Got It Made (EP)

Guttermouth

Rude Records, 2016

http://xxx-guttermouth-xxx.com

REVIEW BY: Pete Crigler

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 08/02/2016

It’s hard to believe, but this is the first bit of new music from Guttermouth in over ten years. The band that brought us such gems as “Perfect World,” “Under The Sea,” and “Diamond Studded Bumble Bee” had resorted to the punk oldies circuit alongside The Vandals, Social Distortion, and the Adolescents, among others. But here they are now with six songs in twelve minutes.

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“The Point” is a great flashback to classic Guttermouth of old, the way everyone loves them: fast, furious, and frenetic, just the way they should be. Not everything here is a winner, but that’s okay. It’s just good to have Guttermouth back. Hopefully, we might even get a full-length at some point.

Mark Adkins, the only original member left in the band, still sounds like the anti-everything asshole he always has been. “I’ve Got It Made,” an ode to doing absolutely nothing, is prime Guttermouth and one of my favorite punk songs of the year. The best thing about this band is that even though they’ve been away for a while, they neither slowed down their tempos (i.e. Blink-182) nor went political (i.e. Green Day). They just stayed the same, pissing everyone off in the process. “A Punk Rock Tale Of Woe” is an f-u to all the pretentious assholes that have taken over the scene. This coming from a band that once sang “Worship dead junkies in shitty bands….Kill your fuckin’ SELF!” isn’t very surprising.

“Old Man” is an interesting song; Adkins’ vocals have shown their age for a bit now, and this record really shows how past his vocal prime he is. The song itself is good, but every punk band hits a perennial wall called age that shows whether they should be going as a band or not. Some, like Bad Religion, are still going and are still great. Others, like Reel Big Fish or Fear, should probably stop now and save themselves embarrassment. Guttermouth is kind of caught in the middle; it’s great that they’re still around, but they could’ve given us a full-length of amazing tracks instead of an EP.

This EP is good; it’s just a shame they couldn’t write another batch of songs to make the running time a bit longer. Hopefully this won’t be the last thing we hear from a band as great as Guttermouth.

Rating: B

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