“Punk On the Road (16 All Time Punk Classics Caught Live)” 1990. Skunx Recordings. Grey and green marbled vinyl. I’m spinning this comp today mainly as an excuse to write about The Exploited who appear performing “Dead Cities” (and we don’t really have The Exploited on anything but comps). I volunteer at a local cat shelter a couple of hours each week and last week was chatting music stuff with another volunteer and she shared the best punk rock story I’ve heard in a long time. Sometime in the mid-1980′s (she figured she was around 11 or 12 years old at the time) The Exploited played Milwaukee, possibly Cabaret Voltaire, and somehow she managed to go to the show. The next day she bused over to Southridge Mall (as one did in the 80′s) to hang out and who did she see? Wattie Buchan, full hawk and all! She told him how great the show was and he offered to show her the professional photos he just had gotten taken. They ended up wandering around the mall for an hour or two, you know, just a mid-20’s Scottish punk chilling with a pre-teen in a Midwestern mall (smelling horrible: my friend said his leather pants were the same ones he had worn for the show).

The rest of the comp is really decent – fairly high-quality live recordings (vocals mostly understandable!) of some of the quintessential punk songs from the early years. Best are 999 “Homicide,” The Ruts “Babylon’s Burning,” Stiff Little Fingers “Alternative Ulster” (which I got the chance to see myself live last year), Sham 69 performing “Hurry Up Harry” and Vice Squad’s “Last Rockers.” Sex Pistols’ “Pretty Vacant” is haphazard: the drums and lead guitar mostly solid, the bass is a bit all over the place (Sid?) and the backing vocals are hit or miss for timing and tune. Johnny Rotten always sounds pissed so his singing is pretty standard.