Only the crustiest punk could hold any love for Crimpshrine. One of the original East Bay punk outfits who played a vital role in the early years of Lookout! Records and Berkeley's infamous 924 Gilman, Crimpshrine released one obscure album and a slew of 7" records before breaking up around 1990 or so. Duct Tape Soup is a 1992 compilation of most of their material. The band's profits were donated to Berkeley community organizations, and why else would Lookout! reissue it, if not to drum up more donations? And what's the point of putting it out on CD, anyway? Anyone who knows and loves Crimpshrine already owns this album, and on vinyl, no less.

So, should you buy it? Only if you feel like being charitable, in which case you ought to donate directly. In the context of the mainstream punk revival, Crimpshrine's hoarse, tuneless vocals, tinny guitars, and criminally erratic rhythm section sounds like an overwhemingly bad version of Jawbreaker, another former Bay Area punk-pop outfit. Even compared to their contemporaries, they were pretty mediocre. The only positive thing I can say about Crimpshrine was that they happened to be in the right place at the right time to be later hailed as minor punk deities.

-Nick Mirov