Guttermouth

Shave the Planet (2006)

Brian Shultz

Guttermouth will probably never, ever be regarded as anything more than a 2nd-rate NOFX -- but you know what, they probably really don't mind that. Nor do their fans -- the ones that are still around, at least.

While the skatepunk veterans assuredly lost a healthy portion of their fanbase with the 1-2 spiked pop punch of 2001's Covered with Ants and 2002's Gusto, the "back to the roots" dirty punk rock of 2004's Eat Your Face definitely brought a few back. While certainly brief, the newest effort here, Shave the Planet continues in this same fashion, bringing to mind a fair-to-middling mix of 1996's Teri Yakimoto and fan favorite, 1997's Musical Monkey.

The real problem is that these days, the band is about as funny as a Carlos Mencia special. Sure, they still know how to write a straight up, snotty pissed off skatepunk track (the self/American-critique "Shave the Planet"), but they're few and far between. "Capitalizing from Plump Mistakes" even brings out the kind of vocal intro that Mark Hopppus grew up on. But then, aside from a line frontman Mark Adkins spits telling some off-camera character to stick Zoloft up their ass, white noise reigns for the next 15 minutes or so. "God, Steve McQueen 'The Work Song'" is a jokey working class song -- a theme of which they explore again in the next, closing track "Upside Down Space Cockroach," which is riddled with ill-advised keyboards (like a considerable amount of the rest of the album) and alien effects on Adkins' voice. The one song that might stand out to most in this huge majority of the album is "Primate Camp," and that's because it sounds like an equally weird Gusto outtake.

This is hard to recommend even for the ones whose youth was ruled by the great, creative sense of humor (the conceptual genius of "What If?" is hard to deny) Guttermouth once held bountifully. If Eat Your Face made your "best of `04" list, it's hard to go wrong with a good portion of Shave the Planet; otherwise, let the green pastures of 5 o'clock shadows flourish.

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Shave the Planet
Capitalizing from Plump Mistakes
My Chemical Imbalance