The Orange and the Black

An unofficial tribute to the Boils' hometown hockey team, the Philadelphia Flyers, on the occasion of the team's 40th anniversary, The Orange and the Black is that rarity: street punk with a sense of humor. These six brief songs are straightforward, early-'80s Oi!, except for the amusing Thin Lizzy pastiche "Warriors on the Ice," and all of them feature giddily enjoyable shoutalong choruses made to be yelled by sweaty, shirtless and inebriated crowds. Seriously, if the National Hockey League doesn't immediately adopt the closing anthem "I'm a Hockey Fan" for a series of television commercials, then they clearly learned nothing at all from the fan fallout of the ruinous 2004 lockout. Out of a long career, The Orange and the Black is possibly the best record the Boils have yet done, simply because it's overflowing with an non-ironic affection for its subject, and it's oddly refreshing to hear street punk delivered without the usual bile. Of all the steadily increasing subset of punk records about hockey, this is one of the most enjoyable.