34 Ned’s Atomic Dustbin Song Eleven Could Take Forever

A few years ago, still in the 2020s, I was talking with some students about how happy I was that “kids these days” listened to whatever they wanted without having to be a part of any scene. I was curious if they could place and what they thought of a song, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin’s “Kill Your Television.”

They hadn’t heard the song or the band before, but they nailed it. Pre-grunge alt rock, post 80s. I was talking about when their first album came out, many of us thought this was the future of rock music… Then came Nirvana and Pear Jam and that was that. 

Ned’s is really the path not taken. If grunge is the stripping down of heavy metal into something less glam and less pretentious, this is also the path of Ned’s as well. But instead of the lumberjack aesthetic, this was the toxic dystopian aesthetic. 

Two things stand out for Ned’s. The first is the use of two bass players, one for the bottom and one filling out melodic lines. It’s imagine that this is a rarity as its hard to have competing bass lines stand out in the mix, but Ned’s does it well. 

Their second album did not do as well as the first, the single “Not Sleeping Around” didn’t capture the imagination in the same way that Morrissey’s celibacy worked to his advantage. It’s also not mixed as well as their first album, perhaps just too much compression. It’s like they recorded it with Nerf microphones. It’s still a great album with some fantastic songs. Their third album I skipped entirely until, well, I found out I owned it, about 20+ years after it was released. It took a couple listens but it is also a great album. Given that each album had a diminished audience, not that they don’t have their hard core fans, I wanted to highlight a track from their third album. 

One last note on Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, the lead singer’s hair was one of the two guys (the other was the lead singer of Living Color) who had the hair I really, really wanted when I was in high school. Short on the sides and super long bangs. Eventually My bangs were down to my collar bone and it looked great head thrashing.

I think.

I was dizzy.