This is an External Shocker Document - Reviews of 2003 "Up Your Ass Tray" US ONLY 7 Song Ep
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The Shocker
CD Reviews
“Up Your Ass Tray” US Release
July 2003

Tracks: 1.Smoke Rings (Up Your Ass Tray) 2. My Life as a Plumber 3. Break In Two 4. Your Problem Now 5. Bad Brain Good Head 6. Angel of the Morning 7. Good Head Again
Out of Print
Catalog No. 82023-2
Little Pusher Records and Oglio Ent.

MUSIC KULTURE
Niki D'Andrea

In the annals of indie punk and rock, there are only a handful of songwriters whose style is easily discernible as their own. One of those songwriters is Jennifer Precious Finch. Her hard-driving guitar riffs and original vocals made up one-half of L7's rock-and-dirge sound.  Finch now lends her considerable vocal talent and sound experimentation to The Shocker, a band that promises to blow the doors off the garage and put the  "rock" back in Punk Rock. Up Your Ass Tray, released in the US by Little Pusher Records, is a seven-track EP that offers up some straight-up, souped-up rock. The first two tracks, "Smoke Rings  (Up Your Ass Tray)" and "My Life As A Plumber" are probably the only songs on the EP that remotely resemble L7 material. The third track, "Break In Two," is much more melodic and poppy, while "Your Problem Now " emerges as the sort of number The Donnas might do if they cranked up their amplifiers and used their voices to imitate guitar riffs, as Finch often does. My personal favorite on the EP is "Bad Brain Good Head," a charged anthem of resigned discontent with a shouting chorus (which every true punk loves).  There's also a cover of  "Angel of the Morning," which showcases the band's diversity.

This EP is only a taste of the Shocker.  I can't wait to hear more.

The Shocker boasts a pretty impressive resume for a band that's only been together since December 2002. They came out the gate this summer with Up Your Ass Tray, a hard-hitting rock romp EP, and an eight-show slot on the Vans Warped Tour. Jennifer Finch is the consummate front woman, combining the raw essence of and the band behind her gives the music a big turbo charge.

VIOLENT CANDY
CD REVIEW

"The Shocker – Up Your Ass Tray! (EP, Little Pusher)

Everyone should know who THE SHOCKER is!  Featuring Miss Jennifer Precious Finch on vocals you, could say that the Shocker are somewhat of a super-band. A grrrl band good enough to rival today’s contempuary female counterparts. This EP is rather reminiscent of L7, ONLY BETTER! Pure punk rock with no apologies, Brody Armstrong should start quaking in her pretty little boots. Seven tracks of mental – punk - rock, without even mentioning riot grrrl or anything along those lines. Just some good clean fun; well, maybe not that clean as “Bad Brain, Good Head” proves!

This CD should come with a warning :

“Once in your CD player, It wouldn’t come out!

EAR CANDY
The Shocker,"Up Your Ass Tray"(Little Pusher/Oglio Records)

Well, it's nice to hear songs live up to their titles!

I hate bands that have the “look”, the “name” and an album full of really clever song titles that never seem to live up to expectation. "Smoke Rings (Up Your Ass Tray)", "My Life As A Plumber" and "Bad Brain Good Head" are only three of those creative titles I was referring to, and these songs do not fail! With six originals and one cover, "Up Your Ass Tray" gives the listener a good taste without wearing thin. The one cover, "Angel Of The Morning", was a country hit if I remember correctly and rocks at the hands of this band.

File this somewhere between the Plasmatics and Ramones and near the Foo Fighters and the Donnas.

THE SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
Bill Picture

The Shocker return after wowing characteristically girl-unfriendly, under age, slam-happy skate brats on this summer's Warped Tour. With their super-charged, song-driven strain of honest-to-god "p-rawk" [ the SHOCKer ] are back to celebrate the release of their debut seven-song EP, "Up Your Ass Tray" (Little Pusher Records) and give [us] troublemakers something fresh to act up and hook on to.

THE VILLAGE VOICE

The Shocker
Up Your Ass Tray!  (Little Pusher Records/Oglio Ent.)
Jennifer Finch of L7 Tends to Her Own Household's Clogs
A Plunger for Mom
By Jeanne Fury
August 20 - 26, 2003

The Shocker reminds me of my mom. In our house, my mom ran the show; if she was sick, we all suffered. When she finally had it with hearing, "Ma, can you  [fill in the favor]?" she'd say, "Ma's not here." In the family of early-'90s rock bands, L7 wore the pants. Their effort was audible: With a snaggletoothed snarl, songs like "Pretend We're Dead" and "The Bomb" mocked laziness and superficiality like it was a job. L7 resented having to kick our ass, but it was their self-appointed duty, and they probably loved it. By the time the four women co-founded Rock For Choice in 1991, Rosie the Riveter had a rock band. Bassist-singer Jennifer Precious Finch left L7 in 1997, and has a new quartet. The Shocker's EP Up Your Ass Tray! is heavy yet brisk punk rock 'n' roll with chrome sheen. Finch takes a well-deserved detour from being a workhorse of social consciousness. "My Life as a Plumber" opens with a two-note guitar siren, rescue-mission style, and chords jab forward like a plumber's snake being fed through a pipe.

From an early age, Finch was a problem solver. "While everyone around me was too scared to react/I said 'Hand me the plunger, baby, and stand back,' " she bellows.

But now she's through playing Ms. Fix-It, and flushes her dependents down the crapper so she can tend to her own clogs. She switches occupations to archaeology in the ebullient and raucous "Your Problem Now." After busting her ass on the dig, Finch is ready to let someone else break their back. “Uncover, discover, recover, plow. . . . It's your problem now!" she triumphantly cries as a gang of vocalists (nine of them, the credits say) belt out the husky, sashaying chorus.

Finch is always going to rock the frontline, but now she's got other priorities. Fittingly, the Shocker cover Chip Taylor's (then Merrilee Rush's, then Juice Newton's) premarital fuck-and-run anthem "Angel of the Morning," which sparkles like a can of Coors Light in the sunrise. It's an apropos song for someone learning how to freely come and go.

Review Shock Rock
Former L7 member and current Shocker front lady, Jennifer Precious Finch, is ready to get Warped.
By Erik Fong

If you do a search for “Jennifer Precious Finch” on a little place often referred to as “the Internet,” you’d better clear some room in your schedule – you’ll have a lot to look through. And it’s no surprise, considering how busy The Shocker’s front woman has kept herself since breaking into music with L7 at only 18 years old.

A former San Francisco resident, Precious spent a few years in the Haight/Fillmore area in the mid ‘80s, taking Visual Basic programming classes on some device called an “Amiga” at San Francisco State. Today, not only does she sing and play guitar for what can officially be called “the greatest band named after a disgusting four-finger, two-input sexual stimulation technique,” but she also runs her own web design company, hosts a site featuring some of her photography, and has joined the elite ranks of sleazy record company moguls as the proud owner of a brand new independent label, Little Pusher. The label’s first release: The Shocker’s debut, so subtly titled Up Your Ass Tray.

THE SHOCKER at VAN’S WARPED TOUR, SEASIDE PARK, VENTURA, CA

Review by: Mark A. Whitaker

I really liked The Shocker's CD ("Up Your Ass Tray") so when I heard they were goingto be playing the Warped Tour I knew I had to go check them out. I mean they were playing in Ventura and probably would not be playing here again for a while. So I get in and of course it's just as confusing as last year, I walk around lost and then I hear the distinct sounds of The Shocker coming from the Kevin Says stage. I race towards the sound of the music and there in full punk rock glory were The Shocker rockin the place for a crowd of fans. It was cool, the kids that were there were true fans, and were having a good time. I know it's a hard choice when you have The Shocker playing at the same time as a bigger more established punk band but what can you do? I am proud to say that The Shocker can rock or as they like to say "Rawk." The main reason I found The Shocker so good was that they give it all they have rocking out with high-energy performance, some bands have it, and others don't. The intensity with whichThe Shocker play is awesome. The songs are fast and catchy but still hard enough to be likable. I even got to hear a few of my favorites from the album.

If you are interested in a band that kicks ass and sounds good then definitely check out The Shocker - you won't be disappointed. I'm glad I was given the opportunity to see them play live. It was well worth it.