various artists - Depeche Mode: Reconstruction Time (A Tribute Compilation)

This is not typical Primitive Offerings fare. A 30-year-old German tribute to Depeche Mode is not my bread & butter. But I snagged this one a year and a half ago specifically because it's so outside the norm of what I write about, and because it allows me to talk a bit about my favorite secret subgenre.

I fucking LOVE EBM.

I dated a fair amount of goth/industrial girls in my teens and twenties. And while the visual aesthetics and general mope-ery of those genres aren't my bag, I'll be damned if the music doesn't make me horny as hell. It sounds like sweat and body heat feels to me. Even in middle age, with a record that came out at a particularly fallow time for EBM, this just makes me want to grind it out in a pair of tall Docs and a tight pair of jeans. And Depeche Mode felt like a proper group to pay tribute to, as my favorite songs fit well in a setlist made up of the Normal, Die Krupps, Nine Inch Nails, and Suicide.

All in all, it was worth picking this one up and, quite frankly, it's weird to me that this never got formally released here in the States. It seems tailor made for a late-90s Cleopatra reissue.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Island Folk (An Acoustic-Led Celebration)

This one called to me from a darkened shelf in a Monterey record store last winter. It was the pink spine that caught my eye first. It's something I associate more with the Pagans' "Pink Album" reissue than anything associated with Chris Blackwell. Yet here it was, a comp of British folk, recorded by Joe Boyd and released initially on Island Records. I had to have it. My tastes have expanded greatly since the first time I heard Nick Drake (who, oddly, doesn't appear here), and I've grown to love the records Richard & Linda Thompson made together, the music of Sandy Denny, the songs of John Martyn. I quit giggling about how poncy the Incredible String Band looked, and started humming along when I listened to them in the car.

I ultimately paid $5 for this one, more than I typically would for a Mojo free CD. And I still won't fuck with Jethro Tull.

Discogs

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Pilot To Gunner - Games At High Speeds

At some point in the summer of 2000, Dave from the Oranges Band, who I knew through punk rock and would later work with at the Ottobar, informed me that TOB would be opening for Lifter Puller at Brownie's in NYC. Would I like to tag along? Of course I would; I was no dum-dum. To see Lifter Puller in their home away from home, at a classic indie club that I'd never visited before...well, that was a treat too delightful to pass up. So I wedged myself into their van's loft (hangers-on do not get a seat), and off we went to Manhattan.

Pilot To Gunner opened up that show, and I'd be lying if I said they made a major impact on me at the time. It was emo-derived indie rock, not so dissimilar from what was coming out on Equal Vision or Deep Elm at the time. I remember thinking they were probably on their first record with a major label, a la Jimmy Eat World or Shift. It wasn't until after their set, when I took a look at their merch table, that I discovered they were actually on Gern Blandsten, home to Rorschach, Chisel, Native Nod, and a bunch of other North Jersey/ABC No Rio hardcore and hardcore-adjacent outfits. I wished I'd paid more attention, I thought, right up until the Oranges Band started their set.

This one would get reissued by Rykodisc under their Arena Rock imprint, alongside Pilot To Gunner's second full-length. I uncovered my CD copy, obtained sometime before 9/11, just recently, gave it a spin, and found it a perfectly reasonable flash back to the days when I was physically able to fit within a 24" tall space for 3 hours to go see a band. This is a pretty good one, it turns out.

Discogs

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various artists - Energizer Titanium Technology Presents

This sampler, a recent discovery in a tranche of the missus' CD collection, reminds me of Joston's sponsoring the validation sticker on Bart's Hullabalooza ticket on "The Simpsons". Like, what better way to show the kids your battery is the coooooooool battery than to sponsor a sampler of Island Def Jam's finest artists, circa 2005? Still, it's always big fun in my house when I discover an item that wasn't previously listed on Discogs, and this one fits. Add in tracks from Fall Out Boy, Thrice, and Juelz Santana, and this is legitimately a keeper.

Discogs

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various artists - Repo Man (Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Tomorrow is the Iggster's 79th birthday, and to celebrate this audacious occasion a day early, I present the soundtrack to Alex Cox's 1984 classic "Repo Man". Iggy provided the eponymous title track to this soundtrack, which my cursory research tells me came in between the release of "Zombie Birdhouse" and "Blah Blah Blah", the latter of which I bought on cassette sometime in the early 90s because a girl put "Real Wild Child" on a mixtape she gave me. That was my second exposure to Iggy Pop, the first being the 10 minutes of "Repo Man" I watched on HBO when I was 10 or 11 before my mom switched it off "because punk rockers are violent." Well, I showed her; I grew up a punk.

This rip comes from the copy I found a few weeks ago in a nearby thrift store for one American dollar. That's right; I paid less than a quarter of what I would for a gallon of gasoline. Pretty sweet deal. Pretty rad movie. Pretty great soundtrack.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: The Who Jukebox

I sometimes wonder if I hold a low opinion of the Who because they just won't go away. Like, if they'd wrapped it up, gone solo after the death of Keith Moon, would I more easily be able to separate the music they made from 1964 to 1978 from the people composing the band? This is one of the bands I actually remember my parents going to see when I was a kid, whose records I was allowed to look through and listen to in my first encounters with the family turntable. I still enjoy a lot of their catalog, but it seems like, for most of my life, anything I've heard about Pete Townshend or Roger Daltrey just left a bad taste in my mouth. I almost want them to pass away so they can't further damage their reputation.

But this was a minor step in the right direction. Even if you think Roger Daltrey is a grumpy old prick, or that Pete Townshend might have...predilections, there's no disputing that they can put together a solid comp. There's not a bad song in the lot. I'll even give them a pass for putting on two songs released after my birth, b/c they're by Ian Dury and ANOHNI and, hey, not everyone can keep their finger on the pulse of modern music like Paul Weller or Jon Savage do with their compilations.

In conclusion, Primitive Offerings remains a blog of contradictions. They wish death on 80+ year old rock stars, but commend their curation of giveaway comps.

Discogs

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various artists - The Lowrider Sound: Low & EZ

If you're not tooling about this weekend in your 6-4, what are you even doing with your life?

You can make up for things by downloading this fun comp from the good folks at Thump Records, who are as Los Angeles a label as SST or Buddyhead, IMHO. Bonus points if you play it while riding a mower while cutting your yard or cruising around on a minibike.

Discogs

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various artists - Astralwerks SXSW New Music 2006

From the "Holy Shit, It's Been 20 Years!" Files: this sampler.

This one came from the missus's collection, which I would say runs both less esoteric and more eclectic than my own. For one, even 20 years ago when it was still primarily a place for indie rock bands to play 6 shows in the course of 4 days, you wouldn't have caught me down in Austin for SXSW. I was always happy for friends who got a bunch of slots down there, and a good opportunity to tour to and from. But it felt like a combination of too much money, too many bands, too many drugs, and not enough sleep, even in my twenties when all that's supposed to be what you're living for.

The contrivance part of Astralwerks was really no longer present by the time they put this out in 2006. It was no longer only the place where EMI would collect and license a bunch of European electronic music makers to help them grow. The success of Fatboy Slim and the Chemical Brothers led to more breakouts from the likes of Sia and Hot Chip. It also served as the American home for Beth Orton and Placebo. Dance punk adjacent artists like the Juan MacLean and VHS Or Beta put out records along with soul survivor Candi Staton. It was still a home for dance music, but this sampler is a reminder that it was a much larger tent by 2006.

Does it hold up well, 20 years past? In a few instances, yeah, the song and artist is timeless. I'm going to think of Christopher Walken every time I hear "Weapon Of Choice" and it's going to make me smile. Hot Chip sounds like the future, just like they did on the "Over & Over" 12" that DFA put out in '05. Likewise for the Juan MacLean, whose eponymous leader also recorded for DFA before putting out their first full-length in the States on Astralwerks.

2006 was my first year of marriage, my first year out of college, my first year working under my abilities at as "straight" a job as I could stomach. It was the end of youth, the beginning of respectability...or so I thought. As it turns out, it was the first major detour in an adulthood full of them, and this sampler, just out of the mainstream of the times, is as good a soundtrack to remember those times as anything.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Blues Breakers! (15 Classic Tracks As Covered By Eric Clapton)

I don't like Eric Clapton. Let's get that out of the way immediately. And because I dislike Eric Clapton and refuse to do any research, I'm going to take Mojo Magazine at their word that all 15 tracks here have been covered by the "Tears In Heaven" performer.

The blues performers appearing here, covered by a former Enoch Powell-supporter, are all pretty awesome. And if a proto boomer's catalog brings you to Robert Thornton, Skip James, or Big Mama Thornton (to name three), that's a good thing, too. It doesn't let me forget every instance in my lifetime where the notorious anti-vaxxer was a total, egomaniac cock. But I can forgive grumpy old men yelling at clouds...or I can try to.

Now, would I rock a "No Snow/No Show" t-shirt onstage? Only in an ironic manner, friends.

Discogs

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Iggy And The Stooges - I Got A Right

Both Jesus and I love the Stooges. But I've never been one of those obsessive Stooges collectors, tracking down all the post-"Raw Power"/pre-"The Darkness" pseudo-legal releases and variations on songs that were already damned perfect. Give me the Rhino expanded versions of "The Stooges" and "Fun House", both the Bowie & Iggy mixes of "Raw Power", and a copy of "Metallic K.O." and I'll be pretty satisfied.

But I'm no sucker. When I stumble across a $1 copy of anything from the Iguana Chronicles, I'll snatch that up in two seconds flat. This 1995 CD release of the two classic "Raw Power" outtakes "I Got A Right" and "Gimme Some Skin" expands both the 1977 7" and the 1991 12" on BOMP! You get a pair of instrumental versions of "I Got A Right", a live version from 1977 that was performed in Paris nine days after I was born, and a fresh take of "Gimme Some Skin". I've always felt "Gimme" was a pretty jive song, but "Right" is a total ripper, and I like getting so many versions all together.

Maybe it's all a bit superfluous, but, like I said before, I'm no sucker. I'll take it whenever I get it.

Discogs

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various artists - Paul Weller Presents: Into Tomorrow

Apropos of nothing, I picked up a copy of the April 2026 issue of Mojo a couple weeks ago. The cover star was one John Lydon, complete in punk mufti from his Pistols days. The freebie was a celebration of Miles Davis' 100th birthday; you can expect I'll write about that one in about three years. But if you're out and about and have around $14 you feel like spending, you could almost certainly do a lot worse. If nothing else, it's a nice way to find out what got reissued over in the UK recently.

As for this one, it has songs from the Blow Monkeys, P.P. Arnold (who was an Ikette!), and Mr. Weller himself. The rest of the 15 tracks, handpicked by the former Jam & Style Council leader who HOLY SHIT has been performing single for over 30 years, haven't really caught my attention. The exceptions to my ignorance are Black Pumas, who have drifted in and out of my focus in recent years with their Texas-based psych rock, and Gabriels, whose website bears a single "2026" legend on the landing page, which tells me they should have a new record of neo-soul out sometime this year. That's a cool tease, as far as I'm concerned. 

Discogs

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