The rough edges on the site reminds of the good ol' 90s web which I never experienced. My experience with the early web is limited to the Wayback Machine.
I went with an off-the-shelf, single-column theme and build mine on similar principles of simplicity and personal touch ups: https://rednafi.com
The little live player widget in the top right is my pride and joy :')
https://github.com/marcus-crane/utf9k for the source and https://github.com/marcus-crane/gunslinger for the cludgy backend that powers the live player