1. The Refreshmentsbest album-The Bottle and Fresh Horses (1997)
–Best known for the sophomoric hit “Banditos” off their debut album “Fizzy Fuzzy Big and Buzzy,” this Arizona quartet wrote incredibly catchy rock with a country influence that was easy to sing along to, but because none of their singles off of The Bottle and Fresh Horses did anything on the radio, the band decided to break up after only two albums.
2. Dishwalla
best album-Pet Your Friends (1995)
–Despite the radio success that “Counting Blue Cars” had, it was probably the eighth or ninth best song on a brilliant debut album, nowhere near the quality of “Give,” “Moisture” or “Pretty Babies.” Their second album was nearly as good, without the catchy single, but with more of a electronic influence. Once the 00’s hit, they went severely downhill, and Opaline is somewhat bland, and 2005’s self-titled album is a joke, but this is most underrated of the 90’s…after that, it’s unrelated.
3. Oleander
best album–Unwind (2001)
–See, I’m cheating. After saying it didn’t matter after the 90s, I put a band that made a great album in 2001. (and a pretty good one in 2003) But they did hit the scene in 1999, and they were such in the vein of the 90s great bands that I decided to include them anyway. 1999’s February Son put them on the map, and they continued it through three solid albums to little fanfare.
4. Screaming Trees
best album–Dust (1996)
–It almost feels weird to put this Seattle grunge band on here, because they’ve been on everyone’s underrated list for so long it’s hard to consider them underrated anymore. But they made absolutely great music while around, as good as just about any of the Seattle bands that did break through.
5. For Squirrels
best album-Example (1995)
-Of any of the bands here, this is the one that would have broken through if it wasn’t for tragic circumstances. After recording one album, the band’s tour van crashed, killing their singer and bassist, and a band everyone thought had tons of promise never got to fufill it, and their REM meets Soul Asylum sound would not be heard by many.
6. Dog’s Eye View
best album-Daisy (1997)
–Peter Stuart, best known as one of Adam Duritz’s friends and constant touring companions than for his work, deserved better. His band, while obviously having some similarities to the Counting Crows, was very underrated, a good voice mixed with a number of very tuneful songs, but without much attention granted to it.
7. Local H
best album-As Good As Dead (1996)
–One of the few two man bands in rock, Local H made angst into an art form, but never really got much appreciation and success out of it. They could also write a pretty good ballad once in a while, but never got too much popularity doing it.
8. Stavesacre-Speakeasy (1999)
–A great hard rock band with incredibly dense and catchy songs that never got much attention because they were a Christian band, although not very overtly. It shouldn’t be an excuse, because Chevelle hit the mainstream doing similar music from a Christian background, but for some reason Stavesacre was ignored.
9. Dovetail Joint-001 (1999)
–Got a small amount of attention for their song “Level on the Outside” off their only full-length, but not a whole lot. The rest of the album was a really solid hard rock album, but they faded into oblivion after the dissapointing reaction to their debut.
10. Joy Electric-Robot Rock (1997)
–Also ignored for being Christian, although in this case more prominently, Joy Electric has done everything The Postal Service has done, for more than a decade, except without the attention. And they even seem to be getting better as the 00s proceed, unlike most of the bands on this list, who are broken up, on hiatus, or just stopped making much good music.
