If
the Queers had been more enamored of
London Calling-era
Clash than the early
Ramones, they might have turned out something like Portland's
Moral Crux. The 14 songs on
...And Nothing But the Truth are super-catchy two-minute three-chord punk-pop with sweetly ingenuous, boyish vocals and politely distorted guitars. But instead of enthusing about the joys of cars, girls, and junk culture,
Moral Crux have bigger things on their minds. Songs like "Soldier Boy" (an antiwar screed about men in uniform "dying for the president's image") and the self-explanatory "Tienanmen '89" prove that not all political punk needs to sound like
Crass in order to be effective, and that catchy punk-pop songs can contain a weightier message than the relative hotness of the girls in homeroom. This is surprisingly effective stuff.