Cerebral Ballzy: Cerebral Ballzy

Guess which half of their name the members of Cerebral Ballzy more closely align themselves? The golden era of offensive, submoronic hardcore band names (we miss you, Crucifucks and Fearless Iranians From Hell!) may be buried next to Ronald Reagan, but fortunately nobody told the dirtbags in Cerebral Ballzy, because their glorious debut is a breath of fresh air straight outta 1983. In fact, references to our 40th president and erstwhile hardcore whipping boy Reagan are the only signifier missing from CB’s take-no-prisoners album: frontman Honor Titus, bassist Mel Honore, guitarists Jason and Mason and drummer Crazy Abe rip through 12 songs in 19 minutes, addressing the all-important topics of girls (“Junky for Her”: “Then she’ll do me / Man, it’ll rule!”), drugs (“Drug Myself Dumb”), rebellion (“Sk8 All Day”, “Cutting Class”) and, of course, giving the finger to The Man (“On The Run”, “Don’t Tell Me What To Do”, “Don’t Look My Way”, with the brilliant lyric, “I’d be mad too if I wasn’t me”.) Punishing, scuzzy, brutal, dirty and to the point, Cerebral Ballzy could not give less of a fuck about the last 18 years of so-called punk. It’s the perfect companion piece to last year’s masterful OFF! Blast, The First Four EPs. Hardcore lives!