Undercover
Anthology Volume 1
Reviewed by Bruce A. Brown
Even the most naive newcomer would probably not insist that Christian punk began with MxPx or even Crashdog. No, the roots of punk were firmly planted in Orange County, California, in the early 1980s, by Undercover. The band was formed by believers as a direct response to the music that was inundating the New Wave/Alternative clubs, championed by nationally-known acts like Husker Du, The Replacements, The Ramones and The Clash. Undercover, led by founders Joey Taylor, Gym Nicholson, Rick Alba and Bill Walden, attempted to harness some of the recklessness and anger which fueled the punk movement, and put a more positive twist on the songs. Where the Sex Pistols sang, "I am an anarchist, I am the anti-Christ," Undercover sang "You'll have to excuse us, we're in love with Jesus." Where The Ramones sang "I wanna be sedated" and "beat on the brat with a baseball bat," Undercover sang "I'll be a fool for You" and later (more solemnly) "God came down and died for kids like you and me," "I cried last night/first time in years" and "When I was away from you/I had plenty of nothing here to do." Unlike secular punk music, which found artists blaming everyone but themselves for the world's ills, Undercover's music (especially on its fourth album, Branded) was full of self-loathing, doubt, anxiety and guilt. Not the happy post-salvation pap of much Christian music, not even the core of the bouncy, pogo-pop of Undercover's first couple albums. Indeed, Nicholson's "Cry Myself To Sleep" contains some of the most gut-wrenching lyrics ever penned in Christian rock--("It's hard to fall asleep/when I hate the life I lead...It's easier telling lies/when I'm dying inside/than to open up my heart/and have it torn apart..."). The production on these albums, while basic, holds up surprisingly well. The musicianship, while not sophisticated, serves the songs more than adequately. Like many bands who got to a certain place first, Undercover was not necessarily the best at what they did. Daniel Amos took New Wave to new heights, The Choir grafted complex arrangements onto basic chord structures and Mike Knott certainly broke the mold when it came to honest lyrics. But none of those artists would likely have achieved what they have without the contribution of Undercover. Stayed tuned for Volume 2...