The Verve Pipe - Platinum & Gold Collection

The Verve Pipe were one of the handful of post-grunge bands that had a hit in the mid- to late '90s that was ubiquitous, and then had the bottom suddenly fall out from underneath them. That hit, of course, was "The Freshmen," a pained, earnest mid-tempo dissection of a relationship gone wrong that the band's lead singer/songwriter, Brian Vander Ark, wrote years before The Verve Pipe had formed. Starting as an acoustic ballad, by the time it turned into a radio hit it was given a brooding sensibility, heavy on heavy guitars and echo, that didn't just fit into the post-Nirvana landscape of '90s modern rock, it epitomized how alternative rock was no longer underground -- it was a commercial juggernaut. Read More