Animal hardcore in Hardcore & Punk Music

"The Best of the Anti-Nowhere League [Cleopatra]" (07/17/2001) Rock & Pop The Anti-Nowhere League, Recall (UK)This double disc set collects 34 tracks from British punk rockers the Anti-Nowhere League; includes mom-angering anthems like "Streets of London" and "I Hate People" as well as a lot of live tracks. Anti-Nowhere League isn't a band that deserves more than one retrospective. Nevertheless, there are at least three floating around out there. This particular one, a shoddy release from the English imprint Snapper, is actually the same as Best of the Anti-Nowhere League, which came out on both Castle and Cleopatra. Its entire track listing is also included as part of a Recall disc that bundles it with a live album. If all of this seems really confusing -- especially for a rather lunkheaded group that could only stumble its way through an EP and a couple of albums -- then you're certainly not interested in the 2001 Anagram release Animal!: Very Best of Anti-Nowhere League, which is one of the only comps to sample ANL's entire career arc. Wouldn't you rather have U.K. Subs' Another Kind of Blues instead? ~ Johnny Loftus Who'd have thought that the Anti-Nowhere League would last so well? Not just because they were incredibly funny without being a comedy band (even less so than the Dickies), or because their songs still seem so catchy. No, because their whole "piss off" attitude has transcended the time in which this truly (proudly) motley, anti-glamorous crew appeared in a cloud of pig-pen's dust. Perhaps only the most wimpoid techno-popper could dismiss the blistering hooks of the classic 7" "For You," and "We are the League," and only the Saturday Night Live Church Lady could keep from splitting an irreverent gut on "Animal," and especially "So What" (the song whose social-comment filthiness got it banned in England by Scotland Yard -- no kidding, they raided the warehouse and confiscated all the singles!), and maybe even Church Lady puts this on and curses a blue streak along with Animal. It's Animal who's the star, much as it's Rotten's voice that makes the Pistols so captivating even after you've played Bollocks a million times. Such up-front attitude, spit and soil and "anti-gloss" (cod-piece and all), are rare in history, so when Animal hisses "don't f*ck with the league" or "so what, so what, so what you boring little c*nt," it's John Waters-disgusting, uproarious, and nutty at the same time. Try not to love these recordings. "I hate people .. they hate me!" There's about as much sugar-coating here as swallowing sandpaper and liquid fire (that's what Animal's voice sounds like!). "Why! Why! Were they so ugly/dirty/lonely?!?!?" Bless 'em. This is the only good kind of vermin. ~ Jack Rabid Slightly less-than-classy punkers from England, the Anti-Nowhere League get the full on best-of and live-record combo here on this two-fer from Recall. Not for the faint of heart or those looking for the intellectual side of punk. ~ Chris True

"Hot Animal Machine/Life Time" (09/23/2003) Rock & Pop Rollins, Henry, Recall (UK)2 LP's on 1 CD: HOT ANIMAL MACHINE (1987)/LIFE TIME (1988). Personnel includes: Henry Rollins (vocals). If you're a newcomer to the Rollins Band and are looking to purchase the band's early recordings in one fell swoop, then you're in luck -- in 2003, the Recall label reissued four Rollins Band albums as two double-disc compilations. The Hot Animal Machine/Life Time set catches Rollins immediately after Black Flag's split in 1987, and for anyone questioning if he could carry on without Greg Ginn at the time, Hot Animal Machine silenced any doubters. Instead of sticking closely to the murky, Sabbath-like riffs of latter-day Flag, the first two tracks, "Black and White" and "Followed Around," are speedy punk rockers, while "A Man and a Woman" is almost comparable to experimental jazz fusion at times. Life Time, on the other hand, sees the debut of the Rollins Band that listeners all know and love, as former Gone members Andrew Weiss (bass) and Sim Cain (drums) comprise the new rhythm section, joining the only holdovers from the Animal sessions -- Rollins and guitarist Chris Haskett. Fugazi's Ian MacKaye serves as producer, and keeps things as close to the group's live sound as possible -- standouts include the venomous album opener, "Burned Beyond Recognition," and the raging "Turned Out." ~ Greg Prato

"This Is the Animal Liberation Front" (05/26/1998) Hardcore/Punk Various Artists, Mortarhate Records