Split: Jag Offs / Four Letter Words

Four Letter Words from Anaheim and Jag-Offs from San Pedro are two exceptional punk bands with members who are just out of high school and still severely traumatized by the experience. This may account for all the poo humor on this split record, which in no way detracts from the otherwise brilliant songs. Somewhere between cute and ugly, the disheveled punk children who make up Jag-Offs bash out simple, perfect, two-minute-long songs about being young and horny. Singer Monica Barcichi has a great, screeching kitty-type voice, while the other singer Jacob moans lyrics like, "There's something about you girl that makes me wanna rip my clothes off." These adolescent fantasy songs ring true because one imagines that this is a band that doesn't get a whole lot of action, though their tunes are quite awesome. A completely different bag of chickens, Four Letter Words are an unusual costumed troupe of punks, which include sleazy manager and singer the Kernal, faithful roadie Bob Slayer, and ska boy and songwriter A.J. Though their best song, "I've Got a Crayon Up My Nose" from their first 7", is missing here, there are such memorable numbers as "Whorse Penis," an unsettling story about how singer A.J. was raped by a miniature horse, and "Swap Meet Ass," a lustful tale about a white-trash babe the band once ogled at a swap meet. Their absurd rivalry over their name with the English band the Four Letter Word is detailed in "Steelcage Match," where they challenge the Brit-punks to settle the matter in a steel cage. Punk rock is rarely this hilarious and this stuff is much funnier than it sounds.