Leftöver Crack - Mediocre Generica

Leftöver Crack's Mediocre Generica is ska-punk dragged through the gutter of crust and hardcore, a debut that still sounds like a brick through a bank window.Stza built the band out of the ashes of Choking Victim, and the 2001 debut landed on Hellcat Records with a fight already brewing. The label refused the album's original title, so Stza handed over something pointedly bland, and the joke stuck. Rancid's Tim Armstrong co-produced with Stza, keeping the chaos tight enough to hit hard without sanding off a single rough edge.Musically, the record lurches between offbeat skank, crusty breakdowns and gang-vocal singalongs, with organ and piano sneaking in at odd angles. "Atheist Anthem" turns blasphemy into a chant, "Gay Rude Boys Unite" makes solidarity something you can dance to, and "Crack City Rockers" is the crew's rowdy calling card. "Born to Die" brings the main run home on a grim, swaggering note. Ezra Kire's guitar and vocals give Stza a sparring partner, and the politics, aimed squarely at cops and bigots, arrive with zero subtlety and plenty of tune.A quarter century on, it still feels like a flyer stapled to a pole on the Lower East Side, and it remains the front door to crack rock steady for anyone brave enough to knock.