Desalitt – Love’s Disease
What was it about the so-called “grunge music” or, as some might call it, “the Seattle sound” that created fans across generations and across the world? Was it one identifiable element, or did a number of them play a part in creating its powerful identity?
Analyzing the numerous groups that continue to make music inspired by the original host of 90s alt-rock bands like Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, it’s plain to see that grunge, apart from its punk-rock philosophy, simply had the right mix. While others struggle with a winning formula, this style found it and stuck to it. It’s a style that provided a blueprint of aggressive yet highly palatable musical elements that is still being used today.
Desalitt’s Love’s Disease does a really good job at capturing those elements and putting them on display for a brand new audience. Pay special attention to the simple yet highly effective and cultivated performance abilities of the musician, especially the singer whose convincing, gritty Staley-like growl makes this song particularly entertaining.
Lola Montez – Hot Sand
At the heart of it, grunge was an incredible mixture of innocence and strength, charm and unashamed nastiness. Love her or hate her, but Courtney Love’s stage persona resembling a prom queen whose lipstick got smeared all over her face while applying it, was the epitome of the dichotomy that dominated the genre. These were people who wanted fame but hated those that had become famous ahead of them.
They had also learned the charm of bands like the Replacements, an excellent rock group that did everything in its power to hid their professionalism. They never let anyone see them try, and they played their best shows when nobody was in attendance. That’s the rock n’ roll too-cool-to-try school right here, and bands are still taking their cues from these.
Lola Montez’s Hot Sand is a descendent of that period, albeit a well-adjusted, motivated progeny. The chugging riffs of the song are delivered with menace but also with a sense of purpose. Production tricks are used for all that they are worth. And the duelling vocals play cleverly off the loud-soft dynamics that make much of alt-rock such an exciting proposition.
