Protect

(Fat)
by Tim Den

Protect is “a national, pro-child, single-focus membership association committed to building a powerful, nonpartisan force for the protection of children from abuse, exploitation, and neglect.” Protect is the coming together of 26 artists to support said organization, giving all proceeds from the record to the cause. Included are rare, unreleased, and/or new tracks from the likes of Matt Skiba (from Alkaline Trio, an acoustic solo entry here), MxPx (whose “Broken Heart’s Disease” is the best song I’ve ever heard from their otherwise cowshit body of work), Tim Barry (from Avail, more solo acoustic goodness), Coalesce (fucking awesome band covering The Jesus Lizard? Heads will explode from the sheer power!), and even Jawbreaker (who contribute an old, sloppy live version of “Want”). The highlight, though, is Lagwagon/Bad Astronaut mainman Joey Cape‘s “Minus,” every bit as gorgeously melancholy as ever. In between, you get pseudo Swedish death metal from Darkest Hour (I don’t care if you guys learned to solo, your chord progressions/riffs are still fucking predictably weak), FL gruff punk from Grabass Charlestons, Pat Benatars for the 21st century (The Soviettes), an entry from NOFX‘s 7″ Club (“Leaving Jesusland”), and a whole lot more. Almost every song rules, and it’s for a good cause, so what are you waiting for? Note to self: Program iTunes to forever skip Smoke Or Fire, Anti-Flag, and Against Me!. Pure crap.

More: The Falcon, The Tim Version, Communiqué, Dead To Me, The Ergs, The Arrivals, Bars, Teenage Bottlerocket, Rusty Pistachio, The Mishaps, The Lovekill, Hot Cross, Western Addiction.
(www.fatwreck.com, www.protect.org)