Localized Various Artists, Rocky Mountain Low

One of the worst things about nostalgia is the crotchety implication that things aren't as good as they used to be. Punk-rock anthologies are particularly prone to this grumpy-old-man syndrome—which is partly why Rocky Mountain Low is such an essential and compelling fossil. A veritable dinosaur skeleton pieced together out of lo-fi recordings—most of them previously unreleased—by Denver/Boulder punk bands of the late '70s, the disc doesn't whitewash or mythologize the young, clumsy, and at times totally misguided bands that comprised that small and mostly unknown scene. Granted, some of the musicians featured—including a young Eric "Jello Biafra" Boucher, who appears here with his early and hilariously creepy Boulder-based experimental project The Healers—went on to find some measure of success, including one of the comp's creators, Joseph Pope, whose scrappy Denver punk outfit The Instants is featured here. (Pope would later record for SST and Sub Pop with his California band Angst). Granted, almost all of those who made a small name for themselves did so after leaving Colorado—and therein lies the inherent humbleness of Rocky Mountain Low. As spelled out in a massive, lavish booklet detailing the tiny and insular Colorado scene of the pre-hardcore, pre-Reagan era, bands like the synth-heavy Cells and the art-damaged Dancing Assholes were mostly making things up as they went along rather than locking into some prefabricated punk look or sound like the groups in less isolated parts of the country. Indeed, according to Low's booklet, half the bands on the disc seem to have either shunned the punk tag or hated the genre outright. Self-denial, self-loathing, and a healthy dose of self-destruction: That's what made the Colorado punk scene of the late '70s such a fleeting thing, and it's also why the songs on Rocky Mountain Low are perhaps the purest, most vital core sample of local music you could ever hope to hear.

Decider rating: A+