Should Eve’s Plum Have Been as Big as Garbage?

Ever hear something that stops you dead in your tracks? Makes you scramble for the pause button because you need to know who the hell that is? That’s exactly what happened to Eric Norlander in the early ’90s when “Blue” caught his ear on some forgotten compilation CD. Like most of us back then, he was swimming in the deluge of alternative rock, trying to keep his head above water while every week brought three new bands with fuzzy guitars.

But this was different. Who were these guys? Where did they come from? And why did they sound like Debbie Harry fronting Swervedriver?

The Brooklyn Bridge Between Shoegaze and Pop Perfection

Picture this: It’s August 1993, and somewhere in New York City, Colleen Fitzpatrick is channeling Debbie Harry while her husband-to-be Michael Kotch and his twin brother Ben are crafting guitar walls that would make Adam Franklin weep. This is Envy, Eve’s Plum’s debut album—a record that sounds like what would happen if Swervedriver decided to write pop songs, or if Letters to Cleo grew some serious teeth.

The band formed when Colleen met Michael at NYU in 1991. Two brothers looking for a singer and bassist? Check. NYU student with a voice that could float like an angel or scream like a banshee? Double check. It’s the kind of origin story that makes you believe in rock and roll destiny—especially when that destiny leads to Sony Records picking them up after just one year of playing the East Coast circuit.

When MTV Actually Meant Discovery

Remember when Beavis and Butt-Head were cultural arbiters? “Blue” landed on the show, giving millions of viewers their first taste of Eve’s Plum’s genre-bending assault. But this wasn’t your typical alternative rock by numbers. This was something weirder, more adventurous.

Take “I Want It All”—the song opens with ethereal, floating vocals that suddenly explode into an angsty scream, then drops into an ‘80s-style pop hook that sounds like Thompson Twins on amphetamines. It’s schizophrenic in the best possible way, like the band couldn’t decide what they wanted to be, so they decided to be everything at once.

The Sound of ’93: When Anything Could Happen

This is what made the early ‘90s magical—you could throw a shoegaze riff next to a new wave chorus and nobody batted an eye. Eve’s Plum embodied that “anything goes” spirit that defined the era. One night you’d see their video on Headbangers Ball, the next it’d pop up on 120 Minutes. They existed in that sweet spot where genres melted together like wax in the summer heat.

Michael Kotch’s guitar work is the real revelation here. Those hooks don’t just grab you—they landmark the album, giving you sonic waypoints to navigate by. “Dialect Someone” cuts from melodic picking to a crushing, memorable hook that becomes the song’s backbone. It’s the kind of guitar playing that makes other musicians throw down their instruments in frustration.

The Colleen Fitzpatrick Enigma

Then there’s Colleen herself—a vocal shapeshifter who could deliver breathy indie vulnerability one moment and full-throated rock fury the next. She had range that most singers could only dream of, moving from the floating melodies of the opening tracks to the darker, more somber tones of album closers like “I Might Die” and “Kiss Your Feet”.

But here’s where the story gets interesting: After Eve’s Plum dissolved in 1998, Colleen reinvented herself as Vitamin C, scoring a massive pop hit with “Graduation (Friends Forever)” and becoming a teen pop sensation complete with her own Barbie doll. Talk about whiplash. It’s like discovering your favorite underground artist became the biggest sellout in history—except it somehow makes perfect sense.

The Netflix Executive Who Used to Scream

Plot twist: That same Colleen Fitzpatrick is now a Netflix executive, overseeing music for their original content. The woman who once growled through “Blue” is now orchestrating soundtracks for Stranger Things and beyond. It’s the ultimate ‘90s kids success story—your favorite obscure band’s singer is now programming the music that defines modern pop culture.

Why Envy Still Matters

Strip away the nostalgia and Envy remains a fascinating document of a moment when rock music felt limitless. This is alternative rock as it was meant to be—alternative to everything, including itself. The band could pivot from crushing shoegaze to bouncy pop to punk aggression within the span of a single song, and somehow make it all feel cohesive.

Sure, the album could use some editing. At 48 minutes, it occasionally indulges in the kind of extended instrumental sections that scream “we’re still figuring this out”. But that rawness is part of its charm. This is a band caught in the act of discovering what they could become—and what they discovered was pretty damn thrilling.

Eric Norlander, the Dig Me Out patron who championed this album, had it right: Eve’s Plum sits alongside Paw and Chainsaw Kittens in the holy trinity of underappreciated ’90s rock These weren’t just bands—they were blueprints for a different timeline where rock stayed weird and adventurous.

Maybe that’s the real beauty of Envy—it captures that brief window when “anything” felt possible, when a band from NYU could sign to Sony and make an album that sounded like nothing else. In 2025, when everything feels calculated and focus-grouped to death, that spirit of beautiful, chaotic experimentation hits different.

So next time someone tells you the ’90s were just about grunge, cue up “I Want It All” and watch their face change when that chorus hits. Some discoveries are worth waiting thirty years for.

What’s your favorite lost alternative rock gem from the ‘90s? Drop us a suggestion—we’re always digging.

Songs in this Episode

• Intro - Once Twice

• 20:02 - I Want It All

• 23:47 - Blue

• 37:21 - Die Like Someone

• Outro - Lovely You

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