Pop Album Reviews : Digging Some Punk Roots : Whence Sprang Offspring? Reworked Oldies and Compilations Outline the Genre’s Heritage for New Fans

Where does your newly minted Offspring or Green Day fan go for a broadening roots-and-heritage experience? The six vatos in Manic Hispanic, veterans of the Orange County punk scene, offer a distinctive approach to the oldies on their Mexified punk covers collection, while the compilers of two anthologies of early Southern California punk serve up some of the original stuff. Meanwhile, the Vandals, who were part of the original era of O.C. punk ferment, keep on yukkin’ with a new album in their accustomed spoof-punk style. Ratings range from * (poor) to **** (excellent), with three stars denoting a solid recommendation.

*** Manic Hispanic, “The Menudo Incident”, Doctor Dream

This all-Latino assemblage of local punkers from Joyride, the Grabbers and Cadillac Tramps is a novelty act that spices old punk morsels with humor playing gently on barrio stereotypes. While it jokingly changes story lines and stirs the original lyrics with Mexican street slang and bits of Spanish translation, Manic Hispanic pays dedicated homage to its musical roots by playing el diablo out of such familiar tunes as X’s “Los Angeles” (rendered here as “East Los Angeles”) and the Clash’s “Garageland” (now “Barrio Land”).

Guitarists Steve (El Hoakie Loco) Soto, Maurice (Mo-Grease) Torres, bassist Warren (Oso) Renfrow and drummer Ruben (Chino) Rivera form a thundering punk instrumental unit that turns each track into a fine, slamming example of the crunchy O.C. melodic-punk style they grew up with. An ultra-heavy rumble through the unjustly obscure Eddie and the Subtitles song “American Society” (retooled as “Mexican Society”) is reason enough to gobble up a copy of “The Menudo Incident.”

Mike (Gabby) Gaborno, dubbed “El Jefe” for the occasion, roars most of the vocals and is the ringleader for comic turns. Funniest moment: Gaborno calling for a flashy guitar solo in the middle of Wire’s “1-2-X-U”--”Hoakie, go for a little bit of that Carlos Santana, homes!”--and Soto responding in true punk fashion with a minimalist two-chord blast.

In a warm concluding skit, Gaborno brings the album’s foolery about barrio life to a touching point: While his pals provide doo-wop a cappella backup, he sweetly fantasizes about a different era in which each potential gang confrontation erupts into . . . a drive-by smiling.

With “The Menudo Incident,” Manic Hispanic has committed a drive-by smiling of its own, choosing catchy and potent punk rock ammo and firing with sure musical aim.

* Available from Doctor Dream Records, phone orders (800) 453-7326 .

** 1/2, The Vandals,”Live Fast Diarrea”, Nitro

Better jokes, better songs and better playing lift the Vandals to their best record since their 1982 debut. Josh Freese, an in-demand alterna-rock session drummer, delivers a perfect punker pummel. Guitarist Warren Fitzgerald scorches punk riffs with a metal-style blowtorch and, donning a producer’s hat, lends the album sonic clarity and clout. These two newer Vandals, who have been moonlighting with the band for the past five years or so, give the spoof-minded act the musical credibility any comedy-rock band needs. Bassist Joe Escalante is the lone holdover from the original recording lineup.

Despite the album’s dubious title and a preponderance of songs that are pure silliness, the Vandals have a point to make in their fun-poking way. Ever the contrarians, they resist punk’s usual flow of ire, pessimism and disaffection, using ridicule to try to get everybody to lighten up. The result is a surprisingly innocent album for a band that can be pretty crude on stage.

Listening to Fitzgerald enact the part of a sweetly exuberant young suitor on the Simpletones’ 1979-vintage pop-punk song “I Have a Date,” one assumes he’s just biding time until he can give it a sick twist. Instead, in a rare Vandals lapse from bad taste, he honors the song’s teen-innocence and plays it straight.

“Get In Line” is a whimsical poke at sinister rockers like Henry Rollins and Trent Reznor, whom vocalist Dave Quackenbush spoofs by wrathfully snarling an account of the frustrating routines of amusement-park queuing. With a delighted chorus of “up, up, up, up, wheeee!,” the Vandals opt for a roller coaster ride rather than dark obsessions. “And Now We Dance” sports a good, anthemic chorus as it keeps up the band’s tradition of poking fun at punk rock’s rituals, fashions and attitudes.

Times being what they are, even the jocund Vandals have to admit that things can get pretty rotten. “Ape Shall Never Kill Ape” takes a sardonic look at humanity’s penchant for deadly tribalism and xenophobia with pithy, acerbic rhymes that Rollins or Reznor might like to have written:

Ape shall never kill ape .

I say wouldn’t that be great?

But some apes, they gotta go.

We kill the ones that we don’t know.

Silliness prevails, though, and it’s a welcome relief from punk’s general lack of hard-core jollies.

* Available from Nitro Records, 7151 Warner Ave., Suite E-736, Huntington Beach, CA 92647. ** 1/2, Various Artists, “Old School Punk”, Neurotic

**, Various Artists,”Stage Diving to the Oldies”, Restless

Both these compilations sift the roots of Southern California punk and unearth their share of nuggets: The two compilers agree on the Agent Orange track “Bloodstains,” the Circle Jerks’ cover of Garland Jeffreys’ “Wild in the Streets” and Middle Class’ “Out of Vogue”--memorable tracks all. They also split the Adolescents’ two finest moments: “Stage Diving” offers “Amoeba,” and “Old School” serves up “Kids of the Black Hole.”

“Old School” makes some further brilliant choices--X’s “Los Angeles,” T.S.O.L.’s “Code Blue” and Suicidal Tendencies’ “Institutionalized”--that no budding punk fan should miss.

Where “Old School” sticks to material from the seminal late 1970s and early ‘80s and emphasizes punk Angst and ire plus a touch of humor, “Stage Diving” loses its focus. It strays as late as 1984 and 1986, and too many of its earlier tracks get bogged down in the political punk that never was the Southern California movement’s strong suit.

The older material isn’t bad: two solid Vandals songs that aren’t so much punk numbers as punk-funk and country-punk parodies; a 1983 T.S.O.L. tune that leans toward Gothic romanticism, and a good (but out of place) late-period Agent Orange number.

As for graphics and liner notes, both packages seem hastily tossed together. “Stage Diving” offers a small sampling of photos and posters; “Old School” is pictorially barren, its cover photo taken from a beach riot that has nothing to do with music. Neither compilation provides what’s needed most: extensive album notes with thumbnail sketches of the bands, including brief histories and commentaries on what made them significant.

The best advice for newcomers to punk might be to resist the temptation of the latest KROQ arrival and devote part of your CD budget to a full-length album or two from the old days. “Adolescents,” T.S.O.L.’s “Dance With Me,” both on Frontier Records, and Rhino’s reissue of Agent Orange’s “Living in Darkness” album each would be a better, if more concentrated, starting point than either of these compilations, and the early Vandals and Social Distortion catalogues will become available in July. Get all these, and you’ll know whence Offspring has sprung.