Five years on from the 1991 release of Nirvana’s game-changing Nevermind album, the alt. rock renaissance showed no signs of slowing down. In 1996, Nirvana’s fellow Sub Pop alumni Soundgarden scored another huge success with Down On The Upside, Beck took over the airwaves, and the world’s dancefloors, with Odelay, Londoners Bush scored a first US number one album with the multi-platinum Razorblade Suitcase, and No Doubt went supernova with Tragic Kingdom.
The same year saw Weezer and Rage Against The Machine release fan favourite sets Pinkerton and Evil Empire, while Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots broke new ground, respectively, with No Code and Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop.
Arguably the biggest indication of the strength of the mid ’90s scene, however, was not the success enjoyed by the scene’s A-listers but by the diversity and outstanding quality of albums released by a host of brilliant left-of-the-dial bands who never became household names. Here at Louder we recently saluted largely unsung ’90s cult heroes such as Kerbdog, Handsome, Shudder To Think and Compulsion, but really those bands only represented the tip of the iceberg, and there’s a ton of other artists from the era who merit acclaim and (re) discovery.
Here then is our guide to 10 killer alt. rock records from 1996 that deserved a much bigger audience.
Screaming Trees – Dust (Epic)
If you’ve read the late Mark Lanegan’s brutally honest and astonishingly bleak memoir Sing Backwards and Weep, you’ll know that Screaming Trees were in absolutely no shape to take on the world in 1996. Or indeed during any other year of their existence, to be fair. But Dust, hands down one of the best albums to come out of the Pacific-NorthWest alternative rock scene in the ’90s, fully deserved to be a multi-platinum smash. From Eastern-tinged opening track Halo Of Ashes through to closer Gospel Plow, the quartet’s seventh album is a thing of beauty, with Look At You – inexplicably passed over for release as a single – and Dying Days absolutely majestic.
Failure – Fantastic Planet (Slash/Warners)
Thanks to glowing endorsements from the likes of Deftones, Tool and Hayley Williams, the magnificent third album from Los Angeles alt. rockers Failure has belatedly got its flowers, but thirty years ago, the world didn’t want to know. Then again, beaten down by industry politics and addiction issues, neither did the band to be fair, guitarist/bassist Greg Edwards admitting to Louder‘s Simon Young, “I wasn’t feeling much of anything by the time it was released.” Read the full story behind one of the decade’s greatest ‘lost’ records here.
Fireside – Do Not Tailgate (Def American)
Maybe if Quicksand hadn’t split up in 1995, A&R scouts at Rick Rubin’s Def American label might not have felt compelled to pluck Fireside from Startracks records and give the young Swedish quartet’s second album Do Not Tailgate (released in 1995 in Sweden) a global platform. But we’re glad that they did. One of the biggest compliments we can give it, is to say that Do Not Tailgate can stand toe-to-toe with Quicksand’s Slip, but despite bagging a slot on Lollapalooza’s side stage alongside Melvins, Girls Against Boys, Soul Coughing and Satchel in 1996, Fireside truly caught fire. Guitarist Pelle Gunnerfeldt would go on to produce fellow Swedes Refused, The Hives, Randy and more.
The Afghan Whigs – Black Love (Elektra Records/Sub Pop)
On the US alternative / indie rock scene of the 1990s, there was no rock star-in-waiting cooler than man-in-black Greg Dulli, the suavest motherfucker from Hamilton, Ohio ever to pick up a guitar. Black Love is filled with tales of illicit desires, crimes of passion, betrayal, lust, agony and ecstasy, and, as telegraphed by its cover art, it smokes. Listen to Going To Town, My Enemy, the sublime Night By Candlelight (a duet with much-missed Brad/Satchel vocalist Shawn Smith) or the gorgeous Faded and you too will fall in love.
Sense Field – Building (Revelation)
Upon its release on June 10, 1996, Building, the third album from Californian post-hardcore crew Sense Field received a rave KKKKK (5/5) review in Kerrang! magazine, and was hailed as “a special album, crammed with blinding tunes and heartfelt melodies” and “the freshest breeze to drift across the Atlantic in ages” by writer Paul Brannigan. Ahem. Thirty years on, I see no reason to withdraw those words. If you’re listening to Turnstile in 2026, there’s no reason you can’t find space in your heart for Building too.
NY Loose – Year Of The Rat (Hollywood)
Fronted by the kick-ass, ultra-cool Brijitte West, NY Loose may have hailed from ’90s New York, but their souls were steeped in the spirit, sounds, sleaze and scuzz of the Lower East Side pre-gentrification. If Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan had moved to New York instead of Los Angeles, they might have written a record like Year Of The Rat, full of ‘fuck you’ attitude, swagger and sass. Songs like Rip Me Up and Detonator snarl and scratch, while a dreamy cover of The Velvet Underground’s Sunday Morning is pure bliss.
Rollerskate Skinny – Horsedrawn Wishes (Warners)
Occupying the sonic hinterlands between My Bloody Valentine, Mercury Rev and Neutral Milk Hotel, Dublin’s Rollerskate Skinny were very probably too imaginative and uninhibited for mainstream acceptance. But their second album, Horsedrawn Wishes, is a feast of riches, a gloriously sprawling, ideas-packed, out-there collection which offers up new delights with every listen. It’s not for everyone, obviously, but if your listening tastes stop off anywhere between The Flaming Lips and Butthole Surfers, prepare to have your mind blown deliciously.
Placebo – Placebo (Virgin)
Given that it peaked at number 5 in the UK, where it sold north of 300,000 copies, it might be a stretch to suggest that Placebo’s self-titled debut album is some sort of ‘lost treasure’, but we’ve included it here because it should have meant an awful lot more to a generation of US alt. rock fans. Inspired by Sonic Youth, The Cure, Depeche Mode and PJ Harvey, but with its roots in the after-hours nightlife of London, both legal and illegal, it’s a celebration of walks on the wild side, and the chaos of embracing big city life in all its messy glory. Singles Nancy Boy, 36 Degrees and Come Home are perfect entry points, but don’t be scared to dive deeper.
Sleater-Kinney – Call The Doctor (Chainsaw Records)
Cultural gatekeepers began to properly take notice of Sleater-Kinney in 1997, when the Olympia, Washington trio released their third album Dig Me Out on the ever-reliable Kill Rock Stars label, but Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker’s band were already serving on its predecessor Call The Doctor. Written in three weeks and recorded in just four days, there’s an urgency and breathless energy to the record which is both joyous and intoxicating, rewiring the spirit of riot grrrl for a new generation. Their time would come.
Social Distortion – White Light, White Heat, White Trash (Epic)
Quite how the world went gaga for Dookie and Smash in the mid ’90s and yet overlooked this infinitely superior album from OG Orange County punks Social Distortion is still unfathomable, to be honest. Teed up by 1992’s Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell, which had sold almost 300,000 copies by 1996, White Light, White Heat, White Trash should have exploded all over radio and MTV, but perhaps Mike Ness’ world-weary wisdom was a little too bleak to file neatly alongside the colourful cartoon angst of Green Day and The Offspring. Whatever, this album is a stone-cold masterpiece, and the streets won’t forget.