Codex 1980

Pioneering Seattle hardcore band Solger were third-string; at the very best: they lasted about six months, and their sole recorded effort, the self-released single "Raping Dead Nuns" b/w "Dead Soldier," is just about as moronically juvenile as the title suggests. Possibly even more so: the ultra-lo-fi production makes it hard to tell what the lyrics are. Or if there even are lyrics; singer Kyle could just as well be making incoherent, guttural mouth noises for all we know. This collection of everything the embryonic band ever recorded, including six live tracks from the band's November 1980 live show, is interesting as a piece of Seattle punk rock history -- guitarist and primary songwriter Paul Dana went on to join the Fartz and worked with grunge Ur-band Green River -- and a few songs, particularly the droning, Germs-like "Scheme and Fraud," are great in and of themselves. Overall, though, Codex 1980 is recommended only to Seattle punk historians and diehard hardcore obsessives.