Good Morning!
Today we’re listening to “Happy” by Ned’s Atomic Dustbin
Ned’s Atomic Dustbin is a textbook case of “great band, bad timing.”
In an era dominated by grunge, they took a wholly different route, making power pop and doing it with 2 (!) bassists. With Matt Cheslin playing the lower “normal” basslines and Alex Griffin playing higher, more melodic parts, the end result was a fantastic wall of sound.
People weren’t sure what to do with them, so the band often found themselves unfairly lumped in with bands like Pop Will Eat Itself, Jesus Jones, and other groups that might’ve looked/dressed similar, but didn’t sound like them at all.
In my small circle of high school music geeks, we couldn’t get enough of the group, and all of us went through at least 1 copy of the record.
More:
Really, if I’d been surrounded by other oh-so-punk teenagers when I was in high school, I imagine I’d been shamed out of my love of Ned’s Atomic Dustbin in short order. My high school wasn’t that cool, though; all we had were a few Anglophile drama kids who sorta thought Black Flag were silly but could at least talk to me about My Bloody Valentine. They all thought Ned’s were the bomb. So I spent years listening to, and falling in love with, God Fodder (and the band’s other two early-’90s LPs, both of which are just as highly recommended); by the time I met punk-enough kids to scoff at my Ned’s love, I was too deep to turn back.
I get it, though — part of why I even picked this album for OYR is because I couldn’t help but think of what a tough sell they’d be for some of my fellow contributors. A five-piece band with two bass players and only one guitarist, who repeatedly nod towards the then-ascendant world of hip hop through bouncy syncopated beats and mostly extraneous samples, with teenaged-as-fuck lyrics about fighting with your dad, or having unrequited crushes, or struggling to find self-esteem. It’s so silly!
Read the rest of the article here.
Listen
“Happy” by Ned’s Atomic Dustbin| God Fodder, 1991
Click the record to listen on your platform of choice.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this track!
Thanks for being here,
Kevin—
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I never listened to them, but learning they had redo bassist, now I’ve got to see what this is all about.
You know my love for this band...they’ve never left my “rotation” but listening back all these years later, they still sound great.