V/A No Planet, No Future cassette
Three-band “demo tape comp” from Whitfield, NJ, a small, young scene of bands allegedly surrounded by the elderly in their hometown. Released by Almost Records, which is run by one of the members of NATURE BOYS, these tapes are re-dubbed over secondhand cassettes. The biggest annoyance of the release is that the cassette is very long and there is a ton of dead space on both sides, which could have easily had all the comp tracks on each side. Well, that should be the biggest annoyance. My big gripe is that the glued-down paper label from one of the sides of the tape peeled off while playing and clogged up the guts of my van’s tape deck, causing it to stop working while I was attempting to fast forward through the dead space at the end of one of the sides. No internet presence for any of the bands or for the label, so good luck tracking down a copy for yourself. Onto the music: ANGRY YOUNG MEN live up to their name with the titular track on the compilation. Youthful, energetic, passionate hardcore singing about being young and angry. HEARTCORE rips through the shortest song on the tape. Short, angry, mid-tempo hardcore. NATURE BOYS provide two songs on the comp. Very slick, professionally recorded pop punk. Catchy songs, but I could personally do without the BLINK-182 auto-tuned vocal effects.