Warped Tour 2007 compilation review

Various Artists – “Warped Tour 2007”
(SideOne Dummy)

Artists who have played the Warped Tour, both past and present, are what make up this two-disc set. It’s somewhat biased towards SideOne Dummy artists, but that’s not too terribly surprising – I mean, really, it is SideOne’s comp.

There’s a lot of screamo going on, but “real” punk rears its head from time to time with tracks by artists like Only Crime and Street Dogs, as well as some ska from Big D & the Kids Table and two-tone stalwarts the Toasters. It’s not like much of this is going to be “unreleased” by summer’s end (the Gogol Bordello track isn’t off their forthcoming Super Taranta!, however).

Granted, given enough time and energy, you could track most of these songs down on various label sites and have this compilation pretty much for free. As a matter of fact, almost all of the Warped Tour comps have been that way for about the last six years. Still, even though most of the tracks are either off forthcoming releases or already-released albums, it’s certainly a handy-dandy primer towards the current punk kids’ listening habits.

Only Crime – “Take Me
Poison the Well – “Letter Thing
Strung Out – “Calling