Auntie Ramos' Pool Hall

The third album by the Tucson, Ariz.–based Sidewinders (later renamed The San Rubies) is an overlooked gem in American rock ’n’ roll. For one thing, their sound reflected their hometown, and you can see blue-collar lives in cinderblocks with chain-link yards while picturing wondrous valley backdrops of cacti and mesquite. Three-chord desert noir becomes hand-trembling paranoia on “Blood on Our Hands” (“Maybe I’ll just sit here and watch the sweat pour out of you”), while lovely loss-of-innocence sentiments bloom like saguaro flowers on “We Don’t Do That Anymore.” Empathy’s everywhere on “Get Out of that Town” and reeled in slightly on “Sara’s Not Sober,” and heavy ’60s chords chug under massive choruses on “Doesn’t Anyone Believe” and “If I Can’t Have You” (the band tip their garage-rock hand on a sweltering take of Love’s “7 & 7 Is”). Songwriters David Slutes (singer) and Rich Hopkins (guitarist) crammed this 1990 album with weighty Neil Young–ish guitar drones, trail-dust blues, rowdy regional folk (which shows deep record collections), and inescapable choruses that pin sentiments to hooks like a prickly pear to skin.