Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Radio Free Europe - R.E.M.
2. Going Underground - The Jam
3. Forest - The Cure
4. Holiday in Cambodia - Dead Kennedys
5. I'm in Love With a German Film Star - The Passions
6. I Will Dare - The Replacements
7. That's When I Reach for My Revolver - Mission of Burma
8. Johnny Hit and Run Pauline - X
9. Just Like Honey - The Jesus and Mary Chain
10. Black Celebration - Depeche Mode
11. Tell Me When It's Over - Dream Syndicate
12. Hollywood (Africa) - Red Hot Chili Peppers
13. Temptation - New Order
14. Ghosts - Japan
15. Song from Under the Floorboards - Magazine
16. Oblivious - Aztec Camera
17. Don't Want to Know If You're Lonely - Hüsker Dü
18. Rise Above - Black Flag
19. Back in Flesh - Wall of Voodoo
20. Cattle and Cane - The Go-Betweens

Disc 2:

1. Message of Love - The Pretenders
2. Vienna - Ultravox
3. Freak Scene - Dinosaur Jr.
4. This Charming Man - The Smiths
5. Stigmata - Ministry
6. Ways to Be Wicked - Lone Justice
7. Wardance - Killing Joke
8. Enola Gay - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
9. Mirror in the Bathroom - The English Beat
10. Fairytale in the Supermarket - The Raincoats
11. Behind the Wall of Sleep - The Smithereens
12. Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing - Minutemen
13. Punk Rock Girl - The Dead Milkmen
14. Still in Hollywood - Concrete Blonde
15. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
16. Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes
17. Lake of Fire - Meat Puppets
18. Amplifier - The dB's
19. When Love Breaks Down - Prefab Sprout
20. Goo Goo Muck - The Cramps
21. This Corrosion - The Sisters of Mercy
22. Senses Working Overtime - XTC

Disc 3:

1. Cutter - Echo & the Bunnymen, Echo & the Bunnymen
2. Pay to Cum - Bad Brains
3. Birthday - The Sugarcubes
4. Madonna of the Wasps - Robyn Hitchcock
5. We Care a Lot - Faith No More
6. Teen Age Riot - Sonic Youth
7. To Hell With Poverty - Gang of Four
8. Fa Cé-La - The Feelies
9. Ana Ng - They Might Be Giants
10. Swamp Thing - The Chameleons UK
11. Mercy Seat - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
12. I Look Around - Rain Parade
13. All That Money Wants - The Psychedelic Furs
14. Under the Milky Way - The Church
15. Rise - Public Image Ltd.,
16. Kundalini Express - Love and Rockets, Love and Rockets
17. Gravity Talks - Green on Red
18. Adrenalin - Throbbing Gristle
19. She Bangs the Drums - The Stone Roses

Disc 4:

1. Monkey Gone to Heaven - Pixies
2. Uncertain Smile [Original 7" Version] - The The
3. Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus
4. Christine - Siouxsie and the Banshees,
5. Straight Edge - Minor Threat
6. I Want to Help You Ann - Lyres
7. Our Secret - Beat Happening
8. Jane Says - Jane's Addiction
9. World Shut Your Mouth - Julian Cope
10. Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush
11. Sex Beat - Gun Club
12. Take the Skinheads Bowling - Camper Van Beethoven
13. Institutionalized - Suicidal Tendencies
14. Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops - Cocteau Twins
15. 24 Hour Party People - Happy Mondays
16. I Want You Back - Hoodoo Gurus
17. Surburban Home - Descendents
18. Pair of Brown Eyes - The Pogues
19. Jet Fighter - The Three O'Clock
20. Moving to Florida - Butthole Surfers
21. New England - Billy Bragg

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34680 in Music
• Released on: 2004-10-12
• Number of discs: 4
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: 1.63 pounds

Album Description
In his notes for this passionately compiled box, producer Gary Stewart writes, "the diversity from the late-70s punk/new wave scene turned into a full-blown, variety-fueled, genre-busting orgy in the '80s...The music became, in the best sense of the words, more complex, more literate, a bit more serious, and as a result, made astrong impact on mainsteam rock culture." From funk punk to revisionist roots rock to hard-core to smart-ass clever pop-and every musical nook and cranny in-between-Left of the Dial presents many of the '80s' most important tracks. Savor the far more influential flip side of the "Where's the Beef?" decade's musical output!

Amazon.com
As a sequel to 2004's similarly packaged Rhino box No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rebellion, this four-disc set tackles the punk/indie/modern rock of the 80s with equal panache. Subtitled "Dispatches from the 80s Underground," these 82 non-chronological tracks play like a great college station from the later part of the decade. Encompassing a dizzyingly diverse musical palate, styles range from the artsy Southern twang of R.E.M., to the sugary pop of Aztec Camera, the blistering hardcore of Black Flag, the ghostly techno of Japan and the chilly, noir dance floor attack of New Order. And that's just on disc one.

Sure, there are some omissions, but the box does a remarkable job balancing more popular acts such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Cure and Echo & the Bunnymenwith cult faves like Green On Red and obscurities from the Lyres and the Three O'Clock . Even those who were radio fanatics during these years will likely find tracks they aren't familiar with, along with getting a flashback rush from those they are. A colorful 64 page book provides track-by-track background information as well as a handful of essays about the decade that approach the music from different perspectives. There are no public service announcements or aspiring DJ's to interrupt the flow and the remastered sound brings the music to life with crispness low powered FM radio could never rival. --Hal Horowitz

Customer Reviews

My 20s relived... ignore the nitpickers
Every single song on this collection, all 82, are happy memories of a time before "alternative" hadn't been coopted by MTV and a raw spirit of experimentation and musical excitement was possible amid a sea of mainstream radio dross. Inspired choices abound, along with some that are obvious but also essential in a round-up of this era. I'm worried that I'm becoming trapped in my youth for listening to music, but it's so rare for me to hear new music that has this energy and drive.

Complain all you like about Joy Division being represented by "Love Will Tear Us Apart," that song was emblematic of it's time and essential for inclusion here. So are many others.

There will always be nitpickers who don't appreciate what they've got. Sure, there are things I would have included, and anyone familiar with this era can play armchair record producer. But what the producers have done here is such a joy all around that you hope they simply plan to do a Volume 2 to include more of this material.

Oh, and to the confused fellow who somehow believes that the "Left" in the title refers to a political leaning: You really seem so driven by a political motivation that you simply ignore the origin of the title. This is college radio stuff. College radio stations almost always sit in the FM high 80s through low 90s. On the left of your dial. If some of the material on this collection is of a liberal leaning, that's because the right gives them so much to be disgusted by. But the name originates elsewhere.

Good alternative history lesson
I will probably wind up purchasing this box set because to me it represents a lot of the post-punk era's best work, but it might be too scattered for a lot of people. Great box sets like No Thanks! and Nuggets have unifying musical themes. The closest Left of the Dial has to a theme is that these artists weren't Madonna or Michael Jackson or any of the other zillion-selling money machines of the 80's.

And that's great, but unless you actually like both the Bad Brains and the Cocteau Twins, or Kate Bush and the Cramps, or the Go-Betweens and the Dead Kennedys, this collection might be too artistically unfocused. But if you want to get a good overview of what eventually came to be known as "alternative" because we ran out of other things to call it, there are a lot of classic tracks here that no discriminating record collection should be without. And yes, as one reviewer pointed out, it seems as though there must be a law requiring "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division in every box set this side of Pat Boone, but it is just about the greatest song ever written. I'd like to have seen the Fall, Wire and Cabaret Voltaire included and I can't understand how Prefab Sprout wound up surviving the cut, but I admit that's nitpicking. And sticking in artists like the Raincoats and Throbbing Gristle was a good move, they're the types of bands who often get overlooked for these projects.

Now I'm waiting to see a good box set of '78-'80 skinny tie/pointed shoes new wave pop like the Cars/Knack/Vapors/Split Enz, etc.

Oh, and Amazon, the Dead Kennedys' track is "Holiday in Cambodia," not "Holiday in China." Wrong regime.

Great, but where are the women?
I love reading these reviews that say "great but they should've included..." This compiliation introduced me to bands I'd somehow missed, and your reviews are pointing out more great bands I'd missed.

My $0.02 about what's missing: when I was in college (Reed, '82) women were starting to take off their high heels and put on combat boots. "Left of the Dial" should have included more of the women that started the riot grrrl movement. This compilation includes The Raincoats "Fairytale in the Supermarket" (I would've picked "In Love" as their best song) and Siouxsie & the Banshees "Christine." I can see skipping Patti Smith, The Pretenders, Blondie, and Joan Jett as they were commercial successes in the early '80s (although the compilation includes male commericial successes such as REM). IMHO this compilation should have included:

The Slits "Typical Girls"
The Waitresses "I Know What Boys Like"
Barbara Manning (28th Day) "25 Pills"
Bow Wow Wow "Louis Quatorze"
Martha and the Muffins "Echo Beach"
Wendy and the Plasmatics "A Pig Is a Pig"

Two other bands I would've included:

Stiff Little Fingers "Alternative Ulster"
The Specials "It's Up To You"

I just read this on a website about The Slits:

"...are one of the most significant female punk-rock bands of the late '70s. Not only did they bravely (or foolishly, you be the judge) leap into the fray with little, if any, musical ability (on their debut tour with the Clash, Mick Jones used to tune their guitars for them), but through sheer emotion and desire created some great music..."