In retrospect, 1993’s Icky Mettle — an album of boyish fits and noisy guitar flurries — plays like the end of an era. It’s indie rock as hearty and art-free as oatmeal, before the line separating it from the mainstream dissolved, before it became so…eclectic. This remastered edition includes a few singles and …Vs. the Greatest of All Time, a post-Mettle EP anchored by shout-alongs indicting a scene the band half-helped to create: “Strike up the band, turn off the random,” sings Eric Bachmann. “Calling out to the A&R, A&R.”
