Puszone

In the years before the Internet it wasn't so easy to find out about new bands. Maximum R&R wasn't in every Barnes and Nobles or Borders-and it was mainly independent bookstores back then anyway. If you had a cool record store near you you might find MRR, but you couldn't count on it.
You could always count on finding Thrasher in the skate shop though, and if you were lucky there would be a Puszone column.
It is easy to forget how central a figure Pus was to the core scene. From album covers,flyers, etc to Septic Death and Pusmort. The man was on point for many years and you were guaranted a treat following his recommendations. Besides that Puszone always had contact information for mail order(stamps,envelopes, money orders,waiting!-no paypal and priority mail!)
I was digging around online looking for scans of the old Puszone. I found this Pusfan site that has transcriptions of them which is cool, but there was something so rad about the newsprint pages and blurred band photos that accompanied the Zone in its printed form.
He tapped out in 90 and left with his unofficial Top 100 records list. Being a stat nerd, I had to break this list down.
Since this is a 100 record sample, these are also your percentages of distribution.
81-84 holds the title with 81% of the top 100 coming from these 4 years.
year releases
1980 3
1981 22
1982 19
1983 24
1984 16
1985 3
1986 2
1987 6
1988 1
1989 4

Pus didn't transition gracefully into the 90s,even though he caught onto the East Coast NYHC and Youth Crew thing. Some questionable post punker grunge and metal bands did creep into the Zone. So it is no suprise that this list is heavy on the early 80s. Can't really argue either. The core that came out of those years is pretty unstoppable.


As far as distribution across the globe:
country releases
usa 59
uk 19
japan 7
canada 5
sweden 3
finland 2
germany 2
holland 2
australia 1

A few surprises here-where is Italy(Negazione,Delclino,Raw Power)? Where is South America(attaque frontal, Ratos De Porao)? I am also suprised that Sweden wasn't more heavily represented.
What is amazing is that even with 59% of the records coming from the USA, Pus overlooks the entire state of Texas. What? No Big Boys,Dicks,Really Red, DRI, MDC or Offenders??? This is almost criminal. Also absent is Chicago -Raygun, Effigies, etc.
Don't mean to knitpick, but damn.
Gotta dig out those old Thrashers and see what other bands I forgot about.