All my friends keep telling me that you can't drink or get drunk for free

One question keeps running through my head as I listen to today's album. Why is it called DGC Rarities, Vol. 1?

Were they planning on future volumes and just never got around to it? Did grunge go out of style before volume 2? I mean it's a pretty bold move to announce something as "Volume 1." You're pretty much obligated to put out follow-up volumes. Unless, your name is David Geffen, I guess.

So this mysterious volume of rarities was released on July 5, 1994 at the height of grunge. It featured b-sides from the famous (Nirvana) and nearly famous (that dog) artists who were signed to Geffen Records at the time. It's a surprisingly good collection that I've been reluctant to remove from Declan even though things are getting pretty crowded on him nowadays. A concentrated little taste of everything grunge, it would have been a perfect addition to any 1994 time capsule. It's a perfect sample of everything that was musically cool at the time.

There's one band on the album that sticks out like a sore thumb, though. In 1994 (as today) Counting Crows was considered far from grunge. Their endlessly catchy tune "Einstein On The Beach" is set smack dab in the middle of the album to wake everyone from their fuzzy guitar stupor. Hey, it's a great song and, frankly, probably the main reason I bought this album in 1994, but it's like a game of "one of these things is not like the others." If David Geffen doesn't have to pay attention to things like volume 1's, I guess he can rewrite the rules of grunge, too.

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