Sure, them Ramones were already inching towards the bottom of the Billboard charts, and such pretenders-to-the-gutter as the Dead Boys and Dickies were busy tightening their Levis and chopping up their Bowie shags. But The Viletones, propelled by the fierce six strings of guitarist Freddy Pompeii and the anything-Iggy-can-cut-I-can-cut-deeper antics of vocalist Steven "Nazi Dog" Leckie, had by early 1977 already defiantly distilled their Pistol-y attack in the bars and college basements of Southern Ontario, Canada.

Fortunately for us and, yes I suppose history's sake, the 'tones had the foresight to one afternoon record their entire repertoire and its release now, two whole decades later, not only proves this band to be one of the few genuine practitioners of p-rock at the time (before the neutered pap of the Costellos and Cars took over), but demonstrates just how positively trite modern-day interpreters of this genre really, really are. To sum up then, this disc's one history lesson you certainly can - and should - slam away to. Have fun!

Vigilantes, The: No Destiny

Village Singers, The: All Aboard

[Issue Thirty-Four // November-December 2000]