Various Artists VII: How Compilations Influenced a Generation - Direction LP + 7-inch Penned By: John E. Swan (Polyvinyl Press Fanzine/Records)

INTRODUCTION: Maybe, it's in the gray hairs that I've started finding in my thinning hair. Maybe, it's that dreaded third decade of life that seems to have been rearing it's ugly face around every corner. Maybe, it's a quarter life crisis, but something has been keeping me up at night. I sometimes, stay awake into the early hours of the morning spinning records and fumbling with CD jackets from high school, grasping hold of my youth for dear life. I search out elusive first presses of albums I'd somehow, lost to time, hoping that they'll somehow, tighten the thread leading from middle school to adulthood.

To be clear, I'm not fishing my torn band T-shirts or bondage pants from the depths of my closet, but as I make the transition into my 30's, shedding roommates and getting oil changes at regularly scheduled intervals, I can't help ruminating on where these albums came from and how they've shaped me. I can't help begging the question, "How did I get here?"

How I've come to be surrounded by this specific collection of music is largely, the consequence of efforts made by larger labels and their annual sampler CD's, but even today, I search out small Indie labels that pump out quality collections of exclusivities and excellent representations of a variety of music scenes.


Typically, priced at $4-5.00 and featuring sometimes, up to 40 songs from just as many bands, compilations have always served as convenient and affordable ways to discover new and obscure bands. This is imperative to the formative years of a generation of listeners; compilations were the compass that one used to navigate the endless sea of Punk Rock and consequently, Hip-Hop, Hardcore, Indie, Reggae, etc. etc. ad infinitum. Many of these discs were used as shovels to tunnel into cozy nests of Punk records and artistic eccentricities.

It's this ability to influence and inform listeners that I'll be here every month to discuss. I'll be stopping The Witzard by to shed light on those discount albums in the so often overlooked "Various Artists" bins of the world, along with their influences within their communities, within their genres, and within the chronology of listener interests all across the globe, here in, Various Artists: How Compilations Influenced a Generation.


VARIOUS ARTISTS VII: With the holiday season safely at a distance in our rear-view mirrors, some of us are left to reflect on our pilgrimages home; to old haunts where we re-connect with old classmates in-between fraternizing with extended family members.

There's a melancholy in the passing of these encounters that reminds us of the incessant passing of time. For some of us, it conjures, specifically, the snow-covered cornfields of central Illinois; the broken stalks of recently harvested corn that jut from The Earth in this and that direction; the old flames that never seem to stop aging. We're left to contemplate what it means to return to your childhood bedroom after a night out with old friends, to listen to the same songs that swam in your head after school and after shows as a teenager; their melodies lingering in your skull much later, when your head is dizzy with hangover, as you endure holiday dinners with family.


The Midwest has a sound utterly unique to this imagery; to The Great Lakes, in general. There's frustration in hailing from snow-covered cities so far removed from one another and from mainstream attention, in general. Bands locked away in basements for six or more months out of the year are much more prone to producing this quality of work and it shows in the music native to this area. They have more time to commit to perfectionism and nowhere is this better exemplified than in Polyvinyl Records' 1996 LP and 7-inch combo, Direction.

Founded as a small-press by high school students, Matt Lunsford & Darcie Knight, Polyvinyl Press Fanzine/Records (sometimes, Polyvinyl Record Company) existed for less than a year, before their sights started to stray from their print-based medium with the release of a split 7-inch with Champaign, Illinois' Back of Dave & Walker from Lafayette, Indiana. The record accompanied their third issue in July of 1995 and by early '96, the fanzine-turned-label released their fifth and final issue, alongside the 20-track, Direction, marking the official transition from fanzine to record label. Direction marks Lunsford & Knight's ideological departure from The Midwest, as well, having, up to now, only released bands inside of their region. The release features bands from as far West as California's Boilermaker and as far East as New York's Rail and Florida's Gus.


Characterized by unorthodox chord progressions and wrought with dissonance and strained vocal chords, Midwestern Emo music was a statement seemingly in opposition of the more macho aesthetic of the Punk & Hardcore scenes of it's time. The genre seemed to reject the notion that music should be without dynamic, allowing their songs to sink into introspective lulls and flourish with large choruses, where so many of their contemporaries performed at raised volumes and high speeds across the board. Polyvinyl, seemingly, sought to catalog the ripples of this movement, as they pulsated from The Midwest and made their ways out to the coasts.

The label went on to support many pillars in DIY Emo in The Midwest and afar, before moving to the college town of Champaign-Urbana, where they would, eventually, indulge in some of their more Pop-leaning sensibilities. To the label's credit, by the time they'd relocated, Emo had been mostly appropriated by the mainstream, most of the major players having disbanded or formed new projects by the late 90's, but the effects of these early Polyvinyl bands can still be felt today. Behind every piece of "Real Emo" copy pasta is a young person who's only recently become familiar with a band that's been broken up for nearly 30 years; a sound that's seen multiple failed replications.


Polyvinyl's efforts and aspirations are still quaint and approachable here. That this label began as a small-press is clearly exemplified in the production of this LP, it's sleeve limp under the weight of screen-printed ink; it's pages of mail-order lists, live photos, and interviews wrought with typos and spelling errors, all of it folded together like newspaper.

I've wandered all over the frozen planes of The Midwest, hanging my hat in Indiana and Missouri; Chicago and Milwaukee, and it's always been only this sound that I'm able to bring with me. The sound of Midwestern Alternative music is as unique as it's dialect and it's on my sleeve, in my songs, exposing my corn-bred origins to strangers in-the-know, providing a network of friends and connectivity, even when I'm far from home.

John E. Swan (@midwest_stress) is a novelist and short story writer, as well as freelance editor and journalist. His first novel, Any Way to Elsewhere, takes its name from a compilation cassette that he curated during his time with Berserk Records. It can be ordered here. When he's not writing, he can be found making music in and around Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he lives with his girlfriend and their dog, Diesel.