This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
This sampler is subtitled The Secret World of Alternative Nuggets — and as any garage-rock aficionado worth his copy of Count Five’s Psychotic Reaction knows, Nuggets is the operative word.
Back in the ’70s, that was the title of a seminal set of LPs (ask your parents) that collected long-lost garage and punk-rock gems from the ’60s. That same sensibility is at play on Pspyched (read: Spiked), which features 14 spaced-out, guitar-driven hits that never were, from the sun- and reverb-drenched acoustipop of Polyphemus and the Velvet Undergound swirl of Radial Spangle to the more contemporary noise-rock syncopation of Mercury Rev and the New York No Wave skronk of The Del Byzanteens (whose lineup included future director Jim Jarmusch on keyboards!). Just like their predecessors, these Nuggets are solid gold. Bring on Vol. 2.
