I figured out what the third song in the “Got You Where I Want You” (The Flys) and “Time Ago” (Black Lab) trinity of obscure songs from Summer of ’98 BestBuy sampler was: “High” by Feeder. Sweet. Of course, Semicsonic and New Radicals were on there, too, but they got way more radio play than The Flys, Black Lab and Feeder did.
Man. That is beautiful late 90’s hair. Before all the the spiky short dos.
And then there’s “Suffocate,” which is awesome and totally different.
Chris Cocca 
I’ll admit to knowing none of these bands you mention here or in the preceding post, but I think that is more a result of not listening to commercial radio or appreciating “accessible pop” at that time than it is about file sharing. In ’98 I was not listening to much but ska, and most of those bands crashed and burned simply because the genre became a brief fad. When filesharing became available to me (2000), I used it to explore all the great music of the 60s – 80s that I had not previously heard or paid attention to.
As far as airplay some semisonic songs did get a lot of action, some didn’t. Gone to the Movies, my absolute favorite, was barely on the air. Although if you’re speaking specifically to the song on the best buy album, well that’s different.
(PS: Any chance that Chad Hogg is related to a Matt Hogg from PA who went to Covenant?)
Chad: I don’t know how a purist like yourself classifies newer wave ska, but the first two No Doubt albums (the second one, that is, the popular one, really isn’t even ska) and the other 90s acts do seem to get lumped in with that fadism. I saw Reel Big Fish in ’97 and I liked the Bosstones, but as someone who didn’t know much about the music beyond that (well, no…I was into the Clash by that point and they did some rocksteady/ska/dancehall kinds of things in their day), the later day stuff always seemed scenester to me. Same with the swing revival (which was also happening during my BestBuy summer), even though I think the music was good. I’m not sure what I intended to convey with this response apart from fadism seems to be the curse of most genres, and I guess I don’t consider grown-up pop music as a genre…I think of it more as the logical progression of mainstream generica (and I don’t mean that in a bad way…I just mean it as the opposite of indie, but not unintelligent).
Missy: the song on the BestBuy was, of course, “Closing Time.” We played it every night to tell the costumers to leave because we weren’t actually allowed to literally tell them to leave. Dan Wilson has a roots album out that’s supposed to be good.
Missy: I am from PA also, but I don’t know a Matt Hogg. A distant relationship is certainly possible.
Chris: A purist I am not. Although I have grown to love authentic ska music, it was the ska-influenced punk/rock/whatever that I knew at the time. No Doubt and the Bosstones were great, but I always thought Reel Big Fish was terrible.
In my humble opinion- there are a few exceptions to this meme. Namely, 3EB (Third Eye Blind) who continue to put out music and sell out concerts if I’m correct?
Self Titled in ’97 with ‘Motorcycle Drive-By’ and ‘How’s it Going Be’ being two of the very best “Sad Songs” of the 90’s and Blue in ’99 which is probably my all time favorite album.
I’d offer up Radiohead as well, but I don’t know that they’ve ever qualified as “pop music” even though The Bends and OK Computer are probably their strongest two albums?
That said I really miss Tonic, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and The Refreshments. They were three of my favorites in High School and College (when I wasn’t listening to Punk Bands).
Chad: I meant to say this outright: I LOVED No Doubt back in the day and saw them in ’96…one of the best shows I’ve been to. I also still love them…I really like the rock/pop stuff they did on later albums and the awesome cover of “It’s My Life” (not the Bon Jovi song).
Nathan: Third Eye Blind does sort of defy this. That’s a good point. But they’re not big in the way that, say, Bon Jovi is big, which is kind of odd to me. They might be the mantle bearer for this kind of music. As for Radiohead, didn’t “Creep” come out like in ’94 or something? I’m meaning to be pretty narrow…like ’96-’98, with a particular reference to songs that charted in ’98. Isn’t funny how you can tell a ’99 single (“My Own Worst Enemy” or “Little Black Backpack”) from a ’98 single (“Time Ago” or “Got You Where I Want You” or “How’s It Gonna Be”)? I’m even barring Matchbox20 from this discussion because they’re a little more accessible than the artists I’m thinking about. That said, “Long Day” (’96 or ’97) by them is a great track. Being a Christian music nerd, how much do you know about Superdrag and John Davis? “Sucked Out” was a great ’96 tune along with tracks like “Popular” by Nada Surf etc. Even “Sex and Candy” by Marcy Playground is a little more alternative than the other ’98 songs I mentioned. Remember “Your Woman” by White Town? I could do a post on those sort of weirder tracks that kind of trace their lines back to Edywn Collins and spooky 60s music like the Zombies.
I think the music I’m talking about in the meme has some of the same DNA as “Found Out About You” by Gin Blossoms from a few years before. And yeah, even though “Karma Police” and “Creep” are pop songs in the best possible understanding of the term (like “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys), I don’t think of Radiohead as pop.
BTW, Third Eye Blind, The Flys, Black Lab, and Feeder…all on the “Can’t Hardly Wait” soundtrack, which came out in the summer of ’98 and had its own end cap at BestBuy. GNR is on there, too. That scene where the kid gets up and kills with “Paradise City”…that was a love letter to every kid who hated all the crappier pop we were raised around and all the navel-gazing. Purging irony.
During ’96-’98 the only “Christian Bands” I really only listened to were bands from Tooth & Nail Records:
Plankeye, MxPx, Starflyer 59, Joe Christmas, O.C. Supertones, Joy Electric, and Ghoti Hook…
OK, I also bought dC Talk- Jesus Freak… who didn’t?
hahha. I can’t believe the “can’t hardly wait” soundtrack was mentioned. That’s fabulous.
hey- and btw I did not buy Jesus Freak. But um, I wonder if it would’ve gone over with my mom if I had?