The CD starts off with "Brat's Off the Street." A very infectious track. This one track alone will take you in and make you a fan! With it's great guitar, a bass that plays with the guitar perfect, and drums that you want to pound your feet too you'll never want this CD to end. The next track is "Face Plant." This song is very catchy too! Once the chorus hits, you will find yourself singing along to the song. Track three, "Makin The Rounds," contains some great parts, including the intro. Two tracks later we come to "Live Without it." A tale of abusing alcohol and realizing you can't be an alcoholic your whole life. With the first verse in the song, "I was born with alcohol on my breath/it's not an inheritance I'll take to my death/I know that you think I got no confidence/I'm just writing a few words about what I know best," make this a definite album standout. And then we come to "Countdown," the only track on the album the former second guitarist for The Jimmies played on, before departing the band for family reasons. A fast paced punk song with a British accent on vocals. Short and sweet. It only clocks in at under a minute and a half. Next up is "Six Day's Gone." This song has some great guitar. This whole album is full of hooks and very contagious, but on this track the guitar just strikes me as great. "Mid July," is another album stand out. The music in the background suddenly stops and the vocals go on, and then the band enters again. This slick combination always interests me! Then near the end of the song just the strumming of the guitar and the vocals. The song definitely has feeling, and it is one of the longer tracks on the CD. But then up comes "Annoyed." Follow one great song with another and you are sure to have a hit album, and the Jimmies have successfully done it here. Two more tracks finish off the album. The last track, "Nobody Seems To Mind," happens to be my favorite song on the album. A song about a women who came to visit, and you let her in, but you shouldn't! As the lyrics go, "She's got a bad obsession, nobody seems to mind/she's got a bad connection, nobody seems to mind."

The Jimmies have definitely put Longview, Washington on the map. With their powerful blend of catchy guitar, bass, and drums these guys have developed their own style of punk rock. COUNTDOWN is one of the best releases of 1997. I recommend you check out this album. You won't be disappointed. I would give this album a rating of an "A." It would have been an A+, but for an album this good, the length of the album has hurt it. At only twenty eight minutes, you are left craving more.

Jim Yoshii Pile-Up, The: It's Winter Here

Jimmies, The: Let The Fat Men Plunder

[Issue One // July-August 1997]