Can of Pork

Can of Pork

1992

Lookout Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Pounded Clown: Bad Trip  2. Brent's TV:  Trinidad  3. Lizards: Promise Is a Promise  4. Engage: Evolution  5. Horny Mormons: Redneck Woman from Planet Mars  6. One Man Running: Get a Job  7. The Lookouts: Kick Me in the Head  8. Anger Means: Void  9. Krupted Peasant Farmers: Piano Song from Hell  10. Preachers That Lie: Whiners  11. Porcelain Boys: Sidetrack  12. Drippy Drawers: Hole 13. Lagwagon: Noble End  14. Los Rudiments: Martian  15. Rice: The Future 16. Blatz: Learning How to Smile  17. Jack Acid: Parents Are Really Weird  18. Fifteen: 17 Reasons  19. Jüke: College Town  20. Mystery Experience: T-Shirt Commercial  21. The Vagrants: Birth  22. Pinhead Gunpowder: Benicia by the Bay  23. Downfall: North Berkeley  24. The Wynona Riders:Break  25. Spitboy: Dysfunction  26. Good Grief: Why Quit?  27.  Freefall: Other Day  28: Sawhorse: Two  29. The Mr. T Experience: Vive le France

Super classic Lookout Compilation, often cited as being highly influential and historically important (it even says so on the spine)... A common debate in the punk community is whether "Can of Pork" or the earlier "The Thing That Ate Floyd" is thee truly great Lookout comp... Personally, I have no stake in  the argument...I don't own a copy of "Floyd" and haven't heard it enough times to proclaim a winner...Although, I do have to point out that "Can of Pork" doesn't have anything as era-defining as Crimpshrine's "Summertime" on it (I hate the phrase "just sayin'" so I'm not going to use it here, although it would probably be appropriate in this case)... "Can of Pork" does carry a ton of nostalgia for me, since it's so representative of the era when I first discovered Lookout ("Floyd" was way before my time)...The cover art alone brings back so many memories of filling out those little catalogs that used to come in every Lookout release...And oh my god! When that big catalog would come in the mail... Mowed many lawns and babysat lots of brats to get enough scratch to buy the latest batch of Lookouts...I've been keeping an eye open for any and all old Lookout stuff recently and when my local record store got in a used copy of "Can of Pork" I was there to snag it before anybody else beat me to it... Now, I don't know if just my copy is screwy or if it was an issue on all copies, but the track listing is slightly screwed up... I've looked everywhere online and can't find a listing that exactly matches mine...Some of these bands are pretty obscure to me, so hopefully I'm talking about the correct band (Hey! I figured this would be a good opportunity to flaunt my ignorance!)... Anyway, I'm doing this a little bit differently today and breaking it down track by track and assigning a grade to each one...Keep in mind the grades are relative to the album. For example, if I was rating Beethoven's Fifth I would probably give it a 5/5, which is also the score I would give a Blatz song. But that doesn't mean that Blatz wrote a song every bit the equal of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. (Awww, who am I kidding, I like "Fuk Shit Up" way more than Beethoven)...I wouldn't take this grading shit too seriously anyway...It's not like Spitboy is going to have to repeat 8th grade just because I didn't like their song...Anyway, here we go...So you can listen along, I put up the referenced track when available on youtube...Most of these aren't however. So I also put a link at the bottom of the page that takes you to somebody's youtube page where they posted the whole damn thing.... 1. Pounded Clown: Bad Trip  Kicking things off on the WTF tip, we have "Bad Trip"...Not the sort of thing you would normally associate with Lookout Records, it's a truly bizarre psychedelia  track with fast-forward vocals...However, it works as a reminder of the diversity you could often find in the Lookout roster...I don't know whether to give this 5/5 for its uniqueness or 1/5 cos it vaguely irritates me...Let's say, 2.5/5... 2. Brent's TV: Trinidad Ramshackle Beat pop...Doesn't knock me over with its awesomeness but it sure is a lot of fun...I love the "I love 'er, love 'er, love er" bit...4/5... 3. Lizards: A Promise is a Promise  Surf/punk/psyche...Kinda sounds like a bored Dead Kennedys. 3/5 4. Engage: Evolution:  Pretty decent metal-tinged hardcore.   I probably would have flipped my lid over this when I was 14 years old. I can hear a lot of Ian MacKaye in this...4/5 5. Horny Mormons: Redneck Woman from Planet Mars  Great band name...I'd imagine that's probably the main reason they're here...Jokey, doo-wop/ska reminiscent of  a less clever or inventive Skankin' Pickle...Pass... 1/5 6. One Man Running: Get a Job I love the shit outta this! Classic style pop-punk with some emo-ish guitar detail....This kind of stuff is the reason why I buy Lookout comps...5/5 7. The Lookouts: Kick Me in the Head Larry Livermore's band, also notable for introducing the world to Tre Cool...This is over-the-top macho, wah-wah-drenched, 70's rock...There's probably a bit of irony here, but I suspect a bit of sincerity too...I've heard much better by the band, but cool enough...3/5 8.  Anger Means: Void Crusty, gutter-voiced punk...Reminds me of a a more metallic Crimpshrine or possibly Operation Ivy stripped of their ska. Which is to say, it has a very early Lookout tone...4/5 9. Krupted Peasant Farmers: Piano Song from Hell After reading the song title, I was hoping to hear something along the lines of "Lick My Love Pump," but there's not much in the way of piano here. For fans of "Liberal Animation' or "S&M Airlines"-era NOFX... 4/5 10. Preachers That Lie: Whiners This style of out-of-control hardcore  always fascinates me. The vocals are a bit colorless, which is a slight hinderance. Gets my toes tappin, though...3/5 11. Porcelain Boys: Sidetrack Great backing vocals on this one. Possibly the catchiest melodies on the entire comp. Definitely in the running as one of the record's best tracks...Must hear more of these guys...5/5  12.  Drippy Drawers: Hole  Some guy yelling about his penis being split three ways... Sorta all over the place...To be honest, this song goes in one ear and out the other for me...2/5 13. Lagwagon: Noble End Woah, Lagwagon on Lookout! They're usually associated with Fat Wreck Chords's brand of NOFX sound-alike bands. It's always cracked me up to imagine Fat Mike listening to Lagwagon's demo and thinking, "Hmmm, I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something about these guy's  that I like..."  All kidding aside, Lagwagon's easily one of my favorite Fat bands and I'm glad to have them here...This song also appeared in a slicker version on the band's debut album (which is the version I posted above cos I couldn't find the "Can of Pork" take )....5/5 14. Los Rudiments: Martian Organ-driven 3rd wave ska.  Lots of wacky sound effects, samples and Star Wars references done in the usual "Chk! Chk! Chk!"/ "Pick it up! Pick it up!" style... I've heard worse 3rd wave ska but I've also heard better... 2/5 15: Rice: The Future Alright, this might be one of the tracks throwing me off...I saw Rice listed as one of the featured bands on the back cover, but the actual track listing omits them...But now that I listen to this more closely, they are technically on here, it's just not an actual song. I had always heard this as yet another sample at the end of the Rudiments song...Basically, it's just a few seconds of recorded dialogue where someone tosses around a couple of insults and then proclaims "Rice is the future" or something to that effect... No actual music. Weird.  Rice was a pretty entertaining hardcore band...A proper track would have really livened things up...1/5  16. Blatz: Learning How to Smile Quintessential Gilman Street stuff...Tough, ramshackle punk with a bit of sweetness at its core. Not the best song by the band, but it's always great to hear them...To me, this is a real turning point of this comp, where the patchiness ends and it just becomes great song after great song.... 5/5 17. Jack Acid: Parents Are Really Weird Pretty cool, chugging old school punk. Lots of little twists and turns...3/5 18. Fifteen: 17 Reasons Hey! I'm wearing a Fifteen shirt as I write this! One of my all time favorite bands. This song is in their funky, sloppy Hendrix mode, with Jeff Ott alternating between his high nasal whine and his gruff bark. This would have sounded great on side two of "Swain's First Bike Ride!"  5/5 19. Jüke: College Town This is an F-in' good song! Summery, Ramones-y pop-punk. Makes me long for the 90's punk era when killer shit like this was seemingly all over the place...  5/5 20. Mystery Experience: T-Shirt Commercial This song is basically just Mr T Experience recording a jingle for their merchandise. A perfect example of why I consider MTX the funniest and most clever band on Lookout...Catchy as hell too! 5/5 21. The Vagrants: Birth Alright, I'm declaring this the official best song on the album. Just fuckin' epic. The shimmering verses lead to a towering emotional monster of a crescendo...Everything great about 90's punk is contained in this track. Why wasn't this band way bigger?! I don't even know if they ever even released a full album...5/5 22. Pinhead Gunpowder: Benicia by the Bay I also have this song on the "Jump Salty" album. Pinhead Gunpowder is  notable for teaming Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong with Crimpshrine's Aaron Cometbus. This falls squarely in the Cometbus style of gritty, socially conscious, yet always catchy punk. As I listen to this, there's very much the feeling of, "This is how you do this shit..." .5/5 23. Downfall: North Berkeley  The reason this album is still a much sought-after item. It's one of the few places you can hear the band Downfall, which was Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman's post-Op Ivy, Pre-Rancid group...Dave Mello from Op Ivy was also a member of this band. Punkish reggae that sounds like Rancid, but not early Rancid, oddly enough...Reminds me of something off of "Life Won't Wait" or "Indestructible"... This band was notable for making an album that still has never been released due  to...apparently no reason whatsoever...Release this shit already! And while you're at it round up the remaining Operation Ivy tracks so I can stop paying 16 bucks for bootleg singles! 5/5 24. The Wynona Riders:Break Another one of my favorite Lookout bands...The "J.D. Salinger" album was a real staple of my late-teen listening years...These guys were so damn ambitious while retaining a sense of humor...Qualities I greatly admire. I'd describe this track as "technical pop-punk" with lots of  well-constructed guitar riffs...Hell yes. 5/5   25. Spitboy: Dysfunction I hope I'm talking about the correct band at this point...This is where the track listing gets really screwy...Similar to the Rice situation, I see the band Spitboy listed as one of the included bands on the back cover, but they're not listed in the track listing.  I had to look up who this band was and the song title online. Anyway, this is fine hardcore with overly operatic vocals that drive me nuts...If this was an instrumental track, I would probably be all over it...2/5 26. Good Grief: Why Quit? Jerky and sing-songy...This song is cute and I want to hug it... 4/5 27.  Freefall: Other Day Hey, I like this one! Sounds like the sort of boyish emo that was popular in the mid-to-late 90's...I could easily picture them on the Jade Tree roster...5/5 28: Sawhorse: Two Damn. I'm still really hoping I'm talking about the right bands at this point...If not, please send me a quick note stating: "What the fuck, poser?! You can't even tell Sawhorse from Freefall?!?! Why would you even bother writing a review when you're not even sure what fucking band you're reviewing?!?! Why don't you go back to your Blink 182 albums  and kill yourself, pussy!"  If you could do this for me, I'd really appreciate it! Anyway, this is post hardcore with a few tough-guy moments...A smidge better than alright-ish...3/5 29. The Mr. T Experience: Vive le France Another variation of "God Bless America." There was a time when every MTX compilation track had the exact same music with different lyrics, resulting in "God Bless Lawrence Livermore" and "Vive le France." Funny, but at this point I'm somewhat sick of this song...5/5 for the first time I heard it as "Good Bless America"...2/5 for this particular iteration...You can find all three variations of "God Bless..." on the Cd reissue of "Big Black Bugs Bleed Blue Blood"... So overall, I'm giving "Can of Pork" a 4/5...A few bum tracks and quite a bit of middling stuff but there are so many classic bands here that it's worth checking out. Especially if you're an admirer of early 90's Lookout...The Downfall track is reason enough to buy it...I think you can still find used copies at a  reasonable price...I got mine for maybe 13-15 bucks... Here...You can listen to the album at the link provided below if you can't find a copy at your local record store: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPjojmFz3xw