’90s Nostalgia
Dave Holmes on Rediscovering the Lost ’90s for His Waiting for Impact Podcast
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | Radio Public | RSS Dave Holmes sits down with Kyle Meredith to talk about his new podcast, Waiting for Impact, which tells the story of ’90s group Sudden Impact, who disappeared after making an appearance in Boyz II Men’s “Motownphilly” video. Related Video The former MTV VJ discusses lost pop cultures of the past, pop music’s need for weirdness, the monoculture of the ’90s, Soundscan’s impact on the music industry, and how our collective perception of certain eras tend to leave out much of the reality of the time. He goes on to dive into Sudden Impact’s brushes with fame and how we define success in the present and in hindsight, the importance ...
Rage Against the Machine’s Evil Empire Still Burns with Indignation 25 Years Later
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-16T21:10:08+00:00“>April 16, 2021 | 5:10pm ET Editor’s Note: Rage Against the Machine’s Evil Empire came out 25 years ago this week. Contributing writer Robert Dean looks back at how the album not only stirred his social conscience as a teenager but also how the music’s messages and, dare we say, rage feel as powerful and poignant as ever a quarter-century later. When you’re 15, there’s a ton of developmental burden. You take things at face value. There’s subtext everywhere and within everything – all of the time. Fifteen-year-olds are walking sponges. They feel things. When we were that young, we poured over lyrics, read into a band’s value system, and adopted their morals and i...
The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers Is Quacktastic: Review
The Pitch: “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain” as Harvey Dent said all those years ago. Well, the Mighty Ducks were never going to die, and they’ve since flipped the coin. Now, they’re the powerhouse team in the Twin Cities region, no different than Coach Reilly’s Hawks back in the early ’90s, and they’re in it to win it. That’s bad news for young Evan (Brady Noon), who’s cut from the Ducks for not being good enough. Seeing her son defeated and humiliated, Evan’s mother Alex (Lauren Graham) rallies around the kid to form a new team of underducks. Though, as we learned through three Mighty Ducks flicks, it takes more than skates and speeches to start flying together. Cobra Quack: It was only a matter of time before we’d see another franchise follo...
10 Riot Grrrl Albums Every Music Fan Should Own
Editor’s Note: Crate Digging is a recurring feature in which we take a deep dive into a genre and turn up several albums all music fans should know about. This time, we celebrate Women’s History Month with a deep dig into the riot grrrl genre. Emerging from the deep forests of The Pacific Northwest, riot grrrl was a rasping rallying cry at a time when gender norms weighed heavily on the mosh pits and politics imposed itself dangerously on ovaries and queerness. With punk legends like Patti Smith and The Slits preceding them, the emerging DIY feminist punk movement of the ’90s brought with it grievances of the third wavers. Faced with no space in the existing punk-rock scene, attention was turned to tackling sexism and carving out a new underground alternative. A movement of rioting gi...
Kid 90 Is A Personal Portrait of ’90s Teen Celebrity: Review
The Pitch: Comprised almost entirely of home video tapes, audio recordings, and journal entries — interspersed with interviews conducted in the present day — ’90s child star Soleil Moon Frye reflects on her star-studded upbringing in Hollywood and grapples with the nature of growing up in front of the camera as she unearths firsthand accounts of stardom from her youth. Teen Idol: At the risk of speaking too soon, 2021 seems like the year of documentaries about young women growing up in the spotlight. There was Framing Britney Spears, Billie Eilish’s The World’s a Little Blurry, and now kid 90. Though they have the same subject matter, they each tackle coming-of-age for young women in the limelight through three drastically different points of view. Kid 90, crucially, is directed by Frye he...
10 Artists Worth Bringing Back VH1 Storytellers For
Kendrick Lamar photo by Amy Price; St. Vincent photo by David Brendan Hall; Janelle Monáe photo by Philip Cosores VH1 Storytellers was such a cool show. It borrowed the idea of MTV Unplugged — a hugely popular act performing a stripped-down set in front of an intimate audience — and took it one step further. Audiences could see and hear artists in a more relaxed setting, dishing on their careers and telling stories about creating the songs we know and love. Storytellers first aired 25 years ago in late February 1996; Kinks mastermind Ray Davies was the first performer. It ran for 97 more episodes, the last starring Ed Sheeran in 2015. In between, there was a veritable Who’s Who of talent, from classic rock gods like David Bowie and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to ‘90s stars like Pearl ...
10 Happy Gilmore Quotes You Probably Say All the Time
Adam Sandler hit a hole in one with Happy Gilmore. The blockbuster sports comedy completely changed the game for the Saturday Night Live comic, extending his appeal well beyond the bratty teens who were already quoting his albums and sketches. Now, Sandler was winning over their parents. Blame it on golf, or Bob Barker, or the ‘70s-fueled soundtrack, but the film was the rare ubiquitous hit for the comedy genre. Everybody saw it, everybody quoted it, and everybody wanted more of Sandler. Not much has changed in the 25 years since its release. Sandler remains a hot commodity, continuing to fascinate us in the most surprising ways (see: 2019’s Uncut Gems), and Happy Gilmore is still one of the most rewatchable and quotable comedies. Editors’ Picks So quotable that it’s almost become a ...
Happy Gilmore’s Shooter McGavin Is the Perfect Comedy Villain
Editor’s Note: This op-ed originally ran in 2016 for the 20th anniversary of Happy Gilmore. Today, we’ve dusted it off for the 25th anniversary of the Adam Sandler blockbuster. So, grab your clubs, your gold jacket, and meet us in the sand. Happy Gilmore is basically perfect. Disagree with me? That’s your right, but I’m going to stab you with this skate. There’s a lot that makes Happy Gilmore, Adam Sandler’s 1996 golf-idiot-savant comedy, so wonderful. Part of it is that it’s almost gleefully simple: failed hockey player discovers that his lousy slap shot could be good for golf and uses his newfound power to save Grandma’s house in a battle of homegrown hero versus rich prick. Part of it is that it’s just funny, made before Sandler started to exhaust his schlumpy charms. But more than anyt...
All Eyez on Me Captured 2Pac’s Last Moments of Peace
Editor’s Note: 2Pac’s All Eyez on Me originally dropped on February 13th, 1996. The double-album, the last record released while 2Pac was still alive, would go on to change the rap game forever. To celebrate the record’s 25th anniversary, Jayson Buford takes a look back at the album’s indelible legacy. In October 1995, Death Row Records boss Suge Knight paid the $1.4 million bail that was on the head of rap superstar Tupac Amaru Shakur, whose name had increasingly been in the papers for both his talent and troubles. Shakur was serving a sentence of up to four years for sexual assault, a crime that he maintained he did not commit. Alongside that black mark on his reputation, the night before the judge announced the verdict to the world, back in November 1994, 2Pac was shot outside of Quad S...
Oasis Classic “Wonderwall” Becomes First ’90s Song to Hit One Billion Streams
Today is gonna be the day that… Oasis enter the history books. The British rock group’s anthemic “Wonderwall” has just become the first ’90s song to hit one billion streams on Spotify. The momentous milestone comes as the single, as well as the classic album on which it appears, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, celebrates its 25th anniversary. “Wonderwall” was originally released on October 30th, 1995 as the third single from (What’s the Story). Written by Noel Gallagher, it’s said to describe “an imaginary friend who’s gonna come and save you from yourself.” The song has gone on to become one of — if not the — most popular in the entire Oasis catalog, and has even spawned its own meme. Its corresponding music video is also Oasis’ most viewed. At the 1997 Grammys, “Wonderwall” earned the...
Seinfeld’s Newman Slams Trump and Defends Post Office in New PSA: Watch
You know Donald Trump is bad news when even Newman hates the guy. In a new ad commissioned by PACRONYM, a Democratic super PAC, Wayne Knight reprises his iconic Seinfeld role to defend the US Postal Service and offer his two cents on the 2020 Election. “According to this month-old issue of Dr. Roberta Greenburg’s Time magazine subscription, there’s been a systematic, premeditated assault on the U.S. mail by President Trump and his so-called Postmaster General,” Newman says while casually flipping through someone’s mail as he’s wont to do. He coyly adds, “That guy’s never even licked a stamp.” The ad was written by former Seinfeld scribe and producer David Mandel, who knows a thing or two about politics given that he most recently served as a showrunner for HBO’s most astute political ...
Father of the Bride Cast to Reunite for Netflix “Sequel”
Get ready to spend the weekend with the Banks. On Friday, Netflix, Facebook, and YouTube will host a reunion with the cast of Father of the Bride for a special charity event to benefit World Central Kitchen. In anticipation, they’ve dropped two teaser trailers that suggest we’re in for a very fun and very crowded video call. How crowded? Well, according to the credits in the second trailer, we’ll be seeing Steve Martin, aka George Banks; Diane Keaton, aka Nina Banks; Kimberly Williams-Paisley, aka Annie Banks-MacKenzie; Kieran Culkin, aka Matty Banks; George Newbern, aka Bryan MacKenzie; and, yes, Martin Short, aka Franck Eggelhoffer. As for the occasion, it’s possible we’ll be seeing Father of the Groom. In the first teaser, we see George (Martin) sorting through his e-mail — gotta love t...
