AMG Review of Ten Years of Noise Pop: 1993-2002

John Bush
All Music Guide

Noise pop can mean different things to several generations of music fans, but for the purpose of the label Amazing Grease, it's indie pop with a bite, from the mid-'90s to the end of the millennium, courtesy of the genre's best acts: Death Cab for Cutie, Spoon, John Vanderslice, Beulah, and Preston School of Industry. Though most of the groups are young, the two-disc set allows room for the old guard as well, including Superchunk, the Flaming Lips, the Young Fresh Fellows, the Fastbacks, and Guided by Voices. Nearly half the tracks are rare or unreleased, paced by one of the Flaming Lips' hilarious acid fantasies, "The Big Ol' Bug Is the New Baby Now."