This is a mildly amusing and very ’90s vignette film about a New Year’s Eve party in 1981. It features a number of famous and ’90s famous actors (and a couple of musicians). It’s one of those talky ’90s films that almost feels stagey except that it is (partially) location-shot.
Tag: 1999
Survivor (1999) by Chuck Palahniuk
Sometime in my early 20s I read Haunted, Palahniuk’s creative short story collection, and I fell in love. I had already seen Fight Club and enjoyed it, but Haunted felt to me like a really unique and fun way to present short stories, and I guess I felt like I discovered a singular voice for our time, or something stupidly …
Trainwreck [aka Clusterfuck]: Woodstock ’99
I think Jenn and I both thought his was the HBO documentary Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage. But instead it’s a mini series. It seems like some of the interviewees might have been in both, which sort of makes me want to watch the film, too.
Sports Night (1998)
We watched the first season of this show a month ago now, but I didn’t write the review until today because it’s only this week that I finally committed to giving up on the show. So I’m slightly concerned that I won’t remember everything I thought about it when we first began watching it back …
Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999, Michael Patrick Jann)
This is very dark, quirky mockumentary, a little like Christopher Guest with way more murder and no interviews. It’s super oddly paced, and it some of the humour hasn’t dated super well, but I kind of admire its mean spirit and how it stands apart from the Christopher Guest school.
Spaced (1999)
So I must say I knew nothing about this. I actually thought it was a science fiction comedy. So, I really knew nothing about it.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)
When I was younger and had recently fallen in love with serialized TV dramas, I had this idea that I was going to write a book about the antecedents of the Golden Age of Television. (At first this was going to be about the Golden Age of Television, but that book already exists.) This book …
Kaleidoscope (1999) by Kelis
I remember when I first heard “Caught Out There”. I didn’t swear at the time, but imagine it was the polite equivalent of “What the fuck?!?” And I’m sorry to say that was basically the last time I thought about Kelis (whose name I thought was pronounced “Kell Es”). And listening to this record, that …
Midnite Vultures (1999) by Beck
I really like Beck. You might say I love Beck, or at least Beck’s mainstream records from ’90s and early ’00s. (I have slowly become less of a fan, over the years.) And I’d like to think I also really enjoy listening to musicians I enjoy having a great time, though I don’t know if …
When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He’ll Win the Whole Thing ‘fore He Enters the Ring There’s No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might so When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won’t Matter, Cuz You’ll Know That You’re Right (1999) by Fiona Apple
I could have sworn to you that I had heard this record before; I thought I had heard all of hers. But I went to check my old review and there was no review nor any rating. And that begs a question: did I listen to this and forget to review and or even rate …
There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999) by Foo Fighters
I have written on many occasions that post-grunge is one of the few genres I hate as a whole genre, which is nothing I normally do. (I generally believe there are no “bad genres” but there are a few ’90s genres which make me want to reconsider that.) The Foo Fighters are more “rock” than …
Rainbow (1999) by Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey might be the best female pop singer of all time, if we go by technical ability. (I say ‘female’ not to perpetuate gender divisions but only to distinguish her from the man I consider the greatest popular music vocalist in history, who is not female.) It’s this record that has brought me to …
Emergency & I (1999) by The Dismemberment Plan
Now this is right up my alley: indie rock that veers into post hardcore on occasion and also gets mathy.
Still Life (1999) by Opeth
Guys, I think I don’t like Opeth.
Calculating Infinity (1999) by The Dillinger Escape Plan
I came into this fully expecting to say it’s the “birth of mathcore”. But a little bit of research suggests that many bands had been making music at least somewhat similar to this for a little while, perhaps even years. I don’t know any of those bands, basically, so I have no idea how many …
Fly (1999) by Dixie Chicks
This is my second Dixie Chicks album and I feel like I just basically feel the same way about it. That’s a frustrating experience for me because I feel like I should have some kind of new take. Moreover, given the general feelings of fans that this is (slightly?) inferior to Wide Open Spaces, I …
The Writing’s on the Wall (1999) by Destiny’s Child
I was born on the same day as Beyonce. She’s the celebrity I always go to when that social media game about sharing celebrity birthdays comes up. But I only bring it up in regard to this album because, though I generally do not believe in any conspiracy theories, the album cover for this record …
On How Life Is (1999) by Macy Gray
I was not exactly paying attention to soul in the 1990s, so to the extent I was aware of Macy Gray it was entirely due to “I Try” being on video channels and the radio a lot. I had started reading contemporary reviews at least a little bit by this time and I remember positive …
Slipknot (1999)
I just finished listening to Significant Other so, if my praise seems excessive, keep in mind that it is relative praise.
Significant Other (1999) by Limp Bizkit
What does it say about your band when a lounge parody medley of your songs is better than your original songs? I don’t care that the music was created by a keyboard, I will take Richard Cheese’s “Nookie / Break Stuff” over the originals every day; the music is better and it shows that Durst’s …
The Beta Band (1999)
Sometimes you encounter something you don’t know at all and it just stuns you with something special about itself. In this case, it’s the irreverence and the extremely healthy disrespect for genres (which I’m a sucker for) of something like the lead-off track, “The Beta Band Rap”, which I just can’t get over. It takes …
Supernatural (1999) by Santana
When this record came out I was just starting to get into the less popular ’60s bands. I was familiar with Santana’s biggest songs from that era, but not their albums. I would get their a few years later and listening to those albums would confirm my impression of this record’s hits: this was a …
Astro Lounge (1999) by Smash Mouth
Like, what even is Smash Mouth?
Californication (1999) by Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Scar Tissue” was everywhere in the summer of 1999. The radio was always on at my work and so the song was always on. I fell in love with a girl at my work who loved “Scar Tissue.” And so I found myself torn between my love for this girl, who would sing along to …
Enema of the State (1999) by Blink-182
This record, or, rather, its videos, were everywhere in my final year of high school. Because at least one of them made fun of Boy Bands, I generally laughed along. (Also, I was 18!) I remember thinking they were a harmless jokey band, and at least they had a sense of humour and made fun …
Millennium (1999) by Backstreet Boys
I hated the Backstreet Boys as a teenager – they representative everything I thought was wrong with modern music because they didn’t write their own music, they didn’t play any instruments, they produced music that seemed like pablum, they were successful in part because of their looks, and they seemed to have no agency because …
Play (1999) by Moby
Every few years prior to the internet era – sometimes even every year – there would be an inexplicable hit record, which just sold so damn much without any sense, ahead of time, that the record would sell. Years later these records are often embarrassing. The classic record of the ’90s is Cracked Rear View …
Times of Grace (1999) by Neurosis
I gave very high marks to Through Silver in Blood not necessarily because I liked it but because it felt, to me, like the beginning of post metal, and like the kind of thing metal bands make now (or at least recently) rather than the kind of thing bands were making in the mid ’90s. …
Implode (1999) by Front Line Assembly
I just finished listening to KMFDM’s Adios, another band that operates on the spectrum between industrial music and electronica. (Though apparently these guys have existed longer, which is funny because I had never heard of them but had heard plenty about KMFDM.) As is often the case when I listen to two vaguely similar records …
The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner (1999) by Ben Folds Five
For most of my adult life I’ve been only vaguely aware of Ben Folds and his band. I think he had a hit or two I heard of and many years ago I managed to listen to their reunion album but it apparently made no impression on me. Despite sort of bemoaning the death of …