Measuring the mass appeal the Sex Pistols gave to punk music is as difficult as trying to figure out exactly how many people Michael Jackson turned off from considering a career in pop music.

One such band that proves the late ’70s reign of the Pistols is still waving its wand of influence over seedling punkers is The Interpreters. On Back In the U.S.S.A., The Interpreters break out the heavy guitar/drums/bass punk attack, backed up by their snarling, English accents for the full rebel effect and they’re from Philadelphia.

Lucky Day and You Are the One sound like they were directly lifted from some ’80s punk act trying to make it in a pretentious pop world by putting in a sappy love angle to go with a pop-thwarting chorus.

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It works in a sense, but not in the way Nirvana built a verse into a teeth-clenching chorus. Nor do The Interpreters succeed in any of the savvy of the Pistols’ pop defiance.

Still, the Pistols influence is so great on this album that it borderlines ripping the band off. But on Ironic…Blowout, the band does away with any borderlines and just rips off The Who’s My Generation.