Alternative
This section covers album stories, birthdays, and anniversaries from artists across alternative and indie rock, plus notes on vinyl reissues as they come out. Alternative music grew up alongside independent labels, and many of its defining albums were pressed in comparatively modest runs the first time around, which is part of why later represses and anniversary editions get treated as real events rather than routine catalog work. Expect stories about how records were actually made — home studios, small budgets, unlikely breaks — and context on the pressings collectors look for when a favorite title finally returns to vinyl.
254 STORIES
Pulp's We Love Life: The Album That Almost Wasn't
Pulp's seventh album We Love Life arrived on Island Records on October 22, 2001, after stalled sessions and a producer change nearly ended the record.
· 4 min read
Lana Del Rey's Blue Banisters, the Album She Didn't Want You to Hear
Lana Del Rey released Blue Banisters on October 22, 2021, with almost no promotion after deleting her social media accounts a month earlier.
· 4 min read
Why Did The Shins Record Chutes Too Narrow in a Basement?
The Shins recorded Chutes Too Narrow in a basement under James Mercer's former Portland home. Sixty dollars of new locks stood in for a studio budget.
· 3 min read
How U2's Boy Nearly Lost Its Producer Before It Began
U2's debut album Boy was made with Steve Lillywhite after Island Records dropped Martin Hannett, who was grieving Ian Curtis and not well enough to work.
· 6 min read
How Nine Inch Nails Built Pretty Hate Machine Alone
Trent Reznor assembled Pretty Hate Machine largely alone at Cleveland's Right Track studio, playing most instruments himself and singing every part.
· 4 min read
How David Bowie's Pin Ups Turned a Stopgap Into a No. 1
David Bowie's Pin Ups, a covers record of 1960s songs, was released on 19 October 1973 and became a number-one hit in Britain despite critics savaging it.
· 3 min read
Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto: The Quiet Album That Exploded
Coldplay's fifth album Mylo Xyloto arrived on 24 October 2011 as a sci-fi concept record about the planet Silencia, topping charts in 34 countries.
· 4 min read
Jimmy Eat World Futures: The Album That Almost Didn't Happen
Jimmy Eat World's fifth album Futures nearly fell apart when producer Mark Trombino left the sessions. The band regrouped with Gil Norton and released the record in October 2004.
· 4 min read
How Sick of It All Scratched the Surface of Hardcore
Sick of It All bought their way out of Relativity Records for $200,000 and made Scratch the Surface with full creative control on East West Records.
· 4 min read
Jane's Addiction's The Great Escape Artist at 15
Perry Farrell's Jane's Addiction returned in 2011 with The Great Escape Artist. It was the band's fourth album, made after a revolving door of bassists and an eight-year studio silence.
· 3 min read
M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming and the Risk That Paid Off
M83's sixth studio album, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, became the French band's highest-charting release and a Grammy nominee despite its double-disc gamble.
· 3 min read
How Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Took Off Without Oasis
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds debut album arrived on 17 October 2011 and sold 122,530 copies in its first week, entering the UK chart at number one.
· 4 min read
How Did Mac DeMarco's 2 Turn a Montreal Flat Into a Classic?
Mac DeMarco recorded his debut studio album 2 in a Montreal apartment wearing only his underwear, and the record came out on 16 October 2012.
· 3 min read
How John Mayer Bet Everything on His Own Pop Sound
John Mayer left Atlanta duo LoFi Masters after a split over pop music, then built a solo career that led to Columbia Records and a first Grammy in 2003.
· 4 min read
How Eurythmics Made a Flop That Changed Everything
Eurythmics' debut album In the Garden arrived on RCA Records in October 1981 and missed the charts entirely. It taught Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart to build songs from machines and strange sounds.
· 4 min read
Jason Everman: From Nirvana to the Green Berets
Jason Everman paid $606.17 for Nirvana's Bleach, toured with the band, then joined Soundgarden before quitting music for the US Army, where he became a Ranger and Green Beret.
· 4 min read
How Medazzaland Became Duran Duran's Lost Digital Gamble
Duran Duran released Medazzaland on 14 October 1997. The ninth album was named after Simon Le Bon's dental anaesthetic and issued only in North America, Latin America and Japan.
· 3 min read
How a Glasgow Golf Club Basement Sparked Rattlesnakes
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions wrote two songs in a Glasgow golf club basement. Their debut album Rattlesnakes was recorded in about a month at a Shoreditch studio.
· 3 min read
How U2 Nearly Split Before October
In the summer of 1981, U2 recorded their second album October while a spiritual crisis threatened to end the band before it began.
· 3 min read
Why Did Editors' In This Light and on This Evening Divide Everyone?
Editors released In This Light and on This Evening on 12 October 2009. The machine-driven album about London topped the UK chart and then vanished from it in three weeks.
· 3 min read
How Julia Sanina Traded Pop for The Hardkiss
Julia Sanina, born in Kyiv in 1990, left a Russian-language pop duo in 2011 to front The Hardkiss, the Ukrainian alternative rock band she still leads.
· 4 min read
Dave Grohl's First Night on Stage with Nirvana
Dave Grohl played his first live show with Nirvana on October 11, 1990, at the North Shore Surf Club in Olympia, Washington. The moment is captured on the DVD in the box set With the Lights Out.
· 4 min read
Evanescence Scrapped an Album and Made a Number One
Evanescence's third album was rejected by its label and rebuilt with a new producer. It arrived on 11 October 2011 through Wind-up Records.
· 3 min read
Why Did PJ Harvey Walk Away from a Working Band?
PJ Harvey left Automatic Dlamini in January 1991 to form her own trio, and within two years had released Dry and Rid of Me. The band dissolved in 1993 after opening for U2.
· 4 min read