Naked Raygun - This Place Used To Be A Strip Joint

Few bands shaped the Chicago punk scene like Naked Raygun. By late 1985 they had sharpened their mix of buzzsaw guitars and huge, shout-along choruses into something entirely their own, and This Place Used To Be A Strip Joint catches them at exactly that moment, live on stage at The Palace in Chicago on November 2, 1985.

The set plays like an early greatest hits. "Surf Combat," "Rat Patrol," "Managua," "I Don't Know" and "Rocks Of Sweden" tear by with the urgency of a band playing to a packed room of believers, and "Backlash Jack" appears twice, once from the evening's soundcheck alongside "Dog At Large" and once in the full set. The recording comes from the archive of Aadam Jacobs, the Chicago fan who taped the city's shows for nearly four decades, and it puts you right in the room.

For anyone who knows the band from Throb Throb or All Rise, this is the raw, sweaty counterpart, and a valuable document of the scene that produced them.

Released by the newly launched Laughing Bee Music, this edition presents all 16 tracks on a single black LP.