4 out of 5

Produced by: Hillary Johnson (recorded by)

Label: Victory Records

Ah, so many, many repeated listens to this.  And later, with Streetlight Manifesto, appreciating that I wasn’t alone in loving this disc – or rather Tomas Kalnoky’s breathless and spirited singing and playing – and the disappointment, at the time, when purchasing Catch 22’s followup ep and hearing the generic ska-rawk the group produced sans Kalnoky.

From the literary-reference title – yes, why I bought it – to that noir cover art, to the brusque, flat production (which Kalnoky hated – in part why he rerecorded the album under the Streetlight name – but which I feel absolutely adds to the disc’s scrappy appeal), to the mouth-garbling blending of punky eff-you epithets with ska tales of two-tone suits and fights, all skewed through Tomas’ proetic ramble-a-second lyrical style…  For any punk-leaning listener, it’s hard to not get swept up in the passion.

Of course, all of that energy – and accompanying youthiness – makes for some cringey moments that are rooted in teem angst, bro, and yeah, I’d like to think my teen self recognized this when shouting alongside the shallow ‘got no cash got no girl’ refrain of speed-blast Giving Up Giving In.  Mind you, that didn’t stop me from playing the track on forever repeat, I just recognized (I think) that nothing outright bemarked this, at the time, as a landmark listen for the older cats and kitten struttin’ their more heavy-duty Victory Records releases from the time.  (Surprises in store when the 00s brought Thursday and their ilk…)

But: double bass drums kicking in at the sweetest points, and some of the tightest and catchiest ‘skunk’ (ugh) riffs written to date, capped with a varied and talented wind section and Kalnoky’s diehard wordy spew… I never stopped giving the disc its fair share of play, and though I still get the same shameful grin from chanting along to them angsty lyrics, well, I’m still danged chanting along.