Some folks might look at the the songs on the Queers' latest album

Don't Back Down, and then at the band's total song catalog and wonder

just how far these guys have progressed. After all, there's probably not much

artistic distance between singer and guitarist Joe Queer's first song "Kicked

Out of the Webelos" (which he claims he wrote when he was in seventh grade),

and a new tune like "I Only Drink Bud.

On the other hand, that's only part

of the picture. Between writing the aforementioned tunes, Joe Queer also penned

some of punk's best pop songs. "Love Love Love" and "Goodbye California" from

1990's Grow Up are particular favorites of Joey Ramone. Moreover,

artistic growth be damned; Don't Back Down is the Queers' best record to

date. It not only satisfies more consistently than any of their four other

full-length albums, but it also finds the band mining a deep, sincere

appreciation for the Beach Boys that may even rival their love for the

Ramones.

Joe Queer attributes much of this album's success to the fact that

the Queers essentially produced Don't Back Down themselves...

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