Norwood Park All Stars “Northwest Highway”

Sometimes, records can be as useful as books and the Internet to learn about specific/local scenes and bands. This one for instance is about the Norcore Scene (North of Chicago in the mid-80s), which was composed of various bands with punk rock/glam influences mainly (but not only.) Some of these musicians have been reuniting since 2007 to give some of the songs from this era/scene a second life, and bring you this record that fans of bands like The DESCENDENTS, ALL, NRA or even GANG GREEN would love. For some reason, the intro of the opening song (“There Was A Time”) reminded me of French band LES THUGS while “Since 1973” tends to sound more like BLACK FLAG, but a lot of songs on this album are more on the straight punk rock side with hard rock touches (“23 (Listen For It)”, “The Addiction”…) You can even find some punked-up rockabilly influences in “Anita” and “Russ Meyer”.
This CD comes out in a cool looking colourful digipack, so this is a great way to find out about the Norcore scene and its bands, and the perfect musical companion to the website http://www.norcore.us ./Laurent C.