Gatorface

Wasted Monuments (2010)

Joe Pelone

Back in 2008, Gatorface dropped a promising EP entitled Sick and Stupid. It recalled Descendents, Rehasher and early Propagandhi. It ruled. Now in 2010, Gatorface has finally gotten around to releasing a followup. The group's first full-length, Wasted Monuments, takes everything great about Sick and Stupid and essentially redoes it for 24 minutes.

While nothing here quite matches the pop-punk heights of "Kid in a Candy Store," an uber-infectious track from the group's debut, Wasted Monuments is still a fun, compelling listen from start to finish. So if you bought the EP, congrats, here are 13 more songs that rock (well, 12 after the intro track).

For those who are new to this whole G-face thing, here's a walk-through. Wasted Monuments is a jolly ol' record about topics like religion (it sucks!) and people (they're stupid!). After a brief intro track, "The Cleaner" opens the album properly, and from that point on it's pop-punk ahoy. The songs each have a sociopolitical point to push, and while they lack a certain eloquence, they still function well. The title track, for example, talks about how people get so caught up in society's pettier aspects without considering what really matters. It's like if Henry David Thoreau listened to surf punk. Or as Gatorface would say, "Fuck wasted monuments / We all end up as dust."

The record's genius lies in its brevity. Gatorface was founded for fun by ex-members of New Mexican Disaster Squad, and to that end, the band succeeds. While the songs aren't the most technically complex compositions, they're certainly catchy and enjoyable. I'm a sucker for any song that works in a good "whoa-oh," and on tracks like "Burning Crosses" and "Kids Stealing Kids," Gatorface does just that. The band doesn't invent anything new, but they take a formula so forehead-slappingly perfect that there's little point in deviation.