Various Artists: Coolidge 50: Bands From Each State Performing Their State Song

It's bound to be better on paper than in practice: One band from each state performs its state song on the two-disc, 50-song (duh) Coolidge 50. With an emphasis on irreverence and sloppy punk, it's all good fun, though 111 minutes is a lot of sloppy irreverence to take in one sitting. Still, there's some fine material here: From Christian's sweetly shambling, drum-machine-driven "Old New Hampshire" to Pee-Tanks' giddy disemboweling of "Maryland! My Maryland!," there are some creative reworkings. The members of August Sons provide amusing narration to surround "Go, Mississippi" ("We don't lynch anymore / like we did before / Now it's really nice"), while Laurels' twangy take on "Rhode Island" (which, oddly enough, is the state song of Texas) is introduced by Providence Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci. Others aren't quite so clever—Long Distance Runner's "New York, Our Empire State" samples (get this!) machine-gun fire, while others just scream for 30 seconds—but it's nice to hear punk (Boris The Sprinkler), ska (The Mistletones), Wilco-esque country-rock (The Quinsonics), and a band called Dead Clown Pile on a single disposable-but-likable collection. (Coolidge, 157 Coolidge Terrace, Wyckoff, NJ 07481)