So, I just picked up 'Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981-1986' by Andrew Earles:
http://www.amazon.com/Gimme-Indie-Rock- ... indie+rock
After having been ingrained in punk/hardcore/independent-underground rock music since about 1986 (13 years old was sort of ground zero for me), I realize just how much I haven't heard (probably the same for all of us), and this guide seems like a good place to sort of play catch up on a lot of these older records that just flew under my radar.
It's a fun throwback to pre-Internet times when I used to collect all sorts of different record guides.....the Trouser Press guide by Ira Robbins was an absolute bible for me.
The first entry in the book is the 100 Flowers self-titled LP that came out on Happy Squid in 1983.
I can't say I've had no experience with 100 Flowers. I used to have an old Flipside VHS that had a live video of "California's Falling Into the Ocean". I had also bought the comp CD - '100 Years of Pulchritude' - pretty cheaply - but has sort of stayed on the shelf for the most part.
Before diving into the LP, I checked out some old Urinals stuff first. Pretty incompetent musically, but still some interesting songs and some genuinely good ones ("Black Hole" is a great one).....and of course I knew "Ack Ack Ack Ack" from having heard the Minutemen do it.
But that 100 Flowers LP (same three guys I believe who just decided to take it a bit more seriously) is something else. The songwriting and musicianship is hugely elevated.....this is especially noticeable in the bass playing, which goes from utterly simplistic (in the Urinals) to being very inventive.
And I have to think for 1983, this was some ground breaking stuff - combining an early punk rock sound with definite folk-rock influences (these guys definitely listened to a lot of The Byrds)...and using - *gasp* - acoustic guitars!
I think a band that came a few years later - Angst - took what 100 Flowers were doing and took it to another level songwriting wise (was hoping their excellent 'Mending Wall' record would have made it into the book, but it didn't) and of course, now, "folk punk" is a long established thing.
But was there much of this prior to the one (and only) 100 Flowers record? I don't think so.
Can't say it's going to end up as one of my favorite all-time records - but there are definitely enough great songs on it to recommend it.