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.
#92: Blake Babies “Temptation Eyes”
Boston’s Blake Babies had one of the finest pedigrees you’re likely to encounter: Named by Allen Ginsberg, the trio studied at the Berklee College of Music. Which doesn’t explain why one of the band’s career highlights was this 1991 cover of a Grass Roots song, a feat that the less-than-soulful Blake Babies seemed ill-equipped to pull off. Juliana Hatfield, drummer Freda Love and guitarist John Strohm got by just fine on their own, but it was always a little more fun when friends were around, either physically (Lemonhead Evan Dando was briefly a band member) or by proxy: “Temptation Eyes” appeared on the Rosy Jack World EP, whose title is a reference to a Frogs song, and the EP also features a cover of a Dinosaur Jr song.
Fun Fact: The Grass Roots’ guitarist was Creed Bratton, a.k.a. the lovable sociopath from The Office.
