Details:
The best thing about Rough Trade’s compilations are that they’re not too unlike being in a good record shop, like Rough Trade on Talbot Road in London, or Piccadilly Records (Manchester) and Probe (Liverpool) further north. There’s a mixture of the known and the unknown - although, only ‘DANCE’ by Justice and ‘Atlas’ by Battles resemble anything close to Hits here - 41 songs and artists to browse through, pick favourites from and investigate further. There aren’t many duds either.
This is probably the most up to date Rough Trade comp in a while, too. Nearly every song here is from a debut record, there are lots of debut singles on show, bar a few appearances of alternative veterans like Julian Cope (The largely spoken word ‘Soon To Forget Ya’) and Mark E. Smith with Von Sudenfed (His voice suits techno surprisingly well; he makes ‘Fledermaus Can’t Get It’ a vicious splurge ‘n’ glitch fest). There are plenty of names here who we’ll all be more familiar with come the end of the year: Glasvegas’ heartbreaking rock & roll noir; the great No Age’s fuzz punk hurricanes; when Dan le Sac & Scroobius Pip’s album drops they should be able to free themselves from ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill’ (A potential albatross, but a great one); bloggers’ favourite Dan Deacon; and ‘Come On Feet’ by Pete & The Pirates will woo the Kooks kids eventually. But in the battle of the Pirate bands, Peggy Sue wins. Her minimal, riot grrl indie is arresting.
There’s a string of brilliant, mostly noisy, alternative rock songs that runs through ‘Counter Culture’; from The Manhattan Love Suicides’ discordant shoegaze all the way up to hardcore of Fucked Up. Then there’s Mika Miko’s garage punk-pop; Magik Marker’s ‘Body Rot’ reminds me of Sonic Youth; and the Hüsker Dü and Lambchop-referencing Let’s Wrestle’s are the most wry slackers around. Check out the masters of heavy repetition, Californian duo Om, also. It might be called ‘Counter Culture ‘07’, but this is what the cool kids are listening to now.
Listen: www.myspace.com/roughtraderecords
Tracklist:
Disc 1:
1. Woods - Be Still
2. Meg Baird - Dear Companion
3. Alela Diane - The Pirate’s Gospel
4. Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
5. Jennifer Gentle - Take My Hand
6. Soulsavers - Revival
7. Wooden Shjips - Losin’ Time
8. Panda Bear - Good Girl
9. Miracle Fortress - Maybe Lately
10. Arthur & Yu - The Ghost Of Old Bull Lee
11. Glasvegas - Daddy’s Gone
12. The Manhattan Love Suicides - You’ll Never Get That Guy
13. EFFI BRIEST - Mirror Rim
14. Peggy Sue & The Pirates - Television
15. Let’s Wrestle - I Want To Be In Hüsker Dü
16. Jeffrey Lewis - Systematic Death
17. Fire Engines - Big Gold Dream
18. Pete & The Pirates - Come On Feet
19. Holy Fuck - Royal Gregory
20. The Tranzmitors - Everyone Wants To Lose Control
21. Battant - Kevin (1989)
Disc 2:
1. Supersilent - 8.8
2. Om - Unitive Knowledge Of The Godhead
3. No Age - Everybody’s Down
4. Battles - Atlas
5. Mika Miko - Jogging Song (He’s Your Mr. Right)
6. Magik Markers - Body Rot
7. Andrew Liles - VTR
8. Dirty Projectors - Police Story
9. John Maus - Rights For Gays
10. Of Montreal - Gronlandic Edit
11. Dan le Sac & Scroobius Pip - Thou Shalt Always Kill
12. Von Sudenfed - Fledermaus Can’t Get It
13. Dan Deacon - The Crystal Cat
14. Estus Pirkle - Facts About Tarzan
15. Frank Hebly - Tuinslangboogie
16. Justice - DANCE
17. 180 Gs - Car Bomb
18. Julian Cope - Soon To Forget Ya
19. Comanechi - My Pussy
20. Fucked Up - Year Of The Pig
