Customer Reviews

Goodnight Sellout

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Nineteen Ninety-Six was a great year to be a punk in the great state of Pennsylvania. Bands like Weston were getting nationwide interest and bands like Good Riddance and Swingin' Utters were playing in rinky dink little towns because they heard the kids there made it worth it. And then there were bands like Plow United. Wait, there weren't bands like Plow United. They were one of a kind. The picked three chords and played them over and over again, yet, every song sounded fresh. They wrote songs with passion and played them with pride, but never took themselves too seriously. They toured across the USA a few times, but were content to play the same little towns in PA, Delaware, New York and New Jersey over and over again. Every show was electric. They simply were the best band to come out of PA. Period.

That brings us to Goodnight Sellout. Just a great punk rock record from start to finish. Every song is heavy and every song is fast. Of course, when I say fast, that is an understatement.

The entire album has been remixed and remasterd, so it sounds better than it ever has. And if that's not good enough, the Selt Titled Album, with their classic song Spindle, is also included remixed and remasterd. Just hearing the Self Titled albums sound this clean is worth the money alone. Not only are these two incredible albums on one disc, but they also come with two bonus tracks that were only available on vinyl.

If you only buy one punk rock album, it should be Milo Goes to College, but right after that, you should pick up this one. If you aren't happy with this album, then you're braindead.

Yeah, in 1996-ish, I was a 16-17 year old punk, really into our local scene as well as the great more well known CA bands and such. Things were great. I live and lived in a small PA town, not even 15,000 population and the nearest city is a good 2 hour drive away.

Yet, as the previous reviewer stated, bands like Plow (I still call them just "Plow"), Good Riddance, Swinging Utters, Nobodys, Weston, Bouncing Souls, and other great bands played in our dingy punk palace, which was just the upstairs portion of our police station where parts of the floor nearly caved in during a mosh. Not a huge place, and even when the hugest bands came to town, you wouldn't see more than 200-300 people show up. But in an area with such a small population, that was a huge amount. It is still a decent amount today for many good punk bands that play in much bigger cities.

What was better was that many of the 200-300 people that went to see these shows were die hard punks. My friends booked the bands, just as fans, saying that we had great loyal punks here and that we really appreciated anybody taking the time to come by while touring. And despite bands knowing they probably wouldn't make enough money to even fill their gas tanks, they came and played. Afterwards, we partied somewhere, and somebody was always willing to let the guys crash, eat, and whatever.

Plow came through our area several times. In fact they played at my friends house, for his birthday, in front of about 40 kids. They played for free, in a small shed next to a lawnmower and leaf blower (yeah, it was odd, but awesome).

They played an amazing show, gave us everything they had. They made no money, they literally were politely asking even for pennies so they could get gas. At that point, they didn't have to come to my friends house to play a really small show, they were bigger than that. But they did, and while they didn't make much money, we all chipped in what we could and they also made fans that would never forget them, and here I am 11 years later, definitely not forgetting them. And that is what made Punk Rock in the mid-90's unique, at least where I live.

Stuff like that doesn't happen anymore, or not nearly as often. Unfortunately, the next generation of kids failed to understand what real music is about, they don't see live shows in small crowds by bands giving it all just because they enjoy it, and for no other reason. At least not in this small town that was a punk paradise given our population. However, this scene and these bands back in that time left a great impression on many people.

We might be in our mid to late 20's now, but we keep punk rock alive in our own ways, it will never die. The music was great as it was, but just the memories that go along with these great bands (and great people) enhance the music even more. If you never heard of Plow United, you are missing out on some great punk, pick up this album, has their first 2 albums on it, remastered. Great stuff that unfortunately not many people know about because they are too busy trying to keep up with whoever is next big thing on MTV or whatever the latest music is.

It doesn't matter who makes music or when it was made, people need to remember that. If it is good, it is good. Give more bands and types of music a try, you never know what you will like. My favorite bands are bands that will likely never be on MTV. However, that doesn't bother me since it has been obvious that MTV doesn't know good music, all they know is that the best music is music that nets them some profit $$