Various Artists – The Power Of Music

Dictionary.com defines “nationalism” as “Devotion to the interests or culture of one’s nation“. It means being proud of your country, having pride to display your country flag and proud to say you are from your country. And after hearing this compilation, I’m sure as hell that my sense of nationalism went up.

The Power Of Music is “a comprehensive collection of 40 Canadians artists for a cause.” Underground Operations have combined some of the best punk, pop-punk, hardcore, thrash, indie rock, garage and ska bands from Halifax to Vancouver and combined them all into two discs of twenty songs each. Some of the bands on here you’ve probably heard before as they are from some big named indie labels likeAnti-, STOMP, Vagrant, Smallman, and Union Label Group, there’s even one band from Reprise. So bands like Closet Monsters, Planet Smashers, Moneen, Death From Above 1979, Belvedere, Choke, and The Weakerthans will probably all ring a bell and make you pick up the album to see what else is there. And there’s where the value of this compilation comes from.

Its the independent bands that make it worthwhile. The smaller bands that don’t have a record label backing them but are still traveling across the country playing as many shows as they can and lending songs out to compilations whenever they can. Bands like The Flatliners (who supply one of the best songs of the album, Fred’s Got Slacks), Hostage Life, The Failure, The Matadors, Kiros, and Brat Attackreally make the album complete. Sure, sometimes the production quality isn’t top notch but that’s expected from smaller bands and it really doesn’t effect the listening pleasure.

The best songs find themselves snugly in the final three spots of the album. The super fast old school skapunk song from The Flatliners comes first followed by Start Angry, End Mad by Moneen. The best song of the album by far is the short, simple song by Closet Monster, Empire Strikes Oil. Now I had never been a fan of the band, even when I saw them live they were amazing. But this song, about the attack on Iraq, is just so amazing I can’t get it off a repeat. Simply amazing.

Overall, The Power Of Music is a great compilation introducing people to some great up and coming Canadian punk bands. And benefiting the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, you can’t go wrong.