Penelope Spheeris

Wasted youth classic from writer / director Penelope Spheeris who tells a brutal, stark and honest story about a group of rejected kids who live, as a kind of alternative family unit, in a condemned house on the margins of LA society. Rejected, inarticulate and unruly trouble is never far away, especially when the macho jocks of straight society decide the punks need to be taught a lesson. "Suburbia" is a great wee film that angrily expresses a loathing for traditional suburbia and its show more requirements for staid conformity and rampant consumerism. Penelope Spheeris' script seethes with a combination of disappointment and hopelessness and is hugely sympathetic to the punks and skins who form the core of the rejected kids depicted in the film. She avoids sentimentality, however, and the kids are presented in all their human frailty - angry, violent, inarticulate and inconsistent, which helps deliver a more rounded picture of the group. The punks are played by street kids, who are stiff and can't really act. This doesn't overly distract, however; if anything it gives an extra layer of reality and distance to the kids alienation. The film also gets the mood and look of the early '80s street punk scene just about right with performances by T.S.O.L., DI, and The Vandals adding to the verisimilitude. "Suburbia" is not a comfortable film by any means, but a very good attempt at honestly portraying the punk scene at a certain point in its early gestation. show less

Product Details

* Audio CD (September 28, 1993)
* Number of Discs: 1
* Format: Soundtrack
* Label: Slash
* Catalog Number: 28812
* ASIN: B0000057C2
* Other Editions: Audio CD | Audio Cassette
* Average Customer Review: based on 6 reviews. (Write a review.)
* Amazon.com Sales Rank: #223,289 in Music (See Top Sellers in Music)
Yesterday: #223,198 in Music

Listen to Samples
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1. White Minority - Black show more Flag Listen Listen
2. Depression - Black Flag Listen Listen
3. Revenge - Black Flag Listen Listen
4. Manimal - Germs Listen Listen
5. Underground Babylon - Catholic Discipline Listen Listen
6. Beyond And Back - x Listen
7. Johny Hit And Run Paulene - x Listen
8. We're Desperate - x Listen
9. Red Tape - Circle Jerks Listen
10. Back Against The Wall - Circle Jerks Listen
11. I Just Want Some Skank - Circle Jerks Listen
12. Beverly Hills - Circle Jerks Listen
13. Gluttony - Alice Bag Band Listen
14. I Don't Care About You - Fear Listen
15. I Love Livin' In The City - Fear Listen
16. Fear Anthem - Fear Listen

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Customer Reviews
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Greatest punk bands of all time in a classic soundtrack..., February 21, 2003
Reviewer: N. Humar "Gilberto Humar" (holtville ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
...I love the Germs,Black Flag,X,Circle Jerks and Catholic Discipline...and i love this movie too...this is the greatest soundtrack of all times...it shows how was the real 80's punk hardcore scene at it's best...you gotta buy it...I think it's outta stock...you'll be lucky if you find it...

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
A Classic!, October 3, 2002
Reviewer: A music fan
This cd contains a collection of some of the best punk bands ever. To hear these bands studio albums is great, but to hear them play live is euphoric, it gets the adrenaline going like no bands ever before or since. Black Flag(pre-Rollins, when they were good) and the Circle Jerks really get your heart racing, the Germs are, well, the Germs, Catholic Discipline is awful, but still better than any "punk" bands today, X is great, by far the most mainstream band on this cd, Fear is great as usual, and the Bags are the best band in this film, very underrated. You also get some sound bits from the film by the moronic kids that Penelope Spheeris interviewed. The only bad thing about this cd is that it only included one Bags song, "Gluttony", and left out "Prowlers In The Night", very dissapointing as this is the only version of this song they ever recorded, as the band broke up before they could release a studio album. Other than this tragic mistake, this cd is a classic and everyone who considers themselves into punk rock should own the film and the cd(and the lp, if you can find it.)

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Total Immortal, October 28, 2001
Reviewer: Winston (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews
A must own companion piece for fans of the Penelope Spheeris rockumentary. However, this live album stands the test of time on its own as a legitimate popcultural artifact. A veritable audio time capsule, immortalizing the "red eyed legends" of a generation in search of it's own distinct musical voice, too young for Woodstock, too old for Hip-Hop and too cool for Disco.
Before Henry Rollins became a household name (depending on the household), Black Flag featured the likes of "Chavo" Ron Reyes, Keith Morris (featured on this album with the Circle Jerks), and Greg Guinn, who wrote most of Black Flag's music and drove the majority of the bands frenzied live sets with indecent melodies bled from a see through guitar. Picture Keith Richards at 90 rpm. The Foo Fighter's Pat Smear, got his first taste of rock and roll sub-stardom with the Germs, while Fear's Lee Ving distinguished himself on this album and many others as the Andrew Dice Clay of punk rock front men. And then there is X, perhaps the greatest "rock and roll" band most mainstream music fans will never hear. show less

Public-access stars sell their TV show to a network.

2.5/4 (Okay).

A lot of the jokes aren't funny, but it maintains an entertainingly goofy tone.

It was okay. Pretty typical of a 90s kids movie, it's also a remake of a collection of short films from the 1920s and 1930s called Our Gang which was sometimes referred to as Little Rascals later on.