The Vandals: The Quickening

Punk rock doesn't get much faster or sillier than The Vandals, nor does any piece of music beg to be taken less seriously than a new Vandals record. It's been this way for ages, and the new The Quickening doesn't deviate from that rule. With 15 songs stuffed into 28 minutes—and with subject matter ranging from vegetarianism to a dumb girlfriend to Allah—the album is such a relentlessly spastic, disposable, good-time piece of ridiculousness, you can't possibly hate it. Sloppy Seconds' new 22-song live album, the appropriately titled No Time For Tuning, is more disposable still: The Indiana band's good-time, mush-mouthed, male-oriented trash-punk translates just fine live, but there's nothing special about this particular concert recording. The classics are all here, from the ode to Traci Lords ("Come Back, Traci") to the band's not-quite-as-offensive-as-it-sounds anthem "I Don't Wanna Be a Homosexual." As a whole, it's fun stuff, but it's as far from essential as good music can get.