Vitamin - Recordings 1981 (2021)

It was 1979 when Boston teenagers Jason Shapiro and Mike McGlinchey saw the wide-open door of punk as it turned to art-punk and no wave, and scurried straight in. Shapiro was 14. McGlinchey was only a few years older. Neither had played an instrument for long when Vitamin formed. Eventually, violinist Margie Politzer and drummer Chris Gill joined to complete the line-up. Inspired by the no wave impulse to tear rock apart and build something new from the blistering pieces, Vitamin's sound was raucous and careening but playful, with a dash of conceptualism for good measure. Truly joyful noise. Their brief life stands as a difficult-to-top example of art-making for its own sake, and a document of youthful collective creation.