After reissuing landmark, well-loved, but long out-of-print ’80s hardcore punk albums from the likes of 7 Seconds, Youth Brigade, Circle Jerks, and others, the reissue label Trust Records Company has set its sites on reissuing the back catalog of Edmonton, Alberta’s perenially overlooked and underrated SNFU, rated by those who saw them as one of the very best live bands of their era.
This, their 1985 debut album for BYO (for which Trust are the current stewards, hence their previous, aforementioned 7 Seconds and Youth Brigade reissues), is an absolutely raging slab of melodic skate punk. What differentiates it from most records of the era, along with the Belke brothers’ (guitarists Marc Belke and Brent Belke on guitar) airtight playing, is vocalist Ken Chinn (aka Chi Pig)’s lyrics, including the anti-sexist “She’s Not on the Menu” (rare for the time and similar to 7 Seconds’ “Not Just Boys Fun”). Other songs, such as “Plastic Surgery Kept Her Beautiful” and “Seein’ Life Through the Bottom of a Bottle,” address social ills alongside more “fun,” if macabre, material like “Cannibal Cafe”.
This reissue comes in a variety of color vinyl variants and in a now sold-out special edition that also includes a 2nd LP of demos, a 104-page book detailing SNFU’s early years from 1981 to 1985 before the recording of this album, and a set of rarely seen photos from those early days.
