various artists - Tromeo & Juliet (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

When I saw the other day that James Gunn had yet another movie open #1 at the box office, I was reminded, yet again, that he made his bones writing "Tromeo & Juliet", Troma's beloved take on Shakespeare. So it led me to bust out this shiny slab of aluminum. I bought it b/c Troma and Unsane, I kept it b/c Motörhead and Superchunk and Meatmen and Wesley Willis. Hell, they even managed to wedge a song from Gunn's band, the Icons, on here.

This is not going to show up on a listical of iconic 90s soundtracks. But I'd suggest that it should be recognized as part of the canon. While there's little here that is exclusive to the soundtrack, it does offer a wide swath of "alternative" rock from the late 90s, from a deep cut from Sublime to music from the Ass Ponys and Supernova. Plus: Brujeria!

Discogs

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various artists - Amphetamine Reptile Records 1993 Sampler

It never gets old to me, the idea that someone at Atlantic Records thought that the rest of the AmRep catalog might cross over to mainstream popularity, in the same way that Helmet did. "Sure," I believe the thinking went, "the kids will go ga-ga over Today Is The Day and Hammerhead!"

Was cocaine involved? I have to assume the answer is "yes". It's the music business!

Anyway, this one came delivered to your door with your mailorder from Haze's bunker in Minneapolis. What a grand way to get a sniff of Chokebore, Helios Creed, Cosmic Psychos, and Cows. It's the sort of scuzz that'll twist out a 15-year-old, make them turn away from Pearl Jam records and start trekking out to dark corners of their towns. Haze's artwork on the cover seals the deal. This one warps brains and perverts the heart. Obviously, it's a classic.

Discogs

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various artists - The Thing That Ate Floyd

I got a couple hundred words into writing this one last week, then forgot to hit post. By the time I came back to it, the sentiments I shared had passed. It was time for a rewrite.

When I was a kid, I'd hear folks in my southwestern Virginia town talk about being anywhere than where they were. "I wish I lived in Seattle/Athens/Chapel Hill/Minneapolis/DC/London." All completely understandable sentiments, when you're 16 and the closest college town is an hour plus away. It felt like there was so much coolness going on...just not where we lived.

For me, along with DC, the Bay Area was the place I dreamed of. It was where Lookout Records was, 924 Gilman (even tho Jello Biafra got beat up there), Epicenter, Maximum Rock 'n' Roll, Amoeba, Bottom of the Hill. So much coolness, and what a mix! Neurosis and Operation Ivy and Jawbreaker and Steel Pole Bathtub and Tribe 8 and the Mr. T Experience! Sometimes playing together!! This wasn't the 60s, when San Francisco was one of THE big stops for every band worth seeing. This was the 90s, right before punk broke, and the freaks had carved out their little niche.

"The Thing That Ate Floyd" captures the front end of that wave. A proper monster of a comp, assembled by Lookout co-operator David Hayes and recorded in large part by Alex Sergay, Lookout! No. 11 is an amazing scene report. The iconic artwork by Hayes immediately evokes for me Crimpshrine tapes and punk rock dorkiness. There are some hall of famers present: OpIv, Neurosis, Crimpshrine, MTX, and SPBT all provide tracks from early in their respective catalogs. A number of folks who would later record for Lookout and Very Small also make early appearances. The comp wasn't limited to bands from the Bay Area, either; Fresno, Chico, Chula Vista, Stockton, San Jose were the places they came from, all trekking into the big city to make a little noise to sympathetic conspirators.

I'm pleased to be able to direct folks over to Lavasocks Records, who brought this one back into print in 2021 with a handsome repress with a wonderful yellow cover and one of four colors of wax. If you download this one and dig it, pay them a visit over on Bandcamp and kick them some bux.

Discogs

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various artists - Love & Napalm

I picked this up at a record store on California's Central Coast over the holidays, from the guy who used to sell Mrs. Ape Mummy her teenage 7"s and weed to her uncle. I love his store; he's constantly playing stoner rock and doom metal at levels far too loud to be appropriate, and everything always smells like nag champa. He will tell tales about how old timers on the police force still ask him about his head shop. The aged masters of record stores are almost all retired or dead, but a few still keep the flame alive, and are willing to share a look at their Sabbath bootlegs should you seem "cool".

King Coffey's Trance Syndicate put this one out, headlined by the almighty Cherubs and backed capably by the likes of Ed Hall, Crust, and Drain. I'm not exactly sure why I was intimidated by a bunch of acid-soaked Texans back in 1993. When our paths have crossed since then, they've always seemed like such nice fellas; real salt of the earth.

Have a little loving clamor for your ears on Valentine's Day, whether you're solo, paired, or in a throuple.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: This Is A Call! (15 Brainmelting Dispatches From The Golden Age Of U.S. Alt-Rock)

This is a just a front-to-back KILLER collection of what, indeed, was the Golden Age of U.S. alt-rock. Sure, maybe it kicks off with a lessor Sugar song (if you can deem any Sugar song as a "lesser" effort). But things spring right back in with a run of Superchunk/Sebadoh/Shudder To Think/Lotion/GvsB. That's a Murderer's Row of boys and guitars (apologies to Ms. Ballance). Things take a relative break with contributions from Pond and Madder Rose, a pair of bands I definitely vaguely remember from issues of CMJ and Option, but otherwise own nothing by. Then things pick back up with my favorite Built To Spill song, Bob Pollard, Sunny Day Real Estate, and the god-damn Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. It's all capped off with the Grifters, who I only discovered and appreciated in the last few years, and the Jesus Lizard, who I discovered first of all these, and have loved the longest.

I'm not ignoring Red Red Meat for any good reason; I just typically skip the track, the remnant of a poor impression they left me with when i saw them open for Smashing Pumpkins at the Salem Civic Center on the "Siamese Dream" tour. And remembering that reminds me that it took place 31 years ago, which is just...man, that is a terrible realization.

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 - Golden Grouper Vol. 1

The subtitle reads "18 California Bands You Won't See On The Warped Tour!", which is an awfully quaint sentiment twenty years after the fact. I can't imagine anyone born in 2003 involved in music today seeing fulfillment in the grimy DIY world that I lived in. They'd probably think old Uucle Ape has brain worms.

I probably do have brain worms. It has nothing to do with an adolescence spent in basements, garages, and out of the way clubs listening to loud-ass music, tho.

But this comp, from the esteemed and missed GSL, takes a pretty important snapshot of the noisy punk scene in California state circa 2004. When indie sleaze was just starting to fall apart, bands like 400 Blows, Wives, Wires on Fire, and Mannekin Piss were up and touring, making a racket to tens (literally TENS!) of fans across the country. I was one of them.

That time is long gone, y'all, and I don't see it coming back. The circumstances that allowed us to rent out warehouses and storefronts to throw $6 shows for these bands just don't exist any more. I have no doubt that kids today are still finding a path forward; I commend them for it. But I don't envy anyone trying to make or support art today, especially art that is patently anti-commercial. It's a fuckin' drag, every time I think about it.

Discogs

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various artists - New York Ear And Eye Control

Well, it's another stupid Monday. And far be it for me to mislead you, my valued reader (there are dozens of us!), so early in the new week into believing you're getting the 1966 ESP Disc landmark free jazz recording. No, you're getting the spiritual successor, released a quarter century later by the nascent Matador Records.

This one doesn't feature Albert Ayler or Don Cherry. Instead, you receive the likes of Unsane, Cop Shoot Cop, Royal Trux, and Railroad Jerk, along with more experimental sounds from Steve Fitch, Borbetomagus, Circle X, and OWT. This ultimately reads like a late-period Homestead release, which makes sense, since Cosloy probably conceived it in his last days running that joint.

It took me roughly (counts on fingers) 28 years from the first time I heard this to actually buy a copy, probably because I spent my 20s thinking Unsane was the only band here worth a shit, my 30s chasing different comps, and a fair portion of my 40s just looking for steady work. Like adult acne, some issues take a long time to clear up. 

Discogs

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various artists - Take Your Medicine::A Heavy Dose Of Sonic Overload

I do a fair amount of my writing on Sundays while I'm doing laujndry adn avoiding more focus-intensive chores. The trade-off here is that Mrs. Mummy plays one of her numerous YouTube playlists, comprised of the outer edges of international popular music. It pushes me back to the familiar; not that I don't love NewJeans or whatever Mexican pop princess she's playing, but I does force me consider what I'm going to share, and why.

Take this 1996 compulation from Boston's Wonderdrug Records. I was familiar with a few of the names on this comp when I snagged it online for a $1 a few months ago: Scissorfight, Slughog, and Honkeyball, to name a few. I knew the label itself was of the same area, temporally and geographically, as Big Wheel Recreation and Tortuga Recordings, although they covered a different piece of the heavy music world. This is more stoner rock/desert rock/acid punk than I listened to back then. While most of these bands wouldn't be out of place on an Eyehategod or Nebula bill, I'm still not sure it holds my interest so far after the fact as bands that came out on AmRep or Man's Ruin during the same time.

Discogs

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various artists - Amateur Soundtrack - A Film By Hal Hartley

"I am a star / A Hal Hartley movie / I read my lines / Straight faced in the mirror"

 Kind Of Like Spitting, "Your Favorite Actor"

Here's another Matador soundtrack from the mid 90s, this time from Hal Hartley''s fifth film, 1994's Amateur.

Does it feature Martin Donovan? You bet it does.

Is Parker Posey in it? She is not.

It does star Isabelle Huppert, a secret crush of mine, as an ex-nun named "Isabelle" who gets wrapped up in criminal hijinks spining out of her new career as a pornographer.

Did you get all that? I was told recently I had a way with log lines, but I dunno.

This is one of the places where Liz Phair, My Bloody Valentine, and the Jesus Lizard could comfortably rub elbows back in those days. And I find the Ned Rifle/Jeffrey Taylor score to be a pretty great appendix to what would have otherwise been a decent Lollapalooza 1995 sampler.

8/10. Now go watch the movie. You're going to have to find a physical copy, tho; it's ain't on streaming here in the States.

Discogs

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various artists - D.U.M.B. Rock: The Hollywood Tapes

Focusing one's attention on cheap comps allows one to take some risks and discover sounds you would have never encountered otherwise, Case in point: this 1993 compilation of NYC sounds, featuring liner notes from contemporary Maximum Rock 'n' Roll columnist George Tabb, whose writing I took a liking to in my first years of punk rock discovery.

This one came out on Celluloid, a label I've always found curious for the breadth of their releases. Their early US releases were a who's who of Downtown sounds: Bill Laswell, Alan Vega, Phase2, and Grandmixer D.ST. They put out a few Fela Kuti records in the 80s; I think the first things I owned on Celluloid were "Hustlers Convention" and "This Is Madness". By 1993, Celluloid was on its last legs, having been sold for a dollar in 1989, and mostly existing as a catalog label by this point. I can only speculate, but Vital Music, who'd released the other "Dumbrock" comps, probably piggybacked on Celluloid's transcontinental distribution reach in order to get this one in as many hands as possible.

"But is it any good?" you ask. Good question; you be the judge. I don't feel like it was a buck poorly spent on my part. And that's all the insight I'm willing to spend on this one.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Teen Spirit

The death of Steve Albini had an awful lot of folks in the mainstream revisiting the period around his recording of "In Utero". I appreciate it, because it digs up his old quotes about Urge Overkill, and brings attntion to the Jesus Lizard. That ain't a terrible thing.

This is definitely one of my favorite Mojo comps; the sort that makes me wonder why I haven't resubscribed. Sure, I already own everything here worth owning, But the curation, which I assume was conducted by Mojo editor Phil Alexander, is top notch and covers a wider-than-average swath of the American pre-grunge underground. Alice Donut, Pavement, the Gits, and Jawbox? All together on the same CD? Pretty nice work, gang.

Discogs

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various artists - Sides 1-4

Allow the cheat on this one; I am not the original ripper. although I have faithfully owned a copy of this for almost as long as it's been out. You can get a download or physical copy here from the very good folks at Skin Graft, and you probably should.

It's time to share my two cents on Steve Albini. So you get two posts in a day.

When this double 7" came out in 1995, I knew Steve Albini mostly from his engineering and his criticism. I was aware he had done a band with a couple guys from Naked Raygun in the 80s, and a band with a pair of fellas from Texas in the early 90s, but THIS was Shellac Number Seven, and my intro to them musically was a cover of Bon Scott-era AC/DC. Which kinda hurt my head, but also I dug in a huge way, even though I never got into AC/DC with the same enthusiasm as a bunch of the dudes I went to high school with. Anyway: cool intro.

But I worked backwards as time moved forward, as Steve's fingerprints continued to leave marks all over my taste. I bought a copy of "The Rich Man's Eight-Track Tape" at the same time I bought "Terraform", all the while discovering his recordings of Pussy Galore, Boss Hog, the goddamned Jesus Lizard. I had heard rumors that Fugazi went out to Chicago to record with Steve, only for his recording of "In On The Kill Taker" to get memory holed in favor of a Don Zientara engineered/Ted Nicely produced record. You knew I spent at least a dozen years trying to pin down a copy before a kind friend finally scored me a 4th generation dub. By the time "1000 Hurts" came out, I was a bona-fide fan, absorbing whatever wit and insight I could find in the pre-internet days from yellowing Forced Exposure reviews, and, in the instances where he'd own up to it, treating an Albini credit on a record as much a Seal of Quality as the Dischord logo or the Impulse! livery.

I discovered he could be a real prick, and sometimes cruel in the service of humor, but who amongst us isn't when we're 19 or 25 or 33, opinionated, sharing our thoughts publicly in a way so easily referenced. But more often than not, he was right. He, like all the best of us, held, demonstrated, and demanded a strong moral compass. He worked hard not to get in the way of other people's art, but, rather, tried to elevate them in the ways he knew how. His life was a great example that you could lead an ethical and intentional life, that you could also acknowledge your previous failures with grace and accountability. There are a few of these influences in my life; I rarely met them, but I appreciate the example they set, one that I strive to follow.

I've been discussing the loss of leaders a lot recently. People around me continually lament the death of those who become our North Stars, our cultural compasses. "Who will fill their shoes?" they ask. I'm sure as shit not going to record a "Magnolia Electric Co." or "24-Hour Revenge Therapy", but I cqn live an ethical life and help raise others up. This world can be shit a lot of the time, but it doesn't have to be that way. Thanks to Steve Albini for reminding me of that every single time his work crossed my path.

Discogs

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various artists - I Give You The Head Of Corporate Rock And Roll Vol. I

If you're like me, and an interest in public radio intersects with a love of punk rock, then this one's for you, pally.

Recorded live on air at KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles, "I Give You The Head Of Corporate Rock And Roll Vol. I" is a snapshot of the West Coast's edgier left of the dial bands, just as "Nevermind" was starting to really break through.to 14-year-olds like me. Not that I would have heard this, residing, as I did, on the literal side of a mountain in Moonshine Country, Virginia.

But I probably would have enjoyed this immensely in 1992. Calamity Jane, who I've written about here before, provides a cut. Long Gone John's taste is well represented, with Oiler, the Humpers, and Trash Can School all chiming in. Kyle Ryan would probably be stoked to see Anus the Menace, Bulimia Banquet, and Sandy Duncan's Eye contributing cuts. And operating at the center of this fuckin' sick Venn diagram are Distorted Pony and Mudwimin, making circus music for little monkeys like yours truly. There's even a Man Is The Bastard connection, as former PHC bandmate Bob Durkee's band Shoeface can also be found here.

L.A. seems like it probably was fun in 1992.

Discogs

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various artists - Amphetamine Reptile • Peel Sessions

It seemed like a glaring omission when I saw that I didn't already own a copy of this (currently). So of course I spent the $1.99 to rescue this from a clearance rack last month, along with a Lou Reed "best of" and Boss Hog's "Girl Plus" EP. Because money comes and money goes, but one should never let a sweet deal for noise rock pass them by.

In my humble, stupid opinion, Helmet and Tar still have the standout tracks here. And that tracks with my taste, since both bands are ones that I keyed onto Back In The Day (TM) and spent my hard earned Taco Bell wages on. No $2 CDs back then, I can tell you. But I should not pay short shrift to Cows (I preferred the Heroine Sheiks) and Surgery, who had already dissolved in the wake of Sean McDonnell's death by the time I would have otherwise become aware of them.

This is one that is well worth a listen, as well as a limited edition reissue with all new Haze XXL art.

Discogs

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various artists - Yoyo A Go Go

It's been a few years since I last posted anything from Pat Maley's Yoyo Recordings. But it's been thirty years since the first Yoyo A Go Go, and since I'm less than 80 miles away, as opposed to the 2,800 or so that I was back then, I thought it was time to pay this one a visit, and share it with you fine peep-holes.

Let me tell you what I recollect about this time. I was listening to my cassette of International Piop Underground Convention a lot in the spring of 1994, so when I heard that something similar was going to take place that summer...well, I didn't give it a ton of thought, because how was I going to go from Boones Mill, Virginia to magical Olympia? Especially since I found out a few weeks before school ended that we were leaving the sticks for suburban Baltimore,

But it was definitely intriguing. And, in retrospect, a little bit gumption could have gotten me out there on a four-day Greyhound with more than a few of my hard-earned Taco Bell dollars in my pocket. And who would I have seen? Unwound, Heavens to Betsy, Excuse 17, and Team Dresch remain the big names for me, even this far down the line. How cool would it have been to see Codeine, or Cub, or two thirds of Yo La Tengo, or Neutral Milk Hotel? Would I have even been into it back then? Or would it have been one of those moments I would have only appreciated in retrospect?

I suppose it's better to regret something you have done, rather than somehing you haven't done. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get up in someone's face and scream "SATAN!" over and over again.

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 - Dope-Guns-'N-Fucking In The Streets Volumes 8-11

I had oriignally planned to post this a couple weeks ago, as I reached my 46th birthday. I serendipitously found this in a box of CDs due to be put in storage, and, somehow, it wasn't on my hard drive. Boom: a perfect share. But, then, life got in the way. So here I am, prepping for a colonoscopy tomorrow, my stomach empty except for lemon-lime Gatorade Zero. Why regret not having posted for two weeks? Take a little time on the toilet, dash this one off in a jiffy,

DGF remains a foundational series of (initially) eleven 7"s, released between 1988 and 1998, by the eternally cool, maximally abrasive Amphetamine Reptile Records. If you're a yoot born in the past 25 years, not yet familiar with the world of noise rock in which I grew up, you could use the series as a pretty good checklist. Hell, I did.

I single this out, not just because I found the CD the other day, but because these were the 7" releases I was actually around for and hunting down in the record bins of Roanoke and Baltimore. This was some of my first exposures to Superchunk, Jawbox, RFTC, and Braniac; all bands whose recorded outputs I've collected fervently in the interim. The likes of Guzzard and Bailter Space don't exactly rev my engine, but they're no slouches in this lineup. Today is the Day, Gaunt, Bordeoms: their cuts here rank amongst my favorites by each band.

I hope that, when you listen to this, you'll consider the joys of taking a fiber optic camera up the ass in the interest of GI health. I'd like to think it's what Mr. Hazelmyer had in mind whilst compiling it.

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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シェラック - Live In Tokyo

Shellac of North America record no. 5. A full blown banger that was released in Japan by K.K. Null's home, Nux Organization, and one that only ever came Stateside via bootlegs. This was ripped from my own bootleg copy of the Nux release. I would argue I prefer it over "At Action Park", but I think it's because I tend to get contrarian about Shellac. Which is what I assume esteemed poker player Mr. Albini would prefer.

I learned today, in between boxing up a bunch of CDs and watching the entire first season of "Reacher", that the founder of [shiny grey monotone], Ipecac, died in 2021. To quote his running mate Grey:

I feel an obligation to carry on in his honor because as goofy as blogging about music can be, it meant a lot to him, and the power of music is real. Harnessing these seemingly magical currents out of thin air in a way that makes music really is beguiling, and even after punishing my ears with it for decades, I still find the same thrill in hearing just the right combination of sounds. It will never cease to amaze.

Whenever I feel like stopping the writing permanently, I end up coming across another goddamned record like this, and I'm drawn to a very similar emotion as that which Grey refers to above. It is a solopistic, quixotic gesture to keep blogging for free about relatively obscure recordings in 2022. Yet I must, because there's someone who hasn't experienced this magical moment, captured 29 years ago and thousands of miles away, and to keep that magic to myself would be a sin.

Discogs

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