1990: "One Love", Stone Roses

If there was one band that could rival Happy Mondays for dominance on the Madchester front, it was the Stone Roses. Like the Mondays, the Roses' longevity stretched back to a 1985 single, making them equal opportunity scene vets by 1990. But whereas the Happy Mondays had a fairly good run before fizzling out, the Stone Roses only ever got around to recording two albums, and five years apart at that. "One Love" was a non-album single (there were many of those, which is why there have literally been 3-4x more Stone Roses compilations released than studio albums), and a fairly successful one at that, reaching #4 on the UK singles chart and even hitting a fairly respectable #9 on the Alternative chart in the largely Britpop-indifferent US.

1990: "The Only One I Know", The Charlatans

A relative latecomer to the Madchester scene, 1990 marked the first recorded appearance of the Charlatans in any form. Adding elements of dream pop into their 60s psych-influenced sound, their debut, Some Friendly, was masterfully produced by Chris Nagle, bringing out the melody of the songwriting while providing a propulsive backbeat and wrapping the vocals in a sort of aural gauze. "The Only One I Know" was rewarded with a #9 placement in the UK singles chart.

1990: "Kinky Afro", Happy Mondays

It's not hyperbole to refer to the Happy Mondays as the most heralded band to come out of the Madchester scene. They were also one of the oldest, 1990's Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyache being their third album, with singles stretching all the way back to 1985. Much of the band's notoriety stemmed from volatile singer Shaun Ryder's drug fueled antics, but as those are well documented in the must see film 24 Hour Party People I'll leave it to your Netflix queue to fill you in on those details.

"Step On" has been handed down over the years as the most famous song from this album, but covering the obvious is not how WKMR rolls. Besides, "Kinky Afro" matched the #5 British chart placement of its album mate at the time, even if it is slightly less well known in 2010, unless you're a Madchester/Britpop scholar (which you fucking well should be).

1990: "She Comes in the Fall", Inspiral Carpets

From Kiwi pop to Britpop, which was largely synonymous with the "Madchester" scene by the dawn of the 90s. Almost singularly an outgrowth of the sounds coming out of Manchester's infamous Haçienda Club - founded by Rob Gretton and Tony Wilson, both overseers of Factory Records, the label from which many of the Haçienda bands originated - the Madchester sound was a mix of traditional, guitar based pop combined with dance music elements. On paper that sounds a lot like what New Order (Factory/Haçienda alumni in their own right) were doing in the early 80s, but for the most part few Madchester bands used drum machines or boat loads of synth effects, instead utilizing traditional percussion to produce frantic, big beats as well as old school organs and analog keyboards in more of a 60s throwback fashion.

Like the Flying Nun bands of New Zealand, many of the Madchester bands had been releasing singles for several years before getting around to producing a proper album. Inspiral Carpets not only fit that mold, but they'd actually been gigging for several years before they even put out a single. Formed in 1983 in more of a punk rock vein, the first recorded evidence of the band's existence was a 1987 flexi-disc, followed the next year by the Planecrash EP. 1989 saw a wealth of singles, leading up to the new decade's Life album. A brilliant all around effort defying genre conventions, the timeless hooks and broad influences preempt the album from ever sounding like a product of its era. "This Is How It Feels" is an equally stellar song and worth checking out, but for the purposes of this blog the only studio clip found on Youtube had the embedding disabled. Still, you should go look for it, but only after you've absorbed and digested every single archival entry on White Knuckle Mustache Rides first.