Friendly, Sing-Along Fun: Various Artists, "Awesome Fest 666"

Various Artists, Awesome Fest 666 (2012)

Awesome Fest is a long-running music festival initially founded by Los Angeles-area punk enthusiast Marty Ploy in the mid-2000s. (I met Ploy briefly at a show after I moved to Los Angeles through Harry Jerkface, whom I met via Mikey Erg. Ploy would most likely not remember me.) The not-for-profit, ideally annual event is somewhat similar to its precursor the Fest in Gainesville, Fla., and is now a collaborative project run by six friends active in their local scenes. Even though there hasn’t been an Awesome Fest held since 2018, I hope that the festival resumes soon. I have yet to participate in one.

The southern California fest is a three-day series of shows that highlights the diversity, intensity, and beauty of punk and adjacent music. The most recent 2018 lineup in San Diego featured 70 bands. More than 40 were from California, with 10 of those bands based in San Diego. The remainder largely came from the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest.

I forget how I acquired this slip-sleeved festival compilation, but the fine folks behind Toys That Kill or Razorcake might have included it with a record order or magazine mailing. The compact disc featuring cover art by Bill Pinkel was released to promote and document the 2012 Awesome Fest, the sixth one to be held—a decade ago. Paul Silver offered an in-depth writeup of the 2012 fest in Jersey Beat: Three days, four venues, scads of bands, and exuberant, friendly, sing-along fun.

On the comp, 11 of the songs were previously unreleased, and the featured bands recorded for labels such as It’s Alive Records, Dead Broke Records, Dirt Cult Records, Dirtnap Records, On the Real Records, and Recess Records. All are labels with a relatively consistent aesthetic and focus, so if you like this sort of music, their other releases are definitely worth checking out.

For the most part, the bands offer latter-day power pop, pop punk, garage rock, folk punk, and decidedly not sleepy-sad emo similar to sounds emitting from the Midwest and west coast in recent decades. Some of the better-known acts on the comp—and on the bill—included Chixdiggit!, Dan Padilla, Fleshies, Joyce Manor, Masked Intruder, Mean Jeans, This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb, Tiltwheel, and Toys That Kill.

I can’t imagine that listening to this comp even comes close to replicating the experience at Awesome Fest described by Silver. It’s a catchy, inspiring collection of songs—and bands with which you might not already be familiar. And it might just encourage you to check out Awesome Fest the next time it comes around. 

Highlights for me included the Bananas’ “Billy Rueben,” Fleshies’ “Onion of My Eye,” French Exit’s “Dominoes,” God Equals Genocide’s “You’re Different,” House Boat’s “Quivering,” Lipstick Homicide’s “Not That Easy,” the Marked Men’s “Fortune,” Mind Spiders’ “Wait for Us,” Short Attention’s “Short Attention,” Siren Songs’ “Victim of Discontent,” This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb’s “The Minimum Wage Song,” Toys That Kill’s “The Nervous Rocks,” and Turkish Techno’s “Lazy Afternoon.” Geesh, that’s more than one-fourth of the comp! You can explore most of the songs included on the comp courtesy of this playlist. 

Some of the bands include women members or feature female vocalists, including but not limited to Big Eyes, God Equals Genocide, Lipstick Homicide, Shellshag, Short Attention, Siren Songs, Something Fierce, This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb, and Worthwhile Way.

Even though this came out 10 years ago, the songs sound just as fresh today—and might very well tomorrow. File under: Music Marty Likes.