Rhythm & Views

Various Artists

For those of you not familiar with the Kindercore label, here's your chance to slide up to the bar and take a "beer tour" of it. These three discs span 130-plus minutes of blissfully wonderful pop music. And I don't mean "pop" in the Spears/*N SYNC/ Backstreet Boys sense. I'm talking the Big 3 of B: the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Big Star. I'm talking late '60s, AM radio gems that make you want to dance and force you to remember happy times. That's the type of pop we're dealing with.

The discs in this collection thankfully cater to both new and old fans alike. Too often label samplers cater to either one set or the other, alienating those of us who would like to buy every record that comes out.

The first disc allows everyone to sample the new flavors of Kindercore, new songs from such indie rock heavyweights as The Apples in Stereo, Of Montreal (which is coming this spring to Solar Culture; be on the lookout for the show--the last one was way under-attended but a wacky fun time), and other great bands that you may not have heard of.

Dig into the oldies but goodies with disc two, which features lots of old school, back-in-the-day songs from early label citizens Catskills and Summer Hymns.

And then dance the night away with disc three's re-mixes by other bands on the label, like World Trade Center and Electric Watusi Booglaoo. Hear them remix songs you didn't even know were classic, and, more importantly, didn't even know were songs. Disc three shows where indie rock is going, melding the pop aesthetic with the dance culture and producing songs that make you give up the booty.

So pick up this very reasonably priced three-disc sampler and celebrate along with a little label as it pushes toward the future and, we hope, to another 50 great releases.