Various Artists – Punk-O-Rama V. 8

Epitaph Records are one of my favorite independent record labels around who produce some of the best punk bands there are. This 2 disc compilation consists of 32 of those bands, and for only 22 cents a track. There is really no down side to it, a great deal for a great CD full of great songs by great bands (wow, I need a new work for great). The 8th installment in the Punk-O-Rama features the best ofEpitaph and and it’s sub-labels, including Bad Religion, Rancid, The Distillers, Death By Stereo, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, Motion City Soundtrack, Transplants, No Fun At Alland many many more. Here is a slight run down of some of my favorite tracks from the 2 CD set.

One of the biggest stand out tracks on the album is track 12 on disc 1, Makeshift Patriot by Sage Francis. This song isn’t exactly punk, leading more towards a slow rap/hip-hop type thing. It starts of with some talking, and has some other parts like that in the song too (normally about politics). The chorus is catchy, and you’ll be singing along the first time you hear it. The lyrics are powerful, and political. The song is probably my favorite on the compilation, just simply because it is very different, and it just stands out really well.

Some of my other top choices on disc one are the two opening tracks, I Am A Revenant by The Distillers and then Don’t Call It A Comeback by Motion City Soundtrack. The former of the two is a fast punk rock song, with strong punk rock vocals by Brody Armstrong. It is a really good old classic song by the trio. An amazing choice to open the album with. The latter of the aforementioned is off the band’s upcoming album, I Am The Movie. It starts off with a kinda electronic sound and then the vocals soon come blasting right at you. It is a fast paced song and really gets your energized. It makes you look forward to their new album a lot.

Tracks 6 and 7 are good too, they are The Greatest Fall (Of All Time) by Matchbook Romance and The Idiots Are Taking Over by NOFX, just read my reviews of their EPs to get a description of the songs.

Now onto disc 2, the biggest standout on here are the two Transplants songs, both are Quick Death, one is the original copy found on their CD, the other is a Error Remix. Neither are the best on the disc, what I love about this is just being able to hear the contrast between the two, and picking out all the differences and similarities. Personally, the remix version I like more then the original, listen to them both and discover a favorite of yours.

Tracks 8 and 9 are another set of songs I like (boy, I always seems to pick songs one after another). Incorporeal by Tiger Army is the first of the two, it is a pop-punk song with a extra special Tiger Army touch to it. Using the stand up bass, the band produces exciting song of its own.  Millencolin is next with their song, Bowmore. Bowmore is a great pop-punk song by a band, who in all honestly I am not a big fan off. I never seem to really like of any of the singles they put out, but this song is different. It is hard to explain, I just like it.  The Ocean Song by Pulley is yet another song that always got me looking to find out who it is when I played it on random. A fast paced punk rock song with a heavy guitar beat and steady rhythm throughout.

That’s all the songs I’m going to talk about, a couple other tracks which do deserve a mention are As Wicked (Rancid), the two Bad Religion songs, New Day (Bouncing Souls), Gonna Be A Blackout Tonight (Dropkick Murphys), Get This Right (Raised Fist) and Warpath (Bombshell Rocks). Overall I was really impressed by this cheap compilation. Although it does have a few week tracks on disc 1, it is still an awesome mix CD.