Arf Arf Cheapo / Various

Arf Arf Cheapo / Various

Dogs don't live to bark 20 years, but record labels do-and the Massachusetts mongrels at Arf! Arf! Now have 20 candles burning on their birthday cake. You don't get to blow 'em out, but you can join in on the celebration with this bargain 50-song extravaganza that touches on pieces of the label's history. Actually, this sampler is more of a parallel universe, as it serves up alternates, demos and outtakes from artists whose works have been emblazoned with the twin Arf! Arf! #dogs, the twin birds of it's budget line Cheep! Cheep! #subsidiary, or the dignified font of it's new music spin-off, s'z. It is not, however, the bottom of the barrel; it's simply the stuff that, for one reason or another, didn't quite make it onto one of the imprint's many fine releases. But it had to come out eventually, and since the label's a year away from the legal drinking age, what else was it gonna toast with' Whatever your choice of musical beverage, you will certainly get your fill on these two CDs. For less than the price of two beers in a bar (or a couple sodas if you're driving), you get two 78-minute discs crammed with the type of stuff that's had Arf! Arf! #fans growling for years, whether the garage antics of the Litter and the Rising Storm, the psychedelic visions of Lazy Smoke and the Flat Earth Society, or the sheer strangeness of the Space Negros and Lucia Pamela. Maybe an old mutt can't learn new tricks, but the brains behind Arf! Arf! #don't need to. As the breadth of musical styles encompassed on this sampler prove, these people know plenty of tricks already. Kick out the dogs, motherf***er!