The big 10

The BMP from Ed's to Eddie and more

by Brett Milano Looking back on the history of the Best Music Poll, 10 years' worth of flashbacks run past us: all those bands, all those trends, all the musical twists and turns we didn't see coming. All the encouraging success stories, and all the local bands that should have been contenders. And all those times when our readers saw where music was heading just before we did. We were surprised at some of the people who never won and mildly shocked at a couple of those who did. But these are the past 10 years as we all heard them -- lasting connections, passing fancies, and all.

1989

R.E.M. were still semi-underground, Tracy Chapman was still new, U2 were still infallible, Tribe and the Cavedogs were still unsigned, Public Enemy was still pre-backlash, Bobby McFerrin were still bearable, and k.d. lang was still country. Such was the climate in 1989, when the Best Music Poll was launched and all of the above were winners. The Best National Album of that year, R.E.M.'s Green, was only four months old at the time, so the song on the radio was the last of the quirky cult-favorite R.E.M. singles, "Orange Crush." The first of the megahit crossover R.E.M. singles, "Stand," would come next.

Our national poll results this year looked like Top 40 radio: if it made people happy, it won, indie cred be damned. Thus Jeff Lynne came in as Best Producer (thanks largely to the Traveling Wilburys), and the diverse top-three contenders for Best National Song were Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car," Midnight Oil's "Beds Are Burning," and the Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy." Even Lou Reed had a hit single that year, so "Dirty Blvd." probably helped his win as Best Male Singer. The Reaganite anthem "Don't Worry, Be Happy" put McFerrin in as Best Jazz Artist, though reader Marina from West Somerville noted that the big song "makes me want to quit my job and develop a drug problem."

At the time, Boston seemed full of national stars about to happen. The money was on Tribe's Janet LaValley and Heretix's Ray Lemieux, who came in as Best Female and Male Vocalists (Tribe were also Best Local Rock Act), respectively. They had some even better years ahead, but who'd have thought that 1998 would find Lemieux emerging from the restaurant biz to play a one-off Heretix reunion, while LaValley would have a solo album shelved by her label? With "Baba Ghanooj" winning Best Local Song, the Phoenix wondered why the Cavedogs didn't get famous nationally -- funny, some of us are still wondering. A sadder fate befell Ed's Redeeming Qualities, who won as Best Folk Act: singer-writer Dom Leone died of cancer only a few months later; the band relocated to San Francisco and is still hanging in there.

Nineteen-eighty nine was also the year of the Pixies' classic debut Surfer Rosa, so they were all over our poll, right? Wrong. Mike Viola & Snap took Best Local Rock Album for Bang-a-Lang; the Pixies finished behind that and the Heretix's AD. (A teen prodigy at the time, Viola was last seen launching the commercial unsuccessful but musically pretty-good Candy Butchers.) And 1989's Best Local New Act was the Lemmings (with a pre-Opium Den Annette Kramer), followed by Viola and Ed's. Frank Black (then Black Francis) and company were stuck in fourth place.

1990

If you were anywhere near a radio in 1990, there were two songs you absolutely couldn't get away from: the B-52s' "Love Shack" and Sinéad O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U." In fact, the latter tune got played so incessantly that O'Connor ripped up the pope's photo just to make people stop (this is only a guess). Both were riding high when our poll appeared this year -- O'Connor took Best National Female Vocalist and the B's got Best National Rock Album (Cosmic Thing) and Best Song (for the follow-up hit "Roam") -- though they'd never hit the same peaks again. The same can't be said for R.E.M., whose superstardom was now well under way. Our page for Best Male Singer carried a brooding, intense, silhouetted photo of Michael Stipe -- hardly the last time you'd see one of those.

Nineteen ninety's readers' poll, which asked the question "What bums you out the most?", revealed that two of our readers hated Milli Vanilli even when we thought they were really singing. But everyone liked the Indigo Girls (Best National New Artist), even as "Closer to Fine" edged toward radio-burnout status. The newly instituted Best National Cutting Edge category was won by the Cure, a decade-old band that still fit that nebulous term. Perennial winner and then-U2 collaborator Daniel Lanois made his first appearance as Best National Producer, though his solo career and Dylan triumphs were still to come. Public Enemy still had a lock on rap, despite the recent controversies over Professor Griff and "Welcome to the Terrordome." The National Jazz category replaced one smooth entertainer with another, Harry Connick Jr. And the Best National Country Act was again won by k.d. lang, at this point still pure country and semicloseted. Not the case with our Best Local Country Act, Miss Xanna Don't, currently raising hell and eyebrows in Austin.

The local scene still belonged to Tribe (Best Local Rock Act and Female Vocalist) and Heretix (Male Vocalist), who'd just released their first albums (Here at the Home and Gods & Gangsters, respectively). The second album was the charm for the Pixies, who took Best Local Rock Album for Doolittle. Honoring Best Local New Act Buffalo Tom, Lisa Moore wrote that "their local fans would like them to stay around at least a little longer" -- there's a wish that came true. Still more telling was the emergence of two very different local acts that would do their share to pervert the mainstream: Think Tree (Best Cutting Edge) and Bullet LaVolta (Best Heavy Metal). Which direction would local music go from there? Toward both and neither.

1991

What can you say about a year when Sting showed up as Best National Male Vocalist? Things were definitely a little quiet in 1991, and our poll leaned toward the tried and true. If not for a remarkable five-category sweep by the Pixies, we'd write this off as a holding-pattern kind of year -- instead it was the year of the monkey that went to heaven. The days when you could see the Pixies at the Rat were long over, and the members were starting to gravitate to California (none of them currently in Boston) -- still, in '91 they dominated local music, along with our poll; Black Francis even unseated Ray Lemieux from his usual spot as Best Local Male Vocalist. The Pixies also nabbed Local Rock Act, Cutting Edge, Song, and Album (for Bossanova, supposedly the one Pixies album nobody liked, remember?).

From the looks of things, nothing else was happening in town that year. Female rock singers were still defined by Janet LaValley, even though Tribe were quietly working on their major-label debut. The favorite Jazz Act was Pat Metheny, who'd long since moved onto national stardom (we bumped him to the national category in later years). Psychedelic dance band Lava Beat were the Best New Artist (leader Lizzie Borden is now with the Finch Family), beating out bands who eventually got bigger (the 360s, Chucklehead, and Big Catholic Guilt). Otherwise, the year went to repeat winners Bullet LaVolta, Think Tree (as Best Producer), folkie Patty Larkin, and R&B main man Barrence Whitfield. Best Local Hip-hop went to Bell Biv DeVoe, who by this time were neither local nor hip-hop. We changed the reggae/ska category to a world music category, but it didn't matter -- Bim Skala Bim still won, for the third year and counting.

In the national categories no news was, well, no news. Sinéad O'Connor was still the favorite female singer, and R.E.M. were still the favorite rock band (likely fueled by anticipation for Out of Time, which was released just after the poll was distributed). A pair of troublemaker bands, Jane's Addiction and Guns N' Roses, made their first appearances (for Cutting Edge and Heavy Metal, respectively). This was the year that Jane's got caught stealing, but G N' R had only released the notorious G N' R Lies EP (with the politically and morally incorrect "One in a Million"). The nod for Best Jazz went to Miles Davis, who was still alive and relatively kicking -- but alas, R&B winner Stevie Ray Vaughan wasn't. Nine Inch Nails placed third as Best New Artist, coming in behind Deee-Lite and Charlatans UK (and just ahead of, gulp, the Soup Dragons). Predictable types like Public Enemy, the Indigo Girls, and k.d. lang rounded out the list. Oh, did we mention that Sting showed up as Best Male Vocalist? No wonder alternative rock had to happen.

1992

This was, of course, the year the heavens opened: Nevermind was released, a generation was defined, music would never be the same again, and the overwhelming national winner in our poll was . . . uh, U2. Not that Nirvana got snubbed entirely. They won as Best New Artist, even if Bleach was three years old; and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was the favorite song of the year (over "Mysterious Ways" and "Losing My Religion," a hell of a top three in any book). More surprisingly, Nirvana also won as Best Heavy Metal, coming in just ahead of Extreme. If things had worked out a little differently, would Kurt Cobain be singing for Van Halen today?

But the then-current release of U2's Achtung Baby was just as big a deal in early 1992. The band, the album, Bono, and producer Brian Eno all won their categories; and this was arguably the last time U2 would be this across-the-board important. It looks in retrospect like a repeat of 1978, when punk happened and the Rolling Stones held their own with Some Girls -- a year when new music forced the old guard to put up or shut up.

And it was old-guard names that filled most of our local categories, as Laurie Sargent and O Positive (now Toyboat)'s Dave Herlihy stepped forward as Best Female and Male Vocalists. Both of their national careers were at an all-time low. Sargent's band Face to Face had recently split, while O Positive were getting bounced from a major label, though their reconnection with the club circuit would pay off locally for years to come. And Tribe still reigned supreme, winning as Best Local Rock Act and Album (for their major-label debut, Abort). The Best Local New Artist, Cliffs of Dooneen, were just beginning to turn heads, fill clubs, and deny they sounded like U2; runners-up Letters to Cleo wouldn't do badly either.

Making poll debuts were three more fixtures-to-be: the Swinging Steaks (Country), Chucklehead (Hip-hop), and, long overdue, Bill Morrissey (Folk). And how's this for a triple bill? Bullet LaVolta, Seka, and the Bags, the top three for Heavy Metal, all a year or two away from crashing and burning. But we hadn't heard the last of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, who took Best Local Song for "Where'd You Go" -- though they were still unable to unseat Bim Skala Bim from the World Music category.

In the shocker of the year, the Pixies didn't turn up anywhere -- and wouldn't again, since they'd just released their last album, Trompe le Monde. (Also about to bite the dust were the Replacements, who never made it to our poll at all). Also surprising was the preponderance of adult-contemporary names this year: Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, and UB40, respectively taking Female Vocalist, Folk, and World, made us think twice about our demographic. And k.d. lang and Miles Davis still won for Country and Jazz, though the former was no longer country and the latter was no longer.

1993

Nineteen ninety-three in a nutshell: Pearl Jam won everything. Thank you and good night.

All right, so a few other artists managed to sneak onto the list; but Pearl Jam jumped into the poll as nobody had before. Eddie Vedder somehow managed to lose as Best Male Vocalist (Bono still wasn't ready to move over), but his band got everything else they were eligible for -- Best Act, Best New Act, Cutting Edge, National Song ("Black"), and National Album (Ten) -- in all, a far stronger splash than Nirvana's a year earlier. In fact, here's our dirty little secret: the three Best Music Poll awards that Nirvana got in 1992 were the only ones they ever won.

The Pearl Jam aesthetic seemed to infest other categories as well. If you had loud guitars and a dramatic male singer and did achingly intense songs, you were golden. Thus, Dave Herlihy was in no danger of losing his position as Best Local Male Vocalist; Seka/Strip Mind held onto Local Heavy Metal; Alice in Chains won for National Heavy Metal; and Buffalo Tom won Best Local Rock Act and Song with their own big-drama number, "Tail Lights Fade." Loud guitars and a dramatically intense female singer didn't hurt either; Come won in the New Local Artist and Local Video (for "Car") categories.

It wasn't much of a year for pure pop; the only real exception was Juliana Hatfield's win as Local Female Vocalist. And there were a few pop tracks on Crush, the compilation that won for Local Album and launched the CherryDisc label. But Tribe were shut out of the poll for the first time -- they wouldn't be back despite a strong second album -- and Hatfield's running partner Evan Dando crapped out as well, even though he was arguably Boston's most visible face at the time. Maybe that's why he never won. R.E.M. were in hiding and a poll no-show for the second year in a row. In the Best Folk categories, you had your choice of smart, sophisticated female duos -- the Story locally, the Indigo Girls nationally.

For Best Jazz, Dizzy Gillespie got the posthumous voters' tribute (he died in January of that year). But the National Rap and World categories finally got hip, with Arrested Development taking the nod in both. Breaking the pattern of Fort Apache domination (Sean Slade and Joe Harvard had both won in the past), Drew Townson won as Best Local Producer, while Eno held on nationally. The Blood Oranges and Swinging Steaks traded off on Local Country; it was the Blood Oranges' turn this year. And in the year's most oddball win, Annie Lennox took National Female Vocalist.

Still refusing to move over: k.d. lang and Bim Skala Bim, topping National Country and Local World Music for year number five.

1994

Once again, all the major awards went to that big-guitar band with the dramatically intense male singer. Nope, not Pearl Jam. This year it was Cliffs of Dooneen's turn to prove that nice guys finish first. On the strength of their second (and last) album, Undertow, the band won for Best Local Rock Act and Album, while Eric Sean Murphy unseated all the usual suspects as Local Male Vocalist. Cliffs associate Eoin Woods also won in the Local Folk slot, and another Celtic rock band, the Big Bad Bollocks, got Best Local Video for "Whiskey in Me Tea." Though the U2 backlash was still around, there was no doubt that Cliffs of Dooneen were a strong-minded band in for the long haul. So where are all those fans now that the Cliffs' nucleus is making better music for smaller crowds than Superfly?

Pearl Jam didn't do badly either, winning the one category they lost last year -- Eddie Vedder as National Male Vocalist -- and holding on to Best National Rock Act, Song, and Album (for "Daughter" and Vs.). And they weren't the only new giants walking the earth in '94, when Smashing Pumpkins were still Cutting Edge instead of arena-rock headliners and Belly, who won as Best National New Act, were all set to take their sweet, mystical pop to the world. Sigh.

Sobering note: referring to Nirvana's no-show, Matt Ashare asked, "Were you voters disappointed by In Utero or just annoyed by Kurt's recent behavior?" It wouldn't be long before Cobain would do something really disappointing.

Local pride ran high this year as Boston-identified acts led in two national categories: Juliana Hatfield as Female Vocalist and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones in World Music (which by now inevitably meant ska). The latter would be no stranger to this poll in years to come. But whatever happened to Us3, who took two national categories (Hip-hop and R&B) and are now remembered mainly as the band using all the Blue Note samples? Locally, the Best Hip-hop nod went to future LA residents Powerman 5000, in one of the last times they'd be identified as a hip-hop band. But the real local success story was Letters to Cleo, striking a blow for pop. Kay Hanley took Best Female Vocalist, while the band won for Best Cutting Edge (yes, they were amused) and for their huge local hit "I See." Yes, that's right -- the hit at this point was "I See," not "Here & Now," and they hadn't yet been anywhere near Melrose Place.

Back from the grave: Heretix (newly reborn as badasses, taking Local Heavy Metal) and O Positive, though the latter probably weren't too thrilled to take the special, one-year-only category Best Unsigned Band after all this time. Indeed, they broke up a year later. Best National Heavy Metal finally went to Aerosmith. Best National Jazz finally went to an act (Wynton Marsalis) who plays legit jazz and is alive and well.

And it's year six: Best National Country and Local World Music went to, wait for it, k.d. lang and Bim Skala Bim.

1995

Two words: punk revival. It may not have lasted, but it sure was fun. This was the year of Dookie, a "riot" on the Esplanade, and Green Day winning as Best New Artist (even though we all knew it was their third album, right?). That said, we didn't wind up with a punk-heavy poll this year; in fact, the punkiest winners after Green Day may well have been Soundgarden (Best National Heavy Metal) and R.E.M. who reinvented themselves with Monster (Best National Rock Album) and hit the poll for the first time since 1991. And a different kind of tension was embodied by Nine Inch Nails, debuting as Best Cutting Edge -- four years after losing Best New Artist to Deee-Lite.

This was Letters to Cleo's year: they'd done the major-label debut, the national hit single ("Here & Now"), and the Melrose Place appearance. Accordingly, we bumped them up to the National category, where they won for Best Song and Female Vocalist. But the Cleos' influence showed up in our local categories, where their producer, Mike Denneen, topped his category (unseating the Fort Apache crew) and Tracy Bonham -- then seen as the successor to Kay Hanley's pop-darling throne -- won as Best Female Vocalist and New Artist. But this was also the year when things got very, very earnest. Not only did Cliffs of Dooneen hold on to their categories (Local Rock Act and Male Singer), but Machinery Hall were suddenly one of the biggest bands in town, winning three categories, including Best Song (for "It Suits You Now"). If you needed cheaper thrills, at least 6L6 were in as Best Heavy Metal.

It was a dramatic year for Pearl Jam, who played the Garden two days after Kurt Cobain's death and entered their experimental phase with Vitalogy; they and Eddie Vedder held their usual spots as Best National Rock Act and Male Vocalist. Blues Traveler became the first (and last) H.O.R.D.E.-associated band to win (as Best R&B), and the Lilith buzz was anticipated when Sarah McLachlan took Best National Folk. And with the exception of Miles and Diz, the Chieftains became the oldest guys ever to win the poll (as Best International Act).

Stop the presses: k.d. lang didn't win. In fact, she didn't even place in the National Country category, which went to Lyle Lovett (over Johnny Cash and, shudder, Garth Brooks). This made Bim Skala Bim the undisputed champions of the poll, winning for the seventh time in a category we temporarily renamed "Local International." Don't worry, we changed it back.

1996

Is it the "year of the woman" yet? Not quite, but was the year of Alanis Morissette, whose three-category win (including Best Song for "You Oughta Know") prompted a lot of head-scratching on our part. We'd seen a few handfuls of bright alternative hopes come and go -- hell, Courtney Love still hasn't shown up in our poll -- then along came a former disco star from Canada to blow them all away. Did this mean that alternative rock was finally over?

Not if Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains, and Radiohead had anything to say about it. All three won this year, with the Pumpkins (winning for the double-CD epic Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness) having a moment of glory before their life got complicated. Techno made its debut via Moby's showing as Best National DJ (though he'd later fall out of local favor with that Burma cover); the Beastie Boys won Best Hip-hop, even without an album; and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were still enough of a big deal to win Best National Rock Act. Maybe it's because a couple of Peppers played on "You Oughta Know." Eddie Vedder maintained his Male Vocalist supremacy, though he barely appeared on Pearl Jam's only album that year (Mirror Ball, with Neil Young). And we can proudly say that Radiohead finished as Best Alternative Act two years before becoming the obvious choice they are today.

Locally, it was the revenge of big noise, with pure pop and earnest guitar rock nearly wiped out. Machinery Hall were still the favorite local band, and recent Grammy nominee Tracy Bonham was the favorite female singer. But it was good-bye to the Cliffs and Cleos, hello to 6L6 and Powerman 5000, with the year's big winners taking two and three categories, respectively. This was a big year for alternative metal in Boston, with the guitar-heavy O'Brien's scene springing up. Ironically, both winning bands have since left town.

I think there's a David Letterman joke in this: "Trona, Enya. Enya, Trona." In any case, those two very different acts debuted this year; the first as Local New Artist and the second as Best World Music. Trona went on to make one of 1998's best local albums; Enya went on to get dissed on South Park.

1997

This year's winners fell into two categories: the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and everybody else. While everyone was waiting for the next breakthrough band from Boston, Dicky Barrett and company stuck with their work ethic and played a million gigs -- and sure enough, now they're the next breakthrough band from Boston. "The Impression That I Get" (originally on the benefit Safe & Sound compilation) was the national hit, and they got the hero's welcome at home, taking three categories (including the newly added "Best Local Band That Sells a Lot of Records"). Then they went back out and played another million gigs.

We rejiggered the poll this year, adding a few new categories, including Best Deviant Act. What else can you do with Marilyn Manson and the Women of Sodom? (Don't answer that.) As a result, a bunch of seemingly obvious winners that never made the poll before finally showed up. For instance, it's hard to believe that the Gigolo Aunts, Roomful of Blues, Either/Orchestra, and Sebadoh had never won in the past, but they all turned up this year: Roomful, whose existence predated our poll by a good 15 years, finally won as Best R&B Act, while Sebadoh had the year's Best Album with Harmacy. And the Gigolos were named Best Local Band That Doesn't Sell a Lot of Records, a category they hope to outgrow when their long-awaited major-label comeback appears in early summer.

Speaking of young upstart acts, how about David Bowie and Peter Wolf? Both made their poll debuts in our new Best Comeback category -- and if Wolf's Long Line didn't turn the trick nationally, its quality was noticed in town. (He'll be back with a new disc this year.) Ani DiFranco's selection as Best Folk Artist was also a bit overdue, but at least we were there before she hit the Top 20 (and we're hoping that Best Local Folk winner Tracie Smart will someday do the same). But longtime faves U2 and REM failed to place even with new albums out or on the way, and Pearl Jam were a no-show for the first time. In three of the big national categories (Best Male Vocalist, Album, and Song), Beck was where it's at.