46. La Cucaracha - Ween

Maybe this album isn't good enough to be Top 50 material, maybe it is, it's close either way. Ween has to be included though because they're on the long list of 90s bands I missed out on because I had the Phish-flu.

Anyways, without further adieu, the Top 10 Best Bands of the Late 90s That I Missed Out on Because I Listened to to much Phish.

10. Pavement

I still don't like them or anything, but I feel like they need to be included.

9. Elliott Smith

I pretty much didn't even know he existed until he pulled thee ol' stab myself in the heart twice technique. That's when I started listening to him, so that's what, 2004 maybe?

8. Yo La Tango

I didn't start really listening to them until 2006. Though, I Can Feel the Heart Beating As One is a freaking classic.

7. Built to Spill

Another band I didn't start listening to until 2006. I gave them so many opportunities but the monotony ... oh the monotony. I can't say I'm a fan of anything they've done in the 90s still, but still, I wish I could've heard them back then.

6. Ween

Though they've been pretty good this decade, their best stuff came out in the 90s. They're included here on my list just to represent. I don't think I really got into them until a couple years ago, that is, aside from "Roses are Free" because Phish covered it.

Now the big 5.

5. Wilco

I missed out on Uncle Tupelo, the Mermaid Ave. sessions, Being There and Summerteeth. That's unfortunate. I started listening to them in 2002 when Yankee Hotel Foxtrot came out.

4. Modest Mouse

I just missed them, so that's why they're not ranked higher. I started listening to them in 2000, right after The Moon and Antarctica came out, however, the first three songs I heard were "Positive Negative"; "Polar Opposites"; and of course, the one that's my favorite, "Interstate." All songs of the 90s. Lonesome Crowded West is also arguably their best album, and that dropped in 1997. How annoying is it when someone says "dropped" when referring to a song or album? I promise I'll never do it again. Modest Mouse will always be known to me as the band who killed Phish, (even though I do bust out a crunchy groove every now and then).

3. Radiohead

Sure I was around for the "Creep" days, but like everyone else, I stopped after that. What I missed while listening to Phish play a half hour "David Bowie" for the 104th time, was The Bends, and OK Computer. The first time I really listened to Radiohead was the day I bought a Discman, and sat at my pool with the two cds I also purchased that day, which were Kid A, and the Strokes, Is this it? album. That was 2001, and quite a good day.

2. The Flaming Lips

I missed out on The Soft Bulletin and like 90% of Flaming Lips fans, didn't get involved until Yoshiimi. Aside from that, the Flaming Lips kind of ruled the 90s even though they were really only known for Vaseline song. They survived grunge. More on this at a later time.

1. Neutral Milk Hotel

They're not #1 because they're the best per say, but In An Aeroplane Over the Sea is indeed my favorite album of the 90s, and I missed it completely. I didn't hear it until 2005, and they had long been broken up. What's so great about every other band on this list (aside from Pavement of course) is that they've all become some of my favorite bands over the past 10 years. Neutral Milk Hotel doesn't have this opportunity. They're a relic of the 90s that's probably influenced more hipster bands than any other (aside from Radiohead maybe). As much as I want them to reunite, would it even be possible for them to right another good album? I doubt it. Somethings are probably just better off left alone.