from the original press release . . .
Paste: Fight Song ✪ Aspirin
Fight Song bursts with stop and go urgency and the strong vocal ability of Pete Baldes. Aspirin stumbles boldly in a self-afflicting punk rock style.
100 Acre Wood: Moby The Dick (Going Down) ✪ ACDC
Moby The Dick (Going Down) has the best hook on the compilation. Throw The Feelies a few distortion pedals and stand back. ACDC grooves steady with a 4/4 beat & screeching guitars.
Dara Albro: Bones ✪ Pink
The best parts of Jesus and Mary Chain and The Breeders but sexier. Initial listens by local media declared Bones and Pink standouts.
The Dugans: Carolyn Plays Drums ✪ Left To My Own Devices
Short, fast and cool. The reckless abandon of Mudhoney with the pop sensibilities of the Young Fresh Fellows make Carolyn Plays Drums and Left To My Own Devices mighty fun to listen to.
Bloom: Magnet ✪ Green Tangle
Magnet throbs darker than anything J. Mascis has done. Green Tangle peaks somewhere between Teenage Fanclub and Led Zeppelin. Both cuts deserve college radio bronzing.
North Again: Look Good In Drag ✪ Chandelier
By title alone Look Good In Drag wins prizes. A youthful barrage of drums, guitars and testosterone. Chandelier claims the best bass groove on the compilation.
All Fall Down: Take Me Away ✪ Wonder
Take Me Away rocks hard and fast with a twist of classic Clash while the churning Wonder tunnels through Seattle and emerges somewhere amid the new Chicago music scene.
Crawdad: Suffocate ✪ Back Settlement
Both Suffocate and Back Settlement hit hard like Sonic Youth under a flooded Bible Belt. The sound explosions are topped off with aftermaths of some scary guitar howls.
Billy Riley: Birthright ✪ Three Left Thumbs
The sincerity of early REM with the enlightenment of Billy Bragg. Birthright stabs at social structures while Three Left Thumbs brings the blame back home.
Topper: No Doubt ✪ It’s Done (Angry Laughter)
No Doubt has as religion in a noisy Squirrel Bait kind of way. It’s Done (Angry Laughter) flexes a heightened dynamic range along with some pissed off lead guitar work.
Get out your maps of New York State — from the sound of this compilation, there seems to be a pretty dang healthy music scene taking shape around Albany. The bands here all seem to mine the same kind of rock-steady punk-pop, but there are enough tweaks and twists in the individual approaches to keep things engaging. The disc kicks off nicely with a couple tracks from Paste (“Fight Song” and “Aspirin”), both of which have a beefed-up Plimsouls vibe to them. “Moby the Dick (Going Down),” from 100 Acre Wood, is the kind of simply constructed winner that’s hard to get out of your head after you’ve heard it a couple of times, and the same holds true of the songs from Bloom and All Fall Down. The tracks from Dara Albro are standouts, bringing to mind what Shonen Knife might have sounded like if they’d grown up in Schenectady. There isn’t a single loser on this thing, and all the tracks are sharply recorded.
— Chuck Crisafulli, OPTION, Mar/Apr 1994