Hard. Core. Indeed, it takes physical strength to play the kind of music on this relentless 28-song sampler. Not a lot of snotty-voiced kids made the cut.
A no-brainer here. Ramones covered by big stars, CD cover by Rob Zombie, liner notes by Steven King. Most of the covers are pretty lame, but what do you expect?
A homerun collection featuring four of the Midwest’s unheard of (but surely future reference points) heavy-hitters: DMS, Riddle Of Steel, Ring, Cicada, and Houston.
Some will be too “street punk” or “mod/garagey” for ya, but it’s just cool to hear bands on TKO and Hellcat back-to-back with Estrus/Bomp!/In the Red bands.
Snippets of blazing metal, washes of delayed patterns, relaxed lines matched with stuttering drums, and vice versa. An extremely well-thought-out album.
20 bands – spanning multiple genres – come together under Shepard Fairey’s infamous “Obey Giant” moniker to continue the fight against corporate advertising.
Reissue of the highly-influential ’97 comp with impossible-to-find tracks (that aren’t very good) by Jimmy Eat World, Mineral, At The Drive-In, and Pop Unknown.
Summer Solution 2002 gives me hope that New England still produces great bands and isn’t all hyped-up bullshit garage rock/emo acts who dress the part.
Smoking Popes hailed from Chicago, wrote smart, delicately melodic powerpop, made deceptively simply “punky” chords sound sweet, and this is their tribute.
A 17-track compilation, the perfect primer for anyone interested in sampling the wonderful ear-candy the Goth/darkwave/EBM/industrial scene has to offer.