Reading some of British press about this London band (which often includes phrases like "it's still punk"), I'm reminded of the difference between American and U.K. punk. Over here, punk is more of an attitude than a particular sound. After all, bands like Green Day, Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Kennedys and Bad Religion held up the banner for California punk in the 80s. And while all four share a few tendencies, the differences pile up quickly.

Wonk Unit Good Good Glad to Hear It (Pirates Press)

Wonk Unit borrows liberally from multiple punk tendencies, sounding like Green Day one song and DK the next. Lyrically, they fit nicely into the Jello/Greg Graffin over-verbal, hyper-intellectual dressed up in rags arena. There are a lot of ideas (musical and lyrical) spinning around these songs. The swirl is intoxicating.

But I think the clean, sparse sound is what throws off British scribes. Many of these songs have that fresh feel of the Lookout Green Day albums, though Wonk Unit often tears that down into musical carnage. And when the band decides to really rip into things, there's still not a lot of distortion. Americans will immediately identify this as punk. We're used to true weirdos.

Again, though, it's always fun hearing how ideas are interpreted across distance and time. Wonk Unit are not traditional U.K. punk (in, say, the Cock Sparrer way), nor are they emo. This is very much a call-back to classic U.S. of the 80s, with a wide load of modern ideas dumped into the mix. In their embrace of unusual sounds and ideas, Wonk Unit bring to mind the Clash. Not in the sound itself (there's no resemblance whatsoever), but in the willingness to find new cliffs to dive from. Wonk Unit has been pounding out these albums for more than a decade, and this one is probably the band's most confident. Good music is its own reward.

Jon Worley