Like with all catchy oi, you’ve gotta check the lyrics, lest you realize halfway through singing along that you’re singing “God bless America the Great! Boot to the black man’s face!” So I went on their website, and I discovered the lyrics to a song called “Popeye in Afghanistan.” This song isn’t on the CDEP, but the lyrics give you a good reason why you’d probably not like this band. The song is about a US soldier in the Middle East. Here we go. “Then he came upon a caravan/Trying to get across to Pakistan/When the evil one had showed his face/Our hero put him in his place/Let that be a lesson now/To all our enemies on the prowl/When you mess with the best the great US/You’ll end up in a world of stress.” First of all, that last rhyme has to be one of the lamest I’ve read in a long time. (A “world of stress”? Come on!) And second…well, do I even need to say it? If this were a cereal, it’d be United We Stand-Ohs.
–maddy (Self-released)