V/A - Temple of Music - Independent Pop from Western New York (1996, Atom Smash/P22)

Before Buffalo, NY's main claim-to-lame was being the snow capital of the nation (though technically, Syracuse, three hours down the road, is actually subject to more of the white plague than the Queen City), the town in question had an even more dubious distinction - the assassination of President William McKinley at the Pan Am Exposition in 1901.  In 1988, a macabre opportunist with hip taste in music assembled a compilation LP highlighting the cream of Buffalo's up-and-coming crop, strikingly dubbed, We Killed McKinley.  Eight years on, another opportunist decided to try his/her/it's hand at providing yet another snapshot of the Erie County scene, highlighting equally worthy tuneage in the Clinton-era.  And to our good fortune they did a pretty apt job at it.  Temple of Music's CD sleeve and title is yet another dig at the 1901 tragedy, as it depicts the building where that unholy act took place (which by the way looks suspiciously like a Carnegie library, but I digress). 

The liner notes to Temple... openly attest that Buffalo failed to receive any bona fide support from "the mainstream press."  It's a scenario which played out in many mid-sized, less-than-cosmopolitan towns elsewhere in the States.  Too bad ace power-pop prodigies girlpope, Tremendo, BoBo, The Willies, and even Rochester's Koo Koo Boy didn't transcend the mainstream morass of the day.  Spawn's garagey goth, The Wrench's shredding' punk-pop, and milf's noiseome, but devastatingly melodious maelstrom are downright peerless as well, not to mention additional, well above average contributions from the likes of Stella, Java Man Ray Gun and Hula.

If you dig, physical copies of this and full lengths/ep's from the aforementioned girlpope and BoBo may still be available from P22, who by the way are responsible for some rather gnarly fonts as well.

01-BoBo - Suzie
02-Hula - Kissbox Diesel
03-The Wrench - Worry When We Get There
04-Tremendo - More Or Less
05-Durango 95 - Extraordinary Relief From Res Judicata
06-Rarely Seen Public Figures - Beautiful
07-girlpope - Song About Girls
08-The Tim - 360°
09-Spawn - Swirling Priest
10-Java Man Ray Gun - She's So Paranormal
11-The Amazing All My Children Band - Finding Out All About The Flowers
12-Dan Lewis And The Tomorrow File - Face On The Floor
13-Nimrod Wildfire Band - Happy Hunting Grounds
14-The Willies - Looks Like She's From Another World
15-The Wife Swappers - Ashtray
16-McCarthyizm - Take What You Can Get
17-Stella - Paint-Stain
18-milf - Super
19-Copper - Serial Killer
20-Koo Koo Boy - Sunday

Hear