.

Anyway, this is great stuff.