"I wanna club you like a baby seal!" hollers 56-year-old Keith Morris, formerly of Black Flag and the Circle Jerks, in "King Kong Brigade," the climax of this hot new hardcore outfit's full-length debut. Morris, one of L.A.'s crustiest punks, and his similarly ripe crew manage a neat trick, sounding like hopped-up young men as they bash out 16 buzz-saw-and-brimstone tracks in as many minutes. On "I Got News for You," Morris even attacks a "king of a scene," like he just stumbled off the bus. But the singer – his bellow clear and bright as ever – doesn't merely vent. He inhabits characters, from junkies to gun nuts. And his best lines ("Sulfuric after-shave – my spirit can't be saved!") rate as gonzo poetry.

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Photos: Random Notes

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.