Todd Snider

Todd Snider's Americana is a far cry from punk rock, yet the singer-songwriter embodies a punk attitude, especially on his latest release, Peace Queer. Channeling Dylan with the balls of, say, Jello Biafra, Snider rails with his trademark dry wit against the war and George W. Bush. The eight-song, half-hour-long Peace Queer takes it title from a song from '60s activist folksters the Fugs, who sang, "I nearly had to kill me a couple of them peace queers out behind the church this morning." Despite its vintage, the reference is oddly timely, as history seems to be repeating itself four decades after Vietnam. Elsewhere on the album, Snider offers a slow, deliberate take on CCR's "Fortunate Son" with some assistance from Patty Griffin, and on the EP's opener, "Mission Accomplished (Because You Gotta Have Faith)," he proclaims, "Fighting for peace, that's like screaming for quiet," over a Bo Diddley beat. Does it get any more punk than that?