The alternative scene of the '90s reached its final endpoint in 2001 with The Calling: The teen idol grunge band. (Support Todd on Patreon! / toddintheshadows )
Being subjected to Pearl Jam is one of the most savage aural *assaults*. Maybe I'm a little bit more jaundiced, having been born and raised in the shadow of Seattle - I prefer the equally legendary bands of my birthplace of Tacoma - the Sonics, The Wailers, The Ventures...
One of my favorite interviews I've ever watched: this guy is interviewing Scott Stapp from Creed and he says "you know a lot of people have accused you of copying Eddie Vedder's vocal style". To which Stapp responds "yeah I hear that a lot, it's just because we're both tenors" Newsflash Scott, you can be a tenor and sound nothing like Eddie Vedder
For the record, Hootie and the Blowfish aren't singing about literal dolphins, they're singing about the Miami Dolphins so it isn't that weird of a lyric and if anything makes them sound like even more of a bar band.
That was back in the Marino days, when they at least consistently made the playoffs. Can't imagine how Darius felt about the crappy mid-2000s Dolphins.
@@hiimemily Dolphins haven't won a playoff game since the year 2000. So your comment should be.... I wonder how Darius Rucker feels about the crappy 21st century Dolphins. I
@@littlekingtrashmouth9219The "boyband" versions of Emo bands would be those lame ass bands fronted by pretty boys like Escape the Fate or Pierce the Veil, where the GOOD Emo bands would be Thursday, From First to Last, Coheed & Cambria, Beneath the Sky, etc. Ever heard a song called 7861? THAT is some good Emo music.
That idea's not too far off from some of the early concept art for Breath of The Wild. They had him in jeans, fingerless gloves, a track jacket, and this weird green striped Santa hat. Gave him a chopper and sick guitar.
Okay so I got a story involving this band. For context, I live in an irrelevant Brazilian city of 500k people. It may sound big, but it's merely the 35th city by population in the country. We get absolutely no notable musical events. The most we get are national acts. International acts only go through Rio and São Paulo mostly. A few years back a big event started to be advertised. They were hyping it up because an INTERNATIONAL band would be performing, but they left who it would be a mystery. Buzz all around about who would perform. It was The Calling. And Sean Kingston.
i remember buying a best of creed album in a gas station and trying to find this song on it just to annoy my friends, but i had no idea it wasnt creed, so i listened to an entire creed album for nothing.
For real! I wasn't watching when this started playing and i was like "what?! I thought With Arms Wide Open woulda been their big hit! I had no idea it wasnt Creed
This is one of those songs that is perfectly fine as generic filler on a rock station where it is good enough to not change the channel but also not something you'd turn the volume up on.
We've all been waiting on that All The Things She Said by t.A.T.u episode, there's SO much history behind that group and that song it would make for a hell of a OHW.
They were pretty big thing around half the Europe back then. I don' t consider them OHW. All the thing she said wasn' t even their first big hit. That was Nas nedogonyat.
Wait...that boy's dad was behind Puppet Master? That's a bigger deal than I think Todd thinks it does. XD Not calling the series classic, but BOY it has a following out the ass, even now.
Technically, their debut album, "Camino Palmero," was actually a hit, mostly due to this song obviously, and managed to sell some decent numbers. Their follow-up album, "Two," was the one that was a flop, since none of the songs managed to achieve a similar level of success as that previous hit.
Goodness, thank you! :D When Todd never made a joke about this guitarist LITERALLY being Jon Snow, I wondered if I was just seein' things! XD But looks like I'm not alone there.
i've watched this review so many times i just really love the way todd eventually gives into the song he hates so much and says "...and yet there's something about it, isnt there?"
I believe "the guy from The Strokes whose dad was a big music mogul" is probably Albert Hammond, Jr., whose father, Albert Hammond, besides being a 70's one-hit wonder himself ("It Never Rains in Southern California"), was a big, big songwriter and producer in both the English and Spanish pop markets. His writing credits include "The Air That I Breathe", "When I Need You", "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now", "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" , "Don't Turn Around", and "One Moment In Time", so he definitely had some big time connections.
Wow, i am a strokes fan, and i never knew this bit about Albert's dad. Guess all the news were about Jules because he was a frontman and the face of the band. Also, i bet each The Strokes member had some kind of connections, cause there all were rich privileged kids growing up
You got it backwards, though: the narrator is the one who's going to die. He's worried about it. either because he's terminal or just generally anxious about the thought. But the song is about the stress of not being able to protect her after he is taken away from her against his will. So the video's visual is her dealing with that loss and getting his name tattooed and trying to get on with her life alone. It's honestly pretty touching from that angle.
I literally took it as the narrator is the father of a young child and was comforting her about his death, like I'll always be with you so don't worry not necessarily a terminal father but like maybe a dad of a young kid who's been shaken by the death of someone else so began 'wonderin' what happens to her when he dies Would at least be a good song for a life insurance ad
@@tegantalks9612 I'm surprised Todd didn't bring that up. I remember this as a 9/11 song, specifically. I guess that's why I don't hate it. I know it sucks but it seemed to capture a great loss, while still a need to feel hope. I don't know.
I didn't know the Band family legacy of mediocre-yet-profitable crap had gone into its third generation. Charles Band's own father, Albert, was making B-movies well before anyone had even thought of doing multiple direct-to-video horror franchises based on tiny creatures and/or Tim Thomerson.
Let’s be honest, Wherever You Will Go got really big because of 9/11. It was the perfect sentimental song for that time when people were processing the loss and coming to terms with a national tragedy. It came on the charts in May 2001 but appeared to have a spike in the weeks following 9/11.
@@joshthefunkdoc I’m just surprised it took Todd 17 years to realize this song was about loss. I was 7 when this song came out and I’ve always known it was about death and loss lol
I will not have anything bad said about Frogstomp. Their best song, Freak, is beautifully grungy and is an absolute banger. Just don’t mention anthem for the year 2000.
@@iamamlaar I can listen to Freak(the song), but it's really derivative. The "Body and Soul" part is straight up stolen from Nirvana (Dumb, I think the name is. Remedy by Seether stole the same bit.) The verse is similar to Helmet in guitar tone, notes, and rhythm. Regardless, Frogstomp is hard as hell. Israel's son, Madman, Tomorrow, Leave Me Out, and fucking Pure Massacre... A popular Silverchair guitar technique is adding the barred 6th string to their A string power chords. It adds bass and makes them sound like a tank. If you play their songs without it, it sounds close, but something is very obviously missing.
They were really great live. I saw them at a bar in BrisVegas when they were still Innocent Criminals. They really got the crowd going and the place was jammed. It was also the first time I was ever felt up by a lesbian in a peach taffeta ballgown, but that's another story.
@@celinahatton2653 When was the 2nd time you were felt up by a lesbian in a peach taffeta ball gown? That's too specific to be just an accident. You may be a stalking victim of some weird Mario 2 cult.
@@CNNBlackmailSupport it was the 90s. There was still a lot of leftover 80s peach taffeta lurking in 2nd hand stores, so getting felt up by more than one person with a predilection for that sort of outfit was not as challenging as you might think.
You actually had me for a second with the "youve probably seen some full moon studios movies such as..." because I grew up with full moon movies, i probably saw literally everything they produced in the 80s and 90s because my dad was OBSESSED. Lotsa dumb fun horror, so when you're naming puppet master and demonic toys i was like "WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH! Full moon went mainstream at some point?! It it FINALLY happening where my incidental obscure tastes are going mainstream and because of that I might stand a chance at success as an artist in this world?!?!" ...and then you mentioned gingerdead man and I realised that you were taking the piss 💯💔🥀
Yes, Alex Band as a solo act seems tailor made for Twilight. Except that Twilight had some shockingly good music, the movie soundtracks were all Bon Iver & St Vincent, Beck & Bat For Lashes, Radiohead, Florence + The Machine.
I had a recurring joke when does movies came out, I looked at the soundtrack track lists and inmediately told my friends "If anybody cared to make their job in this movie, and was good at it, was whoever choose the songs that were going in this cds... that and whoever dressed the bad vampires in the first movie" (I am competel serious)
All four of the soundtracks are staggeringly good. I still go back and listen to them semi-regularly. Seriously, the best thing to come out of any Twilight related media was the soundtracks.
I also expect myself to transition to that Dear Evan Hansen song, "You Will Be Found" Y'know, "even when the dark comes crashing through..." - has the same four chords.
If late 10's rock is the soundtrack for commercials, then early 00's rock was the soundtrack for a million airport montage scenes at the end of terrible mid-00's movies made by 40-something directors.
I had always assumed that the viewpoint character in "Wherever You Will Go" was dying, and knew the girl he loves was going to be grieving him, and wanted to know she'd have love in her life after he was gone, rather than pining after him and denying herself happiness.
I believe I have never heard this song before watching this, and that is what I got from it almost immediately even though I hadn't heard the complete lyrics. I was puzzled why Todd was thinking it was about a breakup.
@@charlesclark3840 It's probably because the video was about a breakup. I knew this song well before I ever saw the video and I would've never come to that conclusion.
Speaking of Nickelback, Todd should check out “Wasting My Time” by default, who IIRC were managed and/or produced by Chad Kroeger on their one and only album.
Stormy Kopa No, that was the name of their single; their band name was, no shit, Default. The most generic name for a generic band popular for a generic rock song.
Hey Todd, one small bit of trivia for this song; this song almost became the theme song for the Star Trek show Enterprise. But in thr end the studio went with a more generic pop song (No Todd, I'm not joking)
This went big because it came out in 2001, when judging anything around that time you have to remember what kind of music became big after September 11th. UPN already using this song in every Enterprise ad (so much so I thought it was going to be the theme, and years later forgot it wasn't). So yeah a song about leaving a love one behind that's going to be big, when we have military shipping out to Afghanistan. It was sentimental at the right time and already in everyone's ear, like that damn Enya song. Most people who heard it on the radio didn't even know what the band looked like.
I just gotta say, I love how rewatchable your content is. You have such a neat way of explaining the backstory, the reasoning behind your opinions and whatnot and its so fun to watch. I may not agree on some of your opinions, but your personality, your comedy and your knowledge and research makes them just a compelling. Never stop doing what you do!
Todd, you hate how he looks because he's so clean compared to early grunge, late rock. He looks like he washes his hair every 12 minutes and shaved two seconds before he went on stage. Perfect make-up, brand name "distressed" clothes. The comparison to Hanson is perfect, he looks like an eight-year-old who has been dressed up by his parents for a talent pagent.
@@henrycurtis3652 overdone eyebrows were par of the course in the 2000s XD Normally in women but I am sure many men did and told nobody about it and became a eyebrow edition of "don't ask don't tell"
My dad has been reliably singing this song for years now. Seriously, he’s had this on his regular karaoke lineup from my birth to today. In fact, he just sung it a few weeks ago he love it so much.
Eh Frogstomp and Freak Show are very much products of their time and the lead singer is a bit embarrased by them and considers Neon Ballroom to be their first album that they're proud of.
What ya gonna do fly 26 hours to a foreign country to die in a hail of gunfire because you know we have rifle trees by they grove and streams of ammunition and gasoline along side every street and we're all road rage psychos....better bring you an army of drop bears and a suit case of tinnies
The lead single from their second album was the song my middle school class used for our graduation to high school. That’s how impressive it was: a bunch of 8th graders said “Yeah, these ARE the years of our lives.”
Not gonna lie. I love this damn song. Always have, never actually looked into it but it was always on when I was a kid and it was on a rock CD compilation commercial I used to love.
I've never considered Natalie Imbruglia to be a one-hit wonder. She did have a couple more airplay songs off of her debut album, but Torn is about the only song of hers I can't stand.
OH! These were the guys that were parodied on MAD TV: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Et63XsMZJas.html That's... literally the only way I remember these guys: being called out for ripping off other people's styles.
16:54 "one of the few songs where Chad dials it back and doesn't sound so terrifying" being said as Alex Band flies through the air on the last word makes me lose my shit inexplicably.
I seriously thought that Todd was fucking with all of us with those movie trailers, but they're all real! Goddamn it, those movies exist! I can't stop laughing! There's even a crossover movie with The Evil Bong vs. Gingerdead Man.
It's funny, I know Todd corrected himself on what the song was about, but even as a kid I never saw this as a love song. I always loved it because it made me think of a parent singing this to their child. That 90's Vedder style of singing makes you think the singer is way older and more experienced than he actually is.
I remember when I listened to Adrianne the first time and thought "hey, you know what? the best part of this song is the ending, where the band just seems to be jamming out". it still is the best part of that song.
Ill be honest, when you mentioned he had a minor hit named "tonight," I expected Hot Chelle Rae to start playing and find out he was the bassist or something
First, while I recalled the song, I was definitely on Team Thought That Was by Creed. Shows how much attention I paid to the Adult Alternative acts by then. Second, I remember the abduction story, and happen to live about 30 miles from Lapeer, Michigan, where he was dumped. After seeing details of his life and career, I can't stop thinking about what was going through his head right then. Just so people can get their heads around it, Lapeer is the county seat of rural Lapeer County, up in the Thumb region of Michigan. While it is only maybe an hour north of Detroit, it's part of a mini-peninsula of its own, so it's literally on the way to nowhere, and has a population of around 9,000, at the most. This guy, who grew up in a privileged neighborhood of L.A. and had a Top 5 single when he was only 20 finds himself abducted, and then dumped by some train tracks in a backwater town in farm country just 12 years later, must have had a serious case of What Have I Done With My Life syndrome.
I remember this song from the commercial for Star Trek Enterprise. But, tbh, I’d heard it on the radio LONG before that, and I still unironically love the album
Silverchair started to go prog on Neon Ballroom and completed the transition on Diorama They went to straight-up fun art rock like Roxy Music on Young Modern, though half of the album maintained the prog aesthetic I wanted to hear what they were gonna do next - what if we got the Here Comes the Warm Jets of Australian post-grunge
They started good on frogstomp then one or two good songs on freak show then the next 3 complete fucking shit then Daniel sold out and made shitty dub step then Daniel got high on cocain
@@jackko21 look, I like Freak Show as much as the next guy and I'm defend it with my dying breath, but Frogstomp is mostly okay. Just okay. The band got a lot better with Neon Ballroom.
considering the message of the song, it fit in at the time. between 9/11, the war on terror and the war in iraq in the following years, i would say it resonated strongly with a lot of people. not saying its a great song, but it worked given the setting
To their credit, Silverchair’s Daniel Johns did sound like he was an adult (despite being 15), sound like they were better songwriters and instrumentalists. Hell, even with the nepotism that launched The Strokes’ career, they do have an album on “Rolling Stone” in their “Top 500 albums of All Time” (at number 114 on the 2021 list). I can’t even use the “they’re not even old enough to legally drink” excuse either. Nas released his first album “Illmatic” when he was 20! It’s at number 44 on aforementioned Rolling Stone’s list! The Calling just sucks massive donkey dick.
jimboa20 I saw this theory that really predictable songs can be pleasing simply because when your brain guesses what’s coming next, and is right, it releases endorphins to ‘reward’ you for being good at patterns
The Calling is part of what Rick Beato would call a faceless rock band. There were a million of them in the late '90s and early 2000s and even though you may remember their songs none of them had enough personality to warrant anyone learning the names of the drummer, bassist, or even lead singer. Their militant blandness helped kill rock as a major music genre for good. From Chuck Berry through Elvis and The Beatles to...this.
@@nathanalbright Fuel is a name that fucks with me, because there was an actually good post-hardcore band from the bay area in the 90s with the same name.
@@nathanalbright Hip Hop still persists as a genre on the strength of the personality of its female artists. Most notably Cardi B and Meghan thee Stallion. Whereas the majority of male artists under the age of 30 are as faceless and bland as these early 2000 radio rock bands.
Their first album was too good I used to have it on repeat in high school. Hard to explain, modern age, alone together, someday... wow whole album was amazing
Yeah while I do understand that the Strokes did kinda parade themselves around as the hardworking New York band, but this happens all the time with rock bands. Just because this band didn't come from nothing doesn't mean their art is bad or meaningless. Critics did the same thing with Vampire Weekend even though their songs actively make fun of the rich. As long as the music is good I don't care and both the Strokes and Vampire Weekend made some of the best rock of 2000s.
Hotmanlion12 If he reviewed that song, he would have to review the Disney remix, where Lou Bega replaces girls names with Disney characters. “A little bit of Mickey in my life, A little bit of Daisy by my side,... Huey, Dewy Lewy, can’t go wrong A little bit of Goofy makes life so fun”
