Frontier Records — Diamonds at a Discount

This was an odd decision made at a house concert, where the host had brought in not only a an artist to play but a few small vendors, all of whom are friends or in our social network, raising money for a very important local charity that helps with financial literacy. This was the very first gathering of any sort that we attended after a year and more of lockdown, as I mentioned when talking about John Faye. So, I was going to buy a few things just to provide support. Someone had some vinyl, and by and large it wasn’t stuff I was very interested in, but I decided to give this little sampler from Frontier Records a try. I didn’t know anything about the label, though I knew a little bit about Young Fresh Fellows and Circle Jerks, so I thought it could only be but so bad.

If I had picked this up in 1986, when it came out, I’m sure I would have ranked this up there with the “Repo Man” soundtrack or the “Border Radio” soundtrack among eye-opening (ear-opening?) collections that exposed me to a bunch of music I’d never heard before. Right now, that’s not the space I’m in, so I haven’t given this a lot of listens. But if you’re in that alternative/new wave/power pop space, this is a nice little collection.