Twisted Roots put out barely anything while they were together -- just a three-song 7" and a cut on a compilation. All four of those tracks are on this compilation, which is fattened out to album length with the addition of five songs from a cassette of tracks recorded for Unicorn Records and three unreleased cuts done on four-track. Considering they had an ex-Germs/future Nirvana guitarist and a future Black Flag bassist, Twisted Roots' music was rather more lighthearted than you might expect, and usually (but not always) not too punky. Instead, much of it -- certainly the songs recorded for the 7" -- were enjoyable, wiseass punk-new wave with some girl group influences in the vocals and garage rock spice in Paul Roessler's cheesy electric keyboards. The Yellow One (from the 7"), in fact, is pretty catchy, and might have been a new wave hit had some bigwig label slicked it up (which, fortunately, didn't happen). The tracks that weren't released at the time they were recorded are a little unpredictably arty and less upbeat, taking an absurdist look at plastic American life in songs like Pretty Little White Noise and I Wanna Be Trendy, yet going into near-hardcore on James Bondage, proto-punk-funk on parts of Fill Your Heart and It Must Be the Weather, and just plain raging absurdity on Are There Cobwebs on My Face? Sometimes it's a bit like early L.A. punk touched with some of the sardonic satirical spirit of early Frank Zappa. It's too inconsistent to be a major find, due both to the erratic performances and, more pointedly, the subpar sound quality on much of the material (though the fidelity on the four tracks that came out while the band was around doesn't suffer from that problem). It's interesting and fitfully fun, though, and is a valuable archival compilation (with thorough liner notes by Paul Roessler) of a band that -- like many of their early L.A. punk peers -- were not professionally recorded nearly as often as they deserved. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi

1		Mommy's Always Busy in the Kitchen
2		Pretentiawhat
3		The Yellow One
4		Snaked
5		Pretty Little White House
6		James Bondage
7		Parade!
8		Fill Your Heart
9		Are There Cobwebs on My Face?
10		I Wanna Be Trendy
11		It Must Be the Weather
12		Yanomamo