Various

Show of Hands Records' 2006 compilation is one of the closer efforts at an 'Orgcore compiling I've seen. The Falcon, Avail, Teenage Bottlerocket, Bullets to Broadway, Dillinger Four, Smoke or Fire and Avail all on the same CD? And it wasn't put together by Tobias Jeg or Michael Burkett??? Blasphemy.

What Show of Hands actually uses this compilation as is a vehicle to showcase their own short-list of a roster and then fill the rest of the track listing with mostly awesome punk bands. There's three tracks each from Me Versus the Monster and New Hampshire State Motto (bands we've reviewed before) spread out nicely over the CD's course, with lots of other standouts popping up.

Label-wise, New Hampshire State Motto kick off the whole thing with the solid, Wilhelm Scream-inspired "Ron Eats Breakfast with the Hell of All Nations." The screamy "Purgatory Screen" might be my favorite of Me Versus the Monster's tracks.

'Orgcore-wise, the Falcon contribute their fantastically anthemic "Building the Perfect Asshole Parade -or- Scratching Off the Fleas." Avail and Dillinger Four's absolutely solid "Taken" and "The Father, The Son, And the Homosexual/Single Parent," respectively, are here as well. Teenage Bottlerocket could've contributed their most derivative track and it might've sounded good in this context being they're the only real band playing pop-punk like this on the comp, but they do the quick and unique-sounding "A-Bomb" here anyway. And you can't go wrong with Smoke or Fire's "Cops and Drugs." Bullets to Broadway's fast-paced "Happily Ever After" trade off scruffy male vocals and sweet female singing perfectly.

Elsewhere, Body Electric is the only other band to sneak more than one track on here, and both hold their own weight under the heavy Fugazi influence, notably "Invisible Razors." Retro hardcore outfit featuring the Bronx's Matt Caughtran Bullet Treatment and some ex-Suicidal Tendencies offer one of their early ragers, the excellent "Counting Down."

Granted, the common Punknews reader has likely heard of a good portion of the bands making up this list of 17, but Show of Hands has still done a steady job of bringing together a relatively diverse selection of acts.