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Left of the Dial: Dispatches from the '80s Underground | 
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| Artist: Various Artists
Label: Rhino / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $64.98
Buy New: $40.29
You Save: $24.69 (38%)
New (34) Used (16) Collectible (2) from $35.60
Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 11948
Format: Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 4
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 12.3 x 6.3 x 1.6
MPN: 76490
UPC: 081227649029
EAN: 0081227649029
ASIN: B0002XL2X4
Release Date: October 12, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: All products brand new and factory sealed.
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Radio Free Europe - R.E.M. | | • | Going Underground - The Jam | | • | A Forest - The Cure | | • | Holiday in Cambodia - Dead Kennedys | | • | I'm In Love With A German Film Star - Passions | | • | I Will Dare - The Replacements | | • | That's When I Reach For My Revolver - Mission Of Burma | | • | Johny Hit And Run Paulene - x | | • | Just Like Honey - The Jesus And Mary Chain | | • | Black Celebration - Depeche Mode | | • | Tell Me When It's Over - The Dream Syndicate | | • | Hollywood (Africa) - The Red Hot Chili Peppers | | • | Temptation - New Order | | • | Ghosts - Japan | | • | A Song From Under The Floorboards - Magazine | | • | Oblivious - Aztec Camera | | • | Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely - Husker Du | | • | Rise Above - Black Flag | | • | Back In Flesh - Wall Of Voodoo | | • | Cattle And Cane - The Go-Betweens |
Disc 2
| • | Message Of Love - The Pretenders | | • | Vienna - Ultravox | | • | Freak Scene - Dinosaur Jr. | | • | The Charming Man - The Smiths | | • | Stigmata - Ministry | | • | Ways To Be Wicked - Lone Justice | | • | Wardance - Killing Joke | | • | Enola Gay - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark | | • | Mirror In The Bathroom - The English Beat | | • | Fairytale In The Supermarket - The Raincoats | | • | Behind The Wall Of Sleep - The Smithereens | | • | Political Song For Michael Jackson To Sing - Minutemen | | • | Punk Rock Girl - The Dead Milkmen | | • | Still In Hollywood - Concrete Blonde | | • | Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division | | • | Blister In The Sun - Violent Femmes | | • | Lake Of Fire - Meat Puppets | | • | Amplifier - The DB's | | • | When Love Breaks Down - Prefab Sprout | | • | Goo Goo Muck - The Cramps | | • | This Corrosion - Sisters Of Mercy | | • | Senses Working Overtime - XTC |
Disc 3
| • | The Cutter - Echo & The Bunnymen | | • | Pay To Cum! - Bad Brains | | • | Birthday - The Sugarcubes | | • | Madonna Of The Wasps - Robyn Hitchcock 'n' The Egyptians | | • | We Care A Lot - Faith No More | | • | Teen Age Riot - Sonic Youth | | • | To Hell With Poverty - Gang Of Four | | • | Fa Ce-La - The Feelies | | • | Ana Ng - They Might Be Giants | | • | Swamp Thing - The Chameleons UK | | • | The Mercy Seat - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | | • | I Look Around - The Rain Parade | | • | All That Money Wants - Psychedelic Furs | | • | Under The Milky Way - The Church | | • | Rise - Public Image Ltd. | | • | Kundalini Express - Love And Rockets | | • | Gravity Talks - Green On Red | | • | Adrenalin - Throbbing Gristle | | • | She Bangs The Drums - The Stone Roses |
Disc 4
| • | Monkey Gone To Heaven - Pixies | | • | Uncertain Smile (Original 7 Inch Version) - The The | | • | Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus | | • | Christine - Siouxsie And The Banshees | | • | Straight Edge - Minor Threat | | • | I Want To Help You Ann - The Lyres | | • | Our Secret - Beat Happening | | • | Jane Says - Jane's Addiction | | • | World Shut Your Mouth - Julian Cope | | • | Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush | | • | Sex Beat - Gun Club | | • | Take The Skinheads Bowling - Camper Van Beethoven | | • | Institutionalized - Suicidal Tendencies | | • | Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops - Cocteau Twins | | • | 24 Hour Party People - Happy Mondays | | • | I Want You Back - Hoodoo Gurus | | • | Suburban Home - Descendents | | • | A Pair Of Brown Eyes - The Pogues | | • | Jet Fighter - The Three O'Clock | | • | Moving To Florida - Butthole Surfers | | • | A New England - Billy Bragg |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
As a sequel to 2004's similarly packaged Rhino box No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rebellion, this four-disc set tackles the punk/indie/modern rock of the 80s with equal panache. Subtitled "Dispatches from the 80s Underground," these 82 non-chronological tracks play like a great college station from the later part of the decade. Encompassing a dizzyingly diverse musical palate, styles range from the artsy Southern twang of R.E.M., to the sugary pop of Aztec Camera, the blistering hardcore of Black Flag, the ghostly techno of Japan and the chilly, noir dance floor attack of New Order. And that's just on disc one. Sure, there are some omissions, but the box does a remarkable job balancing more popular acts such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Cure and Echo & the Bunnymenwith cult faves like Green On Red and obscurities from the Lyres and the Three O'Clock . Even those who were radio fanatics during these years will likely find tracks they aren't familiar with, along with getting a flashback rush from those they are. A colorful 64 page book provides track-by-track background information as well as a handful of essays about the decade that approach the music from different perspectives. There are no public service announcements or aspiring DJ's to interrupt the flow and the remastered sound brings the music to life with crispness low powered FM radio could never rival. --Hal Horowitz
Album Description
In his notes for this passionately compiled box, producer Gary Stewart writes, "the diversity from the late-70s punk/new wave scene turned into a full-blown, variety-fueled, genre-busting orgy in the '80s...The music became, in the best sense of the words, more complex, more literate, a bit more serious, and as a result, made astrong impact on mainsteam rock culture." From funk punk to revisionist roots rock to hard-core to smart-ass clever pop-and every musical nook and cranny in-between-Left of the Dial presents many of the '80s' most important tracks. Savor the far more influential flip side of the "Where's the Beef?" decade's musical output!
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| Customer Reviews:
 One Question: July 10, 2008
S. L. Warwick (Moorestown, NJ United States)
I'm happy to see that they included the Replacements in what appears to be a very good selection of songs. One question, however: why not include their song "Left of the Dial" (from Tim) if you're going to use their phrase anyhow?
 I Remember The Times... July 3, 2008
William V. Parilla (California)
The more I listen to the songs on these Cds, the more I remember and feel nostalgic about the past. I love many of these songs.I listened to KROQ, when they used to play this more less then safe music. It was an important time and many of the artists on these disks were starting up new and inovative sounds. With many of the new artist using samples of some great past music, these artists were creating something fresh. these songs have aged quite well.
Billy
A Good Sampler for an Important Decade August 31, 2007
Richard M. Affleck (Lake Hopatcong, NJ USA)
I'll keep this short since much of what I was going to say has already been said in other reviews. In brief, this is a nice sampler of, for lack of a better term, post-punk music heard on many college radio stations in the 1980s. This was a decade that, for whatever reasons, tends to get downplayed in regard to the quality of the music heard on the airwaves--this compilation should help dispel that notion. Like many such collections, Left of the Dial has inspired me to seek out the albums/cds that some of these songs were originally recorded on. If I have a complaint, it's that a number of these songs appear on other compilations by Rhino; my pet peeve: can't they find another song by the Hoodoo Gurus besides I Want You Back? Stoneage Romeos has any number of good tunes--c'mon guys, mix it up a little. Anyway, that aside, this is a worthwhile collection of music.
I Never Knew What I Was Missing... January 12, 2007
P. B. Reynolds (North Carolina)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Having been born in mid-1984 and being only five years old when even the most recent of these tracks were released, I never knew most of this music existed. Of course, youth is no excuse for ignorance, and I've always made it a personal priority to seek out great music from before my time, from kitschy lounge sounds and dusty 78rpm relics to the Russian Romantics and honky-tonk troubadours (just so you don't go getting the idea that I'm a music snob, I've sung along to my share of cheesy disco records.)
Older music, especially the rare "underground" stuff, isn't just shoved in front of you, a facet of every popular entertainment medium, bound to get stuck in your head whether you want it there or not. You've got to go LOOKING for it, as if on a hunt for an abandoned relic nobody else can guide you to. In the case of the 1980's, the problem wasn't that I didn't think to seek it out, but that I was under the false delusion that there was really nothing worth seeking. MTV and my local radio stations all lied to me, and many others of my generation. Not a big lie, but enough to shut us off from experiencing some pretty powerful music. We were led to believe the '80s were all about hair metal, pastel-clad yuppies in skinny neckties, and the "Me Generation." Well, the contents of this eye-catching pink box tells an entirely different story, one of boundless creativity, musical innovation, disgust with authority and convention, and unexplored horizons which still haven't been charted by commercial radio or experienced by mainstream audiences. This is the quirky, iconoclastic, progressive, and politically conscious music of the decade that somehow managed to evade notoriety in all but the most "clued in" of music-lovers.
Sheer curiosity grabbed hold of me and forced me to buy this set as a birthday present for my younger sister. As it turned out, I ended up listening to the set far more than she did! Something about the mix of all of these seemingly unrelated styles, artists, and musical approaches struck me like a comet, and I realized just how versatile, inventive, and exciting the music of the 1980's really was, underneath all of the MTV trivialization and spin. From these four discs, I uncovered gems from artists who would soon become my idols, namely The Replacements, The Cure, The Smiths, and the incomparably brilliant Pixies. They changed my life for the very first time on this set, and I shudder to think of who or where I would be without their influence. I know the seasoned experts here decry the set's "obvious" song choices, but I would implore them to reconsider whether or not this is a bad thing. For someone like me who never heard any of these songs before "Left of the Dial," these "obvious" songs have been an absolute revelation.
In closing, if you enjoy this music, have never heard it but want to, or even possess the slightest curiosity about what the "good stuff" must sound like, you owe it to yourself to hear this earth-shattering compilation. Also recommended: Nuggets, Children of Nuggets, and No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rock Rebellion.
FANTASTIC October 31, 2006
Frank Bozic Junior (sao paulo, brazil)
This box is fantastic, amazing 80's songs!!! An interesting compilation of a lot of groups from the manignif era!!! Enjoy, probable you never will see these bands together in a box again!!! amazing!!!
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