Hitting the High Notes : Take a Spin Through the ‘90s and Revisit the Decade’s Best O.C. Pop

Today we give you one critic’s choices for the best Orange County-bred pop songs and albums of the 1990s.

The lists, of course, are a trimester premature. But this has been a marvelous decade for the local pop scene, and it would be a shame to delay recognizing its peak accomplishments until December, when any pause for appreciation will be lost in the torrent of media spew rehashing the year/decade/century/millennium.

We hope this will catch your attention before your eyes have had a chance to glaze over, your minds have numbed and you have fled from punditry until it’s safe to come out again in the next potentially normal, epoch-analysis-free year on the calendar (2001? 2002?). If anything brilliant comes out of O.C. in the next three months, we’ll be sure to let you know as it happens.

First, the ground rules.

* For the sake of diversity, only one song and one album pick per artist.

* The picks adhere to the most narrowly subjective standard there is: my own listening pleasure. Some critics base their year/decade/etc. best-of choices on such legitimate criteria as a work’s influence, its impact on society and the music scene, and on how well the music defined its genre, its style, and its time. I’m much too selfish for that. These are the songs and albums that most strongly touched my heart, fired my imagination and captured my ears. Matters of influence and impact are worth analyzing, but ultimately, for me, experiencing music comes down to the most personal and intimate encounter: a one-on-one conversation between artist and listener.

* As to what constitutes an Orange County musician--that’s a matter of history as well as geography. Dramarama is mainly regarded as a Los Angeles band, but its O.C. shows always had a sense of homecoming, and its singer-songwriter, John Easdale, is a longtime O.C. resident who has been active on the local scene as a solo performer. Dick Dale and Liquor Giants leader Ward Dotson no longer live in Orange County, but their development and emergence as rock notables took place on the local scene, and they continue to perform here regularly. Sublime was a Long Beach trio, but when it comes to punk and alternative rock, Orange County/Long Beach has been a single, cohesive scene for 20 years.

Stone Temple Pilots and Rage Against the Machine would not qualify even if I were fond of their music, which I generally am not. Key members hail from O.C. but have not embraced their roots here or identified themselves as Orange County musicians.

The picks that follow include many obscure releases (including both No. 1 choices), along with some that reached the mainstream. This reflects a core truth that anybody who delves deeply into a fertile local music scene such as Orange County’s will soon discover: commercial success has more to do with luck and temperament than with musical genius. Bands that play to 50 people in dives may be more worthwhile than ones that headline arenas. It has been my privilege and pleasure to indulge these past 12 years in the fruits of an exceptionally bountiful home-grown crop.

Songs of the Decade:

1. Richard Stekol, “America Walking By,” BSQ (1991). Young soldier dies (though it could be any youth). Parents and community grieve. No schmaltz, all sparsely rendered, heart-wrenching truthfulness that probes ineffable sorrow. My eyes leak every time I hear this graceful acoustic song; Garth Brooks could commend himself to eternity by covering it. Commercial outcome: Stekol, an O.C. folk-rock fixture since the early 1970s with Honk, winds up a golf pro in Irvine, doing music on the side.

2. The Joykiller, “Supervision,” Epitaph (1997). Original O.C. punker Jack Grisham (of T.S.O.L. fame) goes to pure-pop heaven in this poignant, beautifully detailed portrait of a working guy whose marriage is unraveling.

3. Eggplant, “Unexpected,” Doctor Dream (1990). The melodic jangle of R.E.M. meets the philosophic reach of the Grateful Dead at its best. A song about enduring hope, with fine harmonies and a brilliant, climactic guitar solo from triple-threat Jon Melkerson, who also wrote and sang it.

4. Jann Browne, “One Tired Man,” Red Moon (Swiss import) (1994). This clenched narrative of an alcoholic’s death oscillates between muscular, soaring, country-tinged rock and hushed balladry. Do this one, too, Garth.

5. Chris Gaffney, “ ‘68,” Hightone (1992). A Vietnam War buddy tale that’s funny and tragic; “The Deer Hunter” done lighter, with twang-rock fire and none of the bizarre stuff.

6. Social Distortion, “Bad Luck,” Epic (1992). O.C.’s quintessential rock band at its swaggering, steamrollering best. Should’ve been a huge hit, but in the Year of Grunge, the song’s hard slap at the cult of chronic complaint didn’t fit the prevailing mood.

7. Liquor Giants, “I Don’t Mind” ESD (1994). Ward Dotson’s warm, conciliatory adieu to a broken romance is just one of many, many artifacts of his pure-pop genius.

8. Mark Davis, “As Big as Love,” Cutlet (1995). It’s hard to choose just one song from Davis’ decade’s-best album, but this grand, fervent rock anthem encapsules its theme: the inner struggle to fan a spark of idealism against encroaching cynicism.

9. Joyride, “Heaven Sighed,” Doctor Dream (1993). One of the most poignant and empathetic hard-driving rockers imaginable makes us ache along with a good-hearted but plain-looking teenage girl who’s a perpetual wallflower.

10. Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, “Mystery to Me,” HMG (1999). Western swing meets “South Pacific” on this effervescent and enchanting nugget about a guy so lucky in love he can’t trust his good fortune.

11. Thermadore, “Amerasian,” Atlantic/Holiday (1996). Robbie Allen’s Springsteen-like anthem plays like a complex short story as it brings to life the romantic joys and cultural problems of an inter-ethnic love affair. “Tet is great, but it ain’t Christmas/Fireworks and all . . . “

12. Willoughby, “Borrow My Shoulder,” Fuzz Harris (1995). A sad, warmly glowing, yet emotionally complex song about a troubled woman who depends upon yet resents her giving older sister.

13. Dramarama, “Incredible,” Chameleon/Elektra (1993). John Easdale wrote the three-minute book on marital anguish with the 1980s modern-rock radio classic “Anything, Anything.” Here he provides a worthy bookend about a marriage that works. Intimate, soaring, utterly fetching.

14. Pontiac Brothers, “Suicide Notes,” Frontier (1992). A funny yet poignant ballad in which friends commiserate over their shared misfortunes, competing to see who can wax the most pathetic.

15. Kerry Getz, “Inhale,” World in Motion (1997). An exquisite, deep and deeply felt acoustic song in which a presence--the soul of a loved one--is felt lingering as close as breath, yet still beyond reach.

16. One Hit Wonder, “Therapy Lounge,” Doctor Dream (1994). L.A. burns in the Rodney King riot; catchy, hurtling rock band packs a SWAT team’s wallop in capturing the jaw-dropping experience of watching it unfold on TV.

17. Missiles of October, “Look at Daddy Run,” no label (1997). A buoyant, sing-along chorus attached to a bitter reflection on what it’s like to have an absentee dad. “I call him ‘Daddy-o’/The o’s for nothin’.”

18. Matt Barnes, “The Lucky Few,” Still Working for the Man Music (1996). Like No. 4 above, a gem from the Barnes/Browne writing and harmonizing team. Indelible melody and tough-minded attitude in a Mellencamp-style anthem about being one of society’s have-nots, and proud of it.

19. Vinnie James, “Hey Geronimo,” RCA/Cypress (1991). A taut acoustic rocker, complete with Native American chanting and nature imagery, that bristles with fury over historic wrongs.

20. The Offspring, “The Kids Aren’t Alright,” Columbia (1998). Dexter Holland’s magic ear has splattered the band’s discs with memorable highlights, but this one about the crushed dreams of suburban youth zooms with special urgency.

21. Bill Ward, “Bombers (Can Open Bomb Bays),” Chameleon (1990). Former Black Sabbath drummer recruits Ozzy Osbourne as guest singer and provides the old bat-chewer with one of the most memorable, if least-heard, songs of his career. Heavy metal with soul and smarts.

22. Rick Elias & the Confessions, “Miles and Miles,” Alarma (1991). Hard-hitting, Stones-influenced heartland rock with whooshing, Beatlesque production touches tells of a paradoxically wearying yet invigorating quest for divine awareness.

23. James Harman, “Old Man Eyes,” Cannonball (1998). An authoritative, ancient-sounding blues artifact with a lone guitar, a gospel chorus, and Harman’s homespun philosophizing about the wisdom that comes with age.

24. Standard Fruit, “Abilene,” Ellis Island (1993). Girl grows up emotionally barren in the flatlands. A shimmering, soaring, poignant ballad from one of O.C.’s most underappreciated bands.

25. Lee Rocker, “Memphis Freeze,” Dixiefrog (1997). An evocative R&B; plaint from the former Stray Cats bassist whose solo career has proved him a strong writer and capable singer.

26. Film Star, “Ooh Girl,” Super Cottonmouth (1998). Curtis Mayfield-like sweet and mellow soul stylings turn into a lovely but unsettling psychedelic dreamscape in the hands of these inventive garage-rockers.

27. Barrelhouse, “Albert’s Shovel,” no label (1998). Man comes home from work, catches cheating wife and her lover, lands in hell for killing them with his shovel and vows to dig his way out with the same implement. A wild and wired folk-blues work song.

28. Michael Ubaldini, “Poem to My Country,” JT (1999). The perfect antidote to patriotic bluster: the ballad of a man who carries an undying torch for his corrupted country but can’t believe what she’s done to him.

29. Sublime, “Doin’ Time,” Gasoline Alley/MCA (1996). Chilling and yearning, this reggae/hip-hop gloss on Gershwin’s “Summertime” spills forth the destructive anger and aspiration to rise above that competed inside Brad Nowell.

30. D/Railed, “So Voce^,” no label (1995). A dynamic, cascading folk-rock love song in Portuguese.

And One to Grow On . . .

No Doubt, “Simple Kind of Life,” Interscope (2000). Would have ranked high on the list if No Doubt had not pushed back its next album’s release to the new millennium. This Gwen Stefani composition is a melancholy pop-rock meditation on the costs of a high-flying career, by a famous rocker who yearns to be a wife and a mother.

Albums of the Decade

1. Mark Davis, “You Came Screaming,” Cutlet (1995). A profound, intense, varied and splendidly melodic pop-rock album that would have been hailed as an instant classic if a major star had made it. Davis went $10,000 in debt to record his debut CD, couldn’t land a deal and put it out on his own. He tried his luck in France but is back now working on a follow-up.

2. Jann Browne, “Count Me In,” Red Moon (1994). Another perfect album that eluded the U.S. marketing system and wound up on a label in Switzerland. Country, bluegrass and heartland rock that ranks with such exceptional talents as Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris. Browne, who has committed the economic crime of singing country music after the age of 40, has since written at least a dozen equally inspired new songs--still with no record deal.

3. Chris Gaffney, “Mi Vida Loca,” Hightone (1992). Gaffney and his band, the Cold Hard Facts, are O.C.’s answer to NRBQ: funny, poignant, eclectic and enormously talented barroom veterans. This is the best introduction to Gaffney’s alternately heartfelt and wryly skewed take on the world.

4. Liquor Giants, “Liquor Giants,” Matador (1996). Like Browne, Gaffney and Social Distortion’s Mike Ness, Liquor Giants auteur Ward Dotson had a brilliant and fecund decade. This pure pop all-star’s statistical line for the ‘90s: six albums (one with the Pontiac Brothers), no commercial hits, no creative misses. It figures that he’s a big Angels fan.

5. Social Distortion, “White Light White Heat White Trash,” 550 Music/Epic (1996). SD’s most consistent and mature album. Mike Ness was able to show a yearning, vulnerable side, while administering SD’s usual stormy sonic barrage.

6. Dramarama, “Hi-Fi Sci-Fi,” Chameleon/Elektra (1993). The band that wanted rock stardom so badly sang so well about not getting it. Then it broke up. Also includes three definitive songs about coping with drug cravings.

7. Joyride, “Another Month of Mondays,” Doctor Dream (1993). Rarely have two separate songwriters working in one band been as well-attuned in their gritty, ultra-melodic sensibility as Steve Soto (the heartfelt songbird) and Greg Antista (the raspy-voiced wit). Full of resonant, catchy songs by both that put most of the punk-pop competition to shame.

8. One Hit Wonder, “Cluster----astuff,” Lethal (1996). This compilation of singles and EPs, plus live takes from a show at Linda’s Doll Hut, does justice to a wonderfully aggressive, catchy and intelligent punk-pop band.

9. Sublime, “Sublime,” Gasoline Alley/MCA (1996). Even with KROQ still playing it ad nauseam three years later, this varied, imaginatively conceived album holds up as one of the decade’s best hit albums. A rare entwining of torment, anger and joy from the inspired but doomed Brad Nowell.

10. Michael Ubaldini, “Acoustic Rumble,” JT Records (1999). O.C. artists typically don’t do political albums, but this erstwhile rowdy roots-rocker went solo-acoustic and made a better, more lyrical and more fiery assessment of the American scene than Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad.” With fine humorous and romantic interludes.

11. Lunar Rover, “Lunar Rover,” Vital Music (1996). Quiet, unassuming Jon Melkerson doesn’t fit the rock-star mold, but he ranks near the top of ‘90s rock achievement in O.C. This album, after strong work with Eggplant and Eli Riddle, found him singing about life’s endurance tests with newfound confidence.

12. Missiles of October, “Tropic of Soulfolk,” no label (1997). Poul Finn Pedersen may be the finest pure singer on the O.C. rock scene; factor in superb playing and strong, John Hiatt-like material, and you get an album that deserved to become an Adult Rock standard (but didn’t).

13. Walter Trout Band, “Prisoner of a Dream,” Electra Denmark (1991). What the Americans (outside of O.C.) didn’t know, the Europeans have long understood: Trout is a monster blues-rock guitar talent who sings and plays and writes with immense passion and a strong melodic knack. He is getting some breaks in the U.S. now, and this flawless album deserves a domestic reissue.

14. Bill Ward, “When the Bough Breaks,” Purple Pyramid/Mungus Shine (1997). My most memorable O.C. rock character of the decade, edging out Jack Grisham and Mike Ness. Famed as Black Sabbath’s drummer, Ward overcame a raft of personal problems to show great songwriting and producing savvy informed less by heavy metal than the classic Brit-rock of Pink Floyd and the Who. A strong, richly melodic and beautifully played and sung vehicle for his openhearted reflections about finding peace amid troubles.

15. The Joykiller, “Three,” Epitaph (1997). This piano-driven pure pop gem flew way over the heads of Jack Grisham’s punk-loving public, but it stands as his finest moment. Renowned as a primo flake, Grisham is also a fine craftsman and a sensitive, insightful chronicler of love and lust.

16. The Freddie Brooks Band, “One Little Word,” KingAce (1999). This beautifully varied and balanced, tradition-steeped collection of original blues and R&B; songs came out of nowhere and pegged this singer-harmonica player-songwriter as a worthy peer of such SoCal stalwarts as Kim Wilson, James Harman and Rod Piazza.

17. Dick Dale, “Tribal Thunder,” Hightone (1993). The worldwide rock comeback of the decade, Dale’s first recording of new material in nearly 30 years reestablished the ‘60s surf-guitar pioneer as a thundering, primal power-rocker who could wipe out punks and metal bands less than half his age.

18. The Offspring, “Smash,” Epitaph (1994). The multiple-platinum album that shattered the “Orange Curtain” and paved the way for many more O.C.-generated alterna-rock hits. Ten years of craft-honing, and a sure sense of what speaks to alienated, intelligent punk youth, all came to catchy fruition.

19. Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, “Radio Favorites” HMG (1999). A six-song slice of enlivening retro magic from Robert “Big Sandy” Williams and his brilliant players, who make the Western swing sound of 50 years ago fresh and vital.

20. Pontiac Brothers, “Fuzzy Little Piece of the World,” Frontier (1992). Four years after its breakup, this Fullerton foursome reunited for an album full of commiseration over its mishaps in the rock biz and its appreciation for the friendships involved. Funny, heartfelt and freely rocking.

21. Vinnie James, “All American Boy,” RCA/Cypress (1991). Handsome, smart and outgoing, this Huntington Beach heartland rocker seemed to have all the ingredients of stardom. But he failed to click and lost his musical direction, leaving this passionate, well-wrought collection of intimate and political songs as a legacy.

22. D/Railed, “D/Railed,” no label (1995). This unpretentious band pulled off charging psychedelic songs and folk-rockers with an unerring melodic knack. Among the attractions: a good vocal harmony blend and a pair of trombones.

23. Rick Elias & the Confessions, “Rick Elias & the Confessions,” Alarma (1991). Christian rock has never been better or lyrically more sophisticated than in the hands of Elias, a veteran Southern California rocker who channeled his pop-rock savvy and life of hard knocks into a bracing collection free from religious boilerplate and musical cliches.

24. Kerry Getz, “Apollo,” World in Motion (1997). A polished cycle of folk-rock and pop that cast this coffeehouse veteran as a talent worthy of the Lilith Fair.

25. Sonichrome, “Breathe the Daylight,” Capitol (1998). Chris Karn had made an impression as an inventive guitarist in previous bands, but here he expanded his reach with memorable, Beatles-informed pop craft and strong singing.