With the advent of Green Day and the Offspring, melodic punk has traded in

its tattered Anarchy T-shirt for a gold-lined hoody. Artists on labels such

as San Francisco's Fat Wreck Chords and L.A.'s Epitaph (begun by Fat Mike

and Brett Gurewitz, current and former members of punk demigods NOFX and Bad

Religion, respectively) routinely sell hundreds of thousands of records with

each release, as do Pennywise.

Natives of the sun 'n' surf-drenched suburb of Hermosa Beach, Calif.,

Pennywise deal in the kind of time-honored melodic hardcore first laid down

in L.A. clubs almost 20 years ago by the Descendents and Black Flag. During

the past 12 years the quartet has released six full-length albums, appeared

on countless compilations and weathered the suicide of one member (bassist

Jason Thirsk died in 1996). At present they stand as one of the genre's most

visible survivors and, with the near watertight Go Straight Ahead,

they remind us why.

Quite frankly, there's nothing new here. Pennywise understand what the kids

want and, luckily, the band appears to fancy the same thing: breakneck

tempos, crunching chords and impassioned vocals featuring lyrics that are

inspiring at best, belabored at worst.

In fact, if there's one problem with Go Straight Ahead it's that by

the fifth song (of 17), the band's rants on money-grubbing ("Greed"),

government conspiracy ("My Own Country"), societal breakdown ("Can't Believe

It") and self-respect ["Might Be A Dream" (RealAudio excerpt)] become redundant. "With so much

bullshit what can you believe?," the band asks in "Never Know," while the

next and final song, "Badge of Pride," starts, "All the bullshit that I see,

so much I can't believe." There's another more disturbing tendency that

Pennywise flirt with here: for all of their righteous indignation, they

contradict themselves.

Take "My Own Country," for example. In the same breath with which singer Jim

Lindberg talks about "taxes that make us slaves" he asserts his desire to be

a "dictator on a throne." A few seconds later he's talking about "United

Anarchists." What?! Elsewhere, in "Watch Me As I Fall," the singer claims,

"I'm illogical hypocritical a bleeding heart liberal," while a few lines

later he tells us, "I'm an honest hypocrite imploding modern idiot." Either

the band is making a statement about the difficulty of walking an

ideological line or they're just lazy. Either way, Go Straight

Ahead's lyrics could have benefited from an editing session.

But despite these inconsistencies Pennywise have forged an album that is, if

not always convincing, never boring. "Straight Ahead" (RealAudio excerpt) is a simple call for

responsibility in the face of decaying moral structure. "Go straight ahead/

it's your fucking life," Lindberg sings over a mean hardcore progression.

Meanwhile, "Aliens" (RealAudio excerpt)(currently spinning on a modern-rock station near you),

is a slowed-down (relatively speaking) comment on the challenges of living

outside established norms. "Where are the aliens?" Lindberg asks, before

concluding, "We're the aliens."

Anyone who's familiar with Pennywise's brand of punk will be quick to point

out the band's considerable debt to SoCal punk pioneers Bad Religion (as

well as pre-MTV Offspring). Yet after 12 years they've managed to carve a

niche of their own. Go Straight Ahead is a solid, if not

earth-shattering, addition to a long, loud lineage.