Nesak
19836
1998
Powerhouse punk-pop wrapped in a primo package, New York's Finest II pairs an original blast from an au courant club band with that same act covering a notorious classic. So you get "Neurotic Pleasure" from the renowned Electric Frankenstein as well as EF's cutthroat version of X's "Sex & Dying in High Society". Don't remember the Kowalski's being as cool as "First Date" indicates, and the familial fivesome also tears up Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge". Local heroes the Toilet Boys take on Motorhead's "Vibrator" while delivering perhaps their best work, "Another Day in the Life" (Random couplet: "This is where I draw my conclusion/And this is where I use my illusion."). Sure it's been in a TV commercial, but how great is the Buzzcocks standard "What Do I Get" (covered here by Jones Crusher)? The Latex Generation original "Cycle" cribs Tom Petty, while the smiley Stisism earns honors for resurrecting the Beach Boys' brilliantly bizarre "Vegetables". A clever marketing scheme which makes listening to new music easy, New York's Finest II hides a prime history lesson in a jeering jolt of neo-punk.
-STONE, Cheap Trash NYC
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