Jehnny Beth names the “most influential” album of the 1990s
From grunge to Britpop, and shoegaze to nu-metal, the 1990s was a particularly productive age for the world of rock and roll music, giving rise to a seemingly endless litany of outfits who went on to inspire the next generation of rock innovators, including Jehnny Beth.
Having dominated the post-punk age of the 2010s alongside Savages, as well as collaborating with everybody from Bobby Gillespie to Julian Casablancas, Beth has explored a wealth of different musical and artistic avenues over the years. Now, with her solo career reaching new heights thanks to the sheer brilliance of You Heartbreaker, You, the songwriter continues to expand upon her incredible repertoire, constantly moving forward rather than becoming embroiled in the shackles of nostalgia.
That is not to say, however, that Beth hasn’t retained the influences soaked up while growing up in the 1990s. After all, the decade was awash with inventive and revolutionary at every turn, from the political rap-rock of Rage Against the Machine to the indie-guitar mastery of Oasis. It was such a vibrant period for rock and roll music, but some of Beth’s favourite musical moments from that time remain relatively underrated by the mainstream, as you might expect from an artist of her calibre.
During a recent interview with Far Out, ahead of the release of her latest record, Beth reflected on some of the groups that impacted the project. One such outfit was the cult post-hardcore outfit Quicksand, who were introduced to her by her longtime comrade and collaborator, Johnny Hostile. “Quicksand is a band that I’m really, currently, really obsessed with,” the vocalist told me, before delving into her deep appreciation of their abrasive sound.
Bursting onto the scene back in 1990, Quicksand were essential in carving out the sound of 1990s post-hardcore, but they never achieved much in the way of mainstream or commercial success. Nevertheless, the 1993 debut album Slip has gained the group something of a cult following in the years since, and Jehnny Beth is certainly part of that cult. “Slip, their first record, I think, is one of the most influential records of the ‘90s,” she boldly declared.
“They merged shoegaze with hardcore,” Beth continued. “And coming from the hardcore New York scene, and it was so interesting, what they’d done and influenced so many bands after that, and they’re quite underrated.” You can certainly hear the impact of Quicksand’s early sound in subsequent punk and post-hardcore releases, and even in Beth’s recent solo material, but the appeal of the New York outfit certainly didn’t end with the new millennium.
Back in 2012, Quicksand reformed and, in the years since, have continued to create innovative and infectious genre-defying material, as well as enjoying the influential reputation that they never really got a chance to witness back in the 1990s. According to Beth, the band’s most recent material is among their greatest work: “They released a record in 2021 called Distant Populations, and I think that’s one of those perfect records, you know, from start to finish,” she affirmed.
For such an important era in rock, the 1990s had its fair share of underrated and unjustly forgotten groups, but Quicksand are largely in a league of their own. They might have been ignored by the mainstream back in their heyday, but their trailblazing sound seemed to capture the imaginations of countless future artists, like Jehnny Beth, who continue to carry their legacy forwards.
