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Well well… a “Portland Edition” of Poision Idea - “Kings Of Punk” on Pusmort.  The auction says it’s #’d out of 100, but after referring to Cooch, Boston’s #1 Poison Idea collector, he says there is no numbering on them, and the number made is uncertain. Nonetheless this is the version of the album you want to own if you are into records and good rock music.

Kings Of Punk is the first of numerous great Poison Idea albums (”Record Collectors…” should be counted as an E.P.), and I milestone in the most impressive winning streak in American punk and hardcore. Minus live lps, and a couple of less interesting singles, basically everything this band did from their inception, right up to longtime guitarist Pig Champion’s death, is indispensable. This is one of their more important releases, in part because it’s the first record to have a more pronounced Rock N Roll influence, with Pig Champions incredible soloing abilities really taking shape before your eyes. The songs still have a lot of similarities to the ones of their first EP, but are now beefed up with a modern guitar sound, plenty of digital reverb and echo, and an overall clean sheen. Rock N Roll, big studio sounds, and 3rd records are the things that kill most good hardcore bands or at the very least drive them to the depths of banality. To use a cliche’ though Poison Idea are not most hardcore bands. Their song craft continued to take shape here and songs like Ugly American, which stretches 3 minutes and has a bit of a midpaced build-up are really PI coming out of their shell and stretching out for the first time. There are multisectioned compositions, and more repeated choruses, but still enough of the initial brutality of their early days to make this the bridge to their late 80’s era.