Good Clean Fun - Between Christian Rock And A Hard Place Review
By Dan Upton
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Good Clean Fun got together back in 1997 based on the idea that the hardcore scene was badly in need of a sense of humor. The basic idea was to pay tribute to some of their favorite hardcore bands, such as Gorilla Biscuits, Minor Threat, and 7Seconds--in fact, they say they try to sound as much like Gorilla Biscuits as possible--while having fun with the lyrics. 2006 brings the new disc Between Christian Rock and a Hard Place, whose title should give you plenty of indication that they're still out to have fun.
The CD opens with "A Little Bit Emo, a Little Bit Hardcore," a humorous take on a relationship between a hardcore girl and an emo guy, with them realizing that emo wouldn't have happened without hardcore. The band members are all Vegan and straightedge, so some of the songs like "Positive Hardcore" reference that; one of the funnier references is in the hilarious "Ex-Straightedge-Ex" where he says he feels sorry for all of the non-straightedge kids because they're "destroying their bodies with drugs and alcohol"... but also because they don't get to join in any of the singalongs. There's also a running theme of making fun of MySpace, first in "It's Fun to be a Vampire," with a stereotypical goth kid voice recording a spoken word track until his brother interrupts, and then later on in "The MySpace Song," where he laments a relationship broken up over MySpace and proclaims, "Tom, you created a monster."
There are a few more serious songs on here, like the more politically charged "Drug War," but the real payoff of this CD is in the more humorous tracks. Given that their entire point was to sound as much like another band as possible, you shouldn't expect to find anything new and magical in the music department, but overall this is still a pretty entertaining listen.
CD Info and Links
Good Clean Fun - Between Christian Rock And A Hard Place
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