Genre: Punk Rock Sub-Genres: Hardcore Label: Cowabunga Records Tracks: 4 Length: 6 Minutes (Very Short) Style: Angry My Rating: 6/8
The School Jerks are a hardcore punk band from Toronto, Ontario (Canada). They formed around 2008 or so. Their sound is simple, but effective and hard-hitting. Sort of a mix between early Black Flag and the later Germs. According to an interview, two members of the band, Ben and Luke, were previously in another band called "Terminal State"; the band broke up, but Ben and Luke wanted to keep playing music. The School Jerks' name is taken from the title of a song called "School Jerks" by a band called the Vains. The band has released a demo tape (released 2008), and two 7" records (the first of which I have already reviewed). This is the School Jerks' newest release, and it's a four-song 7" vinyl EP called "Decline".
1. Decline Can't understand the lyrics, but the song is great, anyways. The vocals sound a lot like the slurred fucked-up-but-great yelling of Darby Crash, while the drumming and guitars punch hard like a song by Black Flag or the Circle Jerks! There's a little solo in the middle of the song. The song ends in a slowly fading clash of the final chords having been stroked.
2. Rentboy Fastest song on the EP. Vocals sound great. I love the distortion. Yep, I have no idea what they're saying on any of these songs... Side 1's over, so turn the damn record over tooooo!!
3. Street Talk My favorite song on here. The beat sort of holds back in the verse section, with the occasional cymbal clashing here n' there. Awesome riff, especially when the chorus section kicks in... just sounds really good to me! I'll bet this one sounds fucking great played live... the chorus riff has such a cool roll to it... that's when the beat starts resemble the first song's more... it's all cool, though.
4. Guestlist Starts with a neat, lead-n-bassdrum intro... quickly, the first verse of the song begins. This one has a pretty neat outro-section that comes after the second chorus.
It's short, but good. It definitely has the vibe and attitude of the original hardcore punk bands; in a good way. The music's pretty straightforward simple, so if you're looking for jazz-fusion 'er something, don't look for it in this EP. It definitely has a classic vibe to it -- this is definitely something I think I'll still be listening to in the future. And with the band just starting off, it makes you wonder what they're gonna do next -- the 4-1-1 is that they may be working on some new recordings in the near future (read: probably before Summer begins), and it should rock as hard as this one does already. Sometimes the band gets their live shows broadcasted on Equalizing Distort Radio. You can find more info here:
http://equalizingxdistort.blogspot.com
I'm not sure how often they do it, but it's something I read on the band's MySpace page. So yeah, the School Jerks are for you if you're looking for a good, young, thrashy punk band. In some ways Toronto kinda comes off as the new L.A., punk-wise. Hope you liked my review, and have a happy Friday, everyone! :-)
Genre: Punk Rock Sub-Genres: Hardcore Label: Radiobeat Records Tracks: 9 Length: 9 Minutes (Short) Style: Angry My Rating: 6/8
I'd heard of these guys for awhile before actually listening to them -- being a big fan of Dinosaur Jr. already, I would hear the name tossed around here and there. Hell, in the music video for their cover of "Just Like Heaven" (best cover ever), there's a muppet wearing a Deep Wound shirt... pretty good taste! However, just because you like Dinosaur Jr. doesn't guarantee you'll love Deep Wound too... there are huge differences. Deep Wound is vicious, furious, and faster than fuck (that's pretty fast)!
The band was formed in 1982 by high school friends Charlie Nakijama (vocals), Scott Helland (bass guitar), and Lou Barlow (regular guitar). The band met J Mascis (later of Dinosaur Jr. fame!) when he responded to a notice the band had posted which apparently said something like "LOOKING FOR A DRUMMER TO PLAY REALLY FAST"... well, J didn't let down on that one. This little 7" wonder is one of the fastest hardcore records I've heard in my life. This is a band with balls, people! To be able to play songs this fast for even a minute... well, time to talk about ze music, nauw. But in the fashion of our deeply wounded heroes, I'm going to describe each song really fast and short, only talking about the parts that matter. Hell, I'm wasting time right now!
1. I Saw It One of the "slow" songs on the 7" (would be considered fast on anything else). About fearmongering on the news.
2. Sisters Really fast. Pretty much about what my sister will be like in a year or two.
3. In My Room Also really fast. Slow part in the middle. Couldn't find lyrics.
4. Don't Need FAST!! Critical of co-dependancy.
5. Lou's Anxiety Song It's about the inability to distinguish right from wrong ideas in our society. Side 1 Ends.
6. Video Prick The catchiest one. Also longest. It's about pedophiles.
7. Sick of Fun It's about burnout and dissatisfaction. Really fucking fast. Best use of screaming in a song ever.
8. Deep Wound It's about society leaving people with few real choices in life; trying to heal the "Deep Wound" that's permeated our culture.
9. Dead Babies The slowest song. It's continuing upon the general theme of the underlying emptiness of American society. The vocals are more spoken than yelled/screamed here... the general melody is softer.
As made clear by most of the lyrics of these songs (they're actually very good and poetic despite the fact that you can barely understand them in the recordings), Deep Wound represents the disenchantment and angst of middle class American youth... during the '80s, or during today (probably moreso), these songs hold sentiments that we all share. Deep Wound broke up in 1984, but at least they left behind something great to be remembered by in the process! While Charlie Nakijama and Scott Helland remained very much unknown to many after this, bassist Lou Barlow and drummer J Mascis would go on to find much success in the future -- actually, they did attempt to form another band with Charlie in 1984, but he kept screaming "FUCK THE COPS" during their only performance much to the rest of the band's dismay, so they kicked him out and decided to form a band named "Dinosaur" (later to be called Dinosaur Jr.). In 2004, there was a one-off reunion of Deep Wound, featuring all of the members of the old lineup now as adults in their 40's, performing the song "Video Prick" when nobody expected them to! Give Deep Wound a listen (or five) if you love fast, erratic hardcore punk!
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Sick of Fun 2. Video Prick 3. Don't Need
Genre: Punk Rock Sub-Genres: Hardcore Label: Reflex Records Tracks: 12 Length: 19 Minutes (Medium-Length) Style: Angry/Mysterious My Rating: 6/8 By this point in my reviews you've probably already heard a lot of about Hüsker Dü. Well, they were a rock band. This is their second LP they released, and the first studio LP they did. Like most of their early sound (actually I read that they were New-Wavers when they first started), it's extremely fast, hard -- standard for a typical hardcore punk record. It was their last album they released before signing to SST Records (excellent choice!) later on in the same year.
1. From the Gut Alternates between rolling drums and more linear beats. The lyrics seem to either be about a heartbreak or getting punched in the gut. Either way, about pain, it seems.
2. Blah Blah Blah This song's pretty fast. It's about a loudmouth douchebag who talks crap to the song's protagonist, as the protagonist asks if the enemy is "talking in tongues, or is his brain out of gear?". There's a pretty awesome solo in here. The song ends with the sounds of a group of people talking about a bunch of random stuff.
3. Punch Drunk This one's even faster! It's only 30 seconds long -- the lyrics are about punk violence as kids in the bar kick and punch eachother -- "think it's a fucking gym??", asks Bob Mould... when asked where his friend is, he replies, "guess he'd rather be punch drunk".
4. Bricklayer Extremely fast n' angry! It's about a dude who throws heavy bricks from a window of a building at peoples' heads.
5. Afraid of Being Wrong This one's about bullies who refrain from saying much, hide with their insecurities in their crowd, "don't speak unless spoken to" and become passive because they're "afraid of being wrong".
6. Sunshine Superman This one's a Donovan cover. An early hint towards Hüsker Dü's eventual expansion in musical direction. A classic-sounding guitar solo can be heard in the song. Actually, there's a ton of lead in this song. I can tell by these lyrics that Donovan was probably on something when he wrote 'em. Heheh.
7. Signals From Above Starts with some healthy noize, until the thrash kicks in, as angry vocals are sung, criticizing the world's hippies who "think the whole world is incense, peace, and love" -- proclaiming they ignore the "signals from above", mocking their ideas of 'free love' by calling "dirt-cheap love" a "thing of the past". End of Side 1.
8. Everything Falls Apart This one's kinda happy-sounding. I think there's a usage of a keyboard in this song, too. Sounds really pretty. The song's premise is simple -- everything falls apart. It's only natural. Another nice solo, too.
9. Wheels This song mocks people who use their cars to show off, loving their cars more than people; forgetting that a car is a dangerous tool which could eventually be your grave!
10. Target This song criticizes stupid scenesters who "think it's all passe, even though they listen to the same records every day", and hate others who "caught on late, even if they're having fun" -- however, the Target never makes his/her own music or does anything productive... simply a leech, an internally ugly troll existing to feed off its own hatred and feelings of superiority. "YOU'RE A HYPOCRITE! YOU'RE THE TARGET!"
11. Obnoxious Fast and short. It's a big 'fuck you' to all of the people in society who looked down upon them for being punks and playing fast music, or "not talking right", saying "they won't last".
12. Gravity Longest song on the album (two-and-a-half minutes). It's one of the slowest, too. Like a few others on this album, it resembles their more melodic sound that would become regular for them in the next album. The song is about the pressures of the world crushing in on us all just like gravity, but it's not actually gravity.
Ten years later, the band re-released the album on CD with bonus tracks from the "In a Free Land" single, some outtakes, and an 8-minute song called "Statues"! After this album, the band got signed to SST and released "Metal Circus", which I have already reviewed, so you can find the review to that album and their classic double LP that came after that, "Zen Arcade" on this site if you look around, so yeah, this album makes a good example of Hüsker Dü's earlier, more erratic hardcore punk, in better quality than "Land Speed Record"...
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Everything Falls Apart 2. Bricklayer 3. From the Gut
Genre: Punk Rock Sub-Genres: Post-Punk, Hardcore Label: Touch & Go Records Tracks: 4 Length: 16 Minutes (Short) Style: Weird/Funny My Rating: 6/8
This is the fourth Butthole Surfers to be released. It's one of the more under-rated releases in their catalog, and it's a 12" EP with four songs on it. It's pretty similar in style to "Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac", the record that came out almost a year before it -- a deranged mish-mash of backwoodsy psychedelic-punk-weirdo-rock.
1. Moving Down to Florida The song is two parts interspliced into different parts that swing back and forth between eachother, rather than playing the vocals and instruments simultaneously. The spoken parts are narrated by a hilariously creepy hillbilly, discussing his plans to move to Florida as well as various outrageous conspiracy theories he's heard about everything from Lyndon B. Johnson to gigantic radioactive tadpoles... all in Florida! The musical parts are rockabilly-style repetitive beats, with the occasional big-guitar-solo. In the end, the vocals are spoken alongside the instruments, in a more traditional song style.
2. Comb Starts off with some ominous noizy droning, and the sounds of Gibby vomiting. After about a half-minute, the signature Butthole Surfer-sludge tempo kicks in, with abrasive, atonal guitar riffs, and Gibbytronix-produced unintelligble distorted moans, groans, screams, and yells. The song ends with a similar setup to how it began. A brief really funny-sounding noize is heard. That's the end of Side 1...
3. To Parter As the title suggests (sort of), it's a two-part song. The first half is a repetitive No-Wave-y lead-driven instrumental piece -- reminds me a lot of early Sonic Youth. The second half is more melodic, as Gibby sings about a group of white men who sold qualudes to some monkeys, who all got addicted to them and "died up in the trees". The song goes on to criticize the teachers of the world, comparing us human beings to the aforementioned qualude monkeys. Gibby screams a bunch. The song ends.
4. Tornadoes The shortest song on the album. It's a fast Dead Kennedys-esque song -- the riff and the rhythm are pretty straightforward, but it's still got that psychedelic flair to it... perhaps it was one of their real early songs (a lot of their earliest songs -- before "Brown Reason to Live" even -- sounded like this). The gang makes funny noises and scream in the background. And that's all, folks!
I can understand why it's not exactly heralded as a masterpiece... it's good, but there just isn't enough! Of course, it's just an EP. The original 12" vinyl pressing has been long out-of-print, but the contents of this EP can be found on the American CD version of "Rembrandt Pussyhorse", and the U.K. CD version of "Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac". So yeah, if ya like Buttholes and Surfers and Butthole Surfers, you should totally listen to these songs. But I'm real tired and pissed off and can't think of anything else to say. So, good day, all y'all!
Genre: Punk Rock, Folk Rock Sub-Genres: Post-Punk, Psychedelic Label: None Tracks: 9 Length: 35 Minutes (Long) Style: Emotional/Love My Rating: 7/8
From the great land of punk known as Kanaduh (kaa'ne'deu), a new beacon of light has arisen from the unknown. This new beacon is Diehatzu Hijets. And while it's really just one guy named Layne L'Heureux playing all of the instruments and singing all the songs himself; make no mistake, this is great fucking music. Layne is an incredibly nice person, too. The "band" formed in late 2009, less than a year ago, after being exposed to '90s punk groups like Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr, which caused Mr. Layne to make his own music. And if he seriously only started listening to those guys less than a year ago, he's in pretty damn good shape, 'cause he's already making music nearly the same quality as those bands. And with that said, this is the Diehatzu Hijets debut album. It's actually considered an EP by the band, but with the added bonus tracks, it's basically LP-length, so go hit yourself in the vagina with a mallet, will ya? Ahahah!
1. Get Real A great opening song; a happy sort of song underneath a blanket of jagged distortion. Lots of great guitar solos here and there. It's a beautiful sort of slacker-anthem. I'm going to have to admit that the line "when I need a bro you'll be chillin' there" is a tad bit lame. But that's pretty much the only lame moment on the whole album. There's also a part where Layne sings "it sucks but, that's the way it is" -- which is really funny, because he pauses inbetween "but" and "that's the way it is", so it sounds like he says "IT SUCKS BUTT" at first. Ahahahahehehehe!
2. The Universe Mount Once again, really great melody, with a lot of little subtleties in the guitar-playing... why the hell is this guy so unknown still?? I guess in this song, the Universe is supposed unfold so "everyone can find their way" and such... how does he know this, you may ask? No idea. Inbetween the more straightforward verse parts, there are more mellow, solo-laden sections.
3. Burnt Out The guitar intro here kinda reminds me of "Schizophrenia" by Sonic Youth for some reazon. However, that part segues into something a bit less otherworldly than that song, but still a good song nonetheless. Once again, jam-packed with awesome lead melodies. Some guy is singing background vocals around the end of this song.
4. Running Horse My favorite song on the record! It's a slower song. It's a sort of country-tinged and wry but hard song with more great fuzzed-out riffs and leads. My absolute favorite part is the instrumental repeated riff towards the end. Something about the chord progressions combined with the great never-ending solos. Pure bliss can be achieved to the ears during one of the final couple minutes of the song. It's a real great feeling when you're down or just bored 'er something.
5. Someplace This one's mostly acoustic. No drums, either. It's sort of a calm-after-the-storm feely-song. It's not very long, but it's great to listen to if you're tired and just want to listen to something that fits how yer feeling. This track ends the EP version, but I'm gonna just go the extra mile are review the next few bonus solo tracks too!
6. Anger This is the first solo Layne L'Heureux song here. Despite the name, the song's not incredibly angry. It's very moving and emotional, still. You hear a burp around the beginning of the song. Truly beautiful. A rough electric guitar solo slowly moves its way into your right ear about 1/3 of the way through the song.
7. Peace, Love Once again, acoustic. Much more folky-sounding than the songs before it. The serene lyrics and emotion that delivers them sends you over mountains, the sea, through fields, as he wishes peaceful life for his lover because he misses her when she's (I think) away. And hey, the solo is acoustic too, this time!
8. Fugitive Kind Similar style of music to "Peace, Love". The song's about dating a girl who is much younger than you (still in high school!), getting crap for it from the parents of the girl, as they tell him that he's too old to be messing around with someone who's still a minor. Layne compares himself to Marlo Brando.
9. This Shit's Fulltime A great closing song. Some of the lyrics are kinda humorous, but for the most part, it's a pretty love song. "You look like my ass... you look like Venus" -- apparently his ass looks like Venus. Like, not Venus's ass. But his ass resembles Venus's entire body. Pretty strange, I've got to say. The final minute or so of the song is without vocals. And THAT, my friend, is totally the end. For now...
The first half of the record (including the bonus tracks) is more noisy and punky, and the second half is mellow and acoustic. And while not everyone is necessarily interested in that, most people should enjoy this album if they have taste beyond the cookie-cutter Top 40 plastik radio ranks... hell, my best friend even likes this album, and he can't stand most of the music I listen to! He thinks Diehatzu Hijets could potentially get famous... wouldn't hurt to have that happen. The common themes of the album are slacker life and the comfort/hopelessness in a romantic relationship. And it's free, too. The band's name sounds somewhat un-memorable, but the music has been keeping me coming back. You can download it for free, just search the band up on MySpace. So, that's my review. I recommend this for fans of Dinosaur Jr and other early '90s indie rock bands.
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Running Horse 2. Anger 3. Get Real
Genre: Punk Rock Sub-Genres: Hardcore Label: Ohio Riot Records Tracks: 10 Length: 16 Minutes (Short) Style: Political My Rating: 6/8
Damn, it's been awhile. I haven't written one of these reviews in forever! Well, I can explain it all: a few weeks ago when the weather was slightly less hot than it iz now, my Mother walked in on me singing and recording the vocals for one of my own songs. She was infuriated (second time I got caught making my own music)... I was immediately grounded for several weeks, so I was unable to write any more reviews... well FUCK IT! I don't care how many times I get caught, I'm so damn close to finishing my demo I've been working on for a half-year, I simply must finish it. Nothing else will do. Well, after my grounding wore off, I just got on a lazy streak writing-wise 'cause I was so used to not really doing anything productive.Anyways... the Defendants are one of the few local punk groups in my area. They formed around 2008-ish or so, and take a lot of their influences from street-punk, hardcore punk, and crust punk. After numerous line-up changes, the band eventually solidified its lineup with Mike Defendant as the frontman (guitar and vocals), Chad as the bassist, and Johnny on the drums. Their lyrics are mostly about their political beliefs, though there's a few fucking-around-lyrically songs here and there. "Uncle Scam" is their first album they've released and I'm pretty sure it was released on Ohio Riot Records (and if not it's probably from their old label, Gem City Punx Records). Ol' Mikey Defendy actually gave me the damn album for free, so I decided to give it a review in return (which I like to do for as many albums as possible). And here is how it goes...
1. This is War Starts with a pretty lead-driven intro. It's a sorta mid-tempo song against the government, declaring war against the government which has caused people to die "because of the system's selfish pride". The main riff kinda reminds me of one of the early Melvins songs, for some reason. Once again, a lot of guitar lead.
2. Legends Similar tempo to the song before it. This song pays tribute to the punk rock legends of times gone by. More of a traditional hardcore sound in this one.
3. The FCC This one's real fast! It's a thrasher detesting the FCC, an organization that practically wants to parent the whole world (including the parents!). I love the line "the FCC can censor me". Just sounds right for some reason.
4. Stand Up Fight Back Probably the first Defendants song I ever heard, back when it was a demo. It's somewhat of an anti-police-brutality protest song. "Never fear a man in blue", Mike proclaims. The chorus that goes "STAND UP, FIGHT BACK, TAKE YOUR LIFE BACK" is joined by some background vocals; probably the rest of the band. Nice little solo in the middle, there. Spices things up a little bit. I love the riff.
5. Lies I'm actually not quite sure what the lyrics to this one are, but they're probably about lies. Just a guess. Like, people lying and stuff. And how when you lie you're not actually telling the truth. And that the word "lie" can also refer to being on your back on the ground. The riff is pretty catchy, here.
6. No Nation The riff reminds me of the song "Riot Fight" by the Beastie Boys in the beginning. Once again, I can't completely decipher the lyrics, but I actually kinda like how Mike sings all fast on this one. And it's another real fast song, which is a nice! I like the little lead guitar "tweeengs" thrown in parts of the song.
7. Nazi Scum Totally my favorite song on this album. It has a great riff, and a nice fast beat. It's an anti-Nazi song. I love the line "you're gonna be dead by the end of this song". The lyrics are real confrontational and badass. The solo here is really cool. More backing vocals in the chorus.
8. Broken News This is my second-favorite song on here. It's about the unrealistic, fallacious, superficial, dead-brained mainstream media and news that delivers lies to the gullible. Once again, a great lead guitar solo. "They can never stop the force that's known as punk" -- damn right.
9. Phone Sex Ya see, here, the Defendants have delved into the world of 2nd-person lyricism. The song is about YOU, and it's from YOUR viewpoint. The song puts you in the place of a person who's Mom is getting phonefucked. Er, yeah. But for real, this is by far the shortest song on the album, being barely a half-minute long. I'm not quite sure if they should be havin' that phone sex with my Mom, though.
10. Uncle Scam The title track of ze album. Starts with a funny spoken by Uncle Sam himself, asking you to hand over all of your hard-earned money to him. The song is pretty fast, including the vocals, so I dunno what the lyrics to it are, but it's a pretty good song. However, that iz the end.
So, that's "Uncle Scam". The main themes of the album are rebellion against the government, anti-fascism, and media behavior-control. I do have to say that I really like the production on the album -- it has a certain rawness in it not present in a lot of new albums, making the songs a lot more listenable than songs from a lot of other new artists. While not extremely innovative or anything like that, the Defendants have a good sense of writing a catchy, cool riff, which can make a great song in itself. According to the band, they're close to releasing a new EP, and it should come out pretty soon. And remember, children: the FCC can censor us all. Even youuu.
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Lies 2. Broken News 3. No Nation
Genre: Punk Rock Sub-Genres: Hardcore Label: SST Records Tracks: 3 Length: 5 Minutes (Very Short) Style: Rebellious/Political/Angry My Rating: 6/8
"Six Pack" is among the most popular and well-known songs by Black Flag. It's somewhat the signature song of the Dez Cadena era, the Black Flag vocalist who had rough, harsh vocals like no other. Some consider his vocals even more brutal than Henry Rollins. They never really released an album with Dez, but they did release two singles, and some of his lesser-known work is on the compilation titled "Everything Went Black". The single also contains two B-Sides, which I personally consider better than the A-Side... funny how things work, isn't it? Well, the cover is an early work by Raymond Pettibon, portraying a punk painting himself into a corner because the band believed that "punk was painting itself into a corner." And while that could be summed up as the main philosophy of Black Flag, this record, along with everything that came before it is linear and "normal" enough for just about any self-proclaimed punk fan to enjoy. I wouldn't doubt that the ironic nature of the title song was lost on some early fans, though...
1. Six Pack Begins with a downbeat bass-driven melody, and an abrasive guitar section. The intro suddenly transforms into a speedy, upbeat song about a guy who dislikes most people and would rather just spend all of his time with a six-pack of beer and get wasted.
2. I've Heard it Before The intro is a spoken (or should I say 'yelled') piece with a lot of lead-guitar and a beat that progressively gets faster and faster. The main section is a faster part like in "Six Pack". The chorus is pretty catchy. A classic teenage rebel anthem about being tired of hearing the same rhetoric forced onto you when you wanna break free from the useless rules! Something I've definitely been feelin' lately.
3. American Waste My favorite song on the 7"! It's got a great riff, a fast beat, and great lyrics. It's about feeling lost amidst the large American system, not wanting to die as another slave to it, but living for your own dreams, not "burning up in the heap" like the rest seem to mindlessly do.
As I said before, it's a classic punk record and if you were to ask some random person what their favorite Black Flag album was (if they've even heard of Black Flag), they might just name this one. It's short, but satisfying. The band released another two-song 7" record with Dez Cadena on vocals and one side contained a cover of "Louie, Louie" by the Kingsmen, and another side contained "Damaged", the first slow song Black Flag ever did. The song "Six Pack" on this single would later be re-recorded and sung by Henry Rollins on the band's debut EP. But, I'm not really even supposed to be writing any of this because a few days ago I got grounded for -- GASP -- making my own rock music! How depraved of me, right? Well, even this record gives me comfort that someone else expresses the same sentiments as I am, right now; in a world where even my own friends are preaching to me about what's wrong or right in life and slowly growing up before my eyes. It's nice to hear from someone else that it's okay to rebel.
Genre: Punk Rock Sub-Genres: Hardcore, Post-Punk Label: Alternative Tentacles Tracks: 17 Length: 51 Minutes (Short) Style:Political/Creepy/Funny My Rating: 7/8
If you hate to hear this, I'm sorry, but some politically-charged rock is just plain bad. I can understand if you want to use music for a platform of promoting your politics, but if your band's beliefs are sucking the creativity out of its music, then maybe you should consider being something else. I don't like feeling like I'm being preached to in church when I'm supposed to be listening to something enjoyable. Still, the Dead Kennedys are a different case. Their music is so artistically captivating that you can fully understand what they are trying to tell you in the emotions, music, tones, and lyrics used. You WANT to listen. Always interesting and far from un-entertaining, part of the secret to the genius of the Dead Kennedys/Jello Biafra is their ability to portray a situation from the antagonist's point of view. Listening to a Dead Kennedys song pits the Bad Guy against YOU, as he proudly and coldheartedly informs you of how he is going to tear you and your country down. You hear these words, almost induced into a state in which you believe that you are actually hearing the politician/dictator/government/religious leader/corporation speak right to you, and it makes you mad. You WANT to fight back now, and it doesn't take any more bullshit preachiness. Not just this, the Dead Kennedys were strong advocates against what might now be considered "posers" in the scene; the lugheaded assholes sticking around to smash some heads and listen to music that sounds exactly the same again and again. The band experimented with psychedelic rock, western music, swing, and electronic music, adding to their zany flair. The band's politics and music and built them a large fanbase and the band existed for nearly a decade until breaking up in 1986.
The band released many albums, but they did many other things as well, such as writing songs that never made it onto this album and releasing 7" singles with other songs on 'em. This album does its best to keep a hold of all of the odds and ends left over from the Dead Kennedys' career, about a year after they disbanded, and it's the last Dead Kennedys release approved of by Jello Biafra, the original and true frontman of the band.
1. Police Truck Originally the B-Side to the "Holiday in Cambodia" single. It's an upbeat song about asshole pigs who like to ride around, get wasted, beat up drunks, and sexually harass women they arrest. When someone asks them if they're "doing something wicked", they reply "No siree, Jack, just giving out tickets!" -- HAH!
2. Too Drunk to Fuck Originally the A-Side of a single. An energetic surf rockish songy. One of their most famous songs. Basically making fun of drunk people and the stupidity that often ensues in drunkeness. Yes, I'm guilty too! I think my problem is that I'm too sober to fuck, to be honest. My favorite line was at the end about having diarrhea. After the song ends, you can hear a person puking into a flushing toilet.
3. California Uber Alles Ah yes, the most famous Dead Kennedys song second to you-know-what. It compares the far-leftist mayor of California, Jerry Brown, to a hippie Nazi, enforcing his "mellow and hip" lifestyle on all citizens of California! This version is a little different from the Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables version in that it's older than that version and it's a bit slower as well.
4. The Man With the Dogs The B-Side to the "California Uber Alles" single. We've all seen this man at one point or another, probably more than once. He hangs out in the city with his only companions, two dogs. People are creeped out by him. He bares all. He does not pretend to be any more than he is. However, he observes the others who he despises as being no more than mere rodents, and dreams of the day when he can "crack open their masks."
5. In-Sight The B-Side to the "Kill the Poor" single. Another song with awesome lyrics. Basically about a group of douchebag friends who sneer and laugh at a "weird kid" from their school who sets his papers on fire, sits in a corner, gets bored by their behaviors, never hangs out with the girls, and often gets beat up. As the friends graduate and begin "planning their careers", the kid who they think is so weird remarks that they're "getting old". And they are.
6. Life Sentence The B-Side to "Bleed For Me". A very fast song about something I have seen happen so much around me. Once-rowdy high school kids grow old, worry about being mature enough and their careers while they lose their youthfulness. Something I don't wanna fucking do. Therefore, this song has a lot of meaning for me. It actually seems to be a continuation of the theme on
7. A Child And His Lawnmower The lyrics are about some guy who shot his own lawnmower because it wouldn't work and was dragged into court because of it, only to get right out after paying the fine. The moral here is to not be a macho destructive idiot because "if you did, you'd have half a brain left". One of the shortest songs on the album.
8. Holiday in Cambodia The most famous Dead Kennedys song. Now being used in car commercials, video games, and the like, it is quite well-known in mainstream music fandom possibly for those reasons, and also because it's just a catchy, fun song. This iz the version from the single in 1980. This version mocks the mainstream "liberal elite" kids who think they've "seen it all from daddy's car", but back east "their type don't crawl" -- telling the kids who think American life is tough to cheer up because even the hardest times in America are still "a holiday in Cambodia". The vocal harmonies in the chorus are great.
9. I Fought the Law (And I Won) Another happy, poppy sort of song. However, the lyrics are about a pretty serious situation in America; the Law can't even obey its own damn laws! Being in the KKK, shooting people, stealing money -- it is revealed at the end that the narrator here IS the Law! What irony.
10. Saturday Night Holocaust The B-Side to "Halloween". It starts extremely slow, noisy, and creepy, with curious musings of a small town on strange smells and auras of poisonous material pervading their town as they try to ignore it all and get back to work... the fries at A&W are tastin' a little strange, and beyond their sight there are PEOPLE locked into cattle cars! That's when the song gets faster and a lil' more serious, as he goes over a plethora of social problems in the good ol' U.S. of A... the song ends in a quiet, sensual wooing to the girl with "Barbie doll lips" and a "spandex ass" mentioned in an earlier verse in the song.
11. Pull My Strings This song was recorded at a live concert. It's about your typical dumbass "rockstar" who plays music just to get rich and live a life of luxury, with their lack of creative talent just to make a quick buck. The song parodies "My Sharona" in one bridge section, and another section of the song is done in a reggae style. This song still applies to all of the fucking fools in the mainstream music industry today.
12. Short Songs Another live recording. It's a short song about, well, short songs. It's a short song for the sake of being short (half a minute). I have, however, written shorter songs than this. Not to brag or anything. Hehe.
13. Straight A's More live Dead Kennedys! The song's upbeat, but it's pretty dark, lyrically. It's about a 16-year-old nerd who devotes his whole life to getting good grades in school due to pressure from his family and his school, as people laugh at him when he fails at something; leading to him contemplating suicide. He eventually does off himself, but "nobody remembers him", except for when they for a brief moment think about the possibilities... and then go back to their horrendous social structure that killed their boy in the first place!
14. Kinky Sex Makes the World Go Around A mock-phone call from the Secretary of War to Margaret Thatcher set to a spooky Dead Kennedys soundtrack... the plan involves sending the amount of "useless" young people off to war, putting them on drugs, giving them guns, and dispatching them into many different 3rd-world countries. The sad thing is that this is all being done to "boost economic growth"... sad, isn't it? Well, it's not a real phone call, but this doesn't seem too far off from the truth, y'know... 'specially since the economy's not doing so well, right now. I might also add that during the entire dialouge of the phonecall, Margaret Thatcher is moaning in orgasming in a somewhat creepy way.
15. The Prey This one's about a mugger whose "prey" are people with a lot of money, looking at the size of their wallets and sneakin' up on them until he can strike. You can feel yourself following in the footsteps of the song's protagonist, as you imagine yourself following an imaginary victim. This song is done in a slow, mellow, bassy style... sorta like lounge music.
16. Night of the Living Rednecks One more live song! This song was completely improvised, featuring Klaus Floride, the bassist playing a bebop-style bassline and an accompanying beat, in which Jello begins telling a story about a time he was in Oregon, late at night, and is harrassed by a group of jocks in a blue pickup truck which looked like a "life-sized Hot Wheels car" yelling "HEY FAGGOT!" at 'im, and pouring water on him, much to Jello's dismay. He later met the douchebags again, as they asked him where the nearest McDonald's was, and Jello didn't know, so they poured water on him again, to which this time Jello responded by throwing a rock at their truck. And, like all over-reactive douchebags, the jocks responded by threatening violence, screaming "WE'RE GONNA KILL YOU, FAGGOT", as Jello was extremely nervous, attempting to hide. Taking cues from a group of mocking onlookers, he decides to actually pretend to be insane, begging to be put away in a mental hospital... the jocks don't like this, and call the POLICE on him. Well, the police arrive, clear up the mess, and everyone goes home. The End. Jello tells East Bay Ray to fix his guitar so they can play another one of their "real songs"...
17. Buzzbomb from Pasadena Something of a sequel to the song "Buzzbomb" from "Plastic Surgery Disasters" with a TWIST -- the song is sung by an old lady! It's pretty funny in that aspect, hearing an old lady sing macho-typical lyrics about her muscle-machine car which she seems to love more than people. The journey ends when a group of cops corner her at a 7-11, shooting her car up and eventually killing the elderly driver.
"Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death" was a result of many different recording sessions which spanned the band's career, from the earliest 7" singles to out-takes from their later records to demos and live recordings. It was released a year after the band broke up, so it can be considered their "last album" in a sense. While there are many other great songs that the Dead Kennedys wrote and albums they released besides what's all here, even this album really does sum up what the band was all about. The band actually reformed in 2001, but without a certain key member... JELLO! Well, Jello had opposed to the idea, and continued his activities of playing in other bands, performing spoken word pieces, and political activism. The band actually did in fact, SUE Jello Biafra himself over legal disputes over who owned the songs (even though Jello wrote nearly all of 'em). The new band did things that it would have spat upon under Jello's control, such as performing at a Coca-Cola sponsored show at one point, and allowing their music to be used for large corporations such as car companies. Because of all of this controversy, the band once again is not performing anymore since 2008. Jello Biafra is currently the frontman for a band called "The Guantanamo School of Medicine", a band which could be considered his own modern-day equivalent to the Dead Kennedys.
Top 3 Favorites: 1. Life Sentence 2. Night of the Living Rednecks 3. Saturday Night Holocaust
Genre: Punk Rock Sub-Genres: Grunge, Post-Punk Label: Sympathy For the Record Industry Tracks: 3 Length: 8 Minutes (Short) Style:Mysterious/Weird My Rating: 6/8
I read somewhere that Buzz Osborne considers the early grunge band Malfunkshun one of the greatest bands to come out of the Seattle scene. Though they never released an actual record (they were featured on the Deep Six compilation) during the lifetime of frontman Andrew Wood (an LP was finally released in 1995), they accumulated quite a positive reputation, and were one of the top bands of the early grunge scene in the mid 1980s, before the word "grunge" was ever even once used to describe it! Judging by the release date of the album (Andrew Wood passed away in 1990 right before Mother Love Bone's debut LP came out), this was likely a tribute to the man, or at least a sad case of irony. It's also interesting for having two different B-Side tracks, little-known cuts that many Melvins fans have not heard. These include the short-but-sweet sludge-punk beauty of "Four Letter Woman" and the humorous sample-laden "Anal Satan".
1. With Yo' Heart, Not Yo' Hands As you might already know, it's a Malfunkshun cover. The lyrics seem somewhat sexual, maybe a dark love song of some sort. It's slow and quite lead driven. The riff is sinister and bleak. The song ends in a final blitz of feedback and noise that feel like electricity. It's over four minutes long. Now let's listen to the next songs...
2. Four-Letter Woman It took me awhile to figure this out, but I think the "four letter woman" is Lori. L-O-R-I. Like, from the Melvins. She plays bass guitar on this album. The song variates from hardcore punk pounding to sludge-metal thumping, with a murky, cool riff. Buzz's vocals are great in this song, he makes great use a vibrato technique in the sung section. The song ends in a section similar to the part that precedes the verse section. The song is under two minutes long.
3. Anal Satan This one to me totally sounds like a Butthole Surfers song. Yet the Melvins are indeed demented enough to come up with a song like this. The song ends with Buzz yelling "YOU'RE GOING TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE!! YOU'RE GOING TO GET A SPANKINGG!!". The song uses a heavy amount of industrial/hip-hop style sampling, slowed down fragments, sped-up clippets, and clips of Dale from the Melvins dissing Bruce Pavitt from Sub-Pop Records for not originally putting out this record like they intended. The main lyrics are clips of two different voices shouting "ANAL! SATAN..." -- quite a fun song, showing the Melvins deviating from their main trade. The song ends with a semi-musical fanfare from what sounds like a chainsaw.
Well, I thought it was quite good for a somewhat obscure 3-song 7" vinyl EP record thing that you put in your record player that spins it around so it can play a pattern of sounds based off of the grooves in the aforementioned piece of plastic that creates noises that do in fact resemble the Melvins playing music for you. To be honest, the A-Side I didn't enjoy as much as the B-Sides. Say what you will. I just haven't gotten ultra into it, yet. I actually liked the original Malfunkshun version better. I guess that iz to be expected, though. One thing I noticed about this album's art though is a certain kreepy kreature that is also on the art for the "Oven" single from 1989... do you think THIS guy is the "Anal Satan" we've been hearing about so much?
..........(Exhibit A) ....................... (Previous Sighting, c. '89)
Now think about it before you judge... if Satan DOES exist, then nobody living knows what he looks like so we can not instantly be sure if he really IS a red guy with horns. Maybe because, as we all know, that the Melvins have been to Hell and back (Brian Walsby drew him), they have indeed seen the guy -- and THIS is what he looks like! Also, note the position that his neck arises from... it could be a pretty damn long neck, sticking out of the collar of the man's shirt, all the way from inside... the ANUS! This could indeed be the Anal Satan... a proper reminder to eat a non-Satanic diet... like, of sacrificed baby-meat and stuff.
Genre: Punk Rock Sub-Genres: Hardcore, Post-Punk Label: SST Records Tracks: 23 Length: 70 Minutes (Long) Style:Mysterious/Rebellious/Emotional My Rating: 7/8
Many say that this album was something of a major turning point for Hüsker Dü as well as punk rock in general. Regarded as one of the first "alternative rock" (whatever that is) albums ever, it's essentially a hardcore punk record with a lot of creativity and new experimentation -- pianos, acoustic numbers. It's even a rock opera! -- possibly the first punk opera ever. The story is pretty simple, but the colors used to portray it give the ride much more depth. What IS that story? Well, basically, a young nerd living in a broken home with incessant fighting and abuse between his parents, alienated by the distress, finally decided to seek true escape from the miserable life and runs away. As he experiences new things about the "real world", the new lands filled with hope and excitement quickly transform into a world darker than where he was in the first place, as he fights to survive. What's the ending?? Well, we'll just see at the end...
1. Something I Learned Today A near-epic yet seemingly simple opener. Begins with pattering drums with a curious bassline which explodes into a fiery, brave riff which seems to promise new worlds of exploration. The lyrics seem to provide insight into the mind of a disillusioned child. Still, the song just barely scratches the two-minute mark.
2. Broken Home, Broken Heart In this song we get to peer into the physical realm of our protagonist's existence... a realm where there is little peace even in a place of supposed safety: his (her?) home. With Mom and Dad fighting all of the time, the song explains that it's difficulty for him to even get any sleep at night. Coolest part, musically: the instrumental part punctuating each verse and chorus with the twice repeated four chords and the drumming that accompanies it. Great for dancing. One of the greatest songs on the album.
3. Never Talking to You Again Here, we take a break from the seemingly predominant thrash style to an acoustic ballad. While when listened to on its own it could be mistaken for a typical "breakup" anthem, but when placed in proper context; it's about the album's hero "giving up" on his caretakers and seeing their foolishness and destructiveness, leaving them behind for something that seems brighter ahead. The vocal harmonies are beautiful here. For that reason and just the melody, I also love this track (just like the two before it).
4. Chartered Trips Here's where the adventure really starts to take off -- the hero, according to the song, "packs up his belongings in a nylon carry-all". As he takes off for his long journey, he imagines the sights and sounds and places he may see down the road ahead, optimistic as can be. Like every other song here so far, the melody is beautiful and truly personifies the emotion communicated through the song in a musical format, especially in the chorus.
5. Dreams Reoccurring This one's really weird. It's basically a creepy, avant-garde jazz-punk piece which seems to be played backwards. With that said, it isn't very long, but interesting enough. No vocals or lyrics, either.
6. Indecision Time The riff and such are much darker than the initial upbeat feel of the album. Lyrically, it's where the harsh reality of the hero's situation sinks in: "you wonder if life could be much worse"... sleeping on the streets, plagued by paranoia and fear, unable to figure out what the hell to do next. The noisy swooping guitars are reminiscent of uncaring automobiles driving by.
7. Hare Krsna Accompanied by eastern clattering of an instrument I feel unable to name, the song is melodically done in the style of an Asian religious chant, as supposedly the song is about the protagonist's decision to turn to religion to bring the missing light back into his light. Incessant mumbling and musical moaning can be heard in the background. With that being said, it's a much happier-sounding song than the track before it, and here we have yet another diversion from the standard hardcore formula that already sounded captivating when Hüsker Dü played it. End of Side 1.
8. Beyond the Threshold A song about feelings of isolation in a crowd land of strangers, wishing to revisit those who may have actually loved you, but unable to do so even if you tried. The vocals have an effect on them to make them seem as grating and unfriendly as the character's situation. Lost in the concrete jungle.
9. Pride Hopeless screaming of hard-to-understand lyrics already by themselves painting a picture of the pain and confusion of the young and innocent hurled into a world of darkness and evil. People who mug you at the slightest pang of offense, jerks in general, the greedy, those who are cruel to the needy, it's a place that's fucking seedy. Still, the guitar solo done here is damn excellent and sexy.
10. I'll Never Forget You When you finally find someone in a natural disaster of a world that you feel like you can trust, it's a bit risky, because we all have a tendency to get tired of unwanted guests. But when you throw away the people who really need your company... the results are just not good. The vocalist continually and erratically screams "I'LL NEVER FORGET YOU/I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU", just as if he's actually experiencing the subject matter of the song as he sings it. The riff is totally badass.
11. The Biggest Lie Slow, droning intro. Basically about how the people most vulnerable to harm are those who actually be themselves, and the average, mundane life is a result of "the biggest lie".
12. What's Going On (Inside My Head) The music here is abrasive, almost sounding like No-Wave music, here. The protagonist of the song realizes that he didn't "listen enough" to what other people had to say to him and feels that he only listened to himself too much at times -- feeling insane as a result. Towards the end of the song, some piano also accompanies the raging guitars and the beat. When the song seems like it's about to end, it all returns back like a boomerang at twice the normal pace just before exploding into some post-punk noize stuff.
13. Masochism World As a means to escape the frustration and real pain in his current life, the character in the story decides to resort to a new sexual fetish for S&M, as the lyrics consist of things he may have said or thought during this. Midway through the song, there is a chorus of soft female vocals. The tempo sort of lags in a fashion that's hard to explain, but it's real cool. The final few seconds of the song are another noise section.
14. Standing By the Sea They say this was actually an out-take from the "Metal Circus" sessions, but they evidently found the song worthy enough to make it onto their next album. The title basically sums up the song. The instrumental parts of the song have the sounds of the crashing of waves against the shore, adding to the feel, as the lyrics describe the viewpoint of the lonely protagonist standing by the sea listening to the sound of the waves. End of Side 2.
15. Somewhere The riffs on this one are great! This song features the main character daydreaming about "somewhere", a place where he can forget about his troubles, feel like he belongs, and feel at ease and safety. The second half of the song features a backwards version of the riff being played alongside the regular riff, adding to the dreamy aura of it.
16. One Step At a Time A short, psychedelic instrumental piano piece. The melody played on the keys is beautiful, underneath a calm sea of bizarre but peaceful sounds and great chord progressions. The song is less than a minute long.
17. Pink Turns to Blue In this song, it is said that the main character begins to turn to drug use, distorting reality in hopes of making it more peaceful against the harsher reality, as "pink turns to blue" in his eyes. There's a little piano used in the beginning parts of the song, also.
18. Newest Industry Like the track before it, it's melodic hardcore punk with a little piano thrown in. It's about the deterioration of the American industrial realm and how society and the government are unable to maintain it for the wars and other meaningless projects they'd rather keep around. And the riffs and such are great, here.
19. Monday Will Never Be the Same Much like "One Step at a Time", this is a short, sad little piano piece, reflecting the hopelessness and sorrow beginning to drip from the eyes of the protagonist. Not very long, but very powerful and helps to shift the consistency of the album.
20. Whatever Back to ol' Mom and Dad, the song has the parents of the main character wondering why their son chose the path in life he did... perhaps it was because of their neglect that "he turned out wrong", as he lives in his own world where he feels safe from the surrounding harm. The mid-section is pretty nice to listen to, as without any vocals or lyrics you can feel the void disconnection between the two pieces who have come so far apart.
21. The Tooth Fairy and the Princess Something strange is happening... music played in a similar fashion to "Dreams Reoccurring"; backwards instrumentation, as voices whispering all around the protagonist's head repeatedly say "Don't give up", "don't let go", and "don't give in", among other things as the character tosses and turns in the bed he has, falling into a strange hole through reality that ends with one loud scream as the voices tell him to "Wake Up". End of Side 3.
22. Turn On the News It was all a dream. The whole escape was just a the character losing his mind. But he's woken up. Back to the real world. He "turns on the news", as we hear little clippets of broadcast news playing in a storm of chaos until the main part of the song starts up. The lyrics are musings on why the bad things in the world happen and why the world works the way it does sometimes. "All this uptight pushing and shoving keeps us away from who we're loving." Amazing guitar solo here.
23. Reoccurring Dreams Well, Reoccurring Dreams DO occur, don't they? Well, this dream reoccurred (the one in track 5), but this one izn't backwards anymore. It's a long instrumental symphony of jazz-esque punk rock, extending just 14 minutes long! And that's the end.
Well, it didn't end GREAT or anything, but it was better than the hero dying alone on the streets or something like that, I suppose. And it all works very well. Probably one of the longest hardcore punk LPs ever. This album marked the shift from hardcore punk to post-punk and a new change in Hüsker Dü's sound. Pretty good, huh? Well, I thought so. I can imagine buying this album in 1984 and being BLOWN AWAY by the quality of it. Of course, now there have been at very least a handful of songs that have been written that are better than the songs from this album, but this stuff was completely top-notch for its time and still is! Well, if you're punk and haven't heard this, listen to this album NOW. It will totally change your perception of what punk rock can do for you.
Genre: Punk Rock Sub-Genres: No-Wave, Noise Label: Neutral Records Tracks: 9 Length: 35 Minutes (Long) Style:Mysterious My Rating: 6/8
Sonic YOUTH? More like Sonic OLD, now! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HOHOHOHOH OHOHOHOHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH EHEHEU HUHUHUHUHU YEAH. ANYWAYS I AM GOING TO TYPE IN ALL CAPS RIGHT NOW. SONIC YOUTH ARE SO OLD THAT THEY'RE OLDER THAN MY PARENTS. AND THEY'RE PROBABLY OLDER THAN YOU. AND THEY CAN ACTUALLY REMEMBER DINOSAURS. IT IS SAID THAT WHAT MAKES SONIC YOUTH'S MUSIC SO WEIRDLY GREAT IS THE INFLUENCE THAT EARLY DINOSAURS IN THE STONE AGE MUSIC SCENE HAD ON THEIR MUSIC SUCH AS THE STOOGASAURUS, OFTEN LED IN PACKS BY IGGYUANADONS. AND SO IT WAS NEW YOIK IN THE EARLY NINE-TEEN OCHOS when THE NEW YORK NO-WAVE SCENE WAS STILL EXISTENT IN ITZ ORIGINAL FORM WITH OTHER BANDS SUCH AS THE CONTORTIONS AND TEENAGE JESUS & THE FREAKS. SONIK YOOTH KAME A LITTEL LAIT'R THAN VEE OVER 1'S BUTT VAY WARE JUSH ASS IMPORNTANT AS THE OTHER 1'S AND HALPED GENERALLY EXPAND PUNC ROKC.
AFFTER THARE 1ST ALLBUM JUSH KAL'D "SONIK YOOTH", SONIK YOOTH DECIDAD TPO RLS ANTHER REKERD N EET WUZ KALLED "CONFUCIUS IS SEXUAL INTERCOURSE", PROWDLEE DIZ PLAYUING THARE LUV 4 CONFUCIUS DA FAMUS JERMAN FULLOFOSER. NAUW IT'Z TIME TO STUP TLKN LK A FKNG RTRD N RVW TH DMN ALBUM.
1. (She's In a) Bad Mood The guitars sound like ringing bells. The bass is ominous. The lyrics are only "She's in a bad mood/But I won't fall for it/I believe all her lies/But I can't fall for it". The beat is highly varied and interesting. Hell, they get these guitars to sound like pianos in the end. Maybe they are actual pianos. But Sonic Youth was pretty weird back then so they probably just sprinkled some of their magic Sonic dust of Youth on their guitars to give them special Sonic Magic. Thurston sings this one.
2. Protect Me You It's probably like, "Protect Me AND You" or "Protect Me, You!", but they forgot to add in that extra word or punctuation mark or somethin' like that. It's even slower and more depressing than the song before it. Kimmy Gordy sings this song. The lyrics are very depressing as well and seem to be chronicling the struggle of a young girl to survive throughout various stages of her life. Like metamorphosis. Like, the 10-year-old is just a lil' tadpole, and the 18-year-old is a full-blown Frogotron-5000(tm). She asks the "demons that come at night" to protect her.
3. Freezer Burn/I Wanna Be Your Dog Two songs een one! The first one is "Freezer Burn". It's a droning, creepy, ambient piece with creepy, droning, ambient noizes going on around your ears. It eventually goes into the next song, "I Wanna Be Your Dog", which is a cover of the '60s punk-before-punk classic by the Stooges. It is taken from a live recording, so, the quality is a lot less clear than the other songs, but definitely still listenable. Kim sings. A very fun song.
4. Shaking Hell The song is mainly driven by a quirky bassline accompanied by breezy, mystical guitars and a somewhat uptempo beat. Midway through the song, it changes to a slower, clamer piece with Kim Gordon on the vocals, singing about a girl who has lost her virginity and innocence. It ends somewhat abruptly. End of Side 1.
5. Inhuman Begins with clanging, clattering, anarchic noise. Thurston sings this song. Really cool beat, accompanied by pounding, shrieking guitar noizes. The bassline is really cool. My favorite song on the album.
6. The World Looks Red Another one on the album I really like. Throbbing, high-pitched guitar accompanied by swooping, floating-round guitars. The beat is somewhat fast for the album. Thurston sings, and his vocals are great here. The lyrics are pretty trippy and bizarre.
7. Confusion is Next Once again, I love this song. It's a slow, crazed song involving Thurston's thoughts on what humanity must do to become free, involving such beautiful self-instructions such as "take your tounge and stretch it out..." -- Pure genius. Pure genius. SONIC TOOTH!
8. Making the Nature Scene Another one with Kim Gordon singing the lyrics. The lyrics sing about how the city and civilization have forgotten of the past of humanity as a part of nature and encourages humans to "make their own nature scene".
9. Lee is Free This is an instrumental, so there are no lyrics or vocals. Just more sonic droning and clanging. So, to be unpretentious about this, I cannot say that I necessarily enjoy this track that much. It's interesting for a minute or two I guess, though.
SO THAT WUZ CONFICIOUS IZ SEXUAL INTERKKKOURSE. IT WUZ THARE L'ASS'T RELEEESE AWN NEUTRAL REKKKERDZ AND THEN THEY WENT ON OTHA LA'BELZ AFTER THAT SUCH AS HOMESTEAD RECORDS N' THEIR OWN LAYBULL KALLED ECSTATIC PIECE (OR IZ IT CALLED EXTATIK PISS?""). EYE THUNK DIS REKKKERD IZ PRETTY LEGITTY BUTT IT DUSN'T REEECH DA FULL POTENTIAL I THUT THEY REEECHED IN DA LATE '80S N EARLY NUEVEZ . THIIIS ULBUM IZ DARK, MYSTEERIUS AND WEEIRD, BUT IT'Z VERY GOOD N DESCRIBES A DARKER SIDE OF HYOOMUN EGGZISTUNCE THAT SUM PEEPULL HALF TRUBLE PERSONICFYING.
