3 out of 5

Label: Kill Rock Stars

Producer: Various

Ah, the label compilation.  Ah, Kill Rock Stars, home to so many hipsters and loves of and inspirations to hipsters.  So I sorta wanted to hate this comp in the way that I sorta want to hate the label, especially since it encourages my hate by having pictures of goddamn wanking indie crappers on the cover of this thing, with typically oblique packaging… but, sigh, it turns out it’s a fairly well put together package – well sequenced, a good range of styles – even if the general spread of music on KRS isn’t my scene.  Initially I was going to draw some comparison between old KRS and new, but y’know, they’ve always existed on that fringe of annoying and good music, it’s just been updated to encompass the uber-aware modern hipster, so my comparison is bunk.  Realizing that helped me to get over my prejudice and maybe look up several bands I’m hearing here (which SHOULD be the purpose of any comp, so: mission accomplish, Tracks & Fields)… but it also led to part of what I think is a failure to the collection: a lack of theme and a lack of information.  By lack of theme, I mean… that I’m not sure for whom this collection is intended.  Being a mixture of live cuts, album tracks, and rare tracks… is it for collectors?  Is it meant to be an intro course for new listeners?  Oh, it’s both, you brightly answer, but then I’m back to wondering about that theme.  I like for comps to present a sense of cohesion – Tracks & Fields fields, instead, like a mess.  Like a smattering of tracks, linked by a question mark.  And some of these bands aren’t even on KRS, so, as the Allmusic review states, this is sorta just like – here’s some music we like plus some records we’ve released, like an odd mix tape offered without explanation.  ‘Cause all it takes a brief editorial manifesto saying exactly what I’ve paraphrased from Allmusic and then, bam, suddenly there’s your theme.  Again, you pestering bastard, you must ask something like: Is it so bad?  Aren’t you getting new music anyway?

Sure.  BUT THEN

On to the lack of information.  On the 3-disc 10-year anniversary Matador comp (or however many years it was), the booklet had a pretty thorough rundown of whether or not the tracks were rare, or from which recording the albums came, PLUS some random band blurb where appropriate.  And frankly, I think there is a bare minimum to be expected – tell me an upcoming album, or what album the song comes from.  Comps shouldn’t make you work to find this stuff, regardless of it being a collectors comp or whatever.  ‘Fields,’ sticking with the upturned nose vibe, mostly just has unhelpful blurbs.  I have no idea who these bands are, or where to get their music… and since not all of the groups actually have albums, you can go on a wild goose chase when you should just be content with your one song.  Does all of this fall outside of the realm of responsibility for a CD?  Why do I keep pausing to question myself?  Do you see what you’re doing to me, Tracks & Fields?  And then you have the GALL to try to feign your role in this drama?  YOU ALWAYS DO THIS TO ME CAPS LOCK ARRRRGGGHHH

…It’s a mixture of sloppy rock (Gas Huffer), chick folk and dumb folk (Cynthia Dall, Devandra Banhart), Spin flavors of the month (Sahara Hotnights, Slumber Party), some dicky indie shit (Male Slut, The Legend!), instrumental sludge (C-Average), noise (Need New Body), and so on and so on.  And though I’m using bias descriptors, all of it actually has merit.  Even the live tracks which I admittedly tuned out on the first listen turn out to be good picks once you just let the comp do its job.  It’s a lot of music, and it flows in nice little chunks of two or three songs with comparable styles.  The barrier to entry (blabbed about above) is annoying, and KRS can never drop the slight note of ‘cool,’ a feeling that the majority of these bands are kids just trying to emulate the previous KRS era of cool kids emulating previous eras… but fuck those kids ’cause it turns out they can still produce pretty good music.  The span of genres on these two discs makes it a true skip-around listen, however, it almost means you’re pretty insured to find at least one new thing to steal and add to your playlist.  Jerk.