Thumbs up to Punkvoter.com. They’ve mobilized the punks like no other force in punk rock’s history. To show that we’re not blowing cheap publicity smoke up their asses, both Jimmy Alvarado and I go a little bit more in depth about them in our columns and articles in this issue. To tell you the truth, with the notable exception of the blazing new Dillinger Four song, “Like Sprewells on a Wheelchair,” Green Day’s surprisingly good “Favorite Son,” and The Dwarves “Kids Today,” there is very little new on this comp that twisted my ear up and glued me to the stereo. (I like but already have the Bad Religion, Flogging Molly, Hot Water Music, Operation Ivy, and Jawbreaker cuts.) I honestly feel dirty and shameful listening to such built-in-the-laboratory-for-the-Warped-Tour bands as Autopilot Off and Yellowcard. Ick. Really. Fuck your violin and your sugar-voiced slime. But that’s such a small quibble when I know that hundreds of thousands of kids are going to take this home, sit in their front rooms with their parents, and pop in the DVD. To know non-punks will hear why Patton Oswalt thinks it’d be fuckin’ cool to die in the Apocalypse sidled next to a great dissection of the importance of independent media in a time of war, featuring Amy Goodman, makes my heart warm. People on the fence will get at least a dollop of information from a non-conservative viewpoint. The packaging is informative, rational, and well aware of its audience.
–todd (Fat)