You're No Big Deal: Grunge Us Underground & Beyond - You're No Big Deal: Grunge, The U.S. Underground & Beyond 1984-1994 / Various

4CD Set Exploring Grunge And The American Alternative Underground 1984-1994. During the late 1980s, whilst pop, rap and glam metal dominated the American airwaves, underground musicians sought an antidote. During the middle of the decade, from Seattle in the west to New York in the east, bands immersed in a less highly polished, raw and more powerful sound began to emerge, fusing punky garage band attitude with meaningful, often disenchanted lyrics and lashings of distortion to create something new. The "grunge" tag quickly took hold, absorbing bands from all over the States and becoming a social phenomenon, drawing countless other underground and college circuit bands into it's orbit in the process. Overnight, macho rock was dead. Featuring an embarrassment of key bands and classic tracks, alongside lesser-known nuggets and a hand-picked selection of Australasian artists who were inadvertently feeding into the scene, 'You're No Big Deal' explores a vital period in post-punk American musical history, the rebirth of rock music and it's new place among the underground elite. With sleevenotes from Mudhoney's Mark Arm, whose previous band Green River were the first to be given the "grunge" tag, this is an on-the-ground, broad reaching dive into a time and place that saw the unlikeliest of anti-rock stars recalibrate what American guitar-based music could be, reconnecting it with ordinary suburban kids and reigniting punk rock's spirit. Packed with over 80 tracks spanning a decade, and presented in roughly chronological order, 'You're No Big Deal' tells a story that spread far beyond the ambitions of it's key players.