Superchunk - Hyper Enough (1995)

Superchunk - Detroit Has A Skyline (acoustic version)


Track Listing
1. Hyper Enough
2. Never Too Young to Smoke
3. Detroit Has a Skyline (Acoustic Version)

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Superchunk - Here's Where the Strings Come In (1995)

Without changing their tensely wound, post-Hüsker Dü punk-pop style at all, Superchunk sound completely weary on Here's Where the Strings Come In. No longer do their nervous, amateurish songs sound energetic -- they sound tired and broken. This actually results in some really interesting music, as Mac McCaughan tries to reconcile his broken spirits with his passion for punk. These songs tend to have more resonance than by-the-books rave-ups like "Hyper Enough," no matter how well those are written, and they suggest that Superchunk may be better off if they decide to revamp their signature sound completely. Source: [AMG]

Superchunk - Hyper Enough


Track Listing
1. Hyper Enough
2. Silver Leaf and Snowy Tears
3. Yeah, It's Beautiful Here Too
4. Iron On
5. Sunshine State
6. Detroit Has a Skyline
7. Eastern Terminal
8. Animated Airplanes over Germany
9. Green Flowers, Blue Fish
10. Here's Where the Strings Come In
11. Certain Stars

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The Afghan Whigs - Uptown Avondale (1992)

The Afghan Whigs' final recording for Sub Pop, Uptown Avondale is anything but a contractual obligation -- a five-track EP comprising four R&B covers and a remake of Congregation's unlisted bonus track "Milez Iz Ded" (here retitled "The Rebirth of the Cool"), it's a soulful, scorching collection that captures the band at their gritty best. Quickly dispelling any lingering doubts that Greg Dulli's soul-man aspirations are anything but genuine, the disc's covers of chestnuts like Freda Payne's "Band of Gold" and the Supremes' "Come See About Me" are remarkable, remaining true to the music's R&B roots but infused with the Whigs' noise-punk energy -- Dulli sings like a man possessed, rejuvenating this familiar material with both reverence and attitude. Source: [AMG]

The Afghan Whigs - Come See About Me


Track Listing
1. Band of Gold
2. True Love Travels on a Gravel Road
3. Come See About Me
4. Beware

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The Afghan Whigs - Turn On The Water (1992)

The Afghan Whigs - Turn On The Water


Track Listing
1. Turn On The Water
2. Miles Iz Ded
3. Delta Kong
4. Chalk Outline

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The Afghan Whigs - My World Is Empty Without You (1991)

The Afghan Whigs ankled the grunge comparisons and emerged as the best blue-eyed soul outfit of their generation with their cover of the Supremes' Motown classic "My World Is Empty Without You." Operating in a Curtis Mayfield-inspired falsetto fraught with a desperation and longing that Diana Ross never mustered, Greg Dulli delivers his most remarkable performance to date -- he and his bandmates are no Funk Brothers, of course, but their spectral, finely wrought arrangement deftly captures the Whigs' growing mastery of nuance and mood. A pair of LP tracks -- Congregation's ferocious "Conjure Me" and Up in It's sinuous "You My Flower" -- round out the package. Source: [AMG]

The Afghan Whigs - My World Is Empty Withou You


Track Listing
1. My World Is Empty Without You
2. Conjure Me
3. You My Flower

[Download]

Beat Happening - You Turn Me On (1992)

Beat Happening's final LP is also their best: concluding the emotional and musical progression begun with the minimalist innocence of their earliest work, You Turn Me On is a mature record of tremendous breadth and complexity. Where once the trio's songs were brief and bouncy, the nine tracks here are epic (several top out at over six minutes) and ambitious; produced in part by ex-Young Marble Giant Stuart Moxham (an obvious influence), the record's full, deep sound belies its bare-bones performances -- "Teenage Caveman" sports booming, primal drums perfectly suited to its title, while the propulsive "Noise" manufactures the illusion of a bassline where none ever existed. The most democratic record in an output founded on egalitarian ideals, You Turn Me On offers Heather Lewis' strongest songs ever -- her hypnotic nine-minute "Godsend" is the LP's heart and soul -- and she and Calvin Johnson even trade verses on the closing "Bury the Hammer." As for Calvin himself, his solo contributions are exceptional -- the spartan opener "Tiger Trap" is an evocative heartbreaker, and the title track is a fire-breathing corker. A masterpiece. Source: [AMG]

Beat Happening - Tiger Trap


Track Listing
1. Tiger Trap
2. Noise
3. Pinebox Derby
4. Teenage Caveman
5. Sleepy Head
6. You Turn Me On
7. Godsend
8. Hey Day
9. Bury the Hammer

[Download]

The Afghan Whigs - Black Soul Gentlemen (1994)

The Black Soul Gentlemen bootleg offers an okay radio broadcast from an Italian show during the Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen tour. The performance is decent, if a bit somewhat meandering, which pretty much comes with the territory of most Whigs shows. Singer/guitarist Greg Dulli injects enough barbs from to keep things interesting in lieu of the mediocre recording. Battling a language barrier and introducing "Retarded" to an inactive crowd, he muses, "This song is from our first record called Up in It. You ever heard of it...on Sub Pop? Does anybody care? No? Okay." Quality-wise, there's an uneven emphasis between the guitars of Dulli and Rick McCollum, and John Curley's bass gets completely lost from time to time. A major deciding factor in the purchase of Whigs' bootlegs is the covers; on most occasions, the track listings provide no indication of what they might be, since the Whigs often incorporated verses and snippets into their own material. Add uninformed bootleggers to the pot, and there you have the lack of info. Such is the case here. A fair amount of the lyrics to the Spinners' "I'll Be Around" is tucked inside of a breakdown during "Turn on the Water." Lyrics from Prince's "When Doves Cry" gets mixed into a nine-minute version of "You My Flower." And to a much lesser extent, Dulli throws in a couple lines from Dr. Dre's "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang" during the Supremes' "My World Is Empty Without You," as well as Madonna's hop-to-it snips from "Into the Groove" and "Express Yourself" during a rip-roaring "Miles Iz Ded." As far as the overall set list is considered, it's favored toward Gentlemen, with a fair amount of attention paid to the records that preceded it. Source: [AMG]

The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen


Track Listing
1. If I Were Going
2. Debonair
3. Turn on the Water
4. Gentlemen
5. Be Sweet
6. My World Is Empty Without You
7. When We Two Parted
8. Retarded Dulli
9. Fountain and Fairfax
10. Come See About Me
11. You My Flower
12. What Jail Is Like
13. Tonight
14. Miles Iz Ded

[Download]

Buffalo Tom - Sleepy Eyed (1995)

Put Sleepy Eyed in your CD player, hit play, and prepare to be amazed -- "Tangerine," the lead-off cut, signals the brief but welcome return of "Dinosaur Jr. Jr." with two-and-three-quarters minutes of charging neo-grunge guitars and galloping drums, the likes of which you haven't heard from this band since Birdbrain. But, of course, Buffalo Tom sound a lot tighter, stronger, and more confident when they dig into the big shaggy dog rock than they did five years previous, and while they never get quite as rollicking as "Tangerine" again on Sleepy Eyed, cut for cut it's a far more direct and straightforward rock album than anything they'd managed since their creative breakthrough on Let Me Come Over. To some listeners, Sleepy Eyed might sound like a regression, moving back into noisy power trio mode after the more polished surfaces and intricate arrangements of Let Me Come Over and Big Red Letter Day, but play Sleepy Eyed back to back with Birdbrain and you'll be pleasantly surprised by the differences. Sleepy Eyed decisively proves Buffalo Tom write better hooks and better melodies, write smarter lyrics, and even rock harder than when they were still trying to find their way out from under J. Mascis' shadow, and they sound like they're having a great time just turning up the amps and letting rip, especially Bill Janovitz, whose rock-dude guitar outros are a hoot (and this is one band who I cannot begrudge for enjoying themselves every once in a while). On Sleepy Eyed, Buffalo Tom go back to the old neighborhood and show everybody how much bigger and stronger they've become -- it's sorta like a high school reunion, but louder and a lot more fun. Source: [AMG]

Buffalo Tom - Summer


Track Listing
1. Tangerine
2. Summer
3. Kitchen Door
4. Rules
5. It's You
6. When You Discover
7. Sunday Night
8. Your Stripes
9. Sparklers
10. Clobberred
11. Sundress
12. Twenty-Points
13. Souvenir
14. Crueler

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[Listen]

Morphine - Yes (1995)

On their third release, 1995's Yes, Morphine shied away from the more accessible direction they laid down on 1994's superb Cure for Pain, going for a more challenging (but just as rewarding) direction. While the singles/videos "Honey White" and "Super Sex" did contain a pop edge (and were the album's best), other tracks, such as "The Jury" and "Sharks" pushed the envelope by containing lyrics that sound as if they're stream of consciousness. Like its predecessor, it's a highly consistent album -- even the lesser-known tracks are integral to the album's overall makeup. "Scratch," "All Your Way," "I Had My Chance," "Free Love," and "Gone for Good" all sound like the observations of a broken-down man, steeped in despair. But the mood lightens up on such selections as "Radar" and the title track, plus the aforementioned singles. With nearly all alt-rock bands sounding identical and bashing angrily away at their instruments in 1995, Morphine proved to be in a league all by themselves. Yes is perhaps just a shade less spectacular than Cure for Pain, but certainly not by much. Source: [AMG]

Morphine - Honey White


Track Listing
1. Honey White
2. Scratch
3. Radar
4. Whisper
5. Yes
6. All Your Way
7. Super Sex
8. I Had a Chance
9. The Jury
10. Sharks
11. Free Love
12. Gone for Good

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[Listen]

U2 - WHO'S Gonna Ride Your WILD HORSES (1992)

"Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" began as a demo that the band recorded at STS Studios in 1990. The band worked on it during the formal Achtung Baby sessions, including several failed attempts at Hansa Studios in Berlin. This produced several versions of the song and about a dozenmixes. However, the original demo remained their preferred version. Producer Jimmy Iovine, in particular, expressed his preference for the demo version when lead vocalist Bono played it for him. During the group's time recording in Dublin in 1991, producer Steve Lillywhite was brought on to provide a "fresh pair of ears" and mix the song. The album version most closely resembles the original demo.

Lillywhite recalls that, "They hated that song. I spent a month on it and I still don't think it was as realised as it could've been. The Americans had heard it and said, 'That's your radio song there', because they were having trouble with some of the more industrial elements [of the album]. It's almost like a covers band doing a U2 moment. Maybe we tried too hard." Bono said, "It's a song I feel we didn't quite nail on the record because there was another whole set of lyrics that were dumped and I wrote those quickly and off we went." The band later released an alternately arranged "Temple Bar Remix" as the single, the version of the song they most prefer. The band also has claimed they find the song difficult to perform in concert. Bassist Adam Clayton said, "It's a great torch song, with melody and emotion, but I don't think we ever captured it again and we have never really been able to play the song live."

Single release
When the covers to "Even Better Than the Real Thing", "The Fly", "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses", and "Mysterious Ways" are arranged, a picture of the band members driving a Trabant is formed.
The single included Bono's solo version of Can't Help Falling in Love, which was recorded in STS studios in Dublin on 29 June 1992 for the movieHoneymoon in Vegas. Source: [Wikipedia]

U2 - Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses


Track Listing
1. WHO'S Gonna Ride Your WILD HORSES (Temple bar edit)
2. Paint it BLACK
3. SALOMÉ (Zooromancer remix)
4. CAN'T help falling in LOVE (Triple peaks Remix)

[Download]