Welcome to another edition of Today in Boston ROCK, where I, Adam 12, spotlight Very Important Days In Rock History. March 8th is one.
March 8, 1974: Queen releases their second studio album, conveniently titled Queen II. Unless you’re a big-time Queen fan, you probably don’t remember many of the songs. But you sure as hell know the album cover.
Released March 8, 1974.
March 8, 1994: Nine Inch Nails releases their second full-length album The Downward Spiral. It was a groundbreaking album that would go on to be one of the most essential releases of the ’90s. Our own Erica Banas digs into it below.
And yes, you read that correctly. March 8, 1994: Soundgarden releases their breakthrough album Superunknown on the exact same day as NIN drops The Downward Spiral. I can’t think of a band who did a better job of evolving their sound between two records than Soundgarden did between Badmotorfinger and Superunknown. Two top-tier releases that are about as far apart sound-wise as two releases from the same band can be, yet they still share the same musical DNA.
March 8, 2011: Mike Starr, founding bassist of Alice In Chains, was found dead of a drug overdose in Salt Lake City. He was only 44. Let’s flash back to 1992, when Starr and the band played The Channel in Boston.
Want more ROCK history, with a Boston twist? It’s all right here.
