Punks Insure Us Against Musical Bankruptcy

We live in wondrous times. Who would have guessed that braying, irreverent punk rockers would give a substantial boost to Orange County’s civic image (at least in rock ‘n’ roll circles), as the triple platinum-selling Offspring have done? And that respectably conservative politicians would manage to turn O.C. into a laughingstock, its public pride and confidence splotched with gushing graffiti sprays of red ink?

While the pols scramble to clean up their mess, the punks keep coming, looking to do their bit for community pride by committing sonic mayhem.

At the core of ADZ are three players who were part of the county’s first punk blast 15 years ago; Guttermouth and the Grabbers are newcomers with albums steeped in local punk traditions. All recognize that brevity is the soul of punk, turning in 11- or 13-track albums that clock in at 22 (Guttermouth), 29 (ADZ) and 32 (the Grabbers) minutes. Ratings range from * (Chapter 9) to **** (Cloud 9). Three stars denote a solid recommendation.

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** 1/2

ADZ: “Where Were You?”; Lethal Rikk Agnew, Tony Brandenburg and Casey Royer have something approaching 50 years’ collective experience in punk rock, but their most glorious moment came early on, when they were three-fifths of the lineup on the Adolescents’ 1981 debut album.

“Adolescents” is the one O.C. punk album to hear if you’re hearing just one, although that proposition might be taken as fighting words by certain partisans of Agent Orange, T.S.O.L. and Social Distortion.

Though the lineup was short-lived, the original Adolescents’ continuing impact has led to periodic reunions that still can generate a crowd. “Where Were You?” is the first album to feature as many as three of the five original members since the excellent but overlooked “Balboa Fun Zone” (1988).

The ADZ reunion brings inconsistent results ranging from flat throwaways to a few highlights that could be mistaken for lost outtakes from the classic Adolescents debut.

The Rikk-Tony-Casey realliance was brief: Only singer Brandenburg, whose new nom de stage is Tony Reflex following previous incarnations as Tony Cadena, Tony Montana and Tony Adolescent, remains in the band. Guitarist Agnew evidently fell from the others’ good graces before “Where Were You?” was even finished: He is the target of scorn on a song called “Rikki Headcheese.”

Royer, the drummer on the ADZ album, carries on as front man in D.I., a post he’s held since 1983. Rounding out the recording lineup, and remaining in a revamped stage lineup led by Reflex, are guitarist Rodger Ramjet and bassist Mike Rouse.

The opening theme song, “A-D-Z,” suggests that the band isn’t infected by any sense of its own historical importance: “It’s the same three chords . . . playing songs ‘cause we’re bored/A-D-Z.”

Along with those three chords come Tony’s always-convincing (if one-dimensional) snarls, screams and growls and a persuasive band attack bolstered by massed, anthem harmonies from a younger band of punk contenders, Face to Face.

But boredom sometimes afflicts the songwriting. “Where Were You?” is a dull account of a men’s-room altercation at a punk show. “Car Crash” looks toward an oddly pointless target for its routine venting of punk obnoxiousness--the scornful lyrics sketch the circumstances of the auto wrecks that claimed ‘50s/’60s pop icons James Dean, Ernie Kovacs and Jayne Mansfield.

“Solitaire” is flat, and “Adnauseum Dub” (sic--you expect punks to get Latin spellings right?) is an aptly titled musical joke invoking the spacey, echoing atmosphere of a reggae “dub” mix.

On the plus side, when ADZ manages to write a good, catchy, shout-along cadence into a song, the band knows how to ride it.

“Flyswatter” echoes a Wire nugget, “1-2-X-U,” but it’s a worthy theft, while the anti-cop “Riot on Sunset” and the anti-drug “Some Kind of Fun” give Mr. Reflex a chance to impress by vomiting sardonic antagonism all over his targets.

The aforementioned “Rikki Headcheese” may be unkind in its taunting of an erstwhile band mate, but it at least does Agnew the honor of hoisting him on his own musical petard--the song surges with the dense swarm of harmonized guitars that he and his brother Frank turned into a much-copied signature of the early Adolescents’ sound.

Stay away from this if you think it’s tawdry to milk the punk past; those who feed on old punk should be pleased at just how hard ADZ can milk it.

(Available from Lethal Records, P.O. Box 14868, Long Beach, CA, 90803-1414.)

* ADZ plays tonight at the Showcase Theatre, 683 S. Main St., Corona. (909) 340-0988.

*

** 1/2

Guttermouth: “Friendly People”; Nitro

Pals and sometime touring partners of the Offspring, Guttermouth is now the first band on the new record label that the Offspring’s Bryan Holland and Greg Kriesel are financing with part of their haul from “Smash.”

Guttermouth covets the Vandals’ old handle as snotty, irreverent, all-purpose punk satirists who hold nothing sacred. If you don’t laugh, they’ve failed.

On “Chaps My Hide,” a mercifully brief ditty about the adult equivalent of diaper rash, they’re so puerile that you can only wonder whether they’re still in diapers themselves.

But numbers like “Jamie’s Petting Zoo,” a gruesome little song designed to win the revulsion of animal-lovers everywhere, and “Can’t We All Just Get Along (at the Dinner Table),” score satiric points while reveling in willful breaches of politically correct good citizenship.

The latter is the album’s best joke: Guttermouth slips into a General Assembly’s worth of silly foreign accents while suggesting flippantly that keeping a multicultural table might be the recipe for international harmony. The band has fun by mockingly espousing just the sort of banal idea that extreme proponents of multiculturalism might put forth in all seriousness--peace ‘n’ harmony advancing, like the army, on its stomach.

“Derek” picks a fight with an opposing punk faction, the “straight edge” brigade that shuns all intoxicants, including alcohol. “Disneyland” finds Guttermouth claiming common ground with Sting in decrying the bulldozing of tropical rain forests. While the tirade may be sincere, its juice comes from Mark Adkins’ snide attitude rather than from the substance of the argument.

For the album’s profanely titled closing track, Guttermouth adopts a comically nihilistic, we-hate-everything stance that looks back to the Adolescents’ “Creatures” and “I Hate Children.” There’s a hollowness in all-purpose mockery when it doesn’t reveal a firm moral foundation.

Guttermouth, if only glancingly, does stand on that old punk standby, individualism, as a core value that’s being advanced in slaps at the herd mentality. More often, Guttermouth just delights in being silly and rude for the fun of it.

The band’s musical foundation is strong, if familiar, as received punk styles (including some of that Adolescents massed-guitar sound) are executed crisply and with lots of punch--especially on a galloping instrumental, “Summers Over.”

(Available from Nitro Records, 7151 Warner Ave., Suite E-736, Huntington Beach, CA, 92647.)

* Guttermouth and Face to Face play Dec. 31 at the Ice House, 112 E. Walnut Ave., Fullerton. (714) 740-3052.

*

** 1/2

The Grabbers: “The Way I Am”; Doctor Dream

All the Grabbers ever do is complain; what makes them tolerable, and even enjoyable, is the unfettered garage-punk that carries singer-lyricist Tommy Macke’s sour observations about messed-up relationships and life as a stacked deck.

Instead of looking to the speeding, hard-core sound, the Grabbers gain extra heft by slowing the tempos a bit and letting the guitars slice and careen in homage to the Sex Pistols.

Like their label-mates, Cadillac Tramps, the Grabbers get lots of mileage out of a high-voltage double-guitar attack and shout-along refrains. Those massed vocals help compensate for Macke’s somewhat thin lead voice.

Lyrically, the Grabbers’ alienation is most affecting when expressed obliquely so that it takes on a mood of creeping anxiety, as on “Kodac Moment” and a cover of Dream Syndicate’s “Days of Wine and Roses.”

When the only point is to vent spleen, things get pretty ugly. “Lost all control, now turn and run / I’ll cut out your tongue and I’ll call it fun,” Macke advises one of the insufficiently faithful or understanding women who are his frequent targets.

Of course, the character making these threats and moaning about betrayals is a sodden drunk or drug addict who clearly hasn’t earned anybody’s faith or understanding.

The album title suggests that we take the songs as a composite character sketch. In the end, with “So It Seems,” a glimmer of self-awareness dawns on our antihero after the woman in whom he had placed his hopes has finally abandoned him:

I believed in nothing, so it seems

Sit alone and watch TV

Wonder what will happen to me if I don’t straighten out my life

I’m living in a daze, looking at life through a haze Stronger melodies and a countervailing humor or poignancy would have helped the Grabbers give this grim study more dimension. But the cumulative weight of the album’s consistently driving, trenchant music makes it worth hearing them out.

(Available from Doctor Dream Records, 841 W. Collins, Orange, CA, 92667, or (800) 453-7326.)

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Hear the Music

* To hear samples of the music from these artists, call TimesLine at 808-8463 and press * and the artist’s category number.

ADZ: *5570

The Grabbers: *5580

Guttermouth: *5590

For a menu of past readings: *7810