Punk veterans Victims Family’s newest seven-inch single “Have a Nice Day” is oddly entertaining. The whole sound is a fusion of jazz, thrash, and punk combined with a sort of a Against Me! political ethos. The jazz fusion elements make Victims Family stand out and show legitimate musical chops that are so direly lacking in much of modern punk music.

The lyrics and vocals are as good as you can ask for from a punk band. They aren’t deep, but not trite either, taking on the tones of later Nomeansno with the flexibility of early Dead Kennedys.  The B-side, “Let’s Cancel the Future,” is a bit more jarring of a listen than the title track, but overall this is a seven-inch that climbs out of the morass of modern punk if not by sheer quality but by sheer innovation of sound.

(Alternative Tentacles, PO Box 419092, San Francisco, CA 94141)