I know they can be polarizing, but I find comps to be gateway drugs to awesome music (especially in the digital age). Where would we be without KBD, BFTG, or Nuggets? Probably somewhere much lamer than here. What’s your favorite comps?

To me, the grand-mama of them all is “Alright, This Time Just the Girls,” the Sympathy comp. It shaped me more than any other record I own, probably.

I acquired these two when I was into CDs as a youngin. They have since been lost. But, they got me into the Fall and early T Rex respectively, so huge impact.

https://www.discogs.com/master/1006466-Various-Rough-Trade-Records-Compilation?srsltid=AfmBOopmAzR6QUD0RbLJEHoMvH7P6HSJ_6RZRbsM0_GBSYaEH0worZWR

https://www.discogs.com/release/915113-Various-Acid-Daze?srsltid=AfmBOopsSkwUDtT70dM0NLB0FyF9EE9Winqw_QhEoefNURaKO2ywmPEU

Lately, I’ve been listening to this one on the bad music app. I’ll have to order it. 95% of it is killer!!

https://www.discogs.com/release/16102750-Various-Make-More-Noise-Women-In-Independent-UK-Music-1977-1987?srsltid=AfmBOor2unz4CmWob-cd2QYUUAw_TJTbRCCrwNI-tkjpHEuOhw6gnZGC

hell yeh i love comps! i'll keep an eye out for the above...

big fan of all the Soul Jazz Punk 45 comps that came out maybe ten years or so.. really instrumental in helping me get up to scratch with the lesser known bands and sounds of punk history.

also had a brief obsession with the Warner/Reprise loss leader series - https://www.discogs.com/lists/Loss-Leaders-Series-amp-PRO/18612?srsltid=AfmBOor699F2wHCoR4BiiQr81CxIX5s3TGqzG01YMzhuMiL6DvuHVr79 - still find them in $2 bins, but hilarious major label attempt to move their mail order stock no one wanted, personal faves like Randy Newman, The Fugs, Tiny Tim.. but big hitters like The Kinks and Neil Young pop up, real oddball stuff

also very cool to see a sequel of sorts to the P.E.A.C.E comp being done by warbad records right now, all-star hardcore line-up: https://warbad.bandcamp.com/album/still-no-p-e-a-c-e-still-war

Sydney Salk's Compilation Nation substack is great for this: https://compilationnation.substack.com/ -- reviews column dedicated to compilations that finds some really weird stuff

boulders 1 comp is great.

Girls in the Garage are great.

Also enjoy SOME of these Brown Acid comps.

Definitely poke through the Bloodstains comps. Different countries get their go.

I love comps. Also love salad. Coincidence?

bigtime comp lover. When I was in highschool those Rhino DIY comps turned me onto a lot of stuff

KILLED BY DEATH comps absolutely blew my mind when I first heard them! Had a cool older punk hand me the first back from the grave comp and tell me it was the KBD of the 60s. Couldn't wait to get it home and have a new obsession. Just pulled it back out last week because of @Chipoil Chippy T talking about Peanut Butter and have been listening ever since. Hit after hit! The Fabs! What a band. I just looked on discogs and I can own an original for $10,465.12

Those Spiritual Jazz comps are fantastic.

some others I love
Red Snerts
Je Suis Punk
Barnyard Soul Vol. 1 and 2
Anxious Colors

Artcore Fanzine (or maybe Welly writing in another British zine... possibly Fracture) had a great guide to punk and hardcore comps in the early 00s. Something to Believe In, Someone Got Their Head Kicked In, American Youth Report, This Is Boston, Not LA. Hell Comes to Your House (Vol II certainly helped get me into that rootsier end of LA punk - Tex & the Horseheads etc). He's since wrote a book on the subject which I haven't picked up yet, but will. He's been doing a series of podcasts for Razorcake about it too.

The Cowtown 7" series were an early way into a lot of garage stuff for me, still love that series. Yes LA hits hard. Who Put the Bomp? certainly helped me understand powerpop. Beach Blvd is peerless.

Yeah, comps rule.

Love comps.

Picking up Mutant pop (fast product) back in the day certainly sent me down a path im still on. And the earcom compilations

God less America is an all timer. I had actually bought it before any BFTG

Downloaded all the the hyped to death I could

Recently I find the bored teenagers series is still pulling up some gems. Those postcards comps started strong but then fizzled out as they went along

Krypton 10
Time to go
Tard and furtherd
Vancouver compilation
Human music

Too many but I love a good comp!

Comps are great! As a DJ, they've always been a great way to get more bang for my buck.

-Bloodstains are my fav (particularly Belgium)
-I'm going to second those Rhino DIY comps. They were in the discount cassette bins when I was just trying to figure out this punk noise. I mentioned on my radio program that they really shaped my taste growing up. My fav was UK vol2

A few of the big ones for me:

I had no idea about the Rhino DIY comps! I never really came across those in the UK, but I might have been too young at the time. Downloading a few of them off Soulseek now.

This is the one that blew it open for me

Mitch C. I was just jamming to this earlier--really sick shit! Thanks for putting it together!

    Most of the biggies for me have already been mentioned. My local library had all those Rhino DIY comps on CD which is where I likely first heard so many bands (Wire, The Fall, Nerves, etc...). Most of the rest would have been mail-ordered from Underground Medicine - Murder Punk/Where Birdmen Flew Revisited, KBD, Powerpearls, Teenage Treats, etc. I also bought the Mutant Pop comp on a whim in Boston in 99 or 2000 or so and it blew me away. Still my favourite comp of all time.

    Hyped 2 Death which mines similar territory as some of the above comps. In the 80s hardcore comps were the way to hear bands you'd heard about or read about but never actually heard. Crucial.

    Let Them Eat Jellybeans
    MRR Not So Quiet on the Western Front
    The Master Tape
    Peace/War comp
    Flex Your Head

    Have a soft spot for this one. Freedom of Choice - Yesterday's New Wave Hits as Performed by Today's Stars
    Sonic Youth, the Muffs, Redd Kross, Mudhoney

    Another good one for hearing certain things for the first time in a pre-internet era
    The Tyranny of the Beat
    Can, Swell Maps, SPK, Throbbing Gristle, Wire, Dome, etc.

    Punk o Rama 3 was the first comp I bought, from my local virgin megastore. New bomb Turks were on it and then that was that. Also, Pebbles.

      This is exactly the thread I was hoping to find in action.

      Tokyo Flashback is comp of comps for me. Those and the Mississippi tapes. And the Xpressway comps. Favourite comps.

      Homework is good too. How bout the Blorp Esette? Now I'm just naming comps...

      Pretty much my gateway into punk. I wore this comp out when I was in high school. And I think it still holds up. I’m not really into most of the bands these days, but my favorite stuff from them would still be off this record. Sick people!