Blank Generation: A Story Of US/Canadian Punk & Its Aftershocks 1975-1981, Various Artists 5CD Book Set

• 5CD set bringing a comprehensive, big-tent look at the early years of punk rock in the US and Canada.

• Over six hours of music.

• Includes benchmark tracks by the scene’s most influential bands plus many rare singles making their first appearance on CD.

Named after Richard Hell’s epoch-defining anthem, ‘Blank Generation’ documents the emergence in North America of what came to be labelled punk rock. A year or two prior to punk exploding in the UK, bands who’d been playing live in venues like New York City’s CBGB started releasing records, often on independent labels, as an antidote to the prevailing disco and corporate soft rock which dominated the US charts.

This five CD reflects those influential NYC bands – Patti Smith Group, The Ramones, Television, Blondie, The Voidoids, etc. – as well as the scene’s other pioneers such as Pere Ubu and The Dead Boys (both Cleveland, Ohio), Dead Kennedys and Crime (San Francisco), Devo (Akron, Ohio), The Germs and The Weirdos (Los Angeles) and Mission of Burma (Boston, Massachusetts).

‘Blank Generation’ offers a deliberately broad definition of punk, encompassing contributions from such outré acts as Suicide, The Cramps and The Residents through to new wave/power pop combos (Sneakers, Chris Stamey & the dB’s, etc.). Also present are contemporary recordings by some of the mavericks who inspired punk – Destroy All Monsters (Detroit) boasted ex-members of The Stooges and The MC5 and The Heartbreakers and Killer Kane Band spun off the New York Dolls.

While the US punk scene was arguably always more diverse musically than that of the UK, the music evolved quickly, as evinced by the choices heard on Discs 4 and 5. Many of the acts here such as X, The Replacements, The Feelies, Redd Kross, The Dream Syndicate, The Gun Club and Minor Threat would make an even greater impact as the 1980s wore on.

It’s hard to overestimate the seismic shocks caused by the music on ‘Blank Generation’, not only on everything in alternative music which followed in North American, from the 80s hardcore scene and the music heard on the whole alternative college radio network through to grunge and beyond. And yet this era has never before been treated to a comprehensive retrospective of this kind.

TRACK LISTING

DISC ONE
1 Richard Hell & the Voidoids - Blank Generation
2 The Ramones - Rockaway Beach
3 Television - Friction
4 The Modern Lovers - Someone I Care About
5 The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rocks
6 The Dictators - Cars and Girls
7 The Dead Boys - Sonic Reducer
8 The Dogs - John Rock
9 The Brats - Be a Man
10 Crime - Hot Wire My Heart
11 Poly Styrene Jass Band - Drano In Your Veins
12 Pere Ubu - Final Solution
13 Killer Kane Band - Mr. Cool
14 Marbles - Red Lights
15 Sneakers - Condition Red
16 Blondie - Rip Her to Shreds
17 Suicide - Rocket USA
18 The Suicide Commandos - Match/ Mismatch
19 Patti Smith Group - Pissing In a River
20 Mirrors - Shirley
21 John Berenzy - Vice Verses
22 The Residents - Satisfaction

DISC TWO
1 Devo - Come Back Jonee
2 Destroy all Monsters - Bored
3 The Avengers - We Are the One
4 The Twinkeyz - Aliens In Our Midst
5 The Mumps - Crocodile Tears
6 The Scruffs - My Mind
7 Tommy Hoehn - Blow Yourself Up
8 The Randoms - Let’s Get Rid of New York
9 The Dils - Mr. Big
10 Chris Stamey & the dB’s - (I Thought) You Wanted To Know
11 The Quick - Pretty Please
12 Cigarettes - Gimme Cigarette
13 electric eels - Cyclotron
14 Mars - 3E
15 Howard Werth - Obsolete
16 Pointed Sticks - What Do You Want Me To Do?
17 Shock - This Generation’s On Vacation
18 The Deadbeats - Let’s Shoot Maria
19 The Bags - Survive
20 The Human Switchboard - No
21 Curtiss A - I Don’t Wanna Be President
22 Alda Reserve - Cure Me
23 The Young Canadians - Hawaii
24 The Weirdos - We Got the Neutron Bomb
25 The Last - She Don’t Know Why I’m Here
26 Tom Verlaine - Breakin’ In My Heart
27 Pagans - Street Where Nobody Lives

DISC THREE
1 The Dickies - Fan Mail
2 DMZ - Bad Attitude
3 The Germs - Lexicon Devil
4 The Cramps - TV Set
5 Really Red - Corporate Setting
6 The Swimming Pool Q’s - Rat Bait
7 Blow Up - Tell It to the Judge
8 Nervus Rex - Don’t Look
9 The Eyes - Topological Lies
10 Pylon - Cool
11 Zero Boys - I’m Bored
12 The Bizarros - Quiana Girls
13 Smart Alex - Chitter Chat
14 The Hits - All the Girls (Wanna Be In Gangs)
15 The Dishrags - I Don’t Love You
16 Black Randy & the Metro Squad - I Slept In an Arcade
17 Rhino 39 - Prolixin Stomp
18 Count Vertigo - I’m a Mutant
19 Testors - Time Is Mine
20 The Girls - Jeffrey I Hear You
21 The Urinals - I’m a Bug
22 Richard Lloyd - Blue and Grey
23 The Sleepers - Seventh World
24 The Stimulators - Loud Fast Rules
25 The Next - Cheap Rewards
26 Mission of Burma - Academy Fight Song
27 The Flyboys - Theme Song

DISC FOUR
1 Dow Jones & the Industrials - Can’t Stand the Midwest
2 The Haskels - Taking the City By Storm
3 Pure Hell - Noise Addiction
4 Suburban Lawns - Janitor
5 Non Compos Mentis - Ultimate Orgasm
6 The Method Actors - Do the Method
7 Modernettes - Barbra
8 The Bureaucrats - Feel the Pain
9 Bush Tetras - Snakes Crawl
10 Chrome - New Age
11 The Cosmopolitans - How To Keep Your Husband Happy
12 The Customs - Long Gone
13 Epicycle - You’re Not Gonna Get It
14 The Colors - Rave It Up
15 The Gizmos - Bible Belt Baby
16 The Demics - New York City
17 The Units - Work
18 The Suburbs - World War III
19 Chandra - Kate
20 The Suspects - Talking Loud
21 The Feelies - Raised Eyebrows
22 The Bongos - Telephoto Lens
23 Martin Rev - Mari
24 The Embarrassment - Sex Drive
25 The Necessaries - Detroit Tonight
26 MX-80 Sound - Someday You’ll Be King

DISC FIVE
1 Polyrock - Romantic Me
2 The Unknowns - Dream Sequence (September 1981)
3 Pell Mell - Spy Vs. Spy (Sept. ‘81)
4 Lyres - Buried Alive
5 Justin Trouble - Ponytail
6 The Speedies - Time
7 The Anemic Boyfriends - Fake I.D. (August 1981)
8 The Gun Club - She’s Like Heroin To Me
9 The Slickee Boys - Here To Stay (January 1981)
10 Salvation Army - Mind Gardens
11 New Math - They Walk Among You
12 The Jetsons - Genetically Stupid
13 The Dream Syndicate - When You Smile (EP Version)
14 Oil Tasters - That’s When the Brick Goes Through the Window (August 1981)
15 Redd Kross - Clorox Girls
16 Middle Class - Last Touch
17 Wall of Voodoo - Call Box 1-2-3
18 Chiefs - Blues
19 X - White Girl
20 Crash Course In Science - Cardboard Lamb
21 Adolescents - Amoeba
22 Flesh Eaters - Version Nation
23 The Replacements - I’m In Trouble
24 Sport of Kings - This City In Darkness
25 Get Smart! - This Is Style
26 Dead Kennedys - Holiday In Cambodia
27 Romeo Void - Not Safe
28 Minor Threat - Minor Threat