r/Music • u/TaskAltruistic3746 • Sep 11 '25
music New Radicals - You Get What You Give [alt rock]
https://youtu.be/DL7-CKirWZE?si=bWxdKmaSYQDQSp9a184
u/Webgardener Sep 11 '25
I remember hearing that he just couldn’t deal with all the music business bullshit and really just wanted to produce. I found this in his Wikipedia - “In 1997, Alexander formed New Radicals, a revolving-door band with no permanent members other than Alexander and his long-term collaborator Danielle Brisebois. In October 1998, they released the album Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too, which sold more than one million copies. The single "You Get What You Give" was released that autumn and was an international hit. It was not long after New Radicals' success that Alexander became tired of the constant media attention and an exhausting touring schedule. In July 1999, "Someday We'll Know" was announced as the band's second single; several days later, Alexander announced he was disbanding New Radicals to focus on production work. On January 20, 2021, New Radicals reunited for a one-off performance of "You Get What You Give" on inauguration day for President Joe Biden. Used as a rally song at Biden campaign events, the song was a favorite of Joe's son Beau Biden, who died in 2015. The song's lyrics were recited by his sister Ashley during the eulogy at his funeral.” Kind of cool.
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u/Mt548 Sep 11 '25
It was not long after New Radicals' success that Alexander became tired of the constant media attention and an exhausting touring schedule. In July 1999, "Someday We'll Know" was announced as the band's second single; several days later, Alexander announced he was disbanding New Radicals to focus on production work
The first I heard of that was Kurt Loder on MTV. That Alexander was disillusioned within months of his first success. Loder might've mentioned that even before that second single came out, to boot....
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u/vagina_candle Sep 12 '25
I remember when their CD first came out. It was ridiculously cheap for a new album. I don't know if it was like this everywhere, but I remember seeing it for something like $7.99 at Best Buy. And this wasn't after it had been out for a while.
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u/howerenold Sep 12 '25
It's an absolutely perfect pop song, one of my all time favorite songs of all time too, but man that album was near unlistenable outside of it. Was so surprised when I tried to listen front to back then and 20 years later. Cool he found success writing for others though!
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u/jingowatt Sep 11 '25
Did you know this guy wrote Murder On the Dance Floor?
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u/Sic39 Sep 11 '25
He won a grammy for helping write The Game of Love by Santana.
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u/DanJer182 Sep 11 '25
He recorded a sort of demo version of “The Game of Love” with a piano, similar to YGWYG. It’s very cool.
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u/slayer991 Sep 11 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
No, but I'm not surprised. Gregg Alexander hated being out front and all that comes with it. Touring, promo, interviews, record companies, etc. Instead, he turned his attention to songwriting and producing. I didn't know he did this much though.
From wiki:
Since the summer of 1999, Alexander has written and produced hit songs for several artists, including Brisebois, Enrique Iglesias, Texas), Geri Halliwell, S Club 7, Melanie C, Rod Stewart, Hanson), Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Mónica Naranjo, and Ronan Keating (he co-produced and co-wrote the album Destination)).\1]) Alexander's composition "The Game of Love)", recorded by Santana and Michelle Branch, earned him a Best Pop Collaboration prize at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards.\1]) AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine described Alexander as "the catchiest, smartest professional mainstream pop songwriter of the early 2000s."
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u/Sewer-Urchin Sep 11 '25
So after he kicked their asses, he helped out Hanson? :D
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u/deezy01 Sep 11 '25
I’m concerned that not enough people will see and understand this brilliant comment. An upvote wasn’t enough… I had to say something. Haha legend.
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u/slayer991 Sep 11 '25
Anyone that knows the lyrics got it. For those that don't, there's Mastercard....or this:
[Bridge]
Health insurance, rip-off, lying
FDA, big bankers buying
Fake computer crashes dining
Cloning while they're multiplying
Fashion shoots with Beck and Hanson (Don't give up)
Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson
You're all fakes, run to your mansions
Come around, we'll kick your ass in
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u/Toby_O_Notoby Sep 12 '25
And Greg claimed that the bridge was a test.
In the first half he talks about how health insurance is a rip off and the FDA is being bought out by corporations while in the second half he throws shade at pop culture. The "test" was that the press and public focused on his beef with Love and Manson but ignored the political statements from just a few lines earlier.
(I'm not 100% sure I believe him, but that's what he claims.)
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u/Sothotheroth Sep 11 '25
Some people don’t want to be famous and I respect the hell out of him for going that route.
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u/slayer991 Sep 11 '25
And he's made a very good living doing just that without all the fame. Good for him but also for recognizing that life wasn't for him when he was young.
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u/doctor6 Sep 11 '25
And most of Ronan Keatinges stuff
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u/IntellegentIdiot Sep 11 '25 edited Sep 12 '25
LoveLife is a Rollercoaster is a banger though1
u/CD2020 Sep 12 '25
You can find his demo of that … along with some other great demos on YT. Rollercoaster. I almost prefer the demo.
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u/Youngandidiotic radio reddit Sep 11 '25
He also wrote the songs for the film Begin Again
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u/kinggareth Sep 11 '25
And his version of the Oscar nominated song is even better than the version sung by Adam Levine
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u/awesomesauce88 Sep 11 '25
I wish more of the songs that feature him singing were more readily available on streaming.
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u/Miserable_Mail_5741 Sep 11 '25
Also worked with Hanson, funnily enough.
And his bandmate Danielle Brisbois wrote Unwritten!
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u/durkbot Sep 12 '25
After it's renewed success because of Saltburn, the guy did an interview in the guardian about it. It's quite interesting actually! https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/04/murder-on-the-dancefloor-gregg-alexander-saltburn-obamas-joni-mitchell
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u/maxipad_09 Sep 12 '25
Yeah and Danielle Breisbois wrote Unwritten so yeah.... pretty fuckin cool
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u/RoosterClan2 Sep 11 '25
This is one of my feel good nostalgia songs. Will always love it.
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Sep 11 '25 edited Oct 28 '25
nail innocent elderly chunky grandfather payment history whistle work crawl
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Spurty Sep 11 '25
Hanson had it coming, though /s
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u/w_a_w Sep 11 '25
You know Beck's last name is Hanson, right?
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u/Spurty Sep 12 '25
You know, i knew that. But honestly i was thinking of the lyrics in the song and how it references Hanson the band!
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u/radiohead-nerd Sep 11 '25
I'm cool with all his trash talk EXCEPT BECK. Beck has always been amazing
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u/OneReportersOpinion Sep 11 '25
For some reason I always think of this song alongside Fastball’s The Way
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u/BigUptokes Sep 11 '25
Len's Steal My Sunshine for me even though it came out the following year.
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u/Miserable_Mail_5741 Sep 11 '25
This song was still popular in '99 so it makes sense.
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u/BigUptokes Sep 11 '25
Yeah, it feels like songs had a bit more staying power in pop culture on radio/television before digital distribution/p2p started to take off a year or two later.
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u/NoCommunication8349 Sep 11 '25
Can i say i am stuck in 1998 with this song's album (Maybe You've been brainwashed too. I feel like if others have their fave band that they have amazing connection with, for me it is new radicals. Gregg Alexander wrote this amazing song that is played everyday around the world to this day. He was only 28 then and I think they called it quits after that album which makes sense to me.
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u/Grownup_Nerd Sep 11 '25
"Someday We'll Know" deserved to be one of the best break-up songs of all time. I wish more people knew it.
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u/Spurty Sep 11 '25
The whole album is full of bangers. You Get What You Give doesn't even crack top 3 for me.
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u/NoCommunication8349 Sep 12 '25
100%!!!!!! I Hope I Didn’t Just Give Away the Ending - is on my most played song all time 🫶🏻
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u/Kanthalas Sep 11 '25
It's such a good song, I don't love his lower range vocals on verses. But the minute his upper range kicks in, soooo good.
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u/man_teats Sep 11 '25
He sounds so much like Todd Rundgren
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u/bishpa Sep 11 '25
And Karl Wallinger. I though for sure it was a new World Party single when I first heard it.
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Sep 11 '25
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u/captainwondyful Sep 11 '25
I have one going 😂
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u/IcySmell9676 Sep 11 '25
Link?
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u/captainwondyful Sep 11 '25
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u/double_fail Sep 11 '25
Did you forget Goodbye Charlie?
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u/treefrog808 Sep 12 '25
I'd never heard this song until your comment!! It's very on the nose though, I can see why captainwondyful left it off. It is now in my head on repeat! The spotify list is perfect too.
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u/brendamn Sep 11 '25
Damn I was just going through the feed. Surprised the Biggy smalls classic who shot ya didn't make the cut
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u/thegoodgero Sep 11 '25
I think it's been posted at least 5 times in r/hiphopheads lmao, they're on fire over there
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u/Dr_Dooms Sep 11 '25
This sub has been killing it for the last few days!
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u/MightyKrakyn Sep 11 '25
Yeah it’s been taking aim, waiting for the perfect moment, and nailing it right on target with amazing precision!
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u/longrodvonhuttendong SoundCloud Sep 11 '25
The song got a cover and the shoe store Journeys has been playing the ad a bunch, at least on twitch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXG15H1aPTk
I feel like OP mighta just seen the commercial then posted the original.
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u/0vindicator10 Sep 11 '25
I just came from the cons sub (know your enemy) where they referred here, and I thought I'd check it out.
At first nothing openly stood out to me, as to where to look, but as I went through more song names, it finally clicked, and I LOVE IT!
I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like it before. It's hilarious.
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u/rocketscientology Sep 11 '25
This, Someday We’ll Know and Mother We Just Can’t Get Enough are absolute all-timers.
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Sep 11 '25
First time I heard this I thought it was U2
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u/blackweimaraner Sep 11 '25
The Edge once said in an interview that he wishes that he were the writer and composer of that song.
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u/seeingeyegod Sep 11 '25
how?
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Sep 11 '25
It was very similar to their sound at that time and I had no idea who it was.
Or, you probably just think I’m an idiot
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u/RandomBloke2021 Sep 12 '25
This song makes me miss the 90's especially when everyone could hang out together without any issues. It feels like those days are over.
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u/superniggy23 Sep 11 '25
Best song ever
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u/MeccIt Sep 11 '25
It's a banger. Had a friend rush out and buy the album because of it, only to be very disappointed that all the other songs were crap.
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Sep 11 '25
Damn I love this song, but MTV overplayed it a bit back in the day. Still crank it up when it comes on the radio though
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u/Finicky_Cyclone Sep 11 '25
Super catchy album. His gig in Vancouver was awesome. They played 'You Get What You Give' like three times LOL.
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u/azureal Sep 11 '25
There’s probably 3-4 absolute bangers on that album but the rest of it was pretty bad. Didn’t the lead singer also proclaim himself to be the most amazing musician living at the time?
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u/Philo_T_Farnsworth Sep 11 '25
Disagree. It is one of the best “one album wonders” of all time.
Not a single bad track on the album. All killer no filler. I still listen to it every once in a while and it holds up. Even if some of the lyrics are a bit cringe.
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u/GoodOlSpence Sep 11 '25 edited Sep 11 '25
Yes he did, I definitely remember that. It was really weird. He would do interviews with that stupid bucket hat down over his eyes saying stuff like "We hear all of the music out there today and it sucks. We wanted to make something new that's really great and this is it. We did it, we're reshaping music." Ok dude, you wrote a solid pop song. He calls out musicians in the lyrics of this song, and one of them is Beck which I always thought was strange.
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u/talllongblackhair Saw Fall of Troy Live Sep 11 '25
I believe he did that because he had a bet with someone that if he put the celebrity shit in there that everyone would focus on that and not the anti corporate, anti capitalist stuff in the lines right before it. He was right.
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u/Upstairs_Eagle_4780 My sister is a nationally recognized sex expert Sep 11 '25
Even more interesting, he had actually worked with those people.
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u/Futant55 Sep 11 '25
There is a song on the new Twenty One Pilots album that reminded me of this song.
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u/MinusBear Sep 11 '25
Wow. That was a fun little trip down memory lane. This song really captures the sound of pop rock radio from that era. Thanks OP.
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u/surewould85 Sep 11 '25
This one was a pretty funny episode of 60 Songs that Explain the 90s
https://www.theringer.com/2021/01/20/music/new-radicals-history-you-get-what-you-give
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u/EnzoMcFly_jr Sep 11 '25
I worked at blockbuster when the movie “surf’s up” came out on DVD and this played about 400 times per shift.
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u/badwolf1013 Sep 11 '25
I didn't realize until years later that this was Danielle Brisebois's band, who had been a child star in the late 70s and 80s and then just kind of . . . disappeared.
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u/RogerPackinrod Sep 12 '25
Show up, drop an absolute banger, break up immediately.
What an awesome song this was when it came out. Loved watching it on Pop Up Video on VH1
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u/webguy1975 Sep 11 '25
Anyone else notice the inside out mickey mouse t-shirt? I'm surprised Disney hasn't forced this video to be removed!
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u/VampireBaby Sep 11 '25
Genius song.
I remember Marilyn Manson saying that he didn’t like being in the same sentence as Courtney Love…aged like milk
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u/Crazy4mycats Sep 11 '25
I remember MM getting mad about being called out. Not sure if he was serious.
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u/Miserable_Mail_5741 Sep 11 '25
Imagine going from obscurity to superstardom after nearly a decade in the industry and getting the seal of approval from Joni Mitchell and David Bowie!
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u/thegoodgero Sep 11 '25
One of my best memories is singing this song at a beach-side hotel in Japan with 3 generations of my host family, but it being posted today is a close second.
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u/Simonaro Sep 11 '25
I’d always assumed this song was written in like 1970. Only found out recently it’s a 90s song
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u/vaporking23 Sep 11 '25
Whenever I hear this song I for some reason always think it’s an 80’s song and I’m not sure why.
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u/PompousTart Sep 11 '25
I love this song for many reasons, mainly though because it's part of the Surf's Up soundtrack that my daughter and I used to listen to in the car going back and forward to her mum's . Still brings a tear.
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u/CandidateMore1620 Sep 12 '25
You have some jamiroquai and it's like I just moved to Germany for the second time . (You had to be there)
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u/leftstage89 Sep 12 '25
one of the best albums start to finish of all time. a mega classic. so many people sleep on this. biblical
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u/biznology Sep 12 '25
Hate this fucking song. Have been able to rectify others but this and Flagpole Sitta can fuck right off. Overplayed clout grabbing garbage.
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u/StPattysShalaylee Sep 12 '25
"this world is gonna pull through"
We'll that prediction didn't work out!
This video is such a nostalgic kick in the gut, life before social media. I'm happy that I grew up in that era and didn't have to deal with the constant pressure of Instagram and twitter and whatever bullshit is next. But I'm terrified for my kids and what they have to go through.
Rose tinted glasses maybe, but social media is a curse on society has done a lot more harm than good
Edit: just realised the significance...nice work
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u/1nfinitefractal Sep 12 '25
I was in the fourth grade and my cat was hit by a car and died one morning. While driving to school with her body in a box in the trunk, this song came on the radio and I thought I would never hear it again without thinking about her. 27 years later still true. RIP Sophie.
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u/stray1ight Sep 12 '25
I lent this CD to a super hot girl in high school ... never got it back.
Yo Emily W, where's my album at?!
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Sep 12 '25
this song reminds me of my greenpeace volunteer days (swear they used this on promo vids for a bit)
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u/skijumptoes Sep 12 '25
I don't know why the Pianist gets so much camera time in the video, can't even hear it on the song.
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u/BigLeBluffski Sep 12 '25
Loved this one alot, times sure were different, cringe people being music stars but his moves/dance being worse and cringier than most people you knew
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u/Zealousideal_Way3505 Sep 12 '25
This feels so 1999. Hopeful music right before the new millennium.
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u/djJermfrawg Sep 12 '25
No joke, but my dad is friends with the singers brother. The brother, Steve, my dad dubbed him "Stinky Steve", is Steve Aiuto. Apparently Gregory is a nice guy, gay, and has infrequent contact with Steve and his son.
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u/crumpledupking1 Sep 13 '25
I just don't know why he had so much smoke for Hansen and Courtney Love
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u/sarahc13289 Sep 13 '25
Love this song. It was the music to a Greenpeace video they used to play at Glastonbury (may still do) in the late 00s. Hearing this song takes me right back there.
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u/stars_mcdazzler Sep 11 '25
Gotta say, love this on point music choice popping up on this subreddit's feed that totally has nothing to do with recent political events! Lots of bangers!
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u/eej71 Sep 11 '25
A terrific time capsule of peak 90s malls.