120 Minutes

The other day I stumbled on the The 120 Minutes Archive. If you have a few hours or weeks, spend some time perusing the tracklistings and linked videos. Believe me, you will find music you forgot existed but shouldn't have and music that should have been forgotten forever.

You can also see the final episode from May 4, 2003. First of all, I was surprised to find out 120 Minutes was still on in 2003. But it was on MTV2. By May 2003 I hadn't had cable for close to five years. The only time I had seen MTV2 was when it debuted and MTV replaced their normal broadcasting with MTV. And at that time, MTV2 was all videos--like MTV used to be. When I stumbled on MTV2 I reacted like I did when I first saw MTV in 1983. I stopped what I was doing, sat on the floor, and four hours later realized I hadn't moved.

But I digress.

I watched the final episode the other day. It focused on the musical choices of Dave Kendall and Matt Pinfield. They both annoyed me when I watched 120 Minutes while in college. Dave Kendall had good taste, he just annoyed me. Matt Pinfield was a douche with no taste. So the final episode opened with Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit." I have a love-hate feeling towards this song and as predictable as it was, it seemed appropriate. I thought Dave Kendall made some good points about how Nirvana turned alternative into a specific sound. Prior to that, alternative or underground was a fairly diverse mix of music. The one thing the various bands had in common was that they had the same "fuck you" attitude. It was awesome. And then grunge turned "alternative" into a specific thing. It's probably more appropriate to say that the music industry jumped on the grunge bandwagon and turned "alternative" into a sound. Either way, alternative as a movement or attitude ended with Nirvana. Thus, my hate attitude. My love attitude is that Nirvana was damn good.

I always liked the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" because the kids in that video looked like my friends. They weren't some Hollywood make-believe version of what a punk kid was supposed to look like. We were just kids with chips on our shoulders, big-ass bad attitudes and a love of hair color. Hell, I still have a bad attitude and a love of hair color.

The next video in the final episode, also chosen by Dave Kendall, was Nine Inch Nails' "Head Like a Hole." I still remember the first time I heard this album (Pretty Hate Machine). And seeing this video again? Awesome. Next: Jane's Addiction's "Been aught Stealing." Really? You're going to represent Jane's with that song? C'mon.... "Jane Says" and "The Mountain Song" could kick that song's ass any day.

I don't remember much after that because I started to tune out. Probably because they began to move into Pinfield's choices. There was that song by that band that seems to be in damn close to every commercial. He chose The Verve. Fine, whatever. Blur and Radiohead. I never really listened to Blur, and I am not a fan of Radiohead. It's not that I think they are talentless hacks or anything. They're very talented, and I know why people like them. I can listen to them in small doses, but I don't get the over-the-top Radiohead Love.

And then came the moment in the second hour where I realized Pinfield was still a douche. One of his most memorable moments? Interviewing Oasis and starting a fight between the Gallagher brothers. Getting the Gallagher brothers to fight is like shooting fish in a barrel. Hell, it's as easy and natural as breathing. That is one of your top memories? Really? Fucking with Oasis, those talentless assclowns? And for a split second I thought the last song on 120 Minute's was going to be by Oasis. Luckily, it wasn't. It was Siousxie and the Banshees' "Kiss them for Me."

It could be said that Kendall represented the pre-Nirvana 120 Minutes and Pinfield the post-Nirvana. Thing is, there was some damn good music after Nirvana--much better than the crap Pinfield chose to play to represent the legacy that was 120 Minutes.

Anyway, if you watched 120 Minutes, spend some time on the archives site. Looking through it, I swear I remember some of those shows. I could write a whole different post about watching 120 Minutes and the rest of MTV's Sunday night lineup with my friends in college.

Maybe I will. Someday.