Soundtrack Albums Vol. 1: Punk Soundtracks

The soundtrack album is an interesting art form. It could be a lot of different songs by a lot of different people that were in a movie all on one CD. It could also be a bunch of tunes written by one person/band all for one movie. Sometimes they serve as a really cool compilation of related songs. Sometimes they are very disjointed. Sometimes a soundtrack sounds amazing in the film and then you buy the album and it doesn't really work as a stand alone album (cough Friday Night Lights cough).

However, when it does work it's a beautiful thing. So this is the first part in a short series of articles where I'm going to shine some light on my favorite soundtrack albums. For this first installment I'm going to be highlighting some Punk soundtracks.


Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Return of the Living Dead is not only one of the greatest movies of all time but it also has one of the greatest soundtracks of all time. For those of you who haven't seen the movie (you should be ashamed of yourselves) it's, for lack of a better term, a punk rock zombie movie. By definition it's a zombie movie but it's nothing like Romero's bleak social commentaries. It's a dark comedy within a horror movie with zombies. Sounds awesome, right? Well it is but enough about the movie; it's time to discuss the soundtrack. The album is 35 minutes of punk and death rock. It opens with "Surfin' Dead" by the Cramps, which is exclusive to this album and the main reason I bought it in the first place. Then one after the other you get classics from 45 Grave, T.S.O.L., The Flesh Eaters, The Damned, Rocky Erickson and more. It would be almost unethical of me to end the article about this album without mentioning the last two songs. The song's are both by a band called SSQ and they are the most fantastically 80's-ish songs on the album. They're still dark (they were used in a zombie movie) but they have that stereotypical 80's pop sound underneath the dark tones and lyrics about death. The first song is called "Tonight (We'll Make Love Until We Die)." I believe the title says it all and I don't need to explain to you exactly why this song is so good. The last song, "Trash's Theme" is a synth-y instrumental. It's dark and ominous in parts, it grooves in other parts. I love it.


Repo Man (1984)

Repo Man is the be all and end all of punk rock soundtracks. It also serves as a pretty decent introduction into L.A. Punk, which everyone knows I'm slightly obsessed with. If nothing else, this soundtrack goes down in rock and roll history for "Repo Man," a fantastic and exclusive Iggy Pop song. After Iggy Pop the soundtrack breaks the listener in slowly with something anyone buying this album is probably already familiar with, Black Flag's "TV Party." From there we move onto another veritable hardcore punk classic, "Institutionalized" by Suicidal Tendencies, quite possibly one of the greatest and most melodramatic pieces of teen angst ever committed to tape. Then We get "Coup D'Etat" from the Circle Jerks' classic third album, Golden Shower of Hits. From here on is where the album starts to tread unfamiliar territory and gets very interesting because of it. For the remainder of the album we get forgotten gems, obscurities, and just plain weird tunes. One band from either the forgotten gems or obscurity category depending on your own point of view is the Plugz who contribute "Hombre Secreto," "El Clavo Y La Cruz," and "Reel Ten." (editor's note: Anyone who's been keeping up with the L.A. Punk articles should recognize the Plugz as having been mentioned in the Flesh Eater's article.) Two songs from the obscurities category mentioned before are "Pablo Picasso" by Burning Sensations, which is memorable for the spoken lyrics and the reoccurring theme of "Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole," and "Bad Man" by the Juicy Bananas. The Juicy Bananas are interesting in that they weren't a real band. They consisted of Zander Schloss (who joined the Circle Jerks on bass in '84 and went on to play in The Weirdos when they reunited in the 90's) and Sy Richardson who played Lite in the film. Richardson speaks lines his character delivers in the film over the music completely composed and performed by Schloss. (movie dork note: Repo Man's director, Alex Cox, made what we will call his 1980's punk rock trilogy. Repo Man was the first, followed by Sid and Nancy, and then Straight to Hell. Sy Richardson was in all of them. He starred alongside Courtney Love and Joe Strummer in Straight to Hell.) The last song to mention is the Fear classic "Let's Have A War" which I would throw into the forgotten gem category I mentioned. Fear don't get mentioned enough but Lee Ving was one of the great front men of rock and roll in general and this is a sampling of his great shout then sing then shout some more vocal style and the sarcastic lyrics he's known for.

Downtown 81

Ever heard of Jean Paul Basquiat? Well this movie, filmed in 1980, is sort of a scripted day in the life of Basquiat. It was meant to be a portrait of the No Wave/Downtown scene happening at the time (which was mentioned in my article about scene comps and my article about my favorite Soul Jazz Records releases) but was never finished. In 1999 the movie was resurrected but the original audio track was lost so they brought someone else in to dub Basquiat's voice as he had been dead since '88. Thankfully, the soundtrack survived and acts as one of the best documents of a scene that was so crazy and original that it deserves every bit of documentation it gets and more. What makes it so special is that a lot of it was recorded during live performances which makes the recordings exclusive to this album and really gives you a feel for what it was like back in 1980. There is so much music on this disc that I can't go as in depth into everything as I'd like but I'll break it up into groups. No Wave is represented by DNA, James White and the Blacks, and Lydia Lunch (formerly of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks). DNA was recorded in the studio specifically for this album while James Chance and Lydia Lunch were captured live playing No Wave classics "Sax Maniac" and "The Closet," respectively. The Mutant Disco/Ze Records thing is represented by Kid Creole and The Coconuts and Liquid Liquid. The dark, mostly synth heavy new wave stuff is represented by Tuxedo Moon, The Plastics and Suicide, who are represented by their song "Cheree" which is actually a very pretty song and not one of their loud, confrontational songs. The hip hop which permeated the downtown scene is represented by a Melle Mel track and one of the greatest hip hop songs ever recorded, "Beat Bop" by Rammelzee vs. K-Rob. Then there's weird stuff that could have only existed in this time and place. Gray show off their dark soundscapes and percussion with the song "Drum Mode" while The Lounge Lizards bring their atmospheric, experimental jazz to the table. Then there's "15 Minutes" by Chris Stein of Blondie. The song is only 46 seconds long and sounds like a beat someone from Anticon would have produced. Walter Steding and the Dragon People's "New Day" sounds like a mix between Michael Leonhart and the Avramina 7 and a Bollywood musical. Last but certainly not least is a recording by the man himself, Basquiat. It's called "Palabras Con Ritmo" and is a spoken word poem recited over a brilliant rhythm track by Coati Mundi with a beat made by congas and other percussion instruments, harmonica, and noises such as crickets and the sounds of far off groups of people cheering. This soundtrack makes for an incredibly varied listen and acts as a very important document of a scene which came and went and can never be replicated which makes this disc an invaluable addition to anyone's collection.

R.I.P. Mitchell Dubey

Mitch Dubey was killed last night in his own home in New Haven, CT. I've had the pleasure of knowing him for the past couple of years. I always looked forward to going up to Connecticut and seeing him whether it was for a Flaming Tsunamis show, a My Heart To Joy show, a Hostage Calm show, a Swear Jar show, or just to hang out and play Uno Attack or Monopoly Deal at his house. He was a great guy, a great friend, and a great musician.

His band, Swear Jar, released a demo tape in 2009. It was a 5 song cassette but those 5 songs summed up the band and the band members perfectly. The songs could go from soft, to long guitar buildups with feedback and then hit you in the face immediately with guitar work that was fast, heavy, but still extremely fun all at the same time. That's exactly how I knew Mitch. Occasionally he'd be calm and quiet, but most of the time he'd be running on full blast, always happy, always stoked to see you, and always excited just to hang. No matter what, he always had fun and you couldn't help but have fun if you were anywhere near him.


Here is a link to Swear Jar's tumblr. Right at the top is a link to download the demo for free. Download it, listen to it, spread it around. It's too good to be a footnote in the history of a friend who's no longer with us.

I'm gonna miss you Mitch.


There's a P.S. to the Swear Jar story. This demo is going to be released as a 7" EP. The A-side is going to be the full demo, and the B-side is going to be a new Swear Jar tune, one that Mitch had written but was never recorded. There's no date yet for when it will be released, but keep an eye out.

2.13.61

Today is a very special day, Henry Rollins' 50th birthday. The punk legend responsible for some of the greatest punk and hardcore of all time (State of Alert, Black Flag, Rollins Band, and all the talking records) is officially middle aged. So what's Rollins' mid life crisis going to be? I'm sure he'll just travel some more and do some talking gigs like he always does. In fact, he already started. He's scheduled a tour around his birthday this year. He was at Joe's Pub in NYC from the 8th and the 12th, he'll be performing a special one night only show in Washington D.C. tonight and he'll be at Largo in L.A. from the 16th to the 19th. I wasn't able to get tickets to any of them but the D.C. show is being filmed and I'm sure it will be released within the next year on DVD.

I would like to take this space here to wish Rollins a happy 50th birthday. I tried to be down in D.C. tonight but the tickets sold out way too fast. He means a lot to a lot of people and I am definitely one of those people. I grew up on punk rock and the lyrics that he screamed out to me every time I popped in a Black Flag CD are permanently ingrained in my mind. I could identify with a lot of them. I felt as though the song could have been written about me and when you can make that connection to a band at such a young, formative age they become a special part your adolescence.

I also read Get In The Van: On The Road With Black Flag at a young age and to this day it is one of the most inspiring books I've ever read. For those of you who (for some reason) haven't read it yet, it's Rollins' tour journals from his entire stay in the band. I think you'd have a hard time finding a band that worked harder than the Flag especially since they always got so little in return, but they kept working, kept touring and kept playing because it was what they loved doing. When I read it, I felt as though I could accomplish anything; I just needed to want it enough and work at it.

Long story short, Rollins played a part in shaping me into the person I have grown up to be. He didn't know it, but he was there with me for all of my awkward teenage years and for that I can never thank him enough.

Happy 50th Birthday Rollins. I hope you you never stop doing what you're doing.

As a special treat, I'm putting up an interview I did with Rollins around this time last year. We talked about his recent adventures, homosexuality, and lots of other things.

The interview is split up into two 30 minute files and you can download both of them here

New Jersey Noise Radio

I've decided to branch out the blog and use the name for my radio show on WRPR 90.3FM here at Ramapo College. Each show will feature a coherent theme, like each article I post (sometimes they will overlap). So far this semester I've done 2 shows and both are available for download in mp3 format here.

I've added a text box to the side of the website which has the link to download the shows and I will keep it updated with information about each episode.

Thanks for reading and now, thanks for listening. I hope you dig the shows.

Badass Women

As I sit here putting off reading an introduction to the theories of gender scholar Judith Butler I started to think of all my favorite female musicians. While music outside of the realm of pop music still tends to be male dominated I can think of more than a few radical and, for lack of a better term, badass women who have undeniably shaped my musical tastes over the years. So tonight, as I continue to put off reading overly intellectual essays on gender I'm going to take a look at gender from the best perspective I can: The music I love.

There is one woman who always comes to mind first whenever I talk or think about female musicians and that person is Exene Cervenka. Exene, along with John Doe, sang for the first wave L.A. punk band X (one band that has yet to be given the New Jersey Noise treatment, mostly because of the popularity they have achieved over the past 25 years). She had barely any singing experience, if any at all, before joining X. John Doe wanted her to sing in the band because of her beautiful poetry. He felt the words she scribbled into notebooks would make great lyrics instead. She took the job in spite of her lack of conventional talent and became part of one of the most memorable vocal duos in rock music because of it. Exene had no formal music training and didn't know anything about chords and harmonies so she faked it. When a song called for her to sing along with John instead of singing a conventional harmony part she just sang what sounded good to her. What resulted was some of the greatest punk rock ever recorded. The beauty of Exene wasn't just in the vocals though. The real reason she has had such a lasting impression on me is because she wasn't just the singer. Far too often do women fall into the "front woman" role which does not necessarily allow them to exist other than being a pretty face in the front of the band. That wasn't Exene. She was an important part of the band and existed not just as the front woman but as an intellectual being, a poet and an integral force in the sound that X defined during the course of their career together.

Some highlights of Exene Cervenka's career include:

"Your Phone's Off The Hook, But You're Not" from Los Angeles (1980)

"The World's A Mess; It's In My Kiss" from Los Angeles (1980)

"We're Desperate" from Wild Gift (1981)

"I'm Coming Over" from Wild Gift (1981)

"Some Other Time" from Wild Gift (1981)

"Motel Room In My Bed" from Under The Big Black Sun (1982)

"Under The Big Black Sun" from Under The Big Black Sun (1982)

"Breathless" from More Fun In The New World (1983)


Another woman who immediately pops up whenever I consider some sort of list of influential and talented women in music is Poison Ivy Rorschach of The Cramps.
Poison Ivy met Lux Interior (lead singer) in 1972 and they moved to Akron, Ohio together then to New York City in 1975. The band fully formed in 1976 and from then on they changed members every couple of years, but Lux and Poison Ivy were the constants. She was the lead guitar player from the time they formed until they broke up in 2009 after Lux's passing. She was a formidable guitar player and had one hell of a stage presence. She was beautiful and menacing at the same time, luring you in like a venus fly trap and then scaring the shit out of you. The Cramps' musical legacy is iconic to say the least and Poison Ivy played an integral part in shaping that legacy. She shared a passion for strange and obscure music with Lux. They dug for hours through record stores finding amazing and (a lot of the time) demented rock & roll, rockabilly, R&B and novelty records, many of which they ended up recording for their albums. She was just as responsible for making those cover songs their own, so much so that I had no idea they were covers for at least a year into listening to them. She is one of the most criminally underrated guitarists of all time. She never went for virtuosity and casual listeners might not notice how cool the guitar was because people don't usually believe that less actually is more anymore. She didn't need to show off; the music didn't call for it. She created the dark, scary tone that much of the Cramps catalog had and she did it with style.

Here is a list of selections from the Cramps catalog that highlight Poison Ivy's talent:

"Surfin Bird" from Gravest Hits (1979)

"I'm Cramped" from Songs The Lord Taught Us (1980)

"The Crusher" from Psychedelic Jungle (1981)

"Cornfed Dames" from A Date With Elvis (1986)

And check out her vocal work on these two:

"Kizmiaz" from A Date With Elvis (1986)

"Get Off The Road" from A Date With Elvis (1986)



The third name that needs to be mentioned for this list to be considered at all complete is Wanda Jackson, The Queen of Rockabilly. She effortlessly floated back and forth between country and rockabilly and has been recording and performing since the early 1950's but it is her late '50's rockabilly sides that have made her an important part of rock & roll history. Please allow me to take you back to 1950's America for a moment. Women enjoyed a breakthrough in independence in the 1940's when they got jobs in droves due to the country's men being overseas due to World War 2. However, when they came back the women were sent back home and expected to be wives, mothers and homemakers again. The second wave of feminism and the sexual revolution was still a decade away and it was barely even on the country's radar at the time. The ideal home was the Leave It To Beaver home. Then in walks Wanda Jackson to sing some of the hottest and meanest rockabilly to date, as good or better than her male contemporaries who dominated the genre. With songs like "Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad" and "Rock Your Baby" she showed the world that she was an unapologetic, powerful, independent woman who didn't need a man's approval and had no problem making demands.

With the exception of the first song on the list all of my selections of Wanda's best material can be found on Rockin With Wanda (1960), a collection of her late 1950's rockabilly singles:

"Funnel Of Love" from the 45rpm single (1960)

"Rock Your Baby"

"Fujiyama Mama"

"Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad"

"Savin' My Love"

L.A. Punk Vol. 5- The Controllers

The Controllers are yet another first wave L.A. Punk band. So far I have covered The Germs, The Weirdos, The Flesh Eaters and The Dils in my quest to inform you about the early L.A. punk scene. The Controllers, like the four bands already written about, released their first record in 1977 and were in the forefront of the original scene.

According to Johnny Stingray they formed on July 4, 1977. It was a drunken decision made after seeing some fireworks. The original line up which appeared on their first single, released on What Records towards the end of the year, consisted of Johnny Stingray on guitar and vocals, Kid Spike on rhythm guitar and vocals, DOA Dan on bass and backing vocals, and Charlie Trash on drums. At this time, the band was practicing at The Masque, in fact they were, supposedly, the first band to discover the Masque, and according to members of the band, they played the first advertised show at the Masque.

In January of '78 Charlie Trash and DOA Dan left the band, leaving Kid Spike and Johnny Stingray without a rhythm section. They played day 1 the legendary Masque Benefit at the Elks Lodge in MacArthur Park on Feb. 24 1978 with Paul Roessler (of The Screamers, brother of Kira Roessler, bassist for '84 Black Flag) and Bruce Barf (later of Wall of Voodoo), then Johnny Stingray switched to bass and they found "Maddog" Karla Barrett to play drums (Who was mentioned in an earlier article as one of the drummers on The Flesh Eaters' No Questions Asked LP). Maddog was not only a woman, but a black woman, which was an underrepresented demographic in the early L.A. punk scene. But when it came down to it, it didn't matter what she was other than that she was an amazing drummer. This line up recorded another single, this time for Siamese Records sometime in '78, and 3 tracks for Chris D.'s Tooth and Nail comp in '79.

The band broke up in spring of '79 after leaving behind a legacy of just 2 singles and 3 tracks on a comp LP. Though there wasn't much music, it was pretty groundbreaking at the time. The band incorporated a rootsy rock and roll sound into the '77 punk paradigm which would influence many bands at the end of the decade and throughout the 80s. Kid Spike would take that sound with him when he joined the Gears shortly after the Controllers broke up.


Neutron Bomb b/w Killer Queers

The band's first single was released on What Records in 1977 as What 04 (Seeing a pattern? The Germs' first single was What 01, The Dils first single was What 02). These two songs are classic pieces of punk history. "Neutron Bomb", now known as "(The Original) Neutron Bomb" because it came out months before the Weirdos song, is classic bone crunching punk rock. It's dark, it's got a great riff, and the lyrics are bleak at best. The b-side is a silly song about murderous hustlers with a really catchy guitar riff. All in all this single shows the rock and roll influences which would come out in full force in their next two releases but is the most "punk rock" of their original output





Slow Boy + Do the Uganda b/w Suburban Suicide

This single, The Controllers' second, was released on Siamese Records in 1978. It opens up with a straight up punk rock attack. The guitars on "Slow Boy" are almost Black Flag-esque (circa Nervous Breakdown) but faster. It's got that great riff AND it's fast and heavy. The second half of the A side is straight up rock and roll with a punk edge. "Do the Uganda" is very reminiscent of the sound Kid Spike would take with him to The Gears the following year. It's short, fast, and catchy. What more could you ask for? "Suburban Suicide" is almost 4 minutes long and is much slower and has some great bluesy lead guitar. The influence from the Detroit bands they said they loved so much really comes through on this one. (Although they said the MC5 were boring but had a couple of good songs. I can't get behind that at all) I hear a lot of Stooges in this song.




Tooth and Nail

We've already talked about this comp, put out by Chris D.'s Upsetter label in 1979, twice; first when we looked at the Germs' catalog and again when we looked at the Flesh Eater's music. The Controllers offer up three great songs on this comp, "Another Day", Electric Church", and "Jezebel". "Another Day" is a harder, punkier version of the Punk/Rock N Roll hybrid people like Johnny Thunders and Richard Hell were doing in New York. "Electric Church" contains some bluesy riffing, guitar solos, and a catchy chorus. It's their simplest song yet and also one of their best. The last Controllers song found on this album is the often covered "Jezebel", originally recorded by Frankie Laine. They take the swing out of it and hammer out the riff while maintaining the dark, eerie qualities of the original.




The Controllers

This is THE Controllers CD to get (it's also the only one I'm aware of). It compiles both singles and the Tooth and Nail tracks. In addition to those 8 songs you get 2 previously unreleased songs, "Barnacle Bill the Sailor" and "Tail Lights to Texas". I think these songs are from the 1970's but the liner notes don't say anything about them other than that Johnny Stingray found them on old cassette tapes. "Barnacle Bill the Sailor" is a silly, pirate shanty-type song. "Tail Lights to Texas" is a cool honky tonk tinged song with some good guitar work. The last Controllers song on the CD is "White Trash Christ" from a 1996 session during the band's first and only reunion. Also included is one track, "Top Secret" from Johnny Stingray's post Controllers band, Kaos. Kaos formed in 1980 and put out one EP which can be found in its entirety on the What? Stuff compilation. The last 2 songs compiled with this CD are "Your World" and "Hot Stumps" by Skull Control. These tracks were recorded in 1992 and released in 1993 by a band consisting of members of The Controllers and another early Masque-era band, The Skulls. These two songs were apparently Controllers tunes dating as far back as 1977 but were never recorded until the Skull Control sessions.

L.A. Punk Vol. 4- The Dils

I'm back with another addition to my L.A. Punk series. This time the subject of the article is The Dils. They were a hard band to track down concrete facts about. Neither of their CD reissues have any biographical information but here's what I've pieced together. The Dils formed in 1976 and go their start in Los Angeles. They later permanently relocated to San Francisco but their original ties to the L.A. scene make them an important part of the early L.A. scene. The core of the band are Chip and Tony Kinman who play guitar and bass, respectively. The band had a few drummers throughout their existence. The original drummer, Andre Algover (Endre Alqover), played on their first single and possibly their second. Other drummers included Rand Mcnally (co-founder of Dangerhouse Records), Zippy Pinhead, and John Silvers. Their first single was released by Chris Ashford on his What? Records label which had just been put in place to release the first Germs single and their second was released on Dangerhouse Records, both iconic labels associated with the birth of punk in Los Angeles. They were also featured in Cheech and Chong's Up In Smoke in 1978 during the battle of the bands scene beating out many other classic L.A. punk bands for the part in the movie, including the Germs whose "Sex Boy" found on their first single was recorded during the try outs for the movie held at the Whisky a Go Go.

They were an overtly political band which seemed to get them in trouble a lot. They were self proclaimed socialists constantly calling for class wars. They never really seemed at home in the fun loving early L.A. punk scene which I'm sure was one of the factors which led to the move to San Francisco though getting banned from the Whisky may have also contributed. There are a lot of published interviews from the 70's to read if you want to get the Kinman brothers' perspective on punk and the new wave. I always found that they tend to come off as slightly pretentious in interviews. Whatever their politics and opinions may have been, the music speaks for itself.

The band broke up in 1980 but the Kinman brothers never stopped. They started Rank and File soon after the Dils which continued in the rock direction the Dils took on their final release. After Rank and File they regrouped as Cowboy Nation and later Blackbird.

I Hate the Rich b/w You're Not Blank

For those of you keeping track, this was released in 1977 on What Records as What 02. (What 01 was the Germs' first single.) "I Hate the Rich" is a lightning fast guitar onslaught. It also serves as an introduction to the Dils' politics which lean pretty far to the left. "You're Not Blank" is one of my favorite punk songs of all time. The mix, by today's standards, isn't very good but the fact that the guitar is so loud, just as loud if not a little louder than the vocals, adds to the charm.



198 Seconds of the Dils (Class War b/w Mr. Big)

This, their second single, was also released in 1977 but this time on the legendary Dangerhouse label. For their second outing the sound is bigger, the production is better, and the songwriting and playing is a little more rock & roll. "Class War" is up there with the best of the Dangerhouse catalog. The guitar is hard but catchy and the vocals are intense. "Mr. Big" is a great song but not the greatest tune of its time. The vocals are catchy but he lyrics aren't the greatest you'll ever hear (Hey Mr. Big/You look so big to others/Hey Mr. Big/I can see you're nothin); typical socialist punk lyrics.



Made in Canada (Sound of the Rain b/w Red Rockers Rule b/w It's Not Worth It)

Fast forward to 1979. There isn't a hint of punk left in the Dils' sound. They went soft. On this record there are acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies. It's not bad if you're not expecting punk. It holds up with the softer of the power pop stuff coming out around this time. "Red Rockers Rule" rocks the hardest (but it doesn't rock THAT hard...). "It's Not Worth It" is the catchiest of the three and "Sound of the Rain" is the softest. All in all not a bad release but I won't lie and say I wasn't disappointed the first time I heard it.



Class War

This is the first of two CD reissues by Bacchus Archives. There's no reason for there to be two because there's barely 80 minutes spread out between the two but they had to split up three singles worth of material with some live stuff so that fans would have to buy both...Anyway, This release opens with their first single, "I Hate The Rick" and "You're Not Blank" (Don't ask me why they called it Class War if the Dangerhouse single isn't on here...). In addition to those two classic pieces of punk history you get a decent live recording from 1980. Within those ten live songs you get a pretty cool version of "Mr. Big", a slower version of "You're Not Blank", a cover of Buddy Holly's "Modern Don Juan", "Red Rockers Rule", It's Not Worth It" and a few others. I would never have bought this for the live material, it's just not that great. But, the first Dils single IS that great.


Dils Dils Dils

This, number two in Bacchus's series of Dils reissues, covers far more ground than the first. The CD opens with "Blow Up", a demo from 1977 and The Dils first recording. It's a great song. It's got catchy vocals reminiscent of what they would end up doing on the Made In Canada EP but it's punk and the guitar is really crunchy. Next up is the two songs from their second single and all three from their third. Rounding out the CD are 9 songs recorded at 2 different shows in 1978 and 1 song recorded live in 1979. The band was about to go soft and there are definite hints of that on these 1978 recordings but they aren't entirely there yet. The first four live tracks are the best, being the most punk and the best recording quality; it even contains an 8 minute version of the Velvet Underground's "What Goes On".