TC Electropunk Vol 5

Twin Cities Electropunk releases are available for FREE at all involved artists' shows (while supplies last). You can also download the entire compilations by right clicking the links and hitting "Save Link As...". Enjoy!



Nobody invented this electropunk thing. No city can claim it (though New York certainly tries). It's simply what happens when you take a generation of bored teens and twentysomethings - raised on hardcore punk, British techno, Nintendo, and Doritos - and place cheap digital recording technology within their grasp. Next thing you know, you've got a million zillion half-rock, half-electronic, cyborg bands thrashing out one MP3s after another of ragged, jagged synthesizer pop and giving it away for nothing on their websites. Nobody asked for some big record label's permission – heck, most of them didn't even pay for the software they're using - they're just doing it for the hell of it. Because there's no excuse for boredom when you’ve got computers and guitars.

If that ain't punk, I don't know what is.

And while I said no city owns the electropunk movement, the kids in the Twin Cities are definitely ahead of the curve. Maybe it's because they had Prince to show them the way of the synthesizer, and Hüsker Dü to teach them how to make a big noise in the underground. Or maybe it's just because, with the weather being as cold as it is, they spend more days locked inside with their instruments and their PCs, while those of us in sunny L.A. and temperate Chicago are down at the beach. Don't ask me why... all I know is that, everywhere you turn in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, there's another band mixing punk attitude and electronic noises in bitchin' new ways.

So here you have it, the Twin Cities Electropunk Series. Seventy-one tracks of raging, Technicolor techno-punk from the Great White North. Lap it up, love it, copy it, give it to all your friends, or throw it away. Then go get a computer, a CASIO, and microphone and start your own scene. Hey, if it can happen in Minnesota, it can happen wherever you live, too.

-forward written by Emil Hyde (Death By Karaoke)