Spin.com recently posted an article with the unwieldy title “Blame Nirvana: The 40 Weirdest Post-Nevermind Major-Label Albums”, which took a look back at the feeding frenzy that ensued when Kurt Cobain and company kicked Michael Jackson to the curb and topped the Billboard album chart. Suddenly, every major label had to have its own Nirvana, and the indie nation provided a fresh crop of bands ripe for the picking. Somehow, though, the mainstream wasn’t quite ready to embrace the Butthole Surfers, Foetus, Ethyl Meatplow, Butt Trumpet, or Fudge Tunnel. Go figure!

One ’90s band that really should have been a contender was Quicksand. When you consider that Helmet’s Meantime went gold and that Jawbox’s “Savory” was an MTV staple, Quicksand seemed like a sure thing, with its shards of angular guitar and frontman Walter Schreifels’s emotive post-hardcore melodies. But after two mid-’90s albums (one for Polydor, the other for Island) that failed to set the airwaves on fire, the quartet threw in the towel. Fans of the New York could-have-beens can rejoice, however. The band has been back in action since last June, and it plays the Commodore Ballroom on Thursday (January 17). Could a new album be in the cards? Who knows, but if it is, here’s betting no big record company will be involved. That’s okay, though. The majors are fucked anyway. This sure as hell ain’t the ’90s.