VARIOUS ARTISTS
Triple B Recordings
The History of Boston Rock "Here and Now"
16-song CD compilation
If you're not a fan of good-old-fashioned hammer-and-tongs rock, you might wish to look elsewhere, though if you are, you could do worse than Noble Rot's anthemic rabble-rouser "Rocket Fuel Mayhem," The New Frustrations' classy garage-rock thumper "Changed My Mind," The Doom Buggies' Byrds-like "Bruce's Lament," and Over the Edge's over-the-top punk raver "Invincible." Rounding out the bill are outstanding tracks by the somewhat twangy Acro-Brats ("Gone for Good"), and reformulated classics interpreted by Three Day Threshold ("Drunken Sailor") and The McGunks ("Whiskey in the Bottle"). The final four songs are not for the fainthearted but will satisfy aficionados of old-style radio-unfriendly Boston punk: Nothing's "Woo Dog," Zippo Raid's "At the Bar," Rock City Crimewave's "Red on the Razor" and The Illegals' "Dream Date." The fine folk at Triple B recordings are doing us an inestimable service by preserving some representative recordings by (mostly) hard rock bands, many of whom have been around for a goodly long time, and more than a few of whom have been flying forever below the radar of pretentious fashionableness. (Francis DiMenno)