ASE

 

greatest hits live
ramones
radtoactive/mca

Do you remember rock
and roll radio? Let me
refresh your memory:
‘Sheena is a Punk Rocker’,
“Beat on the Brat’,
‘Spiderman’, ‘Blitzrieg
Bop’, and (of course), ‘I
Wanna be Sedated’ are the
best tracks on Greatest Hits Live, a
new release under MCA Records.

Johnny, Joey, Marky, and CJ
crank out some of the best early
punk tunes ever to reach the ears
of the frequency monsters.

The songs flow smoothly
throughout the album, with minor

 

interruptions by Marky yelling
“1 ,.2..3..4..” and jumping right
. back into the groove again.
It’s awesome: an honest must-
have for Ramones fans...but you
gotta play it loud!

rachel young
buy product

Various artists

geffen/mca

The other extreme being the
bands I repeatedly skip; The
Roots, sounding like a poor
Fishbone imitation.

And then there’s the overplayed,
but not by me, by ever other
compilation put out
this year. That
being White
Zombie, and...you
guessed it! More

Nother compilation of
alternative music from some
intriguing bands;
from Sonic Youth
to Thurston Moore
(some would say

BUY-PRODUCT

Moore is Sonic Human than

Youth, and I would Human (The

agree.) Warlord of Mars
With a few bands

Mega Mix). Must
be because its so
damn good, to
bad its so damn
over-played. Ah

 

i’ve never heard of
before, but now
must hear more of.
Like that dog, a
mostly girl group outta CA.
‘silently’ is from their second
album. stunning.

. 5 OF CHHEE QUE ROE K ANTS

well.
What makes this comp unique is
it’s so damn cheap. There you go.
joyce robinson

the elevator drops
pop bus
time bomb/bmg

wistful...disjointed...schizophrenic...

could be BAD, could be Pure,
could be David Bowie outta the
‘early 80s, could be the Cure,
couldn’t be more interesting than
the translucent spider with red
stripes on it’s thorax that is
crawling across the kitchen floor.
Think I'll see where it goes. This
“music” is getting on my last heat-
frayed nerves...

 

Joyce

Jars of clay
Jars of clay
bmg

Somewhere there must
be good Christian Rock,
it’s too bad this isn’t it.
Too bad, because it’s
getting so much airplay.
Thankgod I’ve stopped
listening to radio.

They must use the
excuse of “divine
inspiration” in leui well-
written lyrics. I can’t give
you examples, it hurts my
artistic soul just thinking about it.

Aaahh! The pain.

 

joyce

rarities, bsides § other stuff
satah mclachlan
nettwerk records

by XTC in the 80s. ‘I Will Remember You’ from the
Brothers McMullen soundtrack follows, although it

Beginning with 1988’s Touch, Ms. McLachlan has
many, many

spread her wings and allowed
followers admire her, awed by
her beautiful feathers. The
wider she spans her wings, the
more birdlings she takes in.

“I’m a fan of music—?m
the kind of person who goes
out and if there’s a different
song on the b-side of a single
I’ll go buy the single for the
different song. And I know
that a lot of my fans do the
same thing. So what I’m
trying to offer them is most
of those rarities and strange
things all on the same disc,”
explains Sarah.

The tone is set from the very first song,
Sarah’s angry remake of ‘Dear God’, originally done

young and modern
rattled roosters

bangon/cargo

They may be young, but modern
they’re not. They want to be
Elvis—the big E, Elvissey, all
that.... It’s just that RR aren’t as
earnest as he was. Their attitude is
all Rock Star, but at no point do
they make clear whether they
merely mock, or sincerely believe.
RR are supposed to be rockabilly.

Their songs are frivolous with
singalong potential. I can recall
driving annoying songs from my

jimmy george
hotel motel
waxy skin/cargo

Not strictly Celtic, tike the Pogues or Clannad,
heck, they aren’t even from the Maritimes they’re
peddling the reinvented—or revived?—Celtic/Irish
drinking song genres in this, their second release.
They even had the foresight to remove any
confusion as to their motives to title a song ‘Token
Celtic Drinking Song.’ And each time I listen to
Hotel Motel I feel as though I’m transported to an
Irish pub, a pint of warm Guinness clasped in my
hand and some drunk from the next table slobbering
in my ear. Pretty soon that drunk is going to leave,
the bar’s band is a little too punk, a little too
alternative....

At this point in the evening I could leave, but

one chord to another
sloan
murderecords/mca
Sloan broke up.

They got back together for a surprise appearance at
Music West in May, playing a few tracks off their new

album One Chord to Another. It’s not bad, I guess. It’s .

certainly not Smeared, and it’s far from fabulous.
Maybe I’m bitter, hurt, misunderstanding,
unsympathetic. Maybe not.

Has anyone heard what their current status is? (other
than confusing for their fans?)

rachel

 

 

 

clashes with track 1.
The rest is a
combination of remixe:
and live tracks, all of
which are very special t
the aficionado.

And (common to
Nettwerk CD products)
CD-ROM track is
included, featuring the
video for ‘I Will
Remember You’. There i
nothing else to the CD-
ROM portion of the disc]

That is about the only
disappointing part of the
entire album.

   
  
  
  
  
  

rach

head with some of the
equally annoying songs fro
this recording. For example,
‘Love is...a holiday.’ “It
seems to me that every time
I give my heart away it
comes back to me a little
worse for wear, and the
person I gave it to doesn’t
even care.” Swinging
grooves recycled al la the
King.

joyed

something’s
keeping me.
in the smoky
joint. Is it the
band playing
across the
room or the
drunk with the
lewd
suggestions?
I’m not sure,
maybe I’ll figure it out in the next set. Their songs are|
all fairly consistent. No surprises, fairly energetic,
selling the sadness of a confirmed alcoholic with

fiddles, jigs, the blues and all that shit. 1
.moore |

 

 

 

12 August 1996 The Other Press