The songs on this 7" are pure nostalgia pressed into grooves. Get ready for some of the pop-punk legend from the Pacific Northwest. MxPx are well known for their brand of mid-to-late 90s adolscent punk+emo. Being 16 in NH, I associated myself with their sound. If you were a teenager and you wanted to start a pretty good punk band, you would do well to take a page from this band, or so I thought in those days. I had Pokinatcha burned on a CD, not sure where it came from, and right after, I purchased Life in General. Which was a perfectly apted title in my opinion of those days. A few months later I picked up a B-sides and rarities album called Let It Happen.

Let It Happen was released by Tooth & Nail right when MxPx had left to major label A&M. Their next would be The Ever Passing Moment, which to me is an sub par MxPx record the point at which I lost my interest in them. They moved out of Bremerton, WA for Los Angeles, CA on THAT. I have tuned in periodically, when the hype of an upcoming release has been purported to be their 'return' to the grittier, heart-on-sleeve punk that they started out in practice sheds and back yards with. To various degrees of success, they seem like the nicest guys and besides those negative remarks, have been responsible for more good quality stuff and excellent song writing then bad stuff.

Let It Happen though was something of controversial release however, as Tooth & Nail collected a treasure trove of unreleased songs, all of their T&N 7" records, a Social D cover of Sick Boy, a Ritchie Valens cover of Oh Donna and then tacked all of the demos available from Life in General to the end. The demo version of Chick Magnet features a Mallrats sample right at the beginning that is not on the album version. MxPx at the time did not endorse this compilation, probably because they saw it as Tooth & Nail capitalizing on all of the songs that they still held rights to. But I am not here to hypothesize on the beef. 32 tracks of some of the best MxPx had to offer, this is one of the best rarities CDs that actually has A LOT of catchy material. Way songs like Never Learn, Honest Answers, or GSF never made it on to albums is anyone's guess. I can listen to this one all the way through and sing along the whole way.

I didn't have the 7" 8 years ago, but I had these songs on Let It Happen, so when I recently picked up the vinyl, it took me back. Oddly enough, Small Town Minds, and First Class Mail are listed as song #1 on the vinyl, when they are certainly 2 different songs. I used to know what the anacroymn GSF stood for, but have since forgotten. At any rate, it is an anti-girl club, as mentioned by Mike in the song, as he reflects on being dumped for one time too many. These tunes are track #s 6-10 on Let It Happen.

MxPx - Small Town Minds

Tooth & Nail, 1997

PUNK Side

/

1. Small Town Minds/

First Class Mail

2. Can't See Not Saying

ROCK Side

3. GSF

4. Thoughts & Ideas