most already mentioned, but mine are: nin, live, radiohead, cake, green jelly, pearl jam, phish (i discovered them in 93/94), beck, rem, rhcp.
cake and live don\'t get enough respect. I got throwing copper when it came out and it\'s still a top rotation disc for me. Cake is still out there after some hiatus time and I still love everything they do. Same for NIN although nothing will ever touch the epic of pretty hate machine.
lots of one hit wonders. I don\'t concider the late 90\'s \'alternernative\'.. I concider it crap... The orgions of more crap that is still being produced today. It all started one day when Peck said "Did you ever here of a band called lincon park? I was told I look like the singer by a guy at the gym..."
on a side, this august is the 10th aniversarry of Jerrys passing. Oh how things have changed.