Life in the Fat Lane, Various Artists
San Francisco's very own Fat Wreck Chords return with their fourth Fat sampler, and this release is quite possibly their best. The best bits about these kind of samplers is that you get such a diverse range of talent, and this is no exception. From the hardcore of Sick Of It All to the ska of Mad Caddies and back again to the comedy of Me First And The Gimme Gimme's, it's all here.
Kicking off with Lagwagon's 'May 16', the CD starts off in fine fashion. One of Lagwagon's better songs, Joey Cape has some of the best vocals in punk. He may be short in stature, but he is certainly not short of talent. Crazy ska-punks the Mad Caddies follow up with the superb 'Road Rash', which is found on the brilliant 'Duck and Cover'. The Mad Cads are quite possibly the best band within their genre, and if you fuse brass with some insane drumming, you've got a big standout track.
I've never been entirely convinced by No Use For A Name, but 'Coming Too Close' is certainly one of the better tracks from the 3 star rated 'More Betterness'. It's nothing particularly groundbreaking, but it's still a very good song by a band that are on the verge of becoming one of punk's big guns. I'm not a big Sick Of It All fan, but 'Pass The Buck' is a decent song. Energetic with buzzing guitars and machine gun drumming, the track carries on the CD's great start.
The next few tracks are a little disappointing. I'm not a big Consumed fan, but 'Twat Called Maurice' is one of their better songs. Musically this Nottingham lot are fantastic, but I'm not a huge fan of vocalists Steve's talents. Still, it's better than the Swinging Utters, who are absolutely awful. I only wish that 'Promise To Distinction' was called 'We Promise Extinction'. Please, please, please, quit now. Good Riddance are a usually a good band, but in my view 'Heresey, Hypocracy and Revenge' is not the best example of their work. Russ has a great vocal, but this just isn't their best track. And the disappointment continues with the average Frenzal Rhomb. 'Do You Wanna Fight Me' is very boring and this Australian lot certainly won't win many fans over with songs as bad as these.
But just as you think the album's good start is going to descend into mediocrity, the brilliant Strung Out provide the rocking 'The Exhumation Of Virginia Madison' taken from the blinding 'Twisted By Design', and Avail weigh in with 'Taken'. Followed by this is the fantastic 'San Dimas High School Football Rules' by Santa Barbara kings The Ataris. Unfortunately Tilt have to ruin it with the piss-poor 'Old School Pig' and then Goober Patrol provide the shocking 'Part Time SF Ecologist'.
Still, you can always rely on NOFX to provide the goods, and whilst 'The Plan' isn't that great, it's still very listenable with a great harmony in the chorus. 'Keep the Beat' is typical Snuff, and 'Dummy Up' is a good Screeching Weasel track. Screeching Weasel are pretty underated in my book, and this is a good example of what the band are all about. Kicking off with a piss-take of Bad Religion, Me First And The Gimme Gimme's slaughter 'My Favourite Things' in a manner that only they can. If you haven't checked this lot out yet, what are you doing reading this? Unfortunately, someone at Fat decided to include Germany's, ahem, best punk band on this record. Wizo are absolutely godawful. German punk rock? What the hell....
Fat IV is your typical punk rock sampler, with some good stuff and some crap. But the good stuff does outweigh the crap, and for the ultra-low price that you will be able to pick this up for, it's well worth buying. 18 tracks and 43 minutes of good punk rock. You know what you should do.
Paul Savage
