Punk rock that's
worth listening to
A look at some hot new releases from
Go-Kart Records.

By Mark Prindle
www.markprindle.com

Star-Strangled Bastards
Whose War Is It?
(Go-Kart Records, 2003)

Just because you're from Orange County doesn't mean you can't have a mohawk, and that is the true lesson of the Star Strangled Bastards. That and -- it's NOT impossible to make great new hardcore even though a billion other bands have worn out the formula before you.

It's 2003, we're all old and boring - and the Star Strangled Bastards are still recording memorable political hardcore songs with choruses so great, I'm going to shout one out for you right now:

SYSTEM OF GREED! KILLIN' YOU! SYSTEM OF GREED! KILLIN' ME! SYSTEM OF GREED! KILLIN' US! SYSTEM OF GREED! KILLIN' EVERYONE!

You see? They've taken the basic premise of DRI's classic "Reaganomics killing me/Reaganomics killing me/Reaganomics killing me/Reaganomics killing YOU!" and taken it not one, but TWO steps further! It's not just you and me that are in trouble here -- it's EVERYONE! This system of greed in which we live is BIGGER than even Reagan in his heyday could have imagined!

THIS is what hardcore punk is supposed to be! No slick pop-punk production, no happy songs about girls -- just really fast, angry, tough songs for slamming, kicking, headbanging and running around in a circle if anybody still does that (it was big in the late '80s - big and DUMB lookin'!).

America's most popular web site, Deadontheweb.com, says, "Some of the hardest old school punk that I have heard in a long fuckin' time!"

America's sweetheart magazine, Bodyboarding Magazine, says, "Grinding punk ... gets me so amped, I catch myself going 100 on the freeway!"

And some unknown piece of shit rag web site or homemade xeroxed zine called "Maximum Rock n' something-or-other" says, "Fast and angry, it's a proven winner!"

And most importantly, renowned music reviewer who doesn't get paid, Mark Prindle, says, "This band has got 'it' -- if you miss hardcore punk, don't miss the Star Strangled Sons of Whores, you bastard!"

INDK
Kill Whitey!
(Go-Kart Records, 2002)

This stupid band of jerks has already broken up, so don't expect great things from them any time soon. Bunch of failures who can't stay together like a normal band would.

With that out of the way, let's compare and contrast this album with other albums. It's more hardcore than Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, angrier than the Dave Matthews Band's Remember Two Things, and faster than Brewer & Shipley's Shake Off The Demon. In other words, it ROX!

These guys have the GUTS to say what the rest of us want to say, but are afraid to say because we don't want the CIA tapping our phone.

They say, "Hey, the government's corrupt! War is bad! Sometimes religious people are liars!" Incendiary ideas like these are bound to get them in trouble with law enforcement officials, but are they afraid? NO!

As they boldly state in one of the album's most daring tracks, "This country was founded upon common need - now the foundation is common greed!"

And you just know they're talking about: the Corporations. If it weren't for the Corporations, there'd be no people starving in the streets, or problems with the ozone layer. Corporate GREED is something we don't NEED.

Thank GOD we have militant rhyming youth with the integrity to say exactly what they honestly feel, instead of just reiterating the exact same political ideas that other hardcore bands have been conveying over and over again for the past 23 years.

Okay, their lyrics suck. But their music and vocals KICK ASS! They have this killer grimy filthy heavy guitar sound (NOT Epitaph clean distortion), and a singer who possesses a fantastically angry young screaming voice. Even if some of the choruses try a little too hard to be anthemic, nearly every main riff/chord sequence is about as mean as punk gets.

Supposedly the band featured members of Choking Victim and Leftover Crack, and the musical result is a cross between high-speed angry punk rock, mid-tempo angry hard scum rock, ska (only in two songs though, so don't bother putting on your checkered pants), 7 Seconds-style "Whoa!" pop-punk, and "If the kids are united, then they'll never be divided!" barmy army Oi! As formerly Dead Kennedy J-Lo Biafra once said, "Die for Oi!, sucker! Sucker! Sucker!"

But check this out! Go Kart has been putting out lots of other great CDs too! Dude, they're "off the charts"! Totally "whack"! This label is "pimpin'"! Their releases are "chillin'"! I'm a "loser"!

Icons of Filth
Nostradamnedus
(Go-Kart Records, 2003)

The men of Go Kart Records have but one thing on their minds, and that is keeping Mark Prindle on the dance floor! And here I am, doing the three-fisted tango with America's Skinhead Youth Population.

Icons of Filth are, according to the always-trustworthy All-Music Guide, a British band who were recording as far back as 1984! Looks like this reunion CD was recorded in Wales, so maybe they're Welsh. Whatever they are, their singer has one of those hoarse yelly voices like a guy who's been yelling for 18 years. Sort of like the MDC guy. He's not from DC though. INDK aren't either. MDC's non-DC CDs are A-OK!

My point is that the music goes from midtempo to speedy, and the politics go from leftist to liberal. Having said that, some of their lyrics are as entertaining as a Lite-Brite - check these out: "Proud to be black? Proud to be white? Fucking why? The corridors of power are packed with puppets voted in by fuckwits." He's talking about you and me! Except I didn't vote.

How's about this one: "My tenth's a commandment to go fuck yourself!" Or "Copulate, populate, any fool can procreate, then dull its young to mutant state." !!!! Now see, that's personality.

They may be saying the same stuff as every other punk band, but they're saying it in an interesting way. And that matters! Plus, the guitar has a weird overdistorted cruddy cheap amp sound and the riffs are perfectly mad hard rock.

For some reason, I had heard that this band really wasn't that great. Whoever told me that was DEAF as a BAT! Two thumbs up from me - and I've only GOT two thumbs! (*hides third thumb behind the sofa*)

Manda and the Marbles
More Seduction
(Go-Kart Records, 2003)

I can't lie to you -- you're my son! I don't like power pop. In fact, it's one of my least favorite genres of all-time.

I just cannot deal with hearing the same old happy chord sequences played at medium speed with annoying perky vocals for like FOUR MINUTES PER SONG.

I don't do Sloan. I don't do Matthew Sweet. And I sure don't do Manda and the Marbles.

They've been compared to the Go-Gos, the Bangles and the Missing Persons, but aside from the surprisingly clever Go-Gos debut, I don't go out of my way to listen to any of those bands either.

If you're into cute girl singers and guitarists named "Joe A Damage," you really can't do any better than Manda and her Marbles. They're fast, catchy, smart and sexy. I just hate their chosen genre with every pore on my body.

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