Music HistoryOngoing History of New Music

The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 882: Alt-rock revivals 4 – Garage rock

Take a look in your closet. Are you the kind of person who won’t through anything out because you’re positive it’ll come back into style one day?

Full disclosure: I am. Long after this stuff has ceased to spark joy, it’s still hanging there, unworn for months, years. I have these sport coats and suits from my time in radio management that I just don’t need anymore, but I because I paid good money for them, I can’t bring myself to get rid of them.

None of them will fit, but that’s besides the point.

But then there’s my vinyl collection. There was a time when vinyl was considered nothing more than toxic landfill. “The future is digital!” we were told. “Free yourself from all those bulky, dusty, crackly vinyl records. If you ever need that music in the future, it will be available digitally from…somewhere. THROW. OUT. YOUR. RECORDS!”

For some reason, though, I didn’t fall for that and I kept my vinyl. Now that the format has been revived, I look like a genius.

Bottom line is that even though many things in this universe come in cycles, we’re not always sure when something old will again become something new.

At some point, there might be a comeback, a resurrection, a re-establishment, a re-introduction. But you can never rush these things, especially in music. Something has to happen where a significant number of people in different areas simultaneously come to the conclusion that it’s time to revisit some older music. In the process, a modern shine is applied.

This is what happened with garage rock at the very end of the 90s and the early 2000s. After laying low for a couple of decades, it roared back so strongly that it set the agenda for much of modern rock for years to come.

This is alt-rock revivals chapter 4: Garage rock.

Songs heard on this show:

  • Jet, Are You Gonna Be My Girl
  • Dick Dale, Misirlou
  • The Kingsmen, Louie Louie
  • Stooges, I Wanna Be Your Dog
  • The Standells, Dirty Water
  • Ramones, Surfin’ Bird
  • The 5.6.7.8’s, Woo-Hoo
  • The Strokes, Last Nite
  • White Stripes, Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground
  • Von Bondies, C’mon C’mon
  • Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Maps
  • The Hives, Hate to Say I Told You So
  • The Vines, Get Free

Eric Wilhite provides us with this playlist.

Don’t forget that you can get the podcast version of this podcast through iTunes or wherever you get your on-demand audio.

The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:

We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor,  Montreal, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 38829 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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