Lower Class Brats

After a full decade's worth of mediocre to poor singles, EPs and albums, it's a bit of a surprise that the Lower Class Brats' live album Loud and Out of Tune is by some distance the best thing the Austin-based poseur-punks have ever done. It's still not exactly good, mind, but the Lower Class Brats' brand of slavish devotion to the first wave of British street punk and Oi! bands actually makes a lot more sense in a live context. The singalong choruses don't sound nearly so calculated when there actually are people there singing along to them, and lead singer Bones DeLarge only occasionally resorts to his A Clockwork Orange crutch. Unfortunately, the song title "Standard Issue" still provides a far too telling hint at the Lower Class Brats' near-complete lack of originality, which as always is the thing that makes them a tough band to love for anyone who's old enough to remember the bands DeLarge and company owe so much of their sound to. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide