Sonic Youth - Dirty (1992)

When DGC Records signed Nirvana in 1991, one of DGC's A&R reps expressed the opinion that, with plenty of touring and the right promotion, the new act might sell as well as its labelmate and touring partner Sonic Youth. The surprise success of Nevermind upended previous commercial expectations for Sonic Youth (among other established alternative rock bands), and when Dirty was released in 1992, it was seen by many as the band's big move toward the grunge market. Which doesn't make a lot of sense if you actually listen to the album; while Butch Vig's clean but full-bodied production certainly gave Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo's guitars greater punch and presence than they had in the past, and many of the songs move in the increasingly tuneful direction the band had been traveling with Daydream Nation and Goo, most of Dirty is good bit more jagged and purposefully discordant than its immediate precursors, lacking the same hallucinatory grace as Daydream Nation or the hard rock sheen of Goo. If anything, Dirty finds Sonic Youth revisiting the territory the band mapped out on Sister — merging the propulsive structures of rock (both punk and otherwise) with the gorgeous chaos of their approach to the electric guitar — and it shows how much better they'd gotten at it in the past five years, from the curiously beautiful "Wish Fulfillment" and "Theresa's Sound World" to the brutal "Drunken Butterfly" and "Purr." Dirty was also Sonic Youth's most overtly political album, railing against the abuses of the Reagan/Bush era on "Youth Against Fascism," "Swimsuit Issue," and "Chapel Hill," a surprising move from a band so often in love with cryptic irony. Heard today, Dirty doesn't sound like a masterpiece (like Daydream Nation) or a gesture toward the mainstream audience (like Goo) — it just sounds like a damn good rock album, and on those terms it ranks with Sonic Youth's best work. Source: [AMG]

Sonic Youth - Sugar Kane


Track Listing
1. 100%
2. Swimsuit Issue
3. Theresa's Sound World
4. Drunken Butterfly
5. Shoot
6. Wish Fulfillment
7. Sugar Kane
8. Orange Rolls, Angel's Spit
9. Youth Against Fascism
10. Nic Fit
11. On the Strip
12. Chapel Hill
13. JC
14. Purr
15. Créme Brûlèe

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Spin Doctors - Pocket Full Of Kryptonite (1992)

After nearly a year of solid touring, the Spin Doctors scored a huge, unexpected success with the incessantly catchy "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong." The rest of Pocket Full of Kryptonite will please fans of that song; the album is full of the loose, leisurely three-chord pop/rock jams the Spin Doctors specialize in. It may be unfair to compare them to the Grateful Dead, but the Doctors often suggest a lighter, more pop-oriented version of that band. While all of the best tracks were issued as singles ("Jimmy Olsen's Blues," "Two Princes," and "Little Miss"), there are still enough good moments on the rest of the album to please anyone who loves the hits. Source: [AMG]

Spin Doctors - Little Miss Can't Be Wrong


Track Listing
1. Jimmy Olsen's Blues
2. What Time Is It?
3. Little Miss Can't Be Wrong
4. Forty or Fifty
5. Refrigerator Car
6. More Than She Knows
7. Two Princes
8. Off My Line
9. How Could You Want Him (When You Know You Could Have Me?)
10. Shinbone Alley/Hard to Exist
11. Yo Mamas a Pajama
12. Sweet Widow
13. Stepped on a Crack

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The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen (1993)

The Afghan Whigs' sound was growing larger by the release during the days on Sub Pop, so the fact that Gentlemen turned out the way it did wasn't all that surprising as a result ("cinematic" was certainly the word the band was aiming for, what with credits describing the recording process as being "shot on location" at Ardent Studios). While Gentlemen is no monolith, it is very much of a piece at the start. While "If I Were Going" opens things on a slightly moodier tip, it's the crunch of "Gentlemen," "Be Sweet," and "Debonair" that really stands out, each of which features a tightly wound R&B punch that rocks out as much as it grooves, if not more so. Greg Dulli's lyrics immediately set about the task of emotional self-evisceration at the same time, with lines like "Ladies, let me tell you about myself -- I got a dick for a brain" being among the calmer points. The album truly comes into its own with "When We Two Parted," though, as sad countryish guitars chime over a slow crawling rhythm and Dulli's quiet-then-anguished detailing of an exploding relationship. From there on in, things surge from strength to greater strength, sometimes due to the subtlest of touches -- the string arrangement on "Fountain and Fairfax" or the unexpected, resigned lead vocal from Scrawl's Marcy Mays on "My Curse," for instance. Other times, it's all the much more upfront, as "What Jail Is Like," with its heartbroken-and-fierce combination of piano, feedback, and drive building to an explosive chorus. Dulli's blend of utter abnegation and masculine swagger may be a crutch, but when everything connects, as it does more often than not on Gentlemen, both he and his band are unstoppable. Source: [AMG]

The Afghan Whigs - Debonair


Track Listing
1. If I Were Going
2. Gentlemen
3. Be Sweet
4. Debonair
5. When We Two Parted
6. Fountain and Fairfax
7. What Jail Is Like
8. My Curse
9. Now You Know
10. I Keep Coming Back
11. Brother Woodrow/Closing Prayer

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Body Count - Body Count (1992)

Divorced from the controversy that surrounded its release, Body Count's self-titled debut is a surprisingly tepid affair. Apart from the previously released "Body Count" (which appeared on Ice-T's 1991 album O.G. Original Gangster), the record is devoid of serious commentary, trading intelligence for a lurid comic book depiction of sex, violence, and "Voodoo." All of Ice-T's half-sung/half-shouted lyrics fall far short of the standard he established on his hip-hop albums. The controversial "Cop Killer" -- which is nothing more than a standard thrash metal chant -- stands out because it is one of the few tracks that doesn't rely on garish, cartoonish imagery. There's the saga of "Evil Dick," which tells Ice-T not to "sleep alone." There's "KKK Bitch," where he crashes a Ku Klux Klan meeting and screws the grand dragon's daughter. There's "Voodoo," where a witch doctor cripples our hero with a voodoo doll. There's "Mama's Gotta Die Tonight," where Ice-T offs his mother cause she's a racist. By the time the band works around to the power ballad "The Winner Loses" and Ice-T is crooning "My friend's addicted to cocaine," it's unclear whether the record is a parody or a horribly flawed stab at arena metal. It would help if the band wrote riffs that were memorable or if they conveyed a sense of kinetic energy instead of tossing out their riffs in a workmen-like fashion. Perhaps Body Count was intentionally humorous -- although the group's follow-up, Born Dead, suggests that it wasn't -- but in any case, the record was simply embarrassing. After "Cop Killer" was pulled from the album, it was replaced with a bland version of Ice-T's rap classic "The Iceberg" recorded with Jello Biafra. Source: [AMG]


Body Count - Cop Killer


Track Listing
1. Smoked Pork
2. Body Count's in the House
3. Now Sports
4. Body Count
5. A Statistic
6. Bowels of the Devil
7. The Real Problem
8. KKK Bitch
9. C Note
10. Voodoo
11. The Winner Loses
12. There Goes the Neighborhood
13. Oprah
14. Evil Dick
15. Body Count Anthem
16. Momma's Gotta Die Tonight
17. Ice-T/Freedom of Speech

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Redd Kross - Show World (1997)

Kicking off with an exuberant version of the L.A. power pop-classic-that-almost-wasn't, "Pretty Please Me" -- and unsurprisingly Steve and Jeff McDonald and company rock the bastard to the ground with a smile this time around -- Show World is yet more fun from a band who dedicates themselves to a smart good time. In ways, Redd Kross had found history catching up to them by this time -- any number of bands had stumbled across the loud and brash- '70s pop-punk approach that was the group's raison de etre. But the fact that they hadn't gotten the attention they deserved for it didn't keep them from still going at it with gusto; Bless their hearts. If songs like "You Lied Again" and "Vanity Mirror" didn't introduce any curveballs to the basic sound, they still sounded pretty damn fantastic, singalong energy overdriven up to ten and beyond. Slightly slower tracks like "Girl God," the mega-orchestrated ballad "Secret Life," and the handclap crazy "Follow the Leader" showcase the band's calmer side well enough -- again, no surprises, but none were expected or needed. Best song title of the bunch this time around: "One Chord Progression," which lives up to its name just so. "Teen Competition" lets them cock rock out with the best of them, but doesn't forget the sugar in the chorus even as the distortion completely screws with the mix at one point, while "Get Out of Myself" has one brilliant moment with so much hyper-flange that why the speakers don't melt upon contact is a mystery. Source: [AMG]

Redd Kross - Mess Around


Track Listing
1. Pretty Please Me
2. Stoned
3. You Lied Again
4. Girl God
5. Mess Around
6. One Chord Progression
7. Teen Competition
8. Follow the Leader
9. Vanity Mirror
10. Secret Life
11. Ugly Town
12. Get Out of Myself
13. Kiss the Goat

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Superchunk - No Pocky For Kitty (1991)

Where Superchunk's self-titled debut otherwise failed to live up to the brilliance of its anti-anthem centerpiece "Slack Motherfucker," the follow-up No Pocky for Kitty is a complete and fully realized statement of purpose -- opening with the dizzying "Skip Steps 1 & 3," the disc never lets up for a second, crackling with an energy and breathless abandon that underlines the sheer exuberance at the heart of even Mac McCaughan's most superficially bitter songs. Although No Pocky for Kitty successfully channels the sound and spirit of punk's heyday, for all their whiplash guitars and spitfire rhythms Superchunk's songs derive their power not from nihilism and ennui but from optimism and passion -- implicit in McCaughan's lyrics is a belief in creation over destruction, hope over cynicism, and love over hate. Credit too Steve Albini's no-frills recording for the live-wire snap and crackle of standouts like "Seed Toss," "Punch Me Harder," and "Throwing Things" -- for all its earthy simplicity and everyman conviction, No Pocky for Kitty positively soars. Source: [AMG]

Superchunk - Cast Iron


Track Listing
1. Skip Steps 1 & 3
2. Seed Toss
3. Cast Iron
4. Tower
5. Punch Me Harder
6. Sprung a Leak
7. 30 Xtra
8. Tie a Rope to the Back of the Bus
9. Press
10. Sidewalk
11. Creek
12. Throwing Things

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Red Snapper - Making Bones (1998)

A full decade of acid jazz never produced a more stunning fusion of electronic music with live instrumentation than Making Bones. Poised halfway between Sly & Robbie and Roni Size, Red Snapper's first album for a worldwide audience surfs a wave of breakbeat funk that includes nods to dub, punk, soul, drum'n'bass and hip-hop. The rock-steady rhythm section of Richard Thair (drums) and Ali Friend (bass) holds the groove better than any sampler, tying together radically different material like classic British soul on "Image of You," metallic drum'n'bass on "The Sleepless" (with excellent rapping by MC Det) and the fusion update "Bogeyman" (with trumpeter Byron Wallen). It's obvious the Snapper have mastered all aspects of '90s electronic dance, and Making Bones is proof positive. Source: [AMG]

Red Snapper - The Sleepless


Track Listing
1. The Sleepless
2. Crease
3. Image of You
4. Bogeyman
5. The Tunnel
6. Like a Moving Truck
7. Spitalfields
8. Seeing Red
9. Suckerpunch
10. 4 Dead Monks

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Buck Wild - Beat Me Silly (1996)

As it happens, Buckwild's debut album, Beat Me Silly, was the first full-length release on Lobster Records, the label guitarist and vocalist Shawn Dewey started with his friend Steve in the mid-'90s, and it could not represent the label's modus operandi any better. Dewey started the band as a return to playing parties and no pressure kinds of shows, and Beat Me Silly is obviously a work of energetic joy. The album moves effortlessly between brash, modern post-punk ("One Day" resembles what Foo Fighters might sound like if that band was as grounded in punk as they claim, bypassed bright, shiny production, and just played for the fun of it) and punk-pop a la Green Day with vocals that are less interested in the pop half than the punk half of the equation. The music on the other hand is spiked by instantly catchy melodies, and the band occasionally breaks into split-seconds of harmony and quiet musical passages. For such a loud album in a genre that prides itself on holding in any impulses of tenderness, Beat Me Silly is surprisingly attitudinal. Many common punk emotions rise to the surface, from anger to boredom, but at least five of the songs betray infatuations or love (including a cover of the Turtles' "Happy Together" that is surprisingly faithful to the original, only kicked in the rear a bit) albeit love that often turned out bad for some reason or other. In "Slipping Away" there is even self-chiding built in for showing such vulnerability: "Why do I want her...." Buckwild is less impressive when it tries to play it sensitive on the soft sections of "That's the Problem," but when the song kicks into overdrive it is a monster. Dewey is no crooner, but when he's raging through his words, he navigates an impressive vocal range. Beat Me Silly, it turns out, is an excellent album that generally sticks to its strong suits: controlled aggression that allows its vulnerability to seep to the surface despite the effort to conceal such a soft heart beats at its core. Source: [AMG]

Buck Wild - American Dream


Track Listing
1. Artificial Love
2. One Day
3. Just in Time
4. Flowerstand Girl
5. What I Saw in You
6. The Letter
7. American Dream
8. That's the Problem
9. Happy Together (is a cover of Happy Together by The Turtles)
10. Slipping Away
11. [untitled]

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The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Experimental Remixes (1995)

With Experimental Remixes, various indie rock, dance, and hip-hop luminaries step in to remix and rearrange a handful of Blues Explosion songs, and manage to create an interesting and enjoyable collection. Jon Spencer has long voiced his admiration for hip-hop, so it's no surprise that he would want to collaborate with some of the best samplers and remixers in the business. Beck and the Beastie Boys' Mike D turn "Flavor" into a cut-and-paste workout, while Calvin Johnson's Dub Narcotic injects "Soul Typecast" with funk and menace. However, it's "Greyhound" that gets the best makeover, courtesy of Moby and the Wu-Tang Clan's Genius/GZA and Killah Priest. Moby's version is a screaming piece of techno-pop, with a brilliant guitar solo laid on top. This segues into Genius/GZA's starker version, in which nearly all of the instruments have dropped out, leaving only the rolling bassline and drums to contend with Killah Priest's rapping. Experimental Remixes is sure to appeal to both fans of the Blues Explosion and to fans of the artists featured throughout the album. [The import edition includes three bonus tracks: "Implosion," "Explo," and "Blues 'XXX' Man"]. Source: [AMG]

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Flavor


Track Listing
1. Bellbottoms (Old Rascal mix)
2. Flavor, Part 1
3. Flavor, Part 2
4. Soul Typecast
5. Greyhound, Part 1
6. Greyhound, Part 2
7. Tour Dairy
8. Implosion
9. Explo
10. Blues 'XXX' Man

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Cast - Mother Nature Calls (1997)

If Cast's debut album All Change was trad-rock at its most joyous, their second album Mother Nature Calls is considerably more problematic. Electing to expand their sound slightly instead of replicating All Change, Cast paints itself into a corner. They haven't abandoned the traditional Brit-pop stylings of their debut, but they've strengthened it with a tougher sound and neo-hippie mysticism that manifests itself not only in John Power's dippy lyrics, but also in trippy instrumental sections. In theory, this is a way out of the trad-rock straitjacket, but in practice it falls flat. The main problem is that Power's melodies aren't nearly as sharp or memorable as they were on the debut; this immediately brings attention toward his lyrics, which are naive and often embarassingly simplistic. Cast also doesn't have enough charisma to save the songs with energetic, distinctive performances when they're flailing. These problems become all the more evident when they do get it right, such as on the shimmering "Guiding Star," the punchy "She Sun Shines" and the heart-tugging "I'm So Lonely (Calling You Back)," and they have the same sparkling joy that made All Change a delight. But that's a rarity on Mother Nature Calls. When the tunes and attitude are there, such weaknesses are easy to overlook, but since Cast comes up deficient on both counts, Mother Nature Calls is simply a dull listen. Source: [AMG]

Cast - Guiding Star


Track Listing
1. Free Me
2. On the Run
3. Live the Dream
4. Soul Tied
5. She Sun Shines
6. I'm So Lonely
7. The Mad Hatter
8. Mirror Me
9. Guiding Star
10. Never Gonna Tell You What to Do (Revolution)
11. Dance of the Stars / (untitled)

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