Albums by this artist

All Tomorrow's Parties 1.1 (2002)

Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond (Recommended) (2001)

Flying Side Kick: Home Alive II (2001)

Colonel Jeffery Pumpernickel: A Concept Album (2001)

Fire And Skill: The Songs Of The Jam (1999)

Goth Oddity: A Tribute To David Bowie (1999)

Reich Remixed (1999)

bloomington . electronic . music . compilation (1998)

'X-Files: Fight The Future' soundtrack (1998)

The Bridge School Concerts: Volume One (1997)

Just Say Noel (1997)

Kicks Joy Darkness: A Tribute To Jack Kerouac (1997)

'Dead Man Walking' soundtrack (1996)

Home Alive: The Art Of Self-Defense (1996)

Music For Our Mother Ocean (1996)

Red Hot + Rio (1996)

Concerts

June 7, 2003
Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.

April 26, 2003
Empire Polo Fields, Indio, California

Various Artists

All Tomorrow's Parties 1.1

---

» CHRIS FRASCELLA | STAFF WRITER

Various Artists All Tomorrow's Parties 1.1 Touch & Go, 2002 RiYL: Sonic Youth, indie rock, experimental music

For those of you unfamiliar, All Tomorrow's Parties is an annual festival made up of a veritable who's who of the indie rock world. In 2002, the initial U.S. version boasted a line-up overseen by noise-rock godfathers Sonic Youth with enough to make any indie rock/experimental music fan drool: Television, Eddie Vedder (how'd he get in there?), Aphex Twin, Mike Watt, Stereolab, Lydia Lunch and Merzbow, just to name a few. If you weren't there in person, Touch & Go's compilation All Tomorrow's Parties 1.1 is a worthy substitute.

Featuring previously unreleased tracks from 12 of the festival's participants, this album will give you a good idea of what you're getting yourself into if you decide to attend ATP. Festival curators Sonic Youth offer up the instrumental track "Fauxhemians," a song that sounds like it could've been taken from one of their experimental SYR releases. Unwound offers the spacey, piano-laden "Behold The Salt" while former Pavement singer Stephen Malkmus rocks the Casiotone and cheesy drum machine on "Good Kids Egg". Cat Power contributes a heartfelt cover of Robert Johnson's "Come On In My Kitchen," while Japanese noise legends The Boredoms offer up the mini-epic noise jam "Super Now."

Other standout tracks include those from Stereolab, Philadelphia's Bardo Pond, Papa M and the Dead C, but one thing I don't agree with is the way the disc ends. Its two closing tracks, Kevin Drumm's "My Tree Bears No Nuts -- Pt. 2" and "Enhanced Amalgamated Computer Experience" by Satan's Tornade, are both experimental noise pieces that -- unless you are paying close attention to the counter on your CD player -- make it hard to tell where one ends and one begins.

That aside, All Tomorrow's Parties 1.1 is a great compilation. As a fan of a lot of these bands, it's always exciting to find a compilation loaded with unreleased goodies as opposed to buying say, one new Sonic Youth song and a bunch of other stuff you already have. For the uninitiated and curious, All Tomorrow's Parties 1.1 is a good place to start to get to know these artists, research their catalogs and get ready to spend a heap of money on new records.

CHRIS FRASCELLA |