VA - Blank Generation Blank Generation (A Story Of U.S. & Canadian Punk & Its Aftershocks 1975-1981) [2023] (5 x CDs)

PUNK ROCK

VA - Blank Generation Blank Generation (A Story Of U.S. & Canadian Punk & Its Aftershocks 1975-1981) [2023] (5 x CDs)

Punk didn’t arrive as a movement. It arrived as a rupture, a sudden tear in the fabric of American and Canadian music. Blank Generation traces that tear across five discs, beginning with the spark in New York and following the shockwaves as they spread through basements, art spaces, garages and small labels across the continent. The set opens with Richard Hell, Ramones, Television and Modern Lovers, capturing the moment when attitude, minimalism and raw energy became a new language. These tracks still feel like first strikes: fast, sharp, and determined to clear space for something different.

From there, the compilation widens. Cleveland’s Pere Ubu, Detroit’s Destroy All Monsters, San Francisco’s Crime, Vancouver’s Pointed Sticks and The Young Canadians, each scene shaped its own version of urgency. Some bands leaned toward art‑rock abstraction, others toward power‑pop brightness, others toward noise and confrontation. The sequencing makes the geography feel alive, showing how quickly ideas travelled and mutated.

By the later discs, the aftershocks take over. Hardcore beginnings, post‑punk experiments, synth‑driven minimalism, and early college‑rock textures appear beside the original punk core. Mission of Burma, Bush Tetras, Chrome, The Units, The Feelies, The Bongos, all pushing outward, proving that punk’s legacy was expansion rather than repetition.

What makes Blank Generation compelling is its sense of movement. It doesn’t treat punk as a fixed style. It treats it as a chain reaction: one band inspiring another, one city echoing another, one idea breaking open a dozen more. The box becomes a map of how North American punk grew, fractured and re‑formed between 1975 and 1981.

For collectors, it’s a rare chance to see the whole arc in one place. For listeners, it’s a reminder that punk’s greatest achievement wasn’t noise, it was possibility. (B)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Richard Hell & The Voidoids - (I Belong to The) Blank Generation 2:54

02 Ramones - Rockaway Beach 2:06

03 Television - Friction 4:45

04 Modern Lovers - Someone I Care About 3:39

05 Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rocks 2:55

06 Dictators - (I Live For) Cars and Girls 3:54

07 Dead Boys - Sonic Reducer 3:09

08 Dogs - John Rock 3:09

09 Brats - Be A Man 2:53

10 Crime - Hot Wire My Heart 3:20

11 Poli Styrene Jass Band - Drano in Your Veins 1:49

12 Pere Ubu - Final Solution 4:59

13 Killer Kane Band - Mr Cool 4:11

14 Marbles - Red Lights 3:01

15 Sneakers - Condition Red 3:10

16 Blondie - Rip Her to Shreds 3:19

17 Suicide - Rocket USA 4:16

18 Suicide Commandos - Match/Mismatch 5:13

19 Patti Smith - Pissing in A River 4:51

20 Mirrors - Shirley 4:40

21 John Berenzy - Vice Verses 4:41

22 Residents - Satisfaction 4:00

CD2

01 Devo - Come Back Jonee 3:47

02 Destroy All Monsters - I'm Bored 3:57

03 Avengers - We Are The One 2:39

04 Twinkeyz - Aliens in Our Midst 3:20

05 Mumps - Crocodile Tears 2:09

06 Scruffs - My Mind 2:14

07 Tommy Hoehn - Blow Yourself Up 2:54

08 Randoms - Let's Get Rid of New York 2:42

09 Dils - Mr. Big 1:44

10 Chris Stamey & The DBs - (I Thought) You Wanted to Know 3:23

11 Quick - Pretty Please Me 4:31

12 Cigarettes - Gimme Cigarette 2:28

13 Electric Eels - Cyclotron 2:05

14 Mars - 3E 2:51

15 Howard Werth - Obsolete 2:27

16 Pointed Sticks - What Do You Want Me to Do? 2:17

17 Shock - This Generation on Vacation 1:46

18 Deadbeats - Let's Shoot Maria 2:20

19 Bags - Survive 2:47

20 Human Switchboard - No 1:40

21 Curtiss A - I Don't Wanna Be President 2:07

22 Alda Reserve - Cure Me 2:28

23 Young Canadians - Hawaii 1:53

24 Weirdos - We Got The Neutron Bomb 3:01

25 Last - She Don't Know Why I'm Here (Single Version) 3:26

26 Tom Verlaine - Breakin' My Heart 6:04

27 Pagans - Street Where Nobody Lives 1:37

CD3

01 Dickies - Fan Mail 3:04

02 DMZ - Bad Attitude 3:00

03 Germs - Lexicon Devil 2:05

04 Cramps - TV Set 3:12

05 Really Red - Corporate Settings 2:16

06 Swimming Pool Q's - Rat Bait 2:20

07 Richard Lloyd - Blue and Grey 3:34

07 Blow-Up - Tell it to The Judge 2:54

08 Nervus Rex - Don't Look (A Side Single) 3:51

09 Eyes - Topological Lies 1:34

10 Pylon - Cool 3:02

11 Zero Boys - I'm Bored 2:50

12 Bizarros - Quiana Girls 2:14

13 Smart Alex - Chitter Chat 4:06

14 Hits - All The Girls (Wanna Be in Gangs) 2:28

15 Dishrags - I Don't Love You 1:41

16 Black Randy & the Metrosquad - I Slept in an Arcade 2:30

17 Rhino 39 - Prolixin Stomp 1:54

18 Count Vertigo - I'm A Mutant 3:53

19 Testors - Time is Mine 2:37

20 Girls - Jeffrey I Hear You 5:37

21 Urinals - I'm a Bug 1:11

23 Sleepers - Seventh World 2:51

24 Stimulators - Loud Fast Rules 3:11

25 Next - Cheap Rewards 2:14

26 Mission of Burma - Academy Fight Song 3:09

27 Flyboys - Theme Song 2:11

CD4

01 Dow Jones & the Industrials - Can't Stand the Midwest 1:27

02 Haskels - Taking The City By Storm 2:15

03 Pure Hell - Noise Addicction 1:56

04 Suburban Lawns - Janitor 2:31

05 Non Compos Mentis - Ultimate Orgasm 2:57

06 Method Actors - Do The Method 5:12

07 Modernettes - Barbra 1:58

08 Bureaucrats - Feel The Pain 3:21

09 Bush Tetras - Snakes Crawl 3:36

10 Chrome - New Age 3:10

11 Cosmopolitans - (how to keep your) Husband Happy 2:46

12 Customs - Long Gone 2:26

13 Epicycle - You're Not Gonna Get It 1:39

14 Colors - Rave it Up 2:17

15 Gizmos - Bible Belt Baby 1:56

16 Demics - New York City (Talk's Cheap EP 1978) 4:32

17 Units - Work 2:23

18 Suburbs - World War III 2:59

19 Chandra - Kate 5:49

20 Suspects - Talking Loud 2:22

21 Feelies - Raised Eyebrows 3:01

22 Bongos - Telephoto Lens 2:03

23 Martin Rev - Mari 4:22

24 Embarrassment - Sex Drive 5:04

25 Necessaries - Detroit Tonight 3:03

26 MX-80 Sound - Someday You'll Be King 3:19

CD5

01 Polyrock - Romantic Me 3:14

02 Unknowns - Dream Sequence 3:17

03 Pell Mell - Spy vs. Spy 3:02

04 Lyres - Buried Alive 3:07

04 Gun Club - She's like heroin to me 2:38

05 Justin Trouble - Ponytail 2:06

06 Speedies - Time 2:37

07 Anemic Boyfriends - Fake ID 2:42

09 Slickee Boys - Here to Stay 4:14

10 Salvation Army - Mind Gardens 2:50

11 New Math - They Walk Among You 3:26

12 Jetsons - Genetically Stupid 2:21

13 Dream Syndicate - When You Smile (Down There EP Version) 3:09

14 Oil Tasters - That's When The Brick Goes Through The Window 2:36

15 Redd Kross - Clorox Girls 1:01

16 Middle Class - Last Touch 2:04

17 Wall of Voodoo - Call Box 2:34

18 CHIEFS - Blues 2:47

19 X - White Girl (Single Mix) 3:29

20 Crash Course in Science - Cardboard Lamb 2:30

21 Adolescents - Amoeba 3:06

22 Flesh Eaters - Version nation 1:53

23 Replacements - I'm in Trouble 2:09

24 Sport of Kings - This City in Darkness 3:10

25 Get Smart! - This is Style 2:43

26 Dead Kennedys - Holiday in Cambodia (single version) 3:46

27 Romeo Void - Not Safe 3:53

28 Minor Threat - Minor Threat 1:27

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