This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Punk used to come in two flavours: American and British. Now its family tree has more branches than Starbucks.
Case in point: American punks Hüsker Dü took their name from a Scandinavian board game, then wrote a song called 59 Times the Pain. This Swedish punk foursome used it for their handle — only fitting, since their intense and gritty sound is directly descended from Yankee rock ’n’ punk. Though, in all fairness, it’s not the sound of ’80s Minneapolis that inspires and informs their style as much as it’s the power-chord stomp of New York old-schoolers like Johnny Thunders, the California skate-grind of Pennywise, the ghoulist hardcore of The Misfits and even the primal proto-metal of The Stooges — all of which they distill into a unique concoction that avoids cliches while honouring their forebears. Whoever they turn out to be.
