The Collection

In 2010, Taang! Records packaged together three of Attitude Adjustment’s discs, 1986’s American Paranoia LP, 1988’s No More Mr. Nice Guy EP, and 1991’s Out of Hand LP, to make a bang for your buck compilation. The Collection includes practically all of the Attitude Adjustment material released, minus Dead Serious, the band’s earliest demo. Collectors can find the raw takes of Dead Serious (which were purportedly recorded by Lars Ulrich) bundled on the end of Taang!’s reissue of American Paranoia, but for most fans, The Collection is a better deal that covers all the essentials. 41 tracks of Bay Area hardcore may seem like overkill, but chronicling the group’s five-year evolution keeps things interesting. American Paranoia is a mid-'80s Descendents-esque skatepunk disc (think Enjoy, or a Thrasher's Skate Rock cassette) with Andy Anderson’s granular adolescent voice riding the lightning of whip-fast crunchiness. For their second record, No More Mr. Nice Guy, the band added Social Unrest’s Ray Vegas on bass and vocalist Kevin R. for muscle, and Out of Hand shows a full crossover to angry thrash metal with Eric Mc and Ray Vegas switching bass and guitar duties and second guitarist Sean Sutton rounding out the commotion. Even if much of the material seems dated in retrospect, The Collection offers a nearly perfect overview of Attitude Adjustment’s career.