Altered Zones

Of the many indie rock legacy artists that have come out of Western Massachussetts-- or been inspired enough by its rolling hills and cultural grassroots-centricism to live there for a time-- you've probably heard of The Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, Sonic Youth, and Sunburned Hand of The Man. Most likely, you aren't too familar with the Supreme Dicks, who started honing their bruised and shaky, folk-inflected slacker rock in Amherst in 1982-- two years before Dinosaur JR. got their start, and one year after Sonic Youth got theirs.

As previously reported, Jagjaguwar recently re-issued the band's entire discography in a four-CD box set. Appropriately entitled Breathing and Not Breathing, the collection features studio full-lengths The Unexamined Life (1993) and The Emotional Plague (1994); an expanded re-issue of their This Is Not A Dick EP (1996); and Workingman's Dick (1996), an album of rareties. Head over to Consequence of Sound to stream their taughtly unfolding debut, The Unexamined Life, which is heartbreakingly beautiful pretty much all the way through.  --Emilie Friedlander, Altered Zones

MP3: Supreme Dicks: "Jack-O-Lantern"

Breathing and Not Breathing is out now on Jagjaguwar