4 out of 5

Label: My Pal God / Action Boy / Ohio Gold

Produced by: Various

There are plenty of comps where I’d praise the varied tracklist for providing an interesting listen, but I also think it’s awesome when a compilation can ‘afford’ to take the route of MyOhioActionPalBoyGoldGod300 – a showcase for artists from the three labels mashed up in that title – and double up on offerings from each band.  Doing so allows for a secondary confirmation as to whether or not you want to spend time tracking down other work from whichever act, and especially in a pre-listen-to-it-on-youtube era, that was pretty useful.  That was especially valuable here, where Hurl’s opener, ‘Bred in Kentucky’ is a pummeling fury of drums and bass, while their second track, ‘Understand’ is a bit less punky, more post-rocky; both Dianogah and 90 Day Men offer up some excellent, well-rounded tracks… backed up/preceded by rawer, looser affairs, giving us varying takes on each band’s sound; and Lustre King can make sure we’re confident two times over in their ability to deliver angular, raw instrumental rock.  The only group who squanders this opportunity is C-Clamp, wasting our time with a rather pointless remix.

The comp is sequentially centered around A Minor Forest’s cover of Lady – don’t believe the dismissive track notes, the song is a hoot – which creates a nice, jangly breather amidst the otherwise very Chicago-y indie rock.

A pleasingly polished and well-rounded odds and sods set with (mostly) must-have listens from each participant.