Exterminators Product Of America vinyl is the LP pressing of the Phoenix punk super group’s debut, a record that took nearly four decades to happen and features Cris Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets alongside musicians with punk roots reaching back to 1977.
Exterminators Product Of America vinyl and the Phoenix Scene
The Phoenix underground music scene developed its own character distinct from both the Los Angeles and New York punk scenes. The surrounding geography brought country and roots music into conversation with punk and hardcore in ways that produced something regionally specific. The Exterminators come out of that tradition, with a membership that includes Kirkwood alongside other musicians who have been embedded in the Southwest underground long enough to understand what that region contributed to American punk’s full picture. Product Of America reflects that background rather than trying to fit the band into a coastal template that would have been easier to market but less honest about where the music actually came from.
Why Vinyl Is the Right Format Here
The Exterminators come from a tradition where vinyl was the medium that mattered for punk records, and getting Product Of America on an LP respects that history. Slope Records pressed this understanding that the collectors who would seek out a debut from musicians with this pedigree would want the vinyl option. The LP format gives the bass presence and guitar texture room to sit properly in the mix in ways that suit the performances. This is a record that benefits from being heard on the format it was made for rather than consumed through compressed digital delivery.
The Value of This Pressing
A debut album from musicians with forty years of combined underground music history is a different object than a first record from a new band. Collectors who follow the Meat Puppets catalog and the broader Phoenix underground will recognize Product Of America as filling a specific gap in the physical document of that scene. The LP pressing from Slope Records is the version worth owning. Copies of debut records from musicians of this caliber, made without commercial pressure and for the right reasons, tend not to stay available indefinitely once the initial pressing reaches its natural audience and word moves through the collector community. The Slope Records LP is the version to have.
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