Locked 'n' Loaded: Greatest Hits Live

Featuring the late-'80 lineup of the group at a London 1990 show, the well-recorded Locked 'n' Loaded is no more or no less what it is -- and why not? If We Aren't the World! is the better live album thanks to its career retrospective feel and many highlights from the first version of the group, Locked 'n' Loaded is still a fine enough aural document of the demi-legends having a blast in the land of its greatest successes. A few then-recent cuts surface -- "Cross-Eyed Tammy" and "Goin' Homo," from Second Coming, and the theme song from the Killer Klowns EP, which makes for a fine start. One then hard to find track also surfaced: "Just Say Yes," the group's nutty indulgence anthem, which wouldn't get a proper studio release in America for a few more years. Otherwise it's nostalgia galore from the band's early days, with a merry inclusion of various Stukas Over Disneyland highlights as well, like the glorious pop fun of "Pretty Please Me" and "She's a Hunch Back." "If Stewart Could Talk" always works best if one actually sees Leonard Graves Phillips talking to his sock-puppet penis, admittedly, but such points are quibbling. The hilarious, bizarro cover versions with which the band helped make its name all surface -- "Eve of Destruction," "Paranoid," "Gigantor," "Banana Splits" -- but it's the originals that really showcase the band's continuing appeal. The Dawn of the Dickies classics "(Stuck in a Pagoda) With Tricia Toyota" and "Manny, Moe & Jack" still are godly power pop punk of the best kind, and who could resist other winners like "Curb Job" and "Give It Back"? Add in Phillips' between-song patter and jokes, and the Dickies yet rule their roost. ~ Ned Raggett