The 40 Weirdest Post-'Nevermind' Major-Label Albums (according to Spin)

Oh i love "Hit to Death" so so so much. I feel like the top 2 are pretty damn weird for a major label but "Hit to Death" is probably my favorite to listen to from this list.

enjoyed the fuck out of this list when I was reading it yesterday fyi

It's so Butt Trumpet. I remember, back in the day, getting three or four copies of that disc in the mail. After the last one I politely asked the publicist to stop sending them. She apologized before expressing her own distaste/disinterest in the project.

most of these albums you can more or less figure out how they got released by a major but V3 and TJSA are the ones that floor me

like how many high-up people do you go through when trying to sign a band, and none of them raise an eyebrow at a band being called Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments

LOL @ "Parental Advisory: Lighten Up"

xp i wonder if guided by voices turned down various major label offers and the a&r dudes were like, ok, ummm "OHIO. anything from ohio!"

Incidentally, I feel that #6 THE TOO PURE/AMERICAN RECORDINGS ALLIANCE is cheating.

However if they had just put the amazing Long Fin Killie album "Houdini," I would have picked that based on this single song that graced many a mixtape I made at the time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl55AFCtqKc

xpost to adam Hit To Death would be my 2nd place. It's by far my favorite flaming lips record. But Pop Tatari is one of the best records of that decade regardless of genre or major/indie

I don't know, i like "Chocolate Synth" more, and the whole "Super Roots" series much more.

still think that Pop Tatari is the strangest album ever released by a major label but I have not heard 3/4th of these

Sammy - Tales Of Great Neck Glory 4EVA!!!!!!!!!

Voting V3. Also still own those Claw Hammer and Thomas Jefferson Slave Apts CDs. Bought that Sammy one for a few dollars several years ago, but it never clicked. Have 4 older Flipper CDs on my shelf, but not that one, which I remember being not so good.

Favourite overall would probably by Wolverine Blues, but I went with Foetus cos it's much more alternative-oriented. And awesome. And insane. Mr. Bungle would be a close second

I don't know, i like "Chocolate Synth" more, and the whole "Super Roots" series much more.

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, January 10, 2013 5:49 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Have thought about this a lot, and vol. 7 is the only Super Roots I'd rank equal to Tatari. Choco Synth for me is 4 or 5 great tracks among filler.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEge-g6mTu4

^formerly Great Plains, right?

a buddy of mine was a hired gun guitar player in butt trumpet for like 5 years in the early 2000s. apparently an odd gig to say the least.

still torn between bungle and cop shoot cop

you should split the difference and vote GOD

weird, i played trumpet in butt guitar

the record I enjoy the most of these: Gallon Drunk

it's rare to see a magazine list where I like p. much everything I've heard from it but this comes pretty close. intrigued by the other things now

(though I'm assuming, possibly incorrectly, the stuff I've never heard of is mostly metal. and I've heard and liked some of the metal!)

Gorky's, HNIA and Mr Bungle my immediate favourites. Love the Pell Mell too but it's not that weird, just not very major label either, iirc?

This is totally Pell Mell for me, because I was too old for all that Buttfudge Meat Tomb stuff. Medicine were great when I saw them live, though.

it might be fair to say that GOD is actually the weirdest of these

I thought I just posted a booster thread for GOD but it's gone missing. But that is the answer. Maybe my favourite album of the 90s, nevermind this poll.

Gallon Drunk are pretty great

my wife almost dumped me early on in our courtship when I excitedly played the GOD album for her shortly after she found a NIN remix CD in my collection with a track titled "Fist Fuck"

you can thank our buddy foetus for that remix

i still say that fixed might be the best NIN release

it's pretty high up there

I don't actually think the GOD signing was that weird though - they were signed to Virgin's jazz label and IIRC (without digging it out) John Zorn plays and produces a couple of tracks.

^formerly Great Plains, right?

― ~farben~ (Jon Lewis), Thursday, January 10, 2013 5:15 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes!

27 DRIVE LIKE JEHU – YANK CRIME (CARGO/INTERSCOPE/ATLANTIC, 1994)

runners up:

34 MERCURY REV - BOCES (COLUMBIA, 1993)
17 ROYAL TRUX - SWEET SIXTEEN (VIRGIN, 1995)
16 UNSANE - TOTAL DESTRUCTION (MATADOR/ATLANTIC, 1993)
10 GOD - POSSESSION (VIRGIN, 1992)
4 THOMAS JEFFERSON SLAVE APARTMENTS - BAIT & SWITCH (AMERICAN, 1995)
1 BOREDOMS – POP TATARI (REPRISE, 1993)

also some of them were in ego summit with jim shepard

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

http://www.wordriot.org/archives/874

so much garbage

hit to death is the obvious winner here, a really great record. shot forth self living isn't bad either

don't know why i never heard that tad record since i loved all the tad sub pop stuff

Shudder to Think - Pony Express Record wuz robbed

... of this list though, I would probably go w/ Jehu

JEHU

man what an awesome time in the record business....steel pole bathtub!

Pure Guava should be #1 on this list for "The Stallion Pt. 3" alone!!

I like all of the ones I've heard here (Pure Guava, Hit To Death, Horsedrawn Wishes and Fun). Voting for Horsedrawn Wishes which just pips Pure Guava. Speeeeeeeed to my siiiiiiiiiiide.

hahahhahaa this list is shit i'm gonna go and read it now

hahahahaha this list is shit

hahahhahaa this list is shit i'm gonna go and read it now

Everything about this post is beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1HZ3oyPQKc

^ fuck, what the hell happened to Tad? Definitely preferred him circa Woodgoblins when it sounded like he was going to stomp on yr face, set fire to your car and barbecue yr granny on the embers

sounds like the fucking foo fighters there :(

i've fallen in a jim shepard youtube hole & i'm never coming out

heh at this Ned Raggett quote from AllMusic:

Pop Tatari definitely holds the crown as being one of the strangest things to surface under a major label's auspices. Even the Butthole Surfers' major label debut that year looked straightforward in comparison.

like did someone just read that review and then decide to do a whole feature on the concept?

from Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments review:

After a bevy of cherished singles, Columbus, Ohio's favorite inebriated sons turned out this spit-caked debut full-length. How it managed to find its way out on a major label is anyone's guess

Pure guava duh

Yeah that's a touchy subject. I was in a band w something w a lead singer who had a serious mental condition and have seen many shows where audience reactions ranged from appreciation to straight-up laughing at them. I never asked her about what she thought of people mocking her cos she really didn't care, it was all about her getting out of the house, having fun, expressing herself, and embracing the people that genuinely came out to support her when she met them. It's a great attitude to have and it should hold true for any musician, whether or not they are 'disabled'.

Is this the same as your big hippie posse band?

No.

The Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments record is great! Working through the ones I haven't heard...

First time I've heard Sammy; that's an ace song/video, and really not weird at all.

if you like the TJSA try to check out their record after that too. possibly even better. it's called Straight To Video.

i loved that video on 120 minutes but i gotta admit the sammy cd disappointed me

xp Did Wesley Willis have any major label releases?

yeah, two albums on American

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Wesley+Willis

oh yeah! Rick Rubin

wtf Wesley should've been #1 on this thing.

xxxp thanks dmr, will check that one out too.

lol butt trumpet

Could it have hurt them to be called Ass Trombone

that sounds like it would hurt

Depends on how callused your embouchure is.

At the time, I was floored by that Babes in Toyland--the only grunge-era band to sign to the majors and keep their teeth sharp IMO.

But over time, I'd have to hand this to Morbid Angel. Domination is one of the highest budget and best death metal records of all time. Can't see a more perfect or classic disc on this list.

Ps - I saw Unwound open for Drive Like Jehu in '93 ;P

Butt Trumpet pretty much got killed in the poster comments-to-actual votes ratio.

it's like nobody really wanted to listen to a band called Butt Trumpet: who knew?

I remember the name from those days. Purposefully never checked them out.

apparently whichever hapless Chrysalis A&R person who signed them was unable to work that one out. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when he or she explained that particular decision.

"I thought it was "But, Trumpet!" "

lone Butt Trumpet song on Spotify: "Who Lit the Fuse on Cinder's Tampon"...from a breast cancer benefit album called "Save the Boobies Tour 2006: Rockin' the Fight Against Breast Cancer"

but who will save the butts

early research into flaming tampons as a cure for butt cancer has looked promising

Depends on how callused your embouchure is.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, January 24, 2013 3:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

A+++

would love to write a book full of stories about the creative and/or financial ruination of so many people involved in this gold rush. Our Band Could Be Your Tax Write-Off.

― trey songza (some dude), Friday, January 11, 2013 4:06 PM (six years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

would read

Some of these weren’t really Nirvana gold rush “cash-in” albums; they were on pseudo-indies distributed by majors, etc. (as I’m sure is pointed out somewhere in the thread).

Nirvana and "Nevermind" get way too much credit for their influnce.