The Back-up Plan part 2

Alice In Chains - Dirt
Alice In Chains - Jar Of Flies (One of the best bands of the 90s and also one of the most disappointing. I wasn't into them at the time because I used to not like slow rock music. Basically I couldn't appreciate this sort of stuff until I started getting high. Some bands take drugs and make great music. Some bands take drugs, flame out way faster than they should and fail to live up to their potential. Then years later they re-form with a new singer after their old one dies and I don't listen to them.)


And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Source Tags And Codes
And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - The Secret Of Elena's Tomb
And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Worlds Apart (Source Tags And Codes got a 10.0 rating from Pitchfork, aka the only relevant music publication left. Unfortunately, this was in 2002, before they became the taste-dictating juggernaut that they are today, so the band never got as popular as they should've.
But maybe they never would have been hugely successful anyway. There is an audience for this type of epic, emotional, and artsy rock music, but that doesn't mean it was ever going to be a mainstream one. It doesn't matter much at this point -- they have their sound and they have their fans, and anyone who's still a fan of theirs at this point will probably remain one.)



Another Statistic - 4 song demo (band from Provo that broke up a few years ago. They had a cool, sorta spacey sound, boy/girl dual vocals, and they rocked pretty hard. That's all I really know about them. Here's their myspace.

At The Drive-In - Relationship Of Command (I also have Vaya on CD, but my computer wasn't reading it, so it will remain un-backed-up. Anyway I used to be really into this band, but today their music sounds melodramatic to the point of ridiculousness. It's not that the music sounds any worse -- it's still heavy, melodic and energetic -- I just don't connect with it the way I used to. I'm 27. This is young person music. Nothing wrong with that, but still.)



The Austerity Program - Black Madonna (This band consists of two guys and a drum machine playing long, very technically structured songs that sometimes feature vocals. They seem to have a thing for economics, given their name and the slogan on their Web site -- "Too Big To Fail", long before those words became a cliche because of 2008's tremendous financial disaster. Listening to them is like turning the crank on an evil toy Jack-in-the-box, hearing the buildup music go around and around until suddenly, a riff pops out (or not). None of the songs from this album are on Youtube, so here's their myspace.

Bad Religion - Suffer (I loved this band when I was 15, when I was at the height of my punk phase. This album still kicks pretty hard, because the songs are mostly shorter than 2 minutes and the melodies are superfun to sing.)