No matter how short the songs in question are, it's tough to sift through 50-plus tracks without feeling like you've taken a journey into the abyss. Keeping the tradition of outrageously satisfying hardcore anthologies alive (like Jerome's Dream, Usurpe Synapse, Neil Perry, Racebannon, and many others before them), 31G presents the Jenny Piccolo canon. And, I must say, this McFlurry of chunky, cool tracks is a delight from start to finish.
Considered in some circles to be The Locust's 'sister' band, JP favored the short 'n' snappy format of their sibling but subscribed to a much rawer sound (which The Locust also employed very early on), one completely free of synths. In other words, Jenny P (no relation to Mr P, surprisingly) were a power violence band with a few new tricks up their sleeves, rising to prominence just as the genre — led by groups like Man Is The Bastard and Crossed Out — started to wane, its bands breaking up and forming new ones with slightly new aspirations.
If you're a devotee to fast, furious hardcore, it's tough to knock this collection. It's brief, ballsy, and flaunts the sort of brawn you can only find in a band with a quick-wristed drummer. There are moments where the tempo sludge-steps down a few notches, only to be swept away by a tempest of slammed high hats, sloppy, de-chained snare, and rhythmic barks that keep an even sturdier meter than the percussion. A few classic hardcore shout-a-longs — think Suicidal Tendencies circa the rally cry of "Pledge Your Allegiance" — pop up like prairie dogs, only to be bonked underground in favor of more thrashing. No complaints here, as the tubby tracklisting flies by in what seems like no time at all. Hardcore completists without this in their stockade are missing an important chapter in a book that would be read and reinterpreted by bands like An Albatross, Daughters, and Combatwoundedveteran. Recommended.
1. Joined at the Brain
2. Six
3. Wood Breaking Manifesto
4. One Watt
5. Punky Brewster
6. Product of Power
7. Purity Control
8. Suicide Cliché
9. Jade
10. Traction Reaction
11. Hand That Feeds
12. East Reed
13. Dim Bulb
14. Heavy Metal Weekend
15. Bipolar on Lithium
16. Severe Battery
17. Bore Dome
18. Tank Om Jag Vore en Dods Maskin
19. Bara Gå Omkring Och Slösa Liv (Have You Seen My Tanks?)
20. Total Alienation
21. Blunt Still Burns
22. Amber Gambler
23. Red Dead
24. Purity Control
25. High School Handgun Fever
26. Cyanide Inhaler
27. True Til' Death
28. Left Behind
29. Bearing Holes
30. Legally Uching
31. God & Gym
32. We Are All Illegal
33. Donation to the Dead
34. Patented Genes
35. Preschool
36. Salvador's Radio Problems
37. I Am 38. Remembrance
39. Shutdown
40. Freshly Grown Warheads
41. Liberty Machine
42. Followhead
43. Pure
44. Face Extinction
45. Acceptance of Meanings
46. Pain Culture
47. Sink or Swim
48. Forgotten
49. Labor Day '92
50. Six
51. Hand That Feeds
52. One Year
More about: Jenny Piccolo
