by Stephen Thomas ErlewineWithin months of the release of Mellow Gold, Beck released his second album, Stereopathetic Soul Manure, a schizophrenic collection of lo-fi recordings from between 1988 and 1993. Much of the music on the album draws from the noisy, experimental post-punk of Sonic Youth and the dirty, primitive junk rock of Pussy Galore; his absurdist sense of humor surfaces only rarely, and only in the guise of such sophomoric cuts as Jagermeister Pie and Satan Gave Me a Taco, while his sense of songcraft is inaudible. Essentially, the record was both a palate cleanser, one designed to scare away the Loser fans, and a bid for indie credibility, since the music on Stereopathetic is equally as uncompromising and as unlistenable as Sonic Youth or their many imitators at their most extreme.