None of which has much to do with The Queers' mixture of pop and punk, which has only gotten better over the years. That is, if you don't count this year's contract-killer Later Days and Better Lays, a collection of alternate versions, rarities, and outtakes that were never released for a reason, and only surface now so that The Queers could wriggle out of their deal with Lookout! Records. A better place to start is 1996's Don't Back Down, when the group eased off its Ramones fetish -- if only slightly -- and began writing pop songs that didn't necessarily need to be played fast and loud. Punk Rock Confidential continued the trend, with more jangly guitars and ba-ba-backup vocals working their way into songs with titles that King won't be embarrassed by some day (see: most of The Queers' first five or so albums.) Live, however, nothing much has changed. The amount of songs King and his rotating band play still equals the length of time they're onstage, as they race through their back catalog so fast that quantity sometimes overshadows quality. Which would be more accurate if you replace "sometimes" with "usually," and "overshadows" with "obliterates".