Jon Cougar Concentration Camp
Melon (BYO)
by Scott Hefflon
Jon Cougar Concentration Camp. It’s a name you hear once, you do a double-take, ask if you just heard correctly, and then you never forget. And, for a change, you won’t be let down once you hear the band behind the name. JCCC has been making ripples in the mucky punk pond for some time, releasing a shitload of 7″s (eight in three years qualifies as a shitload, right?), and a few minorly celebrated full-lengths. But this album and its supporting tour should achieve them household word-dom. That is if BYO works the album outside of the elitist punk rock circle jerk who already know and love JCCC, if Chris Fields and Dave Swain can hold a drummer, and if they tour in support of their own band instead of The Queers. Sure, listing “ex-touring band for Joe Queer” looks swell on your resumé, but these boys need to do what’s right for them.
JCCC have a gruff-voiced, tongue-in-butt-cheek meanness, much like Screeching Weasel did in their heyday. And since SW hasn’t been up to snuff in years, it’s about time someone took over as the under-produced, stripped-down, straight-ahead punk rawk name to know. Songs like “My Favorite Show is 90210,” “Punk Rock Gives Me The Shitz,” and “You Either Got It Or You Don’t” are modern-day classics, and plenty of others will have you wishing Melon came with lyric sheets.
(PO Box 67609 Los Angeles, CA 90067)