3 out of 5

Label: Skin Graft Records

Produced by: Various

Conceptually, I love this: one of my favorite labels pitting region-specific brews of no wave bands “against” one another in a faux which-one-does-it-best brawl. In execution, of course, this is just a compilation / advertisement for Skin Graft, and while it does a lot right, the end result is somewhat puzzling.

What it does right: comps of labels / groups where a single song might not be fully representative of their style benefit from the type of approach employed here – giving each act two songs. Additionally, while you could break up the sequencing of those songs for various purposes, since this is structured as a New York bands versus Chicago bands shtick, keeping each act’s songs together makes sense, and adds a bit of fun – i.e. “did you like that? Wait ’til you see what’s coming up…” Additionally, outside of the music itself, the packaging is fun, with the Skin Graft comic book stylings on the cover, and giving each band a headshot / liner notes on the inside – sincerely more than a lot of comps offer. Again: it keeps the framing of the disc going.

However, while I wouldn’t say “Post Now” does anything outright wrong, it also doesn’t serve as either the best comp or executor of its shtick. As to the former, this ends up being a very limited set of what Skin Graft offers, even if we just focus on the releases chronologically close to the comp’s 2019 drop, and if we excuse that as owing to the NY / Chicago limitation, I don’t know that it’s even great examples of what its bands offer. Instead, it’s a weird hodgepodge of singles and rarities / oddities, meaning we wind up with some stuff that is appealing to collectors from a band, but wouldn’t tell me much if I was new to them, and pairing that with the singles creates quite a disparity in quality and accessibility that doesn’t highlight the label well. (Accepting that “accessibility” is a weird claim for a label that once put out Strangulated Beatoffs albums.) As to the latter – the shtick – the first pairing of Cheer-Accident and Flying Luttenbachers feels like it makes sense, putting very tuneful skronk against chaos, but thereafter… not so much. It doesn’t feel like groups have logical reasons to be pitted against one another, even in the media copy, and that detracts from the fun where some of the above-mentioned external elements work in its favor. Then, looking at the packaging, it’d be nice if we were told, fully, if this stuff was available elsewhere or not. Sometimes we are, sometimes we aren’t; it’s admittedly an extra steps for comps, but one that is always worth an extra star from me – your most severe and important of online critics.

Post Now works best as a way to get your hands on some exclusive Luttenbacher tracks and some rare Child Abuse ones, and etc. It’s a good comp otherwise, but lacking in really standout material; a fantastic concept that never really quite bore out.