Without Warning, It’s Punch Drunk IV – Review

Without Warning, It’s Punch Drunk IV

(TKO)
by Duke Crevanator

With this sampler, TKO appears to’ve said fuck it and just thrown a bunch of bands of totally different styles, attitudes, politics and, as shown by the band photos inside, various degrees of toughness against the proverbial wall to see what sticks. The more I drank, the more enjoyment I had imagining what would happen if these disparate bands played together. How long would it take for the members of Smogtown to shit their pants if they had to open for Antiseen? Judging by their pathetic attempt to sound tough in their chastisement of soccer moms in “Bourgeois Bohemians,” not to mention their band photo, I’d put my bet on 30 seconds or less. I’ve never seen a more pathetic band photo than Smogtown’s.

Hmm, what next? How about Philly’s own Limecell (who contribute their anthem “Working Man’s a Sucker”) playing with Slaughter And The Dogs (who provide “(Come on), Let’s Do It”). I think the big bad boy’s from Kensington would take this one. After all, Limecell has the inherent advantage because, in their photo, one of them’s a wearing a Tunnel Rats shirt. Whatever happened to that band?

Anyway, you get the point. A bunch of PC sissy-boy “punks” mixed with some bad-ass, white trash rockers, and a bunch of bands that exist somewhere in the middle. That doesn’t mean the CD is bad. Not at all. It has some bad ass destructo rock from Antiseen, Cocknoose and Limecell. Some really good ’77-style punk from bands like Those Unknown, The Bad Luck Charms, The Riffs, and The Business. You’ve got some mid-’80s influenced punk/rock’n’roll in bands like The Generators, Electric Frankenstein, The Class Assassins, The Krays, and The New York Rel-X.

The rest of the bands either elicit a “blah” (Reducers SF, The Ritchie Whites, The Forgotten, Strychnine, Bottles And Skulls, and Terminus City) or they’re just plain awful. To listen to them caused me pain, because I knew with the press of the button I could listen to Cocknoose again instead, but I was true to my craft (Slaughter And The Dogs, Hollywood Hate, Smogtown, and RPG).
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