Back when indie really meant indie and alternative really was alternative, a handful of brave labels changed the shape of music by releasing albums by bands that cruised far below the mainstream radar in broken-down vans. Leave it to K-Tel to cull the best of the indie brat pack for what turns out to be a fairly surprising and definitive collection. The stalwarts are here (though in their full indie regalia, you might not recognize their later incarnations): the Flaming Lips, Yo La Tengo, Dinosaur Jr., the Mekons, and the Fall. No collection would be complete without the triumvirate of indiehood--the Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, and the Meat Puppets--and they are represented with well-chosen tracks (kudos for choosing Meat Puppets' "Swimming Pool"--pure skronk-rock torture). There's also a host of de rigueur circa-'85 scenesters: the Feelies, Galaxie 500, Spacemen 3, and the Wedding Present. But the surprises are what make this two-CD set worth the price of admission: Savage Republic's Middle Eastern-inspired noise, "Andelusia"; the Wipers' seminal protopop grunge on "Nothing Left to Lose"; the unrestrained weirdness of Death of Samantha's "Coca-Cola and Licorice"; Half Japanese's "U.S. Teens Are Spoiled Bums"; Big Dipper's "She's Fetching"; and, best of all, Squirrel Bait's peerless and visionary "Sun God." Granted, ex-college-radio geeks may bemoan the exclusion of their favorite obscurity (Unrest, Big Black, Minor Threat, and Scratch Acid come to mind), and surely space for a Replacements' track could have been made, but otherwise Gimme Indie Rock is a sterling collection, as good as any mix tape made in the mid-'80s.