The Wailing Ultimate: Homestead Records Compilation Album
Does anyone else even remember this one? In 1987, Homestead Records put out this hit-and-miss vinyl compilation, The Wailing Ultimate, featuring a pre-junior Dinosaur, Naked Raygun, and Big Black, plus a few future nobodies and the at-times-underrated Salem 66.
The Dinosaur track is the real reason to own this—”Repulsion” is a fabulous, moody cut that shows J. Mascis doing his thing years and years before anybody really took a shine to him in the mainstream media. Hear him showing off the same whine-n-crunch power long before he picked up a golf club on MTV. This one’s a tough find in some areas, but you can always pick it up used online via Amazon.com from a few nice reputable vendors including the venerable Newbury Comics.
Nah, Repulsion’s good but the life changer for me was Big Black’s “Il Duce”… nothing sounded like it before and nothing since. Found the comp in the mid-90s after looking for a decade.