As my collection of K-Tel compilations began to grow, I realized my old assortment of platters included one of the label’s most celebrated releases. Rock 80 was a two-time hand-me-down. An older cousin passed it on to a tween-age Maura, who in turn handed it off to me during the early days of our relationship. […]

Another Monday, another truncated ‘n’ squished collection of pop hits from the polyester apocalypse of the early 1970s. The album is the creatively titled 22 Explosive Hits, Vol 2, released by K-Tel in 1972. I purchased it for the same reason I purchased the thematically similar Believe in Music compilation — to cheaply acquire a […]

After realizing the value of K-Tel compilations as historic-nostalgic core samples of my wayward youth, I decided to dig a bit deeper into that vein, past the hazy recollections of pre-adolescence and into the primordial murk of my early childhood. When all is said and done, I am a child of the Seventies. The eight […]

Part of the adoption process in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts involves filling out a lengthy questionnaire covering the applicant’s history and personal life in minute detail. It might sound a bit intrusive, but it’s nothing I haven’t already tackled on multiple occasions and from multiple angles over Armagideon Time’s eleven year lifespan. The only real […]

My next K-Tel acquisition followed right on the heels of Chart Action ’83, as it is inextricably linked with that seminal compilation in the twisted corridors of childhood memory. I wrote about Radio Active not too long ago, with a focus on how a specific half-forgotten track on the comp managed to blindside me with […]

Even if The Rock Album hadn’t whetted my appetite for K-Tel compilation albums, I still would’ve sought out a copy of Chart Action ’83 for strictly sentimental reasons. The collection dates back to a significant moment in my life, one that was further shaped by a cluster of serendipitous events. I was eleven years old […]

Peter was the morning shift cook at the hospital kitchen where I worked in high school. He had about ten years on me, though you wouldn’t have know from his looks and antics. He lived for stupid pranks and tasteless jokes of a type that made our supervisor wince before delivering a stern lecture. In […]

My decision last fall to pick up a turntable had nothing to do with audio fidelity or “warmer” sounds or affected hipness. I got back into records because Maura scored a near complete set of Time-Life’s Swing Era compilations at an estate sale and because I thought it would be a nice way to get […]

Leech and I first crossed paths with the Lone Punk in the spring of 1992, shortly before our friendship-ending blow-up. We were passing through the cafeteria on the third floor of Wheatley Hall (since converted into the school’s “Venture Capital Center”) when we spotted him eating alone at a corner table. Being two of the […]

Today I’m going to try and get this feature back on track with a forgotten bit of flotsam that resurfaced while I was pulling some more memorable records from storage. Though Action Replay’s 1984 Personality Crisis compilation managed to slip clear out of my memory for over two decades, I can still remember the details […]