22 Songs That You'll Never Want To Hear Again Alaska

22 Songs That You'll Never Want To Hear Again

Darkbuster

Independent release, 2000

REVIEW BY: Paul Hanson

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 01/18/2001

I disagree with the title of this CD immensely. It is not thegreatest punk CD ever released but I think it is one of the betterones to come along recently. It's been too long since I heard aband that, if stripped to its musical underwear, would stand tall,both vertically and horizontally.

What I mean by that is this trio from Norwood, Massachusetts,have a musical vision. Starting with their anthem "That's Correct,"bassist Mike Gurly, guitarist Lenny Lashley, and drummer EricEdmonston bash out short insults, such as "Sick of the bullshit/sick of the lies/ all your complaining/ all of the time/ I don'tknow what I'll say/ I don't know what I'll do/ I know it's gettingold/ I'm getting tired of you." How much more direct can theselyrics be?? They can't. The band then slides into a parody of"Piece Of My Heart."

Second track "Nothing at All" talks about someone being "beatup/ . . . you smell like shit and alcohol/ . . . you've got nofriends/ you've been left with nothing at all."The 7th, 14th, and20th tracks of this release are three movements of a single song.The first movement is the single word "Jerk." The second is "YouJerk." The third is "You Fucking Jerk."

Another brilliant moment is their parody of the Budweiser theme."Miller" proves one point: beer is beer.