Start Your Engines

(Side One Dummy)
by Jon Sarre

“22 Bands!” “And Many More!” Oh yeah, the compilation, some label guy gets the bright idea to grab bag as many bands as possible who once allowed him to put out their one-off single and cram ’em all on a single CD so he can sell it for cheap. Hopefully, he makes a few bucks and delays getting the phone shut off and thus continues a few days more in the rat-eat-rat world of the indie record business. Rhyme and reason are blissfully shelved in favor of the “sampler” approach, which usually means, at least to yours truly, “you don’t honestly expect me to listen to every fucking song on this, do ya?” I mean, I’ll put the thing on while I do the dishes or drink coffee or type up a review of someone else’s compilation, but to sit and explain why Lonesome and the Dickheads rock and HalfRack and a Pack of Luckies don’t? Fuck that!

L.A.’s Side One Dummy seems to mostly deal with either neo-rockabilly acts who owe their artistic debts to Horton Heat or neo-cockrockers who thank the Devil for the Supersuckers and some who rip-off the same people both of ’em ripped off (and let’s not forget the Ramones, everyone owes those guys big time). The bands appearing herein are somewhat better known than Cacophone’s roster list with Rick Simms’ (ex-Supersuckers himself) Gaza Strippers, Custom Made Scare, Teen Idols, Los Infernos, Speedealer, Nobodys, Hai Karate, Hayride to Hell, and the Hellbillys showin’ up on Start Your Engines. Most of these bands do not actually regularly record for Side One Dummy, so that means they pulled a neat trick and got other people’s acts to appear (but that probably means they’ll have to pay for licensing etc, so count this out as a crass money-making venture). That may mean that you win, yes, you, you, record buyer. Imagine being the beneficiary of an indie record label’s largesse! Especially if you got this disc for free.
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