{"id":522,"date":"2011-05-31T04:57:25","date_gmt":"2011-05-31T09:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=522"},"modified":"2026-03-17T07:55:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T11:55:49","slug":"album-review-dirty-water-2-more-birth-of-punk-attitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/05\/31\/album-review-dirty-water-2-more-birth-of-punk-attitude\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Dirty Water 2 – More Birth of Punk Attitude"},"content":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t very long ago at all that Year Zero released the excellent compilation Dirty Water: The Birth of Punk Attitude<\/em><\/a>. Curated by Kris Needs<\/strong>, the set took a quite liberal approach to defining punk, and made a case for its unique point of view through careful (though seemingly random) sequencing and informative liner notes.<\/p>\n

So here we are with Dirty Water 2: More Birth of Punk Attitude<\/em>. Once again Kris Needs goes to the well and comes back with an assortment (and I do<\/em> mean assortment) of goodies. A few of the selections will seem ever-so-slightly redundant to collectors of other essential compilations, what with inclusion of such tracks as the early Captain Beefheart gem \u201cZig Zag Wanderer\u201d and the Misunderstood\u2019s<\/strong> \u201cChildren of the Sun,\u201d both found on the Nuggets<\/em> compilations.<\/p>\n

But for every (relatively) well-known track there are some really left-field choices, some obscurities. The recently-unearthed Death<\/strong> makes a return appearance, but then so does Dizzy Gillespie<\/strong>. On paper, putting his \u201cBebop\u201d on a punk collection seems incongruous; the lightning jazz guitar runs have little in common with what most listeners would consider punk. But Kris Needs\u2019 concept of punk has less to do with how a song sounds and more with its outsider qualities. If it\u2019s groundbreaking, if it defies the rules, then it\u2019s a candidate for the punk label.<\/p>\n

Some usual suspects are here: Suicide, Velvet Underground, <\/strong>Bowie<\/strong>, Mott the Hoople, MC5<\/strong>. But there are also true outsiders who enjoyed lower profiles. The <\/strong>United States of America<\/strong>\u2019s<\/strong> \u201cHard Coming Love\u201d is here in all its oscillating glory. Junior Murvin\u2019s<\/strong> \u201cPolice and Thieves\u201d influences many a punk band (not just the Clash<\/strong>) so its inclusion makes some sense. Woody Guthrie<\/strong>? The Silhouettes<\/strong>? Sure, if you accept Needs\u2019 basic concept. Neither of those artists\u2019 tracks on this set is musically<\/em> outside the norm, but in these cases, it\u2019s their lyrical content that merits their inclusion.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some noise-rock here, some folk-punk, some proto-metal, some early powerpop (Big Star, Flamin Groovies<\/strong>). And there\u2019s the Grand-Funk<\/strong>-meets-The Mothers<\/strong> of the Edgar Broughton Band<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cOut Demons Out.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Taken as a whole this set isn\u2019t quite the equal of the first volume \u2013 too many acts reappear, and do we really need Bowie\u2019s \u201cSuffragette City\u201d on a compilation? \u2013 but it\u2019s at once both a compelling and uncomfortable listen. And that\u2019s precisely the point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t very long ago at all that Year Zero released the excellent compilation Dirty Water: The Birth of Punk Attitude. Curated by Kris Needs, the set took a quite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30946,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions\/30946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}