"No Alternative" compilation poll

thought of this because i was listening to the original "effigy" and it's hilarious how faithful uncle tupelo's cover is, same solos and everything

Either "Glynis" or "Unseen Power", man I used to love this comp so much.

Bob Mould's "Can't Fight It" is one of his best (was it a Workbook leftover? Would love to know its history) but I love "Verse Chorus Verse."

love that "effigy"... that SF Seals song is a fave too. cassette version i had had a jonathan richman live track and a sonic youth live track.

I never ever want to hear Dave Pirner singing Marvin Gaye lyrics, and not with that bass line.

for me it's between american music club (bought "san francisco" based on their song here and was disappointed but also i was like 15 and probably not in the AMC target market), pavement, and nirvana. i like the urge overkill song too.

probably going to vote for american music club since no one else will

i bought a bootleg cassette of this at a music store in the market near my house in new delhi and i guess the guy fucked up copying it from his master because the pavement song started over at the beginning halfway through, was never sure if this was how it was supposed to go or not

Pavement song is great. Matthew Sweet's ain't bad either.

asa!

Great compilation. When this came out I was all about VCV, but that song is a bit of a slog to me now. Gonna have to go with Uncle Tupelo's "Effigy." The guitar tone on that track is just awesome and good CCR covers are few and far between. (Hard to improve on greatness and all.)

Def not gonna vote "Verse Chorus Verse" since it doesn't need help getting 1st place here even though it rules.

Also totally sick of Nirvana-nerds getting all nerdy over the title of the song being "Sappy." It's listed as "Verse Chorus Verse" in the liner notes, and so that's the title... What's so hard to understand about that?

No Alternative compilation: Gather here, corny old indie fux

I have often wondered just what possessed Soul Asylum to cover "Sexual Healing" for an AIDS charity comp. Is this... a joke? Please do not tell any more jokes.

Right now I'd probably vote Pavement but that feels a bit too obvious so maybe I ought to see if I can dig out the CD, which I'm fairly sure I still have but have not even seen for over a decade.

(I also keep confusing this with Born to Choose, because apparently I can only remember one 1993 alt-rock charity compilation featuring Pavement and Matthew Sweet at a time)

That thread mentions the 2 tracks that were featured on the cassette:
Sonic Youth - "Burning Spear" (live)
Jonathan Richman - "Hot Nights" (live)

This is great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErP71bLNNEw

I really like "Iris" by the Breeders and that American Music Club song, in addition to the Pavement, the Urge Overkill, and the Nirvana. Shittiest song might possibly be "Sexual Healing" covered by Soul Asylum, but I may be blocking some songs from my memory.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, October 29, 2004 1:33 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I think I bought an AMC album because I really liked their song on this comp and was duly disappointed.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, October 29, 2004 1:34 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

...

I bought the AMC album that was called either California or San Francisco. I don't think it was an album geared towards 15-year-olds.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, October 29, 2004 2:00 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

eight years and i'm posting the exact same shit. going to go slit my throat now.

lol

remind me to do DGC Rarities next

haha i am sadly excited for this

NIRVARNA

DGC Rarities Polllll

lol and i posted on that thread! gonna go slit my throat with n/a

Cant Fight It is one of BM's best solo songs.

Great Barbara Manning Verlaine's cover. "Verse Chorus Verse" is amazing though obv.

Straitjacket Fits v Verlaines v Nirv v Pavement for me. All good. One of the few Pavement songs I can still listen to.

Fits for me. I hated this album so much at the time. I wonder if I'd like it more now.

One of my favorite Nirvana songs ever! I remember hearing it on the radio and being obsessed w it for years but never finding out the name of it until almost a decade later.

nirvana over pavement by an inch

Bought this at random used in a record store / tschotschke shop somewhere in North Baltimore in 1994, probably for the Pavement track, loved it beyond words for years and probably still would if I played it right now, to the extent that it would feel like a betrayal to cast a vote here

I used to play this to death when it came out.

I'll go with The Verlaines.

eight years and i'm posting the exact same shit. going to go slit my throat now.

― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, November 7, 2012 4:22 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

― tylerw, Wednesday, November 7, 2012 4:25 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

i know the feeling, so i lol in solidarity.

Uncle Tupelo always over the Pumpkins for me (one of maybe five songs of theirs I love) & then Nirvana. UT song is faithful in notes maybe but not in guitar tone,listen to those squalls, ill take it over the original

Can't find the SF Seals version, but yeah this (30 years old!!!!!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EJEm4QYndw

Downes is the kiwi Ray Davies eh?

hey, i own this. if i remember correctly Matthew Sweet "Superdeformed" was the best song.

you do not remember correctly

Aaaargh!

toughest poll in a while! a lot of teenage favorites here.

VCV vs Effigy vs Glynis vs Joed Out vs Iris vs Cant Fight It vs Show Me. This was an amazing comp.

As a throwaway non-album track, Soundgarden "Show Me" is more enjoyable than anything Cornell's sang in the past 10 years.

yes

"Glynis" is cool. I might go with that.

I remember kind of not hating the Sarah McLachlan song but I'd have to go back and have a re-listen before I commit to anything...

Bob Mould

I'm generally a bit tired of Pavement but Unseen Power is perhaps the best tribute song to another band ever.

The Verlaines track belatedly became my favorite. It smokes!

Barbara Manning's Joed Out is good, but I recently heard it again and it's surprisingly inferior to the Verlaines version. Also, I find humor in the PC-ifying shift from "fox fur" to "cashmir."

(For the record, I do not support the fox fur trade)

TIME AFTER TIME
IS MY LEAST FAVORITE SONG
TIME AFTER TIME IS MY LEAST FAVORITE SONG

thought of this because i was listening to the original "effigy" and it's hilarious how faithful uncle tupelo's cover is, same solos and everything

I can never pick which version I like best. CCR has that cool intro and hey, it's CCR.

But UT does away with that little swing riff after the E chord in the verses and the effect is more haunting.

(And I'm not one of those guys who regularly dissects chords and shit, but it does make a difference.)

I think of myself as a guy who has no use for Sarah McLachlan but the Sarah McLachlan on this is truly superb

This comp is so good, partly because there are so many "no use for ___________ but the ___________ on this is cool" songs.

Well, except for the Patti Smith song.

i was listening to unseen power of the picket fence and my early-20s coworker walked by and said "i feel like your music today has kind of an old-school flavor"

you shoulda been all

NOW THEYRE MARCHIN THROU GEORGIA

that's the part that was playing!

ASA. . . ASA THEYRE COMIN

TIME AFTER TIME WAS MY LEAST FAVORITE SONG

Hey wait-- I was pretty sure my version of this album had a different Beastie Boys song, "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun"

The Urge Overkill song is pretty good too. It came out on their last album "Exit the Dragon" under a different name-- "a View of the Rain."

Songs from this album I still have: Buffalo Tom, Soul Aslyum, Urge Overkill, American Music Club, Goo Goo Dolls, Pavement, Smashing Pumpkins, Bob Mould, Barbara Manning, Verlaines, Uncle Tupelo, Beastie Boys, Breeders, Nirvana

Songs I didn't skip originally but didn't bother keeping when I made my CD-R of the above tracks: Matthew Sweet (I don't believe him), Straitjacket Fits

Songs I always skipped: Sarah MacLachlan, Soundgarden, Patti Smith

Leaning toward Pavement over AMC (only song of theirs I've yet to love) and Mould

or rather, it's the only AMC song I've loved as yet

Just out of curiosity, is anyone considering voting for Goo Goo Dolls? It's probably in the better half of this comp.

no

it's fine filler but yeah i couldn't vote for it

The Verlaines track is outstanding.

Only reason I'd vote Goo Goo Dolls is, again, because it doesn't sound like Goo Goo Dolls.

they did a cover of "never take the place of your man" with lance diamond on their 1990 album i have. always meant to explore of the indie years.

Being a Rolling Stones song, it is definitely the best Goo Goo Dolls track ever.

I had this comp, but I never actually liked it very much...which is a little strange considering I was a full on alternateen when it came out.

The Pavement track is one of the best things ever, really. So that. I remember the Beastie Boys song being a surprisingly vital re-interpretation of the original too.

I see I wasn't the only person who loved the AMC track but was then disappointed by everything else in their catalogue. Nothing struck me like "jeans" did.

I bought Mercury because of that one song and let me tell you, "Johnny Mathis' Feet" sounds nothing like Jeans.

Funny, I never thought that Jeans was one of their stronger tracks. But will vote for it in this case, as AMC are the only band on the comp who I still listen to.

hardcore repping for Unseen Power itt is another sign of the dire affliction that is Pavement standom in these here parts

I never ever want to hear Dave Pirner singing Marvin Gaye lyrics, and not with that bass line.

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, November 7, 2012 4:55 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, this is pretty gross.

Haha, no wonder I couldn't find this initially on youtube, lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7daIFRfMl0

Not sure how I feel about a charity comp essentially being used as a dumping ground for stray b-sides, covers and live tracks.

Voted Manning, whose track is several measures of quality above anything else here.

Not sure how I feel about a charity comp essentially being used as a dumping ground for stray b-sides, covers and live tracks.

you should feel intimately familiar with it

oh man that Manning Joed Out <3<3 it's like I'm 17 all over again <3<3

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted Nirvana but always dug the Uncle Tupelo cut

forgot to vote yet, wound up tossing it to mould

lol phrasing

The Pavement song has always annoyed me, predated my fandom.

my god i can't believe i used to listen to this so much. maybe i overlistened to it because i'm pretty sure i can't deal with of these songs now.
i'll go with what i would've gone with back then: matthew sweet or buffalo tom, mostly for the guitar. oh how i loved matthew sweet and buffalo tom when i was a teen... lol. i did really like effigy too.

so do we have a poll for Sweet Relief: A Benefit for Victoria Williams is the thing

Love Buffalo Tom and like Matthew Sweet but the selections here are unessential, if hardly bad.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Why wasn't Barbara Manning born in New Zealand? Her song from this comp was as great as anything from her records. I love her.

a lot of times when Nirvana dominates a poll, i kinda loudly roll my eyes about how it's such an obvious but not really correct choice. this is not one of those times.

ah damn i missed this. i would have broken the tie. BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW.

ooh ooh do the kids soundtrack next

Effigy!

deserved more than four votes; I wish I would've voted for that but then that would've given the edge to Pavement :(

anyways I need to soon come into a copy of this CD

forgot ta vote

ooh ooh do the kids soundtrack next

― goole, Tuesday, November 13, 2012 8:01 PM (Yesterday)

I'M THE POLL NATURAL POLL for the KIDS soundtrack (1995 Harmony Korine, Lou Barlow Folk Implosion)

expected as much

i guess slitting my throat is in order?

my quantum nostalgia clip show ILX OF THE 2000s LOVES THE 90s is going to be a big hit

Possibly JacobSanders may have given up waiting for an answer but the song Barbara manning is singing is actually by the Verlaines from NZ. So they kinda got two songs on the record.

The Verlaines track belatedly became my favorite. It smokes!

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, November 8, 2012 8:40 AM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This. I don't think I paid any attention to it whatsoever when I was listening to this comp at the time ('the Ver-whats?!') but goddamn did this song ever sneak up on me in recent years.

https://redhot.org/assets/05_NoAlternative-1000x1000.jpg

Loved this comp ("Glynis"!). It went on to become a stalwart of the bargain bin, along with REM's Monster.

I'm surprised to see there's no thread or poll for Red Hot's follow-up indie rock comp. So here you go: Red Hot + Bothered: The Poll

Hey Lunchie, if you like that Verlaines track you'll love their "You're Just Too Obscure For Me" comp. It picks the best bits of their 20th century work (they've since reformed and released patchy-with-strong-tracks albums).

Cool, I will check that out. They're one of the many bands for whom I've discovered an amazing song that I love and have stupidly explored no further than that.