You can just picture the all-ages show behind the skate park under Southern California skies, where Roger, Ryan and Richie honor the tradition of the power trio and create the tableau for skaters to sniff glue and fuck around. Themes of isolation and impending responsibilities will be recognizable to anyone forced to grow up too soon. You’ll nod along to songs like “Product of the Eighties,” “Let The Bullets Through” and “Entitled” and say, “I know this song—I get this.”

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On the surface, We Be Xuxa almost seems like a retread of old school American punk, but actually it evokes without constant copying—it’s fresh-faced punk, yet my heart hears Born Innocent-era Redd Kross in their sisterly choruses, and early early Black Flag or even Ramones in their strumming (minus Greg Ginn’s noodling) and Wipers downturns on the chords, and a Darby Crash-like insistence on writing lyrics too self-referential and profound to sing straight into the microphone. And there’s even a Urinals cover!?! And there’s a Beach Blvd-esque melodicism to Jessie Clavin’s bass lines, one that perfectly matches their Descendants-like love of making up pragmatic gerunds such as “Totion.” A lot of reviewers have said these gals (et dude) sound like X-Ray Spex, but that is a lazy lie!

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