Coil, "Dark River"
Coil is one of the most interesting bands to emerge from the original industrial scene, where they quickly went off in their own direction. By the time we get to their third proper album, Love's Secret Domain, there wasn't really anything industrial left. Instead, we're left with creepy, gothic, atmospheric stuff that filters electronic music through a cracked mirror. It's one of their essential records, and there's nothing else really like it.
Torche, "Walk It Off"
Fuck yeah guitars!
He Whose Ox Is Gored, "Oathbreaker"
I don't really know what I was thinking, going for a band named something like this. I guess they are from Seattle, that's probably why. I'm nothing if not a homer. Anyway, it's fine, I suppose. Didn't really get me fired up.
Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, "Quarrel With the World"
There were a lot of baffling major label decisions in the mid-90s, but somewhere towards the top of the list is Warner Bros. deciding they just had to release the debut record by a band named Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments who also sound like this. Not that I minded or anything, it's just basically impossible to see how this could possibly have become popular.
Mercury Rev, "Sweet Oddysee of a Cancer Cell t' th' Center of Yer Heart"
Are you thinking to yourself, geez, Flaming Lips much? It's ok! Dave Fridmann, who produced a bunch of Flaming Lips records, was in Mercury Rev, and clearly the ideas he developed here with the band would come out in his later (voluminous) production work. Including, yes, the Flaming Lips. If you love things like The Soft Bulletin but aren't familiar with Mercury Rev, boy are you in for a treat. This album is great and Deserter's Songs is a masterpiece.