aaamusic | On 17, Oct 2011

Y’know that stereotype of American Teenagers of the Generation X variety whose vocabulary mainly consisted of various ways of saying “Dude” that made them sound perpetually wasted? Well, as with the vast majority of clichés that stereotype is a stereotype because in some cases people are actually like that, and they were all in legendary/forgotten (delete according to how enthralled you are with being “Punx”) California hardcore (Sorry, “Nardcore” apparently…) types Rich Kids on LSD. Listening to the stage banter on this live album, recorded in West Berlin in 1988 is like listening to a Spitting Image pastiche of Clerks, and it provides an almost laughable contrast with the violence and focus of the music. Indeed, the musicianship on display here is pretty awe-inspiring, especially the solo’s on the likes of “Ded Teds”, it’s just a shame that the musicianship is going into songs that sound exactly the fucking same as everything else here.

 

Now, I’m more than happy to accept that I’ve missed the point of this record, that it’s a live album and on the night it probably sounded like the best thing ever but my job here is to sum up what I thought of this record, and I think this record contains the most profound sin that any punk record can make. It’s boring. Once you get over the novelty of the late Jason Sears’ hilariously over the top snarl of a vocal and Anthony “Bomer” Manzullo’s drumming (seriously, that’s easily the best part of the record, and the only thing that excuses the inclusion of the over six minute “Blocked Out”) You’re left with a bunch of half formed riffs, half written songs and precisely nothing to think about beyond “doood, like, it’s so fuckin’ FAAAAST!!” And call me anything you want to I need more than that to sustain my attention for 27 (!) tracks.

 

I’m willing to bet that more than a few of the people who read this will assume that I don’t like punk rock, considering that I’m slagging it off for many of the reasons that make punk rock great, it’s sloppy, it’s loud, fast and the creators clearly couldn’t give the faintest hint of a shit  about what anyone else thinks of it, the problem here is that the band don’t seem to give a shit about what it sounds like either. The overall message seems to be, this is how the songs go, kind of, now go away so we can get wasted. And if that’s punk rock, then fuck that, we’ve got better things to listen to.

 

Will Howard