Doggy Style “Don’t Hit Me Up” 1988. Triple X Records. Red vinyl. Cali-skate punk/hardcore from a band with a revolving door of members (in and out other punk bands like Dag Nasty, Adolescents, Descendents, D.I., Don’t No, etc. etc.) that makes me dizzy – the confusion not helped by the fact that when the band first split in ‘86 both factions used the name Doggy Style. But on this release (the band’s 6th since forming in ‘84) the lineup was Rib Finley on vocals (aka Curtis Haller, original DS vocalist, died in 2016), Danny Stone (Johnston) on drums, Ray Beez (Jimenez) on bass (original bassist), Bosco (John Callabero) on guitar and Hedge on second guitar. Both Bosco and Hedge were also in D.I. at the time. It was between their previous, fifth, release The Last Laugh (on National Trust Records) and Don’t Hit Me Up that I saw D.I. and Doggy Style play a show just outside of Green Bay, WI in the fall of ‘87. I’ve written about it before but to recap: both D.I. and Doggy Style traveled back to Appleton to my friend’s house after the show and a fairly wild night ensued. I spent much of the evening hanging out with Hedge at the dining room table – he had played with both bands that evening. I don’t remember what we talked about, probably a lot of shit talk (pretty sure he was hitting hard on me, that went nowhere) and eventually bracelets were exchanged. I thought I still had it laying around somewhere but it might have finally disintegrated, it’s been over 30 years. Anyway! Don’t Hit Me Up is fairly a melodic, mid-tempo (by punk standards, mind you) LP. I’m not a skater but I’m told it’s a great beat for skating. Some proof: That’s Duane Peters on the album cover (pro-skater/U.S. Bombs singer; and a fun fact/the skater-punk world is really small: Joe Schmo – real name Wade Walston – from the movie Suburbia slung merch at that D.I./Doggy Style show I went to and then in the 90′s played bass in U.S. Bombs). Honestly the record pretty repetitive and not a lot jumps out but if I have to pick my top track would be the ass-shaking title track “Don’t Hit Me Up.”  “Family Man” is also pretty good: a dark and fast guitar riff with rather predictably punk anti-suburban lyrical sentiments.