Bitch Magnet exploded out of Oberlin College in 1986, three (sometimes four) young men obsessed with Big Black's noise, King Crimson's precision and Scrabble-geek song titles like "Mesentery." This set collects all three records and appends unreleased tracks and singles. Their half-formed debut EP is redeemed by a previously unreleased follow-up session. The LPs Ben Hur and Umber still stun, with Sooyoung Park's mumble parrying Jon Fine's alternately bulldozing and delicate guitar and Orestes Morfin's AP-calculus drumming. One reason you see so many grad-student types at metal shows these days: Indie rock has largely abandoned music this heavy.

Listen to "Mesentery":  
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• Photos: Random Notes

“Helen Wheels”

A rollicking good-time hard rocker, "Helen Wheels" was not about a woman but about Paul McCartney's Land Rover, the anthemic chorus voicing the vehicle's reckless joy as "she" took to the road. The song was added to the U.S. version of Band on the Run but was issued only as a single in McCartney's native U.K. "I like that because it's a British road song and there's not many of those around," said McCartney. "It's always Route 66. But Carlisle? How many songs have got Carlisle in them?"