I never understood the Nirvana comparison. I can’t find a single Bush song that sounds like Nirvana at all. I think it was more of that one criticism one person makes popular and everyone hangs to that train of insults just to fit in.

As someone who was bullied for 8 straight years, I understand and sympathise.

Just as grunge was fading into nostalgia, Britpop acts flourished and got the attention of Mexican fans. Oasis, Blur, Pulp being the main acts everyone loved. Then Spacehog, Suede, Elastica, and Gene. Bush came with a bang on Mexican airwaves on late 95, early 96 and the one song I remember being a massive hit was Machinehead. I think I was including Glycerine regularly on mixtapes too, as I was all up for that mushy stuff.

It was Comedown what sold me the band. That slow bass intro, the explosive guitar work by Nigel Pulsford, and Gavin Rossdale’s wailing. It’s a massive song and it’s easily Sixteen Stone’s best song. Bush moved away from this sound to more adventurous stuff and I think they hit their stride with both Razorblade Suitcase and the electronic heavy The Science of Things. Golden State has some keepers too, so if you haven’t listened to that album in a while, give it a go. Sure, headful of ghosts is a pacier Glycerine, but still a good song.

I knew there was a double disc edition of Sixteen Stone only available in Europe and I was on a trip with my parents in Budapest when my dad said “I wanted to go into a record shop”, which was his excuse to buy albums. He got some sweet classical music albums for cheap, and we found the double disc edition of Sixteen Stone too. When we tried to pay, the severely pierced woman attending the till gave us an extra album. We said we didn’t paid for it but through some drawings and half-assed attempts of verbalising, she made us understand it was a free gift for all the stuff we bought. That was my dad and his shopping sprees.

-Sam J. Valdés López