sticks and stones was around for a long-ass time, breaking up with a whimper in in 1995. then, like so many other bands, reformed for a string of reunion shows. unlike the brats in the pixies and the raging ego-maniacs in the police (what with their top-grossing 2007 reunion tour, posting a whopping $140.7 million) it seems that s&s came back to push something ahead of its time into its rightful place in history. and thank god for that.

i got to see them only once at that shit-ass warehouse venue in long island, the underground. i immediately purchased (and subsequently wore out) their first–and arguably best–album, theme song for nothing.

in 1989, the band began releasing music regularly in various formats with various labels, making it difficult to collect the entire catalog. thanks to the keen business sense of the bouncing souls and timmy chunks, chunksaah records has remastered an impressive 41 tracks and issued them in a two-cd set called the strife and times.

here, in songwriting chronology (as opposed to release-date chronology) is everything you could ever want, the early demos to the late split singles with other bands that may (or may have already) decided to squeeze a few more all-ages shows out of their short but special careers.