Shmunks For You I Can't Talk... (Pluto Records)

This Dallas hardcore is so obviously bent on the destruction of the mainstream music industry with these thirteen songs that it's freakish. Guitar laced with meaningful punk words, letters and melodies mainlined with a darkly polished needle. Okay, so we've heard similar stuff before on debut albums but Shmunks still seem like they're standing on some doorstep. You might catch them playing with the band Evelynn at the Club 412 in Fort Worth or jamming with acts like Joe Wilson and Sunset Falls To Ashes. "Lonely nights on the Mississippi river are hard when you're only 14," says the band in its biography. "We're the outgrowth of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of confused teenagers trying to express themselves, 4 or 5 at a time." Lucky enough to gain access to Deedle's Room Studio (Read Animal War, My Spacecoaster) these guys are an advance deployment of the Texas Punk Rangers. Hell, guitarist Jeff Meaningless and drummer Josh Francen still believe the rock gods are smiling on them. "Thank you provider, praise you providers," Scott Victory and Adam Paul Sands sing on the song 'Kittyhead Doorstop' along with "All it takes is a little faith. Yes, lord. I believe." Not exactly Langston Hughes, but Shmunks' twisted barre chords and keen lyrics separate `em from many in the hardcore scene. The entire title of the CD is actually I Can't Talk to the Walls Because They're Yelling At Me but I can barely spit that one out after six beers. (copyright January 2002 HONEY MUSIC and JustLikeHoney.net. All rights reserved)