Guttermouth
Gusto
Epitaph
Well, it starts out great – no, really, it does! The first two tracks on Gusto are smart, clever, and catchy pop-punk tunes. The first, “Camp Fire Girl #61” is about a disgusting, idiot girl that he is excited to see anyway. “Scholarship In Punk” contains similarly endearing lyrics: “The one thing I liked about going to school/Was falling in love with/A beautiful girl like you.”
It’s all downhill after the title track. I guess Guttermouth is trying to be funny with the country song knockoffs, but the whole effect is pretty lame. And “My Town,” Guttermouth’s attempt at pseudo-‘80s, is an auditory nightmare.
Perhaps three-chord pop-punk about girls gets boring, but they should really stick to it, because that’s what they do best. Or maybe I just don’t get this CD because I’m not a 13-year-old boy and I don’t think that punk bands playing mock country is automatically hilarious. In any case, the gimmicks on Gusto fail miserably.
However, mad props to the boys for tackling the subject of peeing in the shower, a truly important issue. I guess the whole CD isn’t lost.
Epitaph Records: http://www.epitaph.com
