Mercury Rev

In the 90s, most new, cutting-edge music was called "alternative."  The new sound had been called "New Wave" and "punk" in the 80s, "progressive" in the 70s, and "underground" in the 60s.  

In 1998, he started listening to a band called Mercury Rev out of upstate New York (initially, he thought they were out of Albany, but they were actually from Buffalo, the other end of the state). They played a kind of music that couldn't be called "alternative," as it sounded nothing like anything else being played at that time under the very broad umbrella of alternative rock.  It wasn't being played on the alt rock radio stations and the only reason that he had heard it all was because of WRAS, Album 88.  In retrospect, both by distribution and by sound, Mercury Rev were probably the first true "indie" band, a label that would later be slapped on most anything new coming out in the next century.