NME: MIGHT CLUB (1999)

1. Don 't Give Up - Basement Jaxx


Track taken from Brixton house duo's acclaimed Top 5 debut album Remedy.


2. Remote Control - Beastie Boys


Single taken from the Beasties' 1999 comeback album Hello Nasty. This was released as a single as a AA side with 3 MCs &1 DJ and hit #21 in the UK chart.


3. So Many Soldiers - Ian Brown


Taken from King Monkey's second set Golden Greats. The lyrics and themes featured in this song were explored again in Brown's 2007 anti-war tirade Illegal Attacks.


4. My Ritual - Folk Implosion


Folk Implosion were supposed to be a low key side project for Sebadoh's Lou Barlow. The usage of Natural One on the soundtrack to the movie Kids changed that and for a time Folk Implosion eclipsed the profile of Barlow's main band. 1999 saw an album for each group - The Sebadoh and One Part Lullaby.

5. Swimming In Someone Else's Pool - Regular Fries

From the Fries' debut album Accept The Signal. As was perhaps to be expected from a seven pieced psych-rock band who used a birdcage as percussion, the band were doomed to failure. On their split in 2001, band member and rock hack Paul Moody declared "We hate the charts and the charts hate us. We're off into the cosmos!"

6. Indian Strings - Suede

Back in 1999 Suede began the hype for their fourth album by revealing a letter a week to the music press. They got as far as about H and E when they probably realised they couldn't keep it up for another seven weeks and announced the album would be called Head Music. Despite not hitting the heights of their previous albums, the album, containing this track hit #1 and spawned four Top 30 hits.

7. Held - Smog

Smog aka American singer-songwriter Bill Callahan released 10 albums between 1990 and 2005 before releasing music under his own name. Held was released on the album Knock Knock and as a single in its own right.


8. Race For The Prize - The Flaming Lips


More famous for the Beavis & Butthead adopted 1993 track She Don't Use Jelly, star-shaped CD singles for the release of This Here Giraffe and crazy experimental albums - see Zaireeka, 4 CDs to be played simultaneously for one, it was the Flaming Lips' music that finally got them the attention in 1999 when their classic The Soft Bulletin became one of the decade's most acclaimed albums. Despite the lavish praise, both the single of Race For The Prize and album only reached #39 but has sold steadily over the years.


9. Ghost Ship In A Storm - Jim O' Rourke


Experimental US singer-songwriter who has worked with and produced Sonic Youth, Wilco and the aforementioned Smog amongst others. This is taken from his 1999 album Eureka.


10. Calm Like A Bomb - Rage Against The Machine


Released on RATM's final studio album (to date) with Zack De La Rocha, The Battle Of Los Angeles, Calm Like A Bomb was never a single but became a fan favourite and was exposed to millions when featured in the credits of The Matrix Reloaded in 2003.


11. Flying - Death In Vegas


Making use of a variety of guests including Jim Reid, Bobby Gillespie, Iggy Pop and Dot Allison, this is one of The Contino Sessions' instrumental excursions proving Richard Fearless didn't always need back up from the big names.


12. Major Leagues - Pavement


Indie royalty, this was taken from the band's final album Terror Twilight and has the distinction of being the band's final UK single release as the non-chart eligible Major Leagues EP which contains cover versions of Echo & The Bunnymen's 'The Killing Moon' and The Fall's 'The Classical'.


13. Only Answers Delay Our Time - Campag Velocet


The last few copies of the decade, NME heavily hyped the Clockwork Orange obsessed Campag Velocet. Their album Bon Chic Bon Genre only hit #140 whilst their so-called rivals and tour mates Coldplay went on to slightly bigger things.


14. Death To Everyone - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy


Ending on a high note, this was taken from US singer-songwriter Will Oldham's sixth album. The lavish praise heaped on this dark, uncompromising record helped the record into the Top 200 providing a platform for future Top 75 albums whilst still maintaining his cult status. This album is still cited as one of the 1990s' best.

NME: SPRING OFFENSIVE (1999)

1. Popstar - Suede

One of many B-sides from Electricity, lead single from Suede's 4th, Head Music. The single hit #5 and was the band's last Top 10 hit.

2. Dreamer - Cast

Also on the commercial slide from their Britpop heyday, this was featured on their third album Magic Hour.

3. The Hexx - Pavement

One of the most influential indie bands of their time, this one's from their final album Terror Twilight. Like Suede and Cast, they have recently reformed.

4. Same Old Show - Basement Jaxx

From the first album Remedy, this samples Selecter's On My Radio and, more obscurely, Veda Simpson's Oooh Baby.

5. Dream Lottery - Regular Fries

"We hate the charts and the charts hate us" claimed Regular Fries when they split just 2 years after releasing their debut album Accept The Signal. A damn shame, but they were just too out there for the mainstream. They were right though, the album, which contained this track, peaked at #81.

6. Moaner - Underworld

A rare example of a track edited down for inclusion an album. In a case of the track being far better than the movie from which it came, this started off life as a 10 minute beast on the Batman & Robin soundtrack. It was cut by 3 minutes when it appeared on the album Beaucoup Fish and it's this version that appears here. The full length version can be found on their 1992-2002 compilation.

7. Small Children In The Background - Mogwai

There had to be a Mogwai track on here somewhere...this one's from the No Education=No Future (Fuck The Curfew) EP.

8. Robot New York - Add N To (X)

From Mute avant-garde techno band's album Avant Hard.

9. Bring A Man Down - Mishka

Actually, ignore what I said earlier about 3 Colours Red in a previous post. This dude signalled that the end for Creation was nigh. A vanity signing, Mishka was a Bermudan reggae singer and professional windsurfer. He managed one Top 40 hit on the back of Alan McGee's hype, delivered one album for Creation before the ship sank and vanished. He's still putting out albums..on Matthew McConaughey's label. All very odd.

10. Fame Thing - Ultrasound

Hyped to death post-Britpop, Ultrasound were the next big thing to end all next best things. Fronted by portly yet oddly glamorous lead singer Tiny (it was a joke), their huge and epic sound and outsider image meant their first singles and gigs were met with rapturous applause. Such early acclaim however was destroyed when they released their debut album, Everything Picture, a sprawling double album which both disappointed the critics and undersold. The band never recovered, and that was that. A decade later, they're making a comeback....watch this space?

11. Flame (Exclusive Acoustic Version) - Sebadoh

The first exclusive on this CD and it's exactly what it says on the tin, an acoustic version of Sebadoh's only brush with the mainstream, Flame, which reached #30 in 1999.

12. Download (Remix) - Super Furry Animals

SFA exclusively released the Llwybr Llaethog remix of Download on the Melody Maker Reading '98 CD which you can read about on this site. Bizarrely, the following year, yet another exclusive remix of the same track appeared on this CD. A nice surprise as it isn't billed as a remix on the sleeve itself apart from the credits which state the the track to be remixed by Kevin Ford and John Griffiths, who just so happen to be.....Llwybr Llaethog. It's a slightly dubbier version of the '98 mix. A great lesson in reading the small print and the credits. A massive hidden gem, and a must for all SFA fans.

13. The Spark That Bled - The Flaming Lips

A trailer for what was to become THE critics' favourite of 1999 The Soft Bulletin. This track was for a short while exclusive to this CD.

14. She's So Strange - Travis

When Travis' laddish rock n roll gave way to melancholy, with added Nigel Godrich on production duty, their second album The Man Who became unstoppable and sold over a million. This is taken from that very album.

SELECT: REVOLUTIONS 02 (2000)

1. Ashamed - Muse

Early B-side from Devon's soon to be huge prog-rock behemoths' Top 30 single 'Sunburn'. The track has historic status as one of the eleven tracks on Muse's original demo cassette, albeit in rough demo form.

2. Valley - Doves

Another early B-side, this one from Doves' Top 40 hit Catch The Sun. This has showed up since on their 2003 B Side compilation 'Lost Sides'.

3. Supersonic Waves (Coke N Smoke) (Syntax Vox Mix) - Regular Fries Feat Kool Keith

Just known as Coke N Smoke on the album 'War On Plastic Plants', the slight alteration of the title to Supersonic Waves (Coke N Smoke) was presumably to avoid any controversy. They needn't have bothered - much like all this underrated psych-space rock band's releases, this single was ignored by the public despite featuring legendary Ultramagnetic MCs rapper Kool Keith and a remix from Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield. This remix, by Syntax, is exclusive to this CD and remains so to this day.

4. Get Enuff (Radio Edit) - Wookie

A preview of rising garage star's follow up single to the Top 10 hit 'Battle'. The single, and self-titled album, failed to crack the Top 75 resulting in Wookie retreating back to the underground.

5. Open The Airwaves - Lowgold

A preview of Indie next-big-things' album Just Backward Of Square. Despite Top 40 success for the album, the St Albans band soon faded into obscurity although have managed to release three more albums.

6. Delinquency - V-Twin

Preview of this single and the album Free The Twin. This leftfield big-beat is notable for it's Jagz Kooner production.

7. Poke 'Er 'Ole - Add N To [X]

Preview of Mute post-rock electronic signings' fourth album 'Add Insult To Injury'

8. Song 1 - David Holmes

Not just an exclusive - a "World Exclusive" for Select according to the sleeve notes. It's worth the boast; DJ Holmes' Bow Down To The Exit Sign was one of the critical successes of 2000 and, when he's not raking in the royalties from his numerous film soundtracks, arguably the peak of his career, so this was a coup. It's an out-take from the Bow Down sessions and remains unreleased anuwhere else to this day.

9. We Dug A Hole - Kathryn Williams

A straight lift from Williams' Mercury Music prize nominated alt-folk album Little Black Numbers.

10. Oxygen (Original Demo Version) - JJ72

Briefly the band most-likely-to, JJ72 scored 3 Top 40 hits from their Gold eponymous debut, including this, their most well known track. This demo is exclusive to this release.

11. Mark David Chapman - ...And You Wil Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead

Intense art-rock from Texas. This is taken from the previous year's 'Madonna' album and predates the universal critical acclaim that was to come with the 'Sources, Tags & Codes' album a year later.

12. Ubik (The Breakz) (Original Mix) - Timo Maas

Ubik was released on the Perfecto label shortly after Maas' remix of Azzido Da Bass' 'Dooms' Night' propelled him to mainstream success. This version was released on the single.

13. Club News - Chris Morris' Blue Jam

Post-The Day Today and Brass Eye, Blue Jam was Chris Morris' dark and uncompromising radio sketch series. Although only broadcast in the early hours on Radio 1, it gained a huge cult following and a compilation of sketches was picked up for album release by Warp Records. An equally surreal TV series, Jam, followed.

14. Da Virus (Latin 2-Step Mix) - Stanton Warriors

Remix of then-current 12" single from now internationally renowned breakbeat duo.

15. Eyeless - Slipknot

Slipknot's iconic debut was released in the summer of 1999; the fact that tracks from the album were still being issued on these CDs over a year later shows how ubiquitious they were on the nu-metal and alternative scene.