Vancouver Complication
| Vancouver Complication | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Compilation album by various artists | |
| Released | 1979 |
| Recorded | 1976-1978 |
| Genre | Punk rock |
| Label | Pinned Records Sudden Death Records (CD Re-Release) |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Ned Raggett, AllMusic |   [1] |
| Brian Lynch, Georgia Straight | link |
Vancouver Complication is a compilation album featuring many influential Vancouver punk bands. It was released in 1979 on Pinned Records, and has been reissued a number of times with several different cover designs.[2]
Considered one of the most important Canadian punk rock albums,[3] the album was compiled by Grant McDonagh, who would later become one of the founders of Zulu Records.[4] Most tracks were recorded at the Sabre Sound studio in Vancouver; for some bands, their contributions to the album were their first and/or only time recording material in a studio.[5]
Reissue
The album was reissued in compact disc format in 2005, on Joe Keithley's Sudden Death Records.[5] The CD reissue's liner notes acknowledged that the 1978 Akron, Ohio punk compilation The Akron Compilation was one of McDonagh's key inspirations for compiling and releasing the album.[1]
The CD reissue was marked by a release party at Vancouver's Wise Hall, featuring performances by many of the bands on the compilation.[5] In 2011, Sudden Death Records announced a special project, donating all proceeds from sales of the album during the Christmas retail season to the Vancouver Food Bank.[6]
Critical response
Writing for Exclaim!, Sam Sutherland stated that "a better snapshot of the beginnings of Canada's fertile West Coast punk scene does not exist."[7] For AllMusic, Ned Raggett noted that some of the bands on the compilation sounded derivative of the more established punk rock scenes in London and New York City, but praised other bands with "other less straitjacketed ways around punk inspirations" for producing "lasting winners", and called the overall album "a classic late-'70s punk-era city-scene survey".[1]
Track listing
- "The Marching Song" - Pointed Sticks
- "Big Shot" - Exxotone
- "Kill, Kill, This Is Pop" - D.O.A.
- "Fun While It Lasts" - Active Dog
- "Wirehead" - Wasted Lives
- "Death to the Sickoids" - Subhumans
- "U-J3RK5 Work for Police" - U-J3RK5
- "Rock and Roll Radio" - Private School
- "Mindless Aggression" - No Fun
- "I Don't Love You" - The Dishrags
- "Pork You" - Biz
- "Sideways" - Exxotone
- "I Hate Music" - The K-Tels
- "Nothing Holding You" - Active Dog
- "Urban Guerilla" - Subhumans
- "New Clientèle" - The Shades
- "Quarter to Eight" - Tim Ray and AV
- "Naum Gabo" - U-J3RK5
- "I Hate You" - D.O.A.
- "Old" - No Fun
- "[e?]925" - [e?]
The 2005 CD reissue included five bonus tracks, taken from the original recording sessions but not included on the original 1979 album:
- "Dying In Brooklyn" - Tim Ray & The Druts
- "Bullshit" - The Dishrags
- "Tits on the Beach" - Rude Norton
- "Sea Cruise" - Rude Norton
- "Gilligan's Island" - Rude Norton
References
- ^ a b c "Vancouver Complication". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
- ^ "Vancouver Complication". The Georgia Straight. 17 February 2005. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
- ^ "Notes from the underground". The Globe and Mail, January 7, 1992.
- ^ "Pop's new indie dependence". The Globe and Mail, June 17, 1995.
- ^ a b c "Punk's big family reunion: Joe Keithley celebrates the original Vancouver Complication". The Province, February 17, 2005.
- ^ Harrison, Tom (6 January 2011). "Vancouver Complication". The Province. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
- ^ "Various: Vancouver Complication". Exclaim!, May 1, 2005.