Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral (1994)

The Downward Spiral positioned Trent Reznor as industrial's own Phil Spector, painting detailed, layered soundscapes from a wide tonal palette. Not only did he fully integrated the crashing metal guitars of Broken, but several newfound elements — expanded song structures, odd time signatures, shifting arrangements filled with novel sounds, tremendous textural variety — can be traced to the influence of progressive rock. So can the painstaking attention devoted to pacing and contrast — The Downward Spiral is full of striking sonic juxtapositions and sudden about-faces in tone, which make for a fascinating listen. More important than craft in turning Reznor into a full-fledged rock star, however, was his brooding persona. Grunge had the mainstream salivating over melodramatic angst, which had always been Reznor's stock in trade. The left-field hit "Closer" made him a postmodern shaman for the '90s, obsessed with exposing the dark side he saw behind even the most innocuous façades. In fact, his theatrics on The Downward Spiral — all the preening self-absorption and serpentine sexuality — seemed directly descended from Jim Morrison. Yet Reznor's nihilism often seemed like a reaction against some repressively extreme standard of purity, so the depravity he wallowed in didn't necessarily seem that depraved. That's part of the reason why, in spite of its many virtues, The Downward Spiral falls just short of being the masterpiece it wants to be. For one thing, fascination with texture occasionally dissolves the hooky songwriting that fueled Pretty Hate Machine. But more than that, Reznor's unflinching bleakness was beginning to seem like a carefully calibrated posture; his increasing musical sophistication points up the lyrical holding pattern. Having said that, the album ends on an affecting emotional peak — "Hurt" mingles drama and introspection in a way Reznor had never quite managed before. It's evidence of depth behind the charisma that deservedly made him a star. Source: [AMG]

Nine Inch Nails - March Of The Pigs


Track Listing
1. Mr. Self Destruct
2. Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)
3. Heresy
4. March of the Pigs
5. Closer
6. Ruiner
7. The Becoming
8. I Do Not Want This
9. Big Man With a Gun
10. A Warm Place
11. Eraser
12. Reptile
13. The Downward Spiral
14. Hurt

[Download]
[Listen]

Redd Kross - Born Innocent (1981)

Originally issued in 1982, Born Innocent was the debut full-length release from Redd Kross, a band of suburban L.A. youth fronted by brothers Jeff (guitar, vocals) and Steve McDonald (bass). Aged 18 and 14, respectively, the aspiring punks are aided and abetted here by rhythm guitarist Tracy Lee and drummers Janet Housden and John Stielow as they attack these 16 songs with all the patience of over-stimulated teens and all the subtlety of a slasher flick. The average song length falls below the two-minute mark, during which time Jeff McDonald's whine is rarely coherent above the clamor of his band's brutal rock assault. The punk negation of titles like "Kill Someone You Hate," "Look up at the Bottom," and "Notes and Chords Mean Nothing to Me" couldn't be more appropriate descriptions for this music. "Solid Gold" is a slice of dislocated blues while "St. Lita Ford Blues" disintegrates from a stop-start punk party (complete with jubilant screams) to a raucous three-chord blur. Included for good measure are tributes to both actress Linda Blair ("Linda Blair") and serial killer Charles Manson ("Charlie" and a cover of Manson's own "Cease to Exist"). Though subsequent releases found Redd Kross cleaning up their act, this debut captures them in all their youthful glory; documenting the sound of the McDonalds and company unleashed on an unsuspecting set of guitars, bass, and drums. Source: [AMG]

Redd Kross - Linda Blair


Track Listing
1. Linda Blair
2. White Trash
3. Everyday There's Someone New
4. Solid Gold
5. Burn-Out
6. Charlie
7. Tatum O'Tot and the Fried Vegetables
8. St. Lita Ford Blues
9. Self Respect
10. Pseudo-Intellectual
11. Kill Someone You Hate
12. Look on up at the Bottom
13. Cellulite
14. I'm Alright
15. Cease to Exist
16. Notes and Chords Mean Nothing to Me

[Download]
[Listen]

Pavement - Wowee Zowee (1995)

With its vast array of musical styles, Wowee Zowee isn't as accessible as Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain or as immediate as the bracing, noisy pop of Slanted & Enchanted. Pavement never abandon their warped pop aesthetic, they simply expand it, incorporating elements of folk-rock, English music hall, soul, jazz, country, as well as adding asides to such contemporaries as Suede ("We Dance"), Ween ("Brinx Job"), and Stereolab ("Half a Canyon"). Alternating between majestic epics like "Grounded" and ragged narratives like "Rattled by the Rush" and "Father to a Sister of Thought," to song fragments like "Brinx Job" and the punkish "Serpentine Pad," the record might seem disjointed at first. After repeated listens, the songs play off each other, creating a dense collage of '90s rock & roll that recasts the past and present into one rich, kaleidoscopic, and blissfully cryptic world view. Source: [AMG]

Pavement - Rattled By The Rush


Track Listing
1. We Dance
2. Rattled by the Rush
3. Black Out
4. Brinx Job
5. Grounded
6. Serpentine Pad
7. Motion Suggests
8. Father to a Sister of Thought
9. Extradition
10. Best Friends Arm
11. Grave Architecture
12. AT & T
13. Flux = Rad
14. Fight This Generation
15. Kennel District
16. Pueblo
17. Half a Canyon
18. Western Homes

[Download]
[Listen]

Helmet - Betty (1994)

With the corporate rock cognoscenti frothing at the mouth to sign the next Nirvana, in 1991 a seemingly "nerdy" band from New York by the name of Helmet was about to set the world on fire -- at least on paper. Seemingly overnight, the Amphetamine Reptile faves had a fat check in their pockets and an astounding major-label debut by the name of Meantime. Eschewing Cobain's neo-punk/power pop instincts, Helmet opted instead for a more a minimalist approach, whereby rhythmic tension over 4/4 melodies reigned supreme. Now poised to step into their role as future darlings of a sound that can only be described as bludgeoning aggro-punk-atonal-rock, the band was propelled by a massive hype campaign and heralded as East Coast tastemakers du jour. But for all its accolades (mostly well-deserved), Meantime's commercial success sadly fell short of expectations and, by 1994, Helmet was giving it another try with Betty -- its second effort for Interscope. Label pressure notwithstanding, Betty had a lot more riding on it than even perhaps Hamilton was willing to admit. Lacking some of the tightly focused ferocity of Meantime, Betty appears to be an almost too well-thought-out affair and, ultimately, its songs miss out on some of the discreet melodic accents that had served to underpin even the most bludgeoning noise-fests on Meantime. Songs like "Wilma's Rainbow," "Biscuits for Smut," and especially "Milquetoast" have their moments, but don't quite live up to expectations. And although Helmet's tuned down, stop-go-stop dynamic (originally pioneered by New Yorkers Prong) would go on to influence hundreds of up-and-coming acts, their complete lack of image or star quality (a key ingredient to Cobain's magnetism, as much as he himself despised it) would play a major role in eventually doing them in. Betty initiated a commercial spiral for the quartet that not even the return to form and progress displayed by 1997's massive sounding Aftertaste could reverse. Source: [AMG]

Helmet - Milquetoast



Track Listing
1. Wilma's Rainbow
2. I Know
3. Biscuits for Smut
4. Milquetoast
5. Tic
6. Rollo
7. Street Crab
8. Clean
9. Vaccination
10. Beautiful Love
11. Speechless
12. The Silver Hawaiian
13. Overrated
14. Sam Hell

[Download]
[Listen]

The Devil Dogs - Saturday Night Fever (1994)

New York garage punk trio the Devil Dogs could usually be counted on for consistency, but 1994's Saturday Night Fever is a hair below most of their other albums in the entertainment department. Most of the problem is in the production, which takes that fatal half-step from authentically raunchy lo-fi to just plain bad: most of the record sounds like it was recorded at the bottom of a fairly deep well. Even aside from that, however, there are fewer of the Devil Dogs' great snotty pop-punk classics, and too many songs sound like half-hearted rewrites of what had come before. Although it has a fun early-'60s pop parody feel to it, "Get On Your Knees" isn't much more than a rewrite of "Suck the Dog," the early Devil Dogs' slice of punk misogyny later recorded by both Billy Childish and the Italian punks the Singing Dogs. One highlight is a swell cover of Gene Pitney's "Backstage," but too much of the rest of the album is simply passable at best. Source: [AMG]

The Devil Dogs - Once Around The Block / C'mon Little Baby


Track Listing
1. Big Fuckin Party (Pt. 1)
2. Dance With You Baby
3. Gonna Be My Girl
4. Once Around the Block
5. I Don't Believe You
6. Backstage
7. Back in the City
8. 6th Ave. Local
9. It's Not Easy
10. Sweet Like Wine
11. Stuck in 3rd Gear
12. Alright!
13. Big Fuckin Party (Reprise)
14. Get on Your Knees
15. Hellraiser
16. Burnin' Love
17. So Young
18. Long Gone

[Download]
[Listen]