Home Read Classic Album Review: Beyond Cyberpunk | Various Artists

Classic Album Review: Beyond Cyberpunk | Various Artists

Wayne Kramer's generation-spanning punk compilation truly kicks out the jams.

This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):

 


Never mind the Cyber tag — this is a punk rock compilation, pure and simple. And a bloody good one at that.

Former MC5 axe-killer Wayne Kramer, who assembled this affair, must have one helluva Rolodex; he’s tracked down enough old-school punk godfathers to stage a CBGB reunion. There’s Dee Dee Ramone, whose groovy Bad Little Go Go Girl is his best song in more than a decade; Richard Hell, who reunites with his old band The Voidoids on the raggedly poppy Oh; ex-Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton, who unleashes a little raw power on Dead End Street; and Jimmy Zero of The Dead Boys, who may not be young anymore, but still plays it loud and snotty on Take Me In Your Arms (Like Heroin). Toss in tracks from more recent like-minded acts (grungers Mudhoney, metalheads Mother Superior, punks Downset and Strung Out) and a few poetry-slamming cuts from David Was and Kramer himself, and you’ve got a generation-spanning punk compilation truly that kicks out the jams.