It Came from N.Y.C.

Disregard the notion that the Numero Group is excavating long-lost music on their 2016 box set It Came from N.Y.C., a three-CD/five-LP compilation of White Zombie's earliest recordings. Apart from four previously unreleased tracks from 1986 and "Black Friday" and "Dead or Alive," two bonus cuts added to a 1989 reissue of 1985's Gods on Voodoo Moon, everything here showed up on Geffen's 2008 box Let Sleeping Corpses Lie. Context, of course, is everything. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie built to a crescendo, culminating in the '90s alt-rock hits La Sexorcisto and Astro-Creep: 2000, the major-label records that turned Rob Zombie into a star who transcended the confines of his band. It Came from N.Y.C., as its title not so subtly suggests, shifts focus to the underground grime of the '80s, a time when White Zombie were a dynamic band led by Rob Cummings — the birth name of the future Zombie — and Sean Yseult, a duo who anchored the group while guitars circled around them. At the outset, White Zombie weren't metallurgists, they were noise terrorists and punk pranksters steeped in exploitation, junk culture, and D.I.Y. art expression. Early on, their records were thinly produced skronk, indie noise that wasn't far removed from Sonic Youth's evocations of Death Valley and Manson. Both bands wound up on DGC, but White Zombie's early records are pushed aside, partially because they've never been showcased like this. It Came from N.Y.C. has it all — 1985's Gods on Voodoo Moon, 1986's Pig Heaven (plus four previously unreleased tacks), 1987's Psycho-Head Blowout. Disc two is 1988's Soul Crusher, disc three has two 1989 releases: Make Them Die Slowly and God of Thunder — all presented in remasters from Jay Yuenger, but what counts is the packaging, particularly the book with an extensive essay from Grayson Currin and a selection of visuals, such as a timeline of official band T-shirts, necessary for understanding this very referential band. The music itself feels somewhat cemented to time, but that's also its appeal: this was a band that came from a very specific time and place, and that era is celebrated here, providing an interesting footnote in '80s underground history.