The Full Custom Gospel Sounds
Artist: Reverend Horton Heat
Community Score: 10.00

With fellow Texas maniac Gibby Haynes on production, Heat and his trusty sidemen go at it again on The Full Custom Gospel Sounds and do so with all the style and sass one could want. Kicking off with "Wiggle Stick," a perfectly lubricious number that ended up scoring the band some airplay with Beavis and Butthead, the good Reverend serves notice... Read More

Rapid City Muscle Car
Artist: Cherry Poppin' Daddies
Community Score: 6.00
Satiate
Artist: Avail

A tight, aggressive collection of hardcore-tinged punk tunes, Satiate captures Avail at their prime. Thanks to a bare-bones production and subtle -- though not indulgent -- shifts from the standard four-chord punk anthems, tracks such as "March" and "Pinned Up" sound nearly as good as they do during the group's infamous live shows. There's even... Read More

Encendedor
Artist: Dambuilders

Boston's Dambuilders thankfully didn't conform themselves for the sake of their major label debut. If anything, the opening moments of the grating "Copsucker" showed that they were ready to scream louder and rawer than they had in the past. The only noticeable change -- and a refreshing one at that -- is that the slightly polished production... Read More

Peckin' Party
Artist: Southern Culture on the Skids

This six-cut EP features three studio tracks from Southern Culture on the Skids: a re-recording of "Eight Piece Box" with Jim Spake sitting in on sax, a cover of Link Wray's "Run Chicken Run," and a new tune, "Kudzu Limbo" (which, while mostly instrumental, does feature the memorable encouragement to dancers, "How low can you GROW?"). The real... Read More

Everybody's Got One
Artist: Echobelly

The album is Everybody's Got One or EGO for short, thus the pun and point of the title. Given that Echobelly's work clearly echoes one of the great English self-obsessives, Morrissey, it's an appropriate enough tag for the quintet's full debut. Madan perhaps gained a little too much U.K. press attention based over the surprising fact that she... Read More

Tough Guy Problem
Artist: Dambuilders

This rocket of an EP served as a proper introduction to the energy Joan Wasser and her violin were capable of giving to the Boston indie band. The five songs here show the wealth of moods the band was capable of, from erratic mind games ("Dose") to romantic, tumbleweed swayers ("Idaho,") to all-out pogo rock ("Heather"). Most impressible is the... Read More

Bee Thousand
Artist: Guided by Voices
Community Score: 9.26

The cult of indie rock thrives on the unexpected discovery, and in 1994 Guided by Voices was just the sort of musical phenomenon no one figured was still out there -- 30-something rock obsessives cranking out fractured guitar-driven pop tunes in a laundry room. Robert Pollard and his stable of beer buddies/backing musicians had been churning out... Read More

File Under: Easy Listening
Artist: Sugar
Community Score: 3.50

Given Bob Mould's reputation for searing electric rock & roll, it may be easy to think that the title of File Under: Easy Listening is ironic, and it is to a certain extent. But beneath the loud guitars lie the friendliest, most relaxed pop songs Mould had ever written. "Your Favorite Thing" and "Can't Help You Anymore" are two of Mould's most... Read More

Tortoise
Artist: Tortoise
Community Score: 9.00

An album that not only set the tone for the new Chicago prog rock, but also cemented the musical niche for Thrill Jockey Records. Here, multi-instrumentalists John McEntire, Dan Bitney, John Herdon, Douglas McCombs, and Bundy K. Brown share equal responsibility and trust in each other, pouring out a thick stew of meditative grooves, light... Read More

Too High to Die
Artist: Meat Puppets
Community Score: 7.23

Although the Meat Puppets' previous album, 1991's Forbidden Places, was one of the Arizona trio's finest, the band wasn't completely happy with the album's sound, courtesy of longtime Dwight Yoakam producer Pete Anderson. So on their second album for London Records, 1994's Too High To Die, the trio hooked up with Butthole Surfer Paul Leary to... Read More

Love Songs for the Retarded
Artist: The Queers
Community Score: 8.00

Even after eleven years, the Queers haven't grown up, as is evidenced by song titles like "Ursula Finally Has Tits," "I Can't Stop Farting," and "Noodlebrain." "Granola-Head" is an ultra-poppy anti-hippie rant that sums up the band's philosophy. Most of the album alternates between the guitar-driven pure pop craft of "Daydreaming" and the less... Read More

A Truckload of Trouble: 1986-1993
Artist: The Pastels

Collecting most of the singles the Pastels released on Fire, A Truckload of Trouble: 1986-1993 is a fine introduction to any newcomer and a vital piece of any fan's collection. These songs see the Pastels at their shambolic best, whining guitars blazing and ringing, alternating slurred and dreamy vocals punctuating the finest ever C-86 tunes,... Read More