Born Free

Somehow I got on the Kottonmouth Kings mailing list - I have no idea why, having never written a positive thing about the band since its inception, thoughtfully filing it under the "Goon Rock" label along with other "alt-radio"-friendly "punk" acts as Korn, Limp Bizkit, and any other band that seems to have missed that day in spelling class when the teacher explained the letter "c" can be used as both a hard and soft consonant.

Anyway...

The Humble Gods in question consist of members of the Kottonmouth Kings, Pennywise, Descendents and Dag Nasty, creating a sort of punk-pop "super group." The product is a lite version of punk, throttled back so as not to scare off the radio programmers who they so dearly want to impress with songs like "Sick World," that sound like how a "smooth FM" rock band like Boston might approach "punk."

Because they're holding back for the money-soaked suburbanites, any real sense of anger, hostility and/or rage have been siphoned off, making lyrics like "These are dangerous times" sound more like whining than fury.

It doesn't help that the vocals have a warm, fuzzy feel as if they've been altered by an effects unit, stripping away any necessary rawness (The title track, a sort-of tribute to The Ramones, is strangely sculpted in a way Dee Dee or Joey would yawn over). In fact, everything on this CD is neat and tidy, kind of like an anal retentive version of NOFX. Hardly punk, but come on, punk as we know it has been dead for years, replaced by cheap fashion robots with big wallets and their team of lawyers.

back to   Posted April 12, 2004. Copyright © 2004 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.