Gimme Indie Rock, Vol. 1

Before alternative, before Nirvana, a distinct bunch of rough, young bands criss-crossed the country in rusty vans. They played in dingy clubs, slept on the floors of ardent fans, and rewrote the history of rock and roll. Gimmie Indie Rock Vol. 1 tells their story.

Husker Du, The Wipers, Pussy Galore, The Minutemen: these already legendary names in the annals of rock passed stealth-like beneath the commercial radar of the waning 80s. They, and others like them, built a new infrastructure of labels, agents and promoters supporting an alternative American rock economy; an underground network that would soon rise, occupying the big bad music industry for the better part of the 90s. Many of these artists are still making music without compromise today.

Gimme Indie Rock is the first CD series to document the contribution of this unique cast of guerrilla/entrepreneurs to the history of pop. Including many long out-of-print cuts along with a heap of the hits plus insightful liner notes from Scott Becker (Option magazine), Gimme Indie Rock Vol. 1 is a must-have historic collection.

Back when indie really meant indie and alternative really was alternative, a handful of brave labels changed the shape of music by releasing albums by bands that cruised far below the mainstream radar in broken-down vans. Leave it to K-Tel to cull the best of the indie brat pack for what turns out to be a fairly surprising and definitive collection. The stalwarts are here (though in their full indie regalia, you might not recognize their later incarnations): the Flaming Lips, Yo La Tengo, Dinosaur Jr., the Mekons, and the Fall. No collection would be complete without the triumvirate of indiehood--the Minutemen, H?sker D?, and the Meat Puppets--and they are represented with well-chosen tracks (kudos for choosing Meat Puppets' "Swimming Pool"--pure skronk-rock torture). There's also a host of de rigueur circa-'85 scenesters: the Feelies, Galaxie 500, Spacemen 3, and the Wedding Present. But the surprises are what make this two-CD set worth the price of admission: Savage Republic's Middle Eastern-inspired noise, "Andelusia"; the Wipers' seminal protopop grunge on "Nothing Left to Lose"; the unrestrained weirdness of Death of Samantha's "Coca-Cola and Licorice"; Half Japanese's "U.S. Teens Are Spoiled Bums"; Big Dipper's "She's Fetching"; and, best of all, Squirrel Bait's peerless and visionary "Sun God." Granted, ex-college-radio geeks may bemoan the exclusion of their favorite obscurity (Unrest, Big Black, Minor Threat, and Scratch Acid come to mind), and surely space for a Replacements' track could have been made, but otherwise Gimme Indie Rock is a sterling collection, as good as any mix tape made in the mid-'80s. --Tod Nelson

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