flex your sub-heading
Nefarious Artists is a field study of over 500 punk rock, post-punk, new wave, hardcore punk, and alternative rock compilations from their beginnings in 1976 as major label samplers and live showcases of the ‘new wave’ through their rapid evolution into a documentary art form of D.I.Y. punk rock creativity and expression.
Following the streets-eye-view tour diaries of Directions To The Outskirts Of Town, Welly Artcore pulls a blinder, stumbling across a subject not yet explored: the punk rock compilation. Punks from all eras will have at least a passing acquaintance with the format, despite the millennium’s largely successful attempt to kill it with the sampler CD. I have my favourites: Crass Records‘ Bullshit Detector series, Meantime Records‘ Spleurk!, MDC’s tectonic plate-shifting P.E.A.C.E., and Words Of Warning‘s Mind Pollution, released in 1991 so not in this books’ time frame. Across over 400 pages, the author zeroes in on the form’s embryonic beginnings in 1976, charting its bumpy rise through to its inevitable stumbles at the tail-end of the eighties.
nuggets
Helpful overviews of contextual political and cultural events notwithstanding, Nefarious Artists does what it says in that oh-so lengthy sub-heading. With over 500 vinyl releases covered in chronological year groupings, many given full-colour, sleeve art reproductions, Welly concentrates less on pungent opinions – though never fear, they are here – and more on detail. Bands, producers, inserts, sleeve descriptions, and record labels: Chiswick, Stiff, Good Vibrations, Cherry Red, Bomp, Fast Product, Virgin, Dead Good, Posh Boy, Crass, Mortarhate, Dischord, Secret, Ralph, Bluurg, Touch And Go, Words Of Warning, Meantime, Raw, BYO, Rondelet, Pax, Xcentric Noise, No Future, Riot City, Sub Pop, Loony Tunes, and more. Whether you’re a Rebellion-attending archaeologist, a true DIY believer, or both, there’s a lot to get stuck into. Documenting such a phenomenon reveals a fascinating insight into the evolution of the differing styles, charting punk’s humble beginnings in pub rock, power-pop, and rock ‘n roll as the major labels attempted to cash in. 1976’s The Best Of American Punk Rock Recorded Live At CBGB’s 7″ EP kicks things off, notable as the first compilation ever to feature the term ‘punk rock’, the fact that it was a major label sampler carrying a deeper irony when you consider the subsequent journey the format went on. Welly (un)covers many a crucial, and not so crucial, underground nugget, as well as the records I gushed over as a box-fresh teenager in my local record shop. For every Let Them Eat Jellybeans, there’s a New Wave, for every Spleurk! a Cash Cows, for every Flex Your Head a Short Circuit, and for every Party Pooping Punk Provocations a Twenty Of Another Kind.
Meanwhile, in Europe the punks were still more concerned with squatting and building cultural centres to house their DIY ethics and punk scenes…
Welly on the 1986 Emma Squat Benefit double LP, Amsterdam
Welly’s interest in US hardcore in full effect, he charts the development of geographically specific sounds cropping up in different US States, as well as strong showings from scenes in Japan, Sweden, Finland, Australia, Poland, New Zealand, Brazil, and elsewhere. The parameters of punk are pretty wide too: Two-Tone ska, power-pop, pub rock, electronica, experimental, and all iterations of punk, including the inevitable metal crossover; if it fits the period, chances are it’s here, with a vinyl mountain of undiscovered gems and surprising facts. I never knew that Aylesbury Goes Flaccid is notable as both the first true, UK DIY regional compilation, as well as the one an embryonic MARILLION couldn’t afford inclusion on, and, weirdly, the fact that DISCHARGE largely avoided compilations needed pointing out to me. You’ll also stumble across Mark Radcliffe, Gore Verbinski, Shirley Temple‘s daughter, a pre-BIRTHDAY PARTY Nick Cave, a pre-LEATHERFACE Frankie Stubbs‘, a pre-fame, post-punk BERLIN, Linnea Quigley, future members of DROPKICK MURPHYS and GANG GREEN, Dave Grohl‘s MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, and a young Thom Yorke.
the first punk Christmas compilation was of course Oi! because when I think of Christmas the first things to spring to mind are skinheads
Bollocks To Christmas 7″ EP
This wouldn’t be a Welly-penned tome if there were no coruscating brush-offs, most of which are saved for his favourite: Oi! Bristling at the mere mention of that most pisstakeable of subgenres, almost all such showings receive a dry tongue-lashing. Though I enjoyed some of the bands back in the early 80s, Oi! didn’t need any help turning itself into both a right-wing thug-fest and a Viz caricature, but Gary Bushell waded in anyway via his ludicrous sleeve notes and Sounds writeups. Welly deadpan’s his way through the releases: Carry On Oi! (“…even the liner notes were written in a cockney accent“), the iconic-for-the-wrong-reasons Strength Thru’ Oi! (“the back cover sported a variety of bald goons being hilarious“), Oi! Oi! That’s Yer Lot, (“side one closed with the surprise entry of BLACK FLAG and Revenge, which saw skinheads everywhere think they were Oi!, buy their records, then sell them again“), saving his parting shot for Chaos En France Vol 1, dubbing it “Oi! Le Album“.
Quite how a book like this hasn’t already been written is a mystery likely to remain unsolved, but there is no safer pair of hands to steer the ship than Welly fuckin’ Artcore. Sure, he may have a dryly caustic wit that can cut through bullshit with consummate ease – it’s part of his charm – but he keeps it to a minimum here, treating the subject with the research-led gravitas it deserves. Meeting such a potentially intimidating project with a forensic thirst for knowledge, attention to structuring, and an eye-catching aesthetic, Welly renders Nefarious Artists a hell of a juicy read. A keeper.
Out now in paperback, published by Earth Island books
https://www.earthislandbooks.com/product-page/nefarious-artists-by-welly-artcore
PERSONAL PUNK 