Guttermouth

Gusto (Epitaph)
by Scott Hefflon

Guttermouth kick in yet another testament to peppy, acidic-humored punk rock filled with head-bobbing fun and snarlingly funny lyrics. This release follows Covered with Ants, their Epitaph debut after five releases on Nitro (which I liked consecutively less, not that the band lost a helluva lot of sleep over it). One interesting thing about Gusto is that it openly talks about, like, loving girls. And not in a Screeching Weasel way (well, sometimes), but really enjoying sharing a female’s company and, like, listening to her’n’shit. Of course, there are also songs about pulling down their pants in public and peeing in the shower, just so you don’t think they’ve gone soft. The Smashmouth/Bare Naked Ladies-ish tune (shit, in other words, I keep skipping the song and don’t wanna think about it long enough to rag on them for it) sucks balls, and there are a few other real clunkers here, but “My Town” is darkly “Rock Lobster” and features Emily from Tsunami Bomb kicking in the B-52’s female vox to Mark “What? No nickname in quotes?” Adkins’ best dork voice. There’s also the snappy, doo-wop of “Foot-Long,” the rousing “pirate punk” of “Looking Out for #1,” the touchingly lounge “Twins,” the quick dip of “My Girlfriend” (which closed Punk-O-Rama7), and a classic closer called “Lemon Water” that cracks me up. Almost spoken word, interspersed with wood-block lounge-jazz, there are a few lines that make milk come out of my nose even when I’m not drinking milk. Blag from the Dwarves used to end CDs with noir spoken word accompanied by music Antonio Banderas coulda walked down the street to in Desperado, but Mark “I’m a closet softie” Atkins is too funny for that, instead pondering the need for lemon wedges in drinking water from his perch on a bar stool. Former King Missile John Hall has little to worry about, but Mark’s bar stool observations are funny and well-delivered and could perhaps provide a creative outlet even more despicable than playing quirky punkpop in 2002.
(2798 Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90026)