1984 -1990

A Collection of Songs Representing An Enthusiasm For Recording... By Amateurs

1. Bag Full Of Thoughts
2. Jesus Shootin' Heroin
3. One Million, Billionth Of A Millisecond On A Sunday Morning
4. Chrome Plated Suicide
5. Michael, Time To Wake Up
6. Hells' Angels Cracker Factory
7. Unconsciously Screamin'
8. God Walks Among Us Now
9. Strychnine/Peace Love And Understanding - b-side to the 1989 Sub Pop single
10. Death Valley '69 - live in '87, released on the Bob 7in flexi
11. Thank You - live in '87, released on the Bob 7in flexi
12. Ma, I Didn't Notice - b-side to the 1991 Atavistic EP
13. After The Goldrush - from the Neil Young tribute LP 'The Bridge'
14. I Want To Kill My Brother The Cymbal Head - from the compilation 'Guitarrorists'
Video Track: Unconsciously Screamin' - A Quicktime movie file of the 1990 video

produced by The Flaming Lips and various people, remastered by Dave Fridmann

Besides a fourteen track sonic chart of the evolution of a band, you get some great sleeve notes detailing Wayne's view of how the band stumbled through the 80s making records that he thinks were never that great (until 'In A Priest Driven Ambulance') but always managing to come out smelling of roses. It's pretty fantastic and lays to rest one or two myths about the band's past, but maybe creates a few more along the way.

Of course, the thing about compilations is that everyone will always disagree about what should have been on there. To be fair, here you'd be pushed to choose better - these songs truly do map things out. The first eight tracks are chronological selections starting at the self released debut EP and working through the four Restless Lps that followed. After that we get some hard to find and fairly cool tracks from elsewhere during this era - including a typically twisted round cover of Neil Young's 'After The Goldrush' and the little-known classic 'I Want To Kill My Brother; The Cymbal Head'.

It's pretty interesting to hear the work of several line-ups back to back in the first section of the disc. From the laid back grunge drawl of 'Bag Full Of Thoughts', past the 'One Millionth Billionth Of A Millisecond On A Sunday Morning', to the noise fried vision of 'God Walks Among Us Now', the underlying sense of a unified musical approach is always there. Wayne would have you believe that it was all a bit of an accident, but I think it's fairer to say that they always went into a studio with the intention of creating something that was their own. Sure, they might have lifted some cues from someone else and gone in with some ideas of what they were supposed to be doing, but they mostly just wanted to make their own music and that's usually what ended up happening. It may seem to pale in the light of what they've achieved since, but this story is important. And it's somewhat funny, sometimes beautiful and also slightly heartwarming.