Yuppie Pricks; The Doers

A band had better have a double keg of chutzpah on hand when its idol and main influence is in the room. Luckily for the Yuppie Pricks, Jello Biafra has a sense of humor — one that the band has appropriated, along with the grubby urgency of the Dead Kennedys’ later work. But while Brokers Banquet may have Biafra’s cojónes — as well as his cameo appearance — it lacks his range. Its uniformly sarcastic shtick about debutantes, sushi and screwing the poor is none the funnier for the fact that the iconic “yuppie,” while reflected in the petty snobbery of our Queer Eye nation, is a dusty anachronism.

The Doers are also anachronistic, but only in that they play sunny indie rock without a trace of self-importance. Like the Yuppie Pricks, their hero is on board: Mike Watt, of primordial DIY outfits the Minutemen, and fIREHOSE, who plays bass on four of this debut disc’s 17 tracks. But this stack of pop tarts is a thing of humble beauty that probably says more about the band members’ commitment to each other than to any guru.