Oh Blessed Freak Show

Torrance, CA's little punk rock band that could, Nip Drivers had a lot in common with the Germs. Singer Mike Webber is a notorious, longtime junkie and freak, who put on the same sort of unhinged onstage persona as Darby Crash. Though Nip Drivers were never as famous as the Germs and came along well after them, Webber has a better voice than Darby's and has miraculously survived and gone on to sing for other bands like Mark Spitz Freestyle. Why did they rely on pseudo racist imagery on their album covers and in their name? Who knows. But the band doesn't seem to take any of it or anything very seriously. The Germs were, of course, also into swastikas. Oh Blessed Freak Show isn't quite a classic punk album, though it has several classic tunes. They do a very hilarious cover of Olivia Newton-John's "Have You Ever Been Mellow?," which will never be topped, and there's a minute-long version of Duran Duran's "Rio," which begins with the first few bars of Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown." A couple of the originals are spirited too, but the B-side of the record is mostly a waste.