Blind Melon - Blind Melon (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) (2013)

Blind Melon's 1992 self-titled debut album was the sound of a new band finding its voice on record. The group members—mostly Southerners and Midwesterners who'd moved to Los Angeles—had been weaned on early Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead, Faces, and Allman Brothers albums, and they sought to re-create that organic sound in the emerging grunge era. "Sleepyhouse" is a tribute to the house in Durham, N.C., where they'd all relocated and forged a deep chemistry, but it was in Seattle's London Bridge Studios, with producer Rick Parashar of Pearl Jam's Ten fame, where Blind Melon crafted these rough bluesy and psychedelic rock tunes. The album's single "No Rain" (with its eye-catching "Bee Girl" video) catapulted the band into the mainstream, while acoustic-electric tunes like "I Wonder," "Dear Ol' Dad," and "Holyman" captured a loose vibe that went back to the early '70s. The 2013 reissue includes five of Blind Melon's first recordings cut in 1991 with Neil Young producer David Briggs at L.A.'s Sound City Studios; they were for the unreleased Sippin' Time EP. Band members Chris Thorn and Brad Smith remixed the tracks for reissue.