ALBUM REVIEW: Blank Generation – A Story Of US/Canadian Punk & Its Aftershocks 1975-1981 (Cherry Red Records)
Named after Richard Hell’s stone-cold classic, Blank Generation documents the emergence in North America of what came to be known as punk rock.
From about 1975, more than a year before the Sex Pistols ‘started punk’ in the UK, bands who’d been playing in venues like CBGBs in New York City started releasing records.
Often on independent labels, they were seen as an antidote to the disco and soft rock which dominated the charts.
Many of those influential NYC bands are here – Patti Smith Group, The Ramones, Television, Blondie and The Dictators, to name just a few.
This emerging scene wasn’t confined to NYC however; other pioneers included Pere Ubu and The Dead Boys (Cleveland, Ohio), Dead Kennedys and Crime (San Francisco), Devo (Akron, Ohio), The Germs and The Weirdos (Los Angeles).
Roots of punk
Over 130 tracks and more than six hours of music, the Blank Generation 5CD book-set takes a deep dive into the roots of punk rock and how it developed in the US and Canada in those formative years.
Not only do you get to hear stone-cold classics like the Dead Kennedys’ Holiday In Cambodia, The Heartbreakers’ Chinese Rocks and The Dead Boys’ Sonic Reducer, but for every band you’re familiar with, there’s three others you’ll likely never have heard before.
There’s some hidden gems here, particularly on discs four and five, where you’ll find the likes of The Cosmopolitans, Lyres and The Jetsons among dozens of names you probably won’t have heard of.
As always in a compilation of this nature, there’s a few notable absences, presumably for licensing reasons – The Stooges, New York Dolls and The Misfits spring immediately to mind.
Alternative sounds
Blank Generation also offers a deliberately broad definition of punk, features everything from the electro art-punk of Suicide to the goth psychobilly of The Cramps, and just about anything you can think of in between, as long as it sounds alternative.
Some of the acts featured – such as college radio favourites The Replacements and ’80s hardcore legends Minor Threat – would go on to make an even greater impact, and be regarded as just as influential as the early pioneers.
It’s impossible to listen to all of Blank Generation in one sitting, but repeated visits are most rewarding. 8/10.
Blank Generation should be available from any decent local record store or you can get it direct from Cherry Red Records HERE. Get it on your Christmas list now!
