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 - 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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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 - Summer Smash '06

The logo for this website should read, "time comes for us all." Today's reminder is that this sampler, from the esteemed RevDistribution of Huntington Beach, CA, is twenty years old. But surely that can't be the case, right? Because I just saw Sinking Ships at the Sidebar, and the guys from This Is Hell are those whippersnappers from Long Island with the smart merch that played second on a six-band bill at the Art Space. End of a Year just changed their name to Self Defense Family, right? Wasn't everyone just raving about Down To Nothing playing Youngblood Fest a few weeks ago?

I also just figured out how to play FLACs on my computer, which reinforces that "you're getting old, dude" feeling. So I'll lean into that feeling, by playing this with the windows down in the CR-V as I drive down a road that didn't exist 20 years ago on my way to a building that didn't exist back then, either. Car mosh for life.

Discogs

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various artists - Chairman Of The Board: Interpretations Of Songs Made Famous By Frank Sinatra

Forty-one bands covering forty-one Sinatra standards, released by the short-lived Dutch East India imprint Grass Records in their first year. "Over 2 hours of music!" it proclaims from the cover.

Is this good? Well, even though I've owned this for 20+ years, I can't say that I've listened to more than a handful of tracks (Jawbox, Cherubs, Screeching Weasel, GvsB). So I'll say...maybe? Probably? Shit, man...I don't know YOU.

I did NOT properly tag genres on this before uploading, and I'm not going to do it now. You get to decide if you'd categorize the Toadies as alternative, grunge, or college rock.

I probably should listen to these in full before I go sharing them. So let's dive in together.

Discogs

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various artists - Particle Theory (A Compendium Of Lightspeed Incursions And Semiotic Weapons From Warner/Reprise)

Ah, yes; the rare place to find Elvis Costello, Boredoms, Sven Väth, and Julee Cruise all in one place.

The Warner family of labels, circa 1993, was a pretty rad assembleage. There was big daddy Warner Bros. Records, who released "The Juliet Papers" that year, a weird concept for 16-year-old me to wrap my brain around. Elvis Costello with a string quartet? Don't worry; I get it now. They'd also put out records from the Flaming Lips and Goo Goo Dolls, which actually got daytime airplay on the one rock station in town. Then there was Ms. Cruise, who, at the time, I wasn't actually aware had worked with David Lynch on the Twin Peaks soundtrack.

Reprise was still flogging Mudhoney's first major label record, put out a Boredoms record in the States, which tickles me to no end, and were still trying to break Babes In Toyland big. Their release slate in 1993 was a bit mixed in quality, but I like how weird a mix it is. You just don't see folks throwing around major label advances on odd shit anymore.

There were also co-releases from Sire, 4AD, Giant, Blanco Y Negro, and American Recordings, all bearing either the WB shield or lower-case R. "Alternative" was a pretty big tent back in 1993, and the majors hadn't had a chance to cock it all up yet. For me and many other future college radio DJs, it was a good time to catch a shotgun's blast worth of genre music and absorb it all, even if you weren't totally into it right away. And, hey, this one could have turned out worse. Candlebox put out a record on Sire in 1993 that sold a metric fuckton and very well could have been represented here. The compilers got it right on this one.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Roots Of Nirvana (Distorted Sounds From The Punk Underground)

I would have thought there would be no surprises in a "Roots of Nirvana" comp. The tastes of Msr. Cobain and Novoselic are fairly well-documented at this point. So it is that you se a lot of the names and songs you'd expect to see on this sort of comp.

There are the local influences: Melvisn, Beat Happening, Green River covering the Dead Boys. My all-time fav Stooges song in an extended live version pairs nicely with Flipper's "Sex Bomb" at the tail end of the CD. There are a few bands from Kurt's legendary mixtape that he was arrested with: Big Black, Scratch Acid, Young Marble Giants, and Shonen Knife. There are a pair of tracks present that Nirvana would later cover in their Unplugged set. Meat Puppets' "Plateau" and the Vaselines' "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam" both appear in their original forms.

Two songs shared here weren't on my radar until I heard them here.  Clown Alley's "On The Way Up" was on their single LP for the legendary SF thrash label Alechemy Records. Alchemy would also serve as the initial home for Melvins' "Gluey Porch Treatments", Neurosis' "Pain Of Mind", and Poison Idea's "War All The Time". "On The Way Up" makes me want to drop some coin on the 2009 expanded reissue on Southern Lord. Big Dipper's "You're Not Fancy" appeared initially on a 1987 Homestead Records comp alongside songs from Naked Raygun, Big Black, Death of Samantha, and Dinosaur (Jr); it'd also show up appended to the cassette version of their 1987 "Boo-Boo" 12". All of this would fly below my radar until discovered here. Merge reissued their pre-major label output in 2009 as part of a 3-disc CD set. And this intro is a proper appetizer. To my aging ears, I can hear a band traipsing the same sort of aural ground that would lead Nirvana to become the biggest band in the world a few years later.

Discogs

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various artists - Screwed (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

I'll never quite wrap my head around Atlantic distributing Amphetamine Reptile back in the mid-90s, and this record is evidence I'll present to support my argument. Sure, Helmet made some serious inroads with the kids of 1995, but I'm not sure who thought Hammerhead or Cows were a fit alongside Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, and Foreigner. It's so perverse; I kind of love it.

And speaking of perversity: here's the soundtrack to a documentary on New York publisher and pornographer Al Goldstein entitled "Screwed". It makes sense to have a bunch of AmRep luminaries provide the score to such a downer of a movie. Halo of Kitten (a collaboration between Halo of Flies and Free Kitten) and the Melvins offer alternate views on porn: one likes it, the other hates it. There's tracks from Guv'ner and Big Chief and Boss Hog and the almighty Mudhoney, all XXX-themed and just rightly written to play behind a view of a porn king's crumbling empire.

Discogs

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various artists - Home Alive: The Art Of Self-Defense

Here's what I remember about when this came out, through the eyes of an 18-year-old who lived on the other side of the country from the circumstances:

• Most of the folks I knew were more interested in this for the unreleased Pearl Jam song, the live Nirvana track, and Joan Jett & Kathleen Hanna performing with the remaining members of the Gits than the genesis why Home Alive was created.
• I had no clue what sort of violence women encountered in the world at the time. I would learn.
• I remember thinking, when the promo copy arrived at the college radio station I volunteered for, that it couldn't possibly be worth listening to, on account of being released by Epic Records.
• That's a point of view that is hilarious in retrospect. How many folks got their first exposure to Tribe 8, Lydia Lunch, or ¡TchKunG! as a result of picking this up? There are so many fiercely independent artists here, not to mention the wide range of spoken word performers and poets present.

This is a pretty iconic benefit comp, all things considered, in celebration of a wonderful human whose time came way too soon. Volume 2 would come five years later on the Seattle/San Francisco label Broken Rekids. Along with a trio of 7"s that came out on local label Crash Rawk Records, it's a resounding body of support that still stands up as well as any benefit.

Discogs

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various artists - CMJ Presents Certain Damage! - Volume 38

I posted another "Certain Damage!" sampler a couple months ago, and while that one was good, anytime you can lead off a mix with My Bloody Valentine/Hole/Pixies/Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet...well, that's a good-ass moment in music. Add in killer tracks from Black Sheep, Matthew Sweet, Manic Street Preachers, Dead Can Dance, Sinead O'Connor, and Enya, and you got a real stew going, doncha?

Discogs

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various artists - Revolution Come And Gone

I remember reading complaints about the state of the Sub Pop roster around the same time I became familiar with the label, which would have been around 1993 (I was 15; give me a break). It revolved around the expansion past the confines of Washington state, with Sub Pop putting out full lengths by bands from Boston, Cincinnati, Ann Arbor, Providence, and Kent. I never got the complaint; Mssr, Pavitt had always shown interest in music far outside the PNW, dating back to the earliest Subterranean Pop tapes. Now, with points on "Nevermind", he and Poneman could finally put out LPs for what now looks like the cutting edge of independent rock.

We complained about weird shit in 1992.

Anyway, this one's a Europe-only release from 1992, featuring a mix of tracks released between 1990 and 1992, along with a couple of unreleased joints. The Walkabouts contribute a cover of "Maggie's Farm"; Codeine offers "Cracked In Two", a "Barely Real"-era recording that wouldn't turn up again until Numero Group reissued that EP in an expanded edition 20 years later. You also get Mudhoney covering Fang, Dwarves, Hole, Earth, Supersuckers, Tad, and Six Finger Satellite, amongst others. Mark Dancey from Big Chief drew a hell of a cool cover.

This one was a penny pickup on eBay from a seller who I've been buying a ton of cheap CDs from recently. Worth every cent.

Discogs

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various artists - Power Flush: San Francisco, Seattle & You

The rare "two cities' scenes" compilation, spread between Seattle and San Francisco, courtesy of Broken Rekids in San Francisco, and the Emerald City's Rathouse Records. There are some strong contributions here, provided by the Gits, 7 Year Bitch, and Alcohol Funnycar from up this way, and J Church, Naked Aggression, and Bedlam Rovers from the land of the Golden Gate. There are a pair of contributions from S.F.'s Mudwimin, including a collab with Steel Pole Bath Tub. Mudwimin were one of those mysterious bands that my riot grrrlfriend had dubbed tapes of, but I had no recollection of ever hearing. 

If there's one thing that comes to mind while I was listening to this, it was, "god DAMN I'm getting old!" I'm sure I could find distro lists from Broken inside 7"s I've owned for a quarter century without even really looking. Just about every band on this list was someone whose records I priced and shelved before the year 2000. It doesn't feel that long ago, but that copyright date doesn't lie. This came out 29 years ago.

The fact that I published "Power Flush" less than 12 hours after most people consumed mass quantities of food during Thanksgiving is mere coincidence, I assure you.

Discogs

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various artists - Freedom Of Choice: Yesterday's New Wave Hits Performed By Today's Stars

The joys of crate digging lie in the discovery of the unknown and the rediscovery of the forgotten. For example, I'm sure I should have known that, in 1992, Caroline Records and City Slang did a benefit record for Planned Parenthood that was bookended with Sonic Youth and Superchunk covering Plastic Bertrand and Devo (respectively). But I wasn't familiar with it until I turned up a copy on CD this week for $2.10 (plus tax). And what a joy it's been to rediscover it.

There are the aforementioned SY and 'Chunk tracks. I was a bit surprised to hear Mac sing in a lower register on "Girl You Want", but it wasn't unwelcome. There's a lot of the Triangle represented here, with Polvo and the Connells rubbing elbows with early Merge alums Erectus Monotone and Raleigh natives Finger. Hoboken also gets a shoutout, via contributions from Yo La Tengo and Tiny Lights. I'd also never heard Mudhoney's cover of "Pump It Up", one of my least-liked Elvis Costello songs, but, in their hands, I dug it. The "best" cut here is probably Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights", covered with great enthusiasm by White Flag. It's a weird choice that works well for me.

It's all pretty peak college rock/Lollapalooza second stage. I don't say that as a bad thing. It definitely took me back to reading about Rock For Choice shows and wondering when I'd make it to the Sanctuary Theatre to see Fugazi. It hurts my head to think that we're nearly 30 years on from this, and we probably need support for Planned Parenthood more now than ever.

Discogs

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Calamity Jane - Martha Jane Cannary

Here's some early 90s PNW punk rock for yr brain on a Tuesday. I knew about Calamity Jane from "Stars Kill Rock" and Tim/Kerr's Wipers tribute comp, so when I saw this stashed on a low shelf in a junk shop not far from me, I said, "hell, yeah", even though I couldn't recall at the time what they actually sounded like. As far as I'm concerned, it was a pretty good get. It's grimy, heavy, noisy...hailing from the same sonic places as their contemporaries in Mudhoney, Scrawl, and the Fluid. The more I listen to it, the more I hear them go to the same territory as a band like War on Women, who I just simply adore.

I'm vexed as to why this, their only full-length, ended up on a short-lived UK label, instead of one of the numerous West Coast labels releasing this kind of rock in 1992. Calamity Jane released a 7" with Sympathy for the Record Industry in 1991, and had a couple of appearances on Tim/Kerr. But it seems like a terrible experience with fans while opening for Nirvana in Argentina took the wind out of CJ's sails. It sucks; it seems like, just months later, they might have taken the same sort of leap as L7 or 7 Year Bitch.

TLDR: I thoroughly enjoy this record.

Discogs

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Black Flag - The Complete 1982 Demos Plus More!

See, I told you I'd be right back to some dumb punk rock shit.

The Black Flag/Unicorn/MCA injunction is one of my favorite stories about the music business. Flag signs a deal with Unicorn Records to co-release "Damaged", gaining Black Flag access to better distribution. Al Bergamo at MCA, Unicorn's parent company, hears (about) "Damaged", decides it's "anti-parent", and blocks it from release. SST restickers the 25,000 LP run on Unicorn. Unicorn files suit against Black Flag for breach of contract, leading to contempt of court charges against Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski and a three year embargo against any releases under the Black Flag name.

So it came to be that it took three years, and two lineups, until the Flag would fly again. Robo left his drum stool shortly after recording "Damaged", and in his place would sit Chuck Biscuits, formerly of D.O.A. While nothing official was ever released from this five-piece, they did record a number of demos, collected here on this bootleg CD-R. We get a mix of tracks from "My War" and "Slip It In", featuring Rollins on vocals, Ginn and Cadena on guitars, Dukowski on bass, and Biscuits on drums. I really prefer the '82 quintet. I think Bill Stevenson's drumming continues to get better over time, but Biscuits was at the top of his game on these demos. Hank still hasn't dove full-blown into LSD poet, and Dez on second guitar allows Greg Ginn to go wild, while still retaining an underpinning on the songs. It's also the Dukowski's last recordings with the band before the Duke would move onto SWA. In short, it's a leaner, meaner version of a pair of classic hardcore/grunge records that wouldn't come out for another two years.

And, because I'm a giver, I've left on the 1984 Radio Tokyo sessions that typically appear on CD versions of the 1982 demos. It's three songs from "My War" and an interview, featuring bearded Henry Rollins, stoned Greg Ginn, Kira Roessler on bass and Bill on drums. It's a cool tack on, considering Kira didn't otherwise record any of the "My War" cuts, and I'm always a fan of a "live in the studio" session.

Discogs

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Viva Knieval - self-titled aka Boy Poison

I suppose we can always use a Kathleen Hanna rarity. Viva Knieval was her second band, after Amy Carter, and before Bikini Kill. Among her bandmates was Louise "Zeb" Olsen, who played in Go Team with Tobi Vail and Billy Karren, and self-released this under the Ultrasound Records. This has more in common musically with L7 and Babes in Toyland than you might expect, considering the band's home base and membership. Fun fact: Tim Mac of Halo of Flies recorded this four-song slab. 1,000 on black, 1,000 on red, gang. And that is the most amazing part to me: that a relatively unknown band would press 2,000 7"s.

Discogs

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The Beatniks - Moo

THIS is exactly what I look for when I go out thrifting. Bear with me while I explain.

The Beatniks, today, appear to be one of those dad bands, playing covers from the 60s and 70s, at the street fair that the suburbs are typically full of this time of year, COVID notwithstanding. They play well enough, the slot in anywhere on a mixed bill, they offend no one. And that's nice for people. Hell, you can even have them play during dinner at a corporate retreat, and the middle managers will go OFF! Their Facebook page is chock full of testimonials to their greatness, and while it's not my thing, far be it for me to bag on dudes in their 50s to keep making music and getting paid to do it.

However, in 1992, they were a quartet of up-and-comers from Seattle. And this was their self-released EP. And I don't hate it. It has this early 90s, pop alternative sound that slotted in well with grunge, but came from a much cleaner sonic place. The recording and mix from Don Gilmore is really solid; it didn't surprise me to read his credit list and see his work with Eve 6 and Lit. I REALLY like the drumming here, too.

I grabbed this initially because it was a buck, and no one showed that they owned a copy on Discogs. I like being that guy. Sure enough, I found another one deep in Snohomish County, this time for $2, so I grabbed that as well. Even with music I'm not in love with, I feel weird about records being orphaned. Records like this are worth remembering, even if your website refuses to acknowledge it.

Discogs

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