Gas Huffer, "Nisqually"
The first song from the first Gas Huffer full-length, it sets the tone for what they're trying to do: straight-ahead garage rock with zero pretension. Although they were contemporaneous with grunge and from Seattle, they were doing something more parallel to that stuff, as there's not really any metal at all in this sound.
Sweet Baby, "Year after Year"
More garage rock! This is from Hello Again, a comp that includes an album from Sweet Baby and an album from the successor band, Brent's TV. It's pretty good, but one of the virtues of this kind of music is that it gets to the point and gets out of the way. And, well, 40 tracks of it is not getting out of the way.
Surgery, "Caveman"
I was listening to the one Surgery release I actually love (the Trim, 9th Ward High Roller EP) and it still basically holds up as a bluesy, scuzzy rock record. I always have in my head that Nationwide, their Amphetamine Reptile album, is a big mess. But this sounds pretty good! Time to give it a spin again.
Sandra Bell, "They Say"
Last time this came up, I was kind of confused where I got it from. Still confused! Probably will always be confused when it comes up.
clipping., "Block"
One of the first songs from clipping., "Block" was on their original cassette single, later re-issued as Face with some extras. While they're not yet the world-destroying group they would become, you can see the seeds of where they'd go even in this early material.