Oil highlights one of Thick Records strongest qualities, which was artistic design. What started out as a simple compilation became a multimedia project, interviewing even the factory workers, all while recording 19 bands in 15 days. In this case, the makeshift studio happened to be an oil factory, which Pat of The Matics happened to work at. The only workaround was to rent out a warehouse, where you could create a makeshift recording space. This brought up new roadblocks such as working around touring schedules and younger bands not being able to afford recording time. Initially, the idea was just to put a compilation of all new standalone tracks, as a follow up to a compilation called Magnetic Curses, which was released in 2000. A series of incremental decisions cascaded into something that would have sounded preposterous as an original pitch. It’s as pure an expression of the punk ethos. The story behind Oil is as compelling as any of the tracks that made the record. Or you have Bob Nanna, contributing the compilations closing track, a sparse acoustic song with some light percussion ricocheting across the mix. You move seamlessly within the first two tracks from Rise Against to Haymarket Riot, who the latter can still be seen playing 100-capacity venues to this day. It is astounding the sheer amount of notable artists that were involved, contributing original songs. This is the goal of any good compilation after all, providing a snapshot of what was happening in a music community at any given time. “The idea is to document the diversity of Chicago’s flourishing independent ‘punk’ community, and parallels of the cities varied industry in all its grit and glory.” The liner notes sum it up better than I ever could: Every band existed on different continuums, but–due to a confluence of factors–happened to converge at a particular moment in time. It’s a product of its time in the best way possible. This is all a preface to say Oil, a compilation released by Thick Records, could have only happened in 2003. You also concurrently had Chicago cult favorites, The Arrivals, who already had a split, an LP, and a record released. Alkaline Trio’s contemporaries, The Lawrence Arms, were a few years away from their peak and breakout hit, Oh Calcutta! This is just to speak of the big “tentpole” bands that people who were divorced from “the scene” we’re aware of. Some bands like Alkaline Trio had already graduated from playing shows at Fireside Bowl and were trying to make viable major label records, a la Good Mourning. But, we had yet to see the rampant major radio play that propelled local bands like Fall Out Boy, Rise Against, The Academy Is, and Plain White T’s to huge success. 90s punk has already “broke” long ago, with bands like Blink-182 and Green Day proving the major label viability. In 2003, Chicago punk exists at an interesting crossroads. This Punk Survey is a love letter to comps, along with some thoughts about one Chicago punk comp in particular. While I may not have found my favorite band on that particular compilation, it was an essential tool as I was slowly developing my musical taste. I think of my first year attending Warped Tour and getting their compilation for free, and then importing it into my iTunes library when I got home that night. It was an extension of those mix CDs your cool cousin or friend would make, giving you little clues as to what music to listen to. To people of a certain age, compilations, or more commonly referred to as “comps”, were a key part of getting into punk.
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