old punks web zine
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Punk Music Reviews, Part IV
L - P

Lemonheads (review) - The Lemonheads were once a good band, at times a great band. In the mid ‘80s, when Husker Du's wall of guitar distortion ruled the wasteland, the Lemonheads released Hate Your Friends, which found its way to a number of yearly "best of" lists. More poppy and without the Husker's psychedelic tinges, Hate Your Friends found Evan Dando and Ben Deily taking turns as songwriter/vocalist. Each produced their own share of pop thrashers and slower, heartfelt crooners. Ben was always sappier in this are). Their second LP, Creator, is a great album but it takes longer to appreciate, with its lack of hits and forays into layered melodies. Ben Deily contributes most of the songs on the album. 1989's Lick contains their best and worst work. The inclusion of two old songs to fill out the record was a clue the band was destined to break up. Half the songs are excellent (especially "Glad I Don't Know" and "Ever"), two are horrible ("Cazzo di Ferro" and "I Am A Rabbit"), and the rest are above average. The hit was an average cover of "Luka". Evan's next scored with average cover of "Mrs. Robinson”. Hoo----ray.

I saw the Lemonheads after the release of Lick and was shocked, SHOCKED, that Ben Deily was gone! I assume forced out so Evan could be America's next pretty pop star. The show both sucked and blowed. I can picture the fat, hairy-chested A&R men pumping up Evan: "Hey, Ev, you're a good lookin' guy. Why you wasting your time playing this punk rock crap? And that Deily guy. He doesn't have 'The Look', you know what I'm sayin'? This is your band, Evan. It'll be all you, babe. Your songs, the cover of Sassy! Here, have some cash. It's you babe, all you!!" I'm sure Evan's pal Juliana Hatfield (greatest hits collection out soon!) egged him on: “The Lemonheads is your band. Here, have some heroin."

Evan started wearing dresses and growing his hair down to his ass. He's shirtless at the drop of a needle and playing flower-power strength alternative folk. He even had the nerve to disown the first three Lemonheads LPs. Prick.

Evan Dando is now a has-been and (thanks to disowning his punk roots) a never was. He's been replaced by the next pop star. Like the Macarena, Evan had his day. The line about the Lemonheads always being his band is a lie and a joke. Everything Evan had going for him came from his association with punk music and Ben Deily. Dando's last CD came and went like the bald guys who visit video porn booths during lunch hour.

Ben Deily disappeared for a while, resurfacing in 1992 with The Pods. They released the "It's a Bummer About Bourbie" 7" and a privately issued CD, Where I'm Calling From. In the liner notes Ben acknowledges his influences, including The Buzzcocks, Husker Du, Cat Stevens, Simon and Garfunkel, Cheap Trick, Raymon Carver and William Butler Yates. "Name In Vain" shows how hurt he was by being booted out of the band. I suspect he left The Lemonheads quietly and still hasen't gotten over it. "Blackout" and "Bleeding" are orchestral masterpieces. Ben combines classical instruments, full choruses, and standard rock instruments into masterpieces.

[2007 update] Ben moved to San Francisco with his wife and went into advertising. He won a bunch of awards and is in a new band, Varsity Drag. Visit his site here. I’m glad he’s doing well.

The Lewd - Kill Yourself...Again (CD review) (Chuckie Boy): Many old punk bands are considered historic by their fans, and it's hard to tell if that's based on the quality of their work or simply nostalgic memories of scenesters who haven't had a scene to call their own for a very long time. The Lewd made a name for themselves in CA and WA, but being from NY we had our own local bands to ignore. The Lewd tore up the Northwest for a few years in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s and, as this 29 song collection of studio tracks and demos demonstrate, they did pretty well for themselves for that era and locale.

Their hit was 1979's "Kill Yourself", which managed to combine the fast and loose glam punk of the NY Dolls with bands of the newer L.A. scene. 1982's American Wino saw The Lewd move toward the hardcore sounds coming out of Jello's Alternative Tentacles and Doug Moody's Mystic Records. Fast, choppy, snotty, arty yet dangerous, American Wino is a fine collection of tunes that will bring happy recognition from old timers but may make the kids scratch their heads. Old hardcore to them is the thrash of Minor Threat and the DKs, not the Stones/Ramones/glam/art punk of bands like The Lewd.

My favorite by far is "Magnetic Front", written and sung by bassist and part-time model Ogla de Volga. The Lewd went through band members like I go through bags of tortilla chips. "Roman Polanski" is slow, gloomy death rock that reminds me of TSOL. Their cover of "Secret Agent Man" lets you know that the band who wrote songs like "Cold & Numb" and "Climate Of Fear" also had a sense of humor. All in all this CD is a nice documentation of a band I've always heard about but rarely heard. Is this a classic? Not especially, but a few of the songs are keepers, and listening to this all the way through you can relive an era when loud and fast rock bands like The Lewd found a home in the early punk scene and then rode with it all the way to it's inevitable conclusion.

Libertine - Slowdown (CD review) (Twenty Stone Blatt): Yeah, baby, this is the poop if you love the Professionals/Sex Pistols sound. Punk rock with stadium size Johnny B. Goode riffs and a scratchy throated singer who covers a range of emotions from hard to reflective. The tempos are generally mid-paced but the songs are great, and given a chance they’ll be huge. They remind me of what Rancid would have been if they channeled more Cook and Jones than Strummer and Jones (not the same Jones, you eediot!). The more I listen, the more commercial the CD sounds, but the material has more cred to me than most other HellCat releases.

Libertine are from NY but this was released on a Scottish label. Somebody must know somebody because I'm sure Slowdown could have been released on any of a number of American labels both big and small. I really like their cover of The Violent Femmes' "Blister In The Sun". They also cover a Bryan Adams song, "Summer of '89". A lot of work went into the writing and execution of these tunes in the studio. There's many small creative flourishes that keep this consistently interesting. I'm sure their next release will be on Epitaph and the video will wind up on a promotional reel between Pennywise and Agnostic Front. By that time I'll lose interest, but for now this is pretty cool. (I caught them live the other day and their new direction is more like a harder Psychedelic Furs. The singer gives off some serious Richard Butler vibes)

The Libertines - Up The Bracket and The Libertines (CD review): I nice fellow from the UK e-mailed to recommend The Libertines since I'm a follower of sorts of some new retro-new wave bands. Check out this band history. It seems Pete Dogerty is a putz and a fugg-up of major proportions.

I listened to both Up The Bracket  and The Libertines, and they left me cold. I tried working out to them and they didn’t keep my attention. It was as interesting to me as background noise. Allmusic says they're influenced by The Clash, The Kinks, The Jam, The Smiths and The Cure. I NEVER would have picked any of these bands, especially The Clash.

The faster (and better) songs were either like The Strokes, a band credited with NYC influences that barely exist, or Iggy's "Lust For Life". The slower tunes I think are trying to be blues rock. Their ventures into quietness fail and the vocal harmonies are horrible. There's a scene in This Is Spinal Tap where the band visits the grave of Elvis Presley and they can't harmonize "Heartbreak Hotel". The Libertines suffer a similar fate.

I'm not going to say this sucks, because they have a following and are reviewed well elsewhere. Take that to mean it just has no appeal to me. I can say with conviction that The Libertines are not a great retro-anything band. In this style I highly recommend Stiffs, Inc.

Lickity Split - Cook Off (7" review) (self-released): Lickity Split was probably the only poppy band in Las Vegas when I was living there. I never saw them play because most all-ages shows took place at teenagers’ private parties. I went to one because I knew people, but I felt like a perv at a summer camp, or whatever I felt like being twice as old as most of the people there. Cook Off pops but also rocks with melody and style. It reminds me of Tucson's G-Whiz and other bands that for some reason don't get released on Lookout! Records. I like this a lot. If they lived in the East Bay instead of the land of loose slots I bet they'd be somewhere in your record collection right now. Location, location, location.

Life Sentence - Life Sentence (LP review) (Walkthrufyre): "Life Sentence is a group of three schmucks who aren't trying to look like GBH and sound like DRI! We're into it to have fun, but we're also into it to express ourselves on many subjects and maybe provoke people into thinking! You're more of a threat if you think and become involved than if you have a 'way rad' haircut and get drunk all the time. Take a stand! Protest and survive! Don't be too punk to smile! Eat at Naugles! Blah blah blah!"

This is a band quote from an old issue of MRR. I love it because it's typical of how many bands see themselves - atheistic holy warriors against consumerism, lethargy and not using your head, man! It’s good intentions masking huge egos that feign humble servitude to selflessness. I don't doubt some of the good intentions, I just think it's funny how people think their "art" can reshape society. Every once in a while it actually happens, but most of the time it's funny and sad to experience a Christ Complex at your local rock club.

Life Sentence, from the Chicago area, put out two records in the late ‘80s, and at one point they broke up and split into two bands calling themselves Life Sentence. Joe Losurdo, bass player and vocalist, wrote letters to every zine east of Mars saying his band was the original and only Life Sentence. You boys go outside and fight it out. Mommy and daddy are trying to watch television.

That aside, I like this record. It's the closest I come to tolerating speed metal. I don't mind thundering thrash, it's the dirtball-bang-yer-long-greasy-hair-air-guitar-heroics I can do without. Eric Brockman's lead guitar is at times metalish, but at various times Life Sentence sound like 7 Seconds, COC, DRI, MDC, Heart Attack, and Doggy Style. The best songs on this ten song 12" EP are "Punks For Profit", "In The Streets" and "Problems".

Life Sentence came and went fairly quickly, leaving only a faint trail on the internet. You might be able to find this cheap. Party on, Garth! Party on, Wayne!

Lifetime - Hello Bastards (CD review) (Jade Tree): An impressive piece of hardcore from Jade Tree - the punk label for sensitive lads. It starts off in typical hard stance SXE fashion, but creative flair and sincere emotion make themselves heard in each song. They're not only screaming - they're sharing! Think of a harder, faster Jawbreaker. They cover Husker Du's "It's Not Funny Anymore", a nice nod to that band's influence on hardcore, grunge, and the capacity for punk to convey pure emotion.

I'm past the stage where fast, slappy drums impress me. Maybe the immaturity of Fat Wreck Chords bands Turns me off. Maybe fifteen olds lecturing me from the pulpit of straight edge makes me giggle. Lifetime takes the mature approach and I tip my old beige safari hat to them. This is all-ages show music, but it’s good for a number of reasons.

The Lillingtons - I Lost My Marbles (7" review) (Clearview/Skull Duggery): Four songs produced by The Queer's Joe King, two of which appeared on the More Bounce To The Ounce comp Joe put out recently. The Lillingtons are like The Queers when they pay homage to Screeching Weasel, and while The Lillingtons don't thrive on variety they receord some of the catchiest four chord power pop available today. It’s music to dance the Pony to, and just like their heroes The Ramones, they can switch from a sappy love song ("She says she loves me and she'll be true/I'll do the same") to a violent ditty ("Jonnys gonna have to run/When he blows away his wife and kid away/Cindy had been screw'n way too long") without missing a step. How you do this without coming off as solid-gold assholes would take time to explain, so get a life and some irony and figure it out on your own.

The Lillingtons - S--t Out Of Luck (CD review) (Clearview/Skull Duggery): There's no reason why I should love these guys as much as I do, but ever since I heard "Lillington High" on a comp. I've been nuts about them. I mail-ordered a CD, LP and 7" from Skull Duggery and ran home every night from work like Calvin for his propeller beanie-cap. It came almost a month later. What year is this, 1997? - it shouldn't take that long. It's not like they get a truckload of orders every day and the records are eighty miles away in a warehouse! The Lillingtons are a three-piece from Wyoming. When was the last time anyone mentioned Wyoming for any reason? They’re a perfect mix of My Brain Hurts-era Screeching Weasel and any Queers when they're copying the Weasel. The Queers have a thing for The Beach Boys, and this CD is closer to the Queers in style and theme. Joe King produced their "I Lost My Marbles" EP and supplied its artwork. Kody's voice is layered so it sounds like two people are singing, but the effect isn't as annoying as The Damned or what Bob Mould does with Sugar. I recommend this for any die-hard Ramones/Queers/Screeching Weasel fan. If that's you, nobody does it better in a goofier way than the Lillingtons.

The Lillingtons - Death By Television (CD review) (Panic Button/Lookout!): Fans of Screeching Weasel and The Queers take note: The latest Lillingtons is out and should be available everywhere, so now you can hear what you've been missing. The Lillingtons are the best thing to happen to power pop punk since The Riverdales. Produced by Mass Giorgini, Death By Television is a thematic departure from their earlier recordings. The first few times I listened I was only mildly impressed, but since then I can't stop playing this. Its charms snuck up on me and I'm a total cretin for The Lillingtons. The songs are more subtle than prior recordings but they're all clever and very easy to love. My favorite song changes on a daily basis.

This time out they've thrown in a few songs that sound like Bad Religion ("Invasion Of The Saucerman" sounds enough like "Suffer" to warrant legal action. There's an endless parade of post-Ramones bands out there too, but if you don't love the Ramones you shouldn't be reading this zine anyway. The Crumbs used to be a lot sillier too - now they're a Dead Boys clone. I hope The Lillingtons never mature to old man status. I live it every day and it ain't pretty.

The only thing missing in Death By Television is the intricate backup singing that gave "Lillington High" and "Hooked On You" an exclusive, pep-rally feel. It's there if you listen close enough, but I wonder if it was the band or producer who decided to bury it in the mix. What's new for this release is a science fiction/campy horror theme, from the Ray Milland CD cover to song titles like "Don't Trust The Humanoids" and "Robots In My Dreams". The lyrics are still silly, and thank gosh for that. Only The Lillingtons can sing "I saw the apeman/He's having a bad day/Because Neil Armstrong/Took his banana away" without being cute.

Death By Television is my pick for pop-punk album of the year. It’s a strong release that grows on you like a cold sore from the lip. It's been three weeks and I still can't stop listening to this at least twice a day. I call that bang for the buck.

The Lillingtons - The Backchannel Broadcast (CD review) (Panic Button): Death By Television was a collection of 14 songs that clocked in at a shade over 32 minutes. This new one is 16 songs at 24:21. If their music didn't put me into drool-inducing trances Id feel short-sheeted on the deal, but I'm a slave-puppet to their sound. In addition, a Lillingtons bumper sticker is the only thing keeping my car together. In the age of Napster I'm surprised the CD isn't 74 minutes long and packed with enough songs to make even the thought of going on-line to put it all together an act of self-loathing.

Patterns are emerging with Lillingtons releases. They're getting less silly and more focused on a central theme and mood. The last was inspired by cheesy horror and science fiction. The Backchannel Broadcast, inspired by pulp fiction CIA intrigue made famous by author Graham Greene, is a fairly serious affair. Sure, the lyrics don't get much more serious than "Rushin' to the scene like Steve McQueen eatin' burgers on a Friday night", but song titles don't inspire giggles like they used to, and the lyrics follow suit.

The Lillington's sound is inspired by two main sources: the neo-Ramones wall-of-noise chord progressions of Screeching Weasel & The Queers, and the sharper, more structured sound of Bad Religion. Two bands working close to the Lillingtons model are The Groovie Goulies and Teen Idols. As with the last CD, the first, middle, and last songs sound like Bad Religion. They're more dramatic and less fun than the Ramonesy stuff. I think every song is also played at the same beats per minute. I noticed this while riding the bike at the gym.

Still, I love The Lillingtons and I love The Backchannel Broadcast. The Lillingtons sound, slightly different than their peers, sends my eyeballs spinning and I lose all sense of time and place. If you don't like power pop punk you may find this too repetitive. I love how they create slight variations in a strict formula. It's not as great as Death By Television but I'm exceedingly happy.  

Limp - Pop & Disorderly (CD review) (Honest Don's): Limp is to Green Day what the Riverdales are to the Ramones, the cosmic twist being the difference between the Ramones and Green Day. I could compare the two all day, and even though Green Day's chart and financial success upsets Joey’s ulcer even in the afterlife, in 100 years the Ramones will have their faces carved into the side of a mountain while Green Day is a footnote in a college thesis on 20th century musical trends. That out of the way, this is a great CD I highly recommend to anyone who likes Green Day. There's a lot of power here and enough hooks to hurt somebody. There’s little filler and well worth the time and money. While I'm here, what's up with Honest Don's? The logo on this CD says "Fat Free Recordings". Is that a cut on Fat Wreck Chords? It’s the same label!

The London Punkharmonic Orchestra - Symphony Of Destruction: Punk Goes Classical (CD review) (Music Club): This was recorded in 1995 and probably not released until now. There's a long intro from Jack Rabid of The Big Takeover, but all he says is that a guy named Monty produced and arranged old punk hits which were beautifully rendered as classical music with strings. How many strings, what instruments exactly (I think cello, viola and violin), who, what, where and why - that's still a mystery. I'd like to know if the musicians even knew the originals when they sat down to record this. Monty and Co. did a great job with these eighteen moldy oldies. If mom hears this coming from your room she might think you've dropped your heroin habit and will even start looking for a job. Ha!

This is a novelty record but I need music to play at work, and this is cool. I can hum along to The Jam and The Damned and not draw unwanted attention. Devo's E-Z Listening Disc is another seemingly obvious choice but that's still too weird. Here's the songs (you do the math on the original bands): "No More Heroes", "Babylon's Burning", "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker", "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight", "Holiday In Cambodia", "White Riot", "Gary Gilmore's Eyes", "Ever Fallen In Love", "Love Song", "Another Girl, Another Planet", "Where's Captain Kirk?", "Alternative Ulster", "Germ Free Adolescents", "Teenage Kicks", "Stranglehold", "Hersham Boys", "Sound Of The Suburbs" and "Pretty Vacant". The selection is mostly late 70's UK punk. It's not hard to turn a good punk song into classical music. All it takes is a good hook or chord riff that can be slowed down and adapted to string and wind instruments.

An issue with muzak versions of popular songs is how vocals are translated into music. It annoys the crap out of me when every nuance of pronunciation is replicated by a piano or violin. It's unnatural when a piano tries to follow a human voice's shift from low to high by tapping three intermediary keys. It sounds like a robot stuttering. "White Riot" has a nice pace because the words can be replicated as long flowing sounds. "Babylon's Burning" suffers a bit from choppy, irregular vocal mimicry. Thankfully most of Symphony Of Destruction does an excellent job of not letting this detract from the base requirements of classical music. This could have been elevator music, but it's not. A classical music snob could rip this apart as garbage, but for all intents and purposes this is as classy as punk's ever going to get. All 437 of us old punks who might appreciate this should own a copy. The kids will, once again, scratch their heads, mumble it ain't punk, and declare with equal parts irony and disgust, "Yeah, man, like whatever". Ah, like whatever, indeed.

Lost Direction - Demo (CD review): Three guys from Dearborn, MI chipped in some folding money and put out a three-song demo. It reminds me of mid-‘80s southern punks The Ugly Americans and some lesser sounds coming out of Lookout Records, before Operation Ivy took off. This doesn't stink but it's not worth buying either. Recordings like this remind me of looking at stranger’s wedding albums. I know what's going on but feel distanced from it, because while I know to them it was the greatest dayof their lives, all I notice is how people look and if they seem to be having a good time. This demo has no greater implication than the fun and toil it represented to the people who made it. It's proof they have a band and wrote songs. This demo is ok. Thankfully it doesn't try to overcompensate by constantly going over the top. That's worth an extra point just in itself.

Lovegutter - Sucking In The 90's (CD review) (Black Hole): This is an interesting example of an under-rehearsed band exploring a number of influences. It's easy to pass this one over because of the D.I.Y packaging and lack of professionalism, but I like the influences they pull from and remember a lot of the bands I grew up with weren't any better. From what I know about Philly, street punk and oi are the foundation to a sound that can pull from either NY's heavier metal sound or DC's older Dischord groups. Lovegutter mix in a heapin' helpin' of The Meatmen to their street punk, and when they do it works like a charm. They also borrow from the Ramones (they cover "We Want The Airwaves") and cover Devo's "Mongoloid" (5 extra points). Points off for chanting "oi, oi, oi" during "Bad Love". "Oi" is a British term and a British movement. What if you heard an American punk band chant "G'day!" like they were from Australia? Wouldn't you think that's silly? Since "oi" is the UK version of the American "Hey" I don't see why American street punk bands can't yell that instead. Is it because of The Monkees and "Hey Hey we're The Monkees"?

There's lots of good music here. With more practice and a re-write of the lyrics to their more silly songs they could have been bigger than Jesus. You know Jesus, the fat Mexican guy at Alberto’s Tacos? They broke up a while ago. Oh well...

The Lowdowns - Diggin A Hole In The Middle Of The World (LP review) (Junk): Ten songs on a 45 RPM 12". At times they remind me of The Cramps, The Lazy Cowgirls, and The Dead Boys. In each song they throw in interesting elements like '50s greaser music and detective soundtrack noir. The backing vocalist sings along with the lead vocalist whenever the mood hits him, giving the recording a big, live intensity. The two guitarists pound out non-fuzzy power chords that play off each other nicely. All in all a great release. Listen to side two first. The A-side opener is a rip-off of the Reagan Youth classic "Degenerated" later watered down for the movie "Airheads". Here it’s a bad first impression of unoriginality. Scratched into the vinyl are the words "It's Hard To Take Life Easy When You're Speeding It Up With Drugs." That's so beautiful, man... they're doing it for the kids. But wait, they have a song called "Last Fix", claim on the back they're too drunk all the time to remember anything, and the cover has them smoking in front of a porno theater. Oh, no, what to think?!!! Remember the kids!!!

L.E.S. Stitches - STAJA98L.E.S (CD review) (Ng): Here's the evolution of an idiot's thought process. That idiot being me. Not that I get out much, but I thought the Lower East Side Stitches were sloppy, retro-NYC CBGBs self-destructo degenerates. All this just by their look and what I thought was their reputation. The first thing that hit me when I threw this CD on the Victrola was how much they sound like Rancid, and that made me wince. Here are the legendary L.E.S. Stitches selling out to appeal to the masses (or so I’m thinking without really knowing if it’s true). I'm a fan of Rancid's ...And Out Come The Wolves, and while I think the L.E.S. Stitches are doing a decent job of honoring their own "roots rock" of the NY Dolls, I still take some points off for cashing in on someone else's gravy-train.

I hit the internerd to see just how much the band’s changed over the years. Seems I had all wrong. These guys have been compared to Rancid for a good while now. Everyone from Joey Ramone to Agnostic Front seem to be fans. They're traveling this summer with Rancid and the Specials on the Warped Tour, and I guess that's where they've positioned themselves from the start. So, now I'm listening to this in the correct context and it's great. You can take points off for whatever Rancid comparison you care to make but the songs on STAJA98L.E.S (ask for it by name!) stand up well on their own in both creativity and execution.

This isn't hardcore, it's punk, and while it does have commercial qualities it remains hard and fast. I've heard they're a great live band, and if they present this crowd-pleasing material to the Warped kids as expected they should blow many other bands off the stage.

Male - Zensur & Zensur (LP review) (Teenage Rebel): When people near me speak in a foreign language, I know they're talking about me. I know it. My other clue is the laughter as they cover their mouths with one hand while pointing at me with the other. Records sung in foreign languages are probably about me too. Male sing in German, so who the hell knows? I've liked most German punk I've heard, and most German punks go out of their way to be sensitive about their country's past. Zensur & Zensur (the word translates as "Censorship") is a good record that takes a few listens to fully appreciate because they have a diverse sound and don't try to pummel you with every song. "Male" in German means "mark", whatever that means.

Every word on the album and in the extensive liner notes is in German, except for the name of the record company, which reads "Teenage Rebel Records". According to the dates, it was recorded in 1979, which makes Male an important band because this material, for that time, is phenomenal. I was listening to this thinking a new band recorded some nice Clash, Buzzcocks, Chelsea, and oi-flavored tunes, but since this is twenty years old they were doing something special. Sure, Male was following the then current musical trends from the UK, but they did a great job. It’s easy to do in 1999 but not so in 1979. I thought one song was a rip-off of Maniac Youth's oi ripper "Make Mine Molotov", but I guess it's the other way around. Huh. Zensur & Zensur went from pretty good to excellent once I realized when it was recorded. From retro to history just like that.

Man Sized Action - Five Story Garage (LP review) (Reflex): The Midwest US scene of the mid- ‘80s is shamefully overlooked. Chicago and Minneapolis gave us some of the best bands to ever fly the punk flag. The two big forces out of Chicago were Naked Raygun and Steve Albini's Big Black. To this day, Chicago bands more often than not meet high local standards of style and authority. And damn, the scene in Minneapolis was once the best in the country. Husker Du, The Replacements, Soul Asylum (before they sold out), Breaking Circus and Man Sized Action made it almost worth living in that snowcone of a city. Man Sized Action weren't the best band around, but when they hit it just right, time stood still.

Bob Mould produced their 1983 debut, Claustrophobia, which I owned and later sold. I taped the three best songs from that one ("Bubble Burst", "Private Eye" and "Yea") but didn't feel the record was worth keeping. 1984's Five Story Garage continues where the last ended, but two tracks ("Replica" and "Different Than Now") elevate themselves to the level of euphoria with their sweeping drones and mesmerizing bass, guitar and drum progressions. Most Man Sized Action tracks remind me of a combo of The Feelies, Gang of Four, The Replacements and Mission of Burma, with a bit of Big Black and Husker Du thrown in as a noise factor. On "Replica", and especially "Different Than Now", Man Sized Action pound home the first Psychedelic Furs album as channeled through the Feelies take on The Velvet Underground. It’s punk and trippy at the same time without being pretentious. Wire was also a big influence on the band, and you can hear that in all their music.

Info from a MN record label source: “Man Sized Action's last show was in 1986 but they've done several reunion shows since then. Most recently in November of 1996. Singer Pat Woods currently fronts a group called Vavoom. Guitarist Tippy has been involved in a couple of projects since MSA but nothing in the last couple of years. Of course Brian Paulson is an esteemed record producer having worked with Uncle Tupelo and Wilco among countless others.”

Man Without Plan - Shop Talk (CD review) (Creep): One site calls this lower-upstate NY trio "The angry pop band with the big heart". An e-mail from Creep Records says "This CD ranges from poppy/indie songs to spastic hardcore parts." The Creep site summation includes "I wanna say Van Halen everytime I hear this record, maybe it's the guitars". Another review says "Their music might best be described as "violent pop", in that it involves elements of punk, pop-punk, and heavier stuff, or something."

Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages - let me 'splain you 'bout Man Without Plan. Jawbreaker. A more hardcore Jawbreaker. The hardest emo you can buy without a prescription. Some of the ten songs have a slight hard rock influence in their periodic use of a chugga-chugga, buzzsaw guitar sound, but there's no wanking and nothing a Van Halen fan would recognize. The trippy breaks, that exist where cock-rock guitar solos normally go, are what I consider punk's answer to twenty minute Deadhead jams. In effect more psychedelic than metal, it's a misread to call this slow head-banging music. The lyrics are emo ("We make our mark/ we break our heart/ I ask what for) but Man Without Plan aren't afraid to flip out hardcore style if the emotion calls for it. Too punk for post-grunge and pop and too tough for emo, Shop Talk is what would have happened to Jawbreaker if they asked the Bad Brains for career advice.

This is a very good release. Most impressive is the recording quality, which separates the drums, guitar and bass as much as it combines them together in a clear and powerful package. As with all good emo, there's creativity and craftsmanship way beyond what you'd expect from a punk outfit. Shifts of tempo and tone weave in and out of each song with an unpredictable yet natural flow. Musicians of lesser talent would trip over themselves in the process.

There's a new record in the works for Spring, 2000. My personal hope is that they drop any and all speedmetal guitar flourishes, no matter how infrequent. It grates on me as much as disco. If you weren't around to fight the great disco and metal vs. punk wars of the late ‘70s, you probably couldn't care less. Recognizing my own stress disorders, I give Shop Talk a rating of "A-". Jawbreaker's Unfun LP is still the Rosetta Stone for all things emo and good. If they want to hit a homer in all ways, they should do a cover of Jawbreaker's "Kiss The Bottle", for no reason beyond I like that song a bushel.

Manic Hispanic - The Menudo Incident (CD review) (Doctor Dream): It’s all cover songs, which explains the parody of the Guns N Roses album of a slightly different name. At first glance Manic Hispanic is a funny gimmick like The Dickies, but truth be told they're serious as hell. Well, maybe not totally serious but I understand they attract remnants of the old Suicidal Tendencies crew, so you better not be laughing out of disrespect, ese! They sing in Spanish at times and change lyrics to reflect the Cholo perspective, but their treatments of the covers are right on target ,and their choice of tunes are genius. On The Menudo Incident they cover "12XU", "Garageland" ("Barrio Land"), "New Rose" ("New Rosa"), "Jet boy Jet Girl" ("Jet Muchacho"), "God Save The Queen", "I Got A Right", "Los Angeles" ("East LA"), "Orgasm Addict", and a few others.

You can tell Manic Hispanic are having fun with poetic license but this is hard fast rules that does total justice to the originals. If you love the originals you'll flip for these covers, guaranteed. Whoever is selecting and arranging these songs is the unchallenged expert on punk. Each cover takes the essential great quality of the original and builds from there to create updated classics. These homeys play all the time in LA. I wonder if a slice of white bread like myself would survive a Manic Hispanic show. What if I'm wearing the wrong colors or make a threatening hand signal by mistake?! Mom!!!!!!! Band member name of the month - Mo Grease.

Manic Hispanic - Mijo Goes To Jr. College (CD review): Manic Hispanic's third CD from 2003 is a little better than the last one, The Recline Of Mexican Civilization, but it's all good from where I stand. Not only are they great musicians who "get" the originals, the enhanced Spanglish lyrics and comical vignettes make their records more than gimmicks. I've never heard the other big covers band, Me First And The Gimme Gimmes, but when I read "Me First and the Gimme Gimmes continue with a flood of covers done the in the usual Fat Wreck Chords fashion" I'm glad I missed out. Manic Hispanic rule the covers wasteland.

Here's the track list: 1. Trippin on Mi Ruca (Drinking About My Baby) 2. Brand New Imapla (Brand New Cadillac) 3. Tio's Got a Secret (The Germs) 4. Cruise (The Brews) 5. Barrio Love (Barbed Wire Love) 6. Creeper Is a Lowrider (Sheena Is A Runk Rocker) 7. My Homeboy Is a Joto 8. Big Heinas (GBH) 9. Menudo Morning Nightmare (Sunday Morning Nightmare 10. I.N.S. Took My Novia Away (The KKK Tok My Baby Away) 11. Crusher (The Crusher) 12. Get Up Your Late (You Drive Me Ape) 13. She Turned into Llorana 14. Lupe, I'm Free (The Damned) 15. Code Brown (TSOL) 16. I Want to Be a Cholo

I wish I knew more Spanish. I'd like to learn but I'm a tired and lazy older(ish) man.

Manic Hispanic - "Mommy's Little Cholo"/"I Don't Care About You" (7" review) (Junk Records): Manic Hispanic may look like low-riding L.A. gang members, and you may think changing the lyrics of two punk standards to reflect Hispanic points of reference smacks of cartoon goofiness, but these guys are amazing! Social Distortion's "Mommy's Little Monster" and Fear's "I Don't Care About You" are covered with the same seriousness and intensity as the originals. Any band that can match Fear's power is a force to be reckoned with. Buy this right now and be a lot cooler than you were yesterday.

Manic Hispanic - The Recline Of Mexican Civilization (CD review) (BYO): Something old, something new, something borrowed, something azul. I don't know Spanglish, so I can't tell you what "vato" or "esse" means, but I laugh every time I hear them take the Clash song and change it to "I'm so bored with you, esse." I did find out that "Mexican Tar" is a form of heroin, which makes sense of the Manic's version of "Chinese Rocks". This is the second CD from the best punk cover band around. Manic Hispanic takes punk classics, large and small, and faithfully reproduce the essence of what each song is about. It starts with accurate tuning and ends with skilled musicianship. Only then is humor added in varied degrees. It's not exactly Weird Al either, because the members of Manic Hispanic are all at least half Mexican, and they exploit Mexican stereotypes only for the enjoyment of their fans and themselves. Laugh at Manic Hispanic and you might wind up with a bunch of ouchies. I hear some of their fans are from the old Suicidal Tendencies crew.

Billy Zoom lends his iconic guitar work to "Brown Girl", a faithful rendering of X's "White Girl". It's the CD's best example of how Manic Hispanic understand the originals. The level of humor and extent of Spanglish varies appropriately with each song. "Get Them Immigrated" is sung to full Cheech and Chong effect, as much of a gimmick as the original it's based on. In a world with a good sense of humor it would be a hit on the radio. My favorite track all around is "Uncle Chato's Garden", which corrects the ultra pretentious seriousness of Bad Religion's "Atomic Garden" (maybe I just hate the Gnome Crapsky lecture that b-sided that single).

The bands they cover are: Descendants, Heartbreakers, Offspring, Bad Religion, The Clash, Sham 69, Social Distortion, Rancid, Dead Kennedys, X and Catholic Discipline. The Manics cover all styles perfectly, and the frequent comedy bits are all killer, especially "What I think of those god damn Mexicans are all whacked out listening to Guns N Ammo, and they're all hocked up on that PCH" (PCH is the Pacific Coast Highway).

The core of the band comes from SoCal bands The Cadillac Tramps, The Grabbers, and 22 Jacks. Manic Hispanic began as a sound check in-joke and grew into a crowd favorite. The Recline Of Mexican Civilization is as good as their 1995 The Menudo Incident. It sounds like it could have come from the same sessions. Quality control at its finest and another equally great release.

The Mansfields - Sappy Songs For Summer Nights (CD review) (Blast Off): These three Colorado Springs followers of The Queers are moving away from their original inspiration to more of a power-pop rockabilly thing. They now use a stand-up bass and look like the Ramones with Stray Cat hairdoos (or don'ts!). In more ways than one The Mansfields have an identity crisis. The image and fonts on the CD are straight from the Groovie Ghoulies, and right there in the liner notes it says they toured with the Ghoulies. It says they also played with the likes of the Eyeliners, Chubbies, MTX, Teen Idols - and they thank Joe Queer too.

Are there too many Ramones/Screeching Weasel/Queers bands out there? Damn straight there are. There's also too many Crass/Circle Jerks/Dead Kennedys/Promise Ring/Nirvana/Dead Boys bands out there. The Mansfields are adequate at what they do but I wouldn't recommend this unless you have a Queers fetish (as I type this I'm listening to "Stick With Me", which is a weak adaptation of "Surf Goddess"). Their harmonies are off-key and there's nothing original or overly exciting about the tunes in general. I do support what they're doing because there's not enough good power pop bands around. Word has it power pop punk isn't really punk. I want the cool kids to like me so maybe it isn’t.

Because the band's called The Mansfields they do a song called "Jayne Mansfield Was A Punk". It's a misconception that Jayne was decapitated. She was most of the way there but no roller. The CD cover is modeled after a cover of an old NY punk fanzine, oddly enough called Punk.

Mansfields - Kill Your Radio (CD review): When I listened to this I had forgotten I had reviewed their last release on Mutant Pop. In my hand is an unmastered test pressing which was supposed to come out on Mutant Pop. This is more polished than their last one, but it might vary a bit too much, for your regular record buyer, between various styles, in this case oi, Mike Ness’ c&w punk, The Automatics and Sloppy Seconds. There's a strain of Rockabilly that runs throughout, a change from their old Ramones/Queers sound. It all works for the Mansfields, and anyone who likes any of the bands I've mentioned above should get into this.

Once this gets mastered I have no idea what it’ll sound like, but the guitar, as is, is great. It alternates between power chords and leads in a solid wall of sound that's easy to get lost in. That's the signature of Sloppy Seconds. "Born To Lose" reminds me of an old oi song that has the lines "Never heard of a washing machine, so his clothes are never clean." The vocals on a number of tracks copies Mike Ness with 95% accuracy. All ten tracks are consistently above average without being classics.

A vast improvement, and at this rate they'll be The Next Big Thing in 2001…. At which time I'll lose interest.

Marginal Man - Identity & Double Image (LPs review) (Dischord & Enigma): Listening to these two records now, Marginal Man were more amateurish than I remembered. And not in the enthusiastic primitive fashion I usually find endearing. The musicians' timing is off, and so is Ken Inouye's singing. Three songs on Double Image are more polished and feature guitarist Peter Murray on vocals. Could this have been on the insistence of Enigma? These songs are actually pretty good. Add "Missing Rungs" and "Friend" (the latter found on both albums!), but otherwise you can pretty much pass up the rest. I didn't expect to write this last line. I intended to write a glowing history of what was at the time a fairly popular DC band.

Steve Polcari, Mike Manos and Peter Murray were in Artificial Peace, whose contribution to humanity was the great song "Artificial Peace". Marginal Man saw the addition of Inouye and Andre Lee, whom I remember worked in a large used bookstore in Bethesda, MD. The first album came out on Dischord but didn't sound like a Dischord record, more like F.O.Y. (Fountain Of Youth), the other, more diverse label in DC. The second was on Enigma, the label where good bands went to die. Listening to these records again it struck me how Marginal Man shot blanks by doing a little of this and a little of that. "Friend" uses the patented 7 Seconds "Whoa" sing-along. "Pandora's Box" features some East Bay Ray DK guitar work. "Fallen Pieces" has some chugga-chugga post-punk goth going on. "Chocolate Pudding" is an instrumental based on "Cool Jerk". With better execution I probably wouldn't be writing these as complaints. The lyrics on both albums are close to 7 Seconds, but it's more about emo feelings of being hurt and helpless. A "fugg you and you're little dog too" would have been more effective.

Ken Inouye booked shows for three years at the 9:30 Club and was the Black Cat's publicist for a time. Now he runs something called "In Your Eyes" which guides DIY bands through the performance, promotion, contract, and money aspects of the biz.

Master Mechanic- Kick Sneeze 7" & I Wanna Kiss You (7" review) (ROC): This was sent to me all the way from bootiful Pittsburgh, PA, where four years ago I went into a used vinyl store in Squirrel Hill that was the size of a football field. In-freakin'-credible. Both singles have one song on each side and they last for maybe a minute and a half each. Listening to them for review I felt like I was playing musical chairs. Which leads me to say, once again, that singles are a pain in the ass. People have a fetish about them I know, but my quads are burning from bouncing out of my chair this often to flip sides and singles. These two singles should have been combined on one. Less work, better value.

Master Mechanic, in a flyer that came along with the singles, are "The Kings And Queen Booze Hounds Of PGH Sleaze Rock". On their nicely done web site, www.geocities.com/messymechanic, which has more information on the band members than even their own parents would want to know, the band gets described in a few places as "heavy rock", which is not the same as heavy metal. Pittsburgh is infamously a working class town, the members of Master Mechanic look like working class people, the kind who get dirty at work and don't need to change to play that night, and their music is working class rock with some nods to the Stooges heaviness and NY Dolls glam. Maybe it's the studio recording, but it comes across as a bit noncommittal. Some of the reviews they post mention roaring live shows. This may be. It's only hinted at in the singles.

I'm not a big "rock" guy and Big Black is the closest I get to slow and heavy. Three of the four tracks are faster paced. "OO-Tay" is s.l.o.w. and heavy-lite. Alice Cooper fans might love this. The musicianship is excellent and the guitar leads creative when not rockin' out like when two guitarists stand next to each other and mimic each other's rockin' movements. Still, something's being held back here. The singing needs to be louder and more dangerous. I'm glad they thought enough of my little lemonade stand to send me some music.

The MC5 (review): I Listened To The MC5 So You Won't Have To. I own all three MC5 albums but could never listen to one all the way through until this weekend, when I forced myself through Kick Out The Jams, Back In The USA, and High Time, released between 1969 and 1971. The job got easier as it went along but there's gobs of serious parody to be had both in the music and the band themselves.

Is 60’s to mid 70’s punk relevant today? Yes and No. Yes if you think being punk requires a full knowledge of the history and roots of the music, and No if you feel it requires nothing more than a general interest in the music and culture. Your average punk of fifteen thinks Operation Ivy is old skool, and that’s OK with me. I fell into hardcore around 1980 only because new wave was dying. To me, old skool is Fear, The DKs, X, Minor Threat, Ramones and Husker Du. The MC5? The NY Dolls? That’s urban hippie music from the Neolithic era. I appreciate old bands because I’m a two-bit punk historian (with a memory like a steel spaghetti strainer), but I don’t kid myself that these bands are of any interest to some kid into NOFX or Bad Religion. None. And it doesn’t have to be. As long as The Kids don’t act like punk started in 1993 I say they’re not missing out if they never hear one note from before their time.

Wayne Kramer paid his dues, and his recent recordings are good, but whenever he’s trotted out to defend the activist wing of punk I consider the comic idiocy of The White Panther Party, in which the MC5 were the armed, revolutionary version of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers (Exhibits A and B). They treated women like rags and the revolutionary rantings on Kick Out The Jams are hysterical nonsense. Drugs, guns and stupidity don't mix.

My take on the albums is the opposite of their cheerleaders. The live album, Kick Out The Jams, is horrible. The guitars wank, songs veer of into bizarre tangents and the politics are slogans. It’s a heavy metal, hippie wig-out mess. The only good part is hearing the MC5’s tagline “Kick Out The Jams. Motherf—ker!”, which may be their lasting legacy anyway. If this is great, than great sucks.

Back In The USA is a studio album and shows they can actually play. It opens and closes with pop covers (“Tutti Fruity” and “Back In The USA”) and contains some odd teen glam anthems like “Tonight” (this must be the inspiration for Spinal Tap’s “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight”) and “High School” (“’Cause they’re going to High School Rah rah rah// High School Sis Boom Bah// High School Hey Hey Hey”) “Shakedown Street” is a pop Grateful Dead. No Jams being kicked here, folks, and you are allowed to wonder if this is the same band.

High Time is pretty good. It shows them to be in fine company with Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin. “Sister Anne” combines “Johnny B. Goode” and “Bad To The Bone” (of course written many years later). The horn wig-out on “Skunk (Sonically Speaking)” is phenomenal, and a brilliant break from the guitar wankfest that made their live shows the top reason to take LSD.

The MC5 lends itself to parody played straight, and it seems the MC5 documentary agrees (here and here).

McRackins - Best Friend (CD review) (Shredder): Funny-punk power pop from a Canadian band that records on a seemingly weekly basis. I've never liked them too much. Maybe it’s the stupid concept of dogs, eggshell costumes and makeup. Maybe it's how hard they work at being goofy. On this eight song CD they imitate Screeching Weasel fairly to the letter and note. "Get Crackin'" is an inversion of Weasel's "Radio Blast", while "What Comes Around" borrows the acoustic guitar riff from Husker Du's "Never Talking To You Again". The McRackins are the Dead Milkmen of power pop punk. Anyone want to buy this from me? Maybe if I throw it hard enough it'll stick to the wall so I can use it as a shelf for my chapstick.

Meatmen - Evil In A League With Satan (CD ROM/EP review) (Go Kart): A historical treasure trove for Tesco Vee fans, this has enough cool songs and interactive media to keep even the grumpiest punker happy as a fly on a pile of steaming hot poop. The price is right too.

The Meatmen have been around in one shape or another for about twenty years. Tesco helped found Touch & Go, and his funny, crude, offensive songs have been polluting the planet (in a good way) ever since. His music has alternated between sloppy punk and campy cock-rock metal punk, my preference the primitive punk of "One Down Three To Go" and Tooling For Anus". Tesco also has an unnatural love of ABBA, so what can I say. At one time The Meatmen were hugely popular in hardcore circles, and I think Tesco more than any of us old timers learned the truth that punk generations last only a few years, and that his fans didn't leave him, they just grew too old for this punk nonsense. Tesco keeps on plugging along, and may Satan unbless his putrid soul for it.

Tesco's not a Satanist, and he doesn't think "Crippled Children Suck". It's all a joke from a devoted family man with a house in the suburbs, a toy collection to kill for and a sense of humor that's sick and twisted - a little too sick and twisted probably for his own good. Many find The Meatmen offensive and that's just how it goes.

The music portion of the CD is taken from recent releases and leans toward Tesco's hard cock-rocking side. The CD-ROM is entertaining and informative. The only problem is starting it because there's no instructions printed on the sleeve. I had to search through the ROM files using Windows Explorer. To start it, click "Meat95nt". The ROM begins with two cartoon demons opening the doors to Hell, where Tesco, wearing sunglasses and cheap devil's horns, welcomes you and calls himself the "pencil-necked anti-Christ Tesco fugging Vee". From there a main menu lets you choose from sections on Tesco himself, his band, Meatmen lyrics, a discography, live concert footage and a merchandise area.

There's lots to do and see. The Tesco Vee section has funny clips from his MTV show, pictures of his massive toy and pinball machine collection, and the infamous "Tesco Vee vs. Jesus" video game, where Jesus slaps and farts while Tesco punches and kicks. There's two endings to the game so play it twice. The lyrics section has words to seven songs that play in the background as you read. The discography is a collector's dream, with all artwork, from pullouts to record labels, clearly reproduced. Seven songs populate the live concert footage area, the highlights being "One Down 3 To Go", "Lesbian Death Dirge" and "Real Men Hang To The Right". Be sure to hit everything you see because there's a few surprises you won't want to miss.

Evil In A League With Satan is a nice package from Tesco Vee to his fans. When I went to visit the Official Meatmen website listed in the credits, it gave me a site for gay porn. Did Tesco sell the rights to meatmen.com or what? There's a cruel irony to this somehow.

The Meices - Greatest Bible Stories Ever Told (CD review) (Empty): By happy choice I know nothing about post-grunge indie rock, so when I put this 1992 release on the 'ol 700 rpm Victrola all I could come up with were lite versions of Clawhammer, The Butthole Surfers and Killdozer (a stretch on that last one). You can rock out to some of this but not approximate anything close to dancing. Maybe Soul Asylum and Goo Goo Dolls fans will go for this. I don't have much of an opinion on if it’s good or not. I just don't have a need to put this on again. My loss.This should have been faster, heavier and meaner.

The Mekons - The Mekons Story (CD review) (Feel Good All Over): Here's some legendary bands who: 1) have put out loads of albums of varying quality over the years, 2) are eclectic to the point of schizophrenia, 3) are hard to find, and 4) have a devoted yet small cult following who make you feel either they’re nuts or you're missing out on something great -- 1/2 Japanese, The Residents, Pere Ubu, Throbbing Gristle, and The Mekons. Ween might be a modern band who fits this category. Rock critics and obsessive collector nerds love these kind of bands.

After years of hearing whipsers of The Mekon's greatness, I purchased this CD comp of twenty songs from '77 to '82. From Leeds in the UK, The Mekons, like Gang Of Four, early on used synth-funk as a backdrop for socialist lyrics. A critic says of The Mekons, "Despite an appearance of frenetic intellectual activity, the new generation of rock has come up with only one brilliant insight. It came from the Mekons, and like all important ideas, it is very simple: rock is the only form of music which can actually be done better by people who can't play their instruments than by people who can. This idea underlay punk, but the Mekons were the first to base a group on that principle alone". The inability to play proficiently has always been the pride and shame of rock&roll. The argument is also bulls--t. Not everyone can play classical guitar, nor should they be expected to. Rock has always been looked down upon by jazz and classical snobs as a haven for untalented musicians. Some punks are excellent musicians, others suck horribly, but most seem to play well enough to perform what they want with power and authority. It's obvious from these early, raw recordings that the Mekons were talented musicians. The Sex Pistols wore the same talentless badge of punk honor. Live with Sid they did stink, but in the studio the Pistols were more than good enough.

This collection contains early punk blasts not unlike Wire and Gang of Four, and synth-based noodlings that bring to mind Throbbing Gristle as a punk band. I hear a lot of interesting elements here that may or have not been a direct influence on others that followed. The influences game is a minefield of ego and speculation. While not always the case, I believe the most popular bands of any genre are the most influential. Are The Mekons more influential than Gang Of Four or Wire? I doubt it. Is this collection worth getting? Only if you're a fan of obscure early UK punk. I hear twenty good album tracks but no hits.

Mekons - New York, On The Road 86-87 (CD review) (ROIR): Jon Langford is maybe a little too smart, a little too anarchistic and a little too drunk for his own good. I say that only in terms of record sales, something Langford cares nothing about. Many of his recordings are pure genius. Coming out of the same Leeds UK scene as the Gang Of Four and the Delta 5, they established a creative community ten times more fun than the arses at Crass, Inc. A shift to American D.I.Y. country, bluegrass, folk and rock in the mid’80s threw off casual fans but endeared them even more to critics and diehards. ROIR put out a cassette-only version of this CD back in 1987. This pressing is re-mastered and includes "noisy, shamblin', drunk" 1987 versions of their 1978 punk classics "Where Were You?" and "Never Been In A Riot", direct attacks on what they saw as the poser thuggery of the Clash and Sex Pistols. New York, On The Road is a perfect live record. You get to know the band personally, and you wish you could be there to be having as much fun as they are. It also helps that the songs are great.

In jazz history it's well known that the fastest, loudest, sweatiest, loosest performances took place after the clubs closed, in homes and back rooms. There's "Show Time" and "Our Time", which was almost always better (and always more fun). Now imagine the band The Band in the same situation with Shane McGowan of The Pogues singing in his usual drunken stupor. That's what this CD sounds like, and unlike most live recordings, you feel like you're there drinking with them in small clubs, playing for small, devoted crowds. Jon is backed by seven musicians on guitars, bass, drums, Casio keyboards, violin and accordion. Packed on tiny stages, they create streams of joyful noise that almost sound archival in how they capture the essence of various indigenous American music styles. The simple beauty of "Shanty", a country waltz, must be heard. It evokes images of tradition, simplicity and community a city slicker like me can only dream about. Odd yet effective, "Trouble Down South" and "Flitcraft At The Iron Horse" combine goth and bluegrass. "Trouble Down South" is built on a truncated riff from Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi's Dead".

With 29 tracks and various pieces of taped business thrown in, New York, On The Road is also a great value. It's a nice departure from the norm and very well done. Highly recommended.

Metal Mike - Plays the Hits Of The 90s, Ted Nugent Is Not My Dad!, My Girlfriend Is A Rock (CD EPs review) (XXX): These three discs came out in '91, '92 and '93 respectively, and were then combined on one CD in 1994. Metal Mike Saunders is a founder of the legendary Angry Samoans. A few years after that band broke up and scattered to the winds, Mike released a series of low-key EPs under his own name, switched to drums and took the name "Mr. Loser". Lisa Lombardo played lead guitar and Julia Altstatt bass guitar (the first EP also has Jonathan Hall on guitar). Metal Mike sounds nothing like the Angry Samoans, and there's a weird karma/irony in this because the man who ruthlessly skewered Rodney Bingenheimer for being a retro-pop wuss in "Get Off The Air" proves he's more than capable of recording the fa-la-la garage pop he mocked Rodney for promoting.

The songs are pleasant enough and not the biggest waste time, but they lack the energy and bite you'd expect from the former Samoan who recently revived the Angry Samoan name for his latest CD (which also sounds nothing like the band who recorded "Steak Knife" and "Homo-Sexual"). Mike's singing on the EPs lacks range and is overly sweet and sincere, while the band goes through the motions like they're doing an early AM soundcheck. Over three years Metal Mike and Co. recorded an exact continuation of the EP that came before it. After the first I'd figure Mike would speed it up and slap it around a bit. Guess not.

Plays The Hits Of The 90's starts off fast enough on "I Don't Like This World Anymore", but Mike's singing is too coy to be believed, like he's one of those sad little boys with big round eyes from cheesy paintings. He then does a Bob Dylan imitation on "Let's Burn The Flag", turns Merle Haggard's "I'm A Lonesome Fugitive" into wimp-folk, does a good job on the Dictator's "Next Big Thing", and has Lisa do a Dylan imitation on "I Saw Your Face". Ted Nugent Is Not My Dad! is a misleading title because there's no metal guitar, just more garage pop played with underwhelming intensity. He covers Lobo's "Ain't Gonna Be Your Friend", Sweet's "Wig Wham Bam" and Dave Davies' "This Man He Weeps Tonight" (he does captures Dave's vocal intonations fairly well). The last track, co-written with Lisa, comes closest to the energy level you'd expect. My Girlfriend Is A Rock is more of the same with another Lobo cover tune. There's seventeen songs on the three discs.

Pleasant, sweet, and restrained aren't words you'd associate with a former Angry Samoan, but the evidence keeps on piling up.

The Methadones- Ill At Ease (CD review) (A-F Records): The genealogy of Chicago pop punk bands is as confusing as the Dischord family tree, factoring in aliases people go by. The Methadones has been Dan Schafer's (aka Danny Vapid) project since around 1993, I know that, but it’s hard to figure out the other members in this revolving door operation. There's members and former members of Screeching Weasel, Squirtgun, The Queers, and The Mopes. As of last month they were looking for a full-time drummer, and the Methadones web site (methadones.com) says that Matt from the Teen Idols has been sitting in -- which must be fate because Ill At Ease is very much like the Teen Idols, Screeching Weasel from the days of Anthems For A New Tomorrow, and Bad Religion when they were good.

The Lillingtons mastered (just before the Idols did) what I call the "Sweet Spot" of Johnny Ramones' strum-within-a-chord guitar style. Instead of playing 3 chords as 1-2-3, it's more like 111111111-222222222-333333333. They added some personality within these fast strumming lines, and it’s easy to get lost in this shifting wall of noise (thanks Phil Spector!).

Ill At Ease starts with "Solitude", derived from Bad Religion, with shorter, sharper chord arcs and a continual singing style that just screams "thesaurus" even if no big words are involved. Then there's "Hygiene Aisle", which reminds me of Weasel's "A New Tomorrow", with drumming that allows you to do the greatest, most joyous dance of all time - The Pony! More Bad Religion stuff on "Wake Up", which sounds exactly like a mid-period Bad Religion song I can barely recall no matter how many times I start vaguely remembering the words. "Past Mistakes" is Teen Idols material and it makes me wish Heather was singing backup on the CD, because Dan sure as heck sings like Keith. "Bottom Out" is a glam rocker to pump your fist to, but it still manages to swipe a muted bass line from the Idol's "King Just For A Day". "Take A Look" is somewhere between the Weasel and the Idols.  "Slow Down" is Bad Religion with shorter sentences, followed by "Whole Lot Of Nothing" and more of the same. "Who Am I?" and "Ill At Ease" are like The Teen Idols meets Bad Religion.

I'm not grading each song but I prefer whatever sounds like Screeching Weasel, The Lillingtons and the Teen Idols.

The Migraines (tape of CD review) (Sick Duck Records): This cassette copy was mailed to me, and if I didn't know better I'd say it's the new Sloppy Seconds record. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, The Migraines should get on their knees and thank (gulp!) the Kings of Junk Rock. Both bands hail from Indiana. The singer sounds like he could be B. A.'s younger (and lighter) brother, while the band is a balance between Sloppy Seconds and The Vindictives (with 5% Mr. T. Experience thrown in). The lyrics are pure SS. "I'm A Wuss" is a variation on "I Don't Wanna Be A Homosexual", "I'll Be Glad When You're Gone" opens with a B-movie sample, and "Daddy Wears Mommy's Things " steals from "Ice Cream Man". "Pha-Q" is a straight copy of the Monkee’s "Stepping Stone". Is it good? I have to take away originality points but I'm a big fan of this genre and this is a lot of fun. The address for Sick Duck Records is P.O. Box 5051, Ft. Wayne, IN 46895.

The Migraines- Juvenilia (CD review) (OneFoot): Whatta bunch of goofs. The Rosetta Stone for these Fort Wayne, IN numbnuts may be the Ramones, but they're the best thing to hit town since Sloppy Seconds. The Migraines sample bad movies and television as much as Sloppy Seconds, and they share a love for junk culture. Eddie Migraine sings like Joey Vindictive of The Vindictives, another Sloppy Seconds type band. I love Sloppy Seconds and The Vindictives, so there's no way I'm going to dislike The Migraines.

The Migraines may be derivative, but they're also a bit more diverse in their sound than these other bands. In addition to the Ramones and Sloppy Seconds, they toy with surf, garage, hillbilly and modern pop-punk sounds of bands like The Bollweevils , Screeching Weasel and Bad Religion. The musicianship of this three piece is excellent, and once again Mass Giorgini has more than earned his beer money as producer.

"Start Procrastinating" is a classic of the pop-punk genre, and worth every penny just for this one song. Is it just me or does "Banana Chandelier" sound like "When The Saints Come Marching In”? Juvenilia is better than their debut LP, Shut Up!, reissued by OneFoot. That one was pretty silly. Juvenilia is a misleading title. This is actually pretty mature, all things considered. Then again, I've yet to hear a bad joke about diarrhea.

Minor Threat (LP review) (Dischord): He's strong to the finish, ‘cause he eats his spinach, he's Ian "Popeye" the non-smoking, drinking or sex-having Mackaye man, toot toot! Kuh guh guh guh. Ian didn't single-handedly start or run the DC Straight-Edge scene, but damned if it didn't seem that way. And he did a damn fine job too as musician, producer, record label mogul and reluctant spokesman for a segment of his generation. The lyrics he wrote and spat out were direct statements of opinion, not the militaristic calls for scene fascism and violence that followed from the Boston area. Washington DC is a city of educated kids with a strong sense of civic responsibility and activism, and the music scene always reflected that. Boston, a city I love, is more about working class prejudices and power-violence.

Minor Threat popularized straight edge, and in interviews Ian talked about it, but the numbing repetition of the questions and the general perception of SXE as a cult of conformity grew old quickly,  and he rightly lost interest in defending himself and it. The idea wasn't to become a monk, it was to not fall prey to the dumbest forms of peer pressure. It was about showing some class and using common sense. It was never about being a virgin or never drinking a beer.

Minor Threat existed from the Fall of 1980 to the Fall of 1983, from the ashes of Ian and Jeff Nelson's stint in The Teen Idles. Jeff Nelson, a talented visual artist, also ran the Dischord label on a day-to-day basis. They brought on Lyle Preslar on bass and Brian Baker on guitar. Contrary to a rumor I just started, Brian was not the kid from A Christmas Story. The DC scene was open to forming bands, quitting bands and playing in more than one band at the same time. The nexus of that scene was a record store out in Rockville, MD called Yesterday & Today Records (Y&T), owned by Skip Groff. He's the Skip in "Skip, we love you" at the end of "Stepping Stone". They had a store of just 45s that was packed floor to ceiling with boxes of 7" records. Everybody worked there, and Ian once recommended I buy a record from a local band called The Confederate, which was ok but didn't age well. Y&T clerks tended to be not very helpful, but Ian was always a man of the people. Skip paid for the first two Minor Threat EPs and mixed the first one. Skip was a Beatles kind of guy so he probably did this as a lark.

UPDATE: AN E-MAIL FROM SKIP HIMSELF! Holy Mcfugg!

"Nobody's ever called me (or Yesterday & Today) a "Nexus"  before,thanks!(RE:Minor Threat review). Your comments make it seem like the store is long gone; we're in our 24th year in Rockville. Regarding the production credits, I produced and MIXED The Teen Idles EP, the First Minor Threat EP, the SOA EP, as well as some Youth Brigade tracks that ended up on Flex Your Head. These recordings were all done by me and Don Zientara at Inner Ear. For Teen Idles, as well as the first Minor Threat EP, we produced an intial demo session, then the final recordings some weeks later. Ask Jeff Nelson or Don,they'll confirm that for you."

There were four initial pressings of the first EP, Minor Threat, which packed in eight songs at 45 rpm. The first had a red cover, the second was blue, then green and yellow. My copy is red so that makes me god. I don't know how many were pressed but 1000 is always a good round number. The second EP, In My Eyes, with four songs, was first pressed on red vinyl, and my copy with the yellow label is the second pressing, which knocks me down to demigod. Both were released in 1981. There's a CD with most everything Minor Threat recorded, but at one time Dischord put out an LP of just the first two EPs.

Information on Minor Threat on the internet is surprisingly sparse and sometimes just wrong. The biggest direct influence on the sound of Minor Threat was The Bad Brains, whose speed was as shocking in its day as the Ramones were a generation before. The "straight" from SXE comes from a Jonathan Richman song "I'm Straight" and has no connotation of sexual preference.

The songs are great and the lyrics as direct as can be written. Minor Threat were above and beyond every other DC band in talent and focus. The only song out of place is "Guilty Of Being White", which is not very PC and had to have come from a bad experience in DC's notoriously infamous socio-political subculture. I lived there for fourteen years so I know what that was like.

The famous "Dischord House" you always hear about is in Arlington, VA. I lived in that neighborhood but never knew what house that was. It might have been a Sears Home, which was sold in pieces by catalog from Sears. The rents were cheap and many homes were shared. You might have seen footage of them practicing in the basement which was low, cramped and dirty, as in real piles of dirt. Basements were an afterthought.

I'm sure you own these recordings. They're a cornerstone of punk history.

Misfits (CD review) (Plan 9): This 1988 hits package is the only Misfits I will ever own. There are exactly 47,302 Misfits records out there and I have no idea what period they cover or who’s in the band. The Misfits started as a Ramones/Damned four-chord punk band, but somewhere along the way they turned metal horror-ific, then Danzig did Samhain and Danzig, and I stopped caring. I wager 90% of people wearing Misfits t-shirts know nothing about the band, and 8% of those who do are metalheads. The first EP was "Bullet" in 1978 on their own Plan 9 Records, and they put out a lot of good material before they became more legendary than interesting. Listen to "She", "Hollywood Babylon", "Teenagers From Mars" and the rest of this collection and what you'll hear is a band that did as well with the early DC scene as they did in NY's lower east side. If you like great early hardcore (yet all the idiots who claim to love the Misfits have turned you off to the band), find this collection. It’s the perfect synthesis of the Ramones and The Damned (I think they even improved on the Damned, who recorded too many songs if you know what I'm saying). Don't buy a Misfits shirt. Only losers wear them. After years of legal wrangling some original members reformed a short while back. Wonder if they're still together and if they play old or new style?

Mission Of Burma - OnoffOn (CD review): Nobody wanted to love the latest Mission Of Burma CD more than I did. A year ago I was just reaching the climax of my born-again MOB fanaticism after listening to “Dumbells” for the first time in years. Fans of Big Black’s “Kerosene” would love this track. This made me throw on the 2-LP Rykodisc collection, and between “This Is Not A Photograph” and “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate” I wondered if they had a death cult I could join. My eyes still roll into the back of my head when the latter track opens with someone simply speaking the name of the song.

Sadly, OnoffOn isn’t very good, regardless of the praise of fawning critics. It’s fa-la-las instead of unplanned yells, and slow when it should be fast. Even worse, the harmonies are off. It opens strongly with “The Setup” but quickly devolves into some weird thrash-hippie revival of Godspell or Let My People Come. Or something.

When Lionel Hutz finishes suing the makers of The Neverending Story for false advertising, I'll have him milk Mission of Burma for the same practice. OnoffOn is a MOB side-project, one of many. I gladly head back twenty years for some real Mission Of Burma.

I listen to this every so often to see if there's some hidden genius at work. I downplayed Sugar whilst still a Husker Du purist but changed my mind down the road. OnoffOn will have "The Setup" burned off it and then I'll trade it in. For the love of Pete, Track 9 is a silent track used to separate the CD into two sets. How, uh, artful that is.

That said, if you don't own Signals, Calls and Marches and Vs. the hole in your music collection is gaping.

Mock Orange - nines & sixes (CD review) (Boiled Music): Emo is punk's most belittled sub-genre, probably because the lyrics can be as precious as the arrangements. It's the opposite of dangerous; self-destructive machismo long being punk's preferred image. Loudness and speed in emo is seemingly there to mostly accentuate the silences and the swirling, hypnotic effects of the words. Emo is jazz grunge, new age thrash - it surely is an  amalgamation of styles, and when done well it's among the best and most challenging music out there today. When it fails it's just pencil-necked geeks emoting wimp poetry over fey rock music.

Mock Orange, like the sticker on the CD reads, plays "Emo Indie Rock from Evansville, IN". While not in the same league as Sense Field, the Promise Ring and Jets To Brazil, Mock Orange creates big walls of sound that puts them ahead of other emo bands who seemingly fear their own instruments. This is probably their first CD, and there's a well-intentioned naiveté to nines &sixes that makes this worthwhile, yet also keeps it from being a classic. The talent is there and in time they'll hopefully get the math right.

Don't get me wrong. This is a good release and emo kids should add this to their collections. Emo standards are higher than anything else in punk, and while Mock Orange cover all the emo bases with enthusiasm they need to develop their own distinctive sound and voice. Maybe I just like to think emo asks more from its bands than cookie-cutter production work.

I'm probably over-analyzing this, but that's the spirit of my ennui as I reach out to touch the nothingness of my heart's soul...~~~ shoot me before I emo again!

The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers (CD review) (Beserkley/Rhino): This is one of the few pre-punk albums that actually lives up to its hype. Hailing from Boston, Jonathan Richman attached a "golly-gee-whiz" child-like optimism to the bands he loved most - The Velvet Underground and The Stooges. Richman is in his own way the Tiny Tim of punk, obsessed with the same themes as Shonen Knife but without the wink of irony. When Richman later wrote "Double Chocolate Malted", all he wanted to say was that liquid malt isn’t as tasty as powdered malt. This first album consists of demos produced by The Velvet's John Cale in 1971, and as demos may have added to The Modern Lovers' reputation as minimalists. John Cale gave The Velvets their distinctive monotone drone, but here the production is crisp, and Jerry Harrison's keyboard is another instrument and not an unrelenting wall of sound.

Like it says in the CD's liner notes, "Jonathan Richman looked like Dustin Hoffman and moved like Mick Jagger". His singing style was shaped by Lou Reed's delivery, but Richman sounds like there's tissues stuck up each nostril (taken to the extreme years later by Flash and the Pan). The CD comes with two extra tracks, "I'm Straight" and "Government Center". "I'm Straight" is a straight-edge answer to Lou Reed's retail heroin tale "I'm Waiting For The Man". Evoking Reed's talk-sing delivery, Richman repeatedly tells the world he's straight, unlike Hippie Johnny. "Government Center" is about playing happy music at a government building so secretaries will feel better while putting stamps on letters. I think the Ramones stole a riff from this for "Indian Giver". The album opens with "Roadrunner", later covered by The Sex Pistols. Johnny Rotten, famous for his contempt of everything, loved this song. "Roadrunner" is punk's "Louie Louie. It supposedly steals a riff from The Velvet's "Sister Ray". "Pablo Picasso" is a driving blues number famous for the lyrics "Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole." All of the songs are great, evoking influences from Dylan, The Doors (as channeled through The Stooges), The Band, and of course, The Velvet Underground. Remember this is pre-punk, not '77 boots and braces and surely not hardcore. This is stuff even your non-punk frat friends might like. Jerry Harrison later joined the Talking Heads, and David Robinson played with The Cars.

Moss Icon - Lyburnum (CD review) (Vermiform): It might be a conspiracy of one, but with the internet that's all you need. One Andy Radin has a site called "What The Heck Is Emo Anyway?" (fourfa.com), as lo-tech and made up is it goes along as this site. Moss Icon is listed as one of the first and most influential emo bands. May I just say that's a load of crap? Thank you.

I lived in Washington DC for fourteen years, from 1980 on with a year away here and there. There's little of that scene I’ve not either owned or passed over numerous times in record stores. Moss Icon was a band name that barely registered, and I found no references to them in my rotting stack of DC zines. I think I remember Vermiform being some kind of metal or goth label anyway. Moss Icon formed after Rites Of Spring and all the other post-Minor Threat bands, many of whom Moss Icon imitate. Their songs, most of them found on this fourteen track reissue, go from embarrassingly bad to that's not so bad. Radin does mention The Hated as being another DC area band with little fame but much to recommend. The Hated are great and deserve more credit than they get. See what happens when you're from Annapolis and don't work part-time at Yesterday & Today Records? Moss Icon are at best a footnote in emo and DC music history. I suspect Mr. Radin knows someone in the band, and as a harmless favor is rewriting a history he himself didn't live through.

The early tracks are horrible. There's a listless quality to the playing, and nobody plays together. The timing's off at every turn. The vocals are the only attraction, fitting the standard DC mold of being emotive and all over the place like an instrument in free form jazz. Screams turn into sighs into cries into pleading. It's nice but nothing new or special, especially compared to the popular - excuse me, known bands of the time. It picks up with track 6, "Kick The Can", but even if you remove the filler what you have left is standard issue material of no relevance to then or today.

What I don't know can fill an entire book (!), but as surely as my old work boots are older than Andy Radin, I know Moss Icon were and never will be a legendary band of importance. Ben Deily's solo work and The Hated's material are where you should look for buried emo treasure. Not here.

MOTO - Concert and Singles File (CD review): MOTO is short for Masters Of The Obvious, Paul Caporino's band since 1981. I own thirteen MOTO cassettes and fourteen singles. The cassettes are handmade with pen and bad penmanship, and Paul scribbles liner notes and doodles on some singles. He's the king of lo-tech lo-fi. I was lucky to catch MOTO live, just down the street from my apartment. God knows how lazy I am and he/she came through.

Paul in person is a great guy, and he was pleasant to everyone. His voice box was shot so he carried a bottle of honey in place of booze. I liked the set but the sound was horrible, with bad separation, and it was so loud my teeth hurt. I bought a CD so I did my bit for the MOTO cause.

Single File is a 28 track collection of old singles, some with Beck Dudley, the MOTO fanatic's sentimental favorite. Paul's recorded alone, with Beck on drums, and with any number of other musicians in the full band format. MOTO is at its core a lo-fi band with punk, pop and cheese leanings. While Beat Happening favored spy-surf beats and Cramps goo-goo muck, MOTO delivers a go-go dance beat, specifically The Pony and what the B-52s called "All 16 Dances". Paul's voice is nicely odd, and while he does abandon his range at times he does have good control of it. The lyrics are often bad puns, and juvenile penis references do rear their ugly heads. "Crystallize My Penis" and "It's So Big It's Fluorescent" open the CD, begging the question of where's "It Takes Just Like A Milkshake". I'm a big MOTO fan but it's an acquired taste, so go to the MOTO site and listen to some samples.

I don't know if anyone but me considers MOTO lo-fi, but even as a four-piece that's what it is. Or maybe by definition it becomes garage rock. I would have preferred if they brought their own amps and bypassed the club's board entirely. I don't see why loudness is all that matters. Loud is cool. Yeah, I get it. I'll stick with my records, which don't sound like unintelligible explosions.

M.O.T.O - Terramoto (cassette review) (MOTO): Another tape that screams 49 cent production values and who has time for a second take. I guess Paul Caporino and his fans (no two live in the same county) wouldn't have it any other way. I'd invoke the name Daniel Johnston but Paul hasn't been put away yet for his own good. For comparison, let's try Beat Happening but with more influences and fewer studio skills. This latest cassette contains 25 songs and continues his string of creative masterpieces that will never see a wider recognition until the frigging production values improve. I imagine Paul lacks the money for studio time but I suspect he keeps the sound cheap in pursuit of some pure, record-geek aesthetic. There's a few MOTO CDs and a ton of singles, but just like Rainman has to watch Judge Wapner every day, I envision Paul rushing home every night from his Joe Job with a song in his head that won't go away until he records it in the bathroom with his guitar and drum machine. He's probably taking a dump at the same time. Did I mention this is great as usual and you should buy one? Send a SASE to MOTO at Box 578912, Chicago, IL 60657 and Paul will send you a hand-scribbled list of product for sale. Paul roamed the earth before the dinosaurs and will survive the coming nuclear holocaust along with the roaches. Bless his pointy little head.

M.O.T.O. - Ampeg Stud (cassette review): There's an interview with Paul from Chicago's M.O.T.O elsewhere in this zine, and I've reviewed a few other tapes. This recent one is my favorite so far, and a hopeful sign that his upcoming CD will do well. I've never met him, but I view Paul as a little brother I want to yell at when I think he's screwing up and praise when I think he's doing it right. I constantly want to slap him on the back of the head. When he was younger he would make tapes in his room recorded on the cheapest equipment possible. Now that he's older and married, I think Paul's looking to cash in on his talent instead of just noodling away in low-low-low fi purgatory. Over the years various fans who happen to run small labels would finance studio time and issue an always excellent M.O.T.O. single. Mostly he pumps out tapes like a highly-caffeinated pulp fiction writer. It's easy to find twenty or more songs on each tape, of which I usually get into about half, which means I'll listen to it for a while and then put it away because the filler isn't my cup of something liquid. His tapes have been getting better, and this one I've played over and over again in the car for the last four months.

So, anyway, Paul and M.O.T.O. have a website somewhere and a new CD in the works. Your local punk store should have a few singles lying around. Take a listen. His address is Box 578912, Chicago, IL 60657. He'll send you a poorly scribbled list of what's available and thank you for your interest. Ask for "Ampeg Stud". It's only $3. Tell 'em Emerson sent ya. I make $3.50 on every tape purchased.

M.O.T.O./Ham Steak split (7" review) (Elephi Pelephi): Two songs each from these bands. The MOTO songs are straight from a recent tape from Paul Caporino's bedroom close-n-play studios. One faster, one slower tune from one of the unsung kings of lo-fi. The tape sounds better than the single. I’ve never heard of Ham Steak before. They sound like a fun acoustic band you'd hear in a college town coffee house. I wish K Records would give Paul the money to record a full CD and then promote the hell out of it. The guy's not getting any younger, you know. I am . It’s the darndest thing. Send Paul a stamp and he'll send you a catalog he chicken-scrawled himself - MOTO, Box 578912, Chicago, IL 60657. This 7" is on gold-colored vinyl, and if this impresses you I have a whole bunch of crappy records I can let go at collector's prices.

M.O.T.O. - Bandit 65 (cassette review): The Masters Of The Obvious are lo-fi legends going back over a dozen years. Consisting of Paul Caporino alone and at times with others, M.O.T.O. has released a load of singles on various labels, a few scattered LPs and CDs, and many homemade cassettes most likely recorded and copied on a Close-N-Play in Paul's bedroom with the sound levels firmly in the red zone. Childish, dirty, goofy, geeky, lonely - Paul probably still has a Loni Anderson poster over his bed for target pratice. This is his latest and best tape so far. M.O.T.O singles and comp. appearances are all great, and many of them have been recently compiled onto one CD. Highly recommended just for "Crystallize" alone. CD $10, cassette $3 through Paul Caporino, MOTO, Box 578912, Chicago, IL 60657.

M.O.T.O. - 4 pac (7" review) (MOC): Is your needle really dusty? Have you placed it down in a weird space between the grooves? Are your speakers broken? No, it's just the latest M.O.T.O. single! Standing for Masters of the Obvious, Paul Caporino has been cranking out tapes, singles, and the occasional long player for a few punk generations. Specializing in his own brand of low-fi, his records sound like what happens when you turn up a cheap car stereo too high and the high end crackles and distorts. This is somewhere between punk and Bobby Goldsboro. Like all of his releases, this was probably recorded in whatever bedroom he was living in at the time. Great, amazing, and you should buy this.

M.O.T.O. - Eternal Standby (7" review) (MOC): Hey, somebody else has decided to let Paul release a record on their label! Paul has a drum machine, sometimes a band, a cheap sounding guitar, and the recording skills of a deaf man with a bad head cold. It’s lo-fi garage at its best. It’s cheap but so good it hurts me that Paul insists on two cent production values and cover art drawn by his own unskilled hands. Hey Paul, was this recorded in your bedroom or the bathroom?

Bob Mould – Body of Song (CD review): Body of Song is a minor masterpiece. In the ever-evolving world of former Husker Du/Sugar singer/guitarist Bob Mould, sometimes you have to look back to find a reason to move forward, and Body of Song should make everyone happy except the eight CHUD who can differentiate between songs on Land Speed Record, a live version of The Emergency Broadcast Signal.

Bob has a Boblog where he details all things Bob. If you want to visit the homepage of the place Bob went last night for a Taco, check out Boblog.

Husker Du isn’t referenced directly on Body Of Song. It’s mostly Sugar and his solo albums. Sugar was a tighter late period Husker Du (Grant Hart is a loose, slappy drummer) where Bob treated his voice so it separated left and right, giving the effect of singing the track twice. On some Copper Blue tracks I swear he laid down two vocal tracks. File Under Easy Listening better centers the vocals. BTW, “JC Auto” on Beaster is a perfect song, Bob’s answer to the challenge of Big Black’s “Kerosene” and the fully realized bedlam hinted at here in there in the post-Husker era.

I have the first two solo albums, and they sound like Gordon Lightfoot turned up his amp to 11 for “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald”, a heretofore unexplored nautical aspect to Bob’s work . Was Mike Watt an influence? (Well, was it? I’m asking.) In 2002 he released the tentative, synth-laden Modulate. Body of Sound carries few club elements but it’s not a dance record. Synths are now a common feature in what calls itself punk.

Here’s a track by track breakdown, but first, Body Of Song is great.

Circles – Bob’s untreated voice. He affirms his status as guitar god and king of the one-man wall of noise. A nice hint of sonic danger. (Shine Your) Light Love Hope – Opens with a dance counterstrike high hat beat and at first I panicked. The guitar kicks in and then it’s all good and I realize PIL did it a quarter century ago and I survived. Bob treats his voice so it sounds like he’s yodeling. My favorite track. Paralyzed – Untreated voice. Nice warm theramin sound. Bob’s best vocals. I