Written by GE 138.

Remember when Punk Rock was this thriving, interesting, eclectic mishmash of music, where Elvis Costello was considered Punk and things weren't quite so rigid and formatted? Yeah, I'm old too. Anyways, one day, back in the early 80's, 3 of the bands on here, Agent Orange, CH3, and Unit 3 With Venus, played a gig @ Hollywood's Legendary Den of Debauchery, the Whisky A Go Go, and while this release isn't a live recording of that night's event, what it is is a collection of songs from the bands that played, presumably put together to show the diversity in talent on the stage that night, or possibly put together just because Posh Boy was bored... heh. Pajama Party by Unit 3 With Venus starts things off, and it's not the version that appeared on the Rodney On The ROQ III compilation. I don't know what version of Indian Summer by CH3 is on here, as I never much cared for that song, but it might be the version from the BYO Something To Believe In compilation, and then you got 3 tunes from Agent Orange, which I believe are demos of Bored Of You, America, and El Dorado, from the way they sound. Then you have as bonus material a song from a band called The Little Girls called The Earthquake Song that sounds like it came from the soundtrack from Valley Girl. Posh Boy himself supplies another bonus track called Woman (The Provider), a very trippy Kerouac rant/observation, and the last song on here is by Baby Buddha, a cover of Your Cheatin' Heart, which was quite possibly the worst song on the Posh Hits, Vol. 1 compilation. Interesting release here, and a cool Polaroid snapshot of what was going on in L.A. during the early 80's. Good stuff.

Available from Posh Boy Records, which you can go to by clicking here. It's available via digital download on Amazon, and you can go to that by clicking here.

Written by GE 138.

With an opening drum riff very similar to a People's Whiskey tune (which makes sense since it's the same drummer of that band playing on this particular song), and a opening battle cry consisting of words about various cities across the U.S. and not forgetting where you come from, the opening song called Who We Are, of this 5 song EP from Local Punk super group New Cold War is pretty impressive stuff. The songs are energetic, melodic, and catchy as fuck. It's too short though. The good songs go by too fast. It's interesting because the songs have all the characteristics of all the band members involved, people from Battle Born, Guilty By Association, and The Quitters, but yet it's new, it's fresh, and it's very good. I think Camel Hump did all the recording / production work on here, and kudos to them, because sonically it sounds killer. This stuff is really good. Digging Growing Down. Great song. Yeah, these were all completely put together songs, words and music already written by Andy Harrison, for the next Surrounded By Thieves recording, before he quit the band or was thrown out or whatever, and all I can say is that it would of been a killer release based on the strength of 4 out of 5 of these songs. Yeah, the last song on here, Corporate Dick, is just terrible Beardcore crap... hahahaha Pretty good stuff here from New Cold War. Check 'em out and get into 'em before everyone else does and they're playing a gig @ Punk Rock Posing! ;-)

Available for purchase on the New Cold War Band Camp page, which you can go to by clicking here. It's also available for download from iTunes, which you can go to by clicking here.

Written by Karl Bakla.

When Black Flag used to say dumb shit like, "We are giving you what you need, not what you want", they were talking about people like me who wanted to hear fast shit! That Stoner shit was just like Cream, but worse! Yeah I stole that last line, so what?
 
I got this album the day it came out & went into listening to it assuming it would suck, but I tried to keep an open mind! From the time I got this album, listened to it, & reviewed it, Black Flag has replaced singer Ron Reyes with Mike Vallely & I can’t help but think, "Wouldn't it be better to do another Mike V & The Ratz record instead?" Fuck, I loved that song Never Give Up!

When I heard the first track My Hearts Pumping, I thought, "Not bad, this album might be good." The song was fast paced punk that reminded me of bands that wear their love for Black Flag on their sleeve & under their sleeve with a Black Flag bars tattoo. By the second song I was already getting bored and found most of my attention focusing on an article about jelly fish taking over the ocean. By the third song I was ready to turn it off, the fourth song reconfirmed this, by the fifth song I was cruising xHamster for Allanah Starr videos.

I have listened to this album about ten times, & overall it's not as bad as I expected. If this album was chopped down to 12 songs instead of 22 it would have been better, there are some decent songs on this disc but they are lost in a sea of shit & the only hope is for some khat chewing Somali pirates to come aboard and take some hostages. Overall the music sounds like a mush of early & later Black Flag. I’m sure there is someone out there that will like this, but what do I know? I got into Punk right around the time Black Flag broke up & I am a raging alcoholic!

Available from the SST Records Superstore, which you can go to by clicking here. Like the Black Flag Facebook page by clicking here.

Written by GE 138.

The irony of some PR person sending me this to review is not lost on me. I get sent the most random stuff to write up, and most of it ends up in a very neglected and very lonely folder on the hard drive of my computer. When I saw this come in the email one morning, I salivated at the chance to just absolutely rip this band Energy to shreds for even daring to put something like this out, something so unoriginal and safe as doing a Misfits covers EP. Wasn't cool when A.F.I. did it and it's not cool when any band does it now. And with that mindset I followed the download link and popped the ol' MP3's into the iTunes thingy and gave 'em a listen and was taken back a bit. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, which was shocking. Sure, the obvious safe choices were on here, We Are 138, Die Die My Darling, Attitude, and all the other songs that the Metal bands cover, but instead of just emphasizing the speed and ferociousness of the original tunes, they instead focused on the melody of the songs, which was kind of interesting. Really worked on Hollywood Babylon, totally missed the mark on Where Eagles Dare. I don't know a thing about this band, but like I said, this wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Energy's take on these Punk classics is definitely one for the kids who still think playing Misfits covers are 'edgy' and 'sick, braah', but I don't entirely hate this release, so yeah... check it out! :-)

This release can be found on the Energy Bandcamp page, which you can go to by clicking here. "Like" the band's Facebook page by clicking here.