Modestly subtitled “The Best of Pop-Punk and Power Pop 1977-84,” the glory of this comp resides primarily in the fact that 1) it has been assembled with seemingly no rhyme nor reason—no geographic nor overly obvious aesthetic connections really exist between the bands, as far as i can tell; and 2) the biggest band on here is what, the Nervebreakers? Rudi? The Crap Detectors? The Automatics ((UK, not Portland))? Benedict Arnold & The Traitors? Twenty neat tracks of varying degrees of obscurity from an era that has thus far held up to seemingly infinite stripmining. It kinda reminds me of those Teen Beat CD-R’s of a few years ago, except that 3) it’s not a CD-R; 4) the bands aren’t in alphabetical order; and 5) they used black AND red ink on the cover. I really enjoyed those “D.I.Y.” CDs that Rhino® released fifteen or so years ago; the liner notes in the CD booklet kinda remind me of a low budget version thereof. Maybe we all need to hijack that particular radio and start making comp CDs for each other, mixtape style. My gawd, i think i’m starting to feel the first pangs of CD nostalgia. Needless to say, this review is over! BEST SONG: The Excerpts, “Will I Ever See You Again?” BEST SONG TITLE: Terminal Sunglasses, “Fear Of People Who Look Insane.” FANTASTIC AMAZING TRIVIA FACT: Liner notes refer to the Nervebreakers as “the Ejectors.”
–norb (Brutarian Quarterly)