Middle of America

Middle of America (1984)

I like punk rock compilation records. There's almost always something on there that makes the purchase worthwhile and the songs are so short that the shitty ones go by pretty quick. This one is from the Chicago area and was presented by the Northwestern University radio station's "Fast'n'Loud Radio" show. It seems a pretty safe assumption that it was a hardcore radio show. (A hardcore DJ being the busiest kind of DJ since they'd only have 30 seconds to a minute most of the time to queue up the next song.) As with all compilations this one is a hit or miss affair, but it's entirely worth the price of admission because it has "I Don't Know" by Chicago's long standing rock and roll tradition, Naked Raygun. I'd almost entirely forgotten that song until I pulled this out.

There's also tracks by other Illinois heavy hitters like Articles of Faith, Rights of the Accused and a weird remix of the Effigies. There's even an early track by Big Black that reconfirms my contention that I am not now nor am I ever likely to be a fan of Steve Albini's. I just find his work to be kind of tedious which is my right as a hard working American to attest to.