On their debut album, Japanese ska-punks
Potshot put the spurs to the largely kind-of-boring mid-'90s resurgence of ska music by revving up the tempos by at least 30 percent (seriously, anyone who tries dancing to a song like the breakneck "Since Yesterday" is at risk of a coronary) and dialing back all the cod-reggae Jamaican-isms that make so many of the frat-boy third wave ska bands so laughable. The drumbeat and a familiar-sounding horn section are
Pots and Shots' only links to ska music, but they're enough to shred 90 percent of the post-
No Doubt pretenders. (A minute-long thrashing of "Tears of a Clown," clearly inspired by
the English Beat's take on the same, is cute enough, but kind of an obvious idea.) Aside from those elements,
Potshot deliver a revved-up take on '90s pop-punk, with frenetic songs like "Mexico" and the only slightly less chaotic "Handle" providing more than enough catchy songcraft to balance the aggression. ~ Stewart Mason