Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Pink Turns to Blue - Hüsker Dü
2. Little Fury Things - Dinosaur Jr.
3. Too Far Gone - My Dad Is Dead
4. My Favourite Dress - The Wedding Present
5. I Love My Leather Jacket - The Chills
6. Cruisers Creek - The Fall
7. Sweet Little Hi-Fi - Pussy Galore
8. Touch Me I'm Sick - Mudhoney
9. U.S. Teens Are Spoiled Bums - Half Japanese
10. She's Fetching - Big Dipper
11. Jangle Town - Nikki Sudden
12. Watching the Candles Burn - Eleventh Dream Day
13. Black Venetian Blind - Giant Sand
14. Swimming Ground - Meat Puppets
15. I'm Ready - Scrawl

Disc 2:

1. Slipping (Into Something) - The Feelies
2. Barnaby, Hardly Working - Yo La Tengo
3. Nothing Left to Lose - Wipers
4. Sun God - Squirrel Bait
5. Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing - Minutemen
6. Andelusia [Instrumental Version] - Savage Republic
7. Ghosts of American Astronauts - The Mekons
8. Blue Thunder [w/Sax] - Galaxie 500
9. Take Me to the Other Side - Spacemen 3
10. Everything's Explodin' - The Flaming Lips
11. Creepy Smell - Melvins
12. Black Coffee - Black Flag
13. Coca-Cola & Licorice - Death of Samantha
14. I'm Alright With You - The Pastels
15. Molly's Lips - The Vaselines

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #256772 in Music
• Released on: 2000-03-21
• Number of discs: 2

Album Description
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.

Amazon.com
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, Hüsker Dü, 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

CMJ, Apr 10, 2000
A treasure chest of tunes that helped define the way we think of indie rock today. Stellar. - Kelso Jacks

Customer Reviews

80's Indie Rock Treasures
It should come as no surprise that K-Tel has done a terrific job with this collection of 80's Indie Rock songs, they did an equally fine job in 1999 with an Alt.Country collection (called Exposed Roots). There really was a time that I and thousands of others used to buy a lot of these acts' records through mail order catalogs and from magazine ads. That was what Indie rock was really about in the 80's. The bands featured here are for the most part Indie rock legends: Husker Du, Meat Puppets, Yo La Tengo. And I might add a couple of personal favorites like the Chills and the Feelies. Co-compiler Scott Becker's liner notes, though, are a mixed bag. Taking unnecessary swipes at 60's rock and using the old Rock-crit line that the 70's were "a musical black hole", Becker's notes are better when dealing with the 80's Indie Rock that he loves, not dissing acts (like Bob Seger) who were pretty great, even if he didn't like them. In the end, thankfully, that leaves the music. And it's pretty great. I'd forgotten how jangly and punk this stuff sounds. As with any compilation made by someone else, you could always find room for improvement: SST era Sonic Youth and Twin/Tone era Replacements would've been nice. And does anyone remember the Go-Betweens (who were Indie until 1988)? Or Pylon? Maybe on future volumes. But those are minor complaints. If you're interested in the peak of Indie Rock (and 80's music, in particular) this is highly recommended.

Should have been called "Kurt Cobain's Favorite Artists"
This CD is simply wonderful. I found it in the discount section at Meijer's among copies of Quiet Riot's greatest hits and Skid Row. Let me tell you, it was like a beacon in the darkness!

It's amazing to see almost all of the bands that Kurt Cobain loved (Husker Du, Dinosaur Jr., Mudhoney, the Meat Puppets, The Wipers, The Flaming Lips, etc... etc...) all on one glorious compilation! If you LOVE Nirvana (and who doesn't?) you really need this CD. Don't even think twice about it. An excellent buy!

Amazing collection ....
I'd forgotten what the 80's alternative scene sounded like! This collection is fabulous and brings back all those memories of searching out all the gems that never made it to the radio.