Sex & Subversion is the second in a series of THICK Records' cheapo compilations, with the first one being Love and Rebellion, released last year. This CD is in the same vein as the last, serving simply as a label sampler but also giving the listener what they really want: unreleased tracks.

Of the 17 tracks on here, 10 are previously unreleased. The comp contains rarities from Blue Meanies, Goldblade, Tom Daily, The Arrivals, Vortis, and Bitchy, acoustic radio tracks from Dave of the Arrivals and Scott of Local H, and songs off the upcoming Motel Blonde and New Black releases. Highlights from all this unreleased material include:

-The new Blue Meanies song, "Short Attention Span." Faster, louder, and just all-around better than most of their other posthumous compilation efforts, I gotta wonder how much more of this is locked up in the THICK vault. I also gotta wonder why the hell they just don't get back together already.
-Vortis' "Christmas In Kabul" sounds like Jello Biafra in front of a bunch of autistic kids banging on instruments. In a good way.
-Bitchy turns in a surprisingly solid rendition of "White Riot" by the Clash. Good work.
-The songs from Motel Blonde [mbrs. of Dropkick Murphys/GC5] and New Black are promising to say the least, and I definitely can't wait for either band's record now.

All in all, Sex & Subversion does it's job - it creates buzz for the label and it's bands while at the same time giving it's listener quality tunes, many of which had never seen the light of day before. Sounds like a deal to me.

Oh yeah, you get to see a killer set of boobs under the CD tray, too.

MP3s
The GC5 - The Long Goodbye
Haymarket Riot - Bought Your Weight
Local H - Cooler Heads
Motel Blonde - Keeping Misery Company
New Black - Booze Olympics
Sullen - All Fall Down