There was a day way back in time in the wake of a cultural phenomenon called Nirvana when major labels existed solely to give a crap-load of cash to Alternative Rock bands. It was a beautiful time when any group with a skewed approach had a shot via a (usually mishandled) media blitz that often included "marginal" radio airplay, write-ups in uber-cool mags such as Raygun, placement of releases in mall music stores like Sam Goody and Camelot and a video on MTV's "120 Minutes." —-(Or the less illustrious "Alternative Nation" with VJ Kennedy. Remember Kennedy, with the hip-dork glasses? Yeah.)
Yes, I could be speaking only about the technicolor time known as the 1990s. Most of the major-label Alt-Rockers' CDs, however, ended up in a bargain bins across America; as it turned out, loud, weird music was merely a trend.
Cincinnati's Ass Ponys, a weird guitar band themselves, were no exception. They got hooked up with A&M for a couple releases and did the requisite promo videos. One of my fondest memories was hearing "Earth to Grandma" on 107.1 FM (WAQZ, a.k.a. Channel Z) here in Cincinnati way back in, like, '94. I was a little kid but already a total music dweeb, archiving all my favorite radio songs on hundreds of tapes and scanning the bargain bins of the then-numerous suburban used CD stores for interesting-looking stuff. (Supporting a music habit on a meager allowance necessitated such pursuits.)
In any case, I wish I would've seen these vids back then. Unfortunately, being in fourth grade and all, I was banned from staying up late enough to catch the Sunday night Alternative video shows on MTV. Thank God for YouTube.
"Earth to Grandma"
... and the equally awesome/ridiculous "Little Bastard"
They may have never quite hit Nirvana's heights, but those Ponys had some catchy-ass early '90s tunes.
