VA "Punk Goes Metal" CD
God damn, I almost expected to find my name on the credits. Not only did I put out the first one of these "punk bands playing metal songs" about five years ago, but they used an artist recreation of the original "Death to False Metal" cover. (Probe Records used an actual photo of a hand flashing the devil horns while on fire.) This is probably the worst of punk goes metal CDs (This is the fifth I know of.), there really isn't even a highlight on here. They went more they hairspray metal route with songs by White Lion, Bon Jovi, and Poison. Bands include Jughead's Revenge, AFI, Strung Out, Link 80, Guttermouth, and Ten Foot Pole. (Fearless Records)

Cooter "Looking Up" LP
It¹s cool how ADD does vinyl versions of other labels CD releases, but I don¹t understand why they did this one. This is the "melodic punk" style that I love to hate. It's very clean, safe, and formulated. Sweet and syrupy production, not rock n' roll. I can¹t even begin to name all of the bands that they sound like. Do the new generation punk kids that buy this stuff even own record players? I tried listening to it, but I kept forgetting that it was playing. (ADD)

VA "Grease..." CD
My god, yet another Grease soundtrack record! I admit I put one of these out myself, but after it sat in the can two years and THREE other Grease records came out during that time we decided not to even mention the Grease theme on the cover. It's just been done to death and so far all of these Grease tribute records BLOW. This one is no exception as the bands on here actually managed to recreate the entire soundtrack and make it even more wimpy than the original. Olivia Newton John is three times more punk rock than half the bands on this CD. (Coldfront)


Beatnick Termites "Bubblecore" CD
When did these guys cash in? They seem to have gone the way of the Connie Dungs. The witty, sharp, spit in the eye punk rock has been replaced by raspy voiced bubble gum geezer core. Over the hill punk rock for people who don't like it very loud. (Recess)

The Unit Breed "A Proxy of Noise" CD
This is the new band from Joe from Ringwurm and its nothing like his old band. To say the artier side of Joe comes out here would be an understatement. In fact, the final version of this CD is to be part of an expensively done book that includes Joe's artwork and some sort of story line or something. The music is spastic and drum oriented, it doesn't rock at all. Joe does some of his patented screaming on here, but also sings in kind of a droning deeper voice, it's just really arty and hard for me to relate to. (Nothing Enterprises)
Since the time this came out Joe has gone through about fifteen band members and keeps changing the sound. I'm told the new stuff is a lot better.