Operation: Cliff Clavin

Out of Control: A Discography of the 1990s [+ DVD, zine] (2005)

Sam

Remember when kids were saying that Against Me! were gonna save punk rock? They called them a breath of fresh air or something like that. I feel that kind of way about another band, except they're already broken up, and if you ask someone for a second opinion, they'll probably tell you I'm retarded or something.

Operation: Cliff Clavin; how did bands this good ever exist? How did bands this good so successfully evade popularity? That second question bums me out. Hellfest selling nineteen times as many tickets as the Fest probably sold bums me out too. But this is the way the world works. Forgive the way I'm writing this review. I was just looking through the liner notes for this album and this is the way the kid in the band writes and I guess it temporarily rubbed off on me. Or maybe this is how I always write, but I'm just hearing it in my hand as that kid's voice. Beats me.

I'm not gonna go into too many details here, 'cause the kids of Cliff Clavin didn't (…or maybe just 'cause I'm lazy?). If you like pop-punk, you'll like O:CC. Especially if you like your pop-punk a little sloppy and recorded cheaply, but not badly. If you're into DIY bullshit and printing oversized liner notes at Kinko's that won't fit into my CD book, then this stuff is right up your alley. It's stripped down, it's simple, it's fast, it's smart.You get the general idea, right?

Operation: Cliff Clavin was started by the same kid that started Plan-It-X Records and is also the male half of Ghost Mice. That's the quick history lesson. For the full lesson, check out this release. As the title suggests, Out of Control: A Discography of the 1990s is pretty much everything these kids recorded in that decade. It's got eighty-something songs. Most of them are good. Maybe even all of them. They sing about all kinds of stuff. You might think some of it is stupid, but I like just about all of it. Plus, it comes with a zine explaining a bunch of the songs, a DVD called What We Look Like or something like that, and some stickers and some other crap. All this for only ten dollars postage paid. Go buy it 'cause it's good.