Rich Lard, the main mover and shaker behind “Punk Shit Volume 1” is an Irish punk living in Birmingham, England whose idea for this 40 track compilation was essentially to give exposure to Punk bands on both the Irish and Birmingham scenes. Like most compilations it’s a mixed bag of bands, some good (Nerdlinger, Dogshit Sandwich, Greenland Whalefishers, The Wernt, Bug Central), some bad and some brilliant (Blood or Whiskey, Runnin’ Riot, The Steam Pig) and some just plain average, with a wide range of punk style from the Pogues/Traditional inspired Blood or Whiskey and Greenland Whalefishers to Street Punk, Metallic Hardcore, Oi, Crust, Ska and Acapella (Wat Tyler’s, “Babylon’s Burning”).

I suppose the true test of a good compilation is if it wets the appetite to further check out some of the bands on it and I’ll be certainly checking out more from the Steam Pig, Nerdlinger and a few more.

November 2001