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DOA
Just Play It Over And Over Again/Win The Battle/Hardcore '81 (Sudden Death)
Reviewed by Alan Wright
Although Joe Keithley is the sole original member left in DOA, he keeps the flag a-flying still. The CDEP was a taster for the new full-length, and features four songs that show up on Win The Battle and one exclusive song, which I'll address first. That song, "All Across the USA," is a good, catchy number that features co-lead vocals from Bif Naked, the eclectic Canadian pop-punk singer who has quite the set of pipes. As I said, the other tunes appear on the full-length, which also features the return of original bassist Randy Rampage - since departed again to return to his lumberjacking job - and latest drummer The Great Baldini. They included a great version of ZZ Top's "La Grange," a remake of "Dead Men Tell No Tales," (originally on the 1993 Alternative Tentacles CDEP, It's Not Unusual), the excellent sing-a-long "Just Say No To The WTO" and "Mexican Holiday." I believe this was also supposed to include, as a bonus, the long out-of-print "Don't Turn Your Back On Desperate Times" EP from 1984, as stated in the CD booklet, but it doesn't. More on that later.
The rest of Win The Battle is a body check of punk rock political power, but a sense of humor still fully intact, with great songs like "If I Were A Redneck," "I Am Canadian," "Warmonger," and "Return to Lumberjack City." They also do a slowed-down Blues version of "Fuck You," called "Fuck You With The Blues" here, which has actually been a staple of DOA live shows since the late '80s if I'm not mistaken. There's even a Spinal Tap-ish heavy metal parody called "Curbstomp The Devil."
Which brings me to Hardcore '81. This is such a classic, I don't know where to start. Some say the term Hardcore, as applied to punk, got its start here, but as Joey states in the liner notes, people were already starting to call bands like DOA that, hence the album title. The band at the time included Joe, guitarist Dave Gregg, Randy Rampage and uber-drummer Chuck Biscuits (later of Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Danzig and Social Distortion) and were an incredibly tight and efficient unit. This LP rages from start to finish with brutal, scathing rants like "Unknown," (great piano!), "Smash The State," "M.C.T.F.D.," "001 Losers' Club," "Fucked Up Baby," and "Waiting For You." Plus there's their insane version of Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown." Now, here's the release that had the "Don't Turn Your Back On Desperate Times" EP added on as a bonus. This EP was recorded for a John Peel session around the time of the ill-fated and way overproduced Let's Wreck The Party album - an album which Joe himself can't stand, and that Brian once described to me as "a waste of time" - but here the songs rock with energy and rawness. Just compare these versions of "General Strike" and "Race Riot" to the lifeless ones of "Party." Plus, there's the great slow churner "Burn It Down" and "A Season In Hell" (sung by then-bassist and former Subhumans singer Brian Goble).
© 2003 - Alan Wright