Music Library Compilations: Ts

Taste Test #1 (1990). SST sampler of live cuts with two d. boon outtakes, Universal Congress Of, fIREHOSE, and Roger Miller on the positive side and some pretty dull SST also-rans on the negative side.



Texas Psychedelia From The Sixties (rel. 1986). Pretty cool Texas-specific nuggets comp.



That's Why We're Marching: World War II and the American Folk Song Movement (rel. 1996). Smithsonian/Folkways has an amazing archive. This one is notable mid-century folksingers and blues artists (Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Josh White, Pete Seeger, y'know) playing songs in support of the war effort. Every track is from 1941-45.



Three Ring Sampler Vol. 1 (2007). Free label sampler from eMusic with a bunch of sorta nondescript but pleasant enough folky indie-rock bands.



Times Ain't Like They Used To Be: Early American Rural Music, Vols. 1, 2, and 3 (rel. late 90s). Three out of eight or so comps of early hillbilly/folk/country music. These aren't quite as well curated as the Harry Smith anthologies (although there's a lot of overlap, the flow and cohesion aren't there), but still quite fun at times.



The Tompkins Square 5th Anniversary eMusic Sampler (rel. 2010). With their semi-eclectic roster of artists from the John Fahey school of freaky fingerstyle guitar, vintage folk, and aging purveyors of vintage folk, this free sampler is a good reminder of how much I like this record label.



Total Lee! The Songs Of Lee Hazlewood (2002). Hazlewood's a brilliant songwriter and this tribute album matches some truly simpatico artists with his music. Good stuff.



Trojan Dub Box Set and Trojan Ska Box Set (both rel. 1998). There's a metric ton of these Trojan comps now, but these two are the only ones I've sprung for at this point. Don't know why I haven't gotten more because these are flat-out magnificent.


Tropicalia: A Brazilian Revolution in Sound (rel. 2005) and Tropicalia: Ou Panis Et Circenses (rel. 1968). Interestingly, these two comps, one released years later to document the high points of the musical movement and one released during the heart of it, make similar-yet-different arguments for the importance of tropicalia. The later one hits some of the weirder highlights while the earlier one emphasizes how much this music was based in traditional Brazilian folk music. Very cool back-to-back, and both leave you wanting to explore these artists more.

Music Library Compilations: Ss

A Sampler of Sounds: ESP Records (rel. 2010). With its incredibly weird catalog of music from the late 60s and early 70s (as well as some odd contemporary electronic sounds), this ESP sampler is a lot of fun. Includes Timothy Leary, Ayler, Sun Ra, the Godz, Charles Manson (although fuck that guy), among others.



Samurai Champloo Music Records (2004). I'm a fan of the anime Samurai Champloo, but four soundtrack albums seemed quite extensive to me even before I heard them. Afterwards, it is definitely too extensive. I mean, there is some good music on here, maybe an album's worth, but a lot of it is just soundtrack loops, beats meant to be paired with a scene, but without the visuals, are just beats that go nowhere. The four albums are Masta, Departure, Playlist, and Impression. The 2nd and 4th are the best.



The Sandinista Project (2007). A long tribute to the Clash's weirdest album, documented here.Worth a listen! Contributors include Jon Langford and Sally Timms of the Mekons, Steve Wynn, the Sex Clark Five, Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby, Ethan Lipton, Camper Van Beethoven, and The Lothars, a mostly-theramin band with my pal Jon Bernhardt.



Schoolhouse Rock! (1973-84). Those of you who are parents in your late 30s through early 50s understand.



A Second Tribute To Jandek: Down In A Mirror (2005). Another very strong tribute album, with Jeff Tweedy, Six Organs of Admittance, Okkervil River, the Mountain Goats, and the Dirty Projectors, among others, kicking out the mondo-depressive-weirdo-recluse-shut-in blues. Hey, I love Jandek, and some days are perfect for being melancholy.



Skybucket Records Sampler 2011. Skybucket is an excellent Birmingham, AL-based label with a smattering of artists on the alt-county and lush guitar-pop side of the rock genre. This sampler includes Through The Sparks, which is a band I like very much, along with other interesting Alabama bands like Vulture Whale and Delicate Cutters.



The Slaughter Rule Original Soundtrack (2002). Jay Farrar of Son Volt & Uncle Tupelo made the incidental music and curated this soundtrack, which has some first-rate alt-country tracks, like Vic Chesnutt playing the Carter Family's "Rank Stranger" and Freakwater playing the Louvin Brothers' "When I Stop Dreaming."  Good stuff.



Smithsonian-Folkways Anthology of American Folk Music Sampler (rel. unknown). Since I have the Anthology of American Folk Music, why have the sampler, too, you might ask? The answer is I don't know!

So Blue So Funky: Heroes Of The Hammond, Vol. 1 (1991) and 2 (1994). These are compilations of organ-based blues-jazz-funk on Blue Note from the 60s. Solid.



So Indie It Hurts: ROIR Rocks Volume One (2008) and Two (2009). Through the 70s and 80s, ROIR put out cassette-only albums of classic protopunk and punk bands usually playing live. And it may still be a going concern? I don't know. Anyway, good stuff on here, even if the sounds quality is not always the best.



Sō: Japanese Traditional Music (rel. 1994). Interesting in the abstract, but a little dull for these Western ears in practice.

A Soldiers Sad Story: Vietnam Through the Eyes of Black America, 1966-73. This 2003 compilation collects sad soul tracks that are directly or indirectly related to Vietnam, as the title clearly states. This is an excellently curated collection, definitely worth picking up at the right price.



Something Wild Soundtrack (1986). I don't understand how Jonathan Demme could make a movie prominently featuring The Feelies and yet include no Feelies music on this soundtrack. Given the choice between Oingo Boingo or Fine Young Cannibals and the band that actually appears in the movie, I know which one I would want to appear on the soundtrack, but apparently, I am alone in preferring timeless music to dated 80s pop. Here is a clip of what this soundtrack should have been.



A Sound Legacy: 60 Years of Folkways Records and 20 Years of Smithsonian Folkways (rel. 2008). I think this was a free Amazon sampler? Anyway, it is a pretty cool freebie.

The Squidbillies Present: Music for Americans Only Made by Americans in China for Americans Only God Bless America, U.S.A. (2012). Another freebie sampler from [adult swim] with an absurdly strong list of contributors. I've never warmed up to the Squidbillies cartoon, but this collection makes me want to. This clip includes half of Nashville and half of Austin and it makes me laugh like hell.



Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (1988). This is one of Hal Willner's many, many tribute albums, and I've had it since the late 80s because it has the Replacements on it. First place I ever heard Sun Ra or Ken Nordine.



Step Right Up: The Songs Of Tom Waits (rel. 1995). This is the Tom Waits tribute album that doesn't have Screamin' Jay Hawkins on it, and it is, accordingly, the shittier of the two.



The Stiff Records Box Set (rel. 1992). "If it ain't Stiff, it ain't worth a fuck" was one of their slogans, and this box makes a good argument for this statement, at least until the third disc is taken over by the British proclivity towards the soggy cheese of overemotive vocals and plink-plonk keyboards. But the first two discs, with Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, The Damned, Wreckless Eric, The Adverts, and on and on, is fantastic. I mean, even after the Brit-pop erupts, there's still The Pogues.



Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox (2009). Merge put out this compilation to benefit the recovery of NZ-based Chris Knox of the Tall Dwarfs and Toy Love, and the incredibly strong contributor list indicates how beloved his music is among the American indie-rock set. Besides his countrymen (and sometimes collaborators) David Kilgour, The Chills, The Verlaines, The Bats, Peter Gutteridge, and (full-time collaborator) Alex Bathgate, this comp features Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, Stephin Merritt, Yo La Tengo, Portastatic, Jay Reatard (one of the last songs he recorded before his untimely death), Lambchop, and the Mountain Goats. Fantastic album, fantastic cause.



Studio One Rockers (rel. 2001). Excellent comp of 60s and 70s rock-influenced reggae.



The Sun Story (rel. 1990). Solid comp of Sun singles.



Supraphon Selections (2008). Compilation of classical music from the Supraphon label. Pretty good for a dabbler like myself.



SXSW 2007: Breakout Bands That Tore Up Texas. This must be an eMusic comp. Not the best, but not the worst, either. There are a few strong cuts.

Music Library Compilations: Rs

Repo Man Soundtrack (1984). If not my introduction to LA hardcore, then this album was very close to it.



Return Of The Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons (1999). I love Gram Parsons a lot. This is ok, I guess, but no substitute for the original.



Riverside Original Jazz Classics Sampler (1957-63). Out of all of the Original Jazz Classics Samplers, this one is the best, mainly because the label was a going concern for such a short time that it captured a lot of hard bop and then went out of business.



Rock The Bells: Six Years Of Live Hip-Hop (rel. 2009). This is a free sampler with some top-notch artists on it, including the RZA, Cage, Dead Prez, Aesop Rock, and Del The Funky Homosapien. What's not to like?



Rockabilly Psychosis And The Garage Disease (rel. 1984). Like a precursor to the Lux & Ivy's Favorites collections, this fantastic compilation puts together tracks from all kinds of Cramps-friendly acts, including a blistering collaboration between the Cramps themselves and Jim Dickinson, producer and wild man extraordinaire. Also included are Tav Falco, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Hasil Adkins, a bunch of punk-rockabilly-garage tracks, and a bunch of psycho garage bands from the 60s. Good stuff is what I'm saying.



Roots N' Blues: The Retrospective (1925-1950). Yet another mystery comp that I picked up somewhere down the line. This one has a bunch of early blues tracks with some hillbilly/old-time music thrown in.



The Rubble series (rec. all over the late 60s, rel. between the mid 80s and early 00s). This is one of the mini-Nuggets series with some crossover with the Nuggets II box. Lots of interesting psych here, albeit with more duds than the more carefully curated Nuggets boxes. Website can be found here.

• Rubble 1: The Psychedelic Snarl
• Rubble 2: Pop Sike, Pipe Dreams
• Rubble 3: Nightmares In Wonderland
• Rubble 4: The 49 Minute Technicolour Dream
• Rubble 5: The Electric Crayon Set
• Rubble 6: The Clouds Have Groovy Faces
• Rubble 7: Pictures In The Sky
• Rubble 8: All The Colours Of Darkness
• Rubble 9: Plastic Wilderness
• Rubble 10: Professor Jordan's Magic Sound Show
• Rubble 11: Adventures In The Mist
• Rubble 12: Staircase To Nowhere
• Rubble 13: Freakbeat Fantoms
• Rubble 14: The Magic Rocking Horse
• Rubble 15: 5,000 Seconds Over Toyland
• Rubble 16: Glass Orchid Aftermath
• Rubble 17: A Trip In A Painted World
• Rubble 18: Rainbow Thyme Wynders
• Rubble 19: Eiderdown Mindfog
• Rubble 20: Thrice Upon A Time (Nothing Is Real)

Rudy Van Gelder Remasters Sampler, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (both released 2006). These were a couple of free samplers of the Blue Note and Prestige remasters by Rudy Van Gelder, the engineer who recorded a ton of hard bop back in the day. Unfortunately, eMusic released these free samplers with low-to-middling nitrates (128-170 kbps) and I don't hear too much of the sonic clarity that they were supposed to offer, let alone any serious difference between the original mix of, say, "Oleo" from Bag's Groove (attributed to Miles Davis, but featuring Davis, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath, and Kenny Clarke) and the one offered here. Maybe they sound much better when using quality equipment or a higher nitrate. In the youtube videos following, the RVG remaster has a lot more space and warmth.

Music Library Compilations: Os and Ps

Short post this week. Too many Rs to drop them in after the Os and Ps. No Qs.

Odessa Records eMusic Sampler 2012. Comp from Chapel Hill with especially great songs by the Spider Bags and Kingsbury Manx.


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OHM - The Early Gurus of Electronic Music (rel. 2000). Compilation of compositional music from composers who experimented with electronic sounds. Because of the nature of the music, the earliest works are late 30s-early 40s, but it quickly jumps to the late 60s and spends the rest of its running time catching up to the punk-influenced sounds of the late 70s through 1980. Interesting stuff, though.



Once (Music From The Motion Picture) (2007). Ugh. Do not like.

One Kiss Can Lead To Another: Girl Group Sounds, Lost & Found (rel. 2005). Much more like it. This compilations collects girl groups from the 60s with the ear of the Nuggets box. There are so many great songs here with such a clear lineage to punk music. This comp also came packaged in a hat box, so there's a heavy cool angle here, too.



The Oxford American Southern Samplers: I probably should talk about each of these as a separate album, but let's face it: I'm ready to wrap up this portion of this project. I was going to tell you my favorites, but realized that I enjoyed the hell out of every single one. If anyone has the discs after 2010, please hook me up.

• #1 (1997).
• #2 (1998).
• #3 (1999).
• #4 (2000).
• #5 (2001).
• #6 (2003).
• #7 (2005).
• #8 (2006).
• #9 (2007).
• #10 (2008).
• #11 (2009).
• #12 (2010).

Pablo Original Jazz Classics Sampler (1957-81). Pablo stuck to the sweeter side of jazz, didn't they? Lots of artists I like on this sampler playing their least-offensive music.

Paw Tracks eMusic Sampler 2006. Yeah, I don't care.

A Portrait Of The Roots Of Rock N Roll (rel. 2001). No idea where I picked this one up. Lots of blues, little bit of country, little bit of western swing.

The Powerpuff Girls: Heroes & Villains (2000). Pretty great album, all things considered!

Music Library Compilations: Ms and Ns

Making Losers Happy (rel. 1992). This fantastic compilation collects a number of tracks from bands on the NZ label Xpressway between 1988 and 1991, including The Dead C, The Terminals, and Alastair Galbraith.



Mali To Memphis (rel. 1999). This compilation mixes blues tracks and afropop/afrobeat tracks to draw parallels between them with various degrees of success.



Manifest Destiny (rel. 2007). This is an excellent compilation of metal including Earthless, High On Fire, and Sleep. No idea where it came from or why.

Merge Records 2011 Sampler. I think this was a freebie on Amazon, maybe? Great collection, either way. Times New Viking, David Kilgour, Mountain Goats, East River Pipe, among many others.

Metal Swim (2010). This one is another free [adult swim] collection, and it's phenomenal. Lots of my favorites here: Torche, Isis, Jesu, Boris, Pelican.



A Misra Sampler (2006). Collects a bunch of tracks from the late, lamented label. Most notably Centro-Matic (and spinoffs South San Gabriel) and Phosphorescent.



MOJO Presents: I have a bunch of free discs from MOJO magazine, all of which are worthwhile. Instead of going through them all separately, I'm just going to list them.

• Maximum '65 (2000).
• Trojan Explosion (2002).
• The Roots of Hip-Hop (2003).
• Up Yours! Punk's Not Dead! (2003).
• Cash Covered (2004).
• Blue Christmas (2005).
• The Who Covered (2006).
• The Who Jukebox (2006).
• Sub Pop 300! (2008).
• Heavy Soul (2010).
• Festive Fifteen (2010).
• A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Exploding In Your Mind (2010).
• 1-2-3-4! (2011).
• Roots of Nirvana (2011).
• The Route To Quadrophenia (2011).
• Sticky Soul Fingers (2011).
• Sub Pop Jubilee (2013).
• Heavy Nuggets III (2014).
• Brain Damage (2014).
• Death Disco (2014).
• Jack White Presents The Best of Third Man Records (2014).

Monster Rock & Roll Show (rel. 1990). This one has a bunch of 50s and 60s garage/horror-rock and horror movie soundtracks, and it totally worth owning around Halloween.

Music! 100 Years of the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv (rel. 2001). A century of field recordings! Some are interesting and some less so, but still a fascinating document.

New Coat Of Paint: Songs of Tom Waits (2000). Decent tribute album. The highlights are Screamin' Jay Hawkins doing "Whistling Past The Graveyard," which sounds like one of his songs, anyway, and Dexter Romweber's "Romeo Is Bleeding."



New Orleans Funk (rel. 2000). Groovy comp from Soul Jazz Records with the Meters, Lee Dorsey, Professor Longhair, Ernie K-Doe: the guys you'd expect, basically. But the selection is top-notch.



No New York (1978). This is the famous compilation of avant-skronk downtown bands from 1978 with one foot in the punk scene and one in the minimalist-compositional scene. The bands are the Contortions, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Mars, and DNA.



No Thanks! The 70s Punk Rebellion (rel. 2003). This is the companion volume to Left Of The Dial, an amazingly well-curated collection from Rhino of great punk albums. Wikipedia says that the Sex Pistols are a notable exclusion at their own request.



Nuggets: Original Artyfacts of the First Psychedelic Era (1964-68). This collection of garage singles, lovingly curated by Jac Holzman and Lenny Kaye, was originally released as a double-album in 1972 and only later expanded to its current state as a four-disc collection. And holy damn, it is truly fantastic, even all of this time later. All of punk started here. I've owned this album for more than 15 years and still find plenty of mind-blowing creativity within.



Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969. This collection, released in 2001, pulls garage music from the UK, Europe, Japan, and South America, and it is a little more haphazard than the original Nuggets, but there is still lots of interesting music within.

Music Library Compilations: Js, Ks, and Ls

Jamaica Funk: Original Funk and Soul 45s (rel. 2007). Killer compilation from Soul Jazz Records of singles on the edge of reggae and funk.



Just One More: A Musical Tribute To Larry Brown (2007). Brown used to be one of my favorite authors, but, well, it's not that I soured on him so much that my tastes changed. I still think fondly of his books, but his interest in the lurid and grotesque parts of the South don't linger as much as, say, Barry Hannah's or Harry Crews's books. I also don't have as much taste for the friendlier, folkier side of the used-to-be-alt-county-now-is-Americana-or-some-such-shit genre. This collection, which Bloodshot Records put together upon Brown's premature passing, collects a number of tracks inspired by Brown's fiction, and Bloodshot should be lauded for doing something so creative. The problem is me, I guess. I don't really care much about some of these tracks, which are back-porch-friendly to the point where I find them dull, while the woolier tracks (Vic Chesnutt and Jim Dickenson, for instance) are pretty interesting, but a maybe a bit too far between to keep me coming back. Nice to hear Madison Smartt Bell, who wrote some of my favorite short stories, trying his hand at folk songs.



KCRW: Rare On Air, Vol. 4 (1998). No idea where I got this. There's some interesting tracks here.



Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of America's Music (released 2000). Full of good stuff. Like the mini-series that spawned it, the hard bop era is overrepresented if this wants to be definitive, but for an introduction to early jazz and the bop era, this is a great starter compilation.

The Kings And Queens of Bollywood (2001). More my wife's thing than mine, this collects a bunch of old Bollywood musical numbers, mostly with Asha Bhosle and Kishore Kumar.

Knitting On The Roof (1999). Weirdo comp with artists from all over the map - who, I guess, played the Knitting Factory at some point - playing songs from Fiddler On The Roof.



Kraut! Demons! Kraut! German Psychedelic Underground 1968-74. Pretty fantastic pre-krautrock nuggets collection.



The Last Soul Company: Malaco, A Thirty Year Retrospective (rel. 1999). Killer southern soul comp of a beleaguered record company based out of Jackson, MS.



The Late Great Daniel Johnston, Discovered Covered (Disc 1: The Covers) (2004). This was one of those two-disc compilations with one greatest-hits side and one cover side, but I only have the cover side. It's pretty good, although not nearly as strong as Kathy McCarty's Dead Dog's Eyeball album. When the Bright Eyes cover popped up in Friday Night Lights (the TV series), though, it slayed me.



Left of the Dial: Dispatches from the 80s Underground (rel. 2004). This compilation hits me right in my happy spot. I mean, there's nothing all that surprising on this, but for people of my age who cared about 80s post-punk, this hits many of the highlights. I just this minute realized that it weirdly doesn't include the Replacements song that gives it its name.



The Legendary Sun Records Story Vol. 2 (1956-57). This is a compilation, presumably the second, that appears to collect every Sun 45 for the period covered. Do you like early rock & roll? Then you will like this.



Legends of Guitar: Rock (The 60s) Vol. 1 (rel. 1991). Should be more accurately titled "Guitar Player Presents..." and so on. Much better compilation than any cheapo disc put out by Guitar Player Magazine has any right to be. Full of crazy-hot licks.



Legends of the Blues Vol. 1 (1925-65). Another mystery compilation. I have what seems like dozens of blues compilations with early tracks (most of these are from the 20s and 30s). And yeah, they're great.



The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou Soundtrack (2004). I like Seu Jorge's mellow bossanova Bowie tracks, but the whole here is less coherent than many of the Wes Anderson joints.



Live At The Continental Club (1985). I think this may be a Bloodshot thing. Features two tracks each by several bands playing Austin's legendary Continental. Best track is Ben Vaughn's cover of Lee Hazlewood's  "Sundown, Sundown."

Los Angeles Post-Punk (1974-1988). This is a compilation made by a blogger, mostly filled with LA punk and post-punk (1978-88) with one Jobriath track from 1974 at the end. Very thorough mix of the good and bad and worth searching out for the curious.



Lux and Ivy's Favorites (1930-98). Another gift from the Internet, this collects 11 volumes of music supposedly curated by Lux and Ivy (of the Cramps, which I don't have to mention to anyone who's read this far into this post). Even at its most ridiculous, this is a sublime collection.

Music Library Compilations: Hs and Is

Halloween Stomp: Jazz and Big Band Music for a Halloween Party! (unknown). Excellent compilation of jazzy, swingy halloween music.



Hand-Picked: 25 Years of Bluegrass on Rounder (rel. 1994). I used to like bluegrass so much more than I do now. It seems so humorless and conservative for people to focus on playing the same songs the same way over and over again to me now, though.



The Harder They Come Soundtrack (1972). Ain't much better than this, a flat-out perfect slice of reggae.



Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music (rel. 1952). You can hear while listening to this three-volume collection of race and hillbilly 78s exactly how it set off the folk revival in the 60s. Absolutely brilliantly curated. It brings history to life.



Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 4 (rel. 2000). I've forgotten the circumstances behind this belated entry in the Harry Smith Anthology collection, but it stands strong with the previous albums.



Here It Is - The Music, Vol. 1 (1992). Weirdo Ryko sampler that pulls together the Residents and Keith Levene with the likes of Nanci Griffith and the Red Clay Ramblers.

High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass (rel. 1994). This is the soundtrack to a movie I've never seen. It's a very good bluegrass collection. The whole movie appears to be on YouTube for those who wish to pursue this movie.



Hills of Home: 25 Years of Folk Music on Rounder (rel. 1994). It calls itself a folk collection, but it means all sorts of music involving an acoustic guitar. There's some good and some bad, but it's on the whole better than the previous Rounder collection above.



Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles Collection 1959-71. I prefer Stax soul to Motown soul, but not by much.



Home Schooled: The ABCs of Kid Soul (2007). Another Numero Group compilation of soul nuggets, this one focuses on - surprise, surprise - kids playing soul music.



The Hottest State Soundtrack (2007). High on the list of things that I'm not sure why I have is this, the soundtrack to an Ethan Hawke-directed film that I've never seen and have no intention of doing so. It's all mellow, nonthreatening, folkish indie-rock.



I Am The Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey (2006). Fahey inspires weirdness in folk players, and this is an odd compilation that more or less works. Artists include Pelt, Sufjan Stevens, Calexico, Cul de Sac, members of Camper Van Beethoven/Monks of Doom.



Impossible But True: The Kim Fowley Story (1959-68). Fowley was behind a LOT of LA exploitation rock, but, as this collection shows, he was capable of striking a lot of gold.



In God's Country: The Music That Inspired The Joshua Tree (2003). A decent collection of folk, blues, country, and R&B that has god-knows-what connection to freakin' U2.

The Indestructible Beat of Soweto (1986). Great collection of afrobeat/afropop/folk music from Soweto.



An Introduction to Truth and Soul: Truth & Soul Sampler 2009. From this sampler, I'm guessing that this label seems to be reissuing soul albums from the 70s.



It Came From Memphis Too (2006). This is a compilation by the Memphis Industries label. The 60s girl-group-inspired tracks by the Pipettes and El Perro del Mar stand out.

Music Library Compilations: Fs and Gs

Famous Shovels In Twain: The Believer 2006 Music Issue. There are a few tracks I like on this comp (Juana Molina and Six Organs of Admittance, for instance) and some I don't, but there is nothing coherent about it.

Fantasy Original Jazz Classics Sampler (rel. 2002). I generally think of Fantasy as a rock catalog because of CCR, but they definitely have jazz here. This selection leans heavily on white-friendly jazz.

Fast Product: Rigour, Discipline, and Disgust (1979). This is a great collection, with early Mekons and Gang of Four singles, as well as the Fire Engines and Human League, from when the latter was - more or less - a punk band.



Fifteen Minutes: A Tribute To The Velvet Underground (1994). Although there's some great names on the roster here (Nirvana, Buffalo Tom, Screaming Trees, Half Japanese, Ride, Wedding Present, Swervedriver), it's a pretty snoozeworthy effort. Echo & The Bunnymen's version of "Foggy Notion" is the high point, and it's not that great.



FLCL Original Soundtrack Vol 1: Addict (2000). This is mostly the work of the pillows, who I have reviewed elsewhere, but it still kicks.



Flying Nun 25th Anniversary Box Set (rel. 2006). A phenomenal argument for the deep bench of the mostly-New Zealand, some-Oz Flying Nun label. Yes, the Clean, the Chills, Bats, Tall Dwarfs, Able Tasmans, Verlaines, 3Ds, Bird Nest Roys, and the Renderers are all extraordinary, but so are the bands I've never even heard of outside of this collection. Excellent stuff, all around.



Folk Music U.S.A. Vol. 1 (rel. 1958). Top-notch Smithsonian collection. I picked it up when I didn't have another copy of "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground," but this is thoroughly great.



The FolkScene Collection (1998). Outside of Richard Thompson's "Waltzing's For Dreamers," Dave Alvin's "Barn Burning," and Iris DeMent's "Our Town," this collection is utterly toothless twaddle. Some may call it Americana, but that's only true if the best America can do is the weird pumpkin whipped cream on top of some caffeine-free sugar-and-additives monstrosity that ends with "-accino."

Foundry: Sounds of Birmingham (1995). This is an old collection with a few songs by a couple of great early-90s Tuscaloosa bands: rock-with-horns-but-not-ska band Pain and the pre-Dexateens punk band the Phoebes. This is not one of the songs on the album.



Four Songs By Arthur Russell (2007). Proving that Arthur Russell is hard to cover, even Jens Lekman sounds out of his element here.



Freedom Haters Unite!: A Bloodshot Records Sampler, Vol. 6 (2006). Yet another of many Bloodshot samplers that I own, this one - like all of them, really - is reasonably strong.



Freedom Sings (2001). This is really a live album documenting a benefit for the First Amendment Center with a bunch of Nashville greats covering songs that have something to do with restricting freedom, I think? It's for a good cause.



Funk/Soul Revival: Classic Tracks and the New Breed (2007). I think this is a compilation from a label called Funk/Soul? It has Budos Band and is pretty damn good, at least.



Garage Swim (2013). First-rate compilation of a bunch of excellent garage-influenced bands active today, many of which I have waxed poetic elsewhere on this site. It's free at the [adult swim] site, so go get it.



Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (2000). Curated by the RZA, this soundtrack is one of the best Wu Tang-adjacent albums I've heard.



Ghostly Swim (2008). Another free [adult swim] compilation, although I like this one less. Full of electronica circa 2008.



Glitter From The Litter Bin (2003). Glam nuggets from the cracks of the 70s.



Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal (2006). Like the Eccentric Soul releases, this is a Numero Group collection of soul nuggets, in this case all with a gospel focus. Solid, y'all.



Guitar Player Presents Legends of Guitar: Country, Vol. 1 (1990). This is a much better collection than it has any right to be, with some truly excellent guitar players represented (although many are arguably representing the country subgenre of western swing).



Guitarrorists (1991). This is a compilation of instrumentals by indie rock guitar greats. It is none of their best works, but it is ok.