Anywhere you go, I'll follow you down. Anyplace but those I know by heart.

July 26, 2007 6:36 PM

I would like to make a mix of "post grunge" modern rock type music. Gin Blossoms, Toad the Wet Sprocket etc.

It wasn't this cut and dried, but for simplicity's sake lets say that it happened like this: Nirvana breaks, along with Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, etc. Then, six months later, the poseurs swarmed in. I am looking to make a mix with the poseurs. These would be bands of dubious quality that weren't huge, but were mainstays of modern rock radio during those post grunge years. The sissier the better, but they can be a little bit rocking. Examples that I have in mind include The Gin Blossoms, Better than Ezra, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Collective Soul, that song that goes "She don't eat meat, but she sure likes the bone" that kind of thing. Songs that might have been on the soundtrack to a movie starring Ethan Hawk and Winona Rider. Songs that I would have heard driving around in my '86 Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra when I was in high school and gone "This sucks" but would have known by heart anyway. Quality is less important than whether or not it was a song that everybody would have heard at that time, but quality is good too. I would prefer song and band name suggestions if at all possible, and I know about Last FM and Pandora. Thanks. Rock on everybody.

posted by ND¢ to media & arts (71 comments total)

I'll probably get a few wrong, but here goes:

Counting Crows
The Verve
The Verve Pipe (oh, egad)
The Breeders (whom I love)
Hole (and other Courtney Love stuff)
Liz Phair
PJ Harvey
Juliana Hatfield
Garbage
Del Amitri
Tonic
Alanis Morrissette

That should get you started.
posted by 4ster at 6:43 PM on July 26, 2007

Three Doors Down - Superman
Silverchair - Tomorrow
Bush - Glycerine
Dishwalla - Counting Blue Cars
Everclear - Santa Monica
Days of the New - Touch, Peel and Stand
Goo Goo Dolls - Name
Marcy Playground - Sex and Candy
The Wallflowers - One Headlight

I am a lesser man for being a part of this. We are all lesser men today.
posted by Simon! at 6:46 PM on July 26, 2007

Smashing Pumpkins, yo.
Stone Temple Pilots
Foo Fighters?
Everclear
Blind Melon!
Live (ugghhhh)
Four Non Blondes
Veruca Salt
Third Eye Blind (grody to the max)
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 6:46 PM on July 26, 2007

Red Hot Chili Peppers
Creed
Everclear
Our Lady Peace
Blink 182
Third Eye Blind
Matchbox Twenty
Foo Fighters
Puddle of Mud
Stone Temple Pilots

(I'll stop now)
posted by 4ster at 6:46 PM on July 26, 2007

weezer - Buddy Holly, El Scorcho, Pink Triangle, Say it Ain't So
Semisonic - Closing Time
Green Day - When I Come Around, Good Riddance, Basket Case
Collective Soul - December
The Refreshments - Banditos
Sugar Ray - Fly, Every Morning
Tantric - Breakdown
Staind - It's Been Awhile
The Presidents of the United States of America - Peaches
No Doubt - Don't Speak
Radiohead - Creep
posted by ludwig_van at 6:48 PM on July 26, 2007

Anything by I Mother Earth or Our Lady Peace (both of whom I love btw)
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 6:48 PM on July 26, 2007

Candlebox - Far Behind
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 6:49 PM on July 26, 2007

The Soundtrack to "Singles."
posted by 4ster at 6:51 PM on July 26, 2007

Bound for the Floor - Local H
Something's Always Wrong, Fall Down, All I Want - Toad the Wet Sprocket
Counting Blue Cars - Dishwalla
Possum Kingdom - Toadies
posted by Roman Graves at 6:52 PM on July 26, 2007

Oh, please. The Breeders, Liz Phair and PJ Harvey are not poseurs. Kim Deal was the bassist for the Pixies, for crying out loud.

For grunge poseurs, you want:

Candlebox
Stone Temple Pilots
Bush
posted by The World Famous at 6:53 PM on July 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

(this mix is a great gift for shitty people.)

I'm making it for my wife.
posted by ND¢ at 6:55 PM on July 26, 2007 [6 favorites]

Spin Doctors - Two Princes
Deep Blue Something - Breakfast at Tiffany's
Counting Crows - Mr Jones
Hootie and the Blowfish ?
posted by iconomy at 6:58 PM on July 26, 2007

Oh yeah, well my wife is dead.

Also, Foo Fighters - My Hero, Everlong

And some decent info here.
posted by ludwig_van at 6:58 PM on July 26, 2007

The sissier the better...
Songs that might have been on the soundtrack to a movie starring Ethan Hawk and Winona Rider.

I believe you're looking for "The Freshmen" by The Verve Pipe.

I win.
posted by Stan Chin at 7:01 PM on July 26, 2007

Which was suggested in the first comment. Reading comprehension fails. Anyway, then I recommend Sucked Out by Superdrag.
posted by Stan Chin at 7:04 PM on July 26, 2007

wow, in a world where Pearljam is considered authentic, where do you for phony?

might be hard to find, but there was this band called the Bogmen my college roommates used to listen to. Pretty much the most awful music I've ever heard.


also, thank fucking god the 90s are over.
posted by drjimmy11 at 7:05 PM on July 26, 2007

Silverchair should not be on that list, they are not poseurs nor does the quality of their songwriting suck. For shame!
posted by liquorice at 7:06 PM on July 26, 2007

I actually believe you are looking for 'No Rain' by Blind Melon.

I'm afraid I win.
posted by uaudio at 7:14 PM on July 26, 2007

i can actually trump myself.

Crash Test Dummies - Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm
posted by uaudio at 7:23 PM on July 26, 2007

You know what I realized looking through this list? When MY kids want to listen to the music of my key years of coming of age... it's going to be all the stuff listed here.

God damn that sucks.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 7:26 PM on July 26, 2007

Oh, it is ON.

"Hey Leonardo" by Blessid Union of Souls.

There's even a youtube documentary:
1995 was a pivotal year for the music world, Kurt Cobain had died and the seattle based grunge music scene was on it's way out as well. And into that void came a new style of music...
posted by Stan Chin at 7:28 PM on July 26, 2007

Matchbox 20
Goo Goo Dolls (they formed in the mid 80s but didn't become popular until the early/mid 90s and they suck enough to be included)
posted by iconomy at 7:29 PM on July 26, 2007

/me acknowledges that The World Famous is right about the Breeders. [hangs head in shame]

Still, "Invisible Man" would be a great song to put on your mix tape to help yourself recover after "I Nearly Lost You There" by The Screaming Trees.
posted by 4ster at 7:31 PM on July 26, 2007

Haha- I know most of these songs/bands despite being in elementary school when they were popular. They're kind of soothing to me.
posted by MadamM at 7:41 PM on July 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

Fine compilations such as Non-Stop 90's Rock or "Buzz Ballads" (as seen on TV) may help you.
posted by punchdrunkhistory at 7:41 PM on July 26, 2007

Ahh, that Mary Moon song! It's "New Age Girl" by Dead Eye Dick! I love that song.

See, this stuff is classic to me, if not to anyone else, 'cause it's what was on the radio when I first started listening to music in late spring of 1996.

Another good song from that time period: "Sucked Out" by Superdrag. And "I've Got A Girl" by Tripping Daisy.

Ahh, the days when they called it "alternative rock," 'cause it wasn't grunge, but it wasn't classic rock or '80s rock either. Our local stations 105.7 KPNT and 101.1 The River used to play all of this stuff—back when it was new and good.

Here's some more that haven't been mentioned (all of the far-reaching post-grunge set of genres that they lumped under the label "alternative rock" back then):

-Ben Folds Five's last two albums
-Better Than Ezra's "Friction, Baby" album
-Blessid Union of Souls
-Reel Big Fish
-Blues Traveler
-The Breeders' "Last Splash" album
-Oasis' "Wonderwall," "Champagne Supernova" and "Don't Look Back in Anger"
-Bryan Adams' "18 'Til I Die" album—big song from that was, "The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me (Is You)"
-Bush's "16 Stone" album
-Cowboy Mouth's "Are You With Me?"
-Dog's Eye View, "Everything Falls Apart"
-The Eels, "Novocaine for the Soul"
-Nada Surf, "Popular"
-EMF's "Unbelievable" (from 1991, but still in regular rotation)
-Everclear's "So Much For the Afterglow"
-The Offspring's "Smash"
-Everything But The Girl's "Missing"
-Filter
-K's Choice
-Ash
-Cornershop's "Brimful of Asha"
-Lush
-Porno for Pyros
-Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun" (their "best of" came out in 1993, so it was still in regular rotation)
-Athenaeum (hit big in 1998, but had an album out before then)
-Eve 6 (also hit big in '98)
-Fountains of Wayne's first album
-Better known than that: That Thing You Do soundtrack, by Adam Schlesinger, Fountains' frontman
-Goldfinger's "Mable" and "Here In Your Bedroom"
-Gravity Kills
-Guided by Voices' "Alien Lanes"
-Jars of Clay's "Flood"
-Kara's Flowers (single "Soap Disco" came out in 1997, a few years before the band became Maroon 5)
-King Missile, "Detachable Penis"
-Kula Shaker
-La Bouche
-Matchbox 20 (hit in 1997)
-Meat Puppets' "Backwater" (still enjoying its run from '93)
-the Nixons' "Foma"
-Semisonic's "If I Run"
-Silverchair
-Sister Hazel's "All for You" (1997)
-Soundgarden's "Blow Up the Outside World" and "Black Hole Sun"
-Super 8's "King of the World"
-They Might Be Giants' "Factory Showroom"
-The Toadies' "Rubberneck"
-The Urge
-Veruca Salt's "Volcano Girls" and "Seether"
-the Wallflowers' "Bringing Down the Horse"
-the Clueless soundtrack
-the Spin Doctors' "Little Miss" and "Pocket Full of Kryptonite"
-the Macarena
-the Fugees' remake of "Killing Me Softly"
-
posted by limeonaire at 7:46 PM on July 26, 2007 [4 favorites]

The Nixons - Sisters
Temple of the Dog - Hunger Strike
Soul Coughing - Walking Around in Circles
Toadies - Possum Kingdom
The Wallflowers - One Headlight
Sheryl Crow - Leaving Las Vegas
Hole - Doll Parts
Blues Traveler - The Hook
Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
Deep Blue Something - Breakfast At Tiffany's
Dog's Eye View - Everything Falls Apart
posted by brokekid at 7:49 PM on July 26, 2007

Soul Asylum? Duncan Sheik? Goo Goo Dolls? The Wallflowers? Collective Soul? Seven Mary Three? Filter? The Toadies?
posted by justonegirl at 7:54 PM on July 26, 2007

And for the record, music was still good until '98. That's when it really started to get bad. '98-'00 were some of the worst years for music I've ever lived through, and it didn't really start to get better again until ... geez, until very recently, actually.
posted by limeonaire at 7:55 PM on July 26, 2007

Ben Folds Five - Brick


/soul coughing? say it aint so!
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:57 PM on July 26, 2007

Some may have been mentioned already, but I tried this playlist. The unfortunate thing was that as I continued to build it out, the selection seemed to digress from catchy 90's tunes to one-hit wonders. Figures.

Closer To Free - BoDeans
Girlfriend - Matthew Sweet
Breakfast At Tiffany's - Deep Blue Something
Til I Hear It From You - Gin Blossoms
Good - Better Than Ezra
Laid - James
Mr. Jones - Counting Crows
One Headlight - The Wallflowers
Counting Blue Cars - Dishwalla
You Get What You Give - The New Radicals
Possum Kingdom - Toadies
High-Fiving MF - Local H
Far Behind - Candlebox
Good Things - BoDeans
Buddy Holly - Weezer
I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers
American Music - Violent Femmes
Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth W... - Primitive Radio Gods
I Got A Girl - Tripping Daisy
Flagpole Sitta' - Harvey Danger
Possum Kingdom - Toadies
Epic - Faith No More
Inside Out - Eve 6
She Don't Use Jelly - The Flaming Lips
All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow
Creep - Radiohead
Life Is A Highway - Tom Cochrane
Save Tonight - Eagle-Eye Cherry
Low - Cracker
The Way - Fastball
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm - Crash Test Dummies
Closing Time - Semisonic
Selling The Drama - Live
The Mountains Win Again - Blues Traveler
Hunger Strike - Temple of the Dog
In The Meantime - Spacehog
If You Could Only See - Tonic
Volcano Girls - Veruca Salt
The Distance - Cake
Two Princes - Spin Doctors
No Rain - Blind Melon
Take A Picture - Filter
Self Esteem - The Offspring
Pepper - Butthole Surfers
Bad Habit - The Offspring

Honorable mentions go to Seven Mary Three, Oasis, Silverchair, Collective Soul, Soul Asylum, Cake, Sponge, Janes Addiction and Bush
posted by kmadd at 7:58 PM on July 26, 2007

Umm... not that I'm a fan but Toad the Wet Sprocket's output predates Nirvana's Nevermind by a couple years.
posted by dobbs at 7:58 PM on July 26, 2007

Jesus Jones, "Right Here, Right Now"
Live, "I Alone"
Tool, "Sober"
Spin Doctors, "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong"
Toad the Wet Sprocket, "All I Want" and "Walk On the Ocean"

Way too pop to ever be called modern rock, but certainly that you heard driving around in high school, would be
Lisa Loeb, "Stay"
Cranberries, "Linger"
Jars of Clay, "Flood"
Proclaimers, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)"

And, "she don't eat meat..." is New Aged Girl by Dead Eye Dick.

Feeling very old right now.
posted by pineapple at 8:01 PM on July 26, 2007

I have nothing to contribute except a big thank you for this question. This music is the soundtrack to my high school years. I will be downloading and making a "High School Rules" playlist with this.
posted by chiababe at 8:01 PM on July 26, 2007 [2 favorites]

Also, 7 Mary 3 is coming to town on Saturday and this will warm me up for it.
posted by chiababe at 8:02 PM on July 26, 2007

bloody hell, none of mine were posted when I started digging for links. I swear it.
posted by pineapple at 8:02 PM on July 26, 2007

omg, Sponge's "Wax Ecstatic." Forgot that.
posted by limeonaire at 8:04 PM on July 26, 2007

(And I promise I didn't look up any of this, aside from browsing my own record collection and remembering other leads from that. It was a pretty formative period for my musical tastes...)
posted by limeonaire at 8:05 PM on July 26, 2007

A lot of the bands listed here are as "authentic" as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, and have nothing to do with grunge.

Stone Temple Pilots hit the L.A. radio rotation within weeks of Pearl Jam, and had no affiliation whatsoever with the Seattle scene. Other than one track, they didn't even sound similar.

The Chili Peppers, love 'em or hate 'em, were putting out funk/rock for years before anyone had heard of Kurt Cobain.

Similar distinctions abound for other bands and songs people are suggesting. Even if you think a lot of this music sucks, the majority of the suggestions are far from being grunge poseurs. No Doubt? Smashing Pumpkins? Please.

Also, a lot of people seem to be confused about when "six months after Nirvana broke" actually was, and how long grunge lasted. Third Eye Bllind, Verve Pipe, and Matchbox 20 had their biggest hits in 1997. Even if you don't go with the "Grunge Died When Kurt Cobain Died" approach, 1997 is a little late.

You may as well just browse the Top 100 songs of 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1995 and pick whichever ones suit you.
posted by jewishbuddha at 8:06 PM on July 26, 2007

Ahh. jewishbuddha, my suggestions are just stuff I heard during the '96-'97 period, all of which I still love. I'm throwing it all out there with the hope that the OP will recognize some of it from those lazy high schools days in the Cutlass...
posted by limeonaire at 8:10 PM on July 26, 2007

On re-reading the question, you're looking for poseurs from the post-grunge years, not necessarily grunge poseurs. So my little 1994 pitchfork rant was off point.

Try these genre specific lists -- KROQ's Top 106.7 songs of 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998. Browse these links and pick all the songs you're now ashamed to admit that you really liked then. Problem solved.
posted by jewishbuddha at 8:10 PM on July 26, 2007

This thread is full of awesome. It reminds me of riding in the backseat of my parents' car on road trips with the radio on and falling asleep listening to the radio on Sunday school nights.

The first couple of Now That's What I Call Music! CDs should help you out. I cherish my copy of NOW! 1.
posted by sian at 8:15 PM on July 26, 2007

James - Laid
posted by blaneyphoto at 8:20 PM on July 26, 2007

Also pretty much anything by Neds Atomic Dustbin
posted by blaneyphoto at 8:24 PM on July 26, 2007

I don't know whether to puke a little bit or just sit back and embrace the suck that was music during my childhood.
posted by djb at 8:31 PM on July 26, 2007

Whale
posted by The Straightener at 8:44 PM on July 26, 2007

The highly underated band Flop.
They're from Washington might be worth investigating. I think chronologically, they classify as post-grunge.
posted by ktrey at 8:47 PM on July 26, 2007

What, no Letters to Cleo?

The Twin Cities REV105 was so, so hip back in the day...and would have played all this stuff. Sadly, can't find any playlists online.

Remember, kids, anything between 5 and 15 years old is unfashionable, no matter how earnest and worthwhile it might have been.
posted by gimonca at 9:07 PM on July 26, 2007

don't feel bad djb. my college years were defined by bands like april wine, .38 special and loverboy. go figure.

i also think that a lot of good bands in the 80's went into some kind of poseur phase in the 90's--like van halen, aerosmith and bon jovi.
posted by lester's sock puppet at 9:09 PM on July 26, 2007

The Straightener mentioned Whale.... Hobo Humpin' Slobo-Babe would be the song to seek out, I think. Along with some Frente, Cardigans and Len's "Steal my Sunshine".
posted by blaneyphoto at 9:09 PM on July 26, 2007

Oh, and your ideal palate cleanser at the end would be a cover of a contemporary hit by the immortal Richard Cheese. I'd recommend either his version of "Creep" or "Rape Me" for this project.
posted by gimonca at 9:10 PM on July 26, 2007

Maybe a derail, but it angers/saddens me that some of these lists include the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Radiohead.
posted by jtfowl0 at 9:25 PM on July 26, 2007

Chill out. People are just naming songs that were big on alt-rock radio. They're not calling your favorite band poseurs.
posted by ludwig_van at 9:35 PM on July 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

Yea, ludwig and others are right, this is basically just a braindump of what was on "rock radio" during that period.

I find it amusing that while browsing iTunes for a lot of this (goodbye almost-$30 in $0.99 increments...) I was alternately cringing and clicking "Add Song". Kinda funny how some songs sound so god-awful and hackneyed ten years later, others good, and some which made me hover between "if anyone finds out about this..." and "oh come on, guilty pleasures are supposed to make you feel guilty".
posted by cyrusdogstar at 9:58 PM on July 26, 2007

Then, six months later, the poseurs swarmed in. I am looking to make a mix with the poseurs. These would be bands of dubious quality that weren't huge, but were mainstays of modern rock radio

Are you sure? Maybe people just need to stick to the OP's request better. Although I have to say whoever put Crash Test Dummies on the list first wins.
posted by jtfowl0 at 9:59 PM on July 26, 2007

I don't know whether to puke a little bit or just sit back and embrace the suck that was music during my childhood.

Embrace it. I am. This stuff was the only good part about being in high school.
posted by cmyk at 10:24 PM on July 26, 2007

Alright, I know this is going to sound weird, but my friend and I call this kind of music "Skimmety Skimbee." There have been a lot of good suggestions made already, but I have to add one more to the list which hasn't been mentioned. There is a band called Polaris, who made an album called Music From the Adventures of Pete & Pete, one of the songs of which is called Hey Sandy and is featured in the opening sequence. Of course the whole album is mindblowingly Ethan-Hawke-Winona-Rider-soundtrack-core. Also check out some of the other artists whose music was featured in that show (Magnetic Fields, R.E.M.).
Another recommendation I would add is this band called Hindu Rodeo. They are a local (Minneapolis) band, and they made a self-titled album in 1996. A friend picked it up when they opened for Hootie and the Blowfish and made me a copy. I still listen to it in my car.
posted by Demogorgon at 10:33 PM on July 26, 2007

No mentioned Hootie & the Blowfish? People!

To be fair, alternative/ college rock didn't go to shit until about 1996. And while many of the songs mentioned here actually give me a queasy feeling it's was still a ton better than the music situation today. Back then kids it was a different world: any medium sized town had 4 or 5 radio stations playing brand new toons 24/7, foreign bands didn't have to get work visas for their roadies so even the indies toured regularly and there were cool new bands coming out every couple of months. (The same exact ones that Clear Channel is still playing for y'all, incidentally. The most played songs on rock radion have not changed much since I were a college senior back in 1996. Plus our pants dind't make us look like we were wearing diapers).
posted by fshgrl at 10:52 PM on July 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

Also:
Seven Mary Three
Alisha's Attic
I'll second Matthew Sweet and Semisonic
Soul Asylum
The Cranberries
Spacehog
Fountains of Wayne (Radiation Vibe)

For some reason I'm thinking of MTV circa 94-95. Kennedy, Daisy, Beavis & Butthead, Aeon Flux.

The word 'Alternative' comes to mind
posted by Demogorgon at 11:24 PM on July 26, 2007

Also, the Weird Al parody of Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm is way better for the purposes of a mixtape since the song is performed similarly, but the lyrics have been changed to reflect what everyone was seeing in the newspapers at the time.
posted by Demogorgon at 11:35 PM on July 26, 2007

some of these suggestions are 5+ years off... 3 doors down? puddle of mudd? C'mon.

Others have already named some good "bad" stuff (along with lots of actual good stuff, but whatever), so in the spirit of not answering the question I have to add that the most annoying song from this period that I still have in my collection is Red Red Wine by UB40.
posted by Chris4d at 11:59 PM on July 26, 2007

The Rembrandts' "I'll be there for you" and "Locked Out" by Crowded House is all I have to add here.
posted by BAKERSFIELD! at 1:11 AM on July 27, 2007

I have little to add to this cavalcade of mediocrity but The Tea Party and Meryn Cadell's 'The Sweater'. Oddly enough, I did not go to high school in Canada.
posted by Sonny Jim at 1:33 AM on July 27, 2007

You must must must include Seven Mary Three's song "Cumbersome", as annoying an earworm that ever oozed from FM radio.

The Butthole Surfers should be stricken from this list, because they are teh awsum. Plus, they were putting out savagely subversive music when Cobain was still in middle school.

And though it isn't in the right timeline, any mix tape containing Fountains of Wayne should end with the song "Fountains of Wayne Hotline" by the underappreciated Robbie Fulks.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 4:48 AM on July 27, 2007

A good source.
posted by koeselitz at 7:12 AM on July 27, 2007

Note the first comment there on that Amazon page lists all the songs in the movie.
posted by koeselitz at 7:13 AM on July 27, 2007

Thanks everybody for your help. Below is the list that I came up with from the suggestions here and from perusing the links provided. I plan to procure these songs and listen to them and try to whittle them down to 80 minutes and then make a mix CD. I think that I will title it "Who Sucked Out the Feeling?" and the cover art will be a generic rock band's feet standing atop Kurt Cobain's corpse. I am all about subtlety. Thanks again.

Superman - Three Doors Down
Tomorrow - Silverchair
Glycerine - Bush
Santa Monica - Everclear
Name - Goo Goo Dolls
Sex and Candy - Marcy Playground
One Headlight - The Wallflowers
Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms
The Sweater Song - Weezer
December - Collective Soul
Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong - Spindoctors
Run Around - Blues Traveler
Banditos - The Refreshments
Peaches - The Presidents of the United States of America
Sisters - The Nixons
Walking Around in Circles - Soul Coughing
Iris - Goo Goo Dolls
Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) - The Offspring
The Freshmen - The Verve Pipe
Sucked Out - Superdrag
Found Out About You - Gin Blossoms
Hey Leonardo - Blessed Union Of Souls
Breakfast At Tiffany's - Deep Blue Something
Runaway Train - Soul Asylum
All I Want - Toad The Wet Sprocket
Lump - The Presidents Of The United States Of America
Steal My Sunshine - Len
Zombie - Cranberries
Shine - Collective Soul
You Get What You Give - New Radicals
Cumbersome - Seven Mary Three
Lightning Crashes - Live
Come Out and Play - The Offspring
If You Could Only See - Tonic
Linger - Cranberries
Hook - Blues Traveler
Torn - Natalie Imbruglia
Lovefool - The Cardigans
No Rain - Blind Melon
New Age Girl - Dead Eye Dick
Interstate Love Song - Stone Temple Pilots
Popular - Nada Surf
Brimful of Asha - Cornershop
Closer To Free - BoDeans
Girlfriend - Matthew Sweet
Good - Better Than Ezra
Laid - James
Counting Blue Cars - Dishwalla
Possum Kingdom - Toadies
Far Behind - Candlebox
Buddy Holly - Weezer
I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers
I Got A Girl - Tripping Daisy
Flagpole Sitta' - Harvey Danger
Inside Out - Eve 6
She Don't Use Jelly - The Flaming Lips
Save Tonight - Eagle-Eye Cherry
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm - Crash Test Dummies
Closing Time - Semisonic
Selling The Drama - Live
Hunger Strike - Temple of the Dog
Volcano Girls - Veruca Salt
Two Princes - Spin Doctors
No Rain - Blind Melon
Take A Picture - Filter
Self Esteem - The Offspring
Mr. Jones - Counting Crows
I Alone - Live
Walk on the Ocean - Toad the Wet Sprocket
Stay - Lisa Loeb
Plush - Stone Temple Pilots
Today - Smashing Pumpkins
Cannonball - The Breeders
Longview - Green Day
You Oughta Know - Alanis Morissette
Natural One - Folk Implosion
Allison Road - Gin Blossoms
Fly - Sugar Ray
The Impression That I Get - The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Walkin’ on the Sun - Smashmouth
Song 2 - Blur
Tubthumping - Chumbawumba
Laid - James
Bizarre Love Triangle - Frente!
Follow You Down - Gin Blossoms
posted by ND¢ at 8:53 AM on July 27, 2007 [4 favorites]

Back when I was still trying to update my blog every now and then, I did a couple of posts on mixtapes I discovered while clearing out my car. This one was a favorite, as was this one and this one. I'll look around again at my tapes from that era (as I didn't write up even a tenth of them).
posted by klangklangston at 12:01 PM on July 27, 2007

I'm a bit late, but I'll add:
Stabbing Westward - What do I have to Do
(from 1996, might be a bit too late).
Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
(may stray too much from the post-grunge, but this was played a lot).

Oh god, this was a big part of my soundtrack of 2nd-5th grade:
the days of tagging along with my sister (who was in high school and college) to the mall and around town with lazy summer days watching, amongst other things, VH1..

Also this guide at amazon is pretty good, has a list of both well-known as some more lesser known artists as well.
posted by fizzix at 2:06 PM on July 27, 2007

Late to the party, but here are 4 more suggestions (caveat: I don't know if these fit the poseur/time frame requirements, but I thought of them while reading through everyone else's lists):

Dinosaur Jr. - Feel the Pain
Heather Nova - Walk This World
Leah Andreone - It's Alright, It's OK
Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
posted by splendid animal at 3:20 PM on July 30, 2007

You will find no better lists (especially if, like me, you love Aussie music) than the Triple J Hottest 100 annual lists, going back to 1989.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:51 AM on August 5, 2007