I’ve spent my off-hours this past couple of weeks finalizing a project I began a few years ago to create a “freeware” compilation of post-punk and otherwise experimental pop music from the Los Angeles area up to roughly the mid-eighties. I haven’t figured out how to host this yet, but thought I’d post the rough draft of the table of contents to see if any of these bands ring a bell to any of you out in the blogosphere (and to give myself some closure since I’ve become a little obsessed).

I still have tracks from my own records I’d like to rip and include, and I keep finding new acts from roughly this period with a few good tracks. I kind of think of this as a portrait of the city at the time more than a collection of tracks that will change the world (though more than a handful I think are unfairly neglected). I’m wondering if someone like Rhino Records would want to do a Nuggets-type collection from the period? They already have one of Los Angeles from 1965-1968 called Where The Action Is which looks really great (I don’t have a copy yet).

I plan on writing some liner notes to explain the rational behind some of my choices and to throw whatever weight I have behind those bands I particularly enjoy who have been entirely forgotten. Any opinions you might have are welcome, I’m eager to learn more about several of these acts. Ideas for a better title for the collection are also very welcome.

Southern California Post-Punk and Indie-Wave (1977-1987)

Disk 1
1 Wild Kingdom — Roma / Destiny (1981) 5:51
2 17 Pygmies — Words Never Said (1984) 2:28
3 Bad Religion — Chasing the Wild Goose (1983) 2:50
4 Null And Void — All The Old Humans (1980) 3:36
5 Outer Circle — My Mona Lisa (1984) 3:53
6 The Fibonaccis — Somnambulist (1982) 3:4
7 Bone Cabal — I O Betulah (1983) 4:34
8 Zolar X — Science (1982) 1:25
9 Trotsky Icepick — Mar Vista Bus Stop (1988) 3:3
10 Green on Red — A Tragedy (1981) 4:20
11 Iron Curtain — First Punk Wars (1983) 6:38
12 Abecedarians — Benway’s carnival (1985) 5:9
13 Earwigs — A Martyr Is Made (1981) 2:31
14 Shadow Minstrels — Great Expectations (1983) 4:3
15 Martyr Complex — Monsters (1981) 3:30
16 Motor Totemist Guild — Crayons (1985) 2:39
17 Steaming Coils — Harry Languid (1987) 1:9
18 Afterimage — Surf Generator / Part of the Threat (1981) 4:27

Disk 2
1 Peter Ivers — In Heaven (1977) 1:46
2 Suburban Lawns — Janitor (1981) 2:31
3 Human Hands — Trains Vs. Planes (1981) 3:59
4 Gleaming Spires — How To Get Girls Thru Hypnotism (1982) 3:56
5 B People — Can Can’t (1981) 2:27
6 The Squad — Scene Of The Crime (1981) 2:36
7 Primal Danse — Insomnia (1982) 5:0
8 Life After Death — In Living Color (1985) 1:54
9 Choir Invisible — Hands of Another (1981) 3:49
10 Kommunity FK — Something Inside Me Has Died (1985) 3:45
11 Null And Void — A Party Filled With Thieves (1982) 3:33
12 Boxboys — Seperate Rooms (1980) 3:12
13 The Child Molesters — Violent Crimes (1990) 2:27
14 Beat-E-O’s — China Sleeping (1981) 2:12
15 Weirdos, The — Weird World (1981) 3:2
16 Wet Picnic — He Believes (1982) 5:33
17 Christian Death — When I Was Bed (1985) 7:57

Disk 3
1 Dogma Probe — Thirteen (1982) 4:30
2 45 Grave — Riboflavin-Flavored, Non-Carbonated, Polyunsaturated Blood (1980) 2:38
3 Pompeii 99 — Ignorance is the Control (1982) 4:35
4 Opus — Get Procedures (1979) 3:1
5 Subjects — I’m Mechanical (1982) 3:18
6 The Plugz — Gas Line (1981) 2:45
7 Null And Void — The Motorcycle Song (1982) 2:27
8 Monitor — Mokele-Mbembe (1981) 3:23
9 Outer Circle — Broken Children (1982) 7:2
10 Berlin — Matter of Time (1979) 3:56
11 Fibonaccis — Crickets (1987) 4:32
12 Wog — I Had A Notion (1986) 5:54
13 Suburban Lawns — Hug You (1983) 4:49
14 The Nerves — Hanging On The Telephone (1976) 2:3
15 Blissed Out Fatalists — Spiral (1987) 2:42
16 Phranc — My Favorite Women Newscasters (1987) 2:13

Disk 4
1 Null And Void — I Can See What’s Happening (1980) 2:43
2 Pompeii 99 — Android Police (1982) 3:0
3 Outer Circle — Blind Venetians (1982) 1:39
4 Oingo Boingo — Only A Lad (1979) 4:16
5 Steven Fields — Legalize Heroin (1988) 5:7
6 Knife Lust — Shrivel Up (1979) 3:10
7 The Screamers — 122 Hours Of Fear (Part 1) (1978) 2:20
8 The Screamers — 122 Hours Of Fear (Part 2) (1978) 1:12
9 Rikk Agnew — 10 (1982) 2:58
10 Savage Republic — Next To Nothing (1982) 3:24
11 Life After Death — Isn’t It Time (1985) 2:57
12 Human Hands — Blue Eel (1981) 2:51
13 Gleaming Spires — While We Can (1982) 4:19
14 Christian Death — Cervix Couch (1984) 3:10
15 Nu Beams — One Step For What? (1981) 3:9
16 Kommunity FK — Unknown to You (1983) 4:15
17 Plebs — Redhead (1982) 1:44
18 Abecedarians — I Glide (1986) 7:31

Disk 5
1 Android — Luminary (1982) 6:12
2 Nocturnal Education — Alone Tonight (1986) 5:23
3 Standard Of Living — So Hard (1982) 1:53
4 Wall Of Voodoo — The Passanger (1980) 4:9
5 17 Pygmies — Lawrence of Arabia (1983) 6:59
6 Shadow Minstrels — Popular Song Of The Hour (1983) 4:23
7 Iron Curtain — Tarantula Scream (1984) 4:18
8 Grey Pavilion — Tell Me The Story (1983) 3:43
9 Information — I Know (1985) 3:35
10 Green on Red — Two Bibles (1981) 3:29
11 if-then-else — Sidewalker (1981) 5:23
12 Monitor — BEAK (1979) 1:50
13 Fibonaccis — Some Men (1987) 2:42
14 Wet Picnic — Tension (1982) 3:36
15 Rikk Agnew — Everyday (1982) 4:30

Disk 6
1 Freshly Wrapped Candies — Judas (1987) 3:41
2 Pop Art — In My Hands (1987) 2:56
3 Shadow Minstrels — The Guest (1983) 2:30
4 Slow Children/Pal Shazar — Spring in Fialta (1981) 3:24
5 The Squad — Virgins (1981) 3:36
6 Cipher — Body Chemistry (1981) 2:9
7 Earwigs — Freedom (1981) 2:47
8 Transport — Body Buildings (1982) 3:49
9 League of Nations — Thin Ice (1984) 3:42
10 The Child Molesters — Don’t Worry Kyoko (1990) 4:7
11 Nu Beams — Sterile Swab (1981) 2:53
12 B-People — I Said Everybody (1979) 1:37
13 Perfect Imperfect Circular — A Mighty Feeling (1986) 2:33
14 Standard Of Living — Dancing In The Street (1982) 5:15
15 Cathedral of Tears — A Situation Of… (1984) 3:29
16 The Spell — Moonlight Shadows (1984) 3:40
17 Puppies — Mechanical Beat (1981) 2:45
18 Atila — Mr. Kritik (1981) 1:12
19 Sparks — Angst In My Pants (1982) 3:28

Disk 7
1 Suburban Lawns — Gidget Goes to Hell (1979) 2:1
2 Outer Circle — Another Moon (1982) 3:25
3 100 Flowers — Without Limbs (1983) 1:56
4 Subjects — Laugh (1982) 2:9
5 Mnemonic Devices — Marriage Of Convenience (1982) 3:42
6 Screaming for Emily — The Love (1987) 4:43
7 Freshly Wrapped Candies — Fa Fa Fa (1987) 3:11
8 Dream 6 — Rain (1985) 3:16
9 Afterimage — Relapse (1981) 3:8
10 Wall Of Voodoo — Ring Of Fire (1980) 6:11
11 Abecedarians — Smiling Monarchs (1985) 6:47
12 Passionnel — Make Like You Like It (1984) 3:37
13 Rand Kennedy — Enorma Jones (1983) 1:3
14 Drowning Pool — The Italian Pop Song (1987) 5:37
15 The Fontanelles — Passion Kills (1987) 2:57
16 The Motels — Total Control (1979) 5:54

Disk 8
1 Animal Dance — Under Pulse (1984) 3:21
2 Null And Void — Un Sedatif Ce Soir (1980) 4:34
3 Suburban Lawns — Flavor Crystals (1983) 3:47
4 Newsbreak — Hidden Eyes (1983) 3:14
5 Three O’Clock, The — With Cantaloupe Girlfriend (1982) 2:54
6 Christian Death — Romeo’s Distress (1982) 3:15
7 Johanna Went — Consumed (1982) 2:40
8 Iron Curtain — The Condos (1984) 4:44
9 Infantry — The Call (1987) 3:50
10 IQ Zero — Zero Gravity (1981) 3:9
11 Savage Republic — Mobilization (1982) 3:21
12 Choir Invisible — Quiet Place (1981) 3:14
13 Kommunity FK — Incompatible Disposition (1983) 2:48
14 Cyrnai — Noct (Mourning Glare) (1985) 5:9
15 17 Pygmies — Chameleon (1985) 3:54
16 Danny & the Doorknobs — In Exile (1985) 2:40
17 Cindy Lee Berryhill — Headin’ For The Border Line (1987) 3:56