Poster Children, "0 For 1"
There was a decent sized indie rock scene in Champaign-Urbana in the late 80s/early 90s, with Hum, the excellent and forgotten Steakdaddy Six, Honcho Overload, and the Poster Children all emerging to varying levels of success. Of that group, the Poster Children had the most success at the time, signing to Sire and producing a string of well-received albums. Hum is probably the one with the best enduring reputation (especially given a comeback), but the Poster Children still hold up today as well-executed indie rock.
Diminished Men, "Oblong Trance"
Instrumental rock group from Seattle, the Diminished Men play a cinematic blend of surf, jazz, and rock that ends up pretty unique. This comes from the excellent Capnomancy, an album that used to be a huge pain in the ass to get a hold of (I bought it on vinyl and then begged the band for a digital copy, which they very kindly mailed to me on a hand-burned DVD!), but is now available on Bandcamp! Go get it, it's great!
Flying Saucer Attack, "Rainstorm Blues"
Sort of shoegaze band Flying Saucer Attack produced a series of feedback drenched records in the mid to late 90s, of which this album (Further) probably got the most attention. It's the only record of theirs that I picked up, because while I do like this kind of drone sort of stuff, they don't always grab me. This one did not.
J Church, "Racked"
In a lot of ways, today feels like the authentic Five Songs experience. Some obscure 90s shit, a great instrumental song, and J Church. Just need some ska to round it out for the next tune! Anyway, J Church rules!
Quasi, "Our Happiness Is Guaranteed"
Or another obscure 90s record. This was a side project of the fantastic Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney) and Sam Coomes (Built To Spill, Heatmiser), but became Coomes's primary focus. This album, Featuring "Birds", is excellent, full of solid tunes and of course Weiss tears it up.