The Vaselines

One of the coolest things Nirvana ever did was turn people on to this band. Heavier than the Pastels, the Vaselines were pop-minded indie fanatics, and their out-of-tune vocals and simple chords set the stage for decades of indie rock. "Molly's Lips" is silly and beautiful, while "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam" is genius.

Sloppy, silly, barely on the four much less the one, the 19-song studio output of Kurt Cobain's favorite obscure pub band is one of those punk miracles that makes you think anyone can do it just when you were convinced nobody ever would again. The pro in potentia is Eugene Kelly, now of Eugenius; the genius is his then-girlfriend Frances McKee. Toon topics include an acid trip, a dead cat, Catholicism, and coitus, which undergoes an array of ironically far-out genderf*ck jokes that bespeak detailed experience of actual f*cking. Kelly says the group broke up over "sexual differences." I'm sure he deserved no better. (Grade - A-)