I’ve been sitting here for two days trying to convey what a great thing Alternative Tentacles has done by making the tracks on this release available once again. MIA was simply one of the best punk/hardcore bands that ever graced a stage, period. They were a perfect hybrid of the hardcore that was coming out of DC in the early ‘80s and OC/HB’s “beach punk” sound of the same time period, or, to put it more succinctly, they sounded like the bastard offspring of Minor Threat and the Adolescents. Yet, rather than be mere shadows of their influences, they took those sounds and forged a sound entirely their own, one that was hard and fast yet instantly hummable. As if good music wasn’t enough, they also took time to make their lyrics both substantive and well written, something that was often as rare then as it is now. Submitted for your aural pleasure are the “Murder in a Foreign Place” EP, their side of the “Last Rites” split LP, tracks from various compilations, live material, early and late-period demos and other goodies. My suggestion to you, loyal reader, is to buy three copies of this (in case two get worn out) and crank “Boredom is the Reason,” “Murder in a Foreign Place” and “Fucking Zones” as loud as your stereo will allow. Make sure that you have a cassette copy for the police to blast on the way to the station when they take you in for disturbing the peace, too. Believe me, they’ll thank you for it later. God (or pick your deity of choice) bless Alternative Tentacles for this disc and God bless MIA for leaving us some timeless, kick-ass tuneage.
–jimmy (Alternative Tentacles)