This four-disc box set covers the first major eruption of punk bands, between 1976 and 1978, as well as a few early adapters (the Modern Lovers, the New York Dolls) and latecomers (Dead Kennedys, the Ruts). Producer Gary Stewart has effectively put together a greatest-hits of what passed for punk at the time, aside from the Pistols -- gigantic, astonishing young-loud-snotty anthems by the Clash and X-Ray Spex and the Germs, but also Nick Lowe's wry power pop, Ian Dury's goofy disco and Television's guitar-hero acrobatics.

The cardinal virtues shared by the best early punk records were speed, concision and pep. (Their immediacy has paid off in career longevity: Most of the surviving contributors to No Thanks! are still playing in one form or another.) But their secret weapon was their inborn contempt for pop music's cliches. The only kind of love that shows up here is the kind that, as the still-terrifying Richard Hell yelps it, comes in spurts. As an introduction to a fertile musical moment, though, No Thanks! is nearly ideal. And if first-generation punk rock has lost its power to jolt, that's because it won its struggle -- alternative rock is still based on the axioms of these 100 songs.

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(Posted: Nov 5, 2003)