old punks web zine
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Punk Music Reviews, Part V
P - S

Pegboy/Kepone split 7" (review) (1/4 Stick): Pegboy is back(!) with Dangermare, a return to near-greatness after the disappointingly average Earwig. An offshoot of the late great Naked Raygun, Pegboy combines power chords, sing-along vowels and aggressive drumming most bands only dream about. They’re America's indigenous answer to British oi music (not a copy of it, dummy). You call yourself punk but don't own Three Chord Monte? Well, I'm sure at least you dress punky. The band Kepone is on the B-side. I don't like overtly jazzy, psychedelic punk and therefore recuse myself from passing judgment.

Peter & The Test Tube Babies - Loud Blaring Punk Rock (CD review): Peter& The Test Tube Babies walked (and may still walk) the line between oi and second wave British street punk in the early ‘80s. Their niche was twisted humor, "Transvestite" their most popular laff & cringe-along. "Maniac" was the hit on their other side, the one like the Anti-Nowhere League, who could be funny too but in a mock-nihilist vein. Peter& don't fit the common conception of oi, but then again so doesn’t Cock Sparrer in a world that sees oi as a National Front stereotype. New oi obliterated old oi, revealing it for what it really is - pub punk for yobs. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

Loud Blaring Punk Rock came out in 1994, a no-man's land of a year in the career in any old punk band. I was going to be more harsh in my review until I came across this, where the circumstances of the recordings are explained. "So, we hit upon the idea of recording an album using their songs and some of our really old songs that were so bad we'd never had the front to record them before, stuff like 'I Lust For The Disgusting Things In Life' which lets face it, is awful."

Loud Blaring Punk Rock isn't bad - it's just doesn't stand out. It does everything right by genre standards but every song begins, middles and ends with no reason to give it much thought or a second listen. You only need to hear fifteen seconds of anything to get it. There's a bit of The Exploited added and the tasteless level is high without the redeeming value of cleverness. "Pick Yer Nose (and eat it)" is about picking your nose and eating it, and the cavalier tastelessness of "Breast Cancer" might even offend Tesco Vee, who himself took it too far with "Crippled Children Suck". If anyone disagrees with me, come back if your own child becomes crippled and we'll share some yucks.

The only hits package with "Transvestite", "Maniac" and the live "Elvis Is Dead" is this one, the only one you should own, and one you should own anyway because it's a freakin' treasure trove.

Pinhead Circus - Detailed Instructions For The Self Involved (CD review) (BYO): Fans of Face To Face and Fat Wreck Chords bands take note! Fast drumrolls, fast chugga-chugga guitars, sing-alongs you can scream into the mike the next time the band plays your town, lyrics that will speak to your life if you can understand them, and some mosh parts -- yeah, a few mosh parts to break up the slam dance marathon. I can tell this is decent for the genre but if I'm going to slam its going to be to Fear, not generic emo-thrash so firmly entrenched in the middle class you can't see the trees for the shopping malls.

The Pist - Ideas Are Bulletproof (CD review) (Elevator Music): Teen political hardcore like it was 1982 all over again. Screamed slogans of scene unity, anti-racism, anti-sexism, and taking the fight directly to the A-Holes. It’s dogma without wit or style, but most kids need simple messages constantly beaten into their heads. I've had my fill of harder-than-thou personal politics, but fans of the genre should love this. (Note: The singing is a cross between The Meatmen's Tesco Vee and how Crucial Youth used to mock straight edge in the ‘80s.)

Pivot- Oscillator (EP review) (Eating Blur): Purple vinyl for 49 cents, and if you lick it it tastes like grapes. On the lyrics sheet they quote from the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) Article 1"-- "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights". I guess this is the Miranda Rights read to racists and bullies. As they knock out your teeth you quote from Article 1, and they'll stop, I guess. You can tell I'm stalling while I listen to this for the first time. (Please go to the bathroom while I wait for side 2 to finish....). Kind of punky, kind or rockin', and kind or poppy. The guitarist is pretty good at creating sonic landscapes. Not bad. It also says on this "Printed on recycled paper". Pivot's going straight to heaven.

Plow United - Narcolepsy (CD review) (Creep): It took me a few listens to sort out what this now defunct three-piece was doing well. It's the intensity of silence -- the space that separates and defines the line between soft and hard, slow and fast, good and evil, and ying and yang. The quick take on Plow United would be a lot of Jawbreaker, some Fugazi, and faster Rancid (the singing also reminds me of Rancid), and a helping of thrash to bring it up to date. There's also something deeper and more impressive they might have picked up from Big Black, and that's terror underneath a layer of tranquility, like the quiet man down the street you'd never suspect of torturing strangers in his basement. The lyrics are emo but there's something in the music, in the fractions of deadness that riddle the mayhem like bullets from a machine gun, that evokes the nihilism of Big Black's "Kerosene" and "Bad Penny". Narcolepsy is a great record. All you skinny Jade Tree kids should toughen up and add this to your collection. While your at it, throw out any Joan of Arc CDs you own. It's embarrassing for both of us.

Plow United existed from ‘92 to ‘97, and from the liner notes I think they knew this would be their last. The progression from track one to seventeen is a movement from darkness to light. Maybe it’s their answer to Husker Du's Zen Arcade. "West Chester Nuclear Winter" starts the record with "Entropy. Things aren't what they used to be. When the room fills with hate, you must choose your own fate. Will you move or be stepped upon? There was a time that was long before now when I wouldn't believe those words came from my mouth. But that was before private property rules. Before smiling faces turned caustic and cool. So f--k all these ideals of sharing and trust. F--k all these hopes. Let them wither and rust." The close is "The Narrow Sparrow": "We know that when it all comes down that we'll keep our feet on the ground. It's better to try than to give up. And when the s--t hits the fan and we're crawling back to the van, it's nice to have a little piece of home. We're still young, we don't know s--t about love. We've got our whole lives, and we get crazy over nothing. I know you think that I don't care. I tore my skin, my heart is bare. Can't you see I'm ready to put an end to the fight?"

Narcolepsy is consistently complex and powerful. Jawbreaker brought a welcome set of energy shifts that invigorated a punk scene becoming listless. Plow United’s Brian McGee, Sean Rule and Joel Tannenbaum are equally creative, and I give them credit for going out with a bang instead of a whimper (cruel cut on Jawbreaker!) While I would say this CD is closer to emo than anything on Epitaph, Rancid fans (especially on "Freedom Or Security?") will probably enjoy this as much as bulemics love to yawn in technicolor. My favorite track is "Attn: Asshole Re: Records", a pop song as good as Jawbreaker's "Tour Song".

Here's the liner notes from the back of the booklet. It's worth reading, and talk about concise: "During the thanksgiving weekend of 1992, four boys who knew each other from a private high school in wilmington, delaware gathered in a basement with a four track cassette recorder. they recorded six songs. at the time the songs seemed very fast. nearly five years later, august 2^nd, 1997 to be exact, three of those boys emerged together at the end of the time/space vortex of early adulthood. they looked around and realized that they were in a church basement in philadelphia pennsylvania, where they were to play together for the final time. a long journey was ending, their vehicle for the journey had been a for econoline 150 with a faulty electrical system. the distance had been almost a hundred thousand miles, much of which was spent traversing every inch of pennsylvania, new york, new jersey and delaware over and over and over, although they did manage to make it as far as the pacific ocean a few times. all three boys reflected on the years that had passed. each of them had encountered ideas and people that had challenged their lives for ever and ever. none of them knew that to say to the hundreds of people who had helped them in every possible way that human beings can help each other. it was all happening so fast. they barely knew what to say to each other, let alone anyone else. so they said "thank you". in retrospect, the six songs seemed very slow."

Iggy Pop and the Stooges - Head On (CD review) (Snapper): So there's like this guy, right, called Iggy Pop, which is like such a cool name to be born with, and he's like dead or something because he's really old, older than old skool, and he played with the Stooges, and I don't know if he was in the 3 Stooges, because like I think that was even older than that, and the guy from MTV was talking about him but then Metallica came on and I kinda' was booing them and cheering them at the same time because I love those guys, but they don't want me to download all their music for free on Napster. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, can I copy off you on that hygiene test tomorrow?

I guess this is a bootleg. The quality is great, or at least not any worse than the material they're booting. Two CDs, twenty tracks, from '72 studio outtakes and rehearsals to live '73 tracks. There's radio broadcasts from Detroit and a live show from Baltimore. I won't try to explain the Stooges as it’s like a college philosophy final where the only thing you have to do is define "Reality" - within your lifetime. Suffice it to say they were the first crash and burn American punk band. Comparable to the MC5 only via date and proximity, The Stooges were what The Doors could have been if Jim Morrison wasn't an art-fart hippie weirdo. A more bluesy band than The Doors, The Stooges nonetheless played enough hard-edged psychedelic rock to warrant a direct comparison.

The many live tracks are raw and powerful, but what stands out are the studio outtakes from 1972. "Head On" and "Cock In My Pocket" feature a roadhouse blues-rock piano that never quits. I recently found early NY Dolls demos that are much duller than the greatly derided studio versions. Live and demo Stooges really tear it loose. They're one band whose bootlegs I can see collecting. A really good mix of material that only advances the legendary status of Iggy Pop and Company.

Iggy Pop - Beat 'Em Up (CD review) (Virgin): "Hey guys, go down to the warehouse and get Iggy Pop out of cold storage. Dust him off good because it's time to record his annual studio album!" Iggy is a commodity of cool whose stock moves up and down like the stock market. He's the real thing when it comes to rock and roll danger, but it seems like an eternity since he was first thrown out there to sink or swim on the strength of his backup band and collaborator (read partner, in this case guitarist Whitey Kirst). Iggy's up for anything as usual and Kirst loves Deep Purple, ZZ Top and BTO.

"Mask" opens the show and it's a nice throwback to the old Stooges. Ig does a good Allen Ginsberg riff in the middle, going off on frat boys and entertainment big shots. Then "L.O.S.T." goes chugga chugga heavy and Iggy sings "In the garden of evil" like it's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida". "Howl" has him howling like in "Dog Food", but then you feel like you're in a biker bar with fellers named "Gutter" and "Fang". "Football" is a nice slow version of "The Passenger". "Beat 'Em Up" is lite rap metal. Yuck. "The Jerk" huffs, puffs and goes nowhere with its limp lyrics. "Go For The Throat" is more (c)rap-rock lite that commits to nothing (which might be a good thing, but still, it's weak), making me wonder if Iggy doesn't see the difference between the wheat and the chaff.

The rest is ok, but there's no reason to own this except to validate, via capitalism, Iggy's continued existence. He’s a legend who doesn't need to record new material, and maybe he shouldn't. He should just tour with an oldies show, with commemorative jars of people butter for sale in the lobby and a "laugh at the helpless junkie" Iggy booth in the gutter in front of the venue.

Pretty Girls Make Graves - Good Health & The New Romance (CD reviews): I can't say enough good things about Seattle, WA's Pretty Girls Make Graves. Few can place their sound and influences with any certainty (Sleater-Kinney fits best) because what they do is original enough to be, well, original. They're a band for headphones and a riveted attention. The best compliment I can give to their music is that they're abso-fugg-lutely fascinating.

Tempos change while instruments interplay and go off on their own at will, yet there's never a false step or confusing turn. The only other band I know of that operates at this level is Leatherface, who only dream of having the same flawless production values. Good Health and The New Romance are beautifully recorded with no one element given priority. The test on this is to focus on one instrument and see if it comes across clearly and in proportion.

The songs are driven by Nick DeWitt's drumming, which doesn't overwhelm or take the easy way out. The two lead guitars play cat and mouse and fly out in minimalist tangents. The bass pounds like mad and the electric keyboard adds both a wall of sound and eccentric flourishes. Andrea Zollo's voice has great personality and range, delivering melodic screams easier on the ear than The Distillers.

Maybe this is progressive hardcore. The second album is more reserved but both are winners with no weak track in the bunch. Like my "pal" Joe Bob Briggs says, "Check it out".

The Promise Ring - 30 Degrees Everywhere (CD review) (Jade Tree): Since Nothing Feels Good is a constant guest on my CD player I dropped the bucks to pick up the one before it. Emo is a hit or miss thing - the faster songs packs full punk power while also providing intricate instrumentation and creative flourishes. When a good emo band attacks their instruments the results are usually fantastic. When it's slow.... and whiny.... and wimpy, that's when it's embarrassing for all parties involved. Emo concerts must be weird like that - one minute you're slamming and the next you're sitting on the floor bobbing your head a little bit, holding back tears -- from boredom! Women want men who are sensitive - but not sensitive men. The hurt little boy aspect of slow emo is mainly what gives the genre its wimpy reputation, deserved yet a shame because fast, loud emo is easily among the best stuff being recorded.

30 Degrees Everywhere isn't as strong as Nothing Feels Good, but I  still recommend it. An additional fast song and less lite-grunge meets lite-jazz would have helped, but it's getting better every time I listen so I'm learning to deal with it. The CD starts off fast with "Everywhere In Denver", which takes its guitar signature from Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life", and one can't ever go wrong going down that road. The Promise Ring's lyrics sheets drive me crazy. What's printed only marginally resembles what’s sung. And talk about cryptic -- "Summer sets on summertime, I'm getting wetter to wed you, forever/ Falsetto keeps time, belated/ I won't die so I don't forget. Until the porch light goes down, and the porch swing slows down." Most of the songs are as short and impressionistic. Better to leave the lyrics alone and concentrate to the songs. The singer has a scratchy and off-key voice. He's right up there with Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Calvin from Beat Happening, and Alfalfa, who gave up on hundreds and thousands of dollars at Club Spanky to sing his beloved opera out on the snow-covered streets.

The Promise Ring - The Horse Latitude (CD review) (Jade Tree): I was so impressed with Nothing Feels Good I bought their other CDs. The Horse Latitude isn’t as good but it is better than most of the turd piles that come out under the emo banner. This is (I think) some singles collected on a CD. Think of it as lite grunge with obtuse and sensitive lyrics. I imagine in concert the audience sits on the floor and stares like they're watching a movie with subtitles. Only two or three of these eight songs are of any interest. Maybe I'm not sensitive enough. Maybe by lifting weights all these years I've lost touch with my inner nerd. Gosh --- I hope not.

The Promise Ring - Nothing Feels Good (CD review) (Jade Tree): Emo = Emotional. Expressing feeling. Sincerity. Rites of Spring get credit for starting this sub-genre of hardcore, but Kevin Seconds of Reno's straight-edge pioneers 7 Seconds deserves some credit (and blame) too. Minor Threat, 7 Seconds’ WDC cousins, defined SXE but they weren’t emo. Rites of Spring combined jazz, punk, and confessional cleansing to forge first wave emo, which has only a passing association with second and third wave emo.

Today's emo bands are good kids from good homes who pull from many influences to create a diverse set of emo styles. I've only heard a few second wave emo bands, Sense Field my favorite, but they seem to pull from similar influences. I hear a lot of Jawbreaker, early U2 and lite grunge going on. Ben Deily, of the Pods and former creative half of the early Lemonheads, credits the following influences on his CD: the Buzzcocks/Raymond Carver/Cheap Trick/Dan Fogelberg/Husker Du/Rush/Simon and Garfunkel/Bruce Springsteen/Vangelis/ William Butler Yeats/The Blue Nile/John Ashbury/Raymond Carver. My earliest punk influence is listening to Harry Chapin. Now that guy was Hard... to the Core!

The Promise Ring give a bit away when they open the CD by name-dropping two ‘70s bands, Air Supply and Television. Air Supply manufactured catchy soft-rock pap for the radio. Television was the Tom Verlaine/Richard Hell band that talked CBGBs into allowing punk on the premises, and as a band they worked on creating melodic, creative tension between two guitars. I think The Feelies ran with it to better effect years later. Today Television sounds fairly dull, but in the ‘70s they were rough and tumble in comparison to Air Supply. Emo is introspective and sweet, but it can also be loud and abrasive, fast and slow. Husker Du's wall of guitar is now just a given, so it doesn't mean what it once did re: aggression and rebellion. Jawbreaker slowed down the Husker sound and made it fit with the emerging grunge phenomenon, which owed its lunch to both Husker Du and Neil Young. Emo bands take from early U2 their boyish introspection ("Make Me A Chevy" copies The Edge's guitar to the note), and from grunge they borrow the periodic, slow, whirling, hypnotic qualities grunge shares with the Grateful Dead and Phish.

I like this record very much. There's a high percentage of louder, faster songs that are all catchy, with hooks and fine musicianship. I would love them live. I'll bet the audience isn't in a big race to see who can be the dumbest, most self-destructive asshole in the room. That would be a nice change!

The Promise Ring - Very Emergency (CD review) (Jade Tree): I'm laughing because I know when I write that I like this CD some will accuse me of being a laundry list of all horrible emo things. Emo is punk's little brother who gets picked on for being sensitive and sincere, but I've heard too much good emo and bad punk to care. To correct myself, I don't care to begin with, but your slights are the sprinkles on my don't care ice cream cone.

A more direct and maybe slightly less interesting record than 1997's Nothing Feels Good, Very Emergency is an indie-pop record that immediately feels comfortable and accomplished. I knew on first listen this would get a good review. I can't tell if there's a woman singing back-up on "A Picture Postcard" or just one of the boys holding on to “the kids” for dear life. There's a lot of single potential on this, especially "Happiness Is All The Rage" and "Emergency! Emergency!" I don't listen to the radio so I have no way of  knowing.

I assume The Promise Ring were expecting a backlash from the emo community of hanky blowers because the Jade Tree web site goes out of its way to explain their new direction, "Indeed, Very Emergency delivers on what previous recordings have only hinted at-namely, a deepening respect for songcraft and the premise that a good record can be both simple and smart. "Maybe I'm not in college anymore and the artsy part of me isn't working right, but I don't want to write poems right now," vonBohlen muses. " I want this album to say, 'Hey, those other songs were not about girls. This is what it sounds like when they are... With this album The Promise Ring display some of the most definitive moments in their musical career. The obtuse tales of young adulthood have been replaced by a mature, emotionally resonant glow - adding new depth and revelation to the band's already distinguished character." I didn't realize lyrics that make sense were a capital crime amongst the emo elite, who wear black rimmed glasses even if their vision is 20/20.

What a nice record.

Propaghandhi - Potemkin City Limits (CD review): I have no idea why Propaghandhi put “Potemkin” in the title of their latest CD since it references deceptions of prosperity and happiness put on by communist regimes. In this context it's like a German calling Bush a nazi. Maybe it's one of those lies that reveals a greater truth. ok.

A staple of the Fat Wreck Chords lineup, Propaghandhi until recently were a snotty and goofy slappy-drum, reverse circle rodeo pit pop-hardcore band typical of the label. This new record is, as a fan points out on Amazon, "Progressive Trash". To me it's more like "Hey, you got speed-metal in my pop-punk", "And you got hardcore in my emo." I can't stand metal in any form but it's not the featured sound of the disc, and I actually like half of this. There's a good amount of emo in tone and pacing, and the added hardcore elements only make it that much louder. Here's where I plug Seven Storey Mountain, who also did this very well but without the metal.

On humanistic principles I'm automatically against political pedophilia, but the lyrics aren't as in your face stupid as Anti-Flag, and they're dumped towards the back. In a recent interview one of them laments past shows where dogma was endlessly preached between songs. Perusing their site I can accept they're sincere in their intentions, and even though they reference Marxist scumbags Noam "Gnome" Chomsky "Crapsky" and Howie Zinn, they at least have the good taste to not link to the usual Stalinist front groups.

Original Propaghandhi singer John K. Samson left the band in 1997 to form The Weakerthans, one of the most boring bands in alt.rock history. Their debut CD flew out of my collection faster than a vegetable out of Al Bundy's mouth.

Psychotic Reaction - self-titled CD (review) (PsychoBubblegum): Formed in 1997 in Connecticut, a beautiful state and home to many who work in NYC but want to live in an environment the complete opposite of that stinking hellhole, Psychotic Reaction are a smaller town version of Rancid. They run their own record label, nurture the scene around them, and mine a retro UK sound. While Rancid follows the arc of The Clash, Psychotic Reaction (at least on this 1999 CD) is torn between The Sex Pistols and second wave street punk groups like The Exploited.  The results are mixed but they’re at least on the right track.

Start with the cover. You have to be in the 11-14 year old bracket to find it like totally awesome. Dude, this is a punk record, not a junior high notebook. I thought only bad heavy metal bands used this kind of artwork.

The two best songs, "Johnny Domino" and "I Hate You", are given an extra push by following the Dead Boys model as driven by The Crumbs. The structures and four chord guitar leads are for the most part very good. What sometimes detracts is poor backup singing, which makes the singing-along-with-the-lads pose of many street punk recordings that much more annoying. It’s as annoying as the kids singing on Pink Floyd’s The Wall. An even worse crime is an American band screaming oi! oi! oi! like Psychotic Reaction does on "I Shot Bambi's Mom". The analogy that always comes to mind is a Japanese Elvis impersonator singing karaoke to "Hawn Dag".

What I find immature might just be a result of my advanced age and the band's actual ages. On this CD I found enough evidence of a band destined for bigger things if it follows the example of Rancid, who found a mature, fully developed sound and proved themselves within that framework. "No Cable" is a nod to Black Flag's "TV Party", a novelty song, which is funny but it’s not the basis for a career. I suggest Psychotic Reaction listen to The Crumbs, who couldn't create more than one riff and were therefore unable to capitalize on their assimilation of The Dead Boys.

Public Image Limited - Metal Box (CD review): For one brief shining moment last Thursday I thought I finally "got" PIL's Metal Box , available again in a metal box. I listened to it twice, and the second time the dub-reggae/death-disco mix found that tiny part of my brain where the medicated serial killer with the long attention span resides. I fantasized the slow torture of my enemies and danced a bit in a noncommittal fashion whilst checking myself out in the mirror. There was blood. Oh Yeah.

This morning, back to nuthin'. "Memories", "Socialist" and "Chant" kept my ADD at bay but the rest dragged on with little direction or reason. I once worked stage security for PIL when they had Minor Threat and Wall Of Voodoo open for them at the University of Maryland around 1982. I thought their set would never end. Maybe it never did.

Jah Wobble's template for the dub bass line is fairly genius, but once figured out it's repeating itself into infinity. Keith Levene's guitar is neither new nor especially creative, but he seems to find ways to keep his hand in. Lydon doesn't sing like Rotten, which wouldn't work anyway.

I've always thought the long, slow tracks in this style appealed mostly to people prone to psychosis. Some of my friends lean this way so it's not a true putdown. I lightly assert it takes a "defective or lost contact with reality" to get into all 7:46 of "Poptones". Stay on your meds, kids, and think happy thoughts.

Pulley - Esteem Driven Engine (CD review) (Epitaph): Another free CD, this one from a grab-bag box if you bought anything in the store. I'd seen the cover advertised in many zines. On the same label as Bad Relgion, Pulley has that band's sense of melody down pat. The lyrics are vague and geared toward the introspective: "A row of mirrors before me and I can't see my reflection/My life is far from my expectations/It's getting lonesome in this parking lot of life". Not a bad release if you're into Epitaph (the smart kid's label) or Fat Wreck Chords (the fun kid's label). I will say there's an annoying off-rhythm pedal drum that permeates the CD. Also, points off to Epitaph for stealing Ralph Record's marketing slogan, "Buy Or Die".

Putters - "Muscle Car","Mistakes"/"Drink" (7" review) (Empty): Here's a chance to use my favorite golf joke. It's a line from The History Of White People In America: "If you keep on hitting holes-in-one we'll never see your putz". The a-side sounds a lot like the Big Boys "Frat Cars". The singing style is kind-o the same, but the Putters are a more conventional rocking punk band. The Putters are not in the Big Boys league but it's nice to make the comparison since it fits. The b-side is pretty decent retro drunk-punk worthy of repeat listens. From 1992 recorded in Seattle. I got my 49 cents worth out of this one.

The Queers - Don't Back Down (CD review) (Lookout): With each Queers release you never know if you'll get snotty thrashers, Screeching Weasel influenced Ramones mania, or ‘60s Beach Boys tributes. This is the Queers' latest and best Ramones/Weasel-influenced release. For variety Pick up A Day Late And A Dollar Short for 34 blasts of early Queers greatness. Don't Back Down picks up from where the great "Surf Goddess" 7" left off - a more surf influenced sound with tributes to love, non-love, yummy-yummy punk rock girls and assorted juvenilia. If we lived in a punk world, "I Can't Get Over You" (with Lisa from Cub) would be #1 on the charts. The Queers are now the undisputed kings of hardcore pop. They started with a Angry Samoans "Back From Samoa" snot punk sound, fell under the production influence of Ben Weasel, and are now one of the best touring bands going. They've been recording since 1982, piss off people by being themselves, pay homage to The Ramones, and are now exploring the roots of the Ramones - garage surf bands, Phil Spector girl groups, The Beach Boys, etc. Don’t Back Down is worth buying just for ”I Only Drink Bud”.

The Queers - Bubblegum Dreams (7" review) (Lookout): This is the single in support of Don't Back Down. There’s two Queers tunes and two covers, the Beach Boys "Little Honda" and "End It All" from The Muffs. Compared to their great "Surf Goddess" 7" this exceedingly average. "Punk Rock Girls" is a good song but they would have done better by issuing "I Can't Get Over You". I'm convinced that one could be a college cross-over hit for The Queers. It doesn't help that the Dead Milkmen put out a single called "Punk Rock Girl" years back. The non-CD track, "Never Ever Ever", is nothing special. The two covers don't add anything to the originals, especially The Muffs tune. I love The Queers and get excited when I buy anything from these them, but this one let me down.

The Queers - Punk Rock Confidential (CD review) (Hopeless): Joe King shoots, he scores!!!! Another keeper from the man who worships the Beach Boys and Ramones in equal measure. This one steals from prior releases more than I expected, but if you want originality this isn't the place to look in the first place. What you want from the Queers is great power pop punk, and that's what you get. "Like A Parasite" first appeared on the Screeching Weasels Wiggle CD and it's credited to Weasel/King. Here it's listed as King/Weasel. Huh. ‘Twood appear Joe is The Queers and he's hired hands to back him up. Chris from John Cougar Concentration Camp is on bass. Lisa Marr of Cub (and now Buck) helps out on vocals, arranging and production. Anything she touches turns to gold. Here’s fifteen songs of non-stop cretin hop. Buy it. The last time I saw them the sound mix was horrible. I don't exactly know why I think this, but the Queers should do an un-plugged acoustic tour. Only the Queers can sing "Motherf--ker" like it’s the happiest word in town.

The Queers - Summer Hits Vol. I  (CD review): I'm having a hard time thinking of this as a review since Summer Hits Vol. I is product, no matter how swell it might be. It's either an excuse to tour or something to sell on tour. I've loved these guys through all their phases (Angry Samoans/Screeching Weasel/Beach Boys) and while it's nice to hear songs old, new, borrowed and blue, I have to ask why. There's something missing here, like waiting for the latest episode of your favorite show and discovering the next few weeks are reruns.

Singer/guitarist Joe King's guitar is nicely tuned to where the chords chime like tones. The Who's "The Kids Are Alright" make a nice transition to fast and fuzzy while their take on The Angry Samoans' "My Old Man's A Fatso" is an acknowledgment of a debt. The Samoans get the short shrift in punk history with Green Day getting credit for what the Samoans did much earlier. An Effin A on that.

This can't be a hits collection because "I Only Drink Bud" isn't on it. Feh.

The Queers - Beyond The Valley... (CD review) (Hopeless): You have to open the CD booklet to read the rest of the title. Is it a game or a puzzle? Another year, another Queers CD to sell on tour. At this point Joe King must be putting these things together in his sleep, if not coma. Let's see, a snotty song about how bad I small/look/act goes there, an anti-hippie pop-punk song here, a Beach Boys ode next,then fill 'er up and ship 'er out. I don't mind slavish adherence to formula, but this time The Queers have gone out of their way to exhibit little inspiration. If you don't own any other Queers CDs you'll love this one. Otherwise it's so much more of the same thing you'll doubt they'll ever be relevant again.

The last two times I saw them live it seemed like a simple sound check was too much of a hassle. Too bad.

The Queers - Live In West Hollywood (CD review): Live In West Hollywood is more of an accomplishment than it is a letdown, but you can argue either side fairly well. On the plus side the playing is tight and the sound quality excellent. On the down side it lacks a human quality, and after any ten minutes of the 31 track cd you get the point and want to move on.

The Queers are a great band and everyone should see them live at least once. They're America's #1 choice for when you want to turn off your brain and act like a pinhead. For better or worse Joe King writes songs on demand like someone at a party who can take five pieces of information from the crowd and instantly writer a song about all five things. If not that, then Queers songs never get deeper than their titles.

Queers - Today (CD EP review) (Lookout): At this point I find it impossible to review anything by The Queers or Screeching Weasel without mocking it as product. I also can't mention one without the other. Both bands regurgitate past recordings to the point of irrelevance. Sometimes Ben concentrates long enough to create something important (Emo), but then he worries about his bank account and cranks out rote kiddie-punk (Teen Punks In Love). Joe Kingof The Queers waits until the last minute to have something to tour on. Usually it's an album, but this time it's a five song EP, which scores an eight on the laze-e-meter.  The Queers live on the road every summer.

The EP opens with "Yeah, Well, Whatever", a collage of an endless combination of Queers and Screeching Weasel songs. I did like "I Don't Want To Live On The Moon", a slower number with a Beach Boys feel. "Salt Lake City" is homage to The Beach Boys and the best track here. The piano track helped. "I've Had It With You" and "I'm The Boy For You" are new lyrics added to old songs. I imagine Joe in the studio telling his band "Just play anything. I'll sing over it."

More work probably went into t-shirt design and van repair than in making this CD. It's not the end of the world, but it would be nice if they at least pretended to make an effort.

The Ramones - The roots of punk are divided into two main camps of pop and rock, both with roots in R&B but for all intents and purposes as different as night and day. Pop is fun dance music. Rock is macho, and efforts to dance to it usually fail. Pop is an opiate for happily oblivious top-40 morons who care little about music and only want to party and look good doing it. Rock, on the other hand, is either slow and plodding to reflect the primitive mentality of its listeners, or fast with flashy guitar hysterics to mirror its fan's mindless aggression and love of glam-trash showmanship. The Ramones have always been a pop band. In the ‘70s they believed their competition for top-40, AM radio dominance was the Bay City Rollers. Either The Ramones were fools or way, way ahead of their time. The answer is probably a little of both.

If punk was a return to the three minute song the Ramones were the founders of the two minute thrasher. Hardcore comes from The Ramones. Power pop punk alsocomes from The Ramones. The UK punk scene came from a few sources, including The New York Dolls and The Stooges, but The Ramones broke open the doors with their UK shows in 1977. Joey Ramone liked to take full credit for the UK punk explosion, but the evidence isn’t complete.

The Ramones are to punk history what Ford is to the automobile - they didn’t single-handedly invent punk but their influence and legacy far exceed that of any other band. The Ramones were the first punk band you could really dance to, as opposed to Rock Out! to. At CBGBs they were frequently billed with the Talking Heads, which made sense because both bands played minimalist dance music. The Ramones played bubblegum not unlike The Bay City Rollers, except they played as fast as they could, created an unprecedented wall of blazing guitar fuzz, and wrote lyrics mirroring the daily concerns of Forest Hills, Queens numbnuts raised on too much TV, booze, drugs, comic books and bad horror movies. While not technically talented as musicians, The Ramones were surprisingly tight in the studio. This does bring up the question of how much of their studio work involved studio musicians. No matter how much The Ramones’ sound was augmented in the studio, though, played live each song was given the same raw, stripped down intensity. Ramones albums changed over the years, yet their live shows were stuck in 1976.

Where the stereotypical punk band only knows four chords The Ramones mostly played three. Once described as “Three chords, four leather jackets”, the Ramones looked and acted like The Three Stooges with Beatles mop-tops (Even the name Ramones is a piece of Beatles trivia). The ripped jeans, t-shirts, sneakers, and haircuts were uniforms each Ramone was required to wear. Joey and Johnny say these clothes were how they always dressed, but Dee Dee hated the look. Prior to The Ramones, Joey played in a glam band and dressed to a lesser extent like one of the New York Dolls. It's also said he wrote songs on a two-string guitar.

The Ramones were the exact opposite of the top-40 crap on the radio in the '70s. They were a twisted throwback to what was once great about radio in the ‘60s - short, simple songs that were fun to dance to. Their direct influences include The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis, Iggy Pop, The NY Dolls, and garage bands found on the Nuggets albums. That they couldn’t play other people’s songs wasn’t 100% true, but in their own way the Ramones were perfectionists who concentrated on creating and perfecting their sound. Johnny ran The Ramones like a military boot-camp and never gave an inch when it came to the sound and image of The Ramones. He made life hell to anyone who didn't pull their weight.

The band's core members were Johnny Cummings, Joey (Jeff) Hyman and Dee Dee (Douglas Colvin). Dee Dee left around 1989 to be replaced by C.J., and the drummers’ seat changed hands often, like in Spinal Tap. They formed in 1974, inspired by the New York Doll's gospel that you didn't need to know how to play well to perform. The Ramones were a major part of the CBGBs scene in the Bowery. CBGBs is 25 feet wide and 167 feet deep. It's like playing a cattle car but the sound system is great.. Other CB's bands were folk, rock, girl group, and Stones inspired. The Ramones sound was the true revolution of that scene. It had origins in earlier pop but the delivery and look were from another universe. Johnny, Joey and Dee Dee all had drug and mental health problems, but in Forest Hills that just made them average. Dee Dee - hairdresser, junkie, male prostitute and writer of the band's most sensitive and violent material, was the nuttiest of the bunch, even though Johnny's habit of throwing TVs off rooftops is pathological. Joey was an early recognized case of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The first three albums (Ramones, Ramones Leave Home, Rocket To Russia) are their best, most of the songs written by the time the first appeared in ‘76. Subsequent albums grew away from the minimalist thrash that made them famous, and while they never lost their status they never sold as many albums as they wanted, and they never won the airwaves. The Ramones wanted to be rich and famous. They made their decisions based on what they thought fans wanted. The Ramones was a business, and even though they fought each other for years, when it came to their business the Ramones were all business.

Why did the Ramones never break big? The answers are simple: 1) The music was as fast and loud as a speeding train, 2) Lyrics like “Beat On The Brat” and “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” aren’t positive, 3) They looked scary, and 4) The self-destructive Sex Pistols soured the music industry on promoting any punk band.  They gave The Ramones a disreputable reputation they neither wanted nor deserved.

The ‘80s and ‘90s saw The Ramones touring and releasing material, but they lost some punk appeal when hardcore broke with Fear, the Dead Kennedys and the Bad Brains (who took their name from a Ramones song). Hardcore was faster, harder, and louder, and the Ramones were no longer undisputed leaders. I also think fans didn’t take well to songs not sung by Joey, the “voice” of The Ramones, and Dee Dee’s occasional stab at hardcore put the band in the unseemly and ironic position of bandwagon jumpers. Joey’s involvement in politics also distracted from the original message of “Hey, Ho, Let’s Go!” Finally, in general “old” punk bands have less appeal to kids who like their stage heroes the same age they are. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. That’s the story of The Ramones.

Selfless Records and Clearview Records have been releasing complete cover albums of the Ramones catalog. Screeching Weasel did Ramones, The Vindictives recorded Leave Home, The Queers covered Rocket to Russia, The Parasites did It's Alive, and Boris The Sprinkler recorded a half-hearted version of End Of The Century. More are on the way.

The Ramones had “a simplicity that took sophistication to appreciate”. Ramones associate Arturo Vega said the band “reflected the American character in general - an almost childish, innocent aggression”. To the casual or disinterested listener, a lot of Ramones songs sound alike and the lyrics are dumb, but any Ramones fan will tell you there’s more going on than just “1,2,3,4” and “Hey Ho Let’s Go!”. The Ramones worked within narrow parameters but created an impressive body of work. If you’re not into any given style of music, songs are all going to sound the same. The Ramones are really their own genre. Describing The Ramones’ sound is difficult because you can’t accurately define the essence of an aesthetic.

The typical story of a Ramones fan is: 1) Heard an album for the first time and thought it was a joke, 2) Listened to it again because it was there, 3) Slowly got the joke and realized something clever and vital was going on, 4) Hooked for life. This happened to me. In 1976 I thought “Beat On The Brat” was as stupid as it got. Now I think the first three Ramones albums are perfect. Many don’t get it, while others like the songs on a simply, fun level, but within these simple songs are the answers to all your punk questions about the past, present, and future.

A film about The Ramones would make a great dramedy.

Albums of Note: (Ramones and Leave Home are combined on the CD All The Stuff (And More) Volume One, while Rocket To Russia and Road To Ruin were repackaged as All The Hits (And More) Volume Two.

Ramones (1976): What can I say. The greatest punk record of all time. Spin magazine called this the top alternative album of all time. Damn straight! There were sloppy garage bands before The Ramones but they were the first to create an entire new genre that will live forever. At the time their sound was described as a train or buzzsaw. Today it almost sounds quaint, but many critics thought this was a joke - noise trying to be pop. The Ramones thought this was commercial stuff. It took about twenty years to sell a million copies. While famous for their lack of technical talent, this first album is tight and benefits greatly from its minimalism - especially the three chord guitar progressions. Do you know this record by heart? If not, don't go calling yourself punk in public until you do. If you don't consider this the greatest punk album of all time you should also just give up and admit you're a metal head.

Leave Home (1977): More of the same. The "Gabba Gabba Hey" chant is introduced on "Pinhead", a variation on "Gooble Gobble" as sung in 1932's classic horror film Freaks. "Carbona Not Glue", referencing a British cleaning fluid that can be sniffed like glue for a cheap high, was replaced by "Babysitter" after Carbona's manufacturer threatened a lawsuit. No great loss because the song is good but not great. Not that "Babysitter" is a classic either. An all-around great record.

Rocket To Russia (1977): Two albums in the same year? Like that'll ever happen in today's market. A strong core of Ramones fans consider this their best work. This is a great album but it's really just continuation of the first two albums. Ramones was so unexpected at the time of its release I think it wins best album hands down. Still you can't go wrong with "Rockaway Beach", "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" and "We're A Happy Family" (covered by The Residents even).

Road To Ruin (1978): When people refer to The Ramone's early records they usually refer to the first three. Road To Ruin can be thrown in just on the strength of "I Wanna Be Sedated" and "I'm Against It". The album is slightly heavier with Marky on drums, songs lasting longer than two minutes, acoustic guitar and attempts at short solos, but the original cretin mentality is still there. Any update in sound came from an effort to deal with the success of the Sex Pistols.

It's Alive (1979): Named after a horror movie, this live two LP set was recorded on 12-31-77 at the Rainbow Theater in London. During the show ten rows of seats were torn out and thrown on stage. It was released in England in 1979 but not in the US until 1995. Warner Bros. rejected it at the time because they wanted a studio album. Warners may have only heard 28 songs that sounded very much alike, but it’s a great set. It's Alive has all the hits from the first three albums.

Why was this recorded in England? Back in '77, US punk bands were more popular in England than they were in the States. I mean, how many people could fit into CBGBs anyway? Inside it's the width of a cattle car, and twice as putrid smelling.

End Of The Century (1980): An album that catches poop from Ramones purists, probably because it was the first major break from the purity of the first three albums. My theory is that they 1) shot their load, 2) let their hero Phil Spector dictate their sound, and 3) had to change if they wanted to win the fame and fortune they craved. At the time they were catching up with the post-punk landscape that belonged to new wave and the power chords of the Sex Pistols and the Clash. I think it’s a great record. Phil Spector, while a lunatic, was a genius in the studio, and he introduced studio tricks the boys never knew existed.

Listen to the slower songs at high volume and you'll catch the effect of sound layering that's Spector's signature. "Rock and Roll High School" is re-used from the movie and "Chinese Rock" is taken back from the Heartbreakers for the album. It was written by Dee Dee but declared thematically unsuited for Ramones use. What might the album down is a horrible cover of "Baby, I Love You", co-written by Phil Spector. I think it was a hit in Britain. Yeesh. The whimsical string section is enough to make anyone ill. Otherwise, there's a diaper full of hits here, especially "Do You Remember Rock N Roll Radio" and "The Return Of Jackie And Judy".

It’s probably true that every instrument was played by studio musicians.

Pleasant Dreams (1981): Produced by 10cc's Graham Gouldman, this seems like another move toward Phil Spector pop. It retains enough early elements and modern innovation to make it a good release. "We Want The Airwaves", "The KKK Took My Baby Away" and "She's A Sensation" aren't among their very best but they do anchor a consistently interesting record.

Subterranean Jungle (1983): "Psycho Therapy" is a classic but the rest doesn't do much for me.

Too Tough To Die (1984): An effort to take some attention away from the hordes of punk and hardcore bands that formed in their wake, The Ramones seem out of place, especially when Dee Dee tries to out-hardcore hardcore on "Endless Vacation". There's some interesting retro-pop numbers, the best being "Howling At The Moon (Sha-La-La)" a return to End Of The Century production values.

Animal Boy (1986): The songs are generally fast but the old, winning qualities aren’t  there. "Apeman Hop" would be a great Ramones song if Dee Dee didn’t sing it. He sings like he has no teeth. His voice grates like the wail of the demented homeless. Two great songs came from the album, the powerful and sentimental "Something To Believe In" and "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes To Bitburg)", both using Christmas-inspired percussion.

Halfway To Sanity (1987): What's the deal with the Lords Of The New Church guitar licks? "Go Lil' Camaro Go" with Debbie Harry on backup vocals is a nice piece of retro girl-group fluff, but there's not much else to cheer about. What the hell is Dee Dee doing singing like a crazed football hooligan on "I Lost My Mind"? "I Wanna Live" is a keeper but how "Bop 'Til You Drop" made it to a greatest hits collection is a real crotch - I mean, head-scratcher.

Ramones Mania (1988): A very sweet greatest hits and rarities collection that comes with a neat booklet and everything! There's lots of good band history in the smallest print possible. Thirty songs, and they’re all good selection. The perfect gift for a friend on the fence about the band. All hits all the time. Top of the pops. You get the point...

Brain Drain (1989): Dee Dee's last album with the band. He'll continue to contribute but he left to record a rap album as "Dee Dee King", up there with the best of William Shatner. Another average record with some good songs, like "I Believe In Miracles", "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)" and "Pet Sematary", the theme song to a Stephen King film.

Mondo Bizarro(1992): Appearing three years after Brain Drain, they try turning back the clock but the themes are still more politically correct than cretin hop. "Cabbies On Crack","Anxiety" and "The Job That Ate My Brain" are uninspired stabs at current events when they should have recorded more odes to bad horror and war movies. Dee Dee, Daniel Rey and The Dictator's Andy Shernoff contribute songs, and The Door's "Take It As It Comes" is covered by Joey, who adds a bit of Jim Morrison to his singing. The best songs are the ballads, "Poison Heart", "Strength To Endure" and "I Won't Let It Happen". On the early records the ballads were musical speed bumps but here they're good in themselves and a nice change from faster songs that often fail to deliver. "Touring" closes the CD and blows everything else away. A Beach Boys flavored cover of their own "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker", "Rock N Roll High School", "Rockaway Beach" and who knows what else, this is what the rest of Mondo Bizarro should have been- fast, simple, funny, and great to dance to. Not slam, not pogo, but dance to like they did in the '50s and '60s.

Acid Eaters (1994): May I say this is crap? Maybe at 100 mph these covers of ‘60s radio and garage hits would have been cool, but as it is the Ramones are an oldies band doing Who, Dylan, and Beach Boys covers for a crowd of drunken frat boys on Spring Break. Remember Bowie's Pinups? This isn't any better.

Adios Amigos (1995): The twelfth and last studio full-length. The cd has grown on me over the years. I love every song sung by Joey Ramone, and I've warmed up to C.J. as lead singer, even though I don't picture him as a Ramone. He looks like a heavy metal dude, and his singing is more in line with the Angry Samoans, especially on "Cretin Family". The Ramones will always be Joey singing. That's it. Johnny, Joey, and Marky look like brothers. C.J. looks like a roadie. A fine send-off.

Greatest Hits Live (1996): A live sixteen song set from a 1986 NYC show with two bonus tracks. Only the best from the then new album Adios Amigos is included and the rest is what you want and expect from the Brudders Ramone - all boiling down to dancing like Dick Clark is in the room kicking ass and taking names. Joey alters his delivery on a number of the songs, and he croons effectively. I saw the Las Vegas stop of this tour and thought it stunk. The sound mix was terriblee and the songs blended into each other more than usual. This hometown show rules, kicks ass, rocks - whatever obnoxious cliché you want to use. Cool bass line on "Spiderman" too. I'm not even mad CJ's singing a few numbers. Grandpa Joey needs his rest and god bless his little pin-head. The two studio stacks are decent.

Dee Dee Ramone - Greatest And Latest (CD review) (Conspiracy): That Dee Dee released this album of mostly covers of his own material recorded with another band is either ironic or lazy, but it's no great mystery. Dee Dee feels the songs he wrote by his lonesome were unfairly credited to the entire band, so this might be his way of reclaiming his ownership of the material. In addition, how many people go to a Dee Dee Ramone gig to hear songs off of Zonked, or even know it exists? You see a Dee Dee Ramone show to hear Ramones songs. Dee Dee has two sides to his personality: knife wielding, cornered rat and dumb kid desperate to be liked. He needs the money so why the hell not release an album of old-is-new-again material. He's no great genius but he somehow wrote some of the greatest songs in punk history, a feat no less than an ape typing out some Shakespeare.

Dee Dee's present wife and former piece of jailbait, Barbara, plays bass and is featured on four tracks. I'm pretty sure she's contributing harmonies. If she's singing lead she's close to sprouting an Adam's Apple. Legendary music guy Chris Spedding produced the album and lends guitar to a cover of his own claim to music fame, "Motorbiking". Dee Dee plays guitar and someone by the swifty name of Chase Manhattan is on drums. Chase Manhattan is or was a large bank in New York. It sounds like one of the Kinman brothers (Rank & File) is doing an effective job singing on the Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown".

All that said and done, Greatest And Latest is a lot of fun and well worth a visit. The bass lines pulse with gritty electricity and there's a lot of great scruffy garage energy fighting clean production values. Dee Dee's not reinventing the wheel with these new versions, and he doesn't need to. "Blitzkrieg Bop", "Rockaway Beach", "Cretin Hop" and the rest exist to be played as gawd intended them, at least by anyone with the last name Ramone. Let Black Velvet Flag do the lounge versions. Dee Dee changed very few notes, and that was a very good thing.

Joey Ramone - Don't Worry About Me (CD review) (Sanctuary): I still find it odd how people treated the death of Joey Ramone last year as a great personal and societal tragedy. If you were related to him or you knew each other on a first name basis I can see where the sense of real loss comes in, but otherwise flesh-tearing grief seems to be a bit dramatic and self-centered. Joey was many good things to many good people but his fame came from being a musician, and no matter how soothing, gratifying and life affirming, music is pretty much a leisure time activity. Save any arguments you may have to the contrary for that guy who cares over there behind the dumpster. I think he's also giving away gum.

The first few times I listened to Don’t Worry About Me I felt confident I could conceptually compare it to the post-Velvet Underground albums of Lou Reed, in that the target audience pretty much accepts as valid anything they put out, or at least extends good will considering the greatness of their prior work. I think a lot of Lou's mundane catalog of solo work is given a pass because he wrote "Sweet Jane" and sat at the right hand of Andy Warhol. Joey was the "normal" Ramone (a very relative term in his case), the nice guy. He’s so revered people would pay to hear him sing the phone book. Nobody worked vowels like Joey Ramone.

As with Lou Reed, you also don't expect brilliant rhyming or lyrical content. From Joey you demand that "punk" rhymes with "runt" rhymes with "drunk". Joey's the only human being who gets away with singing a love song about business newscaster Maria Bartiromo. Why, because he's Joey Ramone! If I have to explain it to you it's not worth explaining. When he's belting out "What's happening with Yahoo, what's happening with AOL, I want to know", instead of retching I'm in heaven because he sang AOL as "aaee-oh-a-ell" and once again all is right in the Ramones World I've dug for myself.

With this, my fifth listen, I've come to love this record. It's everything it had to be. It's not too loud, not too soft, and it doesn't pretend to be anything more than it is. Joey's written some decent songs, and the people who helped him record what he feared would be his last made sure Joey went out with style and technical brilliance. If I wore a hat I would take it off to real life brother Mickey Leigh and long time Ramones associate Daniel Rey for producing the disc. Markey Ramone, Captain Sensible and Dictator guitarist Andy Shernoff also contributed beautifully to the cause.

"What A Wonderful World" opens the disc and Joey does something wonderful with Louis Armstrong's signature song. The opening guitar riff is a Sex Pistols version of the opening of The Clash's "I'm So Bored With The USA", which is great because Joey was probably the only Ramone who didn't blame UK bands for making it big on the foundation The Ramones built in NYC. There's a bit more Pistols guitar throughout and a whiff of The Dickies backup vocals. You'd think this cover would be strange but it's really great. "Stop Thinking About It" was co-written with Shernoff and it's intense once it settles into its groove. The one note piano lines are sweet. "Mr. Punchy" is a silly number but Markey gets to cut loose on the drums in a way he never could with The Ramones. It has the great line "Everybody's screwed up in his own special way", as autobiographical and truthfully empirical as you can get.

"Spirit In My House" is 68% similar to the Split Enz song "Dirty Creature". Compare if you dare. "Venting (It's A Different World Today)" is Joey's statement on our screwed up world. "Searching For Something" sounds like something Iggy Pop would have sung around 1980. "I Got Knocked Down (But I'll Get Up)" is Joey writing about being deathly ill ("Sitting in a hospital bed / I want my life / It really sucks") and he's full of hope when he sings the chorus of "I got knocked Down, But I'll Get Up". Maybe he got up and thought he won, but not for long. There's a strong glam rock tone to this one.

The cover of "1969" is a Memorex cover of the Stooges original. The wigged out, industrial strength psychedelic guitar is replicated exactly. Joey loved the songs that inspired him and there was also probably no bigger fan of music than he. "Don't Worry About Me" ends the disc physically and thematically. "What A Wonderful World" is his grand declaration that no matter what, it's best to be an optimist. "I Got Knocked Down (But I'll Get Up)" says he's on the ropes but still fighting, and "Don't Worry About Me" is what it sounds like. Don't cry for Joey Ramone because there's nothing to cry for. He had the best life a deranged character from Forest Hills, Queens could ever imagine, and April of 2001 was his turn to go.

Rancid - self-titled 7" (review) (Lookout): After the sadly short career of Operation Ivy, band members went on to other things while Tim "Lint" Armstrong became an alcoholic. Pulled back into the world by Matt Freeman, they formed Rancid as a three-piece with Gilman Street regular Brett Reed.  They released this five song EP in 1992, plus a full-length in both ‘93 and ‘94. At that time former UK Sub Lance Frederiksen came on board and they recorded the landmark Clash-clone album ... And Out Come The Wolves. I think they're now working on their own version of Sandinista!

There’s an old and new Rancid, and I’m not overly impressed with the old. No matter how much energy went into it, or how much I like Freeman's bass lines, it mostly blends into each other in ye olde Old School style, a term I can’t stand because it means nothing, and the people who use it have no idea what it means. "I'm Not The Only One" is a good song off the 7", and it sounds a lot like the best bands who played Gilman Street. "Battering Ram" is a good example of their normal style and energy at the time. The three tracks on the B-side just exist. Maybe it's better than the most generic punk, but that's about it.

Rats Of Unusual Size - "Flipper Is Dead"/"Can't Call You" (7" review) (Vital Music): This NY band played mostly rock, but it's also punk, like Clawhammer. The brainchild of Jim Fourniadis, musician and studio engineer, Rats Of Unusual Size recorded insightful, funny tunes about junk culture that managed to both mock and work within the limits of the format. They put out a few singles and records, the last in 1996. If you put their best tunes on one record you'd have a classic. Not everything they did was worth a second listen, but the good songs are great.

"Can't Call You" is about a real trade school commercial that ran in the middle of the day in NY: "Dirty dishes? Don't think I'll wash 'em. Disgusting roaches? I think I'll squash 'em. I just get high and watch the tube, and a man comes and tells me that 'I can't call you' // You don't have to be a disgusting slob. You could have training and a paying job. Finish the course and keep the tools. But like I said, 'I can't call you'." My other favorite Rats tune is "Macho S--thead": "Macho s--thead likes to watch / make rude comments grab his crotch / He gives us guys a bad name / cause he wasn't graced with a brain // Macho s--thead likes to sweat / jerks off next to the TV set / he drives both men and women nuts / I really hate his f--king guts..."

Rats Of Unusual Size were also known for a their share of cover tunes, including "Twitch", from the Flintstones: "There's a town I know, where the hipsters go, called Bedrock - twitch twitch", and both the Sesame Street and Fat Albert themes. Jim sings about flan, coffee, Razzles, Sigmund Freud, and about his girlfriend being on the rag, sung to the Beatles' "She loves you yeah" chorus.

RC5 - "Comin' My Way" (EP review) (Junk): Featuring members of The Derelicts and Zipgun, "RC" stands for band leader Robb Clarke and the "5" can only be an MC5 reference since there's only four band members. The obvious influences are the MC5 and the Stooges. Many bands say they're influenced by these Midwestern bands but what you really get is Johnny Thunders/NY Dolls glam filtered through Chuck Berry riffs. The RC5 offers heavy rocking punk like Zeke and gutsy R&B thrash like The Devil Dogs and the New Bomb Turks. In time the RC5 will be bigger than Marlon Brando. I hear their live shows are great. Extra points for their logo, which should win an award or something. On blue vinyl 'cause you're Pavlov's dogs. Great music for when there's a beer in your hand and punk in your heart.

Reagan Youth (12" LP review) (New Red Archives): This monumental 1984 release is easily one of the top five hardcore releases of all time. Perfect, flawless, uncompromising, perfect. A pure anarchy peace punk band from NYC, Reagan Youth sounded like they played broken instruments and recorded on cheap microphones. The results are unique and fascinating. Songs degrading Reagan, racism, and capitalism are delivered with literary style and impressive urgency by singer and uber-loser Dave Insurgent.

Here's some lyrics from "Happy?": "Nervous twitching, anxious bitching / Is something disturbing You? / Nervous Laughter - What'Ya After? / Ha Ha The Joke's On You! // Are you really happy? / Are you happy? // Pompous bragging, neurotic nagging / Expose your insecurities / Aggravated, irritated / You're the perfect picture of misery".

Reagan Youth's "Degenerated" was the feature song in the Brendan Fraser movie Airheads. Along with the great music on this album comes a poster/lyrics sheet done in the cut-and-paste style of the period (It's Dada, ya know). Images of Hitler, the Klan, Ronnie Raygun, corporate America, religion and consumer culture are combined to create whatever propaganda effects you can derive from bad arts & crafts skills. All in all a great, great record. New Red Archives sells a few Reagan Youth things. Be sure to get their earlier material, since they got a lot worse..

The life and death of Dave Insurgent is typical and ultimately either funny or stupid. The New Red website provides a complete picture: http://www.newredarchives.com/bands/reaganyouth/bio.htm

Reagan Youth - A Collection Of Pop Classics (CD review): New Red Archives packaged both Reagan Youth studio albums into one disc. It's hardcore's finest example of a band that went from hero to zero in the space of two records. The first album from 1984 is the fastest and most melodic disc to come out of a ‘80s NYHC scene mired in speed metal, hip hop stage antics and multi-racial white-power thuggery. The recording sounded like enhanced mono, the drums hollow and the guitars cheap. It's a very, very good record.

After they broke up a second record was compiled in 1990, and it's hippiecore for Deadheads who also love Hendrix. The notes I took on these later tracks read along the lines of "hard rock hippie", "hippie metal" and "psychedelic hippie". I imagine Dave Insurgent had dreads by this time. Some people like it but some people also enjoy cutting themselves.

You must read this page to follow the wacky hijinx of Dave Rubenstein, who founded Reagan Youth with his pal Paul Bakija, who called himself Paul Cripple. Punk names are even dumber than mafia ones. As far as Dave goes, what a complete loser. I'm sorry, but anyone who sticks a needle into their arm is a f--king loser. Read between the lines of this, "By now, between the violent assault and his continued drug use, he was no longer an energetic anarchist. He had become a bit disheveled, and many of his friends from the punk scene no longer associated with him." Imagine what it takes to be "a bit disheveled" in the NYC crusty scene. That couldn't have been pretty on any level.

Look, here comes rock bottom: "David began dating Tiffany B., a prostitute who worked on Houston Street. David had told his parents that she was a dancer. Tiffany supported the couple and their drug habit by turning tricks. David would often hang out on the street with Tiffany, waiting while she serviced a customer, and then going with her to score drugs."

I'm sorry, but I find this all funny. Punks love their heroes to be losers, the stupider the better. Dave killed himself. What a tragic loss... excuse me a moment while I don't give a s--t. Today’s news brought this report of a zero who hated life so much he kidnapped, raped and then murdered an eleven year old girl. He has a sad tale to tell too. We're all beams of light, perfect in our own way, no matter our faults. (Sigh).

2/21/06 update: it just hit me that the New Red Archives history of Dave's life and death spiral shows no pity for him. He must have really been a prick to everyone. The word "disheveled" probably also referred to his personality since hygiene is a non-factor.

2/22/06 update: It's funny that on the New Red Archives' Reagan Youth page they use substitute the lyrics "Ha Ha Ha” for "Heil Heil Heil”.

The Real McKenzies - The Real McKenzies (CD review) (IFA Records): In your mind combine Big Country with The Sex Pistols and you'll have The Real McKenzies. If they were Irish I’d say, "If they were any more Irish they'd be a six pack and a potato", but I can't think of anything as funny to say about the Scots. Since they’re from Canada I guess they did this partly out of pride and otherwise as a cool gimmick. It works well. On stage they wear kilts, sing about all things Scottish, and in addition to the drums and guitars they also play a mean bagpipes and fiddle. There's nothing better than being in a bar with three generations of drunks listening to a hard working Irish/Polish/Scottish/ English band play songs from the last century.  The opening track, "Scots Wha' ha'e" would have been the first single from the Sex Pistols if they came from Scotland. They even do "My Bonnie" (you know, lies over the ocean). Now that's as Scottish as a...oh, never mind.

Red Letter Day - Chance Meetings: The Best Of Red Letter Day 1985-1999 (CD review) (Zip): Not to be confused with the wimpier band of the same name, this Red Letter Day formed in Portsmouth, UK in the mid ‘80s, a few years too late to have benefited from comparisons you can make all day to the UK Subs and The Undertones. Red Letter Day managed to combine the street smarts of the former and the aggressive pop innocence of the latter with style and no small amount of skill. Zip Records is promoting the band to an unknowing American audience, and based on these nineteen tracks I suggest you find out more about this band ASAP (yes, I'm calling you a sap).

The bigger influence on Red Letter Day would be the UK Subs, circa ‘79-‘80. I gather from the promo literature the two bands played on the same bill. "More Songs About Love And War" is a nod to The Undertone's "More Songs About Chocolate And Girls". "Killing Ground" doesn't know if wants to be an Undertones or Subs tune, making it that much better. Every track is a winner, taken from the endless parade of singles and compilation appearances the band’s produced over fifteen years. Something tells me they have always had decent day jobs, and I don't say that negatively.

There's a bit for everyone here, but none of it is exactly oi, street punk or power pop, at least in an easily marketable sense. The results are excellent but it skews to an older and more informed demographic - the tiniest group of all. It's all good and it's there if you want it. Creating need, that's why Zip mailed this to me. Thankfully I liked it a lot. My job as pawn for the Capitalist Whore is done for now. For now…

Replacements - Don't Tell A Soul (cassette review) (Sire): This is the band critics proclaimed the best of the ‘80s? It's one of their worst (their last, All Shook Down, being even sadder), but I never was a Replacements to begin with. Paul Westerberg was famous for his confessional lyrics and drunken self-destruction, two traits that don't impress me. Their earlier, more popular albums sounded like sloppy R&B roots punk, and I'm happy for their success even if it passed me by with barely a notice. Replacements fans love to tell tales of how drunk the band was live, which I assume has the same masochistic and voyeuristic values as watching GG Allin poop on stage.

Don't Tell A Soul has one good song on it that may remind you of the old days ("I Won't"), but the rest sounds like Westerberg hired studio musicians and stayed dull & sober throughout. There's a country-lite feel to much of the album, and while Paul's lyrics may impress members of his cult of personality, there's not much insight or cleverness. I'm thinking Paul's the 80's answer to Richard Hell, a poet whose contribution to punk history had less to do with lyrics than his look, attitude and band resume.

REO Speedealer - self-titled (CD review) (Spanish Fly): Lawyers representing REO Speedwagon finally got around to suing REO Speedealer over their name. I think now they're called just Speedealer. They’re "heavy" like Zeke, and sometimes get so heavy I'm reminded of sludgecore, too close to heavy metal for my tastes. Then again I'm not a real man. Killdozer fans will like this, and Cramps fans will know where Speedealer are coming from. If you're a punk with a big KISS collection you might get into this too. Listening to these fifteen songs all I can conclude is that this isn't my brand of sameness. I can get into a song or two at a time but that's about it. Sorry. Why the cover is a picture of two little boys kissing is beyond me since this seems like a dirt-bally macho collection of tunes.

Rites Of Spring - End On End (CD review): Here's as good as any if you want a band history on DC's Rites Of Spring, the wellspring of emo in the emotional sense. Sonically they were a bit jazzy and trippy, where modern emo is more a post-grunge phenomena.

In 1985 they released their album Rites Of Spring, which at the time I barely got into as I still wanted Dischord bands to sound like Minor Threat's EP's. I'm not good at growing along with bands and scenes. I came across End On End and figured, since it was released in 1991, it was later material. I listened and it paled in comparison to my memories of the original album I haven't put on in ages.

Well, the joke's on me because End On End is the first album, plus an EP and bonus song. I'm surprised how timid (a relative statement) these songs sound now, especially compared to Beefeater, who ripped into their album with a lot more fury. I also heard what Dag Nasty stole from them and made their own, but I also think the latter wrote tighter and more melodic songs. I guess it's about the lyrics, which I understood only a little without a handy lyrics sheet.

This memory from a reviewer on Amazon cuts the core of the matter with Rites Of Spring and emo in general: "20 years later, I can listen to the songs on this album and remember vividly the deep impact that some of them had on my life between 1985-86. "Drink Deep" was a song that had particular meaning to me because I listened to it a lot during a brief, but intense romance while on a European trip in June 1986. The girl broke it off near the end of the trip for fear of becoming too involved with me, and I can remember making her listen to "Drink Deep" in an desperate attempt to get her to apply the message of the song to our relationship. The message to me was live in the moment and don't let chances pass you by. Alas, she dumped me, and for the rest of the summer, I would tearfully listen to "Drink Deep" and the rest of the album when I pined for my lost love."

The EP tracks, which came out some time after the LP, sound like tentative demos. I like the EP better than the LP. I suspect Rites Of Spring is a band you need to know something about before you listen to them for the first time. They were important and influential, but I doubt this has aged as well as people's memories of them and The Day.

River City Rapists - Love Hurts (CD EP review) (Junk): Let's see if we can figure out why this has been banned from Tower Records. Hmmmm...the legs on the cover form a swastika.... and the band is called the something something RAPISTS... the back cover is a shot of an uber-pregnant piece of white trash smoking and drinking, and, I'm not sure if this was a factor, but the gatefold inner sleeve is a fully nude porno shot of a woman getting her fudge stirred by a man who may not be her husband.

Consisting of former members of The Didjits and The Motards, Love Hurts is a kick-tush set of eight tunes destined to turn sober men into alcoholics and sweet virgins into Bukakke sluts. Another winner from Junk, whose bands seem to exist solely to prove through music that they can drink you under the table and bang your bimbo girlfriend while you’re out. Drunken R&B thrash for the ages. In a genre that's getting a bit crowded and generic, this stands out.

Riverdales - Storm The Streets (CD review) (Honest Don's): Ben Weasel's nod to the Ramones is out but hard to find. Screeching Weasel released a rare album covering the first Ramones album, but that one, while technically correct, had no personality and isn't worth more than a listen. Maybe Honest Don's, a cousin label to Fat Mike's Fat Wreck Chords, doesn't have it all together yet. Or maybe Washington, DC is dead as far as punk retailing goes (I lean towards the latter). Storm The Streets is great because it captures the essence of the first three Ramones albums without pandering to the cartoonish expectations of your average punk idiot (while I'm in a bad mood, I'll say this - on a purely statistical basis, more than 50% of the punks I've met since the ‘70s have been idiots, assholes, losers, and creeps I wouldn't trust alone with anything that might break or be stolen. You don't agree? Take a shower). Case in point: Nine out of ten times you hear a band chant "oi oi oi!", they’re posers who wouldn't know a skinhead from a foreskin. Yeah, "oi oi oi!" - it sounds tough and it's easy to remember and sing along with. Kids love candy. Give 'em lots of candy. oi oi oi!

All power pop punk comes from The Ramones, who took bubblegum pop and sped it up to locomotive speed while replacing the clean-cut image with the daily concerns of your average big city numbnut hooked on drugs, sexual misadventure and junk culture. Reviewers equate most everything to the Ramones (they get it right only 70% of the time), but what's the essence of the Ramones' sound? The drums first and foremost keeps the dance beat moving, the bass builds on the drums to keep the beat and acts as the house support for Johnny’s guitar, which plays only three or four chords but constant wrist action builds chords within chords to create a buzzing wall of sound, and the singing is simple and direct. The subject matter? Anything that begins with "I Don't Wanna...", silly violence, mental illness, weird people on the street and in your house, bad horror and war movies and love songs to that special girl.

After the success of the Sex Pistols, The Ramones expanded their sound and Joey became political - factors that lead many Ramones fans to look at the first three albums (Ramones, Leave Home, Rocket To Russia) as their best and the true definition of the band. I’m a big fan of this pure aesthetic, and of all the so-called Ramones sound-alike bands The Riverdales are probably the best. The first release, Riverdales, is a great album that pissed some Screeching Weasel fans because it didn't sound like Screeching Weasel, who were more of a snotty hardcore band. For every "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "Judy Is A Punk" The Ramones recorded a slower "53rd & Third". Riverdales, while an attempt to follow the Ramones, sounds more like Screeching Weasel than anything else. The Beach Boys backup singing and Weaselesquee guitar are the screamingly obvious clues to this conclusion. Storm The Streets gets it right 100% without simply cranking out xerox copies of the originals. Sure, on these fourteen songs you'll hear most every riff off the first three Ramones albums, but they're not played as monster riffs from Spinal Tap. Johnny Ramones' love of baseball is replaced with hockey, but besides that it's all great. If you listen to Storm The Streets and conclude it's boring and simple, that's your problem.

In typical fashion, Ben Weasel didn’t provide a lyrics sheet. Did the Riverdales break up? I Hope not. I like this stuff.

Riverdales - Blood On The Ice/No Sense (7" review) (Honest Don's): Ask yourself, is it worth $3.99 for just one song that's not on the CD? I mean, nobody's going to buy the 7" and not the CD. Only collector nerds and Kool-Aid drinkers would buy the single if there's only one non-CD song on it. Collector value is a farce. Unless Ben Weasel kills a celebrity nobody's going to remember the Riverdales ten years from now. And let's say there's fifty people in the country that do and would pay anything for a "Blood On The Ice" 7". How will you find them? Will they trust you enough to send you money? Will you trust them enough to send money? A dealer in used singles will give you squat for the single even if it's worth something. The flip side, "No Sense", is decent enough, but is it worth $3.99? A punk single should have at least two new songs on it and have more aesthetic value than the crappy cover this one has. An insert would have been nice too. A sleeve for the record would be just dandy. The Queers - now that's a band who puts out worthwhile singles.

Robweoza - Get Confident Stupid! (CD review) (Mung): I'll say this, Robweoza are honest and organized. Not only do they post rejection letters they've received from record labels, you can purchase any or all their band patches using PayPal. Check it out at www.robweoza.com. They broke band name law in choosing one that refuses to be remembered correctly, if at all, but what do you expect from four jerky boys who admit they're from Staten Island, where mob guys live in two-family homes and bowl next to what has to be the world's largest landfill, which spews methane and a sour-minty odor I think the city adds to trash just to be cute.

The recording quality of this fifteen track CD is metallic and muted, like recording a cassette with the stupid Dolby button on. According to the promo sheet, "Robweoza's music incorporates the aggression of early bands such as Bad Religion and Minor Threat and the melody of the Ramones and later punk bands like Screeching Weasel. The Lyrics address real-life issues: relationships, politics, religion, and the pressures of growing up." To be honest I can't make out the lyrics, and the only info I care to glean from music these days are magic lotto numbers and the bass guitar's demands for me to kill and kill again.

Robweoza is a young band, and some of their songs are more rehearsed than others, but they produce a nice mix of sounds only slightly beholden to the bands they claim as influences. While not classics, the tracks aren't derivative and are worthy of another spin. As they play more and mature as both people and songwriters, Robweoza will develop into a really good band as opposed to a band with really good potential. As I often do, I direct them to look mid-west, young men, to the collective bands of Chicago. Chi-Town bands record only top quality audio and present their music with confidence, stupid! I see the talent Robweoza’s music, now they need to figure out how to get to the next level. Hint #1: work on the music first before worrying about lyrics. Pop punk bands live and die on their sound, not the force of their convictions. Fun first, think later, ok?

Rudimentary Peni  (mixed CD review): "Daddy, why is that man screaming?". "I don't know Timmy, I just... don't... know."  Someone made me a disc of random songs by this band most associate with the Crass movement. It’s 43 songs in 74 minutes. Yikes. I'll say this much, what they lack in talent they sure make up for in brevity. That's not entirely true, in that they have some talent and some of their songs are not that short.  They formed in 1980 and their last release came out in 2000, so they may still be around. Their 1988 disc Cacophony contains 54 songs within 45 minutes, so a comparison to The Minutemen is in order. Instead of funk though, the Developing Penises (my translation of their name) explore the primitive post punk of what developed into death rock. By co-inky-dink I found this entry on the band at deathrock.com, a huge resource for the genre run by a fine fellow who lives around here somewhere (2007 update: Mark Splatter moved to Germany or some such place).

We at Deathrock are here to set the record straight on this band. True, they were involved in the Anarchopunk movement (i.e. Crass Records), but only in a transient manner.

They are first and foremost a band dedicated to conjuring images of doom and gloom. Nick Blinko has described himself as "dressed entirely in black...on the darker, Gothic side of Romantic", and the band as "gothic". A quick perusal of their lyrics demonstrates this, with such topics as coffins, corpses, suicidal depression, hearses, and death in its various forms. While they did have some song lyrics of a more political nature (yet still juxtaposed with the macabre in most cases), this was largely due to bassist Grant's teenage delvings into the scene, and were not written by Nick, nor endorsed by drummer Jon, who was "not even a vegetarian". So all those thoughts about Peni being a major Anarchist group should be firmly put to rest and buried.

I see Rudy PeePee as more of a goth band who used the cut & paste and multi-media approach practiced by the more dogmatic Crass bands. I can imagine some of these tracks being on Hell Comes To Your House or something from Alternative Tentacles. It's way out there - in a good way. It grows on you like a cold sore from the lip. The death rock leanings redeem this for me. I run from that anarchy hippie crap like a crusty punk from a shower.

Runaway Sins - "Sick And Tired Of Being Sick"/"Busted Man" (7" review) (National Dust/Junk): From Portland, Oregon, a city I forgot existed, comes this six-piece band of degenerates of the 'ol Iggy/Dolls/Heartbreakers school of drinkin', punkin' and pukin' till dawn. The packaging says there's two songs, but there's also part of a third that fades in and out for twenty seconds. Is this a tease or something left over from a master tape dropped into a puddle of dumpster juice? All three songs are on Side A. Side B has a few minutes worth of grooves but nothing to hear. Maybe it's high pitched instructions to your dog to drink your beer, bang your ol' lady and pee in your shoe.

This is hard, fast, kick arse rocking punk that never lets up. That's the formula and the Runaway Sins do a great job of it. I call the genre drunk punk but some will tell you this is real Rock and Roll. "Busted Man" has this great Jerry Lee Lewis piano working up a sweat. If The Runaway Sins can record an album as good as this, you'll be wearing their patch on your stupid leather jacket soon enough.

The Saints - (I'm Stranded) (CD review) (Amsterdamned): Hailing from Brisbane, Australia, the down under and ultimate boonies of punk rock, The Saints recorded one of the first and best punk albums of all time. If you own more than one UK punk compilaation from the "77" era, chances are you'll find their first single "(I'm) Stranded", sounding as vital today as it did when your parents were still young enough to care.

The Saints might still be knocking around but remaining original member Chris Bailey gave up on punk for a mature pop thing. Punks go for the early recordings with Ed Kuepper on guitar. Their style was driving R&B fuzz punk, and not only were they great at it, they helped create the style. Most of the tracks are straight ahead punk, with the exception of "Messin' With The Kid", a nice blending of Dylan backed by The Band on a version of The Kink's "Celluloid Heroes". Every time I listen to it I hear something different.

If you buy something old because you've read it's seminal, most of the time you'll be sadly disappointed. Many records are documents of a long-gone era and are stuck there forever. (I'm) Stranded still has the stuff. It’s a solid cornerstone of the early modern punk movement.

Samiam - You Are Freaking Me Out (sample cassette review) (Ignition): Two songs for free - "She Found You" and "Factory". I have no idea if the CD is out (it probably is) but these two songs are great in a commercial yet still impressive way. Remember when Samiam was a neat power-pop punk band, then they signed to a major and headed south big time? This is professional product but with enough edge to appeal to the few punks out there who don't yell "sell-out" whenever one of their friends takes a shower and puts on clean underwear. If the rest of the CD is as good as this I'll buy. It’s nice to see an old favorite figure out how they can earn a little cash and still be cool too. Fans of The Promise Ring's faster, harder songs should go for this like Mykel Board to twelve year boys. ‘Tis highly recommended by ye olde punk..

Samiam - You Are Freaking Me Out (CD review) (Ignition): This is a very good collection of marginally commercial power pop punk from one of the modern founders of the genre. They seemingly disappeared for a while under a barrage of unimpressive releases, but this one is strong. Their old fans are probably way over their punk days and the kids might not find this cool enough, but this is great stuff. Emo fans looking for something harder and faster should pick this up immediately. If Jade Tree put this out I'd wager Samiam would be kings of the genre. I'm sure this is filed under College Rock, which is a shame. It's better than that. Another strong band like this is Crumbox. The punk world would be a better place if more bands like Samiam were allowed to prosper instead of the zillion Bad NOFX Religion bands that litter the all-ages landscape. Have I told you lately you look like a idiot with that stupid haircut and freshly ripped t-shirt?

The Sanity Assassins - The Massacre (cassette review): Remember back when, former kids? Back to the 1980s? Buying cassettes for a buck or two from ads in the classified sections of MRR and Flipside? Sometimes even sending a blank cassette and a few stamps to have it copied and mailed back? Well, those days are back! The Sanity Assassins is an ongoing eleven year project of someone named Keith, who has his fingers in a million goth, metal and punk pies in Connecticut. Keith's discography has 51 listings! Two full-length Sanity Assassins albums were issued on a Mexican record label, and half of this cassette's label is written in Spanish. I didn't know they were into Discharge, GBH  and The Exploited down Meheeco-way.

This cassette is so retro it sounds like it was recorded seventeen years ago. This is neither good nor bad, but it's a piece of nostalgia with a target audience so tiny I can't imagine two fans of the genre living in the same zip code. Keith must really love the vibe. Spike from Blitzkrieg sings on this cassette. I'm not myself a fan of four chord metal-tinged punk, but a few of the songs are lingering in my mind and I can compare it favorably to any three-initial band from the ‘80s. Thankfully none of this is speed-core.

I don't know how much this costs, but contact The Sanity Assasins at PO Box 380152, East Hartford, CT 06138, or visit them on the interweb at http://members.aol.com/sanityassassins/

Sanity Assassins - Resistance Is Useless? (cassette review) (Grabacionescongaleras): 80's speed punk lives in East Hartford, CT in the curdled soul of one Keith Donaldson, who also goes by either Keith Graves or "Cuddles". I made up that last one. In the 1980s I used to send away for $1 and $2 cassettes from the back of MRR, and 90% of bands who advertised sounded like Sanity Assassins, so this will always remind me of running to the mailbox every day like Calvin waiting for his propeller beenie-cap.

The obvious inspirations for Sanity Assassins are GBH, Discharge, The Exploited and every hardcore band to come out of Italy. Each song blends into the next but the fuzz is infectious and the chord progressions fun to follow if you pay attention to them.

The cassette was issued by a Mexican label, for whatever reason. When I lived in San Diego I was warned not to dress punk down in Mexico because Mexican punks love to beat American punks to a pulp. It's also common knowledge that you keep all of your cash in your sock except for twenty dollars in your wallet, so when the cops pull you over you can help them keep their daily bribe quota.

Here's a link to Keith's web site. Tell Cuddles I said howdy! http://members.aol.com/sanityassassins/

Saves The Day - Stay What You Are (CD review) : Time again to review a cd by a popular band that's loved&hated by the young and tragically hip.

Stay What You Are from Saves The Day is listed as their best, so I placed it on my personal victr