Various Artists
50
Stardumb
It’s my general opinion that we should do a lot more celebrating when it comes to punk rock. Yes, for most of us it’s what we do in our spare time, outside of our nine to fives. But when you think about it, it takes a fair bit of effort; between playing in bands, putting out records, writing zines and so forth, there’s a lot of work to be done. It’s fun, but not necessarily easy, but just because it’s not something towards company profits doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be proud (and frankly I’d rather go to a crappy show than a good office party anyway).
The point I’m trying to make; 50 is a celebratory compilation, marking the fiftieth release on Stardumb Records. The label’s specialty includes a lot of classic mid ‘90s style pop punk, as well as some garage rock, often crossing over. The first half of this collection is bands from the label covering other bands from the label. The second half is the same track listing of bands, but with unreleased songs. While it’s easy for concepts like that to come off as gimmicky, 50 feels much more genuine, on account of the sheer quality of the material; while I could see a lot of other labels potentially doing something like this where it sounds like twelve different bands playing the exact same song only slightly differently, there’s a surprising variety here. It keeps things fun, particularly thanks to bands like Sonic Dolls, The Dirtshakes, and Zatopeks. For that matter, the entire package is put together very nicely, making it one of the best compilations I’ve seen all year.
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