Thanks to its (very stupid) title and booklet art—poop Jesus, get it?—this latest album from Vancouver punks Living With Lions managed to raise the ire of James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage. In response, the band volunteered to recall the album so it can be reissued sans government logos, also returning $13,000 in FACTOR funding. Smart business, really: the publicity from this kerfuffle (it made Gawker!) is not only worth several times that, but is far more than this middling, serviceable collection of angsty pop-punk songs would have generated on its own. Sporadically catchy but mostly unmemorable, Holy Shit has no pretense of being remotely provocative beyond its juvenile title.
This article appears in Jun 2-8, 2011.