various artists - Cleanse The Bacteria

I really shouldn't have to explain why this record matters, why I hold it such high regards, why it sucks that it's not readily available. This is the good shit, from a time where the conventional wisdom was that punk was dead, hardcore was something to outgrow, and maybe this whole music thing could make some bread if you just took the hard edges off your sound. Yeah, C.o.C. and 7 Seconds ended up on major labels within five years, and Pushead was designing Nikes within 10, but the whole damned enterprise here is a quarter century ahead of its time. You have a handful of America's finest, Poison Idea and Siege joining the aforementioned bands from Raleigh, Reno, and San Fran. There's also a great sampling of international talent, from Swedish (soon-to-be) legends like Mob 47 and Crude SS, to Japan's the Execute, to deathrock from the likes of Part 1 and Holy Dolls.

My physical copy is the "standard" Pusmort release I copped from Disk Union about 10 years ago during my first trip to Japan. What I'm sharing here has lived on my various computers since the early aughts, and includes the songs from the mailorder-only extra 12". This includes Poison Idea's ripping cover of the Stooges' "I Gotta Right", as well as six other songs. There are a few wild ass bootlegs circulating of this; I wouldn't mind laying hands on this edition, featuring what appears to be a green ink silkscreened cover along with green-tinged center labels on the vinyl. Gnarly.

Discogs

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