Various Artists, Gimme Indie Rock, Vol. 1- Kerwin So

REVIEW: Various Artists, Gimme Indie Rock, Vol. 1 (K-TEL)

- Kerwin So

In the hyper-consumer world of popular music, it's easy to lose sight of the history and influences that shaped what we're listening to at any given moment. Why, the Backstreet Boys are nothing but a rehash of New Kids on the Block, who were themselves a bastardization of the Jackson Five. Indie rockers tend to have a slightly better grip on the seminal bands of yesteryear -- or at least they think they do -- but if you need a refresher course, or just some place to start mapping indie rock's sprawling history, you could do much worse than checking out K-TEL's new double disc compilation Gimme Indie Rock, Vol. 1.

K-TEL? That's right, somebody has to catalog musical trends of the time -- why not K-TEL? Last year's Nowcore compilation was a sturdy collection of songs from post-hardcore superstars like Braid and the Promise Ring, and now K-TEL brings 30 tracks from a who's who of indie rock icons that would leave any scenester drooling: Half Japanese, Yo La Tengo, the Wedding Present, Giant Sand, Flaming Lips, the Mekons -- the list is quite impressive. Indeed, you'd have to be an uber-scenester to own all the records from which these songs are taken, particularly since some of them are out of print (like Scrawl's He's Drunk, whose "I'm Ready" is included here), or just plain hard to find (the saxophone version of "Blue Thunder" from Galaxie 500).

Many of these selections hail from the mid-to-late 80s; hence, pioneering underground labels like Homestead and SST are heavily represented through bands like Big Dipper, the Meat Puppets, Squirrel Bait, the Minutemen, and Black Flag. From the bands I was familiar with (by no means all of them), it seems that a fair amount of care was taken in selecting a signature track from each artist. Husker Du's dark reflection on heroin addiction "Pink Turns to Blue" (from their epic double LP Zen Arcade) gets things off to a gloomy start, crashing headlong into Dinosaur Jr's monstrous "Little Fury Things," from their beloved SST record You're Living All Over Me. You'll feel Half Japanese's gleefully naive energy on just one spin of "US Teens are Spoiled Bums," and be bowled over by the car-crusher compactness of the Minutemen's song styles and length (as evidenced in "Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing"). And, the song perhaps most credited for single-handedly kickstarting the grunge tidal wave of the early 90s, Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick," makes a welcome appearance here, as do the former mentors to Kurt Cobain, the Melvins.

What's further impressive about this compilation is its geographic and stylistic scope. Sure, you have the American bands who drew heavily from hardcore punk, but you'll also discover indie-pop favorites from the UK and New Zealand (the Wedding Present and the Chills, respectively), as well as some acts who defy boundaries altogether: the Mekons, who have probably covered every conceivable musical category in their twenty years of existence, or Savage Republic, who sounded like aliens kidnapped Joy Division from 1979 Manchester and plunked them down in the middle of the desert.

But beyond the trademark song selection and diversity of songs and bands presented here, this compilation is ultimately worthy for one core reason -- its sense of history. Chances are you've never heard a Yo La Tengo song recorded before 1997, or have only heard the names of bands like Eleventh Dream Day, the Wipers, or the Vaselines (the last two often championed -- and covered -- by Nirvana). Here's a great chance to sample some of this for yourself without dropping a fortune. Allow me to share a personal revelation: I have always heard of the band Squirrel Bait, seeing as how this one band spawned acts like Rodan, Gastr del Sol, and most notably Slint, indie rock legends in themselves who continue to make history to this day as Tortoise. Being a long-time devotee of the Replacements, I was pleasantly surprised to hear how closely Squirrel Bait's lead singer Peter Searcy's voice resembled that of Paul Westerberg in balls out, full-throttle mode. So that's it: hearing Squirrel Bait's "Sun God" connected the musical dots for me. As Rob from High Fidelity" might say, the Replacements to Tortoise in four moves. Pretty neat, huh?

Of course, speaking of the Replacements, they are conspicuously absent from this collection, despite their enormous influence on hundreds of songwriters still wearing their hearts on their sleeves. I mean, how could you include Husker Du and the Minutemen and leave out the Mats? But there's your typical indie rock attitude, I guess -- any dyed-in-the-wool hipster could find reasons to complain about this compilation (or anything for that matter). For instance, where's Sonic Youth? Or Superchunk? Is REM considered too mainstream to be included here? If this compilation were truly indie rock, wouldn't it be vinyl-only? To these critics, I have only this to say: there's always volume two.