Motorhome- Superstar

Chicago in the mid-1990s is not where one might’ve expected to encounter a shoegazer revival, but Motorhome’s lone recording, Sex Vehicle, channels My Bloody Valentine circa Isn’t Anything as well as anyone, with “Cupid Come” in particular setting the template. Though the hour-plus record is also unfocused and bloated, songs like “Superstar,” with its swirling, overdriven guitars and androgynous vocals, demonstrated why critics Jim DeRogatis and Bill Wyman, whose radio show Sound Opinions was one of my main sources of musical discovery, actively championed the band.

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Red Red Meat- Idiot Son

I could be wrong, but this song might have been the first audio I ever downloaded, a 30-second excerpt from the Sub Pop website in 1995. I remember at least playing that clip repeatedly, drawn to its druggy mumbling and ramshackle slide guitar, with everything buried in a swampy haze. Singer Tim Rutili is now perhaps more widely known for leading Califone, but that band’s snaky, fucked-up folk-blues really started here.

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Number One Cup- Just Let Go

On the face of it, Number One Cup appeared to ape the lo-fi indie pop of Guided by Voices; their debut album featured 20 songs, nearly all under three minutes, brimming with hooks, and with titles that paralleled Robert Pollard’s penchant for surrealism: “Strange & Silent Staircase,” “Lustrous Poppies,” “Seminar for Backward Pupils.” But the band was also infectiously eager in a way that Pollard, then boozy and pushing 40, wasn’t. “Just Let Go,” with its rubber-band synth break and amiable vocal harmonies, is merely the best encapsulation of a solidly quirky record.

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