One could debate the issue: could it be considered cliche to have a punk band that sings hard and fast, plays guitar hard and fast, writes eminently average angst-filled lyrics, and emboidies the garage-production caste? I think so. Though I have a hard time liking punk in the '90s, I find solace in the justification that the punkers are keeping everybody else on their toes. If the punkers are willing to make such repellent music with such conviction and passion, making almost no money, well, it makes you question the comittment of the Noel Gallaghers running around.

In any case, Auntie Christ's Life Could Be a Dream is the jell-o in my mowhawk, the mosh in my pit. Ten toe-tapping, angry punk songs characterized by a surprising amount of harmony, and a burdening tendency to repeat the earnestly-shouted lyric lines ad nauseum. If you hate mom and dad, yer school, yerself, Biff the football player and Barbi the cheerleader, and if scarification seems a feasible form of art to you, I think you'll like it. Otherwise, well, you know.

-James P. Wisdom