Adrenalin O.D.

Sittin’ Pretty (Grand Theft Auto)
by Jon Sarre

Forgive me, but a wave of nostalgia passed through me before I even listened to this album. Ah yes, the halcyon days of high school: Fallin’ off my skateboard, gettin’ pushed in the hallways for no reason (other than being a convenient target), bein’ called a “weehd-o” (I grew up in Lowell, MA, y’see), workin’ part time in a grocery store and blowin’ all my paychecks on Shafer Beer and cheap LPs put out by bad hardcore bands like Adrenalin O.D. But A.O.D. wasn’t just a bad hardcore band, they were a Great Bad Hardcore Band: Loud, cheesy, and about as subtle as a beer belch. They were from New Fuckin’ Jersey! They sang about suburbia: Trans Ams, The Brady Bunch, and rock ‘n’ roll gas stations (“He-y-y-y, like, fill ‘er up, dude!”). These aren’t just philosphical reference points either, these are titles of actual songs!

You get your money’s worth with this greatest non-hits compilation, too. There’re 44 songs crammed into 75 minutes. The sound’s not too bad, either (I sometimes question the wisdom of re-releasing cheaply-produced punk rock onto CDs).

Thanks to the miracle of digitally remastered analog sound, you can pick up singer/guitarist Paul Richards’ witty social critiques of American bourgeois society (I’m not kidding) out of the powerchord-driven wall of noise that manically fuels every song (sorry, no ballads here). Best of all, A.O.D. hit upon a little-used concept, as far as hardcore is concerned: Fun, fun, fun! You like fun! It’s uh… fun!

You owe that much to yourself.