Pet Sounds Volume One: A Benefit for ALTER

Pet Sounds Volume One: A Benefit for ALTER is a 1999 benefit compilation released on Chicago-based Vital Cog Records in support of ALTER — Animal Liberation Through Education and Reform, a grassroots, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting animal wellbeing through education and community action. The 15-track set brings together an eclectic range of indie artists, primarily from Vital Cog’s own roster, alongside invited contributors from outside the label. Lisa Germano appears as the compilation’s lead-off track and most notable guest, contributing “Starfish,” a previously unreleased song recorded during the Slide sessions and produced by Tchad Blake. It marked the track’s first public release, predating its later appearance on the 2002 self-released compilation Rare, Unusual or Just Bad Songs.

Vital Cog Records was a small independent label operating in Chicago during the late 1990s, home to artists including Tim (119), The Diane Linkletter Experience, Duochrome, and Sonny Sixkiller. Pet Sounds Volume One was organized as a benefit release for ALTER, with proceedings directed toward the organization’s animal welfare advocacy work. The compilation’s title is a nod to the cause—the well-known Beach Boys album repurposed as a frame for music in defense of animals— a wink reinforced by the back cover, which features photographs of each contributing artist’s own pets. Lisa Germano’s cats Miamo-Tutti and Lou appear in the second image from the top.

Lisa’s involvement gave the compilation a significant profile boost. At the time of release, she had recently been dropped from 4AD following the modest commercial performance of Slide and the end of the label’s US distribution deal with Warner Bros., and was in the early stages of a years-long break from the music industry. “Starfish” was originally recorded during the Slide sessions alongside the album’s regular personnel, but was not included on the final sequence. Its placement on this benefit compilation represented one of the few glimpses of new Lisa Germano material available to fans between Slide‘s 1998 release and the eventual arrival of Lullaby for Liquid Pig in 2003.

Themes

The connecting thread across Pet Sounds Volume One is the cause rather than any shared sonic identity. The compilation is deliberately diverse, ranging from Lisa Germano’s hushed, aquatic chamber pop to the scrappy indie rock of Heatmiser and the jangly British sweep of Cinerama. What the tracks share is a spirit of community participation: most were contributed as rarities or exclusive recordings, and the back-cover “family album” of artist pets gives the whole affair an intimate, personal tone that distinguishes it from more impersonal charity releases. The animal welfare theme is not heavy-handed in the music itself, though Silkworm’s “Dead Animals,” the one track that addresses the subject directly, serves as both the compilation’s most pointed and, by several assessments, its strongest moment.

---

No.	Artist	Title	Length
1	Lisa Germano	Starfish	2:36
2	Tim (119)	New Trier	3:55
3	Sorry About Dresden	My Universe	2:40
4	Magnapop	Cherry Bomb	2:15
5	The Diane Linkletter Experience	Yesterday I Felt Just Fine	4:35
6	The Rockets Red Glare	Heavy Shoes	3:01
7	Photon Band	You Can Never Really Have Too Much Wine	3:07
8	Heatmiser	Junior Mint	2:34
9	Sonny Sixkiller	From the Aeroplane	3:08
10	Duochrome	Negotiating the Driveway	3:10
11	Cinerama	Dance, Girl, Dance	3:28
12	The Bigger Lovers	Forever is Not So Long	1:43
13	Silkworm	Dead Animals	4:53
14	My Dad is Dead	Just Pretending	2:58
15	Aviso’Hara	Better Living Through Chemistry	3:15

“Starfish” was recorded during the sessions for Slide at the Sound Factory in Los Angeles, produced and mixed by Tchad Blake, the same sessions that yielded the rest of that album’s band-oriented, more expansive sound.

The song was part of an early working sequence for Slide, which also included fellow outtake “Dreamland.” When the final album was sequenced, both songs were cut. “Dreamland” remains officially unreleased beyond Rare, Unusual or Just Bad Songs; “Starfish” found a home on this benefit compilation the following year.

Despite its gentle, lulling quality, Heather Phares at AllMusic described it as sounding “like a slowed-down, undersea calypso”—”Starfish” carries sharply pointed subject matter. The lyrics follow a woman who faces harassment from anti-abortion activists after terminating a pregnancy, framing her story through the repeated image of a starfish multiplying: “There was a starfish / Then there was five / She thought she did good / Coming from Arkansas / Militant pro-lifer / Killing a soul / Who just wanted / To give a starfish.” The song closes with the sardonic, escalating refrain “Kill more starfish,” directed at the pro-lifer. It is one of the more explicitly political songs in Lisa’s catalog, and its placement as the lead track on an animal welfare benefit compilation creates a quietly ironic framing: a song about bodily autonomy and the overreach of self-appointed moral authority, opening a record made in defense of animals.

Packaging & Design

Pet Sounds Volume One was released as a standard jewel case CD with a 2-page jacket insert. The front cover features the compilation’s title against a simple design; the back cover is the set’s most distinctive visual element, reproducing photographs of each contributing artist’s pets in a vertical column—a “family album” format that underscores the personal investment of the participants in the cause. Lisa Germano’s cats Miamo-Tutti and Lou can be identified in the second image from the top. The disc was distributed in a standard jewel case.

Personnel

“Starfish”
Performed by Lisa Germano
Drums: Jerry Marotta
Guitar: Joe Gore
Horns: Melissa Ferrick
Produced by Tchad Blake
Published by Emotional Wench/Polygram Songs (BMI)
Lisa Germano appears courtesy of 4AD Records

Originally recorded during the Slide sessions (1997–98). First released here; later reissued on Rare, Unusual or Just Bad Songs (2002).

Critical Reception

Pet Sounds Volume One received limited press coverage at the time of release, in keeping with its small-label, benefit-compilation nature.

“Lisa Germano’s quietly luminous, stream-of-consciousness ramble ‘Starfish’… sounds like a slowed-down, undersea calypso… [and is] among the album’s highlights.”

Heather Phares
AllMusic

Related Releases

---