"Ground Zero - 2013" v/a
When I moved across the country I sold all my records. It had to be done, I was a terrible collector and treated my albums roughly, and they weighed so much my poor tired van probably would’ve cracked its suspension driving through the Rockies. I think a record collection is a great thing to have if you own a house, as a permanent renter, I’ll stick to my little tapes and zines.
Before I trotted over to Armageddon records, I pilfered through my gatefolds and slipped out a couple choice album inserts, posters, liner notes, etc that were of a sentimental value- this tremendous newsprint accompaniment to “Ground Zero – 2013” from Toxic State being just one of them. These were the halcyon days of the Egg Punk / Chain Punk dichotomy, blogspot music blogs, basement shows at the Boiler Room in Allston and at the Elks Lodge in Cambridge- we were v. lucky to have so many of these bands come up to play in the Boston area!! This compilation was very highly anticipated, and I bought it right away and then… it got lost in the mail. Or rather I moved out of my tiny closet sublet and it got returned to sender? And then in that time it sold out and I thought I’d never get it, and half a year later it finally showed up!
This record is full of earworms- No Es Vivir, the La Misma tracks, Sadboys, Murderer – I haven’t listened to hardcore or dbeat or pogo punk in forever and now I want to rage around my apartment again. One of the things I admired most about the NYC punk scene at the time was the real visual culture element to the bands and their albums. Every band featured on Ground Zero gets its own page to flex their style, it’s a sick kaleidoscope of dbeat tropes, harsh collage, snotty comics. It also came with a giant, beautiful screen printed poster that I can’t find. The last I remember it, it was scotch taped over a giant hole in the drywall at Cold Spring Hollow, maybe it’s still there.
