US Chaos: “Blame It on Sam” was recorded in ‘83, lost, refound almost twenty years later, and finally pressed. It stands up as catchy as, say, The Vibrators in a very bad, very cynical mood. It’s poppy in a mid-tempo, swaggering way, and the song’s basically about fucking shit up, not taking personal responsibility, and blaming the powers that be. Oddly soothing. Statch and the Rapes win the “Most Offensive Band Name Title” for the year and I wish the band was as aurally off-putting to back it up. They’re pretty tame and in a strange way remind me of a PG version of the Anti-Heros, where the songs are half spoken, half yelled, the lyrics are real easy to follow, and the instrumentation ain’t bad, but unlike the Anti-Heros, they don’t seem to have a lot of teeth and snarl to back up the barking. Not poo, but my pants aren’t on fire, either.
–todd (Punkrockrecords)