Last night I was listening to and recording “Cleanse The Bacteria,” one of the all-time best hardcore compilations, which was put together by punk/metal art god and Septic Death front-man (not to mention Thrasher columnist—remember “The Puszone?”) Pushead. This album was one of the reasons Paul and I were so into European (particularly Scandinavian with Sweden’s Mob 47 leading the way for me) thrash hardcore at the time that everyone in Cleveland was getting into NYHC.
I vividly remember buying this album while combing all the record bins at a mall record store in Ft. Myer’s, Florida. This was around ’86 or ’87. In those years, my family—before it would fall apart—would make an annual vacation in Marco Island, Florida each August—not the best time to go to Florida but the only time my dad could go away. We would inevitably make a trip to the mall in Ft. Myer’s (I think it was called Edison Mall because Thomas Edison lived in Ft. Myers at one time), about an hour away, and we would make a beeline for the record store—the only store that mattered to us then. Yes, even the record stores in the mall could have some good vinyl back then. I know I bought the Bad Brains ROIR yellow cassette at that same store, possibly the same trip. It was a chain store like Sam Goody but I don’t remember which. It was all washed down with an Orange Julius before heading back to the quiet island where we stayed the week.
