Rhino Provides The Antidote To Their Own '80s Pop Culture Box

Left Of The Dial: Dispatches From The '80s Underground 4-Cd Boxed Set Available October 5

The 1980s: musically, it was the best of times; it was the worst of times. While Air Supply, .38 Special, Starship, and New Kids on the Block were topping the charts, influential, timeless music was being made in small clubs by bands who were traveling in vans and sleeping on people's floors after the gigs. To tell their story, Rhino now releases LEFT OF THE DIAL: DISPATCHES FROM THE '80s UNDERGROUND, the first boxed set ever to survey this important era in rock, available October 5.

LEFT OF THE DIAL collects 82 tracks from artists as diverse as Dead Kennedys, New Order, Concrete Blonde, Prefab Sprout, Minor Threat, Love And Rockets, The dB's, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Camper Van Beethoven, The Pogues, The Replacements and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Iconic bands like The Smiths, The Pretenders, R.E.M., The Cure, and Sonic Youth are represented, as are equally important lesser-knowns like The Rain Parade, Throbbing Gristle, Passions, The Go-Betweens, and The Lyres.

While many of the bands included on LEFT OF THE DIAL went on to enjoy mainstream success and platinum records, they are represented here by the songs that served as their calling card or manifesto, the songs that show their underground roots, not their hits or best known songs.

Produced by Gary Stewart (the mastermind behind Rhino's Loud Fast And Out of Control: The Wild Sounds of '50s Rock, Nuggets I & II, and No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rebellion box sets) and Mark Leviton, LEFT OF THE DIAL: DISPATCHES FROM THE '80s UNDERGROUND continues to tell the story of the uncontainable music of the second half of the 20th century. This is the truly authentic music of its era, music born out of passion and made by musicians of steadfast integrity with a disregard for the mainstream. These are songs that had to be sung-pure expressions of joy, despair, irony, anger, confusion, and rebellion-songs that tell the story of the times, perfect snapshots of a decade.

The box is also an outgrowth of and expansion upon Rhino's Post Punk Chronicles discs, now out of print. The collection includes liner notes by Karen Schoemer (music critic for Newsweek, New York Times, and others), track-by-track commentary by John Srebalus, interviews with Greg Ginn(founder of SST Records) and Peter Jesperson (cofounder of Twin/Tone Records), and personal reminiscences by Tony Wilson (cofounder of Factory Records), and Steve Wynn (singer-songwriter, leader of The Dream Syndicate, founder of Down There Records, former record store clerk), and others.

LEFT OF THE DIAL: DISPATCHES FROM THE '80s UNDERGROUND carries a suggested list price of $64.98 at retail as well as at www.rhino.com

Source: Rhino Records