Mountain of Judgment

Well, the Christmas question is settled.

The first two Nuggets garage rock compilations from Rhino (by way of the original, 1971 archival project by future Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye) are among the best multi-artist boxes ever released. In my experience, only Rhino's Beg, Scream and Shout: The Big Ol' Box of '60's Soul is a more entertaining listen. When I first heard "Diddy Wah Diddy" by Captain Beefheart and "Double Yellow Line" by The Music Machine off the first Nuggets box, and then "Making Time" by The Creation, from the second collection, I was so excited that my continence was called into question. They still make me almost poop myself.

Then again, what doesn't?

The new box, Children of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts of the Second Psychedelic Era: 1976-1996, looks to broaden the series' scope by taking Kaye's mission of rescuing lost 1960's garage classics and applying it to more recent, similarly neglected material. If it's even half of what the first two sets were, I'll need new underwear again. Due to the time period covered, I already own more of the (relatively) famous songs on this set, from Teenage Fanclub, the Soft Boys and a few others. But still, there are so many bands I've never heard of: The Swingin' Neckbreakers, The Point, The Green Telescope, and on like that for 100 tracks. I appreciate the prominence given to XTC side project The Dukes of Stratosphear, whose Chips From the Chocolate Fireball album is an enormously fun pastiche of paisley psychedelia.

My only regret is that some obscure bands from my early 1990's college radio days are missing--but there's an entire box set to be had in singles by the Groove Diggers, Immaculate Hearts and all the other acts whose 45s showed up in those Rockpool magazine "RockBox" shipments to college stations circa Nirvana's Nevermind. Get going, Rhino!