20 years on: April 6, 1991

As modern rock enters its (gulp) third decade, we're taking a look back at the charts of two decades ago.

This week in 1991:  The #1 song was, again, REM's "Losing My Religion." Jesus Jones finally dropped out of the top 10, and Sting returned to it with the fourth and final single off his Soul Cages album.

1. REM, "Losing My Religion"
2. Morrissey, "Our Frank"

3. Material Issue, "Valerie Loves Me"
4. Divinyls, "I Touch Myself"
5. Simple Minds, "See the Lights"
6. EMF, "Unbelievable"
7. The Godfathers, "Unreal World"
8. Havana 3 a.m., "Reach the Rock"
9. Sting, "The Soul Cages"

Few remember this now, because of the last 20 years of his career, but Sting dominated the early modern rock charts, due in no small part to his association with the Police (the early modern-rock stations loved the Police and the Clash... see also Havana 3 a.m.). This is his last Top 10 modern-rock hit, though, and he only appeared on the modern rock charts one more time, with "It's Probably Me" off the Lethal Weapon 3 soundtrack in 1992.

10. The Judybats, "Native Son"
The Judybats were a band of kids from the University of Tennessee who played the type of folky college-rock that dominated the modern rock charts pre-Nevermind. Unfortunately, Warner Brothers won't let me embed the video, but it's a decent song. This is their first hit, and they managed to put out four albums in total for Sire before breaking up in 1994.

20 years on: March 23, 1991

As modern rock enters its (gulp) third decade, we're going to be taking a look back at the charts of two decades ago.

This week in 1991: The #1 song in modern rock for the 2nd straight week was R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion."

The top 10:

1. REM, "Losing My Religion"
2. Divinyls, "I Touch Myself"
3. EMF, "Unbelievable"
4. Jesus Jones, "Right Here, Right Now"
5. Daniel Ash, "This Love"
Allmusic says this is the Love and Rockets lead singer's only solo hit. In retrospect, it seems evident that this song rode so high on the modern rock charts because of who sang it, because it's a little generic.


6. Material Issue, "Valerie Loves Me"
7. The Replacements, "When it Began"
8. Havana 3 a.m., "Reach the Rock"
9. Morrissey, "Our Frank"
The lead single from Morrissey''s second solo album creeps into the top 10.
10. Enigma, "Sadeness Pt. 1"

20 years on: March 16, 1991

As modern rock enters its (gulp) third decade, we're going to be taking a look back at the charts of two decades ago.

This week in 1991: The #1 song in modern rock, in only its 2nd week on the top of the charts, was R.E.M.'s biggest-ever US single, "Losing My Religion."

The top 10:

1. REM, "Losing My Religion"
2. Jesus Jones, "Right Here, Right Now"
3. Daniel Ash, "This Love"
4. Divinyls, "I Touch Myself"
5. EMF, "Unbelievable"
6. The Replacements, "When it Began"
As REM is on the verge of becoming one of the biggest bands in the world, the Replacements, seen by many in the college-rock scene of the '80s as an equally-plausible contender for success, are in the middle of their final tour, and their last hit single has begun sliding down the charts.

Down to only two original members by this point, the Replacements finally called it quits July 4, 1991. Cool video, though.

7. Enigma, "Sadeness pt. 1"
8. Material Issue, "Valerie Loves Me." A personal favorite of mine from 1991.
9. Havana 3 a.m., "Reach the Rock." This is one I'd never heard of. Apparently, Clash bassist Paul Simonon was in the band. This was their only hit.

10. The Fixx, "How Much is Enough."

20 years on: March 9, 1991

As modern rock enters its (gulp) third decade, we're going to be taking a look back at the charts of two decades ago.

This week in 1991: The #1 song in modern rock, coming to the end of its one-month run at the top, was Jesus Jones' "Right Here Right Now."


Reflecting the pre-Nirvana days of modern rock radio in the US, the rest of this week's top ten was a mix of holdover new wave bands (such as the Fixx) and people (such as Sting) that you would never hear on a KROQ or 99X today.
1. Jesus Jones, "Right Here, Right Now"
2. Daniel Ash, "This Love"
3. Divinyls, "I Touch Myself." (editor's note: REALLY?)
4. The Replacements, "When it Began"
5. R.E.M., "Losing My Religion"
Debuting at #5 and beginning its ascent: REM's "Losing My Religion," their biggest-ever single. It would go on to spend 2 months at #1.
6. EMF, "Unbelievable." I am not ashamed to admit I own a cassette copy of Schubert Dip.
7. Enigma, "Sadeness Pt. 1". Ah yes, the brief Gregorian-chant craze of the early '90s:

8. Sting, "All This Time"
9. Havana 3 a.m., "Reach the Rock"
10. The Fixx, "How Much is Enough"

Coming soon...

Several of the bigger artists of the '90s have albums in the works:

* The Foo Fighters' new album Wasting Light comes out April 12. Krist Novoselic plays on one of the tracks, and Pat Smear is back in the band! Here's the first video, "White Limo" (featuring Lemmy from Motorhead)


* John Frusciante is gone, but the Red Hot Chili Peppers are in the studio working on a new album with new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, formerly a touring musician for the band. Flea's Twitter is apparently the resource for recording updates. No release date has been announced, but the band is playing festivals in Japan in August and Brazil in the fall, so expect something around then.

* Radiohead's King of Limbs is out now electronically. If you want a hard copy, wait until May 9.

* R.E.M.'s new album Collapse Into Now comes out March 8. Four songs from the album have been released so far; I particularly like "Uberlin." Sadly, they've chosen not to tour for this one.


* Green Day will release a(nother) live album, Awesome as Fuck, on March 22. It has one new song, "Cigarettes and Valentines." See full tracklisting here.

Happy inauguration day

As the festivities ramp up in DC (the inauguration is set to begin as I write this), I thought I'd share some highlights from President Clinton's 1993 inauguration (well, MTV's 1993 Inaugural Bash, but whatever):

First, Michael Stipe and Mike Mills team up with Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen to form the short-lived supergroup Automatic, Baby:

Great version of that song, though Mills' harmonies are a bit off at the end.

Then Stipe jumped up on stage with 10,000 Maniacs to do "Candy Everybody Wants:"


And to think, the man being sworn in today is younger than Michael Stipe, and only two years older than Natalie Merchant.

What's Peter Buck reading?

According to Sunday's Atlanta Journal Constitution, REM's guitarist was going through Philip Roth's Zuckerman series of novels, and is now reading Remake/Remodel: Becoming Roxy Music, a study of the English art school scene of the 1960s and how it affected the art-rock movement of the 1970s.

REM wrapped up their US tour last Saturday in Atlanta (look for a belated review of that show in a couple of days) and now head to Europe for three months. Based on some recent interviews, they may be back in the States in October and November (they're definitely playing the Voodoo Music Festival in New Orleans October 24-26, alongside Stone Temple Pilots and Nine Inch Nails) and touring South America in early 2009.

Here's REM's new single, "Hollow Man."

Automatic for the People, 15 years on

Stereogum has a great online tribute to REM's greatest album (and, in my opinion, one of the top 10 albums of all time): Automatic for the People, which was released 15 years ago this week. Check it out:

you should see the stereogum.com drive xv player here if you have flash

My favorite is the Shout Out Louds' version of "Man on the Moon."

And here's one of the best songs ever, "Find the River,"