Various Artists "City Limits" LP

This is a brand new comp to come out on High Anxiety. Instead of being a city snapshot, High Anxiety has tried to capture two scene snapshots from cities who have had bitter rivalries in real life but where the punk scenes are concerned have a history of mutual respect and co-operation. Given that these bands are from Montreal or Toronto I keep thinking of the legendary "Primitive Air Raid" comp. "City Limits" evens out the representation more evenly then "Primitive Air Raid" with almost equal numbered bands and if it wasn't for the length of the four minute Inepsy and Unruled songs this would have been at even strength. In the striving to include as many bands as possible "City Limits" takes cues from some of the great Fans of Bad Productions comps like "Fuck the Commonwealth" or "Killed by Canada". However "City Limits" is able to focus on some scenes the way Schizophrenic's "Toronto City Omnibus" or "Toronto's Burning" comp has. The focus on cities reminds me of the MCR city comps, which is where Schizophrenic took some inspiration. But who is on this comp. Career Suicide are a staple to a lot of comps that have come out of Toronto and they deliver with a new unreleased song. And Brutal Knights and Urban Blight have loads of releases out themselves. Where comps make their distinction is in the new bands that they bring to the table. Purity Control, Total Trash, Molested Youth, Snakepit, the Slobs, the Omegas.....these are the sounds of the new scene. The Mad Men song is a cover of a rare Italian hardcore band from the mid-80's. See if you can figure it out.  

The track listing is:

Toronto side:
1. CAREER SUICIDE - Delusional
2. BAD CHOICE - Angry Americans
3. PURITY CONTROL - Sex Life
4. SNAKEPIT - Justice
5. MATURE SITUATIONS - Yoga Preedator
6. MAD MEN - Odia
7. SCHOOL JERKS - N/A
8. BRUTAL KNIGHTS - Bad Choice
9. MOLESTED YOUTH - Genetic Jackhammer
10. URBAN BLIGHT - False Truths
11. TOTAL TRASH - Violence
12. BURNING LOVE - Mess

Montreal side:
13. SLOBS - Outlier

14. FOREIGN BODIES - Downtown Fun

15. INEPSY - Fast Way to Die
16. CASTEVETS - Good Riddance
17. VILE INTENT - Jumper
18. NAUGHTY GIRLS - Left in the Dark
19. DEAD WIFE - Choke
20. BRAZEN HELL - Corrosion
21. BOGUS CAUSE - Blame Yourself
22. UNRULED - Iraq Attack
23. OMEGAS - Social Slasher