A band of middle-aged punks playing dopey songs about being hardened, young toughs on the streets of Tinseltown,
Hollywood Hate stretches the boundaries of ridiculousness. For instance, check out the lyrics to the title song, which begin, "Welcome to this Tinsel Town/Where the beaten down wear a frown/That's how it is/And where we live/And where your troubles found/Late night on the Blvd./When it changes into dark/Look around/What do ya see/Rough kids playing hard/It's not a f*ckin' pretty place/You can see it in their face." These members of old California punk bands like
Verbal Abuse, U.X.A., and Condemned to Death can play their instruments OK and singer Scott Wilkins has a good voice, but that doesn't excuse the lack of inspiration here. If
Hollywood Hate was made up of a bunch of 17-year-olds, the band's songs wouldn't be so embarrassing. But coming from veteran punkers who are probably approaching or well into their forties, one wonders why and how they could release an album like this. They definitely have a Hollywood vibe, but it's the pathetic, dive-bar, pot-bellied, aging-tattooed thing that they've perfected. ~ Adam Bregman