Ah, the 1900s! A time before Spotify, YouTube, smartphones, and daily school shootings. A simpler time. A more innocent time! Anyway, let’s get to the last year with “19” at the forefront: 1999 is SO much more than a Prince reference, and was quite a year for rock, roll, heart, and soul outside of the nu metal and boy band movement that took over TRL. We attempted to list the top ten most underrated albums from 1999, and before you yell at us in the comments for being brilliant, albums such as Saves the Day’s “Through Being Cool,” Jimmy Eat World’s “Clarity,” AFI’s “Black Sails in the Sunset,” The Ataris’ “Blue Skies, Broken Hearts… Next 12 Exits,” and other obvious entries are disqualified from mention here; you’re not bigger than this, not better, why can’t you learn?
The Aquabats “The Aquabats! vs. the Floating Eye of Death!”
You know that an album is an extremely serious venture when the band’s actual name is in its title, but Huntington Beach, California’s The Aquabats wouldn’t have it any other way. It has been said that the mid-’90s ska-punk trend effectively died by the end of the ‘90s, and bands associated with porkpie hats and checkerboard slip-ons “needed” to ditch the upstrokes and horns, and embrace more keyboards and outside genre influences. Well, The Aquabats did this in style and a weird as hell unconventional by definition fashion with their third full-length studio album “The Aquabats! Vs. the Floating Eye of Death!” and basically created the best Devo album that the legendary Akron, Ohio band never made. The band would never be the same again with each follow up in the 2000s that distanced themselves more and more from the lampooned “ska” word. Hello, goodnight; sequence erase!
Chevelle “Point No. 1”
Point No. 1: You may give us crap for including Chevelle in this underrated album piece, but the band effectively is a more straightforward version of Tool with much shorter songs, and they do know how to rock. That is not a joke. Point No. 2: Send the pain below if you disagree. Yeah. When a casual rock fan thinks of the Chicago familial three-piece they usually don’t go any further back then the band’s monster radio hit “The Red,” from their major label debut album and sophomore release “Wonder What’s Next,” but the group’s first effort “Point No. 1” deserves your time and attention as well. If you want a further selling point, the record was produced by Steve Albini, and you love the late producer, we all do. In closing, Chicago is so twenty-five years ago.
The Donnas “Get Skintight!”
And now we’re at the point in this piece wherein we wax poetic about the first of two records that would TOTALLY be canceled in 2024: Palo Alto, California’s The Donnas’ third full-length studio album “Get Skintight!” contains a song called “I Wouldn’t Like You Anyway,” and said composition contains this nursery rhyme-esque line, “You thought I would be broken hearted. Maybe I would if you weren’t so retarded!” Different times, different times. More on that later. Well, let’s get to why we included this album here: The Donnas truly came into their own as a hard rock, and not just punk, powerhouse here, which set them up for one more high quality indie release with Lookout! Records, “The Donnas Turn 21,” and eventual mainstream success with “Take It Off” from their major label debut, “Spend the Night”. So, get skintight, and more importantly, get out of my room.
Edna’s Goldfish “The Elements of Transition”
Like we mentioned above, many ska acts tried to distance themselves from the genre around ‘98 and ‘99, and a band called Edna’s Goldfish that you may have never heard of unless you’re a hep hepcat kind of did such by creating one of the better ska-punk/ska-adjacent “The Elements of Transition.” The title is quite an accurate representation of the sophomore full-length studio record in full, even though their debut “Before You Knew Better” was forward thinking and quite vibrant as well. Sadly, “The Elements of Transition” was the Long Island, New York band’s last release before their split just one year later. Happily, the band went on to reunite a few times over the next decade, so we are crossing our fingers for at least one more show or four more days in November.
Farside “The Monroe Doctrine”
Yes, we know, Rage Against the Machine’s Zach de la Rocha played guitar for a short time for Orange County, California’s Farside, but the band deserves much more notoriety for their actual songs, albums, and contributions to the scene at large. Revelation Records is easily one of the more important rock record labels of all time, but for some reason or another, Farside doesn’t get mentioned in the same breath as labelmates Texas is the Reason, Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, and Quicksand. Obviously, we’re here to change that with the mention of Farside’s final record “The Monroe Doctrine,” and we have just one question for you, “What the hell is melodic hardcore anyway?” The world may never know, but it’s definitely better than crying. Also, what’s not to like about a singer named Michael Vogelsang who also goes by “Popeye,” and a band with a song called “Liz Hurley”?
Limp “Guitarded”
Alex, we’ll take an album title that could not exist in 2024 for twenty-four hundred and four dollars, please: San Francisco Bay Area, California’s Limp’s, wait for it, wait for it, “Guitarded”. Now reentering the studio like The Donnas’ more than dated “retarded” reference above, Limp doubled down on offensive depravity with its WTF wheelchair album cover that shouldn’t have been made last century, let alone today… but here we are in 2024 still talking about it. Still, not too many people today discuss any Limp act without the Bizkit, and “Guitarded,” let alone Limp’s entire catalog is WAY too slept on for its own good. Take more than ten minutes to downtown, and enjoy their second of two full-length studio albums for Honest Don’s Records, a subsidiary of Fat Mike of NOFX’s Fat Wreck Chords. Or don’t, poser.
MU330 “Self-Titled”
Even though MU330’s fourth full-length studio album “Crab Rangoon” is admittedly our favorite release from the multi-genre, and yes, ska-adjacent St. Louis, Missouri band, their fifth and self-titled album sits proudly in the silver medal position as a close second, and it came out in 1999, so that explains why we’re squabbling along about it here. It also has to be said that MU330’s vocalist/guitarist Dan Potthast may be on your radar as well as he has worked and toured with your favorite human, Jeff Rosenstock. However, Potthast’s main act just never got their due, and that’s a low down dirty shame. In addition to being an underrated release from ‘99, MU330 is also one of the more underappreciated bands from Mike Park’s Asian Man Records, who also put out releases from Alkaline Trio, Joyce Manor, Big D and the Kids Table, and The Lawrence Arms.
Pilfers “Chawalaleng”
The fact that New York City’s Pilfers’ Mojo Records full-length studio album “Chawalaleng” FINALLY hit DSPs such as Spotify this year after a long void is quite a travesty, but it’s just in time for you to check out this ska, reggae, dub, punk, and every other genre in existence LP. Before we get into more specifics, it has to be said that this one didn’t abandon the upstrokes like so many others before and after it. Pilfers’ frontman is former Toasters vocalist Coolie Ranx, who is a legend in the scene, and he absolutely shredded it on vocals for the group that somehow had a large fanbase yet didn’t connect on a mainstream level. One can blame the label, one can blame the music economy at large, one can blame poor timing, but we blame you and only you… Elevation!
Save Ferris “Modified”
We swear that it’s the last one: This piece contains a hell of a lot of ska and it’s not even ska week anymore. And we know how much you loved ska week. Orange County, California’s Save Ferris’ “Modified,” much like the aforementioned Edna’s Goldfish LP “The Elements of Transition,” actually was an accurate title/genre representation of the great songs that it had. It’s a double-edged sword when a band is known for another act’s music, and Save Ferris had a hit on their debut full-length studio album “It Means Everything” with their cover of Dexys Midnight Runners’ 1980s hit “Come On Eileen,” which despite what you may or may not think, is not a Brazzers reference. However, if you ask a casual Warped Tour fan, even one from the ‘90s, to name ONE song from their follow-up “Modified,” you’ll likely get no love.
Shades Apart “Eyewitness”
Back to another underrated act from Revelation Records to turn this motha out AND close the show to your applause: Bridgewater Township, New Jersey’s Shades Apart released two high quality RR albums for the label, eventually signed with conglomerate Universal Records, and put out “Eyewitness” shortly afterwards. Easily one of the best AND underrated major label rock albums from the ‘90s, and certainly in our Top Eight for 1999, “Eyewitness” had a feature in the movie-film “American Pie” with their single “Stranger By The Day,” which was also on its successful soundtrack, but failed to rise to arena status. The band went on to put out another, albeit worse record at the beginning of the next century for the label, and sadly split up shortly after. It’s hard to top “Eyewitness,” and we posit that if it came out in the mid-’90s the band would still be around today.
