Alternative and Indie

Quite the mixed bag, but the goodness is really good (“Don’t Lets Start”, “Youth Culture Killed My Dog”, “Boat of Car”) and the badness is gone before you know it (“Rabid Child”, “(She Was) A Hotel Detective”, “Chess Piece Face”), washed away in the swift flow of quirky tunes and strange ideas that make up TMBG’s debut album. And you’ll likely disagree with my choices for good and bad, as well, since everything here is so eclectic. It’s hard for me to take any of this too seriously, because the band ly doesn’t, but as usual, they always sprinkle in enough food for thought and maybe-profound lyrics that it doesn’t desolve into complete camp. In this early stage of their career, they kind of sound like a mix between the Residents and Weird Al. Only better than that description sounds. Soon, they would refine their aesthetic and make more fully realized statements. –Lucas

They started [in 1982] with “The Party’s Over” – that’s precisely how ten years later, Talk Talk’s last album sounds – the party’s over. Their music always contained elements of what Talk Talk would eventually develop into on their last two LPs, but who would have expected such a radical mutation, from synth Pop to practically classical music? Laughing Stock continues where Spirit Of Eden ended; the two LPs could be a double album, and anyone who loves one of the two should make sure he/she got both. Myrrhman starts the album with searching for structure. A mixture of Blues and modern classical music, the music is played on acoustic instruments. With Ascension Day, a groove is introduced; there are Jazz influences. The mighty and hymnic After the Flood, my favorite song of this album, is the closest Laughing Stock gets to resemble regular Pop, only its length (over 9 minutes) shuts it off from Radio play. It flows directly into the spacious and ambient Taphead. A 6/8 beat brings back the motion on the blissful and meditative New Grass – a Bach choral (from the St. Matthew’s passion – O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden) appears, reinforcing the religious mood of the album. The final song, Runeii, starts with only voice and guitar, later, organ, piano and drums fade in and out; it’s a quiet windup with a hippie feel. Laughing Stock is the ultimate step of Talk Talk’s musical search into the soul. Commercially, it was a fiasco, and Laughing Stock, with its lengthy and introvert songs, sounds as if Talk Talk never planned to compete with this LP on the Pop market; it remains their last album. As a creative effort within the realms of Pop music, however, it’s a victory, a timeless beauty and one of the best Pop records of the 90s. –Yofriend

Before I bought this three disc set, I had downloaded some tracks from the collection and included them on various playlists. As a result, I had different favorites over time, falling in love with various tracks as they embedded themselves into my psyche. When I finally heard all the songs together I was blown away at the uniqueness of all these tracks. There’s a lot here that works well together – simple instrumentation (some acoustic, some electro), alternating vocalists, dry humour, classic pop songwriting – Merritt is definitely one of the stellar songwriting voices of his generation. There’s just the right amount of cheese here too, not too much but just enough to at least deflate things when they become too serious. Some favourites include “When My Boy Walks Down The Street”, “Reno Dakota”, “Washington DC” and “Zebra”. Merritt should really turn these songs into some sort of musical because love is well..universal, and rightfully should be celebrated with song and dance. We see the theme of love here revealed, warts and all, with all its betrayals, bliss, rejection, infatuation, etc. This certainly isn’t Julio Iglesias territory, although it would be nice to hear the famous Latin Lover croon his way through “How Fucking Romantic.” –Neal

If Smiths fans had a propensity for violence, I would’ve been beaten up quite a bit in middle school. You see, I was eleven and quite liked Bon Jovi – might as well get that skeleton out of the closet now. The most I got from the older Smiths fans at school (and ooh they ever were soo cool) were dirty looks or eye rolls. Well, whatever…I don’t like Bon Jovi anymore (don’t hate ’em either, they seem like nice chaps), and do consider myself a Smiths fan, but it wasn’t really anything to do with my school experiences. Enter Morrissey and Marr. The latter’s distinct guitar style is what blew me away first. He comes across as a kind of post punk Roger McGuinn. I guess I realized that one didn’t have to be a “shredder” like Eddie Van Halen to stand out as a good guitarist. Then the Moz…well, not many have managed to duplicate that croon of his have they? I remember the Smoking Popes didn’t sound anything like the Smiths, but their singer had the dry tuneless croon down pat. I find the Moz’s singing on this debut strangely attractive, even funny – especially on “Miserable Lie” on which he eventually gives up singing altogether and just kind of hoots. But everything here is instantly memorable, especially the smash hits on the latter half of the album. –Neal

In the land ye fishey and chips, there would come about a band that would rocketh the stray teenagers of the middle class. They would defeat the masses of hair metal and 80s b-boys, but would ultimately be destroyed by time. There would be a man to rise out of the fire who would make an album better than half of said band’s. We would then call him Moz because that sounds cool and agree that he hasn’t been the same since (although You are the Quarry was a hell of a comback….ye olde You are the Quarry, I mean). Sexy British asshole male divas of the world unite. Only one, eh? –Allistair

Superfuzz Bigmuff plus Early Singles was my introduction into Mudhoney and the perfect place to start for newcomers. The great thing about this compilation is that it appeals to fans of all kinds of genres, not just grunge. Verifying the date of when this original EP was released we already know that it was before the whole grunge vogue. It even dates back before the explosion by a little band called…shit – sometimes forget the name, but they infiltrated the mainstream and changed music forever. So, if you have a problem with the “grunge” label and other typecasts no need to fret because Mudhoney is straight up garage rock with a grime quality added on to it. I can hear many influences that various bands drew together from this band. Hell, the opening track “Touch Me I’m Sick” is the absolute grunge anthem, in my opinion. It draws more from the “grungy muck” distinguishing the glorified sound that electrified the planet in the early 90’s as opposed to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” have-on-loan resonance of the Pixies “slow-fast” format. There is no denying the fact why one song was bigger than the other. Mudhoney was more interested in the raw sound of the Stooges and the debris of it all. Often the songs are just repeat uncomplicated lyrics with effortless playing, but there was a reason why these guys are so appropriately labeled the igniters of a revolution. Mark Arms feral scream was so concentrated that it was only rivaled by that of a Mr. Cobain. These guys had the gravy, while so many others were lingering, trying to play catch-up. Everybody I know gets hooked on this band as soon as they hear this album. –Jason