Episode 4: Greatest Rock Music Artists NCAA Tournament (’90s First Round)

Episode 4 continues our NCAA Tournament styled brackets to determine the greatest rock music artist of all time. Having already discussed the '60s,  '70s, and '80s matchups, here we continue with the '90s.

Matchups for this episode:

(1) Nirvana vs. (16) Foo Fighters

(2) Radiohead vs. (15) Dave Matthews Band

(3) Pearl Jam vs. (14) Green Day

(4) Soundgarden vs. (13) Red Hot Chili Peppers

(5) Oasis vs. (12) Blur

(6) Wilco vs. (11) Beck

(7) Alice In Chains vs. (10) Pavement

(8) Nine Inch Nails  vs. (9) The Smashing Pumpkins

Notes for this episode:

The key moment of the “seismic shift” mentioned was probably when Nevermind replaced Michael Jackson’s Dangerousas the #1 album in the U.S.

On second thought, Phil Collins is a guy who went from being “just the drummer” in Genesis (albeit a very good drummer) to become a major leading man (both with Genesis and as a solo artist), but even then it wasn’t quite the same because people already knew he could sing and he didn’t change instruments from drums to guitar.

The Foo Fighters documentary Back and Forth is highly recommended.

Dave Matthews has released several live albums with Tim Reynolds, but Reynolds was not at The Central Park Concert and none of their live albums took place there either.

Scott mistakenly referred to the 2015 Blur album The Magic Whip as Whip-Smart(which was a 1994 album by Liz Phair).

Below is a slightly edited version of a letter Scott's brother wrote to Howard Stern regarding their Woodstock ’94 experience that Howard read over the air:
Howard, you have been promoting Woodstock '99 like it's the greatest thing ever. I just wanted to share with you my Woodstock '94 experience. Here's the setup. Me and three friends (one flew in from Atlanta). With our tickets ($130) we were given parking passes. Our parking lot was like 30 miles from the concert. We get there at around 9pm Friday. The lot is full, we have to go to another lot around 20 miles away. We get there and that lot is full. We have to go to a parking lot in SUNY Albany. We get to SUNY Albany. We get to that lot around 11 and there are thousands of other people. There we wait for a bus to take us 1/2 mile away where we will get another bus to take us to the concert. After waiting fruitlessly for a couple hours to get on the bus, we walk the 1/2 mile with our backpacks and bags to the next lot where we will get a bus to get to the concert. We get there and find thousands of other people. It's about 2am. At about 4am the worst monsoon I was ever outside for struck. 4 buses were coming about every 45 minutes. They felt like the buses that were taking us out of concentration camps. Finally, after fighting to the death, get on the bus at 6am, at the concert by 7am. All my stuff for the weekend soaking wet. Defeated. Exhausted. We pitch our tent about 1 mile from the stages, on a hill. Try sleeping for about an hour when Joe Cocker starts singing. Nightmare continues. Port-o-potties are overflowing, food unbearable, so sick can't even drink. Try to watch the music. Go back to our tent by like 2pm (it takes like 3 hours to get across the park because of the mass of people). Tent is under piles of mud. Everything ruined. Raining again. Had enough. On bus back to Albany by 3pm. Woodstock '94.