Nothing did more to further the cause of Alternative Nation-building than 120 Minutes, MTV’s Sunday-night video showcase of non-mainstream acts. For nearly two decades, the program spanned musical eras from ’80s college rock to ’00s indie, with grunge, Britpop, punk, industrial, electronica and more in between. MAGNET raids the vaults to resurrect our 120 favorite and unjustly forgotten videos from the show’s classic era.
#5: The Lightning Seeds “Pure”
We always wondered what happened to Spaz from Meatballs. But so what if Lightning Seeds frontman Ian Broudie isn’t one of the beautiful people? “Pure” is one of the sweetest slices of geek-love pop to grace the 120 Minutes time slot. Broudie, a Liverpool punk turned producer (Echo & The Bunnymen, the Fall), debuted with the Lightning Seeds “to see if I could cut as a muso,” and 1989’s Cloudcuckooland was all the proof anyone needed. The Lightning Seeds are still around—the group issued an album in 2009 and toured with Squeeze earlier this year—but the wide-eyed wonder of “Pure” is a singular, delicate triumph. Watch out, microwaves: Here’s a song that’s really good at melting hearts.
