Not So Quiet On the Western Front

Back in the early ‘80s young people first experimenting with punk and hardcore often bought compilations to help find the sounds that identified with their angst. Alternative Tentacles’ 1982 offering Not So Quiet On The Western Front offered a whopping 46 tunes documenting the Northern California and Nevada punk scene. The collection has aged amazingly well and today is regarded as an integral snapshot of a time before the underground became overcrowded. Berkeley, California’s Crucifix opens with a barrage of D-beat tantrums peppered with anarchistic lyrics. The track from 7 Seconds introduced many flannel-clad kids to anti-Reagan punk (which would later become a subgenre unto itself), while San Jose’s Los Olvidados and San Francisco’s Free Beer proved that punk and skateboarding go together like chocolate and peanut butter. The City’s Flipper made sludge sound nearly accessible with “Sacrifice” and the Ribsy’s “Collapse” kicked out Ritalin-deprived jams with enough nervous anger to start a basement riot. Of course no punk rock comp would be complete without a song that lampoons hippies and Fang’s “Fun With Acid” delivers the goods with shambolic results.