All, Straight Faced and the Voodoo Glow Skulls headline the Punk-O-Rama III Tour, which is coming to town Monday, Oct. 2, at Bricks Club, 579 W. 200 South.
ALL; "Problematic" (Epitaph). ***
After years of toiling away, trying to find the right blend of pop melody and rock crunch, veteran Colorado pop-punkers All may have finally done it.
Actually, this is the second straight album on which the formula has worked so thoroughly, resulting in another set of insistently catchy, two-minutes-or-less gems.
And though some have bashed the group for its seeming political incorrectness, this time around there are at least two (surprisingly intelligent) swipes at superficiality, "Real People" and "The Skin."
However, not all of it is serious-minded stuff. As usual, there are some silly love songs ("Teresa" and "Stupid Kind of Love"), as well as the expected juvenilia (at least one song title that can't be referred to in polite company).
Also, this should at least sate those waiting for the next album from pop-punk legends the Descendents (which features the same lineup of musicians, but with another vocalist).
STRAIGHT FACED; "Pulling Teeth" (Epitaph). * 1/2
As generic as punk-rock music can be at times, its sub-genre of hard-core suffers even more from the "soundalike" syndrome.
In fact, just to survive, hard-core bands need to mix melody and strong songwriting to stand out, which helped such long-lived acts as Bad Religion and 7 Seconds stand out and escape mediocrity.
It's a lesson that seems to have been lost on Straight Faced. The Orange County four-piece has the requisite volume and high-speed tempos to be hard-core superstars, but can't discover one really good groove to build a song around.
Even worse, the band's third album seems to take its musical cues from "tough-guy" rockers like Korn and Limp Bizkit. That is, when the band isn't just copping riffs from Helmet and lyrics from Rage Against the Machine, both of which could outdo them, even on their worst days.
VOODOO GLOW SKULLS; "Symbolic" (Epitaph). ***
Even if ska is finally "out" with music buyers, please don't tell the Voodoo Glow Skulls.
The Orange County six-piece had been straying away from the ska part of its "ska-core" sound. But the emphasis on brassy punk only resulted in two straight disappointing albums, especially 1998's "The Band Geek Mafia."
Thankfully, the Voodoos have reintegrated their seemingly disparate musical influences, and here they come off as a hard-core version of Oingo Boingo.
But as ominous-sounding as they could be at times, Danny Elfman and company never would have written anything as creepy — or as clearly threatening — as "Nightmares/Musical Therapy" or a song with a Spanish title that features the Rev. Horton Heat on guest guitar.
That song also continues the Voodoo's tradition of singing at least a handful of songs in Spanish, the mother tongue of founding members Frank, Eddie and Jorge Casillas.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com