Modern Rock Tracks, 4/6/96

By Wm. on April 27, 2026

This is three weeks late in coming out, so I’ll keep the personal stuff from this period brief. After becoming formally engaged in early February, Martha and I began in earnest the sprint to get everything together for a summer wedding: date set for July, church sanctuary in Georgetown and reception site in Lexington reserved (maybe it was because we were getting married on the 13th of the month that there was still an opening on such short notice?), ordering invitations, searching for a dress, confirming the wedding party, finding someone to make the cake… I’m getting exhausted just thinking about it now, so I’ll get on with the show.

38. Ammonia, “Drugs”
Always glad to discover melodic, grungy pop. This Australian quartet didn’t survive the 90s as a band, and “Drugs” was the only dent they ever made on MRT.

33. Cowboy Junkies, “A Common Disaster”
It’s quite possibly been almost thirty years since I’ve heard this slinky slice of CanCon. The Junkies continue to record and perform, and, based on this 2019 performance of “A Common Disaster,” I don’t think they’ve lost a step.

24. Dog’s Eye View, “Everything Falls Apart”
Catchy song for sure, but it gets a million demerits for “shoot first, apologize later” and lead singer Peter Stuart’s wink-and-nod in the video accompanying that line.

22. Ruby, “Tiny Meat”
Two bands with Scottish female vocalists up now–Lesley Rankine here, and of course the inimitable Shirley Manson next. “Tiny Meat” is new to me as far as I remember but it’s definitely within range of my wheelhouse.

18. Garbage, “Only Happy When It Rains”
That spring I was getting close to wrapping up my fourth year of employment, and as the end-of-semester crunch approached, I’d spend the occasional evening grading at school, either in my office or in the physics lab across the hall. I recall a Sunday night or two tuning into the somewhat lame alternative Lexington station, where they were featuring a syndicated “countdown” show called Out of Order. The hook was, while they’d give you the skinny on that week’s top 20 tunes in alterna-land, they wouldn’t play them from #20 to #1, hence the show’s title. You’d think this would hold great appeal for me but I didn’t go out of my way to listen regularly. Anyway, songs like “Only Happy When It Rains,” #5 below, and the fabulous “Ladykillers” from Lush (to be recalled fondly in June’s installment) remind me of the few times I did check the show out. (Apparently it’s still chugging along, too.)

I’d rank this at #1 among the songs featured in this post. It had never occurred to me before, but I got Art of Noise “Close (to the Edit)” vibes re-watching this video last night.

16. Jars of Clay, “Flood”
Among the four one-time-MRT-charting acts this go-round, Christian rockers Jars of Clay has to be the most unlikely to be here. But great songs often win out, and “Flood” was certainly worthy of the attention it garnered outside of the box to which such music is usually restricted.

14. Gin Blossoms, “Follow You Down”
Good stuff, even if not at the same level as what we heard on New Miserable Experience. Fun mid-90s Hot 100 chart action: debuted at #12 in mid-February, made #9 a month later where it stayed for four weeks, then wound up ultimately having a 46-week run.

5. Spacehog, “In the Meantime”
Another fave from the moment, though the vid doesn’t do much for me. They were one-hit wonders on this side of the pond, reaching #32 on the Hot 100. One piece of trivia I picked up in reading up on Spacehog is that vocalist Royston Langdon (who I confess looks kinda strung out in the clip) was Mr. Liv Tyler for a few years in the Oughts.

4. Alanis Morissette, “Ironic”
There’s nothing new to say about “Ironic”–just didn’t want to ignore its presence. It was #1 on the previous week’s chart.

3. Foo Fighters, “Big Me”
Not a ‘big’ Foo fan by any means, but I’d venture a guess it’s between this and “Times Like These” as to which of their songs I like best.

2. Stone Temple Pilots, “Big Bang Baby”
Think I’ve featured STP more in this series than any of the other bands to emerge from the grunge morass; I definitely have a soft spot for many of their more popular tunes. Just seems like maybe they grew and evolved a bit more than their contemporaries?

1. Oasis, “Champagne Supernova”
Last time out, I heaped praise upon “Wonderwall.” Two months later, and I’m almost ready to consider myself done with the band. Go figure.