One of the hassles of doing a music zine is realizing that sometimes dealing with life or poverty can mean a lot of music runs the risk of passing by before you get to it.  When I learned of this record, I had to get it and finally got around to nabbing it.  This album compiles the two early singles and first EP of the Canadian Subhumans covering the years 1978-1981 along with a couple unreleased tracks.  As you may have guessed, this is early punk rock as its fairly raw finest form with overdriven guitars and in your face attitude along with more hooks and melody than people expected during that time.  The material here this band took a more conscious approach lyrically tackling mass media misinformation, the fragile state of late 70s Canada, the possibility of military juntas, straight male attitudes et al with a ton of passion and anger.  Also here is the original version of “Fuck You” (the punk classic many know from D.O.A.’s cover).  This album is rough around the edges yet instantly appealing to fans of real punk, Subhumans (Canada)’s early work is a musical and social postcard of a period as punk rock began to morph into hardcore and then managed (against a massive shitload of odds) to change a ton of lives over the decades.  This album is a must have; play it for any newbies who only knows the corporate pop punk stuff and see their reaction.  (BOONE)

(Alternative Tentacles Records. P.O. Box 419092. San Francisco, CA 94141-9092 alternativetentacles.com)