CD Review: CBGB: A New York City Soundtrack 1975-1986 (2026)

A ratty, dank, dark dive of a bar, CBGB in New York City has nevertheless earned its own chapter in rock ‘n’ roll history. A biker bar originally known as “Hilly’s On the Bowery,” owner Hilly Kristal changed the club’s name to CBGB + OMFUG (i.e. “Country, Bluegrass, Blues & Other Music For Uplifting Gourmandizers”) and began booking rock bands to try and attract beer-drinking crowds. Less than a year and a half later, the first and arguably finest generation of punk rock innovators debuted on the CBGB stage with Television, the Ramones, Patti Smith, Blondie, and the Talking Heads all establishing massive local followings before going on to various levels of worldwide fame and fortune.

With the ‘Pandora’s box’ of punk rock blown wide open by these most famous of CBGB bands, a plethora of sounds and styles would follow in their wake and onto the stage: the city’s infamous “no wave” bands like Sonic Youth, DNA, and Bush Tetras; post-punk outfits like Ritual Tension and Suicide; oddball funksters James Chance & the Distortions; rhythm & blues crooners Mink DeVille; power-pop bands like Sorrows, the dB’s, the Shirts, and the Paley Brothers and, finally, the hardcore punk regiments of Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Agnostic Front, and Murphy’s Law, among hundreds of other bands. Everybody who was anybody in the late 1970s and early ‘80s (The Damned, The Police, Elvis Costello, The Beastie Boys, et al) played CBGB.

The club eventually became a brand, spinning off a record store (CBGB Record Canteen) and combination art gallery/performance space (CB’s 314 Gallery) and continued to book cutting-edge bands until its closure in 2006. Two decades later, “CBGB” t-shirts remain ubiquitous among punk rock fans. The club inspired numerous live recordings and several books, the best of which – Roman Kozak’s highly-recommended 1988 tome This Ain’t No Disco – was recently reissued by Trouser Press Books, as well as lofty pop culture references (including an homage by The Simpsons TV show, the ‘Holy Grail’ of cultural gatekeeping) and even a tawdry 2013 biopic by filmmaker Randall Miller. 

CBGB: A New York City Soundtrack 1975-1986

Patti Smith

CBGB also spawned a number of various compilation albums, beginning with 1976’s Live At CBGB’s - The Home of Underground Rock, which was curated by Kristal; as well as the 1990 Japanese import CBGB “Off the Board” and 2001’s scant UK import 25 Years of CBGB’s: 1976-2001, both of which are totally and ignorantly unrepresentative of the club and the overall NYC punk scene in the 1970s and ‘80s. One of my least favorite of these comps is Ocho Records’ 2002 CD CBGB’s and the Birth of U.S. Punk. Featuring 18 tracks selected by British rock critic Johnny Chandler, the tracklist resembles an academic essay rather than a true documentary, featuring bands like the Velvet Underground, the Sonics, the 13th Floor Elevators, and the Seeds that never actually played at the club, but rather “influenced” those that did. Bollocks!

So, when I saw that archival experts Cherry Red Records in the U.K. was releasing a massive four-CD box set, CBGB: A New York City Soundtrack 1975-1986, I hoped for the best. I needn’t have worried, as the 91-track box set is every bit as detailed and entertaining as the label’s recent Motor City Is Burning: A Michigan Anthology 1965-1972 and Steppin’ Out: The Roots of Garage Rock 1963-1965 box sets. Sure, you’ll find the same ol’ familiar faces that defined the “CBGB’s sound” (insomuch as there was one…) that pop up on every single damn punk rock anthology, although some aren’t singing the same old song: The Ramones (“Beat On the Brat”), Patti Smith (“Free Money”), Television (“See No Evil”), the Heartbreakers (“Born To Lose”), the Dead Boys (“Ain’t Nothing To Do”), and Blondie (“Picture This”), et al. But these four CDs offer so much more!

The realities of booking several nights of live entertainment several nights at any club – even in New York City – are challenging, at best. Out of necessity, CBGB had to book a diverse lot of rock ‘n’ roll outlaws, and this perspective shows itself on CBGB: A New York City Soundtrack. Aside from the aforementioned bands that are most strongly identified with the club, you have such frequent performers as Mink DeVille (“A Train Lady”), Tuff Darts (“Fun City”), James Chance & the Contortions (a raucous live cover of “Jailhouse Rock”), Bad Brains (“Banned In D.C.”), The Cramps (“Garbage Man”), Wayne Country & the Electric Chairs (“Fuck Off”), Cherry Vanilla (“Hard As A Rock”), and Richard Hell & the Voidoids (“The Kid With the Replaceable Head”) all represented across the box’s four CDs. It’s the lesser-known and truly obscure artists that really tickle my fancy, however, and the box has those guys ‘n’ gals in spades.

Kenny Gordon & Pure Hell

The CBGB’s Sound

A lot of artists who brought their individual muse to the CBGB’s stage never got a chance to make a record, or only released a single seven-incher or underpromoted LP for posterity but, in my estimation, quite a few of these talents deserved a shot at the brass ring. The Magic Tramps (“S&M Leather Queen”) were one of these, as unique a band to hit the Bowery stage as you’d find back in the day, with a sound that welded punkish intensity to the endless musical possibilities of prog-rock with a blowtorch. Stuart’s Hammer’s name sounds like a prog band, but they’re were really a rowdy bunch of rockers with wiry guitarplay and a sly sense of humor. Sonny Vincent’s Testors are a late discovery of mine, and Sonny has recently released a great compilation LP of the band’s high-octane brand of punk as displayed here by the livewire “You Don’t Break My Heart.”

Helen Wheels

Largely because of Kenny Gordon’s (no relation) endless advocacy, Pure Hell are beginning to get their due as the “World’s Only Black Punk Rock Band,” and they deserve every accolade tossed their way. The band’s “I Feel Bad” is an unrelenting curb-stomp of powering guitars and crashing rhythms, and their 2006 Noise Addiction compilation is highly recommended for old-school punk fans. Milk ‘n’ Cookies is another outfit getting a chance to shine as collectors have picked up on their ahead-of-their-time glammy punk vibe as evidenced by the joyful “Not Enough Girls (In the World”). Helen Wheels (née Robbins) was a NYC scene mainstay during the ‘70s, and her “Roon To Rage” shows the heart of punk with raging vox, a mean melodic hook, slicing fretwork and thundering drumbeats. Shrapnel, fronted by Dave Wyndorf (who would later form stoner rock outfit Monster Magnet) and guitarist Daniel Rey (famed Ramones producer) deliver the goods with “Combat Love,” a rollicking power-pop tinged rocker heartily endorsed by no less an authority than Joey Ramone. 

The dB’s would go onto a modicum of fame as one of the ‘80s finest college rock outfits, and their “Black and White” offers a glimpse of where the band’s punk-influences pop/rock sound would land while New Jersey natives the Bongos’ “Telephoto Lens” strides across similar sonic power-pop turf but with a quirkier adventuresome style. The Raybeats’ instrumental “Tight Turn” mixed surf-rock with Memphis soul (think Booker T. and the M.G.’s) for an entirely unique vibe while the Beastie Boys’ “Egg Raid On Mojo” is their pre-rap hardcore mosh classic. Singer/songwriter Jesse Malin is better known these days for his lyrical rock ‘n’ roll fare but his hardcore band Heart Attack’s “English Cunts” is more closely aligned with British bands like Crass or Discharge than with Springsteen. 

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

With four CDs comprised of over five hours of music, I’ve only scratched the surface of the CBGB: A New York City Soundtrack 1975-1986 box’s depths. There’s still plenty of cool, and sometimes great music here from unmentioned bands like Sonic Youth, Minor Threat, the Dictators, Talking Heads (a rare live take of “A Clean Break”), Genya Ravan (with Lou Reed), the Paley Brothers, Non Hendryx, the Laughing Dogs, Material, Richard Lloyd, Sorrows, Reagan Youth, and James Blood Ulmer that roars out of your speakers. Offering a wealth of largely out-of-the-mainstream music and detailed track-by-track liner notes, CBGB: A New York City Soundtrack is the only compilation of the legendary rock scene that you’ll ever need to buy. (Cherry Red Records, released January 30th, 2026)

Buy the CD box set from Amazon: CBGB: A New York City Soundtrack 1975-1986