VARIOUS – GEFFEN RARITIES VOL 1 (GEFFEN)
Released in the summer of 1994 this was a very strange and weird compilation released by Geffen for seemingly little reason or purpose. The tracklisting wasn’t really very inspiring and the line-up beyond the four heavyweights suggested an attempt at reminding an audience of fast decreasing interest of their crop of other alternative rock names while also introducing the world to Weezer and Beck.
Known in the US as DGC Rarities Vol 1 (with a slightly differing tracklisting) this compilation has the dubious/notorious honour of being the first release to feature a Nirvana track after Kurt Cobain’s suicide (the demo version of “Stay Away” originally titled “Pay To Play”). In a way you suspect part of the intention of the release was to just get something by Nirvana released, to also cash in on an audience snapping up anything with a Nirvana song and to possibly gauge the public opinion to scraping the barrel and milking the remaining unreleased track of their now deceased cash cow. You can bet 99% of the people buying this CD at the time were not buying it for a snapshot of the current state of the alternative nation.
The overriding smell of this collection is that it was cheap and hastily arranged. Fortunately some of the tracks included display the slacker sarcasm of the grunge/Generation X is supposed to representing and appealing to but this was several years and miles away from being our generations Nuggets, as may well have been an idea muted at the planning stage. It was a period where the US indies such as Sub Pop and Kill Rock Stars were putting out really great compilations that Geffen thought perhaps this release might slip in with, to gain their share of the market, but they were done so with somewhat more consideration. The artwork looks equally sarcastically tacky but really this again comes from it just being cheap.
I never bothered to buy the record at the time and only eventually got a copy of it when it appeared at a bargain price on some Ebay auction. The fact that is comes with a MCA Masters sticker on the cover (meaning it had become major label mid price clearance fodder) only re-emphasises was feels like almost contempt that was held towards this record.
The actual music is mixed, OK at best and dull at worst. Urge Overkill open proceedings with a blessed out “Dropout” before the Nirvana number hits at track 2 as if the record label couldn’t wait to get the song on the release. Whether the majority of the owners of this CD progressed any further with the disc is debatable.
Matching Nirvana for noise and distortion follows Weezer who started their career awkwardly as grunge’s clean-cut major label cousins and never quite shifted the tag. Here their contribution “Jamie” sounds like a cross between hi-fi Pavement and very early Ash, the most positive of comparisons. As ever with Weezer though they just lacked anger, bite and some kind of aggressive passion instead sounding too much like victims.
With “Compilation Blues” Sonic Youth’s contribution capped a display of disinterest in the “project” while a fresh-faced Beck could be heard breaking up in bored laughter during his harmonica driven acoustic entry “Bogusflow”.
The sarcastic “Grunge Couple” by That Dog sees them becoming one of the few acts to come away sounding good on this compilation. Elsewhere the ever-reliable Posies sound wonderfully like Superchunk and Redd Kross, St Johnny sound like Teenage Fanclub and Sloan’s pair of Eric’s Trip cover versions range from sounding like the Stone Roses to gorgeous early eighties hardcore.
Elsewhere the question begs: who the fuck was Murray Attaway?
Noticeable by their absence on the Geffen UK version but their presence on the DGC US version are Cell, Sonic Youth’s buddies that ultimately did nothing but did get a few lines in the UK music press before failing to make it (a dent). Perhaps more than any of the other acts they could have done with the push. The Yank version also featured tracks by Teenage Fanclub, Hole and The Sundays while in exchange us Brits got Urge Overkill and Maria Mckee (a lady/inclusion really pushing it by claiming to be of this compilation’s ilk, genre and theme).
There was no volume 2.
Thesaurus moment: disguise.
Geffen
Released in the summer of 1994 this was a very strange and weird compilation released by Geffen for seemingly little reason or purpose. The tracklisting wasn’t really very inspiring and the line-up beyond the four heavyweights suggested an attempt at reminding an audience of fast decreasing interest of their crop of other alternative rock names while also introducing the world to Weezer and Beck.
Known in the US as DGC Rarities Vol 1 (with a slightly differing tracklisting) this compilation has the dubious/notorious honour of being the first release to feature a Nirvana track after Kurt Cobain’s suicide (the demo version of “Stay Away” originally titled “Pay To Play”). In a way you suspect part of the intention of the release was to just get something by Nirvana released, to also cash in on an audience snapping up anything with a Nirvana song and to possibly gauge the public opinion to scraping the barrel and milking the remaining unreleased track of their now deceased cash cow. You can bet 99% of the people buying this CD at the time were not buying it for a snapshot of the current state of the alternative nation.
The overriding smell of this collection is that it was cheap and hastily arranged. Fortunately some of the tracks included display the slacker sarcasm of the grunge/Generation X is supposed to representing and appealing to but this was several years and miles away from being our generations Nuggets, as may well have been an idea muted at the planning stage. It was a period where the US indies such as Sub Pop and Kill Rock Stars were putting out really great compilations that Geffen thought perhaps this release might slip in with, to gain their share of the market, but they were done so with somewhat more consideration. The artwork looks equally sarcastically tacky but really this again comes from it just being cheap.
I never bothered to buy the record at the time and only eventually got a copy of it when it appeared at a bargain price on some Ebay auction. The fact that is comes with a MCA Masters sticker on the cover (meaning it had become major label mid price clearance fodder) only re-emphasises was feels like almost contempt that was held towards this record.
The actual music is mixed, OK at best and dull at worst. Urge Overkill open proceedings with a blessed out “Dropout” before the Nirvana number hits at track 2 as if the record label couldn’t wait to get the song on the release. Whether the majority of the owners of this CD progressed any further with the disc is debatable.
Matching Nirvana for noise and distortion follows Weezer who started their career awkwardly as grunge’s clean-cut major label cousins and never quite shifted the tag. Here their contribution “Jamie” sounds like a cross between hi-fi Pavement and very early Ash, the most positive of comparisons. As ever with Weezer though they just lacked anger, bite and some kind of aggressive passion instead sounding too much like victims.
With “Compilation Blues” Sonic Youth’s contribution capped a display of disinterest in the “project” while a fresh-faced Beck could be heard breaking up in bored laughter during his harmonica driven acoustic entry “Bogusflow”.
The sarcastic “Grunge Couple” by That Dog sees them becoming one of the few acts to come away sounding good on this compilation. Elsewhere the ever-reliable Posies sound wonderfully like Superchunk and Redd Kross, St Johnny sound like Teenage Fanclub and Sloan’s pair of Eric’s Trip cover versions range from sounding like the Stone Roses to gorgeous early eighties hardcore.
Elsewhere the question begs: who the fuck was Murray Attaway?
Noticeable by their absence on the Geffen UK version but their presence on the DGC US version are Cell, Sonic Youth’s buddies that ultimately did nothing but did get a few lines in the UK music press before failing to make it (a dent). Perhaps more than any of the other acts they could have done with the push. The Yank version also featured tracks by Teenage Fanclub, Hole and The Sundays while in exchange us Brits got Urge Overkill and Maria Mckee (a lady/inclusion really pushing it by claiming to be of this compilation’s ilk, genre and theme).
There was no volume 2.
Thesaurus moment: disguise.
Geffen
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