No, not Left of the Dial. Left of Left of the Dial.

As I was saying:

I really lurv a good box set. I’m a total sucker for someone else’s retrospective on a second tier band, complete with alternate takes, mono/stereo versions, studio chatter, unreleased gems and just about anything released between 1958 and 2011 labeled remastered and expanded. Better yet, give me a semi-respected label’s ostensibly comprehensive overview of a music scene – fabricated, real, expansive or hermetic – if I sort of dig even some of the music, I’m in. Naturally, compilations and mix tapes and cloud playlists rank as well. If you’re reading this then you probably dig mixes too, so you’ll probably appreciate a label-sponsored scene comp, right? Such detritus functions as a blasting concept when done well. And while I don’t spend as much time listening to The Cobra Records Story or the RRR 5th Anniversary Box Set Thing as I once did, it’s comforting to know they’re there, along with all those Bear Family sets down in the crypt.

So when Rhino Records released yet another oversized four disc box back in 2004 called, you guessed it, Left of the Dial – Dispatches from the 80s Underground, I definitely queued up. Its purview was that nexus of post boomer/pre Gen X underground music culture that manifested in the basements and attics of colleges and universities across the USA between 1981 and 1991 – college rock, indie rock or pre-indie or underground rock or whatever it’s called by All Music Guide. Finally, a substantive reckoning of music I was actually present to witness and golly, even had a small hand in supporting! 

I waited before checking it out of my cart though. I waited for a few years. And if there was one causal factor responsible for my hesitation, it was Rhino’s selection of representative artists. That’s right – the elitist, self-righteous, collector scum part of my self burst forth to proclaim that Rhino...well, they blew it! Not that anyone was listening, not even me. When Amazon lowered the price on LOTD and its pitiful companion “punk” box (No Thanks: The 70's Punk Rebellion), I bought it anyway.

Okay, so where is this all going? I mean, who cares about this stuff anyway? I hear ya’ – but stay with me. Thing is, even after buying LOTD and listening through it repeatedly, I continued to be bothered by how it missed the mark. I'd helmed radio shows for years, piled fanzines floor-to-ceiling in my bathroom, put out records by bands I loved. LOTD just did not capture my experience of what was great about the music of that time. Sure, thousands, if not millions, of incipient middle age punters loved R.E.M. and The Jam and Depeche Mode and The Psychedelic Furs and XTC, et effin’ al. Sure, without their success the point ultimately attained by Nirvana may never have tipped. Sure, as a mature adult (ahem) I can appreciate, even enjoy The Cure and Aztec Camera and Prefab Sprout and Echo & The Bunnymen (not Concrete Blonde tho’– WTF?) far more now than I did back in the day of my tribal affiliations. And Rhino did indeed include eternal coolouts MISSION OF BURMA, DINOSAUR (oh okay, DINOSAUR jr.), the GO-BETWEENS, the CRAMPS and BEAT HAPPENING... and Kathleen Billus even gave me a shout out on page 42 of the accompanying booklet! At least I think it’s me to whom she's referring – thanks Kath!

The underground music culture well was miles deeper between 1981 and 1991 than Rhino's presentation suggests...and much farther to the left. That needs to be acknowledged. There are plenty of places to hear it and read about it in this wired modern world – start with Jay Hinman’s musings at Detailed Twang/Agony Shorthand/Hedonist Jive. Listen to Brian Turner and John Allen and Terre T on WFMU. The Art for Spastics guy is beyond. Heck, go out and support today’s kids making a righteous racket and knockin’ about like saucer-eyed banshees. They’ll remind you of what’s so great about loud guitars and squealin’ synths. Plus, they shred.    


LEFT OF LEFT OF THE DIAL! That’s what I’d call my box set, given the opportunity. It’d capture the essence of rock’s outer limits during the decade from 1981 to 1991, the inspired skronk celebrated deep in the night at college stations and communal houses and suburban bedrooms and sketchy alley ways: piles of RRR noise and detuned guitars, hardcore fallout, haunted xpressways, the stank of the Lower East Side and the underbelly of the USA and UK and Europe and Japan, alienation and spiritual dislocation as manifest in sound and word, supercilious rants by Dutch squatters and boxes of vinyl from an apparition in Houston, TX. And such a box set wouldn’t even begin to touch on the depth of the experience, as we all mixed in the history of the 20th century, from musty country blues to hillbilly boogie, localized hip-hop, wigged out sin alley struts, beard rock holdovers and yea, the VU and Stooges and MC5 and Modern Lovers and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins...

So there you go. I had to share it. I’ve already compiled my version on CD-Rs several times over. But since I don’t have a blog [well, now I do], print a 'zine, or have a radio show anymore, there was only one forum I could think of that would allow for the kind of connect I was needing...Facebook. And not only Facebook, but a Facebook Group and Gift App [How embarrassing - that FB gift app is long dead]. Spread the word, brothers and sisters, LEFT OF LEFT OF THE DIAL has arrived.

ATPJR [12/24/08; updated 1/21/12]

Vertical Records' Revolving Shadow CEO along with Jim S/ Stürm (R.I.P.) /Straub /Mark V (1989-1994).

• WMUA 1986 – 1990 [Music Director – 1987-1989]
• WPRB 1986 – 1992
• WFMU 1991 – 1995 [and then some] 

…and dedicated to the enduring art of Mark Stürm, Charlie Öndras, D. Böön, Naömi Peterson and Grant McLennan.