A pretty decent sampler for those who’ve been under a rock the past ten years and are now looking to be somewhat “in the know” concerning emo and punk.
As established a tradition as the Warped Tour, every year Punk-O-Rama features a blend of loved and hated stalwarts from Epitaph with upstarts making a buzz.
Hopefully, projects like Liberation will do damage control for all PETA’s frivolous lawsuits that mar the organization like spray paint on a mink stole.
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.
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.
Last time our heroes were beset by bland “rock” on one hand, and bland “pop” on the other, but this time the real phantom menace is a combination of the two.
Really good poppy-style punk, and fantastic beer-swilling hardcore ranging from ’77-style to squatter-political to fast-ass rock’n’roll to general sociopathic.
Mix (old school) Slayer with (very old school) Ministry & play it through a crappy stereo system, so everything (drums, vocals, sequences) is distorted.
Split (kinda) into power metal on disc one and extreme on disc two, tracked alphabetically per disc, there’s so much to open yer eyes, if yer at all into metal.
While not the breathless experience of the originals, is a fine tribute to Cradle of Filth. It’s cool to hear 13 bands try to sound like Dani’s many voices.
Death, technical, sludge-y, grinding, stoner, and occasionally “weird.” The best are death metal gods. Some decent stuff with horrible crap in between.
Initial has assembled one of the most punishing tribute albums, pulling together a strong, diverse group of today’s hot acts to give their take on Black Flag.
Hear the bands you’ve heard everyone talk about, and spit at the shit bands that, for some reason, are cheered instead of beaten up in the parking lot.
TKO said fuck it and threw a bunch of bands of totally different styles, attitudes, politics, and toughness against the proverbial wall to see what sticks.