The record, a shoo-in for end-of-the-year rock album lists, brought the Los Angeles-bred band a good bit of praise and recognition. And ultimately, her veteran music journalist dad said it was the right move to go commercial and lay the fuzzy guitars on thick across 12 poppy tracks invoking ’90s staples like Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins, Veruca Salt, and Pavement.

Weingarten, 24, who formed Momma with 23-year-old guitarist Etta Friedman in 2015, says her dad had a big influence on her early musical taste, which shines through on the group’s latest release. She specifically cited Nirvana as perhaps the biggest influence on the record, but not on the sound, per se.

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“It was not even that we were necessarily pulling ideas or genuinely being influenced by their music,” Weingarten tells Alternative Press. “I think it was just the lore surrounding Nirvana that was really interesting to us.”

The story of a struggling band in the ’90s colors Household Name, which is essentially a concept album that longtime friends Weingarten and Friedman wrote over a year in the early pandemic days, soon after relocating from LA to Brooklyn. With deadpan vocals, the duo sings clever songs of aimless drives, complete infatuation, getting away on a noisy motorbike, and playing a shitty bar with an unstable band lineup in order to make that month’s rent.

“We really treated it as like a job almost — like we were in the studio for probably eight hours, three or four days a week, and that was just to write the record,” Weingarten says of the writing process for the album, which took place at friend, bassist and producer Aron Kobayashi Ritch’s place in Brooklyn. “It was a really creative, collaborative, intense process that was probably formative for all of us involved.”

Among the carefully crafted tunes on Household Name is the one-two punch of “Medicine” and “Rockstar,” the album’s third and fourth tracks. “Medicine,” full of tongue-in-cheek lyrics that liken being in love with being hooked on a drug, came about pretty effortlessly, Friedman says, because it was written at a time when the two were feeling excited in new relationships.

“We were talking about how we had never felt happier in our lives, and that’s a really exciting feeling because when we’ve talked about love or romance or whatever, it’s usually been pretty depressing,” they say. “It’s just easier to harp on the sadder, more emotional things. We were genuinely both feeling happy, so it was a pretty beautiful thing to try to express together.”

“Rockstar” then follows, which has become an unexpected hit for Momma, with the single becoming a fan favorite and getting love on alternative radio. And it’s all because she and Friedman watched Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, a 2006 comedy about a duo who sets out to be the “greatest band in the world,” at home in LA with her rock journo dad in August 2020.

Right after the movie ended, the two headed up to Weingarten’s bedroom, where “Rockstar,” which tells the story of an aspiring rocker and what surrounds them in ’90s LA, was born. “I know this club called Tuesdays/I can get us backstage/The barback is our singer/The last one quit the band,” Weingarten sings in the second verse. “A real heavy drinker/He karaokes ‘Rocket Man.’”

Weingarten says she picked up her guitar and immediately played those anthemic opening chords. The rest was written in 10 minutes. At the time, they “thought it was stupid,” but after they showed it to Kobayashi Ritch and later played a demo for friends, it was clear the song struck a bigger chord than anticipated.

“It’s definitely not one that we thought was going to be a single or an important song on the record at all,” Weingarten says. “But then it really became like the blueprint for a lot of the themes of the record.”

Of the handful of music videos the band made for this album, “Rockstar” is a clear favorite. It gives Momma the behind-the-music treatment by following the story of the song, with the band finding an ad for a battle of the bands in the newspaper, flyering around town because they “still need a drummer,” and finding their way backstage at a gritty venue. There’s even encouragement from a poster of Kurt Cobain, whose style Friedman emulates in the video.

There are “loud-quiet” moments and solid riffs found all over Household Name, which Weingarten says is true to the sound the band have always been after. “For years I had never really sat down and been like, ‘OK, we need to get these pedals, and we need to get these amps, and we need to really make sure that we have a good tone,’” she says. “Doing this record, we’re like, ‘OK, let’s finally achieve that huge sound that we’ve been looking for.’”

Over the summer, Momma took that huge sound on the road for a lengthy tour that lasted seven straight weeks across the U.S. “We thought seven weeks is normal, that touring musicians did back-to-back-to-back shows,” Friedman says. “Then we realized people have breaks and four-week-long tours.”

Sandwiching those weeks of tour dates were two shows in Momma’s adopted hometown, New York City, where they held a release show in a small room upstairs at the Bushwick venue The Broadway in July, and ended with a sold-out show at the significantly larger Music Hall of Williamsburg in October.

“At the very beginning of the tour — like when we were announcing the tickets — we really didn’t think we’re gonna sell it out or anything,” Friedman says. “The energy was pretty similar to The Broadway show in terms of people having fun, which is the best thing to see onstage. We were really feeling like, ‘Wow, we fucking did it.’ It was really a beautiful moment.”

Now, Momma are managing to squeeze in a month of rest before going back out to play again. The band are also starting to demo new songs and hopes to dedicate adequate time to write the follow-up to Household Name, which was a product of pandemic free time. “Without that free time I don’t know if we would have been able to write the record in the same way,” Weingarten says. “We’re still trying to figure out how we’re going to be able to do it, now that we’re so busy.”

Meanwhile, Momma will soon be opening for Surf Curse, Foals, Alex G and Death Cab for Cutie, with dates spread out now through early April 2023.

Friedman and Weingarten, who work day jobs at home in Brooklyn when they’re not on tour, admitted it’s been challenging to operate in the current financial landscape that’s affecting many artists. Getting over to Europe with Alex G will be much more costly than expected, Friedman explains.“It’s a constant thing I think about: how to support yourself, but also make the work that you want to make and do what you want to be doing,” they say.

Ultimately, the band say it’s been interesting learning how to make money as artists because it means betting on yourself and putting yourself out there. “It means spending money and losing money to then be able to profit in any way,” Friedman says. “It’s really a grueling process. But, I mean, the good thing is that we’re having a good time along the way.”

Even as Momma waiver between feeling like the band they sing about on “Rockstar” and going “mersh,” it’s no doubt been thrilling to see the recent ascension of the Brooklyn-based group.

Talking to Allison feels like the right kind of familiar. She’s navigating onward through a post-college, pandemic world — but long before COVID-19 hit, her music was already evocative of fluttering joy in small spaces, too many feelings and not enough arms to hold all of the devastation. Now, two-and-a-half years into it, her work is as urgent as ever, with those spins of grief becoming needed reminders of the even smaller emotional vacuums we have to work with.

“I think it’s something where [I] have to pull from real things that do have an emotional attachment to me, or just things that make you feel it,” Allison says. Her arrangements on Sometimes, Forever are tight, her articulations constantly fluid and the impassioned magnitudes of her lyrics are always centered affectionately. “You can put down 1,000 lines and the ones that make you really feel it are the ones that are going to stick out,” she adds. 

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Sometimes, Forever is a career-spanning document for Allison. It’s her third LP, last in a trio of albums written back-to-back-to-back. She and the band recorded it at Sound Emporium, a studio in her hometown of Nashville, over the course of 2021. When Allison became a beloved indie rocker with her debut, 2018’s Clean, she was still making stripped-down, lo-fi records in her bedroom. Fast-forward to 2022 and you can hear the stems of her backtrackings and the intricate arrangements of synths, guitar and percussion. Soccer Mommy is no longer one woman and her guitar; it’s a full machine electrically arranged around itself.

“Once you have access to [a studio], you’re able to imagine things that you wouldn’t have imagined before,” Allison says. “I was so used to recording in my bedroom. I didn’t know how all of this worked. The more times you go in and get new ideas, the more broad your imagination gets.”

The new album also marks the arrival of a new collaboration. Helming the production on Sometimes, Forever is Daniel Lopatin, the synthesizer whiz who moonlights as Oneohtrix Point Never. Since 2019, he’s written and composed the Uncut Gems soundtrack and helped shape FKA twigs’ MAGDALENE, the Weeknd’s Dawn FM and Charli XCX’s CRASH. Sometimes, Forever releases Lopatin from his sometimes pigeonholed presence in the industry as the “synthy, electronic guy” by punctuating a long-held interest of his: rock ’n’ roll. “He was equally excited about recording the band and recording the basic tracking as he was adding things on top of it all,” Allison mentions. “And when it came down to adding those things on, he had a big picture in his mind of what could work, and it was all great.”

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Sometimes, Forever isn’t bereft of synthesizers; it flirts with them cleverly. Lopatin’s production is one of its organic complements, and his compositions align well with Allison’s songwriting, building a sound that is proportional to her dense and ambitious storylines without becoming an overwrought machine. “I think that one of the most amazing things a producer can do is be able to make parts of a song feel like their own and make it so that everything is perfectly lending itself to the other parts of the song,” Allison says.

On tunes such as “Unholy Affliction” and “Darkness Forever,” Soccer Mommy’s sound is far away from the racing dream pop of color theory, as Allison culls a swell of industrial, grunge-y static, capturing Depeche Mode as much as she is Soundgarden; “With U” and “Shotgun” glitter even when walls of mountainous guitars unfurl inside them; opener “Bones” sounds like a cut from color theory, as it’s a widening hallway of regret and heartache, full of Allison’s textbook ’90s alt-rock guitar tones and buzzing syntax, with the standout line “I think your heart could use a tourniquet,” lush, centered and buzzing before falling into a crescendoing coda of distortion.

“I think that the first track always has to be something great because, in my mind, if I put on a record that I haven’t heard before and the first song is boring me a little bit, that always kills it,” Allison says of deliberately placing “Bones” at the head of the tracklist. “And if the first song is one of your favorites, you just put that on and let the whole record play. I did want it to be something that was recognizable and not just completely left field, even though all of that left-field stuff was coming.”

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That left-field approach is nothing that’s significantly out of Allison’s sonic topography; rather, it’s a desire to build resonance through experimentation. The destinations in her songs have always been the same; on Sometimes, Forever, her arrival is just rerouted. Lopatin and Allison have a symmetrical approach to composition, with Lopatin interested in triggering memories with sounds and Allison in pulling personal imagery from her past. “[Memory] is constant in his music,” Allison says of Lopatin’s work. “It’s not something that I’m always thinking about, but it’s something I do love.”

Lopatin’s production visualizes Allison’s world-building and never lingers on a single presentation too long, making Sometimes, Forever the first Soccer Mommy album to appear in so many shapes. Allison is more in control of her language than ever before — transcribing wounds, falling in all kinds of love and obsessing joyously over fleeting moments in her relationships — while working with new studio elements, like overdubs and vocal echoes. 

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“Being able to make a song sound in a way that has a familiar feeling, for me, is less like, ‘Oh, I really want to work with this thing that seems to remind me of this’ and more like, ‘I want to be able to capture emotion,’” she says. “I do love trying to get that feeling, and I think [Lopatin]’s really great at being able to craft something that puts you in a very specific place.”

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Those imperfections, the mystifying, sometimes intoxicating, industrial quakes and murmurs atop hard-lined riffs and dense power hooks, add a shred of new darkness to the record — a darkness born from total artistic freedom and joy that builds off what she touched on in songs such as “Feed” and “lucy.” Without them, Allison says, Sometimes, Forever would lose all of the life that makes her excited about music. “Even albums that you would coin as perfect, like The White Album or Pet Sounds, there are people that hate that shit. There’s no universal perfection,” she adds. “I don’t ever think I’m gonna go into the studio and record two songs and then do a couple of songs down the road and then put them on an album.”

Aside from the two years she spent in New York while in college, Allison still lives where she grew up. When she isn’t touring, she’s at home in Nashville with her longtime boyfriend, driving a white pick-up truck with a “goddess on the loose” bumper sticker and maintaining a slower pace — eons removed from the bustling hubs of Chicago and Los Angeles, where clusters of like-minded musicians cohabitate. “When I’m off the road, all I want is to be able to chill and be relaxed and see my close friends, go see some movies, hang out outside,” she says. “[Nashville] provides all of that for me. It’s where my family is. I don’t feel a need to be super in a scene.” 

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Allison is at the forefront of a budding sector of indie rock, where artists are crafting their images around the communities they keep, championing friendships and the unglamorous norms of not being a rock star 24/7. Part of Allison’s community includes live shows, which she fully embraces, as she centers the sounds of audience connections and touring on her new album — substituting automated and rehearsed arrangements for organic, improvisational tones.

Sometimes, Forever rebels against being neat and tidy and adopting commercialization, as songs grapple with both perfectionism and the pressures of careerism. On an album where Allison is at her most vulnerable, she’s also meditating on the external pressures of her own artistry and the industry she works in more than ever.

“I like writing songs and playing them. And, in a perfect world, I would love to only do that. I wouldn’t ever have to do a photo shoot again. It would just be purely about music, and I wouldn’t have to divulge anything about myself,” Allison says. “If I wanted to just make music, I could. I could quit and post it online myself and have to work a normal job and all that kind of stuff. If you want [making music] to be a job instead of a hobby and a passion, you have to make it a job.”

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During a press run for color theory in 2020, something Allison said about wanting to keep growing until she hit the ceiling was taken out of context. Understanding that if you hit the ceiling, you’ve got nothing left to accomplish, she was speaking more about the internal drive to keep being a better songwriter than about selling out to achieve stardom. The sky isn’t the limit for Allison; it’s just another checkpoint, as she’s continuously ascending upward and discovering new personal milestones to reach for.

“I don’t want to write a song or record a song in such a way I’m hoping it will have some sort of success,” Allison says. “I do want to play bigger shows and be able to reach more people with my music, if they’re interested in everything I have to offer. I want to be able to keep growing, but off of the back of what I actually want to make.”

Allison has been compared to everyone from Liz Phair to Taylor Swift, for her curtness, scouring stories told behind sugary melodies and an empowering, never surrendered chronicle of youth. On Sometimes, Forever, she opens up in a plainspoken, heartsick way, letting herself fall in love, even if the outcome is going to be a tangled, gutting fallout. She’s sharing other people’s pain and learning to accept all of it. “It’s almost like looking at a sun and it’s burning your eyes, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want any more sun,” Allison adds. “I really love mixing that kind of stuff. I think it gives a sense of depth and reality, rather than just making it something where it’s like, ‘I feel happy all the time. I love this. It’s amazing.’” 

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There’s an unintentional theatricality to the three-dimensional body of work she’s created. Light-years removed from her Bandcamp days, she’s no longer cobbling songs together and posting them online soon after. Instead, she’s stretching themes of crushing familial trauma, isolation and mortality across three records — constantly returning to past ideas with a newfound curiosity and upgraded syntax, welcoming a continuity and mark of growth in her own catalog.

“It feels connected, and it feels like something that deserves to be tied together by the sonic because these things all came from the same time and place. You want to be able to have it be so that you can look through these songs one by one, but you can also sit and listen through the whole record, and it’s gonna have this energy that is something that’s literally impossible to recreate.”

“I don’t know how to feel things small,” Allison reflects on Sometimes, Forever closer “Still.” As she continues deconstructing the pitfalls of growing up — by way of unlearning self-doubt, romanticizing her own uneven relationships and exploring new sounds, textures and rhythms — the emotional magnitude in which she interacts with her environment remains its own moment, no matter what shape it takes on any given song. She’s a perfectionist chasing imperfections, already toiling with where she’ll reach toward on the next record, relentless in her desire to not compromise her vision for anyone. Allison’s aiming to play bigger rooms and make records that sound like it. Four years in and her voice is now a wide spectrum of humility, of gossamer confessions that are always fluid, moving across genres and taking multiple albums to fully articulate the heaviness of.

This story appeared in issue #407, available here.

Read more: 20 albums that paved the way for alternative as we know it

Warning – Green Day

For all the pop-punk fans who were looking for Green Day to return to the sounds of Dookie, this felt like a slap in the face, with acoustic tunes influenced by classic rock. If we’re looking solely at the music, though, this might be the most experimental they’ve ever been, from the power-pop sounds of “Waiting” to “Misery.” This might not be the most single-friendly Green Day album, but without “Minority,” we probably wouldn’t have American Idiot as we know it today.

Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie – Alanis Morissette

Before this record came out, Alanis Morissette was doomed to be criticized. Considering how much Jagged Little Pill resonated with people, this is death by comparison, but that doesn’t make Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie a bad record. After the raw anger of the last album, this is a much more thoughtful version of Morissette that most of us weren’t ready for. In this realm. though, Morissette has only gotten better at her more vulnerable side as the years have gone on.

Midnight Marauders – A Tribe Called Quest

As A Tribe Called Quest made their way into the ‘90s, it looked the times weren’t working in their favor. Considering Dr. Dre was about to drop The Chronic, it looked like it was 187 on any other brand of hip-hop. This is Tribe, though, and there was still room for some chill alternative hip-hop, especially when the flows hit as hard as “Award Tour.” There may have been some beef that came with the gangster-rap wave, but there was still some middle ground to vibe to every now and again. 

The Hunting Party – Linkin Park

As the 2010s were dawning, Mike Shinoda started to complain that rock ‘n’ roll had started to lose its edge a little bit. While Linkin Park had been flirting with electronics for a while, this record saw them tapping into their aggro side again, with songs that felt like they took a few lessons from the metallic side of the spectrum. For all of the venom that spewed on this record, this feels like the lost album that should have been released right after Meteora. Linkin Park may have been mainstream, but they could still hang with the big guns of metal music.

The Now Now – Gorillaz

For the past few years, Gorillaz either take too long to make albums or put them out so fast you don’t notice. It happened with The Fall, and it still feels like The Now Now never got its due, being released after Humanz. While this does feel like a solo album for singer 2-D, the laid-back approach is a lot more digestible than other songs. The zaniness of past Gorillaz projects isn’t here, but it’s not trying to be. This is the kind of music that you put on when you need a comedown from all of the stress in your life.

Liz Phair – Liz Phair

There have been many a critic lining up to drag this record through the mud for not being Exile in Guyville part two. It’s not like they didn’t have reason to be upset, either, with Liz Phair getting more poppy this time around compared to the snarky persona she had early on. For trying on pop, though, this kind of sound fits well on her, sounding like it could compete with Nelly Furtado from back in the day. You might be able to find a lot better Phair material out there, but if you’ve got a hankering for 2000s-era pop, these are top-tier songs. 

untitled unmastered – Kendrick Lamar

Practically anything released after To Pimp a Butterfly was going to get swept under the rug, and it seems Kendrick Lamar knew that when crafting this comp. untitled unmastered is a look at the demos that were made during Butterfly. What we have left is a bunch of jazzy rap tracks where it feels like Lamar is rattling these bars right off the dome. This comp may be forgotten by some, but other MCs would kill to have these “throwaways” in their catalog.

Medulla – Björk

Compared to the rest of the albums on this list, this one almost feels like it wasn’t looking to be mainstream at all. Here we have an experimental rock album by Björk, with 90% of the instruments all being provided by the human voice. As much as this sounds like a wild art project, the tracks on here are absolutely spellbinding, like hearing “Triumph of the Heart” in full or the ominous noise in “Who Is It.” For all of the directions that Björk has gone in throughout her career, it would be amazing for her to switch back to this Pentatonix phase. 

808s & Heartbreak – Kanye West

This is likely the first and last time that you can call something by Kanye West underrated by any stretch. As Ye came off Graduation, this is the left turn no one was asking for, with most of the record being composed of singing and no real rapping to speak of. If you look at what’s come up in the meantime, though, Ye was pretty ahead of the curve. After all, this is the sound that birthed artists such as the Weeknd and Drake. Out of all the classic albums in Kanye’s back catalog, this is the one record that seemed to get better over time. 

Chuck – Sum 41

Now this was the kind of switch-up that no one saw coming. While we all knew that Sum 41 had all been pretty big metal fans, hearing them go full aggro for a project was pretty jarring the first time around. As much as fans may have been mixed, Chuck might be the most important record Sum 41 ever made, giving them the chops to go even more metallic on their newer records such as Order in Decline. The days of “In Too Deep” might be a thing of the past at this point, but “The Bitter End” still remains one of the best songs Metallica didn’t write.

Pop punk’s big break didn’t mean the genre got locked into a formula, either. The style has continued to evolve and grow. A new legion of artists have joined pioneers such as blink-182, Avril Lavigne and Good Charlotte. And styles like hip-hop, metal and electronic music have continued to blend with punk’s three-chord roots. Now, artists such as Meet Me @ The Altar, LILHUDDY and KennyHoopla are breathing fresh life into pop punk.

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It’s easy to look back on the classics and the big hits. But one downside of pop punk’s vitality is some of the genre’s best moments are overlooked. There are tons of albums that never got quite the hype they deserved. For that reason, here are 20 of the most underrated pop-punk albums.

Fall Out Boy – Folie A Deux

After the glow of Infinity On High, Fall Out Boy could have easily just decided to go out on a high note. Even when being looked at as the black sheep of their catalog, Folie A Deux has some of the greatest songs that Pete Wentz would ever write, including classics such as “I Don’t Care” and “20 Dollar Nose Bleed.” While this would be the last record that we’d receive from FOB for a long time, Folie A Deux was proof that it wasn’t because they were out of ideas. 

Zebrahead – Broadcast To The World

Zebrahead is a band that consistently defies musical expectations. Pop punk might feel like too specific of a niche for a band that casually strays into the realm of hip hop, ska and hard rock with ease. But on 2006’s Broadcast To The World, the band show their mastery of tuneful choruses and artfully crafted songs. And what song better captures the fun and energy of a pop-punk anthem than, well… “Anthem“?

93PUNX – 93PUNX

It’s not every day that you see someone on Vic Mensa’s level prove he’s a master of multiple genres with a punk-rock album. Given his skills as a musician, though, it almost makes too much sense. Hearing him lose his mind over punk beats makes for some of the hardest music of his career. This record certainly pushes the limits of pop punk, but it perfectly mixes the songwriting chops of the genre with an energy that would make Sex Pistols proud.

NOFX – First Ditch Effort 

If you’ve ever listened to Me First And The Gimme Gimmes, you know someone like Fat Mike has a strong musical sense of humor. But when he does want to hunker down and talk about something serious, he can really tug on your heartstrings on an album like this. As he grapples with his struggles with addictions, you can feel his determination to stay sober every step of the way. For anyone who’s ever seen the pain of addiction, there’s a whole lot to unpack on this one.

POORSTACY – The Breakfast Club

I

It’s hard to talk about pop-punk history while ignoring genres like emo and hip hop. Enter POORSTACY, who has already proven himself a master of the above and more. Fluidly blending elements of anything he seems to feel like using, POORSTACY has showcased pop punk’s ability to evolve. While his new album leans on deep concepts and horror punk imagery, his debut record captured all of the atmosphere and emotional depths of emo rap while revealing his complete mastery of punk-rock energetics.

Potty Mouth – SNAFU

As big as the ‘80s nostalgia trip has been in the past few years, throwing it back to the ‘90s like Potty Mouth‘s SNAFU is more than welcome. From the sounds of this record, this is the kind of music that artists like Liz Phair would have made back in the day. It possesses the same type of snotty attitude that you’d get from a band like Bikini Kill. While not exactly riot grrrl energy on every track, it’s still as catchy as ever from a punk’s perspective.

Waterparks – Entertainment

Like everyone else, it’s easy to collectively lose your minds at how much Waterparks have been blowing up ever since Double Dare. The new record is amazing as well, yet Entertainment falls in a unique spot between them. Though there are definitely some bangers on here, the best parts of this album come at the end, which go into either full alternative-rock territory or electronic affairs like “Crybaby.” Down the line, we might be talking about this record the same way we talk about blink-182’s Untitled record.

blink-182 – Neighborhoods

Speaking of blink-182, a lot of fans weren’t sure what to expect when Neighborhoods first came out. Though this does have traces of Angels & Airwaves buried in there, hearing these pop-punk titans back together again is amazing to watch. They may not have had the best time putting this record together, but if that meant giving us songs such as “Ghost On The Dance Floor,” the effort was well worth it.

Simple Plan – Simple Plan

One of the cardinal sins that you can make as a pop-punk band is to grow up. No matter how long you last, you’re going to arrive at adulthood at some point. And when Simple Plan made that leap, it had the potential to best their classic stuff, with Dave Fortman’s production sounding amazing. Once you get this record into your rotation, chances are you’re going to be singing along with these songs just as much as stuff like “Welcome To My Life” and “I’m Just A Kid.”

The All-American Rejects – The All-American Rejects

The debut album is always a tricky beast for bands, as they try to put everything great about them into one package. Though All-American Rejects would flirt with perfection on their next record, this is no slouch at all. Tyson Ritter flexed his pipes and showed us all how to write a singalong chorus that you can belt out at the top of your lungs. Also, any album that includes a song like “Swing, Swing” deserves to be among the best of pop punk.

Avril Lavigne – Head Above Water

If you were to take a look at all the pop-punk artists who managed to stay true throughout their careers, Avril Lavigne would have to be close to the top of your list. Outside of a few shake-ups she’s taken in her career, Head Above Water still has all the tropes that made her the pop-punk princess back in the 2000s. You can see her growing as a songwriter here as well, with tracks such as “Birdie” capturing that same angst as “Complicated.” There are a few twists and turns on this record, but if you know Avril, you know writing good tunes ain’t that hard for her.

Pale Waves – Who Am I?

Remember when we were talking about the greatness of Lavigne’s early work? It turns out that Pale Waves also had the idea to stick to their roots to hit us with a blast from the past on Who Am I? Just as the album art would lead you to believe, this is the best kind of nostalgia trip, taking bits and pieces from the ‘00s and bringing them into a modern context. Proof again that while the times are changing, pop punk has still got the same power it’s always had.  

Sum 41 – Chuck

With years of hindsight, you forget how important this Sum 41 record was for pop punk. Even though it might have been weird to see the band who brought you “Fat Lip” going into hard-rock mode, this is what broadened the playing field for pop punk. Bands such as PUP have taken their cues and gotten a lot more aggro with their music. You can still call this a pop-punk record, but where else are you going to find something like “Some Say” set alongside a Metallica tribute like “The Bitter End”?

Good Charlotte – Generation RX

You’re always taking a bit of a gamble as a pop-punk band when you decide to talk about real issues. If Green Day have taught us anything, it’s that that gamble is rewarding when it does work, and Good Charlotte were more than up to the challenge. After blasting through songs such as “The Anthem” back in the day, this short slice of reality hits hard. Broaching difficult topics like seeing friends pass away at the hands of addiction, this album can really make you tear up. Still anchored to the pop-punk sound they helped define, this album is proof that the genre was always capable of tackling the heaviest of real-world issues. 

The Menzingers – Hello Exile

Pop punk has always had a few different flavors to it, but none of them were meant to be as heartbreaking as the Menzingers‘ Hello Exile. As far as punk is concerned, this is the kind of music that Bruce Springsteen would have written if he grew up listening to Alkaline Trio. There’s definitely a cynical attitude, but the choruses behind songs such as “Anna” and “I Can’t Stop Drinking” feel more in line with classic rock than blink-182. It’s catchy in all the right places and chaotic when it wants to be, but it’s also got heart, and that’s the most important thing.

Doll Skin – Manic Pixie Dream Girl

From the first few songs of Doll Skin‘s Manic Pixie Dream Girl, this is what P!nk would sound like if she had a bit more grit in her delivery, with a bit of Foo Fighters thrown in for good measure. The emphasis is still on the punk side of things, though, and this is an absolute blast from the moment you press play. If you listen to this more than once, you’ll know that “Shut Up (You Miss Me)” not becoming a radio hit is a crime.

Spanish Love Songs – Brave Faces Everyone

The past few years have certainly made things more difficult, but knowing that Spanish Love Songs have the same kind of pain is cathartic. Even though the title of this record captures everything succinctly, their unique brand of emo rock and pop punk is a picture of what it’s like being in your mid-20s and not knowing where to go from there. Things might not be OK 24/7, but as long as you put on a brave face, it might all work out in the end.

Paramore – All We Know Falling

Over the years, Paramore have continued to transform with each release. Their songwriting chops were on display from the beginning, and All We Know Is Falling has the same kind of power that we know and love today. From the minute she opened her mouth to sing, we had a superstar on our hands with Hayley Williams. While she’s never had to prove a thing to us, she’s singing like she wants the world to know what she’s truly capable of.

Green Day – Warning

And now we come to the most high-profile band on the list, with Green Day just coming off of a long exhausting career in the late ‘90s. With the new decade dawning, though, they had a lot more to offer, showing off their folk-rock chops on this one. Billie Joe Armstrong especially shows why he belongs  in the big leagues as a songwriter with “Minority.” It wasn’t your traditional pop punk by any stretch, but this was just testing the waters for everything that was to come. 

Panic At The Disco – Pretty. Odd.

When you’ve become one of the biggest acts in the scene, you don’t really want to mess with the formula too much. Instead of just the traditional emo hangups, Panic At The Disco removed the punctuation from their name and made an old-school folk-rock record inspired by artists such as the Beatles and Crosby, Stills & Nash. In so doing, the band revealed the true scope of their influences and their artistry.

East Coast rock outfit Pretty Sick are sharing their laid-back indie and grunge-laced track “Devil In Me” alongside a nostalgia-inducing music video.

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Hailing from New York, the group are helmed by bassist/vocalist Sabrina Fuentes and announced their forthcoming EP along with the track release. Comedown is the follow-up to their 2020 EP release, Deep Divine, which made waves through the DIY scene. The “Devil In Me” music video is their first visual release since they shared their “Superstar” video in December.

Check out the brand-new, wild party-themed music video below, as well as more details about their music that’s yet to come.

With sounds reminiscent of the ’90s and enthralling acts such as Liz Phair, it’s fair to say that fans of the decade will love the past, present and future of the Pretty Sick discography.

Comedown features seven original indie tracks. The release comes via Dirty Hit and can be streamed on all platforms starting June 17.

Comedown tracklist:

1. “Bet My Blood”
2. “Pill Bug”
3. “Bare”
4. “She”
5. “Devil In Me”
6. “Self Control”
7. “Physical”

More on Pretty Sick

Since forming Pretty Sick when she was just 13 years old, Sabrina Fuentes has been making a name for herself in the underground music scene for years, playing at DIY venues such as NYC’s Shea Stadium and Silent Barn. Now at 20, she plays alongside drummer Austin Williamson, guitarist Wade Oates (The Virgins) and bassist Orazio Argentero.

The group debuted with a self-titled EP in 2016, featuring four original tracks available via Dirty Hit. They have been blossoming ever since, sharing odes about life as a teenager growing up in the Big Apple. Their music videos and lyrics will surely give listeners in the suburbs and rural areas a taste of life in the city, accompanied by sick basslines, of course.

Read more: Laura Jane Grace drops kaleidoscopic “SuperNatural Possession” video

In fact, 2018 brought forth the group’s most-streamed song at the moment “Dumb,” whose accompanying music video is a bloody, sexy, messy visual for unadulterated and unapologetic rock ‘n’ roll.

Last year served as a major period of growth for the band, as Deep Divine received rave reviews and landed them on more and more musical radars. Featuring seven original tracks, the EP also contained the singles “Telephone,” “Allen Street” and “Angel Landing.”

For the video, Morissette is raising for Backline Care, a nonprofit organization that offers free mental health and wellness resources to music industry professionals and their families. All donations to the organization can be made on the video’s YouTube page.

Read more: Here’s the ’90s alternative anthem that best matches your zodiac sign

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit last year, the tour industry was completely flipped upside down. As tours and festivals were postponed and canceled, live music industry personnel soon found themselves out of work while ticket holders were left without any shows to attend. 

Now, Morissette is looking back on her days on the road in the “I Miss The Band” video. The sentimental visual offers numerous snapshots of her touring with her band around the world. As well, various footage also features Morissette’s dedicated fanbase who have shown up to her shows with posters, personalized shirts and, above all, love for her music.

The “I Miss The Band” lyrics depict personal moments she has experienced while on the tour. From getting off a plane in Japan to arriving at baggage claim not knowing what city she is in, the narrative behind the song offers an intimate look at what life on the road is like for her.

Read more: 10 iconic ’90s songs that you can easily learn to play on guitar

In the YouTube video’s caption, Morissette briefly opens up about her optimism that she will be reunited with her band and fans on tour again soon.

“Deeply yearning to play live music again,” she writes on YouTube. “The sweat, the rapture, the movement, the love. I miss seeing your faces and being with my bandmates. Soon we’ll be back together.”

With the video, Morissette is helping raise money for Backline Care which offers various resources for any individual working within the live music industry.

“Life in this industry can be incredibly isolating and difficult,” Morissette writes on her YouTube page. “Backline provides a safe, private and immediate place to go for help. Available for free to artists, managers, agents, crew, producers, labels and their families, Backline programs offer case management, support groups and wellness programs to meet the needs of this unique community.”

The “I Miss The Band” visual was directed by Victor Indrizzo who has worked with Morissette as a drummer. In recent years, he provided percussion and drums for her 2012 album Havoc And Bright Lights and 2020’s Such Pretty Forks In The Road.

More information on Backline Care can be found here, and the “I Miss The Band” video is available to watch below.

More on Alanis Morissette

“I Miss The Band” marks the second song Morissette has released this year. Back in March, she unveiled a demo of “Predator,” one of the songs from Jagged Little Pill: The Musical. The Broadway production is inspired by Morissette’s 1995 album of the same name. Earlier this year, the songs from Jagged Little Pill: The Musical led to the production winning Best Musical Theater Album at the Grammy Awards. 

Back in 2020, Morissette celebrated the 25th anniversary of Jagged Little Pill with a staggering 29-track reissue of the album. Along with the original tracks, Morissette re-released 16 live tracks that were recorded during her concert at the historic O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London last year. Back in November 2020, Morissette first released these live recordings as a special double LP Record Store Day offering.

Read more: 10 albums from the ’90s that pushed the feminist movement to new heights

For the Jagged Little Pill 25th anniversary, Morissette was set to hit the road with Liz Phair, Julia Stone and Garbage last year. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was postponed to this year.

As it stands, the North American tour is set to kick off July 10 in Toronto at the Budweiser Stage. Both Phair and Garbage are supporting the North American tour while Phair will be playing with Morissette for the U.K. and European shows. Meanwhile, Stone is supporting the New Zealand, Australia and Philippines tour later this fall.

The full list of dates is available below and more information can be found here. 

Tour dates

07/10 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage
07/11 – Ottawa, ON @ Ottawa Bluesfest
07/31 – Portland, OR @ Sunlight Supply Amphitheater

08/01 – Seattle, WA @ White River Amphitheatre
08/03 – Concord, CA @ Concord Pavilion
08/05 – Phoenix, AZ @ Ak-Chin Pavilion
08/08 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Usana Amphitheatre
08/12 – Austin, TX @ Germania Insurance Amphitheater
08/13 – Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion
08/14 – Rogers, AR @ Walmart Amp
08/17 – Tampa, FL @ Midflorida Credit Union Amphitheatre
08/18 – West Palm Beach, FL @ iTHINK Financial Credit Union Amphitheatre
08/20 – Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre

Read more: 10 alternative albums by women that have influenced music since the ’90s

08/21 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion
08/22 – Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park At Walnut Creek
08/25 – Virginia Beach, VA @ Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater
08/26 – Camden, NJ @ BB&T Pavilion
08/28 – Hartford, CT @ Xfinity Theatre
08/29 – Wantagh, NY @ Northwell Health At Jones Beach Theater
08/31 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion

09/01 – Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center
09/03 – Gilford, NH @ Bank Of New Hampshire Pavilion
09/04 – Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center
09/05 – Saratoga Springs, NY @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center
09/08 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center
09/10 – Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center
09/11 – Tinley Park, IL @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
09/12 – Clarkston, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre
09/15 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
09/17 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
09/18 – Maryland Heights, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
10/05 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl

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10/18 – Birmingham, UK @ Utilita Arena
10/20 – London, UK @ The O2 Arena
10/22 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Arena
10/25 – Dublin, IE @ 3Arena
10/28 – Hamburg, DE @ Barclaycard Arena
10/29 – Copenhagen, DK @ Royal Arena
10/31 – Amsterdam, NL @ Ziggo Dome
11/03 – Budapest, HU @ László Papp Budapest Sports Arena
11/06 – Warsaw, PL @ Expo XXI
11/08 – Milan, IT @ Mediolanum Form
11/10 – Madrid, ES @ Wizink Center
11/13 – Paris, FR @ Accor Arena

11/25 – Auckland, NZ @ Spark Arena
11/27 – Melbourne, AUS @ Rod Laver Arena
11/28 – Melbourne, AUS @ Rod Laver Arena
11/30 – Sydney, AUS @ Qudos Bank Arena
12/04 – Perth, AUS @ Rac Arena
12/07 – Manila, PHL @ Mall Of Asia Arena
12/08 – Manila, PHL @ Mall Of Asia Arena

What are your reactions to Alanis Morissette’s “I Miss The Band” video? Let us know in the comments below.

As it stands, though, feminism depends on rationally minded renegades to lend their voices. And what better community to draw from than that of the alternative sphere? Even prior to the 1990s, artists had started using their platforms to project their malcontent. But with the decade’s propulsion of the genre into the mainstream, so too did such messages get uplifted. Of course, these themes soon dispersed throughout the scene and beyond. We’ll dive in deeper…

Read more: Brittany Howard debuts soulful performance of “Short And Sweet”—watch

Here are 10 ‘90s albums that helped drive the feminist movement through music.

Pretty On The Inside – Hole

There are few song titles that speak to the edge of feminist punk music quite like “Teenage Whore.” So, the fact that Hole kicked off their debut album, Pretty On The Inside, with the track is pretty telling. The album doesn’t wind back over the course of its tracklist, either, navigating through brazen but vulnerable themes of tumultuous relationships, sexuality and less-than-delicate femininity.

Bricks Are Heavy – L7

If, by the early ’90s, anyone still had doubts that women could deliver scathing punk rock, L7 went ahead and shattered that sexist fantasy. They notably began dishing out raw, feminist edge following their inception in 1985. However, it was their third studio album, Bricks Are Heavy, that really started garnering traction. The record dropped shortly after the band founded the Rock For Choice concert series that supported abortion rights. Needless to say, they quickly earned a standing as feminist icons of the decade and beyond.

Exile In Guyville – Liz Phair

Liz Phair‘s Exile In Guyville proved to be massively influential in more ways than one. Not only did the style contribute to the progression of indie rock as we know it, but the lyrical narratives present feminist themes that are impossible to ignore. They weren’t heart-wrenchingly sentimental or aggressive but rather boldly honest. And with such pared-back instrumentals, listeners had no choice but to home in on the lines and unpack them as they came.

Read more: 15 punk albums from 1993 that embraced contrarianism over prefab rebellion

Pussy Whipped – Bikini Kill

There’s no talking about feminist alternative albums, from the ’90s or otherwise, without bringing up Bikini Kill‘s Pussy Whipped. The driving force behind the riot grrrl movement, the band put out no shortage of rallying cries throughout their tenure and significantly influenced other women and nonbinary artists, including Miley Cyrus, well into the modern era. Of course, their 1993 debut record set the precedent. Seriously, we can’t even start to imagine the punk faction without the lesbian anthem “Rebel Girl” deeply embedded in its foundations.

Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morissette

You didn’t think that we’d discuss ’90s feminist music without touching on Alanis Morissette‘s Jagged Little Pill, did you? This record may be among the more controversial on the list, presumably because of its immediate mainstream success. That’s the beauty of it, though. Morissette reached the masses with her explicit, unabashed brand of empowered and angry lyricism. Regardless of what you think of it, there’s no denying that both the release and its creator have maintained lasting legacies within the movement.

Tragic Kingdom – No Doubt

No Doubt‘s Tragic Kingdom bridged the gaps between punk aggression and the sort of mainstream accessibility boasted by Morissette. Ever-relatable without sacrificing edge, the album delivered gritty social commentary wrapped in a radio-ready bow. If you’re not already picking up what we’re putting down, go give “Just A Girl” a concentrated listen and get back to us.

Read more: 10 women and non-binary pop-punk bands who are taking over the genre

Lovelife – Lush

Admittedly, Lush had graced the ’90s alternative scene with more than a few visceral narratives prior to their 1996 album, Lovelife. This one proves a bit divergent from some of the other albums we’ve explored on the list. There’s a marked contrast between the songs, which swing between soft, upbeat deliveries and something better likened to new-wave dismality. And the lyrical themes are just as shifty. While one, such as “Ladykillers,” may hold up a grimy mirror to society, it’s soon followed by an ode to a car in “500.” To this point, the record isn’t emblemized as a beacon of social reform but rather masterfully weaves an essence of female empowerment throughout.

Dig Me Out – Sleater-Kinney

Sleater-Kinney‘s third album, Dig Me Out, reads like an open letter of raw vulnerability. It presents inward-facing navigation of societal norms that resonates even 20-plus years following its release. Despite being confrontational in its delivery, it’s not exactly aggressive—and that’s where its particular beauty lies. Where many feminist punk albums might bite back with rage-inducing fervor, this one simply inspires the question, “OK, but why?”

FanMail – TLC

“No Scrubs” is an iconic and unashamed feminist hit in its own right. Add it to the context of other tracks such as “Silly Ho” and “My Life,” though, and you’ve got a damn empowering compilation. Admittedly, TLC had been changing the game for nearly a decade prior to FanMail and have continued to do so. Still, there’s no understating the nature of the record’s forthright advocacy of individuality and self-esteem through an alternative-accented blend of pop and R&B.

Read more: 10 ‘MTV Unplugged’ performances from the ’90s that remain iconic

Le Tigre – Le Tigre

Founded by Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna after the group’s late-’90s disbandment, Le Tigre barely squeezed out their debut self-titled album prior to the turn of the century. We’re glad they did because there are few records that are so quintessentially representative of ’90s feminist music as a whole. The album is a surprising whirlwind of foundational pop-punk energy, delivering Hanna’s signature edge with outright danceability. No doubt, it got her inspiring messages to brand-new corners of the alternative scene.

What are some of your favorite feminist albums to come from the ’90s? Let us know in the comments below!

While the gender distribution across the alternative genre was (and remains) lopsided, there’s no denying that women have left their mark in music. In honor of Women’s History Month, we’ve decided to examine the legacies they established during the uprising of modern alternative culture.

Read more: 10 alternative musicians who founded more than one successful band

Read on for 10 greatly influential ’90s albums put out by women. 

Goo – Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth dove headfirst into the ’90s with Goo and furthered their mid-career transcendence into punk-laced alt-rock. Ultimately, the relative success of the album helped push the genre up through the cracks of the mainstream’s basement and solidified the foundation on which the movement would grow throughout the decade. Kim Gordon took the lead on a handful of tracks, including “Tunic (Song For Karen)” and “Kool Thing.”

Exile In Guyville – Liz Phair

Liz Phair‘s Exile In Guyville was a bit of a cultural phenomenon following its release in 1993. As her first full-length release, the record didn’t try too hard stylistically. But it did offer profound and forthright narratives that resonated with the feminist movement of the time. In the context of ’90s indie rock, it was a marked diversion that catalyzed the progression of the genre into its modern form.

Live Through This – Hole

If we’re being honest, nothing fronted by Courtney Love could ever be less than iconic. That said, Hole‘s sophomore album, Live Through This, is particularly standout. The record expanded on their already established thrash-y punk sound, incorporating grunge elements and catchy hooks. For good reason, it pushed the band into the mainstream alternative spotlight. Of course, Love, with all of her glorious, feministic aggression, was front and center.

Read more: 10 pop-punk albums from the ’90s that set the path for the genre

No Need To Argue – The Cranberries

No ’90s playlist is complete if it doesn’t include the Cranberries. That’s just fact. Regardless of where you stand on “Zombie,” it’s hands-down one of the most iconic songs to come from the decade. Of course, No Need To Argue was pretty memorable as a whole. Propelled by vocalist Dolores O’Riordan‘s stylistic yodeling, the record pulled a sort of folk-rock quality into a scene that otherwise generally lacked the flair.

Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morissette

Alanis Morissette had started gaining steam in the Canadian music scene years before releasing Jagged Little Pill. However, her preceding two albums were grounded in dance-pop roots that feel oddly reminiscent of Robin’s past in How I Met Your Mother. JLP diverged considerably, introducing the world to the unique, grunge-informed blend of ’90s pop-rock that we’d come to know her for. Its breakout global success cast Morissette as a woman on the forefront of alternative music for years to come.

Garbage – Garbage

In any realm outside of alternative music, the phrase “you sound like garbage” is going to be at least mildly insulting. When addressing alt-rock bands, though, it’s a compliment of the highest order. Garbage made their iconic debut with their self-titled album in 1995, finding immediate success with its danceable, grunge-y take on alt-rock. Genre-defying and hooky as hell, the sounds present on the album continue to inform alternative efforts, even decades later.

Read more: 10 pop-punk bands from the ’90s who are still influencing the genre

To Bring You My Love – PJ Harvey

PJ Harvey took what we knew about the ’90s mainstream alternative wave and made it her own. Her third album, To Bring You My Love, harnessed her dark and brooding prowess and took it into blues-heavy territory. It was a unique beast that rightfully cast Harvey as a beacon of both eloquence and edge.

Tragic Kingdom – No Doubt

Would it be a list of trailblazing women if we didn’t include Gwen Stefani? Before our favorite 2000s pop act rose to superstardom, she helped bring ska punk into the mainstream spotlight with No Doubt. Tragic Kingdom was nothing short of pioneering in that respect, blending their more traditional ska foundations with elements of ’90s radio rock. Safe to say, it informed quite a number of future Warped Tour bands.

The Score – Fugees

It may seem like we just took a drastic turn here. Let that be indicative of Fugees‘ distinct contribution to mainstream alternative music. The hip-hop group made significant waves in 1996 with their breakout sophomore album, The Score. Blending a far-reaching variety of genres with Lauryn Hill at the helm, the band brought an eclectic breed of rap into the alternative spotlight and set the stage for future groups such as Gym Class Heroes and twenty one pilots to flourish well into the future.

Read more: 21 alternative albums from 1998 that are still influencing bands today

Blurring The Edges – Meredith Brooks

Women everywhere rejoiced when they heard “Bitch” for the first time. Seriously, what a mood—and one that was prevalent throughout Meredith Brooks‘ Blurring The Edges. The alt-rock showcase was a stunning showcase of the “bad bitch” mentality that largely defines the alternative scene. No doubt, her fiery energy has inspired many aspiring women to date.

What are some of your favorite ’90s albums released by women? Let us know in the comments below!

And so some of these singer-songwriter bands may come as absolutely no surprise to you, but they may to others. Might even lead to you brushing the spiderwebs off some old CDs while you’re at it. Below are 10 singer-songwriters who began in a band. 

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Juliet Simms

Many know Juliet Simms as a solo artist and even as a runner-up on season 2 of NBC’s The Voice. But those well versed in rock should also know her as the lead singer of Automatic Loveletter. The Florida-based four-piece were initially a family affair, with Simms’ brother Tommy on guitar. If this is news to you, you’ve got your rock ’n’ roll homework for the evening. Beyond the breathy ballad here, “Hush,” there are plenty of anthems to sort through. Standouts include “Parker” and “The Day That Saved Us.” 

Jesse Malin

Jesse Malin has been so prolific for so long as a singer-songwriter. Even this writer occasionally forgets he once fronted NYC punk-rock royalty D Generation. It became easy to remember once he was plumbing the depths of his soul for opuses such as “Brooklyn” or his belter of a duet with no less than Bruce Springsteen himself, “Broken Radio.” This was at the opposite end of the spectrum with regard to his old band. D Generation’s second album, No Lunch, was produced by the late Ric Ocasek from the Cars. It threw rights and lefts, Ramones-style. They ended with the ’90s but have reunited for shows over the years. 

Marilyn Manson

Ever the enigma, circa 1990, Marilyn Manson was better known as Brian Warner, intrepid South Florida music journalist at night, Broward College student by day. But he was also, in his spare time, finessing his alter ego, with stalwart guitarist Daisy Berkowitz already by his side. While the gimmick of merging a sex symbol’s name with that of a serial killer was already intact, they were performing under the moniker the Spooky Kids. Enter Trent Reznor. The Nine Inch Nails mastermind signed them to his brand-new label, Nothing Records. In fact, Manson was the very first act signed. His first record would emerge in 1994. 

St. Vincent

St. Vincent—aka Annie Clark—has been around far longer than many know, releasing her debut record, Marry Me, back in 2007. She snapped up street cred quickly enough, but arguably, it wasn’t until 2017’s Masseduction when household-name status became within reach. Rightly so with tracks such as “New York” and “Happy Birthday, Johnny” being as beautifully cathartic as they are timeless, and “Pills” is as in your face as it can get. But it all began with her tenure in the Polyphonic Spree, the Dallas-based choral rock outfit who aren’t shy on violins, french horns and flutes. 

Tori Amos

Tori Amos specializes in breathy, plodding ballads that manage to render F-bombs as acceptable as they are expected. “Silent All These Years” remains a classic, with “Winter” right behind it, equally as introspective and melancholy. But there’s brooding there in place of rage on the latter. Amos has her upbeat moments, too (see: “Cornflake Girl”), but nothing in her solo catalog quite touches her Y Kant Tori Read years, before the singer-songwriter left her band days behind.

Lenny Kravitz

Lenny Kravitz, too, had his years trying to be someone he just wasn’t. Hence, Romeo Blue, the thankfully short-lived period before the rocker began to “Let Love Rule.” Interestingly, Blue was hanging on with that debut Kravitz record, with shades of bohemia informing that title track, along with “I Build This Garden For Us.” But soon enough, all bets would be off. Anthems such as “Are You Gonna Go My Way” and “Fly Away” would be shooting up the charts. Blue was the last bastion of the ’80s Kravitz before he decided to be true to himself, fortunately for us.          

John Mayer

Bridgeport, Connecticut-born and Berklee-attending John Mayer disenrolled in that esteemed music school to head for Atlanta with his then-partner-in-crime Clay Cook. They dubbed themselves Lo-Fi Masters and made a go of it as a duo. The outfit proved short-lived, but the collabs didn’t end there. Much of what the singer-songwriter worked on with Cook found its way onto Mayer’s first two releases, the Inside Wants Out EP and debut full-length, Room For Squares. By the time Mayer was delivering his Grammy acceptance speech for “Your Body Is A Wonderland,” Cook was playing with Southern-rock icons the Marshall Tucker Band. Never one to be outdone, Mayer would soon be noodling with Grateful Dead in Dead & Company. Maybe Lo-Fi will come back from there one of these days? 

Liz Phair

Another Connecticut-born guitarist/vocalist, Liz Phair’s debut, Exile In Guyville, remains as peerless as it was fearless. Released in 1993, it makes just about every list of “greatest albums of all time.” The project also paved the way for many a ferocious female. Funny then that her first band would go by the name Girly Sound. Tongue was clearly planted firmly in cheek, much like Strat was plugged firmly in outlet. All of Girly Sound was self-produced, with most being on tape cassette only. But the success of Exile made them sought after, reborn as bootlegs. Then, in 2018, the tapes were released in their entirety via Matador Records’ 25th anniversary box set, Girly-Sound To Guyville. 

Amy Winehouse

The gone-too-soon powerhouse vocalist made noise with her eclectic debut album, Frank, but it was Amy Winehouse’s 2006 follow-up, Back To Black, that brought her fame, especially thanks to perhaps that year’s theme song, “Rehab.” Winehouse took home Grammy upon Grammy, at that point earning the tagline “most wins by a female artist in a single night.” But long before there was such fame and, dare we say, notoriety, there was Sweet ’N’ Sour, a hip-hop duo with Juliette Ashby that the singer-songwriter would later describe as a “little, white, Jewish Salt-N-Pepa.” It was the stuff of precociousness, but it did pave the way for her then joining the Bolsha Band as a vocalist. S&S recorded three songs, with one of them titled “Boys…Who Needs Them.” That was the thing about Winehouse: Heart always on sleeve. 

Conor Oberst

Conor Oberst is a force of nature. Not only is he revered as a singer-songwriter, and before that at the helm the indie darlings Bright Eyes (recording with them for over a dozen years and recently announcing a reunion), but the versatile musician played in many a band, most notably Commander Venus. Straight outta Omaha, Commander Venus recorded two albums, and without them, he’d have never found his way to Bright Eyes—or to the solo career that he’s carved out for himself since. To dismiss Commander Venus as a college band would be to dismiss Oberst completely. And we all know how foolhardy that’d be.