Album: Various

CBGB's and the Birth of US Punk, Union Square

Contrary to popular belief, punk rock didn't start with the Pistols in 1976, nor even with the Ramones a little earlier. The term had been in common usage for at least a decade by then, used to describe a particular type of mid-Sixties American garage-band such as the 13th Floor Elevators and the Seeds, whose British beat-influenced sound was stained with a more saturnine psychedelic manner. Both groups are featured on this handy compilation tracking the course of US punk, from the Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting For The Man" through to the Seventies heyday of Richard Hell, Johnny Thunders, Blondie and Television, based around CBGB's, the Bowery club Hilly Kristal originally opened to showcase country, bluegrass and blues, but that soon became the punk scene's New York locus. It's a dark, often discordant journey, comprising roughly equal parts art, nihilism and heroin, and pivoting around the crucial early-Seventies fulcrum of Iggy & the Stooges, represented here by "Tight Pants". The club theme is justified through live versions of Suicide's "Speed Queen" and Television's "Friction", while the Ramones' seminal influence is captured on a 1975 demo of "Judy Is a Punk"; otherwise, the album relies mostly on familiar singles and album tracks. There are some obvious omissions – the Standells, Count Five, MC5 and Talking Heads – but plenty of classics to compensate.