I first heard of This Is Boston, Not L.A., the classic hardcore punk compilation from the NOFX song "We Got Two Jealous Agains." Recently, I stumbled across it on amazon.com and decided to order it. Little did I know what I was in for...

This record punches you in the head and then kicks you in the balls. The first time I listened to it I was slamming around my room, knocking over my light, my guitar, and my garbage can. I was jumping off of my chair and my bed, crashing into walls and giving myself headrushes. At one point (during the Gang Green songs) I kneed myself in the face. It was quite a hard hit so I decided to stay down and take a break. But the next song picked me up and threw me back into the one-man circle pit. At the end of the record, I was out of breath and my room was destroyed. Believe it or not all this is completely true; in fact, I am underexagerrating the truth.

Like the title and album cover suggests, this is a compilation of Boston's seven most prominent hardcore punk bands from back in the early `80s. Those bands are Jerry's Kids, the Proletariat, Groinoids, the F.U.'s, Gang Green, Decadence, and the Freeze. Besides the political, UK-influenced Proletariat, all of these bands play at breakneck speeds and sing with (and about) adolescent rage. My favourite band on the comp is Gang Green. Their seven songs are, as the liner notes describe them, "a god-like punk rock experience."

The CD version comes with the original 30 songs, plus the Unsafe at Any Speed EP released shortly afterwards (which feature one unreleased song by six of the bands). The liner notes feature a very candid description of the Boston scene as well as lyrics to each of the songs.

If you are looking for melodic, musical virtuosos you won't find it here; this is a fucking punk record. But what these bands lack in skill, they more than make up for in speed and sheer chaos. But it's not for everybody -- only listen to it if you're ready for a powerful blast of pure hardcore punk energy.