Various Artists: Punk-O-Rama Volume 2

Compilation albums have long been a staple of punk rock, and the cheap label sampler has recently become a staple within that subgenre. For around five bucks, you can take home a CD chock full of punk-rock nuggets, allowing the discerning consumer to weigh the bands before committing to the price of a full CD. Epitaph's Punk-O-Rama Volume 2 picks up where Volume 1 left off, except a buck or two has been knocked off the price, and the newly major-label Offspring has been omitted. As expected, the disc includes tracks from nearly all of Epitaph's punk-rock goldmines, including NOFX, Rancid, Bad Religion and the Descendants. Also present are tracks from the label's less chart-busting bands like SNFU, as well as the sorely underrated Joykiller. The main flaw in POR2 is that, with the exception of a preview of the forthcoming Humpers album and an unreleased DFL track, all of these tracks are readily available on other releases. Tipping the scales in the other direction is that the CD introduces a new generation to the earth-shaking punk of Poison Idea and TSOL, as well as a number of other solid punk tracks. Recess Records lacks Epitaph's roster of the gods. Don't let this dissuade you, though, as Recess' bands are still awfully good. Hot Curly Weenie includes readily available, rare and unreleased tracks from the Minneapolis gutter punks in Quincy Punx, the Canadian lefty band Propagandhi, the toilet humorists in FYP, the ironically un-PC Dwarves, and several others. The selection is more raw, more jagged, and a bit more uneven than on Punk-O-Rama, but no tracks seem limp or out of place. What the hell There are worse ways to spend five bucks, if you even have to spend that much for them.