Before the dot-com bubble, there was the great indie-rock stock bubble of '94, where A+R execs seeing the next Nirvana and Green Day around every corner spent millions of dollars signing the best bands of every underground rock scene in America. The result was a slew of fantastic albums from plainclothes dressed acts not used to a label with a staff of more than four, press coverage, hair and makeup people -- the usual trappings that come when one crosses the line from rock and roll into show business. Most of these records sold under fifty-thousand copies, despite protestations that The Jesus Lizard, Orange 9mm, Jawbreaker, Smoking Popes (the list is endless) were going to be the next gigantic thing. Nearly all these bands were broken up within four years.

There are only a handful albums from the bubble that hold up as well as Jawbox's For Your Own Special Sweetheart, their first for Atlantic Records. The set from this quartet of technical wizards of Washington, DC is the ultimate extension nineties rock ideal -- no fancy outfits, no guitar solos, smart lyrics, heavy without being hard. Despite topping critics lists everywhere, it didn't take. Neither did their equally good self-titled follow-up, and the band split shortly afterward. Thankfully, Sweetheart is being reissued for its 15th anniversary, and Jimmy Fallon hosted the bands first performance in over 12 years last night. Make sure you check out the other songs they did (like B-side "68" and album opener "FF=66") on Hulu as well.

Since Jawbox's breakup, singer/guitarist J. Robbins has balanced being one of the most in-demand producers with helping his son Callum, born in 2006, fight a harrowing battle against Spinal Muscular Atrophy, an incurable nerve disorder. You can read about Cal and help chip in for his treatment here.

We're not trying to start any lawsuits here, but let's face it; some songs just sound too much like other songs to be a coincidences. Or do they? Music doesn't usually come with footnotes or bibliographies, so on Friday nights we engage in wild speculation about where our favorite songwriters might have owed someone a hat tip. Welcome to Friday Night Ripoffs (?) at the LNMC.

It pains me to pit two of my favorite songwriters against each other, especially ones that I have lifted a riff or three off of for one band or another, but I just can't see any way that Blake Schwarzenbach of 90's melodic punk gods Jawbreaker wasn't bowing directly toward Bob Mould of 80's melodic punk gods Husker Du when he wrote "Ache". Schwarzenbach has always been a gifted and original songwriter, but it's time he fess up to this here theft (and also high time that he release the supposedly finished album by his new band Thorns of Life, come to think of it.) What do your ears say?

What are some other ripoffs (that don't involve Coldplay) that come to mind?