1994: The Album

 
Growing up in 1994 I remember thinking that I was living in the greatest year of music EVER. I also thought that using my summer vacation to make a four-and-a-half hour homemade gangster movie was an artistic triumph. Twenty years later, I’m still convinced of the former. (One out of two ain’t bad, right?)

Looking back, 1994 was the most pop-culturally rich year of my life. It probably didn’t hurt that I was a teenager coming of age musically.

Kurt Cobain’s suicide left behind a huge void, but the creative landscape Nirvana helped cultivate left the world of music in good hands—at least for the next few years.

1994 was the perfect intersection of time between a thriving, artistic, free-thinking music scene and the watered-down version of it which would happen when record labels thought they could manufacture the next Nirvana, Pearl Jam, or Green Day.

Besides alternative rock, hip-hop had a strong foothold in ’94. A handful of acts that would dominate the end of the decade sprouted up in this particular year.

How about movies and TV from this time period? Pulp Fiction, Clerks, Seinfeld, and Beavis & Butt-Head perfectly fit the Gen X pop-cultural zeitgeist like a leather glove—one not worn over a pair of surgical ones. (Yeah, that whole fiasco started in ’94, too.)

Anyway, I could write essay after essay of why 1994 was so freakin’ awesome, but listening to the music from that year will take you back in time a lot quicker.

And hence, a mixtape was born.

Here are the ground rules for 1994: The Album:

Because the output of music was so overwhelmingly good, I knew I had to limit myself. Piecing together 19 tracks of 94 minutes of music seemed thematically appropriate, and even though I had a decent amount of time to play with, a lot of great artists/songs did not make the cut.

Keep in mind, this is not a best-of-decade mix, although it sure does sound like it, huh?

In my adult life, I’ve tried to keep most of my mixtapes free of curses—so you can listen freely with your children around—but it was mighty difficult for this project. So in the true spirit of the profanity-filled ‘90s I decided to let the f-bombs fly freely. That was your Parental Advisory warning.

Every song you hear on this album was either released as a single, or on an album in 1994, or peaked or charted heavily that year. In other words, this entire mix, media clips and all, could have been created in 1994.

If I wasn’t so busy making a certain homemade epic motion picture, I guess I could have crafted this mix back then.

Oh well, 20 years later, here it is.

Enjoy!

*This is the one-track podcast version of the mix. If you want to see where the tracks break up, follow along below:

1. Longview of the Vaseline ("Bad Habit," The Offspring)

2. Oh My Gosh ("Oh My God," A Tribe Called Quest)

3. Let Freedom Roll ("What Is Love," Haddaway)

4. The Day I Tried To Lose ("The Day I Tried To Live," Soundgarden)

5. Shoop 'Em Up ("Shoop," Salt-n-Peppa)

6. Seething with Flava ("Blind," Korn)

7. Doggy Sweater ("Live Forever," Oasis)

8. Hobo Humpin' Liar Creep ("Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe," Whale)

9. Backwater Saints ("All Apologies," Nirvana)

10. Violently Real ("Regulate," Warren G feat. Nate Dogg)

11. Mmm Mmm ("Bus to Beelzebub," Soul Coughing)

12. Mr. Nasir Jones ("Strangers," Portishead)

13. Bang Bang Blame Blame ("If I Only Had a Brain," MC 900 Ft. Jesus)

14. Fall Around ("Run-Around," Blues Traveler)

15. Little Self Esteem ("Self Esteem," The Offspring)

16. Strongman ("I Alone," Live)

17. Hootie Hoo ("Girls & Boys," Blur)

18. What's The Score? ("Don't Call Me White," NOFX)

19. The Shepherd ("Come Out And Play," The Offspring)