various artists - How Many Cats Can You Fit In A Bucket?

I've never really given much thought to A&M Records as a particularly interesting label. They were the world's biggest indie label for decades, which is a weird thing to call the home of the Carpenters, Burt Bacharach, and Captain and Tennille. But they also hosted Billy Preston, Quincy Jones, Phil Ochs, the Human League, OMD, and (for a day) the Sex Pistols. There's intrigue to be found in any entity that's been around since the early 60s.

This 1994 sampler is headlined by a pair of cuts from the then-new "If I Were A Carpenter" tribute...arguably my favorite two on the initial release, and the two most enjoyable here. It also has two songs from "Superunknown", soon to be Soundgarden's biggest, most inescapable release. Meat Puppets, Love Battery, Monster Magnet, and Paw all made up recent alternative signings, while Fretblanket and Kitchens Of Distinctions were English indie bands soon to be sacrificed to a mostly-uninterested American public. Blues Traveler's contribution, "Run-Around", is tucked away in the last third of this sampler, and would break out in a big way when its video hit MTV the next year. Rounding out the roster review were songs from the Neville Brothers, L.A. Guns, and Jackopierce (JACKOPIERCE?).

I held onto this one mainly because I enjoyed the cover, which gave me real Frank Kozik feelings.

Discogs

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various artists - CMJ Presents Certain Damage! - Volume 3

Here's a look back to when people still thought the Red Hot Chili Peppers were edgy, when college rock meant you could loop Fields of the Nephilim, Robbie Robertson, and Kool Moe Dee together, and funk metal was the next big thing. Truth be told: I kept this because I found the cover art so goddamned charming. The Cabaret Voltaire song is pretty solid, Lion was on the "The Transformers: The Movie" soundtrack, and I'm not sure I'll ever get Bryan Ferry solo. 1987 was weird for music, man.

Discogs

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various artists - No Idea & Fueled By Ramen: You Can Taste That Something "Special"

2001 was a very good year for music to come out of Gainesville. No Idea put out all-timers from Planes Mistaken for Stars, Ruination, Gunmoll, and celebrated their 100th release with a tri-colored slab of wax that I still love to pieces. Fueled By Ramen released Frodus's final full-length, EPs from Cadillac Blindside, the Impossibles, and Jersey, along with records from the Stereo and Blueline Medic. Trust me when I say these records were EVERYWHERE. And we were happy for it.

But I hadn't seen this sampler until I added a copy for less than a buck on a recent Discogs order. That blows my mind, considering how many goddamned copies of "Back To Donut!" I ended up owning over the years. The samplers I'd get with my No Idea orders were crucial not only for guiding my listening, but helping me decide what I wanted to book and travel to see over the next five years. So it seems really weird that I wouldn't have had a copy of this until 2026.

Discogs

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various artists - I Hear Ya! Fall 1995: The Caroline Distribution CD Sampler #11

Caroline and ADA were the two "cool" distributors we could buy from when I worked that Borders-esque book & music store in suburban Baltimore. ADA had Sub Pop and Matador, and were always good for a big stack of promos every month. Caroline, home to their eponymous label, Astralwerks, Revelation, and Dischord, were less generous with promos, but did a nice sampler series called "I Hear Ya!", which we played over the PA during closing while we cleaned up. In retrospect, it seems weird that I never held onto those, considering there's a really good mix of stuff from the mid-90s.

The big release around this time was the Misfits' box set; I assume that's why Jerry Only and Doyle are the cover boys here, and why "Teenagers From Mars" headlines this sampler. This was also my first experience hearing the Brian Jonestown Massacre, who blew my 17-year-old mind the first couple times I encountered them. Doc Hopper, Shift, 88 Fingers Louie, and State Of The Nation were all bands we could see playing VFWs and basements; we had no clue that Hole was covering the Velvets, or who Mick Farren was...only that they sounded cool as hell. Sounds like those coming from Crash Worship and Controlled Bleeding were exotic, even if they didn't lead to my buying either record.

This one popped up in a dollar bin on the central California coast last winter. As fall...uh, falls, I thought it was an apt spin.

Discogs

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Girls Against Boys - Park Avenue

I have decided to forgo the traditional Mojo Monday this time around to share something that I've had on vinyl since it came out, and something I just acquired a promo of in the past couple of weeks. I also have a lot of two dozen Mojo comps coming in the mail this week, which will cover us into 2027. So here we are with a break in habit.

Girls Against Boys was a good example of what happened to hardcore kids when they "outgrew punk" in the 90s. Made up of 3/4 of the beloved DCHC band Soulside, GvsB released a trio of records for Touch & Go before getting signed by DGC Records in 1997. As far as major label signings go, it made sense. GvsB made the sort of music that fit well on the shelf with Helmet, latter-day New Order, Soul Coughing, and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. When "Freak*On*Ica" came out in 1998, I remember it having a listening station at work, very cool point of purchase gear, and a design aesthetic that read more downtempo than indie rock. Our record department, located in the back of a suburban Baltimore bookstore, ended up not selling a single copy and returning all 30 copies six months later to the distributor.

It turns out pop & nu-metal just fucking buried records like this. There was no one championing this indie darling's experimental fifth record. "Park Avenue" wasn't going to outplay "Flagpole Sitta" or "Sex And Candy" on the radio; not even GvsB's hometown station WHFS gave this more than a few spins. If this had come out of Bristol or Manchester, or come out on Creation, Melody Maker or the NME probably would have given this single massive coverage. And it would have been able to draft that into greater acclaim in the States.

I got the Akashic 7" of this a few weeks after it came out via Dischord Direct. I loved the B-side, a dancy remix of "American Black Hole". But this was firmly in my past until a few weeks ago, when I found this 4-track promo CD in a dollar bin. It was so cool to find two additional remixes that I hadn't heard before. Plus remembering how much I enjoyed the 7". I had to share it with you.

Discogs

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various artists - No Alternative

If the blog count is to be believed, this is post #750. Pretty good for an amateur writer with a stuttering memory and shit taste in music. It's a real testament to my "never-say-die, never-think-things-through, never-consider-irrelevance" attitude towards life.

"No Alternative" came out shortly after my 16th birthday and is one of the few Columbia House acquisitions I've managed to hold onto. And why not? It was the first Red Hot benefit I picked up, initially for the Beastie Boys and Nirvana tracks. It was my introduction to Pavement, Uncle Tupelo, and Patti Smith. Who could ever part with such a momentous, influential release?

Now that it's been 30+ years that I've owned this, it's a lot easier to look back and pick up on things I missed as a teenager. I didn't know that Urge Overkill were covering Marvin Gaye or that the Goo Goo Dolls were covering the Stones. I definitely didn't know that Bob Mould was the guy from Sugar back then (I did know that Sugar were good). I hadn't yet put together that the leader of the Breeders used to be married to John Murphy. And could I have imagined that the guy from Buffalo Tom would eventually become a troubadour in Stars Hollow, or that I'd eventually associate the singer of Smashing Pumpkins more with pro wrestling than alt.rock? I know all these things and more now, the benefit of age and a greatly expanded record collection. To think: maybe if I hadn't snagged this one all that time ago, I might not have taken this path to the music and the misery.  And you wouldn't have gotten two hundred ninety-two words about it all.

(Postscript: the Sarah McLachlan and Matthew Sweet tracks still swing.)

Discogs

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various artists - Revolver Reloaded: Mojo Presents Their 1966 Masterpiece In Full

I'm no one's idea of a Beatles fan. As I've stated before, I've always chosen the Stones over the Beatles, and I prefer other artist's performances of any Harrison, Lennon, McCartney, and/or Starkey penned songs. But "Revolver" is the only Beatles record I've ever held onto, so when I got a chance to pick this up 20-year-old freebie at a reasonable cost, I figured, "Eh, I've written about worse." The things one does to continue a theme...

This particular Mojo collection pulls together covers of all fourteen songs from the Beatles' 1966 transitional record, along with a version of "Rain", which appeared as the B-side of "Paperback Writer". The highlights for me are Jim Reid's cover of "And Your Bird Can Sing", Lampshade covering "Good Day Sunshine", and Seattle's own Green Pajamas' version of "Got To Get You Into My Life". The rest is just fine; I cannot beat the drum on behalf of a body of work that, even now, I can at best tolerate. If nothing else, it just makes me want to listen to Pol Inate's Kinks kompilation he posted up last month. Now THAT's a body of work you could set your clock to.

Discogs

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various artists - Bad Seeds - Nick Cave: Roots & Collaborations (Mojo Presents A 15 Track Celebration)

I'm worn the fuck out, having spent all my writing time this past weekend repacking 500 square feet of storage space. So you're not going to get much insight from me about this 2009 Mojo compilation.

Regardless of how one might feel about Nick Cave (editor's note: I'm a'fer 'im), the dude has always had style and taste. All that is reflected here. There's not a skippable track on the entire disc. When I first heard this, it had me seeking out Karen Dalton, a name I knew but have never listened to. The Saints, Johnny Cash, John Lee Hooker, Lydia Lunch, Mississippi John Hurt? Know them all, love them all, love the songs compiled here. It's one of the front to back good ones, kids.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Kidology (A Radiohead Companion)

Side note: I moved a bunch of old links over from Mediafire to Workupload. So if you've encountered a dead link in the past, it's high time you gave it another shot.

This is another Mojo freebie where I really wish I had the issue that this comp came with. Yet again, I find myself wondering how some of these songs relate thematically. Sure, I can get Mingus and Messiaen and Slint as inspirational touchpoints. And clearly there are a pair of Radiohead covers present. But it's another instance where how this was compiled would be a lot clearer if I just had the copy of Mojo. The "why" matters to me. It probably shouldn't, but I'm kinky that way.

This one leads off with Clinic, Can, and Charles Mingus, and that's pretty solid a trifeca as you'll find on one of these. Truth be told: I think I'd rather listen to each of the artists here, rather than Radiohead. I won't give any sort of Pitchfork-y snark; I'll just say I'm kind of worn out by them. And that's as someone who definitely queued up for a couple of midnight Radiohead releases.

Discogs

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Big Dipper - Slam

Slam. Duh duh duh, duh duh duh. Let boys be boys.

I pulled this one back out after acquiring a copy of the Embarrassment's discography a few weeks ago. Big Dipper was, of course, staffed with two members of the Embarrassment, along with former members of Volcano Suns. And if you know how any of those words relate to independent music...well, congrats, unc; you probably played vinyl only on your 3am radio show back in 1988.

"Slam" was Big Dipper's third and final full-length in their first iteration. It was also their only LP on major label Epic Records, with their first two coming on Homestead. If I had to guess, their Epic A&R, who also signed Living Colour, probably was looking for the next Hüsker Dü, something tuneful and noisy that'd cross over from college rock into the lower depths of the mainstream. And while I don't love this as much as I do their two Homestead records (still available as part of the excellent Merge anthology "Supercluster"!), it's still really good, and probably primed for a Music on Vinyl reissue.

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 - 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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various artists - Monitor This! April / May 09

This comes to us courtesy of the Missus' record collection. She brought some truly exceptional recordings to our now-shared collection. And some pieces like this, a freebie that came with purchase of an associated title. I would hope that she purchased Doves' "Kingdom Of Rust"; I fear it was instead Rocco DeLuca & The Burden's "Mercy".

So why share something I mostly don't care about? Well, in the course of researching this series, I uncovered that this was the audio giveaway from the Record Exchange, a branch of which was the first record store I ever spent my hard earned dollars. I bought my first Fugazi record from the Record Exchange in Roanoke, along with demo tapes for a bunch of mostly-forgotten alternative and punk bands from south-western Virginia. "Music Monitor" was just as important a source of information as "Rolling Stone", "HeartattaCk", and "Maximum Rock & Roll". So this sampler, headlined (for me, at least) by Doves, Diana Krall, and Lady Sovereign, brought back a few fond memories of well-spent youth, digging in the crates and discovering a world I knew little about.

Discogs

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various artists - I Am Not A Test Market (1994 Restless Winter Yearbook)

It's the winter of 1994, and whilst picking up Brainiac and Guided By Voices records for your cool niece for Hanukkah, a sympathetic clerk at the local record store throws this into your shopping bag. And because who doesn't like free stuff, you smile and thank them. You slap this Restless Records catalog sampler, featuring two tracks each from eight bands, into your Discman with the tape deck adapter, and dig right in. Here's what you hear:

• aMiniature was from San Diego, and came from that angular, post hardcore/math rock tradition exemplified in the area by the immortal Drive Like Jehu. Both tracks come from their second record, 1994's Depthfiveratesix.
• Surrender, You Freak was album #2 from Seattle's Sister Psychic, a band who I'd never heard of until picking this up. Definitely hailing from the Neil Young folk rock branch of mid-90s alternative rock.
• Swains' second and third records got issued Stateside by Restless; these two songs come from the third and final full-length Sonic Mind Junction. Apparently, the folks on Discogs describe them as "progressive house", but I'll just give them the "leftfield" genre and move on with my life.
• Smut were a quartet of Minneapolis punks who made music along the same lines as Babes In Toyland, so it makes sense they put out records via Lori Barbero's imprint Spanish Fly Records. It was tied in with Twin/Tone, which, by this point, Restless was distributing, so BOOM! two tracks from their debut full-length.
• Louisville's Crain was part of the end of Slamdek, and helped bridge that label's weirdo punk/HC aesthetic with the weirdo indie rock vibe that'd emerge via Rodan and the For Carnation a couple years later. Heater came out in 1994 and was Crain's swan song.
• I knew God And Texas almost exclusively from a track they contributed to the Australian comp "Self Mutilation - A Compilation Of Compilations", which I've never owned an actual copy of but managed to acquire a dubbed tape somewhere around 1996 and treasured ever since. God And Texas were one of those noise rock shit stirrers that all gravitated to Chicago; both tracks here originated on 1993's Criminal Element, which is a pretty great record from that era.
• The Hang-Ups, like Smut, hailed from the Twin Cities. Unlike Smut, the Hang-Ups made super tuneful jangle pop and had a record co-produced by Mitch Easter and Don Dixon. He's After Me was released on Clean Records, distributed by Restless, and was the source of the Hang-Ups' two songs contained herein.
• And, finally, a pair of songs from Giant Sand, the still-active, ever-prolific, Tucson-located alt-country band. Purge & Slouch was Giant Sand's third record for Restless, their 10th overall, is now 33 years old, which breaks my spirit, b/c I remember playing songs from this record on the radio in 1995.

So, there you have it. A sampling of an American indie rock label during the peak of Cobain. A lot of it still holds up. But maybe that's because I came of age during this time.

.Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Piece Of Cake (20 Years Of Rykodisc)

What can I say about Rykodisc that I haven't already said? As a reissue label, they were responsible for my first listens to so many important artists and bands: Bowie, Zappa, Mission of Burma, Big Star. They ended up shepherding the catalogs of Hannibal, Restless, and Twin/Tone, give the Meat Puppets' SST catalog a home, and offer Morphine a place to grow. Along with current labelmate and previous fellow indie traveler Rhino, they were a label that you could count on for quality. They now exist only as a historical imprint, still the label of note on Morphine reissues, but not having released a new record in something like 20 years.

But when Mojo celebrated Ryko's 20th anniversary in 2003, the esteemed label was still running hard. From this comp alone, there were contemporary tracks from the Fire Theft (ex-Sunny Day Real Estate), Josh Rouse, Kelly Willis, and Joe Jackson. They co-released Warren Zevon's last record in the UK, and put out a new Robert Wyatt record in 2003. And the reissues! The Replacements' and Soul Asylum' Twin/Tone catalogs, the early recordings of the Flaming Lips, all the Galaxie 500 records on Rough Trade. Rykodisc put out remastered versions all around this time, making these recordings easily attainable for the first time in years. This one's capped off by a hidden track from Bill Hicks, whose records were, you guessed it, also available posthumously on Rykodisc.

Discogs

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various artists - Bloodclot

I have no clue how I ended up with this compilation.

Was it the name? Did I misidentify this as a mid-70s roots reggae comp? Or a tribute to Cro Mags' vocalist John Joseph? The cover is giving me mid-90s SoCal punk graphic design. The cover photo reminds me of the kind I'd have taken outside a showspace I went to in Baltimore back around this time. Maybe that's it...maybe, whenever I nabbed this one, I took a wag because maybe I thought it had some deepish cut Orange County tracks, the kind that I've been enjoying digging because I couldn't bother listening to it when it was new.

This is not that. This has two of the most ubiquitous songs of 1998 on it, with "The Rockefeller Skank" and "One Week" both popping up on the front end of this HITS radio sampler. The selections from K's Choice and Spacehog are not the songs that played everywhere. I didn't own either of these records, so it was interesting hearing what their respective labels were positioning as singles. Truth be told: the most interesting songs come on the back half of the CD, with Rufus Wainwright, Emm Gryner, and Dimitri From Paris all making appearances. It's capped off with that one MxPx song that I remember the video from, a pretty solid pop punk track from a band that hailed a ferry ride away from my current home base.

Discogs

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various artists - The Big One / City Of L.A. Power

I was pretty annoyed with Discogs recently, and it's all my own fault.

Right before the holidays, I recieved an order on my Discogs account. It was a simple one off; a Tim Hecker CD, sold for $10, plus shipping. And, hand to God, I thought I'd shipped it. But, friends, I did not. And Discogs shut my account down. Which means I could not only sell stuff (not a huge deal), but I couldn't buy anything. Not with all this Christmas lucre in my pockets. But I took my lumps, quickly refunding the customer once I confirmed that their order was, indeed, sitting two states away in my "Out" basket. But it was only last week that Discogs lifted the ban hammer on me.

This is a long way around the block to this two-fer from Flipside Records, the label attached to the esteemed SoCal zine. This was part of my last order on Discogs, a throw-in with a couple of Infinite Zero splurges. There are some big names from early in their careers here, with Green Day and the Offspring headlining with Bad Religion. The beloved Lance Hahn provided songs from both Cringer and Monsula; he was still a bit off from J Church taking off. There's a collaboration between Melvins and Steel Pole Bath Tub, some AmRep representation from Distorted Pony and Helios Creed, and a track from Sandy Duncan's Eye, who I still think is probably the most underrated noise rock band from this era.

"The Big One / City Of L.A. Power" is missing two songs from the latter; the Paper Tulips' and TVTV$'s contributions can only be found on the 1991 single-sided vinyl. Are we missing out on something? Shoot, man, track down a copy and let me know. I just got back on Discogs.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Beloved (A Treasury Of Classic British Indie Rock)

Far be it for me to miss a second straight week of Mojo Mondays. And with St. Valentine's Day right around the corner, what better time is it to celebrate our beloved 80s British indie bands?

From the Monochrome Set and Orange Juice (shout out to The New Vinyl Villain for their ongoing OJ/Edwyn Collins singles series) through the Sound and Half Man Half Biscuit, all the way up to McCarthy and the La's, this is good confirmation that this was a classic era of indie for the UK. Universally, none of this broke in the States at the time of its release, but I sure as hell keep an eye out for these records in secondhand stores and thrift shop bins. This is the kind of physical media that the Gen X'ers seem to still be ditching if they didn't 86 it all when streaming really took hold. It's one of those "beggars can't be choosers" situations, where you're paying a premium to seek out specific records. But if you're down for a bit of aural adventure, you can finally determine why Julian Cope is held in such high regard, why Cherry Red is still reissuing Felt recordings 40 years on, and why you should give a damn about Pete Wylie and his various iterations of Wah! (Heat).

Discogs

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various artists - Dim Mak Records Sampler, "I'm like a stepping razor don't you watch me i'm dangerous

Long before Steve Aoki became a famed cake thrower, but after he booked HC & emo bands to play shows in his dorm room at the Pickle Patch at UCSB, he was a purveyor of some renown for the cutting edge of indie rock. This 23-year-old relic comes from just before he linked up with Bloc Party and helped break them here in the States. So it has sprinklings of fun stuff from Pretty Girls Make Graves, Panthers, the Gossip, Die Monitr Bats, and the Von Bondies. I'm partial to the contribution from post-Huggy Bear outfit the Phantom Pregnancies, as well as a live Soledad Brothers cut. It's a fun reminder of the time when the hardcore kids were playing house records alongside riot grrrl, and coke mirrors with the logo of your band were a crucial element of your show merch. 

Discogs

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various artists - Working Holiday

Merry Xmas, friends! Let's keep it short and sweet today with this two-disc compilation of (most of) Simple Machines Records' "Working Holiday" 7" series. As per the notes, it's missing the original Bratmobile, Swirlies, and Jonny Cohen tracks, but adds a second disc of live tracks from the Working Holiday festival. There's plenty of good mid-90s indie rock to be found here in the form of Tsunami, Superchunk, Jawbox, Lungfish, Codeine, Versus, and Scrawl. The live disc adds Archers Of Loaf, Rodan, and Crain. I'm a sucker for anything Simple Machines put together, which is why I hope received the requested copy of Tsunami's "Loud As Is" from Santa this year.

Now, get back to your family, your homies, your feasting, your gift opening, a crackling fire, and/or a bottle of brown liquor. As the saying goes, however you keep Christmas is between you and the Lord. I'm taking a few weeks off to enjoy California's Central Coast and my in-laws' famous hospitality. See you sometime in January 2026.

Discogs

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