Various - Trademark Of Quality

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Various - Trademark Of Quality

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Inspired both conceptually and aesthetically by the bootlegs of yore, the very authorized and very corporate Trademark of Quality promo release assembles 18 previously unissued cuts from the then-current Warner/Reprise roster; designed as an instant collector's item, the cover warns retailers and journalists, "When you see it a few years from now, propped up behind the register of your favorite used record store, selling for some obscenely high price, you'll wish you'd kept it…and probably not just because of its resale value," and, hyperbole aside, it's well-worth owning even beyond its Holy Grail status. Several of the tracks – American Music Club's haunting "Love Connection N.Y.C.," the Poster Children's cover of Bob Dylan's "Isis," the Muffs' incendiary "Lucky Guy," and John Wesley Harding's autumnal "Your New Clothes" among them – rank alongside their creators' very strongest work. There's also an extended version of David Lynch's hallucinatory Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me instrumental "The Pink Room," a live reading of R.E.M.'s gorgeous "Half a World Away" culled from the syndicated radio series Rockline, and a Jane's Addiction/Body Count tag-team duet on the Sly and the Family Stone classic "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey." Essential stuff for collectors.