"Short Music for Short People" compilation Fat Wreck Chords Fat 591-2 1999 (49:25)
San Francisco's Fat Wreck Records has been advertising this disc as "the only compilation featuring every band" and, well, it's damn near true! 101 bands blast out their best ~30 second or less ditties. The cd is indexed with 99 tracks (the final 3 are together as track 99) but it still only clocks in at less than 50 minutes. The majority of the bands/tunes fall into a vague pop-punk/punk category with a few dozen or so acoustic, hardcore/metal, ska, rockabilly and uncategorizable exceptions. There's plenty of big names to be found here: Less Than Jake, Bad Religion, Blink 182, Green Day, Gwar, D.O.A, the Descendents, Circle Jerks, The Offspring, The Damned, Pennywise, All, NOFX, 7 Seconds, Rancid, Black Flag, the Misftits, etc., etc. (what, no Ramones?!?) and a plethora of other names I've just now been introduced to. The music is a lot of fun, especially since most of the bands go the humorous route with their allotted time. It's surprising how many of these tracks sound like complete songs, despite only being half a minute long. A lot of these bands I don't normally like, but in such small dosages they range from tolerable to great. Besides, bye the time you realize any one track you're listening to sucks, you're halfway into the next one! My favorites: 3, 16, 23, 30, 39, 55, 65, 72, 76, 100 and 101. The absolute coolest of those are the profanity filled Blink 182 "Family Reunion" and ultra catchy 11 second Mr. T Experience "Told You Once", the Scottish traditional music/punk mix of The Real McKenzies' "Old Mrs. Cuddy" (I must get everything by these guys after hearing this!) and the finale, Wizo's "The Count" in which they simply count from 1 to 30 over the music. Ha! The 26 page color insert is very nicely done with pictures/lyrics/credits/contact info for each and every band. All in all, this was a great (and cheap!) idea. I can only assume there will be a volume 2 ...
Where did I get this cd? - at a local Blockbuster Music of all places (get it direct from Fat Wreck for $8)