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.

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 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.

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 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!