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Yer ol' pal Pappy's feeling reflective today, and it's not just the layers of sweat and oil that coats my flesh like gravy on a biscuit. No, of late Pappy's had plenty of time to think - being incarcerated, again, on a trumped up urinating all over myself in public charge. I was thinking... then I forgot. Then I remembered I was forgetting something again. Oh yeah, about the past... weep woop weep woop...

But hell, who wants to dwell on the past when the future looks so possibly not completely horrible maybe? Who am I kidding. They asked me to pose for this statue and I was promised they'd just make me look a few years older. Whoa is Pappy. What's that urine smell? Oh damn!

The Meatmen - "Lesbian Death Dirge"
Bad Brains - "Sailin' Away"
The Maggots - "Let's Get Tammy Wynette"
The Epoxies - "Synthesized"
The Soviettes - "#1 Is Number Two"
The Neats - "Six"
The Units - "Cannibals"
Bpeople - "Weather To Worry"
The Adorkables - "The Evil Dead"
Rudi - "Big Time"
The Aces - "One Way Street"
The Rev - "Tiny, Tinny Radio"
Intrinsic Action - "Sado-Electronics"

The Edge Of Quarrel (dvd review): Straight Edge became more about tribal and gang violence than self-respect with the advent of “core” bands like the Cro-Mags, Slapshot and Youth Of Today in the 80s. The title of this 2008 digital home movie is a take-off on the title of the first Cro-Mags album Age Of Quarrel. The film is about the ongoing fights to the finish between punk rockers and the SXE crowd, and except for the appropriate “X” or band shirt it’s hard to tell the difference between the two tribes. Their mutual hatred seems mostly arbitrary and the result of violent people seeking friends so they can beat up other people they don't want be friends with. In the earliest days of Straight Edge there were comparisons made, mostly false, with skinheads. Now they’re interchangeable except for who they hate and why.

The Edge Of Quarrel also has an ongoing soap opera story about time and lost friendships, along with concert footage featuring The Murder City Devils, whose lead singer looks like your old friend’s husky and nerdy little brother who grew up to be a hardcore alcoholic and the unlikely lead singer of a successful punk band. SXE vs. punk politics are given a thorough airing, and to anyone not in the middle of the war it must come across as splitting hairs as, at least visually, most characters are interchangeable.

The acting’s not all that bad considering there’s much staring directly into the camera and lines read without another person to interact with. If you enjoy the hatreds, yearnings and existential quandaries of violent losers (I mean punk rock winners) the plot will be awesome! The sweat stink of the slam pit wafts through your speakers in the concert scenes and you may wonder if the guys flailing their arms in distinct patterns of punching and elbowing aren’t looking to crack open any head they can connect with and then claim they were only “dancing”. A solid ¼ of the film has people beating the crapola out of each other, singly and in groups.

The Edge Of Quarrel, a slice of life tale of the young, underemployed, and quick to attack in gangs.

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The Vindictives, who share the snot-punk-pop crown with Sloppy Seconds, are giving away the entirety of their catalog. The great compilation The Many Moods Of The Vindictives came out on Lookout and is not being offered, but make your own, you DIY doucehbag!

You'll need to register to get the freebies but it's the best free money you'll never spend. For a long time my goal in life has been to win the lottery and stage a production of Hypno-Punko as the first American punk rock opera. I guess there's American Idiot, so how about the first American punk rock opera for straight people. The link is somewhere around... here.

I crap you not. How To Be A Punk, in 47 easy steps. But remember kidz, Rule #1 is There Are No Rules! Rule #2: No Outside Food.

The Riptides- California Reamin', Appetite For Rejection, Drop Out, Hang Out, Tales From Planet Earth (CD reviews):

Ottawa's The Riptides formed in 1998 and haven't released a full-length since 2010's Tales From Planet Earth. They've progressed from a stupid small "h" hardcore band into a decent punk-pop band of the Queers-Lilliningtons-Screeching Weasel variety, thanks in no small part by the production of Mass Giorgini and engineering of Phillip Hill of The Teen Idols. This article you won't read with lead singer Andy Vandal will explain everything you don't care to know about them. Their first two recordings were titled "I'm In Love With A Harelip Retard" and "Going Downsyndrome". You cannot imagine how much I wish only pain and suffering for the asshole came up with these titles. May their children have these conditions so they can laugh and laugh all day at the cruel irony of their f--kery.

California Reamin' (2000): Sixteen tracks of punk rock in the raw with hard Queers, soft Lillingtons, and medium surf garage influences. Can't say the influences all work together but at least they're not stuck in one groove, which would have only accentuated the punk-by-the-numbers, professionalism is for suckers approach of the cd. I give it 3 thumbs up (my ass) out of 5.

Appetite for Rejection (2001): Named after the first Guns N' Roses with a parody cover of same. Strike One. The insides are harder and faster with a deliberate growling singing style that worked as parody for Tesco Vee but is either not the intention or misplaced here on a punk-pop record with small "h" hardcore underpinnings that might be yearning for streetpunking oi ferocity. Wimmenz sing on two tracks and rough harmonies are also attempted. A heavy Queers influence is noted. There's a song titled "Mall Punks F--k Off", about as dated a punk concept as The Committee Of Outdated Punk Ideas has ever conceived. 3 and a half thumbs (up my nose).

Drop Out (2002): New versions of several tracks from the last cd are included on this 23 track marathon. The production values are improved but the influences are all over the map and lyrical stupidity is front and center. "Keep It All In The Family" has a sing-along chorus of "Oi! Oi! Oi!" - the kind of rookie mistake you'd never expect from a band together for more than four months. 3 reluctant thumbs up a stranger's wazoo on the train.

Hang Out (2006): A few years off produced a lesser album of average hardcore, Queers and surfy tunes with growly vocals. Maybe I'm just worn out from considering the last few records so I'll leave this one without much to say as the album doesn't have much to comment on.

Tales From Planet Earth (2010): Their best album in every imaginable way. Andy Vandal et al. must have woken up and realized they're not kidz anymore playing for even younger kidz even stupider than they were when they were kidz. The transition from childish snot-punk to masterful punk-pop rivals but does not equal the step made by The Lillingtons with their game-changing Death By Television only by how closely they deliberately followed the trajectory of The Lillingtons. For the genre, Tales From Planet Earth is pretty damn perfect. Phillip Hill provides some backup singing and the harmonics are off the chart. Not a weak track to be found and no growling either.

I hope their next record doesn't step back into the half-decent yet also half-not-decent excursions of their earlier recordings. The Riptides proved they have the stuff with Tales From Planet Earth and I hope they don't misplace it somewhere or trade it away for some magic pinto beans.

Negative Approach – Fair Warning Vol. 2 (dvd review): Hot on the heels of the cultural milestone Fair Warning Vol. 1 comes the game-changing Fair Warning Vol. 2, knocking conformity on its collective ass while giving a more than fair warning to naysayers they should step aside when Negative Approach wants to use the men’s room or something even more punk rock related. No wait, actually this is a collection of five concerts from 82-83 using a single-camera VHS only made decent by the quality of the songwriting and the execution of such by these youngsters out of Deeeeeeee –troit Michigan.

Negative Approach were by their own admission influenced by DC HarDCore, its cousin scene in Boston, and by fellow Detroiters The Necros, who put the Hard in Hardcore, to say the least. In the opening interview singer John Brannon repeatedly insists he was influenced by the 4 Skins but their sound is too bludgeoningly fast for that to be true. At first he says he was most influenced by Alice Cooper, which is why you should never ask a band who they’re trying to sound like. By fault of location Negative Approach didn’t achieve the same success as a Minor Threat but they did shore up their local scene and left behind a respectable catalog and legacy.

You get a lot of tunage at 120 minutes, taken from five shows, one in Philly and the rest in Detroit. The best is the opener from a cable access show called “Why Be Something You’re Not”, hosted by a kid looking no more than seventeen and weighing no more than 120 lbs. There’s not much else to add except they’re loud, fast and hard, and their fans do the best they can to kill each other in the dance we call slam.

Thankfully good songwriting peeks out from all that racket, otherwise this would stink big time.

Disclaimer: All files posted on this site are for educational and entertainment purposes only. If you like what you hear, please buy recordings from these bands. I make no money from this and I don't intend to take money away from a band by promoting songs I like. If you’re in a band whose music is found on this site and you want songs removed, please e-mail me.