The REAL Best Of The Nineties.

People always bang on about how Oasis and Blur were the best Britpop bands to come out of the nineties. But, as most of us know, that is bollocks. Here is my small list of bands of the nineties that I like more than Blur and a hell of a lot more than Oasis.

PULP
Some say that Pulp were third in the race for Britpop domination, I believe that they are not appreciated as much as they should be, or as they should be. Jarvis and the gang did not only produce catchy tunes that would dance around your head for a few weeks after your trip to the indie disco, the lyrics had something. The difference between Pulp and your average indie tribe is that Mr Cocker thoughts about the lyrics, and in fact based a hell of a lot of the songs on things that had happened to him. Disco 2000 being about a girl that he fancied at school but had no chance with, Common People about a well-off girl that he met in art college, who had been conned by the glamourisation of working class culture into wanting to be a bit rough and poor like everyone else etc.. etc.

Of course those are only the singles that people always say are Pulp's best. They arguably are, though really... they are just the most popular.

I say that people watch the equally danceable Razzmatazz , the spine tingling Do You Remember The First Time? , and the epic This Is Hardcore (even if just to play "Spot Lolly!" Yes, THE Lolly. She actually acts in this video.)

SUEDE
See, I don't know a hell of a lot about Suede, but what I do know is that people often seem to neglect them when making a little list of Britpop folk. Well, I won't. Suede produce great British glam for us all to flail and jig about to. I recently rediscovered Suede by buying a compilation I used to have on tape back in '96 and used to love... without knowing who any of the bands were. Turns out one of them was Suede, and the song was Trash. Brett Anderson's vocals kind of, shoot right through you, listening to this song, and yet you can't help but find yourself bobbing your head and lip syncing to the chorus, perhaps even having a bit of a dance.

I don't really like them as much as Pulp mind, but the songs are worth checking out. Even if you do have to watch the video, which are also a bit crap. Here's Trash.

DUBSTAR
Rediscovered from the same Smash Hits compilation album, Dubstar are great. Well, not really, I found one track from their later album which I liked called I'm Conscious Of Myself which really doesn't sound like proper Dubstar at all. So when I was listening to that compilation, I was wondering what that haunting song with the women's vocals was, it was Dubstar's Stars. It seems that Dubstar are better when they sound like Saint Etienne, who people say are better but I don't know, because i've never really listened to them.

Anyway, Stars was in absolutely no doubt, Dubstar's best song. Strangely enough, Stars didn't do particularly well despite lots of promotion, and instead they had a bigger break with the inferior (in my opinion) Not So Manic Now.

Please have a glance at Stars and try to look up the rather good Anywhere which kind of sounds like Ace Of Base, but doesn't... if you get my meaning.

And finally:
KENICKIE
I've known about Kenickie for a while now, but unlike all the bands I have mentioned previously, they completely passed me by back in the 90s when I was all 5ive and 911. I decided to check out Kenickie the minute I heard that the FABULOUS Lauren Laverne had been in a band. They were either Proper party-going, working class lyrics over crunchy guitars, in the case of album At The Club or calmed-down Summer pop fun which featured heavily on their second album Get In.

I find it very sad that the band have now split up completely and none of the band will talk to Lauren anymore. But have a bask in the glory of Kenickie by watching the video for In Your Car , a good example of first album Kenickie, and I Would Fix You which is an example of Kenickie from the second album.

And if you like those (or don't), check out the video for the Summer classic that never was, Don't Falter, by Mint Royale and Lauren Laverne.

Whose idea was it to release it in January? Pah!