‘Kids’ who grew up in the 90s are super proud of their ‘music upbringing’. At a time when Coldplay was just a faint echo from the future, while Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana ruled the air waves. We had GIGI’s Janji and Kahitna’s Cantik back then. We had Lisa Loeb’s Stay and Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn and don’t forget Hanson’s Mmmbop.

Songs of the 90s mostly made sense and had some kind of message or story to tell the youth, not just telling them to party their voluptuous butts off and their emphasis on sex, sex, and sex.

We had Frente. Ah, their remake of New Order’s monotonously lovable Bizarre Love Triangle into just over a couple of minutes is what I sang in the shower all through my achy heartbreaky youth.

There was one band that stood out for such a brief period but strong enough to make me use my measly allowance to go and buy a cassette. I saw the MV of their first single on MTV. A bunch of young people causing chaos in a mall. Masses shoving it up the capitalists’ asses. “You Get What You Give”.

Gregg Alexander the foreman produced and wrote all the songs. Most of which had very strong criticism in them. Songs that weren’t afraid to mention names that pop culture so highly praised. He even portrayed the church in one of his songs.

“I’m crying like a church on Monday.”

His songs did occasionally bring up sex and vulgarity but more of what made me think. How easy it is to sell a human body for drugs and what a waste it would be. He tried to teach us in a way that wasn’t preachy. He was rather on our side pondering the thoughts with us.

None of the songs on “Maybe You Were Brainwashed Too” in my opinion were skip-able. My personal favorite was “I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore”. The Jazz rock, alternative rock and blues concoction of songs were perfect for my ears. Even more fit for singing from the top of my lungs in my room jumping up and down on my bed.

After doing a bit of Google research it turned out that Greg Alexander was tired of touring and promoting his album. The band disbanded before their second single “Someday We’ll Know” was released. I think his record label didn’t approve of him using the promotion interviews to elaborate on the concerns he wrote in his lyrics.

Greg Alexander stepped out of the limelight and opted to writing songs for other artists, “The Game of Love” to be one of them. Which I just recently discovered and had loved from the time it was first released until now.

Here’s a taste of my 90s:

Wake up kids, you got the dreamer’s disease!