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
The Great Escape: When Blur Turned Britpop Into a Circus
Blur's Country House topped the UK singles chart on 11 September 1995. It ignited the Battle of Britpop and turned The Great Escape into the closing chapter of the band's Britpop trilogy.
· 5 min read
Richard Ashcroft: Britpop's believer in magic
Richard Ashcroft, the Verve frontman born in Wigan in 1971, turns 55 on September 11, 2026. His career rewired British rock's emotional vocabulary.
· 3 min read
Moby: How a Baby Named After a Whale Built Play
Richard Melville Hall, born in 1965 and nicknamed Moby, travelled from food stamps and punk to the 1999 album Play. The record pushed his sales toward twenty million.
· 5 min read
44 Years of Francesco Gabbani
From a childhood in his father's instrument shop to winning Sanremo twice, Francesco Gabbani built a career that rejected every convention of Italian pop.
· 5 min read
How a Brighton Tragedy Turned Skeleton Tree Inside Out
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released Skeleton Tree on September 9, 2016. The album was split in half by the death of Cave's fifteen-year-old son Arthur.
· 4 min read
Aimee Mann: The Grammy She Won Was Called 'Mental Illness'
A major label once shelved an entire album, and the artist simply bought it back. That quiet act of defiance reshaped Aimee Mann’s career and, in a way, predict…
· 4 min read
Gracie Abrams at 27: Two Grammys, One Director Father
The daughter of a blockbuster filmmaker writes songs so intimate they sound like voice memos never meant to leave her bedroom. That collision of Hollywood pedig…
· 4 min read
Avril Lavigne: The Best Damn Tour Live in Toronto
Avril Lavigne's The Best Damn Tour: Live in Toronto captured a sold-out Air Canada Centre show on April 7, 2008, and arrived on DVD in September 2008.
· 4 min read
Sondre Lerche: Bossa Nova Before Breakfast
The kid who would grow up to make a living writing film scores spent his childhood trying to slip out from under A-ha’s shadow. Sondre Lerche was born in Bergen…
· 3 min read
108th on Billboard and Soundgarden Just Broke Grunge Wide Open
A band that spent its first album on an indie label suddenly had a sticker warning parents about its lyrics. That sticker appeared on Louder Than Love, the seco…
· 4 min read
Steve Harwell: The Garage Rapper Who Bought a BMW at 27
Steve Harwell, the voice of Smash Mouth, died three years ago in Boise at 56. His 27-year run began in a San Jose garage with a kid who once thought his future was in hip-hop.
· 5 min read
a-ha: Cast in Steel — The Album That Broke a Retirement
Eleven years ago today, a-ha released Cast in Steel — the album that reversed a very public farewell and arrived with a fixed two-year expiration date.
· 4 min read
How Jason McCaslin Became Sum 41's Backbone
Jason McCaslin got his nickname in an Ajax high school cafeteria. He became the bassist who held Sum 41 together through platinum records, lineup changes, and a quarter-century of pop-punk history.
· 4 min read
Tomo Milicevic: From Sarajevo Violin to Arenas
Tomo Milicevic spent fifteen years as the lead guitarist for Thirty Seconds to Mars. His story begins at age three with a violin bow in Sarajevo and a family flight to Michigan before the war.
· 5 min read
The Genesis Album That Killed a 48-Year Chart Streak
After Phil Collins walked away in 1996, Genesis hired a new singer and cut their fifteenth studio album — then cancelled two U.S. tours when the seats stayed empty.
· 4 min read
How Suede Made Britpop's Brightest Rebound
Thirty years ago this week, Suede released Coming Up. The album answered Bernard Butler's departure with five top-ten singles and a number one chart position.
· 4 min read
Nine Inch Nails: How Hesitation Marks Ended the Silence
On September 3, 2013, Nine Inch Nails released Hesitation Marks. The album ended a five-year silence and brought Trent Reznor back to a major label with a sound no one expected.
· 4 min read
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables: 46 Years of Burning Chrome
Dead Kennedys released their debut album on September 2, 1980. Its cover showed six burning police cruisers from the White Night riot, and 46 years later the photograph still burns.
· 4 min read
The Black Hat and the Garage: Debbie Gibson at 56
Debbie Gibson, born on August 31, 1970, wrote, produced, and performed a Billboard Hot 100 number one single entirely alone before she could legally drive.
· 4 min read
The Breeders' Last Splash: 15 Songs, 39 Minutes, 33 Years
On August 30, 1993, The Breeders released Last Splash on 4AD. The 39-minute, 15-song album yanked the band out of the Pixies' shadow and into a sun-bleached spotlight all their own.
· 5 min read
Depeche Mode: How 'Personal Jesus' Shook Synth-Pop
Depeche Mode's 'Personal Jesus' arrived on August 29, 1989. Built on stomped flight cases and a sleazy blues riff, it marked a hard pivot for the synth-pop pioneers.
· 5 min read
The Oasis debut that outsold grunge in 177 weeks
On August 29, 1994, Oasis released 'Definitely Maybe', a debut that became the fastest-selling in British history and spent 177 weeks on the UK chart.
· 4 min read
Oasis: How Definitely Maybe Sold 8 Million
Oasis released Definitely Maybe on August 29, 1994. The fastest-selling British debut in history at that point became the cornerstone of Britpop, selling over 8 million copies worldwide.
· 4 min read
Pearl Jam's Ten: A Jersey Number That Became a Name
Pearl Jam's debut album Ten, released on August 27, 1991, borrowed its name from a basketball jersey number. It became one of the best-selling records of the decade.
· 4 min read