PINHEAD GUNPOWDER - Carry The Banner LP (Colour Vinyl)

Label: 1-2-3-4 Go!

Carry The Banner is the second album by Pinhead Gunpowder, recorded in 1994. Originally issued in a variety of formats by a succession of failing labels, this reissue marks its first proper release as a vinyl LP. Pinhead Gunpowder’s sound—a confluence of the bands from which the members came, like Crimpshrine, Green Day, Monsula and Chino Horde—is here even leaner and meaner.

Not a bad mini-LP from Pinhead Gunpowder -- same energetic, street-smart pop-punk, same dual vocals by Bill Schneider (Monsula) and Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day). But in comparison to their CD compilation Jump Salty, Armstrong seems to be taking over more microphone duties, making this project sound more like his better-known other band.

Their cover of Diana Ross' "Mahogany" is great, and besides, the idea for this project is just to have fun rather than to please the most jaded rock critics. If every band out there had a mentality like these guys do, then the world of rock & roll would be a better place.