Various – Live At CBGB's - The Home Of Underground Rock

Great compilation of bands that weren't the main, important and successful bands, of the era. Worth the time and money if you like comps and are willing to set aside some pickiness to just enjoy the sounds. Spend the 10 bucks and get the thing.

Great idea....let's make a 2lp of the best of CBGB's in 1976.....and not have a single one of the important bands. No Ramones, talking heads, heartbreakers, blondie, patti smith.....most of the bands that did make this lp were the ones not good enough to get a record deal.

315 in the dead wax. 315 Bowery Street on the front door. :-)

god i found this at a record fair many many years ago, this is a beautiful japan copy of this very popular 70s cbgbs compilation, this japan edition NEVER shows up anyplace really, look at that obi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the inserts are nice to, the funny thing is if you notice all the artists featured here are powerpop bands from that time NOT punk bands, i always loved this comp and to find the japan edition a few decades ago was and still is great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this is a very rare jaspanese edition of this 2 lp set that was released back in 1977, this japan edition comes with a nice fat thick 70s style obi strip and comes with an insert that has an essay on cbgb and all the bands featured, all of the bands featured on this 2 lp set had success back in the late 70s but by the early 80s seemed to drop off the radar, bands like THE LAUGHING DOGS, THE SHIRTS , MINK (WILLY) DEVILLE AND THE TUFF DARTS where some of the best lower east side acts around back in 1977 playing cbgb next to the RAMONES, THE DAMNED AND THE TALKING HEADS, great lp quite rare also.....

"Live at CBGB's" is a fascinating relic of the mid-'70s New York underground rock explosion that soon became tagged with the woefully underdescriptive sobriquet "punk". True, the club's first-tier bands (Television, Patti Smith, Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie, et al.) are nowhere to be found on this comp, and there's a very good reason for that: they had already been signed to record deals. The purpose of "Live at CBGB's" was to showcase unsigned bands, and there's some fantastic material here.
Let's get the substandard stuff out of the way first: you can skip Stuart's Hammer, the Miamis and, yes, Tuff Darts. 'All for the Love of Rock 'n' Roll' is an adequate song, but these guys were trying way too hard to live up to the punk stereotype and it just comes off as silly. Falling somewhere in the middle are Sun, whose one track is a little rough around the edges but has muscular energy to spare, and the eclectic Laughing Dogs. The standouts are Mink DeVille, who rock with a brash, authentic street feel (in contrast to the labored approach of Tuff Darts), the Shirts (it's a joy to behold Annie Golden's voice soaring over the giddy clash of instruments on 'Operetico', a minor masterpiece) and my personal favorite, Manster (who achieve something genuinely disturbing on 'I'm Really Not This Way').
What became known as punk always had a broader range than three chords, and the proof can be heard on this album. (Great live sound, by the way, especially compared to other iconic punk live recordings like "Live at the Roxy": listen to it through headphones.) Three and a half stars.