REVIEWER MAGAZINELife Is Ugly, so why not kill yourself - Rare Recordings of California's punk poineers, (20th) Anniversary - Digitally re-mastered) Yeah, this reminds me of high school, circa 1981... Excellent early Reagan-era Anti-war politipunk . Fun Stuff. The liner notes mention SD reader columnist Gina Arnold's book Route 666: On The road To Nirvana and the early LA stalwarts the Urinals and 100 Flowers who opened the door for great bands like Camper Van Beethoven and the Butthole surfers. I'll always keep and never trade-in Cds like this no matter what they get from Music Trader, sorry. This is one for the archives. With tracks from Redd Kross, Descendents, Anti, Ill Will, China White, Minutemen, 100 Flowers, Urinals, Sacchrine Trust, Plebes, Zurich 1916, Mood Of Deiance, Civil Dismay, origally released in 1983 on New Underground records the music immortalized here must have been sitting at the bottom of a deep dungeon for nearly 2 decades. They do say New York invented punk and London politicized it, but SoCal PERFECTED it. BobYounger
|
BlankGeneration.com e'zine
V/A "Life IsÉ Vol 1.: Life is Ugly, So Why Not Kill Yourself" CD Cool 20th anniversary reissue of an early-Ō80s L.A. punk compilation featuring the likes of Red Cross (pre-name change), the Descendents, the Urinals/100 Flowers, Saccharine Trust, the Minutemen, China White and more. ThereÕs a great assortment of bands on hereŃsounds range from hardcore to punk to art-damaged rock ŌnÕ roll. IÕm admittedly unsure of how well this collection represents the L.A. scene, but it still strikes me as nostalgic and completely worthwhile. "Old schoolers" (ugh) would do best to grab this. (EL)
V/A "Life is Ugly, So Why Not Kill Yourself" CD What we have here is a comp of the finest from L.A.Õs punk underground from 1979-1982, re-released by Delirium Records on the twentieth anniversary of the original release on New Underground Records. ItÕs a pretty diverse document, missing some major players and including some obscurities. It includes the first 35 seconds of Red Cross history with "Rich Brat", a good Descendents track, a scorcher from the under-rated China White, and a great Saccharine Trust song from the days before they became an improv-jazz band. ThereÕs also good stuff from outside the hardcore/punk box, most notably a couple of early Minutemen tracks produced by Mike Patton, and the Reds favorite band, the Urinals, doing "SheÕs A Drone". Some silly art-punk from a band called Zurich 1916, and some folk nonsense from the Plebs are really the only bad things about this comp. As a document of a time, it tells a great story through the bands: the Black Flag worship of Ill Will, AntiÕs longing to be the American Crass, the hardcore genius of Civil Dismay, all represent what was going then very well. And as can be expected, Spot produced a good majority of this stuff. There is some great music here that you may have overlooked. Sure it might sound dated, but itÕs a lot of fun in that KBD kind of way. (RK)
V/A "Life Is...Vol. 1 - Life Is Ugly So Why Not Kill Yourself" CD A reissue of an old comp organized by the legendary Spot. Some pretty classic L.A. stuff here from 79-82. Features many of the famed names: Red Cross (whose "Rich Brat" is an all-time great), Decedents, Minutemen and Saccharine Trust. I can't imagine anyone reading this not being immediately familiar with most of this stuff, but you never know. The two main points of interest for me are the 100 Flowers and Urinals songs, I love that stuff. Some crap, but mostly good to really good. (MC) |