GoDIYRecords Europe 1, Europe II, Europe III, Norway

(www.godiyrecords.com) This series of pay-to-play comps has in the past released compilations devoted to bands from specific places, like "Wisconsin" or "Ohio & PA," so to see one that's just "Europe" is surprising. But it's not surprising that the bands are worse than ours! Or maybe not, but it's just so much more charming to hear a bad band from a town you've visited. These CDs don;t even say what the countries the bands are from, you have to go to their Myspace pages see. All that said,  I like the name, song, and absurdity of Rathole's "Dr. Love," hate the name but like the tune by Taliban Airways, I dig the happy Hippo Family, the Physicists, and Labcane, and I', mabivielent about the otherfifty ir si bands. The Norway comp at least gives some context and continues to demonstrate that even at the lowest level, the Norwegians know how to fake American pop and rock better than anyone. Standouts are Action Five, Deathtrack and Hollywood Vampires.