This record will turn 30 years old in a few weeks. This millenial of a compilation is still paying off its student loans, has probably delayed getting married, might have moved back into their mom's place.
A split release between DC's Teen-Beat and NYC's Matador, Teen-Beat 50, as the story goes, was originally scheduled to come out in 1990. which would have made this one of the first ten recordings on the now-indie titan. I'd guess it'd slot into that same space now filled by New York Eye And Ear Control. Teen-Beat was well known for split releases, working with Homstead, No. 6, Ajax, and a host of others; all to get some of the best bedroom indie of the late 80s and early 90s off of cassette and onto wax/CD.
Your listening experience runs the gamut, from Dischord contemporaries Circus Lupus and Autoclave, to goof-assin' from Sexual Milkshake, to an early Carl Newman track from his pre-New Pornographers band Superconductor. A shitton of Teen-Beat luminaries perform: Unrest with 3 appearances, Butch Willis, Jonny Cohen, Andrew Beaujon (on four tracks). This here's the CD release, which has 11 more recordings than the LP version.
I'd held off writing about this b/c I wanted to talk a bit about what Teen-Beat means to me as a counterpoint to Dischord in DC music history, but I never could pull my shit together well enough to make a solid enough essay. Let me say that I feel very lucky haven't been turned onto Fugazi and Unrest almost simultaneously, and to become aware of both frontperson's labels. To discover that sense of possibility, that you could follow your own path and have folks glom onto it...it stuck with me. Clearly.
Click here to download.
1 comment:
Thank you!
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