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Long before online streaming and even TV music videos, that were beyond the reach of many new bands outside of a lucky spin on the radio, the compilation became the most effective way to access, and be accessed by, the eager new ears and inquisitive minds of the then new punk generation. ‘Nefarious Artists’ is a field study of over 500 punk rock, post-punk, new wave, hardcore punk, and alternative rock compilations from their beginnings in 1976 as major label samplers and live showcases of the ‘new wave’ through their rapid evolution into a documentary art form of D.I.Y. punk rock creativity and expression.
‘Nefarious Artists’ by Welly of Artcore Fanzine (est. 1986) charts the genesis, evolution and art of the punk rock, post-punk, new wave, hardcore punk, and alternative rock compilation vinyl record from 1976 to 1989. Each compilation is discussed and reviewed with accompanying high resolution full colour scans of all the cover art and much more to provide both context and as a journey through the international punk rock music and developing scene of the late 1970s and ‘80s. The compilation record played a pivotal role in the spread of the idea and conversation of the independent punk underground and now remain as audio and visual time capsules that capture the zeitgeist of the music, scene and era.
Featuring background information on the compilations, as well in depth descriptions of the style of the musical content of each one, read as the early major label sampler and live showcase of punk rock and new wave slowly evolved into a burgeoning independent post-punk scene that gradually changed the compilation into an underground labour of love for a developing international underground hardcore punk network. Compilation records for specific cities, countries and causes from labels that went onto global notoriety or merely managed one obscure release are discussed over its 400 plus pages.
Our take: In this reference-style book, Welly from Artcore fanzine examines “the evolution and art of the punk rock, post-punk, new wave, hardcore punk and alternative rock compilation record.” Rather than a narrative history of the compilation, Nefarious Artists examines each compilation one by one, devoting half a page of description and analysis to each, letting the larger story of the compilation record—and the genres they cover—emerge through that lens. Theoretically, much of the information in this book is available on Discogs, but the consistency and thoroughness of Welly’s approach reveals the limitations of crowd-sourcing information, which applies attention very unevenly across large data sets like this. Cover art is a great example. Images of cover artwork are all over the place on Discogs; while major records probably have pretty good ones, once you get into the weeds you’ll find plenty of blurry, cropped, low-res, or otherwise substandard images on Discogs. For Nefarious Artists, however, Welly has meticulously scanned each compilation’s cover art himself, and while the images in the book are small, they’re of uniformly high quality. The same with the half-page descriptions of each compilation. Welly always provides a list of bands on the compilation and a brief description of what the record and bands sound like, as well as a short analysis of its artwork and packaging. Nefarious Artists will be a valuable reference tool for punk nerds, but there are freaks like me who will read it from beginning to end like it’s a novel (I did the same with the Flex discography books). If you do this, you will learn a TON, no matter how much of an expert you are. I’ve learned about dozens of compilations I’d never heard of, plus a mountain of other factoids. For instance, I learned about a band featuring a young Frankie Stubbs from Leatherface that released a single track on a regional compilation in 1981 (you’ll have to get the book to find the name of the band and the record). After searching the internet in an attempt to learn more, this information appears to exist only in Welly’s book and in the brains of old punks like him, so cheers to him for getting so much of this down. If you’re as big a nerd as I am, you’ll love going through Nefarious Artists systematically like this, listening to things on YouTube where possible and watching your want list swell. For me, there’s no higher praise for a book about punk rock than that.