Steven Jesse Bernstein was a drug addled mentally ill monster of a poet, channeling his rage and pain into word to feel okay in his day to day life. His poetry, though often very grim and vulgar, was Bernstein's way of confronting the reality of his situations in a way that showed others like him that there was someone else with feelings one may be too afraid to say in polite society. He described himself as "...a war correspondent, and sent his dispatches from Hell to shake up the souls of the over-comfortable", and that he was, as a gifted spokesman for the outcast and insane of the streets.
    The details of his real life were a bit hazy. From what people have been able to understand, he was born in Los Angeles, was declared mentally insane and placed into state care at an asylum, and eventually made his way to Seattle. In the 80's and early 90's, he made his way to Seattle and established a life within the city’s art scene. This album was a small taste of his infamous live spoken word shows. Noted regulars of Steven "Jesse" Bernstein's spoken word/poetry shows included Kurt Cobain and director Oliver Stone. His live shows in Seattle were known to be wild occasions where Bernstein would read poetry like a mad man and throw anything from beer bottles to his own wallet at hecklers and admirers alike.
    Originally meant to be performed live in front in a prison housing special offenders, it was instead turned into a studio recording with slight jazz and ambient music to punctuate mood due to the inability to record at the prison. During the music arrangement of the album Bernstein, filled with near constant pain due to a lifelong illness, coupled with his mental illnesses, took his life shortly before the album was released. The result is the only recording of Bernstein's poetry, which range from esoteric beat poetry to ultra descriptive ten minute long stories of how his hatred of his own face and identity caused him to go insane as a young boy. His use of flow and description are multifaceted, fast paced, and will leave a divisive split of those who cannot stand to hear him drone on, or those who are enamored with his at times frank, uncensored, darkly humored, and always all too real perspective.

What can be said about Minor Threat that hasn’t already been said many times over from many different sources? Yes, they were a great punk / hardcore band; yes, their songs were full of furious punk energy; yes, they’ve had an enormous influence on bands that came after them. But what the question about their music really comes down to "how well has their work held up after all of these years?" And the answer is – superbly well actually. "Complete Discography" collects all of their releases from their all too brief existence onto one disc, and it’s an amazing collection of primal hardcore punk. These are the tracks that launched thousands of hardcore bands, inspired the straight-edge movement, and have influenced just about every punk band to follow. However, unlike many of their descendents, these tracks have staying power; Minor Threat was simply a better band as a band than most, and their work survives today because of it. Minor Threat remains a standard against which many hardcore bands, whether straight-edge or not, are measured, and these tracks show quite clearly why that is. The songs vary, including the raw fury of songs like "I Don’t Wanna Hear It," "Seeing Red," "Screaming at a Wall," and "Bottled Violence" to name a few, to more pointed, even issue oriented songs like "Guilty of Being White," "Out of Step," and the eponymous "Straight Edge," to the slightly more introspective songs in the second half of the album like "Betray," "Look Back and Laugh," and the album’s closer "Salad Days." One of the interesting things about having all of Minor Threat’s tracks gathered together this way (Tracks 1-8 were originally released as the "Minor Threat" e.p., tracks 9 & 10 were released on the "Flex Your Head" comp., tracks 11-14 were released as the "In My Eyes" e.p., tracks 15-23 make up the "Out of Step" Record, and tracks 24-26 come from the "Salad Days" single) is that you get to see how the band develops musically. The earliest tracks are much rawer simpler than what comes later. One really gets a sense that they are developing into better musicians as time goes on. It’s not really all that surprising that Ian Mackaye, the band’s leader and one of its main songwriters, later went on to form Fugazi.

No self-respecting punk should be without this album. More punk bands have covered Minor Threat tracks than probably any other punk band, and, as this record shows, there’s a good reason for that.

Black Flag’s "The First Four Years" is exactly what its title says it is - a collection of Black Flag’s first three E.P.s and a few other songs from the early days. All of these tracks are from the years before Henry Rollins joined the band and document the band’s early development through its various line-up changes (especially with the vocalists) and stylistic evolution.

This is album made up of several important punk e.p.s. The first four tracks are especially noteworthy as they make up the "Nervous Breakdown" e.p., which is one of the most important releases from early L.A. Punk, (and even punk in general) as it had a huge impact on the scene. The title track alone is considered a classic punk anthem nowadays and other bands often cover it (with Gallows’ cover of it on their "Orchestra of Wolves" album earlier this year being the most recent high profile version). Even today it still sounds like a shot of punk fury stunning you into submission. The other three tracks from the e.p. are "Fix Me," "I’ve Had It" (which has a killer raw guitar riff, and "Wasted." The lead singer for this first record is Keith Morris, who later left Black Flag to form the Circle Jerks. Not many people outside of L.A. saw him with Black Flag, which is a shame because he was said to be the most entertaining of the band’s singers on the stage (if not necessarily the best vocalist they ever had). Anyway the "Nervous Breakdown" record is one that is already discussed in punk history books and has earned its place in the seminal punk canon (whatever that may be).

Tracks 5-9 comprise the "Jealous Again" e.p., which features Chavo on lead vocals (and Chuck Dukowski singing track 9). There is a noticeable hardening in the musical sound with these tracks that continues on through the rest of the album as the band continues its development over the years. This section contains such songs as "Jealous Again," "Revenge," "White Minority," "No Values," and "You Bet We’ve Got Something Personal Against You!"

Tracks 10-16 are all sung by Dez Cadena, Chavo’s successor as lead singer, and Rollins’ predecessor, with track 10 being from the "Cracks in the Sidewalk" comp., 11-13 comprising the "Six Pack" e.p., and 15-16 being the "Louie Louie" single. This section is particularly notable for early versions of the songs "Six Pack" and "Damaged I," which both appeared later on the "Damaged" LP with Rollins on vocals.

As a whole this album is a great portrait of the early Black Flag, showing clearly the band’s musical development and increasingly harsh sound.. Even Rollins once said that this was his favorite Black Flag album. No Black Flag collection is truly complete without it.

If you’ve never heard these first two records by the Vandals then you can’t say you know the whole story about this band. Like most fans I became familiar with the group through the work that they’ve done since their line-up stabilized in 1989 – the familiar one that features Dave Quackenbush, Joe Escalante, Warren Fitzgerald, and Josh Freese. But the Vandals existed as a band for almost a decade before that, and these records are from that time. The first six tracks make up the six song e.p. "Peace Thru Vandalism" which was released in 1982 by Epitaph Records (in fact it’s the very first official Epitaph release). Tracks 7-17 make up the first LP, "When in Rome Do as the Vandals" which came out in 1985. The only member of the 1989 line-up who was in the band at the time is Joe Escalante. The vocalist in those days was Stevo, and you’ll hear him on these tracks in all his hard-edged glory.

In fact this whole collection tends to be a lot harder edged than the later, more familiar, Vandals. I would never have thought in this day and age that the Vandals could shock me, but several years ago, when I heard some of the songs on this record for the first time my jaw dropped. Some of these songs are really out there (even for the Vandals), and a couple of them are very violent. Of course the time when this record first came out is a lot closer to the time of the first wave of Los Angeles Punk, and the spirit of that time infuses a lot of this record, especially the "Peace Thru Vandalism" part. This record quickly became my favorite Vandals record.

The first six tracks contain an unforgettable set of classics, from "Wanna Be Manor" (track 1) which starts things off in a really rundown squatter’s house (the likes of which gutter punks the world over will still recognize today), through to the "Anarchy Burger" (track 6) a real skewering of punk anarchy pretensions that the band still performs (and which has one of the greatest sets of comedic punk lyrics I have ever heard in "America stands for freedom / but if you think you’re free / try walking into a deli / and urinating on the cheese!" — pure punk genius). Other songs from the e.p. include "Urban Struggle" (track 2) about the fighting between country fans and punk fans of the time, "The Legend of Pat Brown" (track 3), "Pirate’s Life" (track 4). and the very shocking "H.B. Hotel" (track 5) which begins as a cover of "Heartbreak Hotel" but quickly morphs into a song in which the singer sings about torturing and killing his ex-girlfriend.

"When In Rome…." gets under way with track 7, the famous "Ladykiller" which is an early punk/hip-hop crossover song (in fact it predates the Beastie Boys’ "License to Ill" by at least a year). Other standouts on the LP include "Birthday Bash" (track 8), about the birthday party from hell (sometimes called "Bad Birthday Bash") when the Vandals come to perform at fan’s birthday party, bringing a bunch of their friend with them who the proceed to destroy the fan’s house; "Big Brother vs. Johnny Sak" (track 10), a metaphorical political tract; "Mohawk Town" (track 11), a parody of the western showdown, only this time the showdown is between punks and skinheads, "Airstream" (track 16), about life on the road, and the closer "Rico" (track 17) about life in Hollywood.

The whimsey and comedy of the Vandals is already very evident on this record, although it would be refined in later years. At this time, however, the comedy is mixed with a much harder edge, and the result is a punk album that still sounds vital even after more than 20+ years.