Freak Scene by Dinosaur Jr. SST 1988 Indie Rock / Noise Pop / Alternative Rock / Slacker Rock / American Underground / College Rock / Noise Rock

Today’s compilation:

Gods Favorite Dog 1986 Noise-Rock / American Underground / Alternative Rock / Indie Rock / Avant Garde

Here's a neat little artifact from the mid-80s: a label sampler (though not entirely) from the Lansing, MI-based Touch And Go Records that shined a spotlight on a small crop of bands that formed part of the American Underground, a loose collective of US rock acts that opted for a very rough, noisy, and heavy sound that ended up serving directly as a necessary backlash to the new wave and UK post-punk that dominated the alternative airwaves at the time.

This particular release includes some of the geographically sprawling scene's heaviest hitters. We've got San Antonio's Butthole Surfers, an experimental band who've legendarily somehow managed to live fast and never die, and who snatched some serious and brief alternative success with their mid-90s neo-psych gem, "Pepper;" Madison, Wisconsin's Killdozer, a trio who end up contributing a good cover of "Sweet Home Alabama" here that's co-produced by the great Butch Vig—the guy who'd go on to produce Nevermind and then drum for Garbage—which strips the original of its smooth southern charm and replaces it with the band's trademark grinding sound, along with drunk and gravelly wailing vocals that I could only stand to hear maybe twice a year at most; and Chicago's Big Black, the first band of indie and alt rock's most famous and sought after producer, Steve Albini, whose mission was to create towering intensity through unique uses of the guitar. Oh, and there's also Rick Rubin's briefly existing band Hose too, who actually were the first ever act to be released on Def Jam, before the label would come to be known as the trendsetting hip hop powerhouse that also had Slayer within its ranks.

Now, to be honest, a lot of this American Underground stuff isn't my true get-down when it comes to 80s and 90s underground rock. I definitely prefer the fast, hard, and raucous punky garage stuff (like this fantastic album I posted about a couple days ago) to this extremely noisy, heavy, and slower fare. But I can still 100% dig some and appreciate most of what this conglomerate of bands were trying to forge at the time. Plus, you've got three of music's most accomplished producers on here in Butch Vig, Rick Rubin, and Steve Albini. Definitely worth a listen to hear all this mid-80s noise that those three were generating.

And this album has inexplicably never been re-issued despite having exclusive tracks on it too, so it's sort of a must-have collector's item for any true-blue American Underground junkie out there.

Highlights:

Killdozer - "Sweet Home Alabama" Hose - "Down By the River" Big Black - "Crack Up"

—Did you know that Juneteenth is also celebrated in a part of Mexico? Nacimiento Mexico was once home to thousands who escaped slavery in the US. As many as 10,000 slaves followed a clandestine Southern Underground Railroad to Mexico. —To date, many Black Mexicans from the Texas area retrace a portion of the same route their African American ancestors followed in 1850 when they escaped slavery. —Descendants of slaves who escaped across the southern border observe Texas’s emancipation holiday with their own unique traditions in the village of Nacimiento. —Slave hunters would patrol the southern border for escapees, led by the Texas Rangers but the Mexican army would be there waiting for them (the slave hunters) to turn them away.

x

Fav pics of Hayden, she's so gorg

i am bewitched, captivated, plagued, seized, and infatuated with this clip

when ethel cain said “i tried to be good am i no good am i no good am i no good” which started with her self-loathing after being abused by her father and neil perry said “i was good. i was really good” and then he killed himself because he knew that he would never be good enough for his father

im still praying for that house in nebraska...

listening to preacher's daughter with the girlies ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

R. CRUMB / “BURNED OUT” / 2005 [etching | org: 9 × 7 1/2"]

Dub Housing by Pere Ubu Chrysalis 1979 Post-Punk / New Wave / Experimental Rock / Art Rock / Alternative Rock / American Underground / Punk Rock / Art Punk

Rick Griffin (1944-1991), ''Promethean Enterprises'', #1, 1969 Source

So much intercultural exchange of music and movies and whatnot would not be possible without piracy!

Joseph "Big Joe" Winters (1816 – 1916) was an African-American abolitionist and inventor who patented a wagon-mounted fire escape folding ladder mounted directly on fire wagons in 1878. He was born in Virginia to an African-American brickmaker and a Shawnee Indian mother. He later relocated to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in 1830. During the time Winters lived in Chambersburg, he was active in the Underground Railroad.