My review of Crazy Al's Indiana Punk & New Wave '76 - '83 on Twitter consisted mainly of "BUY IT" repeated a dozen times, and I stand by that. Hell, even if the majority of the bands and songs were mediocre, I'd probably recommend you snag this cassette just for the previously unreleased Zero Boys song, "I'm Absent."
However, it also has the amazing compilation staple of Dow Jones and the Industrials' "Can't Stand the Midwest," and it's just crazy good across the board. The advantage of this being punk and new wave is that we're not limited to three-chord bangers for two sides. There's weird synthesizer and keyboard cuts like the Dancing Cigarettes' "Pop Doormat," which is one of those things you discover and wonder why it's not getting played during those retro radio lunches instead of another run through "Take On Me."
There's also the electro-punk of We're Jimmy Hoffa, whose "Rock 'n Roll" seethes and oozes like the nastiest underground goth, only to blast through with razor-edged guitars. It's the sort of thing that counterbalances the snotty basics of Panics' "I Wanna Kill My Mom," which is exactly the sort of thing the Killed By Death crowd adores (having appeared on volumes 9 and 15 ½ of that compilation series).
Crazy Al's even dips into power-pop with Latex Novelties. Their "Kiss and MakeUp" is a perfectly Midwestern take on early UK underground pop: Boy-era U2 or the Skids, for instance (although both of them are actually Irish, come to think of it).
There's a two-disc CD version of this comp that has another unreleased Zero Boys song, "Commies." The CD version is about double the length of this cassette, and some artists have more tracks than are on the tape, while others have the same, and there are even bands on the CD that don't make it onto the tape. I don't know enough about the Indiana punk scene to say whether the bands on the Magnetic South cassette are more notable or they're better cuts, though.
You can buy the cassette version of Crazy Al's Indiana Punk and New Wave 76-83 from the Magnetic South store, or the double CD version from Time Change Records.
My review of Crazy Al's Indiana Punk & New Wave '76 - '83 on Twitter consisted mainly of "BUY IT" repeated a dozen times, and I stand by that. Hell, even if the majority of the bands and songs were mediocre, I'd probably recommend you snag this cassette just for the previously unreleased Zero Boys song, "I'm Absent."
However, it also has the amazing compilation staple of Dow Jones and the Industrials' "Can't Stand the Midwest," and it's just crazy good across the board. The advantage of this being punk and new wave is that we're not limited to three-chord bangers for two sides. There's weird synthesizer and keyboard cuts like the Dancing Cigarettes' "Pop Doormat," which is one of those things you discover and wonder why it's not getting played during those retro radio lunches instead of another run through "Take On Me."
There's also the electro-punk of We're Jimmy Hoffa, whose "Rock 'n Roll" seethes and oozes like the nastiest underground goth, only to blast through with razor-edged guitars. It's the sort of thing that counterbalances the snotty basics of Panics' "I Wanna Kill My Mom," which is exactly the sort of thing the Killed By Death crowd adores (having appeared on volumes 9 and 15 ½ of that compilation series).
Crazy Al's even dips into power-pop with Latex Novelties. Their "Kiss and MakeUp" is a perfectly Midwestern take on early UK underground pop: Boy-era U2 or the Skids, for instance (although both of them are actually Irish, come to think of it).
There's a two-disc CD version of this comp that has another unreleased Zero Boys song, "Commies." The CD version is about double the length of this cassette, and some artists have more tracks than are on the tape, while others have the same, and there are even bands on the CD that don't make it onto the tape. I don't know enough about the Indiana punk scene to say whether the bands on the Magnetic South cassette are more notable or they're better cuts, though.
You can buy the cassette version of Crazy Al's Indiana Punk and New Wave 76-83 from the Magnetic South store, or the double CD version from Time Change Records.