Can you treat it like an oil well/ When it’s underground, out of sight?/ And if the site is just a whore-sign/ Can it make enough sense to me? - Pavement, “In the Mouth a Desert”

If you do not keep up with music news outside of whatever I write in this newsletter, you might not be aware of the fact that Pavement is launching an extremely ambitious seven-city tour this summer. Given that they’ve been getting a lot of attention from recently going viral with a B-Side and the release of the documentary Pavements, it is a good time for them to get out on the road and make all of the reunion money they can. While this is great and all, it launched my mind in a completely different direction.

Pavement is the epitome of the Gen X band. They were clearly talented with great musicianship and weird, esoteric lyrics that could still manage to be poignant. They were popular enough to make it into the regular MTV music video rotation and on to late night television shows, when that still could break an artist to a wider audience. However, they never made that breakthrough, primarily because they found some way to subvert their newfound success. (You can watch Pavements if you want to learn more about this.) This “failure” made them heroes to a generation of people for whom the idea of selling out was anathema.

While they are the consummate Gen X band, when I ask you what a Pavement fan looks like, the answer that you give will be the one that probably 85 to 90 percent of people would give: a slightly awkward white guy who is probably bearded and loves guitar rock. Said gentleman might go on at length about some obscure band that you have no interest in or have heard of. Oblivious to this fact, he has not realized that you checked out somewhere between the third and fifth word he said in his 1,500-word exegesis about Kevin Shields’s guitar tone in “I Only Said.” If you have never experienced this before in your life, consider yourself lucky.

This gentleman, in the year of 2026, is, more than likely, a dad. This loops us back around to the genre of dad rock. What is dad rock? The short answer is whatever plays on your local classic rock station: Mountain, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grand Funk Railroad, Steve Miller Band, The Eagles, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Golden Earring, Ram Jam, Led Zeppelin, etc., etc.

The longer, more abstract answer is the music that reminds a father of their youth in some way, that reminds them that, at one point in their life, they were cool and had fun times that did not involve considering the interests of children and/or other people. This happens, usually, before a person hits their 30th birthday. There are studies that find that this is the age at which people’s musical taste stops expanding. In addition, surveys have shown that people’s favorite songs are from their teen years. Both of these facts are evident in dad rock.

When the term is deployed, we are usually talking about baby boomers, the people for whom classic rock is programmed. And, when you consider the audience of classic rock radio, the explanation above makes more sense. Most of those men were listening to the aforementioned bands in their teens and early 20s. Maybe they were listening to them while riding a Harley and practicing free love. I don’t know. I don’t particularly care, but it evokes a better time for them in their minds.

As Gen X’ers are now parents and have been for a little while now, I thought it might be a worthwhile idea to consider what a Gen X dad rock canon would look like. So, to start, this is a preliminary exploration into this idea. I don’t expect to be overwhelmingly comprehensive at this time. If you, fair reader, would like to contribute to this exercise, I would love that. If I get enough feedback, I’ll put them into a separate dispatch.

The way I have envisioned this canon in my head is in a tripartite structure. In one part, there is the main line: the bands that were commercially successful, the bands that you could probably hum at least one song from right now regardless of your personal feelings towards the band itself. In the second part, there is the cool dad line: bands that were in the MTV rotation, but maybe didn’t have quite the public recognition. They are still widely known and seen as innovators. In the third part—and this was the innovation that I came up with while thinking about this idea—there is the cool mom line. That’s right. Who said only boys could rock? By the time Gen X women were coming up, there was space in the world for women to rock even if shitty boys didn’t want them to. As a final note, men and women can listen to all of these bands. Just because I have used gendered terms does not mean that the music is exclusive to those groups.

With all of this out of the way, let’s get started on the Gen X dad rock canon.

Generation X is termed as people born between the years 1965 and 1980. So, the time range I focused on for this generation is 1980 to 1998, which covers the times at which much of this generation would start choosing the music that they love and that would stick with them going forward.

With this in mind, the main line is the bands that were extremely popular during this period in time. We’re not considering later resurgence, only popularity at the time. The first band that came to my mind, primarily because I had recently seen 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, was Duran Duran. Rio is a great album, and they produced excellent songs like “Girls on Film.” They had a definitive effect on this generation, especially among the older sections of it. Another band on this main line is The Cars. Any young person who asks their parents about The Cars shouldn’t be surprised if their mom or dad starts staring wistfully into the middle distance while remembering a particularly memorable date scored to “Drive.” Another band that might draw such wistful looks is The Cure. The goth merchants ended up making such charming songs as “Lovesong,” “Friday, I’m In Love,” and “Just Like Heaven.” The Cure pulled off the trick of appealing to the popular kids and the loners at the same time. We could only wish that current bands had such flexibility.

Although the new wave was the sound of the 80s, this generation also remembers more standard rock bands because the rock star was still what so many strove to be at this time. The reckless living, the groupies, the adulation—it drove many to be big. So, on the main line, we have bands like all of the hair metal ones that came out of Los Angeles in the 1980s: Guns and Roses, Mötley Crüe (a band I will always hate because I have to put those stupid umlauts in their name), and Poison, to name the ones that I can easily remember. While their music does little for me, they are massive stars; millions of people across this globe, including myself, can sing “Welcome to the Jungle” or “Girls Girls Girls” or “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”

The other major part of the main line is the alternative rock in the 1990s. The bands that I put here should not be particularly surprising. The first is, obviously, Nirvana. If you are reading this, you know something from Nirvana. Is it the intro to “Come As You Are”? Is it “Smells Like Teen Spirit”? Is it “Heart-Shaped Box”? Do you remember their Unplugged version of “All Apologies”? There is something from them that you know. Do you have to care for Nirvana? Not at all, but you know their music just like the Gen X’ers do.

Other bands that fall into the alt rock section of the main line include Smashing Pumpkins, the Gin Blossoms, and Oasis. While Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is, to put it mildly, indulgent, Siamese Dream is a good listen if not slightly long. “Today” is also still an excellent song. If all you know of New Miserable Experience is the singles—“Found Out About You,” “Allison Road,” “Hey Jealousy,” “Until I Fall Away”—I would encourage you to listen to the entire album. It’s far more interesting than those extremely good singles would suggest. They’re playing music infused with the Mexican sounds of their hometown of Tucson, Arizona, and the result is truly fascinating. While I did eventually get over my love of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? in my teens and sold it to Phantasmagoria, a CD store that moonlighted as a ska/punk venue on weekends (shoutout to the DMV people), the recent reunion cash grab is more than enough proof that the band is still well loved by many people in Generation X. In addition, we all know the lyrics to “Champagne Supernova” or “Wonderwall,” whether we want to or not.

The last band that I would add to the main line for now is REM. There is an argument for putting R.E.M. in the cool dad line, and I’m very open to it. However, everyone knows an R.E.M. song, whether it’s a cool one from their IRS days like “Gardening at Night” or “Driver 8” or ones from their mainstream releases like “Losing My Religion” or “Everybody Hurts.” Regardless of the album, every Gen X dad or mom can probably quote an R.E.M. song with great ease. In some ways, R.E.M. is the bridge between the normies and the underground weirdos. I’m sure people complained about them selling out when they signed to Warner, but those people should listen to “Country Feedback” or “E-Bow The Letter” and tell me they aren’t still really weird.

As I said above, the cool dad line is music that is known by a lot of Gen X’ers, but not all of the Gen X’ers. An immediate candidate for this line is Pavement. While “Cut Your Hair” did get into the mainstream rotation, if you were to ask a bunch of people if they know the song, they probably won’t. If you’re reading this, there’s a high likelihood your friends do, but I’m talking about John Q. Public right now. Pavement is great. My favorite album from them is Slanted & Enchanted, but I’ll listen to all of them because they are all extremely good.

Another band that falls on this line is Sonic Youth. Again, a band that has a long reputation and is well known. Their albums Daydream Nation, Goo, and Washing Machine are legendary on the underground, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that most people in the world can tell you how “Kool Thing” or “Little Trouble Girl” goes. This is why they go on the cool dad line rather than the main line.

Another band on the cool dad line for right now is Yo La Tengo. Every cool dad has a copy of I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One somewhere in their house or saved to their streaming service right now. If they are really cool, they’ve got Electr-o-pura or Painful as well. The last band for this line in my mind is The Smiths. Feelings about Morrissey aside (as hard as that might be at this particular time in the world), their four albums were absolute missiles. While people might know “How Soon Is Now?,” there is a high likelihood that many of those persons have no idea about “The Queen Is Dead” or “The Headmaster Ritual.”

This line can certainly be fleshed out more, but the question becomes who are the true institutions of the American/UK underground? I think all of the artists I mention above fall into that category. How far afield do I go? Do I want to add cult bands to this? With these questions you can sense the problem of focus that arises here. This is an area that will require some future consideration, but as I noted at the start, this is just a sketch of an idea.

I’m going to start out the cool mom line with Madonna, not because she’s obscure but because people consistently shit on her. The woman gave us decades of straight heat, and she should be correctly praised for it. “Borderline.” “Papa Don’t Preach.” “Into The Groove.” “Like A Prayer.” “Secret.” “Justify My Love.” “Vogue.” I can keep going, but I won’t because I’ve proven my point. Your cool mom plays Madonna and you love it like you should.

Now, moving into actual cool mom stuff. The first band that pops to mind for this category is The Breeders, the project of Kim and Kelly Deal. “Cannonball” is an absolute banger; it still goes to this day. The rest of Last Splash is excellent. The songs are all coming from very different angles, but they talk to each other well. In addition, the overall listening experience is fascinating. I listened to this album for research, and it was great. It is absolutely worth your time.

Along the lines of Madonna, Courtney Love has been unfairly maligned by people obsessed with defending the legacy of Kurt Cobain, who would probably be against such an enterprise. As a result, Hole is kind of considered as an after thought, which is unfortunate. When you put on Live Through This and are hit with the opening guitar line for “Violet,” you should immediately know that this is an album that is not fucking around. This is made clear as you move through the album, which is awesome and has a great Young Marble Giants cover on it. This is also to say nothing of Celebrity Skin, which still holds up now.

If you notice that your cool mom has a tendency towards playing world music, there’s a high likelihood that she was into Luscious Jackson, who encapsulated the urban bohemian vibe better than many of the other bands of their time. While Fever In Fever Out is a little too vibed out for me, their In Search of Manny EP is phenomenal. “Daughters of the KAOS” is on your favorite cool mom’s 90s playlist.

The last bands that I will put on the cool mom line are Bikini Kill and PJ Harvey. Sitting at the forefront of Riot Grrrl, I can’t understate Bikini Kill’s importance. In addition, have you listened to Pussy Whipped recently? You should. It is one of the best punk albums ever made. “Rebel Girl” remains an anthem for young women who aren’t taking any shit.

PJ Harvey is the epitome of the cool mom Gen X band in my mind. Her music is cathartic, dramatic, moving, and wildly creative. Whether you were a fan of Dry and Rid of Me and/or To Bring You My Love, you’re listening to an artist who does things her own way. When she found success with “Down by the Water,” she didn’t change who she was. She kept making her music, and it became a question of whether you wanted to accept it or not. She didn’t care what you did at the end of the day, and that’s the most Gen X stance to take.

The cool mom line falls into the same problems of the cool dad line. How deep do I go? Can I add bands like Scrawl and Tsunami here without going too deep underground? Would Bratmobile fit here? Does No Doubt fit here or are they on the main line?

As you can see, these is a very rough idea of a canon, and like with all canons, they take time to develop and see what remains. I think that this is a worthwhile topic to visit (and eventually revisit) because I’m not convinced that every single Gen Z kid is being raised on a diet of classic rock. The reference points have been updated, and these points seem like reasonable ones given what was circulating in the world at that time. Also, you think that they are going to be playing their kids Bush all of the time? I tried listening to Sixteen Stone for this, and I got bored. You remember “Everything Zen” being awesome. It is not as good as you remember. “Comedown,” however? That’s a different story. It still goes.

There are plenty of bands that can be added, but the question is where do they go? Are they worthy of the canon? Things to think about in the future. In any case, this is a good point to end for now. Thank you for reading as always. Tell someone you know about this and encourage them to subscribe. Please stay safe in the cold weather, and Fuck ICE.