Various Artists “Shredded Wheat, Volume 1” CD

This is a regional comp this time coming from Saskatchewan. Most of the bands are from Regina and most of the bands are punk bands. I love the name given that most of our wheat comes from Saskatchewan. But these bands don’t sound like a bunch of farmers. Most of these bands are hardcore bands with one hip hop exception, which was still pretty rad. But the stand outs on the comp are POINT BLANK, who are a skate band from Calgary, who either moved to Regina or play there a lot. Also of note is KLEINS96 who start out the comp with a punked up R.E.M. cover. And the other stand out is WEST PORT MURDERS who have a noticeable celtic influence not unlike DROPKICK MURPHYS and totally remind me of the SKIDS. These like to be mostly previously released songs but mostly of self-released records that are totally off the radar. Great idea on how to shine the spotlight on some prairie punk. (Harvest King Records – www.harvestkingrecords.com)