Pixies - Complete 'B' Sides (CD, 2001)

I was a little bit pissed when this came out, because I had done a great job of compiling all of these songs on my own. So, the collector in me was annoyed. But, it's such a great group of songs that I couldn't really harbor any ill will. And it is nice to have them all in CD quality on one compilation, as I had some of the tracks on vinyl.

And best of all, the songs are arranged chronologically and Black Francis/Frank Black provides a little commentary on each one in the liner notes. Awesome. This has gotta be one of the strongest b-side comps ever.

"River Euphrates" - This is the re-recorded version from the "Gigantic" single, which was also redone for the 12" release. I kind of wish they would have included that as well, but their attention to detail when it comes to sticking to the title of the comp makes me equally happy. This version of "River Euphrates" is quite possibly better than the album cut.

"Vamos (Live)" - A solid recording of a live version of "Vamos" that features Joey Santiago going nuts and David Lovering just beating the shit out of the drums. Incredible.

"In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)(Live)" - I mentioned in my previous post that this live recording was the only version of this song available (also on the "Gigantic" single) until the BBC album was released. That was fine, because this one makes for an intense few minutes.

"Manta Ray" - In the liner notes, FB downplays the quality of this tune, but I've always loved it. It's quite simple, but the melody in the verses is not to be messed with.

"Weird At My School" - Apparently this was an early Pixies song that didn't show up until it ended up as a b-side for the "Monkey Gone to Heaven" single. Frantic, two minutes long: everything you want from the band.

"Dancing the Manta Ray" - A sort of lumbering jam with Black Francis' vocals morphed into creepiness. Fun.

"Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)" - Not sure why the slow version (this one) of this song has become the favorite of fans, but I guess it has. I may have mentioned it earlier, but my friends and I used to listen to the Pump Up the Volume soundtrack so we could hear this song and Soundgarden's "Heretic." Oh, the early 90's.

"Into the White" - I think I said earlier that "Gigantic" was the only track on which Kim Deal sang lead with the Pixies, and if I didn't say "album track," I should have. She has two lead vocal performances on b-sides, and this is the first. They used to play this live all the time, and it's a great song. Uncommonly long one at almost five minutes.

"Bailey's Walk" - Doolittle-era b-side that could have probably fit in on that record. Francis sounds fantastic on this track. All crackly and shit.

"Make Believe" - David Lovering's lead-vocal dedication to Debbie Gibson. Seriously. A more un-Pixies Pixies song you will not find, and it is all kinds of awesome.

"I've Been Waiting for You" - Kim Deal's singing lead again, and this time it's on the first of two Neil Young covers that show up here. One of my favorite songs on this comp. Santiago dials it.

"The Thing" - I mentioned this in my Bossanova entry as the last part of "The Happening," cut away from the rest of the track. In the liner notes, FB calls it a "re-mix of the outro section of "The Happening" from Bossanova, but it really sounds like a whole different recording to me.

"Velvety Instrumental Version" - One of the few Pixies songs that is full-on instrumental. It would later show up on the Frank Black album Devil's Workshop with vocals, but at this point, none even existed. The title, it seems, was a bit misleading. Sweet track.

"Winterlong" - Another Neil Young cover, and though this is a fine song, I prefer the previous one. Cute little ditty, though. Almost too cute...

"Santo" - This was one of the first Pixies b-sides I heard as a teenager. I've never been able to make any sense of this one (shocker), but I've always loved it.

"Theme from NARC" - A cover of the theme from the video game. Not technically instrumental (Francis says "Theme from NARC" a few times), but pretty much. Awesome idea, awesome song.

"Build High" - I bought the "Alec Eiffel" single that this was on, and always wanted to know the story behind it. Turns out it's really old Pixies song that they finally decided to throw down at this point. Bit of a hoedown.

"Evil Hearted You" - Another cover, this time done completely in Spanish. Beautiful tune, very mellow for the Pixies. But, of course, it works.

"Letter to Memphis (Instrumental)" - Just the album version with the vocals taken out. Nice enough, but I never really understood the point of this one.

All in all, an incredible batch of songs, arranged in order, which again, is fantastic. So much to like here. This thing deserves to be lumped in with their studio albums. Yep, I said it.

"Make Believe"

Pixies - Pixies at the BBC (CD, 1998)

Follwing the mostly pointless Death to the Pixies best-of comp that came out in 1997, this was the second release in the post-Pixies, pre-reunion era. Not sure why they waited so long to put it out, but it's cool that they did.

The music on this disc is, of course, great. Frustratingly, the sequencing is shit. It's a compilation that just begs to be rearranged in your iTunes. There are 15 tracks here, culled from six different sessions. Why not just put them in chronological order? Instead, some of the songs that were recorded the earliest are at the end, and the ones that were recorded the latest are just floating around in the middle, not even near each other. There are other issues along these same lines, but they're not worth explaining.

I will never understand the thinking behind a track listing like this. Anyway.

There's some cool shit on here. The band's cover of the Beatles' "Wild Honey Pie" is here, as well as a really strange version of "Is She Weird," which is probably the most intriguing song for me. They also blaze through sweet versions of "Dead" and "There Goes My Gun," and hearing them do "Ana" live in the studio is phenomenal.

"Caribou" and "Levitate Me" are both almost as good as the studio versions, and a few random b-sides are here, too. "Manta Ray" is a great Pixies non-album cut, and the version here is solid. It's also nice to have a decent recording of "In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)," which had previously only been released as a Surfer Rosa b-side in a live version.

All the songs here are fantastic, and the raw recording quality just makes it that much more enjoyable. "Letter to Memphis," heard without all the studio trickery and thick production, is still incredible, but in a completely different way. Such a great song.

This thing's not for the casual Pixies fan, but for people who love all their records, it's a must-own.

"In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)"

Peanuts & Corn - Factory Seconds (CD, 2001)

I picked up this CD at the same time I bought the Park-Like Setting album, when my brother and I saw mcenroe and Pip Skid live many years ago. Apparently I had both of them sign this one. mcenroe wrote, "mcenroe is kar-oké king!" and Pip scrawled (with an arrow pointing to mcenroe's signature), "this guy is a genius!" And then he circled a dollar sign and signed his name. So hard, those two.

So this is a collection of P&C odds and ends that I have not listened to in years, and now that it's almost a decade old, it's even cooler. Lots of random stuff from the main dudes on the label, and I'm always a sucker for unreleased tracks. And it includes the "CD-ROM" (remember that?) version of Pip Skid's "Hypochondriac" video.

Not too much else to say about it, because I really have not heard this in forever. But if you're a fan of the label (and you should be), this is obviously essential listening. So get on board.

"Hypochondriac"

Pavement - Westing (By Musket & Sextant) (CD, 1993)

And you thought Pavement was lo-fi on Slanted and Enchanted.

Before S&E dropped, Pavement released three EP's and the single for "Summer Babe." They put out their first release (Slay Tracks (1933-1969)) themselves, but the other stuff (including Demolition Plot J-7 and Perfect Sound Forever) was released on Drag City. The label collected those releases and ended up making a really nice compilation of Pavement's early output. It's a weird mix of stuff, but definitely essential for the Pavement fan. I need to someday buy the actual EPs on vinyl, but they ain't cheap. And I already have the music. You see my dilemma.

The stuff from Slay Tracks is, while being fairly shittily recorded, great. "You're Killing Me" is notable for not having any drums on it, though there is this weird tape hiss in the background that somehow seems percussion-y. "Box Elder" was the first song that got the band recognized, and it's one of the catchier tracks on this whole comp. The other tracks from the EP are awesomely noisy, and always border on sweet abrasiveness. Feel the angst.

The tracks from Demolition Plot J-7 are blazing noise, but they inch ever closer to what would become the Pavement sound. "Forklift" is probably the best track of the bunch, but that shouldn't take anything away from the spazzy fun of "Spizzle Trunk" and "Internal K-Dart."

Perfect Sound Forever is where shit gets really exciting. "From Now On" is more cohesive than the early stuff, and "Debris Slide" is purely awesome. But it's "Home" that really makes it all come together, and ends up being the last real song (the clanky rattle of "Krell-Vid User" doesn't really count) before everything busts open with "Summer Babe." Like I said, that single is included here, too, but that stuff also ends up on the deluxe edition of S&E.

Though this is indeed the earliest Pavement stuff, you may be tempted to start at the beginning if you've never heard the band before. I would advise against that, but that's just me. The songs here can be rough. But if you like Slanted and Enchanted, you'll find stuff to like here.

"Debris Slide"

Outkast - Big Boi & Dre Present... Outkast (CD, 2001)

Outkast blew the heck up after Stankonia dropped, so in a rare move in the hip hop world, they dropped a Christmastime greatest hits comp in hopes to capitalize on some of that success. Of course, they put a small handful of new tracks on it too, so the hardcore fans had a reason to pick it up. The whole thing reeked of cash-grab to me, and I don't think I even bought this until a few years ago, when I found it used at a very discount price.

Still, the non-album tracks (there are four, counting the intro) are good cuts, and they're worth owning. "Funkin' Around" sounds very of-the-time, with Dre copping a fake British accent and then busting in with some forceful rhymes. Big Boi, of course, slays shit on his verse. "The Whole World" was a modest hit for them around this time, and it should have been bigger. It's got a huge hook, and the raps on it are dope. "Movin' Cool" isn't big on raps, but it makes a nice outro to this collection. Sort of a soul-funk type thing, with Big Boi dropping some knowledge towards the end.

This collection also features lyrics for all the tracks in the liner notes, and that's pretty cool. There's also a decent recap of their four studio albums.

Uncool:

The ads for the short-lived Outkast clothing line.

The ads for André's artwork, which has "SAMPLE" stamped all over the one-inch-square photos. Yeah, you don't want anyone scanning that and putting it in their wallet.

The especially hacky-looking ad for Big Boi's pit bull kennel business. His own name is misspelled in it.

"Outkast comics coming soon!!!" No they weren't.

They should have included the weird-as-shit "Land of a Million Drums" on it, but instead it went straight to the Scooby-Doo soundtrack a year later.

The tracks aren't in chronological order, and there's only two songs from ATLiens.

I can always find stuff to whine about.

"The Whole World"

Nirvana - Outcesticide (Remastered Edition) (CD, 1995)

I almost forgot I had this. But I do. So, as an afterthought to all the legit Nirvana albums we covered, here's a bootleg that I've owned for a long-ass time.

Before the box set but after Incesticide, there were still a bunch of non-album Nirvana tracks that were floating around. This disc contains (arguably) the most notable of those, though almost all of this stuff would indeed end up on the With the Lights Out box years later, with some having been given different names. I also think there are a few cuts on here that are different versions of songs that ended up on the box. For example, "Junkyard" on here is a live version of the song listed on the box set as "Token Eastern Song," and the version there is a studio demo. If that makes sense.

There is a really weird version of "D-7" on here that I can't really figure out the origins of, but it's more of an oddity than anything. There's also the version of "Breed" when it was still called "Imodium" that's pretty sweet. So, yeah, some random stuff. And it was really cool to have this before the box set came out, and it's still cool to have. It's more or less the kind of "Unreleased Nirvana" mix I would have made myself. And I guess that's why I still have it.

"Imodium"

Nirvana - With the Lights Out (3xCD, 2004)

The talk about a Nirvana box set had been brewing for years, with rumors rampant about what it would (or wouldn't) contain. I was going to get it regardless, so I just hoped for the best. When it finally arrived under the Christmas tree for me in 2004, I was very excited.

In the months before its release, we finally got word that it was going to contain nothing but rarities, demos, home recordings, and other random ephemera. This was going to be my kind of box set. The Nirvana greatest hits comp (containing the anticlimactic "You Know You're Right") had been released a few years before, so there was no need to rehash the best of the band. It was time to go digging for the shit no one (not even the most ambitious bootleggers) had heard, and the folks who put this thing together did a great job. While it does contain some tracks that had seen release on various unauthorized comps ("Opinion," "If You Must," "Pen Cap Chew," among others), the majority of the stuff here was new to me, and some of it had been cleaned up for this release.

I was actually shocked that they released this thing, given what it contains. Most of this stuff is probably only of interest to the more obsessive Nirvana fan, and a lot of it is not as listenable as it is just a cool reference point as to where some of these songs started. The home demos with just Cobain and his out-of-tune acoustic are both creepy (voyeuristic much?) and endlessly interesting for people who wanted to know more about the guys songwriting process. I count myself among that group, so a lot of these tracks are really great for that. Two different versions of "Rape Me" right next to each other on Disc 3, recorded about a year and a half apart, do a great job of illustrating that song's growth in particular.

This set is also chronological, which is awesome. Not so awesome: some of the glaring mistakes in the titling and liner notes that should have been more thoroughly researched. Sure, only the harder-core Nirvana fans would probably notice this stuff, but songs here that had actual titles were given made-up ones, which is pretty lame. Also, there were a few songs that I had actually heard cleaner recordings of on bootleg versions ("Opinion" being one of them). This is nerd gripery, and I don't really like to go for that (or do I?), but I think it's worth mentioning.

The fourth disc, a DVD containing crazy-old rehearsal footage and other random stuff, is worth the price of admission alone. Again, it's probably more for the die-hard fan, but if that's you, you'll enjoy the shit out of it.

I've been listening to this thing for the last few days, and while it's great to rock, headphones-style while you're in front of the computer, it's not going to be the first thing you grab for a car ride. So, there's a time and a place. When the moment's right, strap on the phones and nerd out. That's what I do.

"Old Age"

The Mothers of Invention - Playground Psychotics (2xCD, 1992)

Ready to get hardcore?

Playground Psychotics is not for the casual Mothers fan. The vitals: 57 tracks, clocking in at 132 minutes. The majority of the tracks are hand-held-recorded audio tape snippets of the band between shows. On the bus. In the hotels. Backstage. Talking. The version of "Billy the Mountain" on this collection is the unedited one. It is over a half an hour long. Just look at the back cover of this thing. Scared? You should be.

The good news: Thanks to technology (and by that, I mean iTunes), you can pare this thing down to a great little live album, one that supplements both Fillmore East - June 1971 and Just Another Band from L.A. quite well. Yes, this is Flo & Eddie-era Mothers, back for one more crack at it. If you're a huge fan of this version of the Mothers, this collection will give you a crazy boner. If you're not, this will do nothing to change your opinion. But I have to say, some of the best second-version-of-the-Mothers stuff resides in these discs. I'll break that down in a bit. First, I have to tell you how this sprawling set is designed to be listened to.

Set up like a sort-of audio documentary, the album is sequenced thusly: Tracks 1-11 on Disc 1 are "A Typical Day On the Road, Part 1." These are audio bits of the band traveling, trying to coordinate a photo shoot, getting to the hotel, etc. This stuff will bore you to tears if you don't know who these people are. If you do, it's quite interesting. Once or twice.

Tracks 12-21 are a mix of live recordings from the '70-'71 tours, a nice mix of noisy experimental stuff ("Zanti Serenade," "Don't Eat There," "Super Grease") and more traditional songs, some of which might be familiar ("Sleeping in a Jar," "Sharleena," "Cruising for Burgers"). The recordings are great, and all the songs are played really well. It's all made to sound like one big show, but I know there's substantial editing throughout the whole thing.

Tracks 22-26 were recorded during the same shows as the Fillmore LP, but weren't released (by Zappa, at least) until this album came out. They feature (and this has always been so weird to me) John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and are some of the most surreal recordings of the Mothers I've ever heard. The band does five songs with Lennon on guitar and vocals, and Yoko on vocals as well. "Well" is a blues number that John says he "used to play in the Cavern in Liverpool" but hasn't played in a long time. Yoko yelps along in the background, and after a few verses, Lennon screams "Zappa!" and FZ busts loose with an incredible guitar solo. It's great.

"Say Please" is about a minute of everyone screeching at what I'm assuming is Zappa's commands, because they're quite tight. "Aaawk" is Zappa and Lennon jamming while Yoko warbles and screeches. "Scumbag," which is easily the highlight here, is a rambling rock number that just repeats the title of the song over and over. There's some vocal improv, but it's really the instruments that get a workout. It's a terrific song. It's followed by the aptly named "A Small Eternity With Yoko Ono," which is basically six minutes of Yoko cry-singing over feedback. Good luck with that one. Still - historic recording? Methinks so.

Tracks 1-10 on Disc 2 comprise "A Typical Day On the Road, Part 2." It's more of the band rambling, and it's occasionally funny. Tracks 11-19 are more live tracks (interspersed with a few talking spots), and they're the best part of this whole set. The band runs through "Status Back Baby," "Concentration Moon," and "Mom & Dad," before launching into the mega-mad rock operatics of "Billy the Mountain." I think I said it before, but attempting to explain "Billy the Mountain" is impossible. My ex-roommate who used to drunkenly sing along to the entire 30 minutes of it on a nightly basis could probably break it down for you, but I've never been able to wrap my head around it.

Disc 2 wraps up with 12 tracks collected as "The True Story of 200 Motels," which isn't much more than audio taken from the film of the same name. Phew. It's a lot to listen to, folks. But take out the talking and some of the more questionable tracks (I'm looking at you, Yoko), and you've got yourself some great Mothers live shit. Seriously. Flo & Eddie doing "Mom & Dad" is actually a little bit moving.

The Mothers and Lennon at the Fillmore - (site might be NSFW)

The Mothers of Invention - We Are The Mothers and This Is What We Sound Like! (LP, 1985)

This is a weird one.

I found this LP in a local record store, probably five years ago, and paid eight bucks for it. I had never seen it before, and assumed it was a bootleg. But when I looked at the vinyl, I saw that it had a Bizarre label on it. This record didn't look like it was that old (the cover was glossy and the whole thing was in just too good of shape), but the Bizarre label hadn't put anything out since 1973. However, the label, while having the correct Bizarre font and the logo, didn't have much other information. On top of that, the back cover featured artwork that was much in the same style as the inner sleeves of Joe's Garage, which wasn't released until 1979. My curiosity grew.

The music made things even more confusing. This isn't some poorly-recorded show, slapped onto wax to turn a quick profit. These are genuine Mothers outtakes that I had never heard before, along with snippets of the band talking. There were a few tracks that I recognized ("Igor's Boogie" and "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance"), but they were not the versions on the albums. However, "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" sounded suspiciously like the version I'd heard on The Lost Episodes, a compilation released in 1996.

At the time that I bought this record, I had a terrible time finding any information about it on the internet. I saw copies on eBay every once in a while, but nobody seemed to be paying any attention to them. That made me think, again, that this was in no way legit. (At least as far as the release went. The music was/is undeniably the original Mothers.)

Recently, I finally figured out what the heck this thing is. I got most of my information from this page, which you're free to read if you really want to nerd out. It is indeed a bootleg, but it has an interesting story. I guess it was supposed to be released in 1969, and they got to the point of making an acetate test pressing, but then it didn't happen for some reason. But one of the Mothers had the copy of the acetate, and let someone copy it for money. It was originally released (bootlegged) as Necessity Is... and Rustic Protrusion. This LP is a bootleg of those bootlegs, released (from what I can tell) around 1985.

Turns out a bunch of this stuff was on The Lost Episodes; I just don't listen to that album much and didn't put it together. Most of the other tracks have found subsequent release on other posthumous Zappa collections, but a few still haven't, as far as I know. They're nothing special (and I think one of them - "Hey Nelda" - might even be a Ray Collins solo track), but they're cool to have. This record is cool to have. It would have been super cool to have before The Lost Episodes came out. But it's still a nice one for the ol' collection.

Can't find any audio for this one, but here's some incredible footage of The Mothers of Invention in 1967.

The Mothers of Invention - Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention (LP, 1975)

Sometimes referred to as Transparency, this is yet another Mothers compilation put together by Verve, without any input from Zappa. I'm fairly certain this was the last one to come out, because by this point, even the second version of the Mothers had disbanded. (Though Zappa would still sporadically use the name for a while. More on that when we get to the Z's.)

Like the other ones, there's not a whole lot worth mentioning here unless you're an obsessive nerd, so let's get into it. First off, this LP contains both "Big Leg Emma" and "Why Don't You Do Me Right" (often also seen as "Why Don'tcha Do Me Right?"), two songs that were released as a single in 1967, but wouldn't see an official album release until 1995, when they would inexplicably be plopped right in the middle of Absolutely Free. (If you own Absolutely Free and it's in your iTunes, do yourself a favor and move those songs to the end. It fucks up the flow of the album as it was intended to be heard.) So, those would have been cool to have at this point if you didn't have a copy of the original 7".

There's also a cut called "Excerpt from Lumpy Gravy - The Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra & Chorus," which is the chunk of Lumpy Gravy that includes "Dog Breath," if I'm not mistaken. So that's a unique edit, which is interesting.

Other than that, there's 19 other tracks, and by my count, 12 of them are from We're Only in It for the Money. Of course, they're from the highly censored version of the LP, so they sound weird to me. They'd sound weird to you if you're used to listening to the CD version of the album. So, "flower power sucks" and "I'll love the police as they kick the shit out of me on the street" are missing, but a line about the Velvet Underground that is not (if I recall correctly) on recent reissues is in there. Odd.

Yet another comp that Zappa snobs turn up their noses at, and yet another one that I own the shit out of. If nothing else, it's fun for the mini-bio on the back where they refer to Jimmy Carl Black as "Jim Black."

"Why Don't You Do Me Right"

The Mothers of Invention - The Worst of the Mothers (LP, 1971)

Not much to say about this one. It's another unauthorized (by Zappa) Mothers compilation that contains tracks from the first three Mothers of Invention albums.

Fairly standard stuff, except that it starts off with an amended version of "Help, I'm a Rock" that, from what I can tell, only includes the "In Memoriam, Edgar Varèse" section (the second part of three). Kind of cool in that it leads off the album, but from there, it's all (from what I can tell) the album versions of the rest of the songs. Seems like about half of them are from We're Only in It for the Money. They are edited together fairly nicely, so the songs almost blend into one another.

I have KBOO's (Portland's community radio station) DJ (promo) copy of this record, which I think is kind of cool. (I know it's theirs because it has "KBOO" written in magic marker on the cover.) The promo is by no means rare, and neither are any copies of this album. It's just another one that I picked up for fairly cheap because I wanted to have it.

Terrible cover, nothing better on the back. Really the ugliest of all Mothers records. And another one that Zappa purists scoff at. Good for them.

"Status Back Baby"

The Mothers of Invention - The Mothers of Invention (LP, 1970)

Possibly also known as Golden Archive Series, this is another unauthorized Mothers compilation that consists of previously released material from their first three records.

While this is another comp that is poo-pooed by Zappa purists, it is slightly notable for a few reasons. While it doesn't contain any unreleased material, it does contain strange edits of a few tracks, which is a bit amusing.

"Mother People," the first track on the LP, starts from the second verse, and then contains a small portion of the beginning of "The Chrome-Plated Megaphone of Destiny," the song that originally followed it on We're Only in It for the Money. "Who Needs the Peace Corps?" and "Absolutely Free" both fade out really abruptly, because they were seamlessly edited into other tracks on the original version.

So, nothing too major, but it's interesting for what it is. There's also some spelling errors in the tracklisting on the back, the most blatant being on "Son of Suzy Creamcheese," where they have it spelled "Son of Suzi Cream Cheese." Not helping their cause.

I have a pretty beat-up copy of this record, but I'm always hesitant to replace it with a better one. It's actually kind of hard to find, and I never listen to it. Eh, the vinyl's in fairly good shape, and that's probably enough for me.

"Flower Punk"

Melvins - The Trilogy (3xLP, 2000)

1999-2000 was a great time to be a Melvins fan. Not only did they put out three albums in well under a year, they also managed to make those albums highly listenable. A crazy concept, I know. To top it all off, they released this, the limited edition 3-LP set that collected (or claimed to) all three discs of the trilogy: The Maggot, The Bootlicker, and The Crybaby.

While the entirety of those albums is not actually represented here, most of it is, and if you're like me, you had already purchased all three on CD, so you were covered. I received this collection as a Christmas present from my brother, and it turned out to be a most fortuitous one: this is now one of the most valuable records in my collection. It's also one of the most interesting, presentation-wise. Each LP is a picture disc, with corresponding-and-opposite images represented on either side. You can check the photos here for a more detailed breakdown. Needless to say, this is the only thing I own with a swastika on it, and it still creeps me out to look at it. Gutsy move, Melvins. But despite the mixed messages, the cover art and the LPs themselves are really beautiful to look at, and really well put-together. Still, sort of creepy though.

The music is equally creepy, but in that lovable Melvins way. The Maggot is drawn-out and slightly challenging, with a fucked-up track listing that is best ignored. Front-to-back that shit. It's a great album.

The Bootlicker is possibly my favorite Melvins album. Tracks like "Mary Lady Bobby Kins" and "Up the Dumper" still sound amazing to me. Heck, the whole damn thing does. "Let it All Be" is pure bliss for the full ten minutes. An incredible song. And of course, you get the complete disarray of "Prig" at the end to remind you who exactly you're listening to. This one spent some serious time with me during the year following its release. Couldn't get enough, and still can't.

The Crybaby has always been a tougher sell for me. Covering "Smells Like Teen Spirit" with Leif Garrett on vocals just never seemed right to me. Not only does the version sort of suck, it always struck as me as being in poor taste. But anybody messing with Nirvana strikes me as bad taste, and that's my cross to bear. The rest of the record fares better, with the highlights being Mike Patton's guest spot on "GI Joe" and the Pink Floyd-y "Mine is No Disgrace." Not the ending I would have liked to have seen for this trilogy, but with the Melvins, things rarely work out the way you think they might.

"Mary Lady Bobby Kins"

Led Zeppelin - Box Set (4xCD, 1990)

As a teenager on a limited budget, this was a sweet Christmas gift. These were some of the first CDs I owned, and having this much Zeppelin at my disposal wasn't bad at all. Looking back, I think this box set is relatively pointless.

Aside from the inclusion of "Hey Hey What Can I Do" and "Traveling Riverside Blues," two rare tracks (and both great songs), along with the short instrumental "White Summer," this is just album versions of Led Zeppelin songs, hand-picked and remastered by Jimmy Page. It's kind of chronological, but when it comes to chronology, it either is or it isn't: mixing together songs from roughly the same era but from different records is bush league.

On top of that, "Heartbreaker" is on here, but not only does "Living Loving Maid" not follow it, it's not even included. Weak. And while the sound on these discs was definitely a huge leap forward in 1990, any Zeppelin fan would have probably rather ponied up a little more dough for their entire discography, instead of just a large portion of it. Of course, this left the door open for other cash grabs that Jimmy Page would take full advantage of over the next two decades.

Zeppelin's an album band. A one-disc best-of for the casual "Stairway" fan makes sense. A 4-disc retrospective just reminds the hardcore fan what was left out: some of the deep cuts that give the popular ones more context.

I listened to this a lot when I was a teen, but after I picked up all their records on LP, it just didn't make sense. Though I still have it...

"Hey Hey What Can I Do"

Led Zeppelin - Coda (LP, 1982)

I will say this for Coda: The idea behind it is sweet, it's a fucking sweet title for an album which you know is going to be your final release, and the songs on it, though incongruous, are all worthy of release. Having said that, this thing is definitely all over the place, and hard to get a handle on. But there's some cool shit here.

Released a few years after John Bonham's death, this was Zeppelin's first post-breakup record, and really the only single album of unreleased material they would ever put out. A few other rare tracks would show up on their box set in the 90's, and why those weren't included on this, I don't know. Regardless, what we have here is a Led Zeppelin afterthought, an album that, like I said, deserved to be heard, but doesn't ultimately fit with the rest of their catalog very well. Strangely, that makes me like it more.

"We're Gonna Groove" is an old one, a raw blues number that is great because it's fast. It's "Heartbreaker"-ish, and there ain't a damn thing wrong with that. "Poor Tom" is a Led Zeppelin III-era acoustic jammer that is the best song on this record, hands down. Plant nails it, and the guitar work is finessed. Why they thought to follow it with an edited-for-time live version of "I Can't Quit You Baby" is beyond me. At less than five minutes, it's far more tolerable than other versions, but still. The first side closes with "Walter's Walk," which sounds half-finished. It's a shame, because the shoddy production quality seems to be overshadowing a catchy tune.

"Ozone Baby" is a straight rocker that opens the second side, and it's solid. Thick guitars, nothing fancy. "Darlene" is a weird mix of 50's rock and pure 70's Zep, with John Paul Jones hammering out some sweet piano. Not crazy compelling, but a fun song. There seems to be a forced fade at the end, which leaves you wondering how long this thing got jammed out in the original session.

"Bonzo's Montreux" is John Bonham beating on the drums for four minutes with some odd effects layered in and out. It is awesome.

"Wearing and Tearing" is the last song on this one, and it's a great closer. Heavy, fast, and urgent. Zeppelin at their punkest. That's not saying much, but it's a raggedly aggressive cut. I've always liked it.

And that was Led Zeppelin's only release in the 80's. If they were giving their legend time to grow, it certainly worked on kids like me. By the early 90's, I was ready to get all Zepped out and shit.

"Wearing and Tearing"

Ice Cube - In the Movies (CD, 2007)

Somewhat surprisingly, there is a lot I like about this compilation, and I think it's a nice addition to his discography. I'll explain why in a bit, but first let me explain my only major beef with this collection: it's not in chronological order, let alone any discernible order at all.

When are record companies going to pull their heads out of their asses and realize how much sense it makes to sequence albums like this from earliest to newest? Ugh. Thankfully, with patented iTunes technology, I can make my own mix. Don't think I won't.

So, yeah, that part is ridiculous. Here's why this album is a must-have for Cube fans: it contains a generous amount of non-album tracks. Let's be honest: I was never going to buy the Player's Club soundtrack. And while the two songs from that movie represented here are pretty bad ("We Be Clubbin'" and "You Know (I'm a Ho)"), I'm happy to have them. Same with "Anybody Seen the PoPos?" from xXx: State of the Union and "$100 Dollar Bill Y'all" from All About the Benjamins. Again, not great songs, but I can put up with a lot from Cube, and I'm happy to have them.

The gems here, of course, are the earlier tracks. "How to Survive in South Central" from Boyz n the Hood is vintage Cube (literally), and fucking rules. "Trespass," from the movie of the same name, features Ice-T stepping his game up to match verses with Cube, and it's sweet. "Higher," from Higher Learning, is rare '95-era Cube, and finds him in a good spot, though it's very clearly written for the movie.

"Natural Born Killaz," Cube's '94 team-up with Dr. Dre for the Murder Was the Case soundtrack is here, and so is the goofy-fun title track from Friday. There are some album tracks here: "The Wrong Nigga to Fuck Wit," "Ghetto Vet," and "You Can Do It" are included, but if that's all you're re-buying, it's a decent ratio.

My only recommendation regarding this disc: the last track, "Right Here, Right Now," from Blade II, must be avoided at all costs. Cube inexplicably teams up with Paul Oakenfold, and it ain't pretty. You've been warned.

Otherwise, it's perfect for the Cube completist who wants to save himself some money.

"Trespass"

Buddy Holly and The Crickets - 20 Golden Greats (LP, 1978)

I don't remember exactly when I bought this record, though I remember its purchase being the result of feeling terrible that I didn't own any of Buddy Holly's music. I must have watched a documentary where they mentioned him, or read a book, or something. Anyway, I made it my mission that weekend to rectify the situation, and I think it cost me about three bucks.

I don't listen to this record more than very occasionally, but it's really good to have around. I do love every song on here, and it's probably one of the more "pleasant" LPs I own. I always forget how many great songs Buddy Holly recorded in his short career until I put this on and realize I know almost all of them. We all know "Peggy Sue" (which is a phenomenal little song) and "That'll Be the Day," but tracks like "Maybe Baby" and "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" always slip my memory.

Yeah, I don't listen to this one a lot, but I'll always hold onto it. It's a solid collection, and Buddy Holly is the kind of artist who I don't mind going down the best-of road for. I'd never search out his original LPs or anything, so I'm simply happy to have the songs themselves.

Though they are all frustratingly short. 20 songs in 45 minutes. Way to crank 'em out, Buddy.

"Maybe Baby"

Jimi Hendrix - Kiss the Sky (CD, 1984)

Every generation gets their own repackaged versions of Hendrix, and this was one of the 80's ones. See, they gave him that paint-splattered sort of effect. Now he's 80's Hendrix!

Anyway, I don't know why I have this. I think someone lent it to me and never asked for it back like 15 years ago. Because I know I didn't buy it. I already have all these songs from the original albums they were on and I really hate lazy best-of collections like this.

Yep, might be time to purge myself of this rookie-ish compilation. Oh yeah, I called this compilation rookie-ish.

"Stepping Stone"

Geto Boys - Uncut Dope (CD, 1992)

I don't remember when I bought this, though I know it wasn't more than five bucks. That's about right, as this isn't a well-made or even very necessary compilation. I think it might have been an excuse to release "Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta," as that and "Action Speaks Louder Than Words" are the only things I can figure to account for the "Bonus cuts stolen from upcoming album featuring Big Mike" exclamation on the front. Almost everything else on this disc is from either their eponymous album or We Can't Be Stopped, and the tracks are neither chronological or sequenced in any discernible way.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Geto Boys, and it's played out across this disc. I think "Mind Playing Tricks on Me" (incorrectly listed here as "My Mind Playin' Tricks on Me") is an incredible song. I think "Mind of a Lunatic" is a terrible song, for a countless amount of reasons. And so it goes with the rest of this record. I love half of it, and hate the other half.

Sometimes I feel like if I was an upstanding human I wouldn't listen to Geto Boys, but then I realize it's just one of the nutty contradictions that makes me me. And right now, I'm feeling embarrassed that I own a Geto Boys greatest hits collection.

Pretty lazy of me, but unfortunately, collecting the Geto Boys discography is not at the top of my list right now.

"Do It Like A G.O."

Frank Black Francis - Frank Black Francis (2xCD, 2004)

Another oddity the Frank Black/Black Francis/Charles Thompson/whatever-you-want-to-call-him-here category, this is a 2-disc set featuring Pixies music both old and new (which is why I file it under Black Francis).

The first disc is a tape of rough solo demos that were recorded prior to the proper recording of Come On Pilgrim. So, the sound quality is less-than-ideal, but it's really not that bad. My main beef with these demos is that I had to wait until 2004 to hear them. I can't express how much I would have jizzed in my teenage pants if I would have had this in the early 90's. Almost all of the songs from Surfer Rosa and Come On Pilgrim are included here, and hearing them broke down to their essence (if you will) is just great. Of course, I'm one of what Frank refers to as "the uberfans" in the liner notes, so I consider this a piece of history in its own little way.

The purpose of this tape was to give their engineer some songs to take notes on for the recording session, so Frank is often speaking little asides ("This is the one we want to sound like Hüsker Dü," etc.) that are interesting if you know what the end product sounds like. There's also extra parts in a few songs, a couple tracks that wouldn't see the light of day for some time ("Rock A My Soul," "Build High"), and one that I've never heard anywhere else ("Boom Chickaboom"). So, if you like to nerd out on early Pixies demos (and who doesn't?), this is a prime place to start.

The second disc is 2004 reworkings of Pixies songs. And when I say "reworkings," I mean tearing them down to the ground and building them completely back up. There are synths, rarely any drum beats, and enough effects to make your head swirl. I get the vibe it ain't for everybody, but I've actually listened to this disc way more than I ever thought I would. It's a little much if you're wearing headphones, but it's a great one for cleaning house or otherwise dawdling to.

I could do with "Monkey Gone to Heaven," but I've never been of the opinion that the world was in need of another version of that song. But, the versions of "Is She Weird?," "Caribou," and "Levitate Me" are awesome. And, if you can make it all the way through the 14-minute version of "Planet of Sound," you'll find it's not without its many merits as well.

So, it may be a Pixies-nerds-only release, but it's a must-have if you fit that description.

And I can't find any audio of it.