Throb Throb by
Naked Raygun
Year: 1984
I personally believe that Chicago is among the top 3 cities for punk in America. Modern day heartthrobs such as Lawrence Arms and Alkaline Trio hail from there. Back in the day, Big Black and Effigies rules the school. The famed Wesley Willis and The Wesley Willis Fiasco changed many's views on who could make music. Hell, even Rise Against and Fall Out Boy are from there. The Riot Fest takes place annually to show all sides of the scene. Certainly, one of the standouts from the scene's early days was legendary post-hardcore/post-punk group Naked Raygun. Plenty cite them as a huge influence, most notably Grohl of Scream/Nirvana/Foo Fighters fame. Listening to this... it's kind of hard to see why. Sure, it's full of infectious jazz and surf laced hardcore songs, but most of it just seems to but the books to make them more so notable than Husker Du or Rites of Spring from the same era. It's all good stuff, some frenetic hardcore and awesome (if minimal) experimentation, the guitars sound a lot like Big Black's (they actually share a member as well). It just doesn't seem like it should be placed above their peers, however.
8/10