Adrenalin O.D.
The Wacky Hi-Jinks of…
(Chunksaah, orig: 1983; re: 2008)

There are pockets on The Wacky Hi-Jinks of Adrenalin O.D. where the band certainly lives up to their name. Waves of intense thrashing come out of nowhere, engulfing the listener in a furious storm of white punk noise. Stock footage of nuclear explosions, building implosions, epic monster truck maneuvers, and an animated cat rubbing its giant unbelieving eyes race through your head. Then you notice the title of the song you’re listening to is “A.O.D. vs. Godzilla”, and you remember this New Jersey foursome was mostly in it for the yuks.

Adrenalin left a nice shticky mark on eighties hardcore during their nine years together with song-jokes like “Paul’s Not Home” and a slew of irreverent covers (the Brady Bunch theme, “Baby Elephant Walk”, etc). Today your chances of coming across an A.O.D. record are about as high as tripping over Jimmy Hoffa’s bones in your driveway. Chunksaah Records has attempted to rectify this situation by re-releasing the band’s seminal 1984 slamfest The Wacky Hi-Jinks of Adrenalin O.D. as a special two-disc edition overstuffed with Wacky bonus material. This is probably the most Adrenalin that’s been offered anywhere in recent years outside a Mountain Dew-sponsored skydiver’s convention or your average middle school cafeteria.

Wacky Hi-Jinks is 15 dense blasts of goofy, occasionally misdirected rage, but it does offer many sage truths about the world at large. Visit any White Castle after midnight and you’re in for a stark, nightmarish experience (“White Hassle”). There are many opportunities for the business-minded college graduate in the Garden State (“Corporate Disneyland”). Working at a gas station has the potential to be a really awesome and rewarding experience (“Rock & Roll Gas Station”). Car dealers are agents of the Devil (“Trans Am (The Saga Continues)”). Yes, A.O.D. were wise beyond their years, even if they sometimes unnecessarily picked on a children’s television host who, by all other accounts, was a pretty amazing guy.

The real gem of this release, though, is the inclusion of Adrenalin’s first EP, 1983’s Let’s Barbeque, on the Wacky bonus disc. Cleaner, sharper, and laid down in one incredible 15-minute take, these six cuts burn off the excess fat and give listeners an irresistible slice of suburban punk life. Any of these tunes could be anthems unto themselves, which is amazing when you take into account the fact that a couple of them are less than half a minute long. It’s remarkable how much zippy fun these guys could cram into 34 seconds. I specifically reference “Old People Talk Loud”, which in that time manages to rail against the elderly while also conceiting to their general charm. Equally brilliant is the opener, “Suburbia”, a soaring one-minute epic that’s the best moshable ode to small town complacency I’ve ever heard.

The rest of the Wacky bonus disc consists of fairly typical, not-very-wacky-at-all bonus disc material: Long-lost demos, rare cuts, live performances, etc. It’s a pretty fat selection, though, and one that will no doubt please consummate Adrenalin O.D. fanatics (all five of them—ZING!). Personally, the highlight amidst all this extra A.O.D. for me was a live take on the band’s much ballyhooed rendition of the Masterpiece Theater theme. Played at the correct speed and with a surprising amount of finesse, you tend to forget as it rolls on that four punk huckleberries from Elmwood Park are banging it out. That, I suppose, is the joke. It’s a fine one at that, and possibly the best evidence that Adrenalin O.D. didn’t always have to resort to caveman smashing and silly lyrics to entertain or amuse.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]

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