This Is Boston, Not L.A. is a hardcore punkcompilation released in 1982. It is considered the definitive album from the Boston hardcore scene, as several of its most prominent bands appear on the record, namely, Jerry's Kids, the Proletariat, the Groinoids, the F.U.'s, Gang Green, Decadence, and the Freeze.[1] For them, with the exception of the latter, This Is Boston, Not L.A. was also their debut release. Al Barile's band, SSD, were asked to contribute, but they refused to participate.[2]
The album was named after its closing track, the eponymous song by the Freeze:
If you dance the same and dress the same
It won't be long 'til you are the same
You look the same and act the same
There's nothing new and you're to blame
This is Boston, not L.A.
This is Boston, fuck L.A.
According to Clif Hanger, vocalist for the Freeze, the title song was written not to insult Los Angeles scene, but to encourage other Boston acts to find their own unique, local sound rather than emulate other bands from other areas.[4][5] However, Boston audiences often took away a different meaning. They assumed the song asserted Boston's superiority to Los Angeles.[4]
The album's front cover features a black-and-white image of a mosh pit, taken by Bostonian punk photographer Phil In Phlash.
This Is Boston, Not L.A. would be followed up a few months later by a six-song complementary record, the Unsafe at Any SpeedEP.[nb 1]
Writing contemporaneously in The Boston Phoenix, Doug Simmons said that "crudely put, our punk scene is a pimple compared to California’s festering wounds. What's even more dehabilitating [sic], as Cliff Hanger points out, is that Boston hardcore lacks even the force of originality. Shaved skulls, scrawled-on T-shirts, and heavy boots have become just one more uniform. Still, I find hope in This is Boston, Not L.A. Jerry's Kids, the Groinoids (defunct), the F.U.’s, Decadence (ditto), and Gang Green may all be Circle Jerkoffs in terms of sound (raw, fast, brief, mean), but many songs strike a nerve."[11]
"... in the late '70s and early '80s. While Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco were famous for their punk scenes, Boston's punk scene didn't enjoy nearly as much publicity. But make no mistake: Boston was a punk hotbed back then, and Modern Method Records tried to spread the word with this obscure but excellent compilation ... This Is Boston, Not L.A. ... paints an impressive picture of the Beantown punks who were active during that era."[1]
A few months after releasing This Is Boston, Not L.A.,[nb 2] Modern Method issued a follow-up companion record, the 7-inch EP titled Unsafe at Any Speed,[nb 1][9][12] featuring one unreleased song apiece from six of the bands which had appeared on the original compilation.
Also featuring a Phil In Phlash's photograph of a mosh pit, and boldtypography, the record's front cover is of a similar design to that on the original album.
After the record's release, Boston natives took to mocking the title with T-shirts that proclaimed in large type: "This is L.A. (Lower Allston), not Boston" in reference to Allston, Massachusetts. In the early to mid-1980s, the T-shirt appropriately mimicked the NBA rivalry between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers.
The Boston-based ska-punk band Big D and the Kids Table printed T-shirts referencing the song and compilation. They featured "L.A" with a strike through it on the front and "This is Boston Not L.A." on the back. South shore pop-punk band A Loss for Words also made shirts that featured a modified version of the Celtics logo and the same saying on the reverse side. This alludes to both the compilation and the Celtics' victory in the 1984 NBA Finals.
In 1994 Zafio Records released the This is Berkeley Not West Bay 4-way split EP with Black Fork, Dead and Gone, Screw 32 and AFI on it. As a response, in 2000 the Amsterdam-based Kangaroo Records label released the compilation EP This is Kangaroo Not Berkely, with 12 bands from different countries playing 'straight forward hardcore. Like the way it SHOULD be.'[16]
The compilation was mentioned by the punk rock band NOFX on their song "We Got Two Jealous Agains", featured on their album The War on Errorism, released in 2003. A verse of the lyrics reads: "But when I saw Christ on Parade, and This is Boston, Not LA, I knew you were the one".
In 2012, appeared an unlabeled self-released EP titled This Is Boston and S.J., displaying on its cover art the same photograph and graphic style of the 1982 LP, but instead of it saying "Not L.A.", it's crossed off and says "and S.J.". Hostage and Swamps from Massachusetts share the record with Bad Times Crew, and True Hearted from San Jose, California.[17]
On July 29, 2016, Newbury Comics re-released the album as a limited repressing of 1,500 copies on colored vinyl,[nb 2][20] in four different design variations.[21]
Track listings
In the original LP from 1982, "Straight Jacket" is spelled "Strait Jacket" on the side A disc label[6] and on the inner sleeve, while "I Don't Know" appears as "I Don't Care" on the back cover and on the side B disc label, and "This Is Boston, Not L.A." is shortened to "Boston not L.A." on the back cover and on the side B disc label. In the Compact Cassette version, also from 1982, "I Don't Know" appears as "I Don't Care", and "This Is Boston, Not L.A." is shortened to "Boston not L.A."[7]
^Varnum, Steve (mid-1982). Title unknown (review about the Proletariat's contribution to the This Is Boston, Not L.A. compilation). The Standard-Times.
Hurchalla, George (Zuo Press, 2005). "Bend My Ear, Twist My Arm". Going Underground: American Punk 1979–1989. Second ed., 2016. Oakland: PM Press. ISBN9781629631134. pp. 197–214.
Quint, Al (September 1982). "Various Artists: Unsafe at Any Speed (Modern Method)". Suburban Punk (1).
