from the cheap seats see us wave to the camera

July 26, 2015 2:17 PM

Sometimes I wanna take you down, sometimes I wanna get you low. 'Cause you're a human supernova. I'm looking for answers from the great beyond. You're older than you've ever been, and now you're even older. Oh, get off the air! I'm on the stereo, stereo. Now check-ch-check-check-check-ch-check it out: It's 90s Bands on TV.

For a slew of prerecorded music videos from the same era/aesthetic, head over to the recently refurbished 120 Minutes Archive (previously, 2010) or the 120 Minutes Tumblr (previouslier, 2007).

posted by divined by radio (29 comments total)

You have given the part of me that likes to get drunk and get nostalgic about music from high school and then repeatedly post links on FB at two in the morning a precious precious gift.
posted by Kitteh at 2:27 PM on July 26, 2015 [23 favorites]

You'd set the VCR to record midnight-2am and the next morning you'd either have an episode of 120 Minutes or reruns of Benson.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:02 PM on July 26, 2015 [11 favorites]

I like this idea in concept, but I think the juxtapositions are not jarring enough:

Suzanne Somers Introduces Wire, "Drill" on the Tonight Show
Husker Du, Live on the Late Show with Joan Rivers
The Flaming Lips Live at 90210's Peach Pit
Baby Jon Stewart Intros the Breeders, "Cannonball"
Iggy and Bowie on Dinah Shore
The Smiths and Sandie Shaw on UK Children Show
"From Los Angeles, live on tape, it's the Dennis Miller Show. Tonight, Senator Al Gore, the Pixies, Donna Dixon..."
The B-52's, "Throw That Beat in the Garbage Can" on Guiding Light
posted by jonp72 at 3:10 PM on July 26, 2015 [14 favorites]

Lifter Puller on the Jenny Jones Show!
posted by divined by radio at 3:12 PM on July 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

it's like you're in my house. i just spent the last hour flipping through 2 tori amos bootlegs that i bought when i was 15 or so (for 30-50 bucks a pop). i feel like i need to put on a plastic choker and a baby doll tee.
posted by nadawi at 3:17 PM on July 26, 2015 [5 favorites]

Out of the 90s, but if we're talking impossible juxtapositions nothing beats Stephin Merritt playing Smile! No Once Cares How You Feel on Good Day Atlanta.
posted by yellowbinder at 4:04 PM on July 26, 2015 [8 favorites]

Once I find Born Against on Sally Jesse Raphael I will win this thread.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:14 PM on July 26, 2015

But also that version of Guitar by TMBG with Branford Marsalis is pretty dope.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:15 PM on July 26, 2015

Kelly Ripa: Let's hear it for Nine Inch Nails! Woo!
posted by griphus at 4:23 PM on July 26, 2015 [4 favorites]

Oh and here's Fear on SNL which got them banned from the show.
posted by griphus at 4:26 PM on July 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

Pere Ubu on the BBC show Roland the Rat.
posted by SansPoint at 4:35 PM on July 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

And, not that odd of a juxtaposition, but still cool, DEVO on Square Pegs.
posted by SansPoint at 4:38 PM on July 26, 2015

God damn Pavement was a great fucking band.
posted by about_time at 4:53 PM on July 26, 2015 [4 favorites]

grumpy and awkard stephin merritt is my favourite.
posted by PinkMoose at 5:21 PM on July 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

I still have a VHS tape with a collection of stuff off the air from 120 min circa 1987-8 one I recall was The Dammed "Alone Again" and The Pressure Boys "Around the World".

It is also the first time I saw "Dear God" By XTC and "Don't Let's Start" by TMBG
posted by boilermonster at 5:25 PM on July 26, 2015

> grumpy and awkard stephin merritt is my favourite.

Is he available in any other flavor?
posted by ardgedee at 5:29 PM on July 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

Pavement's Gold Soundz (cant find one a television show) is a great drinking and/or stoned game to see who can get each time the double beat in the drums occurs best in such a state.

Watching the Smiths with a bunch of school kids all I can wonder is if Andy Rourke shot up before it, to make it bearable.
posted by juiceCake at 5:30 PM on July 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Another not-'90s-but-bizarre-juxtaposition:
Dan Deacon on local morning news in Ohio, 2005(?).
posted by zoinks at 5:52 PM on July 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Once I find Born Against on Sally Jesse Raphael I will win this thread.

Not if I find Syd Barrett-era Floyd on Perry Como first! I think the purported appearance of the Jesus & Mary Chain on the Barbara Mandrell Show is just an urban legend.
posted by jonp72 at 5:59 PM on July 26, 2015

We've all seen this bizarre appearance by (Scum-era?) Napalm Death, right? Featuring a Red Dwarf-era Craig Charles, a children's orchestra, Cliff Richard, comedy astronomer Patrick Moore and... well.. a big bucket of kids TV WTF...
posted by prismatic7 at 6:13 PM on July 26, 2015

We've all seen this bizarre appearance by (Scum-era?) Napalm Death , right? Featuring a Red Dwarf-era Craig Charles, a children's orchestra, Cliff Richard, comedy astronomer Patrick Moore and... well.. a big bucket of kids TV WTF...

Shame about Cliff Richard...
posted by the christopher hundreds at 6:47 PM on July 26, 2015

Not an impossible juxtaposition, but here's Pavement on Space Ghost: Coast to Coast.
posted by teponaztli at 7:28 PM on July 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Kelly Ripa: Let's hear it for Nine Inch Nails! Woo!

FWIW, the ridiculousness of that one wasn't lost on the Reznor camp, who used the audio to close out the "Head Like A Hole" maxi-single.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:26 PM on July 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

Thanks for this. I really miss Liz Phair.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:00 AM on July 27, 2015

As much as I really do sincerely adore everything about '90s-era alternative rock radio and awkward/transcendental talk show performances, I have to cop to the fact that the sole inspiration for this FPP was stumbling across that first linked video and being completely blown away by what a stone fox David Lowery was circa 1993.

He had been my #1 musician crush dating back to the mid-era Camper Van days, but apparently the intervening years made me forget just how lovely he was to behold. It's awesome that he's like an archetypal cantankerous rock dude now, but damn, that video kinda makes me wish I still had a locker so I could put his picture up in there and sigh at it in between classes.
posted by divined by radio at 10:30 AM on July 27, 2015

Holy shit, "The Great Beyond" is, strictly speaking, from the 90s. God damn it, I just aged 15 years in the course of one sentence. (Great post, dbr!)

You have given the part of me that likes to get drunk and get nostalgic about music from high school and then repeatedly post links on FB at two in the morning a precious precious gift.

QFT. My Facebook feed is currently several iterations of "oh, so you didn't like that? Well, now, this is happening."
posted by Zeinab Badawi's Twenty Hotels at 3:09 PM on July 27, 2015

Certainly not to everybody's taste, but Billy Bragg on Australian TV from the early part of the decade fits the bill. I can't work out the year but the fact that he'd changed the lyrics from "DDR" to "USSR" would probably narrow it down. That hat! That hair! Those shirts! I wish someone had told me when I was twelve that this was as cool as I was ever going to get, so that I could have relished it more.
posted by Zeinab Badawi's Twenty Hotels at 3:20 PM on July 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

The grin that Liz Phair gives before (self-censoring?) the "fuck like a volcano" line made me grin right back at her.
posted by desuetude at 10:11 PM on July 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

Halo Benders on Real Stories of the Highway Patrol! (Admittedly not a musical performance.)
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:01 PM on July 28, 2015