Songs About Croaking - Mean Green Mutha Vol 1 Compilation CD

The title and cover from this 1993 compilation on London's Frog Records pay homage to this Big Black album. Appropriately enough for a Friday the 13th, it contains 13 songs by Animals That Swim, Frantic Spiders, Spokepoker, Boyracer, Hula Hoop, Scissormen, Shiva Affect, Bleed, Johanna's House of Glamour, Bush Pilot, Wand, Thumper, and Helen Love. Far as I know there wasn't a Vol 2...though I would be happily wrong.

Sample mp3: Animals That Swim - Roy
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/13547361d94c6f9f/

Something Pretty Beautiful - A Brilliant Compilation CD

Not sure if this compilation was named after the band, but it's apt! Apt! I think I've posted almost every Brilliant Records release, and it's time to post this 19-song tour de force from 1993 that features Fudge, Small Factory, Tree Fort Angst, The Waking Hours, All About Chad, Schwa (VA), Ultra Cindy, The Tribbles, Lorelei, Fudge (again), The Technical Jed, The Lid, Veronica Lake, The Magpies, Twitch Hazel, The Knievels, The Waking Hours (again), Petals, and Jane Pow. Wow.

Sample mp3: All About Chad - I Can't Sleep
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/13547583515bfa04/

Smog - Floating 7" EP

Anudder band-in-name who made a Kuhnian paradigm shift in sound is Smog. Though some of you hopefully prefer Bill's dickaging around to his ubber-songsmithery, most of us will find ourselves loving "A River Ain't Too Much To Love" more than this 6-song Shinning that formed Smog's 1991 debut on Drag City. Regardless, this is still good stuff that, downloaded along with The Arizona Record below, will provide you with a fine half-hour escape from fidelity. I shall nose my discography!

Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/132109780a943180/

Silver Jews - The Arizona Record CD

If you enjoyed the low-fi Dime Map of the Reef 7" EP I posted here, then you'll want The Arizona Record too, an enjoyable 9-song mini-album released on Drag City in 1993 before D.C. Berman gave up recording through a ghetto blaster. It's taken me 15 years and several Jews albums to realize how much fun this album is, and given my disappointment in 2008's "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea", The Arizona Record is no longer my least favourite Jews album. Party Bargers and Candy Jailers may not concur.

Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/1321141719e408ec/

Sebadoh - Local Band Feel LP

A bootleg collection of live Sebadoh recordings from 1992-93 formed the debut release on the X-Mas label. The Earth, The Wind, and The Fire make a pretty dinny din here, though I tend to prefer Lou's introspective earth to Eric's kegger fire. Lots of each can be heard here to balance the universe. I missed the break between Cliche and 2 Years, 2 Days when hacking the soundwave into bits, but they work well back to back anyway.

Sample mp3: Sebadoh - Willing to Wait (Live)
Full download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TUMHLW4P

Sebadoh - The Freed Weed CD

Homestead Records released this compendium of cassette recordings in 1990, consisting of the Weed Forestin songs from 86-87 and The Freed Man songs from 88--40 songs in all. Probably my favourite low-fi album of all time. Bob Pollard wasn't the only dude who could pull a catchy tune out his bottom, ya know.

Sample mp3: Sebadoh - Brand New Love
Full download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JMS9F8F9

Raw Energy - "On the Road" Compilation CD

A&M records released this Raw Energy label sampler of Canadian indie rock in 1993, featuring a comic strip called "On the Road". Sadly, even though the CD features the likes of Dinner is Ruined, Groovy Religion, HHead, King Cobb Steelie, The Imagineers, Jale, Cottage Industry, Yeti, Wooden Stars, Spool, Wining Dining & Drilling, Deadbeat Backbone, Eric's Trip, and Change of Heart, you should feel free to give it a miss unless you were a Canuck in Ontario or the East Coast at the time. The best of this bunch is below.

Sample mp3: Wooden Stars - Hate Everyone
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/1284188086305d67/

ROC - R.O.C. CD

ROC, those marvy mavericks, were destined to fail commercially from the get go. I can't think of another album that's as diverse in sound and style as this one while maintaining such a high level of quality and artistic integrity. They run the soundscape gamut from pop to rock to folk to punk to spoken word to electronica, yet somehow manage not to alienate the semi-dutiful listener across these 15 songs. Plus it's pretty damn hard to know what their band name is from the cover (ROC? R.O.C.?), and the band's not forthcoming about what it stands for. And the sleeve doesn't list the songs or nuthin. Based in the UK, they're still at it, though for me this album represents their most dynamic and interesting work. Karen Sheridan's monologue on Thirteen Summers is a treat, as is their cover of "Plastic Jesus" (from Cool Hand Luke). Released on Sentana in 1996.

Sample mp3: ROC - Thirteen Summers
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/12842178722ac3fc/

The Ropers - All their singles and compilation tracks

================================
"i fell asleep," she said.
"huh?"
"missed my stop; i fell asleep"
"well." i said with a puff of cigarette.
"can you tell me where i am?"
i looked at my feet and scratched my head, thinking. a rain drop ran down my nose and i said, "i wish i knew; i did the same thing...wanna go get a drink?"
- from the sleeve of The Ropers EP (original source unknown)
================================

I'm so grateful that Moscow Olympics have taken up the torch of creating consistently momentous indie pop songs; their new album "Cut the World" is astoundingly good. I haven't heard something as lovely and catchy since The Ropers, whose singles and compilation appearances I herein bequeath to you. The archive below contains all of the following goodies...

1. The 6-song Ropers CD EP from (Slumberland Records, 1994), which compiles 1993's Sunbathe and 1994's I Don't Mind 7" Slumberland singles, plus one extra track (September's Rain).
2. Both songs from the Why Popstars Can't Dance compilation double LP (Slumberland Records, 1994).
3. Boyracer/The Ropers tour 7" split (Slumberland Records, 1994).
4. The Ropers/The Tribbles 7" split (Brilliant Records/Giant Pool Balls, 1994).
5. Revolver/Transparent Day 7" (Slumberland Records, 1995).
6. Cover of The Cure's "Jumping Someone Else's Train" from Give Me The Cure: A Tribute to the Cure compilation CD (Radiopaque/Corduroy, 1995).

Did I miss anything? If you enjoy these songs, you should seek out their two full length albums too: All The Time (Slumberland, 1995), and The World Is Fire (Teenbeat, 1997). Neither captures the full glory of these early releases, but both albums are still very solid. My favourite Ropers song is Waiting for you below.

Sample mp3: The Ropers - Waiting
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/1284132319f8fe6c/

Pavement - Stray Slack LP

Here's a very enjoyable live Pavement bootleg LP released in 1993 on "Pseudo Indie Label". The full album name is Stray Slack: About As Valid As A Record Contract. The cut-and-paste collage work on the back cover features at least one disturbing pornographic image involving a rubber glove, a bum, and...urination...I think. Or perhaps I just need quite a bit of therapy. I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours. Haw. "Black Walls" (hear below) sounds like a cover. Is it? It's my favourite of the 17 songs on the LP.

Sample mp3: Pavement - Black Walls (live)
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/125172713232e579/

Poem Rocket - Felix Culpa CD

NYC's Poem Rocket are one of my favourite unheralded noise/art rock bands. They released a number of singles in the mid-90s (see their site for a full discography) that were compiled on 1995's Felix Culpa (on PCP Entertainment). They've also released three albums to date, 1997's Infinite Retry on Parallel Time-out, 2000's Psychogeography, and, according to their new website, a double CD in 2007 called Invasion! that I plan to download from eMusic very soon. Poem Rocket create a lovely din, at times recalling Nation of Ulysses ("Eject"), Charalambides ("The Animal Planter"), Jessamine ("Contrail de l'Avion"), Hood ("Saint Sebastian's Halo"), Drugstore ("Pretty Baby"), and fellow NYers Bardo Pond ("Blue Chevy Impala").

Sample mp3: Poem Rocket - Flaw
Full download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SD49BIGL

Primal Scream - Sonic Flower Groove CD

I'm really not that savvy about indie esoterica. For instance, I only recently learned that OOP means "Out of Print". It's hard to believe that Primal Scream's fantastic debut album from 1987 is OOP. But it is; probably because it was released by Warner/WEA who are probably too busy releasing crappy crappy crap to reissue it. I was delighted to find it for $15 in a Toronto record shop a few years back. Terrible title aside, it's a beautiful jangle brit pop classic that I've not seen much around blogtown. Ten songs in 34 minutes. If you listen quickly you can hear it twice in an hour = time well spent.

Sample mp3: Primal Scream - Gentle Tuesday
Full download: http://www.zshare.net/download/12515153b01b5b59/