tracklisting
1. Starfish — This Town
2. Vampire Lezbos — Stop Killing The Seals
3. Nubbin — Windyyy
4. Saucer — Jail Ain't Stopping Us
5. Machine — Blind Man's Holiday
6. Medelicious — Beverly
7. Hitting Birth — Same 18
8. Nubbin — Wonderama
9. Crunchbird — Woodstock Unvisited
10. The Ones — Talk To Me
11. Pod — 123
12. Thrillhammer — Alice's Palace
13. Yellow Snow — Take Me For A Ride
14. Helltrout — Precious Hyde
15. Bundle Of Hiss — Wench
16. Starfish — Run Around
17. Thrillhammer — Bleed
18. Chemistry Set — Fields
19. My Name — Voice Of A Generation Gap
20. Small Stars — It's Getting Late
21. Shug — AM FM
22. Treehouse — Debbie Had A Dream
23. My Name — Why I Fight
24. Soylent Green — It Smiles
25. Kill Sybil — Best
26. Calamity Jane — Magdalena
27. Saucer — Chicky Chicky Frown
28. Attica — The System
Well, I lived through this era, wrote quite actively about underground American rock in the late 80s and early 90s, read zines like Forced Exposure... and I never heard of any of these bands. Pond, yes, but Pod?
To be honest I'd have thought the first step really would be to introduce today's generation to the NW bands that weren't Nirvana or Soundgarden, but were fairly renowned at the time .... like, I dunno, Tad, who I liked for a moment there.
But even that task would not strike me as the most pressing of reclamation missions...
Reminds of when - back in the actual late Eighties - I was enthusing about John's Children to a friend who had been there, who was alert and attuned to what was hip and what mattered during the actual late Sixties .... and she was incredulous, openly scornful: "John's Children? Nobody took them seriously. They were a joke."
Didn't affect my love of John's Children one jot, of course, but 'twas bracing to encounter that perspective.
Around that time, I was friendly with another late Sixties veteran and one time we were hanging out, he mentioned the band Family. I confessed I had never heard of them. He was genuinely shocked - "Never heard of Family? Oh, they were one of the most important bands of that time".
I guess this is the Drops Away Syndrome again - with Family as a band who had dropped away completely by the Eighties - despite the praise and expectation that surrounded their name all through 1968-1972, despite the several hit singles (including one #4 hit) they had, despite being high on the bill festival regulars...
But the groups on this new Soul Jazz comp, they never rose enough that one could even say they dropped away, unlike your Tads and Ponds and Leaving Trains...
1 comment:
Looks like the 90s are finally getting their own "Nuggetsy" compilations... I agree with you: people interested in deepening in that era should definitely check Tad out. I've always thought they should be up there with the Nirvanas and Soundgardens of this world. However, this compliation looks also worth spending my money on it... So I'll give it a try!
I discovered Family as a child because of my father, who'd seen them back in their days, and it was hard for me to believe that they had been almost as big as Pink Floyd: nobody younger than my parents seemed to remember them...
And your story about John's Children reminds me of a punk band that was quite well known for a while in my country, back in the 80s. I was too young to be aware of them back then, so years later when I met some people who did, they told me exactly the same, that they were a joke. I still love them, but it was interesting to hear that point of view...
Cheers from Barcelona and sorry about my English...
oriol
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