Various

Punk Rock Jukebox (1995)

fathead

Punk covers are as rare as a George W. Bush screw up nowdays. However,, you don't see too many punk bands covering other punk bands, especially ones of legendary status. This cd is a true rarity.

No Brain starts the album with an awesome cover of the Ramones "I'm Against It", with guest vocals by Tim Armstrong. Other awesome songs are The Swingin' Utters version of "I got your number" by Cocksparrer, Bouncing Souls cover of the classic "Code Blue", by TSOL, Murphy's Law does a great cover of the Rezillos' "Somebody's gonna get their head kicked in tonight", and H20's original cover of "Friend" by Marginal Man.

The best song is easily 88 Fingers Louie's cover of Minor Threat's "I Don't Wanna Hear It". If you thought Minor Threat's version was intense, just list 88FL's version. WHOA! I like Awkward Thought's version of "Evil" by 4 Skins a lot too. If that weren't enough, a live version of Bad Religion's "Were only gonna die for our own arrogance" is performed by Sublime.

There are also covers by Jughead's Revenge (the plasmatics), Black Velvet Flag (fear), Dead Guy does "police story by Black Flag pretty well, and the New Bomd Turks, the Goops, and Sweet Diesel all make their contributions, along with a couple other small bands.

All these songs are classic punk tunes, but one band that was suprisingly missing was THE CLASH. I mean, Waterdog covers the Jam for christ's sake, you'ld think the CLASH would have a spot on here. Aaa, maybe no one had the balls to try it. The booklet contains comments by the covering bands on what influence the original bands' songs had on them, so that makes up for a few of the weaker tracks.

I have never seen this in stores, never seen it in mail order catalogs, or even in used shops. My friend gave it to me after he bought it somewhere in central Ohio.If you can find it, I definitely recommend getting it. It's really cool to hear a punk cover that has substance. Don't get me wrong, the Gimmie Gimmies do it well, but this is the ultimate punk cover album.