Various Artists - Protect

I'm not one to try bashing any compilation that benefits charity--even the atrocious Take Action collections warrant some recognition for helping a worthy cause, despite how awful the participating bands may be. Protect is pretty standard fare for a Fat Wreck Chords compilation, intertwining the label's own bands with various well-known and more obscure bands in and around the punk scene, with over half the disc comprised of previously unreleased material. Among the comp's most notable are the unreleased tracks from Coalesce ("Mouth Breather," circa '91), Jawbreaker's live version of "Want," and Against Me!'s take on Bob Dylan's "Wagon Wheel." Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba donated an offspring of his solo venture, opener "Demons Away," as does Avail vocalist Tim Barry on the acoustic backporch crooner "Idle Idylist." Hot Cross (ex-Saetia) delivers one of the strongest songs, albeit slightly out of place, with "Tacoma," and Western Addiction's "When a Good Friend Attacks" gives the disc some gritty hardcore spirit. The Ergs stellar pop-punk makes an appearance with "Radio K," and The Mishaps did the same with their rough, melodic punk rock. Of those songs you've probably already heard via full-length releases, The Falcon (members of The Lawrence Arms, Alkaline Trio, and ex-Rise Against) and The Soviettes' new-wavy "Middle of the Night" come away as the best. Honestly, there are only a handful of throwaway tracks--MxPx has, to my ears at least, never written a song that didn't sound like the rest of their library, and the incessant, childish humor permeating from NOFX just didn't cut it for me in "Jesusland." Nevertheless, it functions well as a benefit compilation, providing enough of what the various sects of punk rock have to offer, plus it more than likely has a very reasonable SRP. [www.protect.org]