Prescription

Just ask the Vandals, SNFU or, if you must, Blink-182: Punk has always been obsessed with lousy, Madmagazine-level puns. Epoxy Lips Now!, the title of the third full-length by Denver's Prescription, ranks right up there with the best of the worst. Fittingly, the album is a blast of classic, laugh-injected hardcore that seems to beg the adjective "sophomoric." Drawing, aptly enough, from old SNFU and early NOFX -- not to mention the crossover metal of DRI and SOD -- Epoxy manages to sneak some complex arrangements and fairly astute social commentary in under the prank-punk radar. For every song like "Pancakes Boobies Beer," there's another like "Perfect Mistake" that takes on corporate genetic engineering and the potential horrors of human immortality. Brains, brattiness, spoofs and smirks? Better call up Alfred E. Newman for that paternity test.