I Want My MTV - Chapel Hill/Raleigh in the '90s

Let's pretend I'm a VJ and you're watching my little block of programming here. Below you'll find some music videos from the '90s by bands from Raleigh/Chapel Hill (my hometown area) that I used to love and go see all the time.

First up is the video for the song "Vibracobra" by Polvo. Polvo was a hugely important guitar based math rock band from Chapel Hill and one of the great indie bands of the '90s. After that you're going to see a video for the song "Will" by Sex Police and one from the film Flirting With Disaster by Southern Culture on the Skids.





Southern Culture on the Skids has turned out to be one of the longest lasting bands to come out of the Chapel Hill in the '90s but the next two bands really defined that whole entire scene and became legendary, each in their own way. First we've got the video for "Lowest Part Is Free!" by Archers of Loaf and after that, feast your eyes and ears on the video for "Fishing" by Superchunk.



To put it plainly, Superchunk dominated the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill music scene in the '90s and still do today via Merge Records. All hail Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. The next band, Dillon Fence, is from Winston-Salem (I think) but their MySpace says Chapel Hill so we'll go with that. Below is the video for their song "Collapsis" followed by one of my favorite music videos ever shot in Raleigh - "'74-'75" by The Connells.



I'll never forget the first time I saw that video on MTV. The opening shot is of Broughton High School and I was all jealous that Broughton (and not MY school) was on MTV. Anyway, next we've got a video from ska band Regatta 69 and then a video for the song "Underground" from some band called Ben Folds Five. I'm always shocked how many people hate Ben Folds Five. Is it because they're not all "underground"? Maybe you'll like this video then, it's from before you had ever even heard of them and their song "Brick".



Last, but most certainly not least, is the excellent video for the standout song "The Ghost of Stephen Foster" by Squirrel Nut Zippers. Both the song and the video are deserving of your adulation so don't let me delay you any further.

I hope you found yourself enjoying at least a couple of these music videos. Maybe you found something old that's new to you and you like it...maybe you were reminded of a band you'd long ago forgotten about and now want to revisit...maybe Chunk found the police...maybe it's another one of Willy's booby traps...maybe maybe maybe. Hey, if nothing else, at least it's Friday.