SHOT BAKER / VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL:
Vindictive Tribute Split: 7”
The Vindictives are perhaps the most under-appreciated of all 1990s pop punk bands. So, imagine my delight upon receiving this Vindictives tribute record! The problem with this sort of thing is that it just makes me want to put on a Vindictives record instead! Plus Joey Vindictive & Co. have got to be one of the hardest bands to cover—crazy Muppet-ish vocals, over-the-top energy and craziness, ack! I’ve heard Shot Baker are a decent band, but their covers of “Future Homemakers of America” and “Glad to Be” lack the insanity of the originals. Vacation Bible School cover “Assembly Line” and “Automatic,” and get a little bit more of the Vindictives craziness, and rock, um, a little harder. That said, if I ever heard either of these bands (or, really, almost any other punk band) playing a Vindictives song at a show, I’d be jumping around like crazy! And I wholeheartedly salute the production of anything in homage to one of the best bands of all time! If this were a cereal, it’d be the revival (about ten years ago?) of Quisp, one of most amazing cereals ever! –Maddy (Underground Communiqué)