“The Best of Bomp! Volume One” 1978. As the cover states, this LP is a collection of highlights from the first four years of Bomp! Records (which started in 1974 as an outgrowth of the fanzine, BOMP! Magazine). Claiming to be New Wave before that genre label really took off in the late 70′s/early 80′s, many of the tracks feature a poppy, 50′s revival sound with nods to 60′s gangly guitar sounds á la The Byrds: melodic, harmonic, tinges of rock-a-billy. However, harder sounds also are heard, namely Iggy & the Stooges’ “I Got a Right” and “Gimme Some Skin” (these versions from a previously unreleased 1973 recording session), The Weirdos’ “A Life of Crime” and The Zeroes’ “Wimp.”

Side A features acts which showcase that 50′s/60′s melodic and jangly sound with 20/20′s “Living It All,” The Flamin’ Groovies’ “Him or Me,” The Wackers’ “Captain Nemo,” The Choir’s “I’d Rather You Leave Me” and, truly epitomizing the jingle-jangle sound, The Rockfield Chorale’s “Jingle Jangle.” The last track on Side A begins the foray into an edgier, harder sound with Venus & The Razorblades’ “Punk-a-Rama,” with a driving beat, prominent rock guitar and a mixture of spoken lyrics (nods to Patti Smith) and growling vocals. However, the track feels very manufactured: overly playing its punk cred with mentions of the Sex Pistols, CBGB’s, The Ramones, etc. etc.

Side 2 explodes with the raw energy of Iggy & The Stooges’ “I Got a Right,” fast, dirty and mean. Snatch’s “I.R.T.” is sparse bluesy girl punk. Early LA punks The Weirdos growl through heavy downbeats in “A Life of Crime,” while Willie Alexander & the Boom Boom Band take the tempo down several notches and take an art-rock turn with “Kerouac.” Shoes’ “Tomorrow Night” brings us back to melody/harmony sweetness before The Zeroes (“Wimp”), DMZ (“Busy Man”) and Iggy (“Gimme Some Skin”) deliver proto-punk abrasiveness to finish off the comp.