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When Nirvana moved from Sub Pop to DGC Records in 1990, the major label hoped they could achieve the sort of success attained by the other former indie band that helped pave the way for the Seattle rockers to sign to a major, Sonic Youth. By 1992, Nevermind had replaced Michael Jackson at #1 on the Billboard album charts, and really did change everything that came after it. It also sent major labels combing through the underground in an attempt to try and catch lightning in a bottle for a second time, and saw some of the strangest bands ever signed to big money deals.

Royal Trux were one of those bands, and over 20 years after the release of their 1990 Twin Infinitives album, frontman Neil Michael Hagerty has put together a band to cover the record live in its entirety in a performance that will take place tonight at Brooklyn’s St. Vitus. While Royal Trux certainly were weirder than just about anything on the radio or on MTV in the early-to-mid-1990s, they were just one of many strange acts plucked from the world of indie rock that corporate rock hoped would give them another Nevermind. As you’ll see from this list, there were a few success stories, a bunch of deals that didn’t work out, but no Nevermind Part 2.

Beck

After cutting his chops in the New York anti-folk scene of the early 1990s, Beck’s “Loser,” which would end up becoming one of the unexpected anthems of Generation X, was released on the indie label Bong Load in 1993. A few months later, Beck was signed to the Geffen subsidiary DGC, and went on to become massive.