Compulsion: Western Culture Collector
[purchase]
Before Garrett "Jacknife" Lee produced everyone from U2 and R.E.M. to The Hives and Weezer he played guitar in experimental punk rockers Thee Amazing Colossal Men, a merry bunch who in 1992 changed their name to Compulsion.
Western Culture Collector is in my humble little opinion the standout track from their second album The Future Is Medium, released on One Little Indian in 1996. It is a wildly uneven album with sixteen tracks ranging from Beatles-esque melodies, stomping rockers, raging punk and sonic experiments.
Western Culture Collector would fall somewhere inbetween "stomping rockers" and "raging punk" with its heavy drumming, screamed chorus and bulldozer riff. A most excellent song, one I always seemed to include whenever I made a mixtape back in the day. Especially those I made for other people whom I wished to impress with a cool track by an artist they had never heard of.
This song and a couple of others on The Future Is Medium demonstrate just what a great band Compulsion could have been if only they had focused and tried a little harder.
