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Classic Album Review: Various Artists | Fat Music Volume V: Live Fat, Die Young

The Fat Wreck label raises the bar with this collection of 20 unearthed punk gems.

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):

 


Punk-rock compilations tend to be cost-conscious affairs for all concerned. The labels take some tracks off their recent releases, slap ’em together on a disc with no-frills packaging and sell ’em to the kids for half the price of a regular CD. The bands get exposure, the kids save money, the label sells CDs, everybody’s happy.

Well, count on the rapscallions at Fat Wreck Chords to throw a monkey wrench into the works — by raising the stakes and showing everybody else up with their fifth label comp Live Fat, Die Young. Not only does this sucker have 20 previouslyi unreleased punk spitballs from bands such as Sick of It All, No Use For A Name, Zero Down, Good Riddance, NOFX, Swingin’ Utters and Winnipeg’s own Propagandhi (the anti-Bush polemic War is Peace, Slavery is Freedom, May All Your Interventions be Humanitarian), but you also get band pix and lyrics in a glossy four-colour foldout booklet. And it comes at a bargain price. Now that’s what you call getting some bang for your buck. Nice work, Fatties.

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