Various - Black Hole (Californian Punk 1977-80)

  by Tommy Gunnarsson

published: 15 / 12 / 2010

---

Review

Most of the time, when you hear about American punk bands, you hear about the Ramones and… well… just the Ramones, actually. Sometimes people get things mixed up and start talking about Blondie or Talking Heads, but I guess if you are reading this, you know better than them. Famed UK music journalist Jon Savage thought that it was about time that we get to hear some more US punk, and the result is 'Black Hole - Californian Punk 1977-1980', a 26 track compilation featuring some of the punk bands that existed during that first wave. Even though most of the bands here are totally unknown to me, there are some more well-known bands here as well, like the Dead Kennedys, Germs, a band that featured future Nirvana/Foo Fighters member Pat Smear on guitar (and also Belinda Carlisle on drums for a very short period of time) and the Dils, whose 'I Hate the Rich' is one of the top tracks on this CD for me (even though I must admit that I thought they were from the UK…). Listening to this CD is fascinating, and as usual, Savage has done a smashing job compiling it. You can hear some obvious influences from the more known punk bands on the other side of the Atlantic, but there are also some shameless Ramones rip-offs here, like the Zeros, whose song 'Beat Your Heart Out' sounds like an outtake from any of the first three Ramones albums. I guess that it would cost you a fortune to buy all these singles on eBay, so apart from just being a great introduction to the US punk scene, or Californian to be more precise, you might just save some money, too.

Track Listing:-

1 Germs- Forming
2 The Dils- I Hate The Rich
3 The Screamers- Peer Pressure
4 Crime- Murder By Guitar
5 The Zeros- WIMP
6 The Avengers- We Are The One
7 Consumers- Anti, Anti, Anti
8 The Randoms- A-B-C-D
9 Black Randy And The Metro Squad- Trouble At The Cup
10 The Alleycats- Nothing Means Nothing Anymore
11 The Weirdos- Solitary Confinement
12 The Zeros- Beat Your Heart Out
13 X The Unheard- We're Desperate
14 The Offs- 624803
15 The Sleepers- Seventh World
16 The Middle Class- Situations
17 The Bags- Survive
18 Germs- Media Blitz
19 The Middle Class- Love Is Just A Tool
20 The Flesheaters- Pony Dress
21 Urinals- Black Hole
22 The Aurora Pushups- Victims Of Terrorism
23 The Avengers- The American In Me
24 Dead Kennedys- California Uber Alles
25 The Dils- The Sound Of The Rain
26 The Sleepers- Los Gatos

Label Links:-

http://www.dominorecordco.com/
https://www.facebook.com/DominoRecordC
https://twitter.com/DominoRecordCo
https://www.youtube.com/user/DominoRec
https://plus.google.com/+DominoRecords