The venerable punk reissue instituion Trust Records Company continue their excavation of the great Circle Jerks catalog, following up on their 2021 reissue of the seminal 1980 debut Group Sex and 2022’s reissue of their 2nd album, 1981’s Wild in the Streets, with this, a reissue of their 3rd album, 1983’s Golden Shower of Hits.
A bit of an odd duck in their catalog, it’s never had quite the cachet of their previous albums (both rightfully considered early hardcore punk classics), and to be fair, there are some legitimate reasons for this. While original bassist Roger Rogerson returned, drummer Lucky Lehrer had left the group by then and was replaced by John Ingram (the only Circle Jerks album he’s on). It was also released by the little-known Allegiance/LAX label (an offshoot of ex-Strangeloves member Jerry Goldstein‘s Far Out Management company) as opposed to the 1st 2 records on Frontier and their subsequent work on Combat/Relativity, so it has been out of print for most of the last 40 years.
Still, it’s notable that album tracks “Coup d’Etat” and a re-recorded “When the Shit Hits the Fan” (with Earl Liberty and Chuck Biscuits replacing Rogerson and Ingram, respectively) raised their profile considerably the following year when they were featured in Alex Cox‘s directorial debut Repo Man.
Soundwise, it’s definitely somewhere between the straightforward hardcore punk of their first two albums and the more metal/hard rock oriented albums (1985’s Wonderful and 1987’s underrated later career gem VI), with most of the material remaining closer to their earlier work. There’s even their trademark humor, not limited to the album’s jacket, following up their covers of AM radio classics “Just Like Me” (Paul Revere and the Raiders) and “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” (Jackie DeShannon) on Wild in the Streets with a full-on, Stars on 45-style medley of 6 more ’60s/‘70s AM radio classics strewn together to illustrate the arc of a relationship from a couple first falling in love to an unplanned pregnancy, wedding, and then divorce.
It should also be stated that this remaster sounds stunning, among the finest of all of Trust’s reissues to date, and the green vinyl is pretty as well. It just jumps out of the speakers, so if you love this album, or are just curious to hear this long out-of-print minor L.A. punk classic again, this one’s a no-brainer.
Some versions come with a bonus 7” featuring both versions of “When the Shit Hits the Fan.”
