Guttermouth

Musical Monkey (1997)

freehat17

The decline of Guttermouth is one of the most unusual degressions of a punk band in recent years. After releasing several fast-paced and immature albums on Nitro, Guttermouth moved to Epitaph and made Covered With Ants, a slower, much poppier affair that lost them some fans. Then came Gusto, a pop-punk album filled with experimentations in country, jazz, hip-hop and 80s-styled new wave. Suddenly, their punk credibility all but disappeared.

To find out just how far Guttermouth fell, one only needs to listen to Musical Monkey, which is their best album. As you might expect from the album art, featuring a toy monkey feasting on plastic babies, this is not for the easily offended. But Guttermouth has an edge over most offensive-for-the-hell-of-it bands out there, because they're equal opportunity offenders. They're not afraid to be sexist ("S.D.F.B."), sacreligious ("Good Friday") or homophobic ("Big Pink Dress"), as long as it gets a laugh.

And it definitely does. This album is hilarious if you're the kind of person who laughs at the idea of human-donkey fornication. Thankfully, I am, so I find this CD to be a never-ending source of amusement. The funniest song here would have to be "Baker's Dozen," which gleefully mocks the punk scene with lyrics like "sober vegans, you all suck." Subtle they aren't, but Guttermouth sure knows to get their pojnts across.

The album's one misstep is a minute and a half metal pisstake called "Corpse Rotting In Hell." It's a funny take on metal, but it disrupts the flow of the album and will no doubt have you pressing the skip button every time you listen. But other than that, this album is a non-stop assault of hilarious punk rock. It won't change anyone's life or anything like that, but it is damn good fun.