Just when it appeared that "pop" had to preface every use of "punk," along comes Headnoise with a hardcore, mohawk'ed, ransom note graphic'ed, slightly art damaged attack, with sing-songy/shouted hooks and a most passionate "screw you, Satan!" 'tude. Funny thing is that roughly the same aesthetic elements went into the band's previous EP on Sofa Records, to less satisfactory (to these ears) results. Living at the JPUSA commune must do a band some good.
The group's femme lead vocalist channels her fire for the Lord into a fury from which it must have taken a box of throat lozenges to recover after the recording. The only respite she gets from maintaining such an onslaught is the half-sermon/half-philosophical treatise, "Peace?" Her husband gives her a break, as well, on an acoustic flamenco hidden bonus cut, which follows another hidden bonus of a distractingly lo-fi short concert recording.
Being a Grr record, it's nigh inevitable that a guest or two from another JPUSA act or two would make an appearance. Here, it's a bagpiper on "W.A.R." (don't know if it's from Ballydowse or the Crossing). If that's not surprising enough, check the Keith Green and Danny Devito (!) samples on "No Compromise" and "M.P.G.," respectively. In the main, though, this is fast, furious hardcore punk rock that's angry at the right things, never bludgeoning any one sonic aspect into tedium, and catchy without being "pop."
