Muzzle - Betty Pickup (Reprise, 1996)

Muzzle may have called Seattle home, but their brand of punky power pop was more Sugar-era Bob Mould than Kurt Cobain (I feel like I end up referencing Cobain and co. in every post - but it was their success that set this signing frenzy into motion, after all). The band got their start in 1994 and were quickly snatched up by Warner Brother's Reprise Records. I suppose you could call Muzzle lucky, as they were actually able to get TWO commercially unsuccessful (yet extremely solid) records out of their deal before being dropped - 1996's Betty Pickup and 1999's Actual Size.

Betty Pickup was produced by Phil Ek, who had worked with many of the more popular indie rock bands from the Northwest like Built to Spill and Modest Mouse - yet the sort of hip lo-fi aesthetic you'd expect from such groups is not present on this slick, polished record. Perhaps a little less polish would have helped the band from falling into the bland territory, which it admittedly does at points. Regardless, songs like the album's lead single, "What A Bore" (video included below), were finely crafted power-pop gems and should have helped bring the band to greater heights than the ranks of obscurity where they
now reside.

Listen @ iLike
Buy @ Amazon or iTunes

Pond - Rock Collection (Sony, 1997)

Portland, Oregon natives Pond got their start as one of the more fledgling bands on the Sub Pop label in the early 90s.  Along with bands like Hazel and Sprinkler, Pond were never able to cash in on the big Sub Pop/grunge boom, but that didn't stop Sony imprint label The Work Group from signing the band after two full lengths for Sub Pop.  Their third and final record, Rock Collection, was released by Sony/Work in 1997. Though instead of falling victim to the historically ill-fated major label debut, the record is considered by many to be their finest hour (though not successful commercially).

Rock Collection presented a more mature and polished take on the noise-pop (or "wussy-core" as the band called it) Pond had been honing on their first two records. Pond toured with a diverse array of bands, from Soundgarden to Rocket From the Crypt to Six Finger Satellite... none of whom Pond really sounded at all like. Pond probably would have fit in a little better with the soon to be burgeoning third-wave emo movement (aka the era of Sunny Day Real Estate clones) , and you can hear this sort of 90s-emo leaning in the album's moody single, "Spokes" (video included below). In fact, after the band's breakup, Pond members would go on to play in Audio Learning Center (also ex-Sprinkler), who were signed to emo powerhouse label, Vagrant Records.

Listen @ iLike

Buy @ Amazon

Lifter - Melinda (Interscope, 1996)

You may know Lifter's Jeffrey Sebelia as the heavily tattooed winner of the third season of the TV show Project Runway. Years before Sebelia got involved with fashion, he was playing bass with this Interscope Records-signed post-grunge band. After forming in 1992, Lifter released several independent singles and a split with the Campfire Girls before signing with Interscope, who released their debut full-length, Melinda (Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt), in 1996.

Lifter emerged from the same Los Angeles scene that was home to several other great forgotten bands like Plexi, Gwenmars, The Campfire Girls, and Shufflepuck. Perhaps somewhat of a cliche of the L.A. scene, Lifter frontman Mike Coulter (as well as Sebelia) struggled with drug problems, and Interscope Records actually put Coulter through rehab before releasing the record. Melinda, named after Coulter's ex-girlfriend, manages to borrow heavily from the Cobain school of songwriting, without sounding simply like a Nirvana clone. The single "402" was a minor hit at college radio, but this unfortunately did not translate to album sales, and the band quickly became what allmusic describes as "the forgotten heroes of 90s teen angst". Lifter's music would later appear in the season three finale of Project Runway in 2006.

Listen @ iLike or MySpace

Buy @ Lifter official webstore

Slowpoke - Virgin Stripes (Geffen, 1998)

Long before Wind-Up Records became quite possibly the worst record label in existence, responsible for lowest common denominator music like Creed or Evanescence, it was a credible indie rock label known as Grass Records. Grass released albums from The Wrens, Commander Venus (Conor Oberst pre-Bright Eyes), and New Radiant Storm King (just to name a few) before being bought out and transformed into Wind-Up Records in 1997, with any trace of taste or integrity being thrown out the window. 

During its heyday, Grass Records was home to Slowpoke, a band little known outside of their hometown of Dallas, Texas. Grass released Slowpoke's debut full-length, Mad Chen, in 1994 as well as their split 7" with their soon to be semi-famous fellow Texans The Toadies. Slowpoke at this point exemplified the type of earnest, slightly discordant yet melody driven indie rock that Grass was known for. Yet Grass was in the middle of being sold when it came time for Slowpoke to release their second album, recorded with Wally Gagel (a member of the previously featured forgotten treasures band Orbit and noted engineer for the likes of Superchunk and Sebadoh). This situation was made even more complicated by the fact that Geffen Records, smelling a hit in Slowpoke, was now trying to buy the band out of their indie deal. Eventually Grass, now Wind-Up, sold the band to Geffen - a lengthy and difficult process that delayed the release of the album by almost two years. Geffen released this second effort, Virgin Stripes, in 1998. A considerably more pop-oriented and radio friendly affair than their previous releases, Virgin Stripes ultimately failed to stand out in the overcrowded alterna-pop world of the late 90s. Slowpoke would later change their name to Prize Money and make the move to indie label One Ton Records, who released their debut (and final) album, All Eyes On the Prize, in 2000.

Listen @ allmusic

Buy @ Amazon 

Slowpoke playing "Railroad" live circa 1998: 

you can find more Slowpoke live videos here.