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"When I say 1980 was a kind of dead zone in the Cleveland music scene, I can hear a collective, 'Isn't every year a dead zone in Cleveland?' Go ahead, take your Johnny Carson-era jokes and see what they buy you. Puff your chest about NYC in '75 or London in '76 or L.A. in '77 to some 27-something today. Allow me to save you face and remind you to add in late '70s Cleveland. Because when you revisit this comp of struggling, straggling, oil-stank CuyahogaRiver rats, it might sound like the most intriguing current day, underground punk. Here was compiler MIKEHUDSON (PAGANS) and pals/enemies circa 1978-82 (when these rackets were recorded), glancing out bar windowsto see 'hoods of crumbling warehouses and factories that, unlike in England, couldn't be blamed on the Nazis. Musically, they were inspired by the fifteen (give or take) forefathers of that early '70s Cleveland legend. But instead of seeing them sit at bars complaining about their failed major label deals, simply saw them sitting at bars. The later '80s Cle action that led to some excellent post-punk was still in the burbs, and the mainstream radio world that oncehad a few of its biggest offices in Brownstown had given up on the leather 'n' spikes stuff. Hence, the amazing, idiosyncratic, clanky shuffling that permeates all the Rust Belt rants herein…"—Eric Davidson (New Bomb Turks). Features tracks from PAGANS, STYRENES, WOMANHATERS, SEVERE, MENTHOLWARS, DEFNICS, DARK, INVISIBLES, LAB RATS, KEITH MATIC, JAZZ DESTROYERS, OFFBEATS, RED DECADE, JOHN LOVSIN, andEASTER MONKEYS. Limited to 1,000 copies on orange vinyl.