Children of Nuggets out 8/30

LOS ANGELES--Rhino Records' critically acclaimed Nuggets series rocks the cradle with its third installment, CHILDREN OF NUGGETS: ORIGINAL ARTYFACTS FROM THE SECOND PSYCHEDELIC ERA 1976-1996. This four-disc set celebrates the diverse range of post-punk underground music influenced by the garage rock and psychedelic anthems featured on the original Nuggets collection.

With 100 selections, CHILDREN OF NUGGETS captures the "back to the roots" spirit embodied by these artists and features the best of neo-garage, '80s power pop, Paisley Underground psych and other styles from around the world. The set includes The Dream Syndicate, The Three O'Clock, The Rain Parade (Los Angeles), Flamin' Groovies (San Francisco), The Fleshtones (New York), Green On Red (Tucson), Plasticland (Milwaukee), Lyres (Boston), United States Of Existence (Baltimore), Died Pretty, The Hoodoo Gurus, The Lime Spiders (Australia), The Chills (New Zealand), The Creeps, The Nomads (Sweden), The Prisoners, The Barracudas, The Bevis Frond (England) and
more. CHILDREN OF NUGGETS is available August 30 at retail outlets and at www.rhino.com for a suggested list price of $64.98.

The collection's coproducer, Alec Palao, says CHILDREN OF NUGGETS provides the missing link between artists on the original Nuggets and the "grandchildren of nuggets" like The White Stripes, The Vines, The Strokes and The Hives. "Despite the negligible commercial impact of most all of the artists on CHILDREN OF NUGGETS, they have had an influence upon successive pop generations," Palao says. "People like The Prisoners, early Primal Scream and the L.A. Paisley Underground bands all influenced the early/mid-'90s Britpop scene; the Milkshakes and Screaming Trees--in totally different ways--helped to inspire the Northwest grunge movement; and the recent wave of neo-garage groups have all taken leads from people as disparate as The Cramps, Lyres and Chesterfield Kings. Thanks to the current success of Little Steven's Underground Garage radio show and this collection, these bands will continue to influence a new generation."

A veritable jukebox of rare and hard-to-find recordings, CHILDREN OF
NUGGETS includes the first proper release of The Nashville Ramblers'
obscure gem "The Trains," The Cramps' 12-inch, B-side "New Kind Of Kick" and the single version of Sun Dial's "Plains Of Nazca." Also included are appearances by The Dukes of Stratosphear (the alter-ego of XTC), Biff, Bang, Pow! (featuring Creation Records founder Alan McGee), The Soft Boys (led by Robyn Hitchcock), The Bangs (later the Bangles) plus early recordings by The Smithereens, The Posies, Teenage Fanclub, and The Church.

CHILDREN OF NUGGETS also includes a deluxe 100-page book with essays by Palao and Nigel Cross plus complete track information by renowned writer Kieron Tyler and a vast collection of rare photos.

One of the cultural anthropologists working to unearth these remarkable musical artifacts, Cross was founder and editor of Bucketfull Of Brains magazine (1979-84) and coeditor of hartbeat! magazine (1987-1998). A contributor to various music publications, including Ptolemaic Terrascope, Britain's preeminent psychedelic mag, Cross will launch his own magazine--Soft Cloud--later this year. For more than a decade he has also served as the founder/director of Shagrat Records, a vinyl-only label dedicated to issuing previously undiscovered gems from the first psychedelic era. "Rock classicism was a term yet to be bandied about in the music press, but one characteristic that binds all the groups compiled here was that they looked back to and drew inspiration from earlier times," Cross writes in the liner notes.

The set is dedicated to the memory of Greg Shaw, the editor of Bomp (the fanzine that helped launch the Nuggets craze) and founder of the Bomp and Voxx labels (where several of the bands featured on CHILDREN OF NUGGETS got their start). "I'm fairly certain that the events covered in this set wouldn't have taken place without Greg Shaw. Not in the same way at least," writes coproducer Gary Stewart. Shaw died in October 2004.

The original Nuggets was released in 1972 by Elektra Records as a double LP. Compiled by the venerable Lenny Kaye, the set was one of the most influential compilations in music history and the model upon which Rhino Records was founded.