If you don’t know it already, I am a real sucker for NYHC. Between this compilation here and Blackout’s “Where the wild things are” all the great Non-Revelation bands of the golden age of NYHC are covered. While “Where the wild things are” showcased mostly the harder and/or more metal-sounding bands like Sheer Terror, Maximum Penalty, or Uppercut, “Look at all the children now” leans more towards the “alternative” side of the spectrum. Maybe I am saying this mostly because this record was released by Sam McPheeters of Born Against fame on his Evacuate Records (EVAC #1, 1990), and some of the bands featured here were part of the ABC No Rio scene. But while most of the songs thankfully are not of the “you, me, youth crew” variety (with the exception of Team Effort’s cheesy “t.e.”), most of the songs are actually also not particularly politically charged.
(UPDATE: Looks like you can't trust everything you read on the internet... Apparently, Sam McPheeters did not release this record, but rather another Sam, Sam Fisher (or "Sam Evac" , which you know, makes sense... but who's keeping score, anyway, huh?)
On here you will find several quite well known bands like Rorschach, Citizen's Arrest, GO! and Moondog (Walter Schreifels’ brief project between Gorilla Biscuits and Quicksand), and a bunch of really solid bands like Bad Trip, S.F.A. and Yuppicide that never really got their dues. Finally there are number of lesser known bands like Word Discrimination, Bugout Society, or Team Effort that round out (read “drag down”) this compilation.
Some of these songs weren’t so great to begin with but others really stood the test of time. Anyway, overall it is good non-youth crew NYHC and you should take this opportunity to take a stroll down memory lane.
As a side note: I always liked the less raspy, more hardcore voice of Rorschach’s Charles Maggio better on those alternative versions of songs that made it on compilations like the Forever 7” or this one here. I am certainly in the vast minority on this one, but it needed to be said; so there you have it!
