April 28, 1998: the Eve 6 debut album drops. It was a wild time in alternative rock radio and Eve 6 supplied some stability.
I feel I’m in a position of expertise to speak on this, because I lived it. In the summer of ’96, I started hosting a weekly college radio show on Northeastern University’s WRBB. I grew up north of Boston, with parents who liked rock and an uncle who liked punk and metal. In grade school, I listened to WBCN. In high school, I moved on to WFNX. And throughout it all, I absorbed hours of music videos on MTV. All of these influences made it onto the playlist of my radio show. I was a student of alternative rock.
In early ’97, I started interning at WFNX. I was on the air there part-time by the end of the year. A dream come true! My earliest experiences as a commercial radio DJ were playing the all the great alternative rock I’d grown up listening to and loving alongside new songs. And let me tell you, by the end of the ’90s, those new alternative songs were all over the map. And that’s a good thing! Diversity of musical styles and genres has always been what’s attracted me to the alternative format.
That being said, I love my rock the most.
As I remember it, straight-up rock was hard to come by on alterative radio by the time I was getting my feet wet. I took a scroll through this 1998 year-end alternative chart to make sure my memory wasn’t to fuzzy, and it turns out I’m pretty much on point. There’s a LOT of pop/crossover/softer alt sounds (Matchbox 20, Barenaked Ladies). There’s the beginnings of butt-rock (Creed) and even a little bit of nu metal (Marylin Manson), even though that sound would start to dominate until ’99.
Thankfully, Eve 6 came along.
The Eve 6 Debut Album That Helped Save Alternative Rock
“Inside Out” hit alternative rock radio just as the album hit shelves in late April of ’98. Within weeks, it was No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart. And it was–and is–an alternative ROCK song. As were the four follow-up singles that would keep the band on the airwaves well in to ’99 and help the album go platinum.
I appreciate that, because as the ’90s drew to a close, alternative rock was a different beast than it was at the decade’s birth. Nu metal, rap rock, butt rock, and post-post-post-Grunge were the predominant sounds. I should know, as I played them all. I’ll write about that another time. Right now, I’d like to take a moment to appreciate the debut album from Eve 6, saviors of late ’90s alternative rock.
