VA - You’re No Big Deal (Grunge, The U.S. Underground And Beyond 1984-1994) [2025] (4 x CDs)

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VA - You’re No Big Deal (Grunge, The U.S. Underground And Beyond 1984-1994) [2025] (4 x CDs)

On first glance, "You’re No Big Deal" looks like someone emptied three different scenes onto the table and hoped chronology would glue it together. Cherry Red usually runs tight thematic lines, but this one feels more like a cultural map than a genre box—wide, scrappy, and occasionally chaotic.

When I call "You’re No Big Deal" one of the most revealing grunge‑era documents in years, I’m not talking about nostalgia or canon polishing. What you’re holding is a four CD excavation of the decade when American underground guitar music was mutating in real time, long before the mainstream tried to package it. Cherry Red issued it in 2025, but the story it tells is older, messier, and far more interesting than the tidy “Seattle explosion” narrative we’ve all heard.

I want you to hear CD1 as a foundation rather than a preface. Green River, Redd Kross, 10 Minute Warning, Bam Bam, Poison 13, early Meat Puppets, these weren’t stepping stones, they were the scene. Their singles and small‑run releases shaped the raw, unvarnished aesthetic that later got labelled “grunge.” And yes, the Australian and New Zealand presence, The Scientists, feedtime, Cosmic Psychos, The Celibate Rifles, isn’t a footnote. It’s a reminder of how much the Seattle crowd absorbed from the Antipodean underground, something musicians always acknowledged even if the history books didn’t.

As you move into the late ’80s material, you’ll notice how wide the net really is. Mudhoney, Blood Circus, Babes in Toyland, Tad, and Skin Yard sit comfortably beside Crunchbird, Helltrout, and Kill Sybil. This is the part of the story I love most, the regional 7‑inches, the basement shows, the bands who never chased polish because immediacy mattered more.

By the time the set reaches the early ’90s, L7, The Breeders, Hole, Screaming Trees, Superchunk, Dead Moon, Melvins, Veruca Salt, you can feel the scene expanding sideways rather than upward. The mainstream may have been watching, but the underground never stopped behaving like the underground. Even the outliers, Cop Shoot Cop, Thrillhammer, Wicker Biscuit, Gary Young, reinforce that this wasn’t a genre so much as a shared attitude.

For me, that’s the real value of "You’re No Big Deal" it restores the noise, the looseness, the stubborn DIY spirit that made this era matter in the first place.

You may ask why does Nirvana not appear in this set. This set is built almost entirely from independent-label masters. So instead of trying to fake a canonical history, they lean into the pre‑mainstream ecosystem, the bands who shaped the soil Nirvana grew out of.

Once you look at it through that lens, the “mess” starts to make more sense, it’s less “the story of grunge” and more “the world grunge came from.”  If you judge it as a grunge compilation, it’s scattershot. If you judge it as a 1984-1994 U.S. underground guitar history, it’s actually pretty sharp, just broader and more unruly than the title suggests. (B)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Green River - Come on Down 3:20

02 Redd Kross - Linda Blair 1984 2:03

03 10 Minute Warning - Stooge 3:12

04 Bam Bam - Villains (Also Wear White) 2:52

05 Poison 13 - One Step Closer 3:31

06 Meat Puppets - Swimming Ground 3:06

07 Feast - Look for The Light 4:21

08 Scientists - If It's The Last Thing I Do 3:56

09 Hüsker Dü - Crystal 3:29

10 Malfunkshun - My Only Fan 4:23

11 Dinosaur Jr. - Little Fury Things 3:06

12 Soundgarden - Hunted Down 2:41

13 U-men - Solid Action 2:11

14 Pixies - Caribou 3:14

15 Feedtime - Curtains 4:24

16 Replacements - The Ledge 4:07

17 Flaming Lips - Maximum Dream for Evil Knievel 2:51

18 Green River - This Town 3:23

19 Cosmic Psychos - Can't Come In 2:19

20 Celibate Rifles - Jesus on TV 2:11

21 Happy Flowers - Mom and Dad Like The Baby More Than Me 3:09

CD2

01 Mudhoney - Touch Me I'm Sick 2:32

02 Bundle of Hiss - Rabies 4:05

03 Fluid - Cold Outside 3:18

04 Cat Butt - 64 Funny Cars 4:23

05 Blood Circus - Two Way Street 2:55

06 Babes in Toyland - Dust Cake Boy 3:45

07 Scream - Fucked Without A Kiss 3:16

08 Ultra Vivid Scene - Mercy Seat 4:09

09 Girl Trouble - Riverbed 3:46

10 Crunchbird - Subway Circle 2:25

11 Soundgarden - Flower 3:26

12 Tad - Behemoth 4:08

13 Kill Sybil - Olympia (Single Version) 4:22

14 Love Battery - Between The Eyes 4:28

15 Seaweed - Inside 2:44

16 Skin Yard - Start at The Top 3:06

17 Gas Huffer - Firebug 1:47

18 Mudhoney - In 'n' Out of Grace 5:31

19 Helltrout - Smoking Lounge 2:20

20 Mother Love Bone - Thru Fade Away 3:44

CD3

01 Sonic Youth - Kool Thing 4:06

02 L7 - Shove 3:21

03 Toadies - I Hope You Die 5:20

04 Pavement - From Now On 2:03

05 Thrown Ups - Stockboy, Superhero 0:53

06 Poison Idea - Feel The Darkness 6:02

07 Breeders - Glorious 3:24

08 Dinosaur Jr. - The Wagon 4:54

09 Hole - Teenage Whore 2:57

10 Nomeansno - Body Bag 4:41

11 7 Year Bitch - Lorna 1:56

12 Screaming Trees - Uncle Anesthesia 3:53

13 Mercury Rev - Syringe Mouth 4:04

14 Calamity Jane - Say It 3:14

15 Eric’s Trip - Lost 3:34

16 Thrillhammer - Bleed 3:51

17 Cop Shoot Cop - Discount Rebellion 2:22

18 Treepeople - Ballard Bitter 3:15

19 Nubbin - Macaroni 3:15

CD4

01 Temple of The Dog - Pushin' Forward Back 3:45

02 Monkeywrench - I'm Blown 3:56

03 Stone Temple Pilots - Sex Type Thing 3:37

04 Honcho Overload - Sugarfoot (Single Version) 2:33

05 Luscious Jackson - Keep on Rockin' It 3:39

06 Cheater Slicks - Murder (Live at Cbgbs) 3:51

07 Beasts of Bourbon - Just Right 5:31

08 Gits - Here's to Your Fuck 1:51

09 Superchunk - Precision Auto 2:46

10 Dead Moon - It's O.k. 3:35

11 Melvins - Set Me Straight 2:25

12 Patchouli Sewer - Beauty Sleep 2:12

13 Wool - Kill The Crow 3:19

14 Kim Salmon and The Surrealists - Non Stop Action Groove 3:25

15 Veruca Salt - All Hail Me (Remix) 3:05

16 Sleep Capsule - Eat It's Tongue 2:22

17 Steel Wool - Four Winds 4:03

18 Wicker Biscuit - Creepy Doll 2:42

19 Gary Young - Plant Man 1:58

20 Cellophane - Tripping Fields 1:55

21 St. Johnny - I Hate Rock and Roll 4:10

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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.

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