UK PUNK '77.....sure, it's been written about before, but you might be surprised at how comprehensive it all it at Paul Marko's UK PUNK '77 web site. You can listen, you can learn, you can even find out about a pack of UK bands well beyond the usual suspects. Marko looks past your Sham 69s and your Pistols to give due to some of the lesser-known punk rock of the day, like the amazingly deadly Stooge-punk 45s foisted on an uncaring public by RAW Records (Users, Killjoys, Sick Things, and more). Better still, this guy is a CD-R kingpin. Check out his punk rock store -- you'll find stuff in there that you certainly can't get anywhere else (since this is the guy that put it together). Adam and the Antz, digitized Bloodstains Across the UK, his own multiple-volume series called Spunkstains and Punkarama and Bored With the USA, Metal Urbain, Skrewdriver (!) -- just keep in mind that when he warns you about recording quality, he's not kidding. Some of the ones that I've heard are put together in very sloppy fashion, like his digitization of the My Girlfriend Was A Punk compilation LP (which is a great record, by the way), which has edits that cut off entire openings of songs, false starts, and....less. Others, like the UK Bloodstains series, are terrific -- not on CD anywhere else, so unless you wanna do the heavy lifting yourself, this is the way to get it on CD.

posted by Jay H. at 2:49 PM