Lagwagon “Duh,” “Trashed,” “Hoss,” “Double Plaidinum,” “Let’s Talk About Feelings”

(Fat) I understand why Dischord is slowly reissuing every early vinyl, and the great posh reissue of that Avengers LP that was perpetually out of print is one of the best things to cross my desk in a while, but it took me a minute to wrap my head around an extensive reissue project for this melodic punk band’s mid-90s CDs. I imagine they were mastered pretty well the first time, and Fat is pretty good about keeping its back catalogue in print. But even though I was never the biggest pop punk fan, listening to this stuff again, I can hear what was special about the Lag lads. Lagwagon had more grit than most of their peers and Joey Cape’s voice was rougher and more expressive than most of the nasal singing clones in that scene, plus I thought three of the sleeves (all original art is preserved in the reissues) were pretty funny: “Hoss,” “Feelings,” and the kooky collage on “Trashed” (the album with some of their best songs, including “Coffee and Cigarettes” and the almost metallic “Stokin’ the Neighbors”). So I can see why fans would be psyched, and though I’m still skeptical about the re-mastering, there are TONS of unreleased tracks and archival photos, and, c’mon, I bet your old CDs are scratched up, anyhow.