In 1985, I was a high school kid in Lubbock, Texas, listening mostly to a bunch of precious, highly literate Brits like Everything But the Girl, Lloyd Cole and Prefab Sprout. Unbeknownst to me, my future wife was in Boston listening to Big Black, Volcano Suns and Gang Green. We brought a lot of different records to our shared collection, and this is one of hers. Boston skate-punk legends Gang Green were kind of the antidote to the moralizing humorlessness of the DC straight-edge scene, a bunch of goofballs led by Chris Doherty, a dude who could possibly drink even Shane MacGowan under the table. "Alcohol" was THE Gang Green song, a two-minute blast of straight-up hardcore unapologetically celebrating what is still the number one leisure-time activity among Boston's student population. Never been much of a drinking man myself, and the careening crowds of drunken students on warm weekend nights are absolutely the worst thing about life in Allston, but I do sort of have to admire the clarity of message here.

-Stewart Mason