26 January 2020

BETTY'S LOVE CHILD


It might be hard to describe the appeal of '90s pop punk to people who weren't there, so I often find that the easiest thing to do is just not apologize. The first FACE TO FACE record is great. Most of us listened to NOFX at least through White Trash..., and before I had ever heard of SUBURBAN MUTILATION I cranked BORIS THE SPRINKLER a few times. Hardcore and pop punk weren't mutually exclusive (see PROPAGANDHI...hell, see GRIMPLE), and those guitar melodies seemed to be ubiquitous in basements and rented halls no matter what other genre/s were represented. GOMEZ and WHITE TRASH SUPERMAN hold a historical space as important AUS ROTTEN, which is a strange, and difficult, argument to make to some folks...thankfully there's no arguing in punk. BETTY'S LOVE CHILD were from San Jose, and even though their run overlapped with my relocation to SF I don't think that I ever saw them. Aside from this demo, the  RINGWURM split on Probe is all that made it into my arsenal...but this demo is a glorious time warp. High energy, honest, and wildly catchy pop punk...made by punks, made before we knew that pop punk was a dirty word. Or two words that would turn dirty when used together.





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