V/A – Old Skars and Upstarts 505 / 2005 Disaster / 30 Tracks / http://www.disasterrecords.com / Reviewed 23 September 2005

This series of compilations always has had some tremendous bands on it; this iteration has pretty much a half/half mix of famous/up and coming bands. The compilation’s first hit really comes in Die Hunns’ version of the Van Halen classic “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love”. Where the cover does not really bring much in the way of a re-tooled sound to the track, the energy present on the original song is maintained for this cover. Coming out of virtually nowhere, The Bones make the next strong case during their “Not A Love Song”. The rich instrumentation and smart arrangements during the track only bolster the smooth vocals, and The Bones have a poppy (but not in the vein of Blink 182) sounding punk rock track.

Surprisingly enough, it is another cover that really will get individuals’ toes tapping; Turbonegro have surprisingly allowed their version of David Bowie’s “Suffragette City” to find its way onto this track. This time, unlike Die Hunns, Turbonegro’s version tackles the original and only uses some of the vocal inflections of the original, while making the rest of the track theirs. The Black Halos use multiple harmonies, coupled with buzzing guitar lines to make a compelling and bouncy punk track, while the River Boat Gamblers battle a slightly fuzzy recording to bring forth their rich, interesting combination (think Welt meets “At The Library”-era Green Day). With thirty tracks, the fact is that even if “Old Skars and Upstarts” had twenty bum tracks (which is most definitely not the case), the quality of the remaining songs would make the price of this disc worth it. Blood For Blood really push the disc in a bold new direction; in their “Hanging On The Corner”, the band mixes equal parts Cali-punk, NY “tough” hardcore and even the slightest amount of melodic “post-hardcore” (read: emo).

Finishing up the discs with a cover of Circle Jerks (“Wild in the Streets”), The Kings of Nuthin’ truss up the track in much of the same way as Alice Donut’s cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs”; the Western-sounding plinking of the piano mixes well with the horn section. This CD is excellent in the sense that it will lure individuals in with tracks from major acts (like The Epoxies, The Adicts, and Roger Miret), but intersperse those tracks with a number of “upstarts” that often even outstrip the efforts of established bands on this disc.

Top Tracks: Die Hunns’ “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love”, Blood For Blood’s “Hanging On The Corner”

Rating: 6.6/10