Jake Kolatis of The Casualties Reboots Charged Records to Release a New Installment of The ‘Punx Unite’ Compilation Series
UPDATE OCTOBER 2020: PUNX UNITE LPS ARE SOLD OUT
Jake Kolatis, guitarist of The Casualties, is reviving his early 2000’s punk label, Charged Records, by releasing another chapter of the 'Punx Unite' series with the help of Tony Cozzaglio, singer and front man of The Wheelz and co-founder of the annual 'Fuck You We Rule OK!' festival.
Charged Records is making a comeback with their fourth 'Punx Unite' release that features 19 artists that are carrying the punk torch from various backgrounds and countries. Charged Records alumni Endless Struggle and The Virus both be making appearances on the comp, in addition to new school punk favorites Revolt, Potato Pirates, The Bad Engrish, and Starving Wolves. Preorder for the vinyl LP begins on Friday, August 14th at BoulevardTrashPunk.com.
Crowd at Fuck You We Rule OK Fest 2014 - Adam Degrosse
The street punk brainchild of Kolatis, Charged Records kicked off in 1998, and released over 30 titles in the span of a decade before going on hiatus in 2008. The most notable releases from Charged include the three part 'Punx Unite' series, which showcased a very specific subset of spikey-haired 77/82 UK punk and oi inspired bands that were taking shape in the late 1990's and early 2000’s. In addition to the comps, Charged Records also released full length albums from Antidote, Street Brats, and Monster Squad, among other punk heavy hitters.
"When I started charged records in ‘98, I really just wanted to catch an era of active punk bands," says Kolatis. "After meeting tons of unique punk bands on my first US tour with The Casualties, that’s when I decided to put out the first Punx Unite. That record sparked the label and Charged put out 29 more releases."
"In recent years, I observed this wave of excellent bands happening again. With some encouragement from Tony from FYWROK!, we teamed up to capture it."
“Growing up, the Punx Unite comps exposed me to bands that wouldn’t have heard of otherwise,” says Cozzaglio. “It’s a great snapshot of what the punk scene looks like at the time the record is put together. Right now there are a bunch of great bands coming up, so it seemed like the perfect time to team up with Jake and release a new chapter in the Punx Unite series.”
The comp includes tracks from: The Bad Engrish, Revolt, Splatter, Sadist, The Virus, Sailing Camp, Potato Pirates, CHUD, Unholy Night, Deskomunal Kaos, The Wheelz, Dogs in the Fight, Corrupted Youth, Starving Wolves, The Stickups, Zipperz, The Hacked, and Endless Struggle.