Album You Don't Own, But Should: Verbena's Into The Pink

Into The Pink is one of the great records of the the 90s that noone heard when it was released. Verbena were billed as the Southern Rock Nirvana which is a fair comparison (especially considering Dave Grohl produced this record). i always thought they sounded like what it would be if the Pixies tried to rewrite Sticky Fingers. all gnarled deep fried and dirty with guitars cranked way the fuck up and some nice boy/girl harmonies on top. Verbena were a band that i was fucking obsessed with and noone else i knew gave a fucking shit about them. it was the late 90s. all my friends were listening to Converge or the Promise Ring. nobody was interested in Alabama kids trying to keep the ghost of rock n roll alive. a couple of years later every fucking band around with a THE at the beginning of their name was playing garage rock but by then Verbena had morphed into something far more boring and then broke up now the singer does some solo thing called AA Bondy...which i've never bothered checking out. still they left behind two great albums: Into The Pink and Souls For Sale. and if you don't own em then you should get around to fixing that. 

Everybody Needs A Little Alex Chilton

Alex Chilton's 1st solo album might be my favorite of all his records...Big Star and Box Tops included. i remember first reading about this album in highschool or maybe freshman year of college (97 or 98) in a review on Allmusic.com where they basically said it was the worst album of all time.

at that point in my life my exposure to Chilton had been The Replacements' name check and Big Star's records and "The Letter" by the Box Tops, but i couldn't imagine how someone who was involved in music that awesome could have made the WORST ALBUM OF ALL TIME. it took me years to track down a copy on CD (oh those days before you could just download shit). and when i finally heard it i was blown the fuck away. i mean you've got one of the great American pop rock songwriters of all time who wrote probably the most beautiful ballad this side of "Pale Blue Eyes" with "Thirteen" making a sloppy art-damaged wreck-of-a-fuck-you-pop-record (my personal favorite kind) but still with some of the most amazing gems of his career included (My Rival, Hey! Little Child, Alligator Man) that it was impossible not to love. plus that Boogie Shoes cover rules.

if you don't own it then you need to fix your life.

these comps changed my life

back in 1993 i was in 10th grade and really just getting super into the 70s punk scene. i listened to the Clash, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Television, (ya know the obvious bands that were easy to find out about and get records by) but i was yet to discover the rabbit hole of awesome records that i was about to fall into.

then that year Rhino records released a series of comps called D.I.Y. that focused on a different aspect of the 1970s punk scene. the 1st ones in the series covered New York and London and i learned about some of the lesser known bands from those scenes (Suicide, the Mumps, 999, Wire) but the comps from that series that i REALLY loved were the ones that focused on the stuff i knew nothing about. Boston & L.A.’s punk scenes, American Power Pop, and UK New Wave. that’s how i discovered some of my favorite bands of all time like The Nerves, Mission of Burma, The Undertones, X, The Germs, The Real Kids, etc…

sadly those comps are out of print and you’ve gotta be willing to shell out some dollars on ebay to get them all (or get lucky and find them on the internet for a free download). a lot of the music from those comps are much easier to find now and most of the bands have had their discographies rereleased by other labels…but for me in 1993 this shit was like the Holy Grail of music.

Kurt Cobain's Top 50 Albums. Get Em All, Kids.

1. The Stooges - Raw Power

2. Pixies - Surfer Rosa

3. The Breeders - POD

4. The Vaselines - Son Of A Gun

5. The Shaggs - Philosophy Of The World

6. Fang - Landshark

7. MDC - Millions Of Dead Cops

8. Scratch Acid - Scratch Acid

9. Saccharine Trust - Paganicons

10. Butthole Surfers - Pee Pee The Sailor

11. Black Flag - My War

12. Bad Brains - Rock For Light

13. Gang Of Four - Entertainment!

14. Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks

15. The Frogs - It’s Only Right And Natural

16. PJ Harvey - Dry

17. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

18. The Knack - Get The Knack

19. The Saints - Know Your Product

20. Kleenex - Kleenex/Liliput

21. The Raincoats - The Raincoats

22. Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth

23. Aerosmith - Rocks

24. Various - What is it?

25. R.E.M. - Green

26. Shonen Knife - Burning Farm

27. The Slits - Typical Girls

28. The Clash - Combat Rock

29. Void/Faith - Void/Faith/Split EP

30. Rites Of Spring - Rites Of Spring

31. Beat Happening - Jamboree

32. Tales Of Terror - Tales Of Terror

33. Leadbelly - Last Sessions Volume 1

34. Mudhoney - Superfuzz Bigmuff

35. Daniel Johnston - Yim Jump Music

36. Flipper - Generic Flipper

37. The Beatles - Meet The Beatles

38. Half Japanese - We Are They Who Ache With Amorous Love

39. Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician

40. Black Flag - Damaged

41. Fear - The Record

42. Pil - Flowers Of Romance

43. Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back

44. The Marine Girls - Beach Party

45. David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World

46. The Wipers - Is This Real?

47. The Wipers - Youth Of America

48. The Wipers - Over The Edge

49. Mazzy Star - She Hangs Brightly

50. Swans - Young God EP