WHITE ZOMBIE
ASTRO-CREEP: 2000 – SONGS OF LOVE, DESTRUCTION AND OTHER SYNTHETIC DELUSIONS OF THE ELECTRIC HEAD
1995 – GEFFEN
Produced By TERRY DATE
1. Electric Head Pt. 1 (The Agony)
2. Super-Charger Heaven
3. Real Solution #9
4. Creature Of The Wheel
5. Electric Head Pt. 2 (The Ecstasy)
6. Grease Paint And Monkey Brains
7. I, Zombie
8. More Human Than Human
9. El Phantasmo And The Chicken-Run Blast-O-Rama
10. Blur The Technicolor
11. Blood, Milk And Sky
Because there are so many of them, there are several pockets of rock music that I simply missed out on while they were happening. A perfect example of that is White Zombie. This band spent just over a decade evolving into a deeply heavy and dark hard rock and metal band with industrial leanings and a love of horror movies. That didn’t quite jive with my much mellower singer songwriter leanings in the late eighties and nineties. I was always aware of White Zombie…I just never paid them much attention. It’s always strange discovering a band later in life that you never gave the time of day to as a younger man. But here we are. Astro-Creep: 2000 is the fourth and final White Zombie album. It’s the final settlement of their sound, which was once aptly described as “white trash on acid metal”. In other words, this is not music for the masses. But if you like it heavy and dark, it might just be for you.
Astro-Creep: 2000 is dark indeed. The down-tuned guitars are anything but happy, and the songs about pleasantries like Satan, murder, zombies and the like make this music you will not want to play while making sweet love down by the fire. But that doesn’t equate to bad. “More Human Than Human” is the band’s best song, with “Super-Charger Heaven” and “Electric Head Pt. 2” not far behind. The movie dialogue snippets between songs don’t hurt, either. What we have here is a band that seemed to have finally found their sound at the same moment they were over. And then they simply toured themselves to death. White Zombie broke up in 1998, and they have never been even remotely close to reuniting. This band is over, and we’re left with Zombie’s not as satisfying solo career. This is the best album of White Zombie’s career.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
THE POGUES
RUM SODOMY & THE LASH
1985 – STIFF / MCA
Produced By ELVIS COSTELLO
1. The Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn
2. The Old Main Drag
3. Wild Cats Of Kilkenny
4. I’m A Man You Don’t Meet Every Day
5. A Pair Of Brown Eyes
6. Sally MacLennane
7. A Pistol For Paddy Garcia
8. Dirty Old Town
9. Jesse James
10. Navigator
11. Billy’s Bones
12. The Gentleman Soldier
13. The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
It’s The Pogues. This Irish folk punk band is actually from London, where they enjoyed their biggest successes in the late eighties and early nineties. But before that, they released their best album, Rum Sodomy & The Lash, in 1985. This is where Shane MacGowan became a great songwriter, and this is where the most fun moments of The Pogues live. This is their most memorable lineup, their best set of songs, and their best work. They were good on their debut (Red Roses For Me), but here, they fully come into their own. This is music to drink to, and music to celebrate to…even when the songs are sad. Mostly, if you want to turn someone on to The Pogues, it’s this album you’ll play for them. Produced by Elvis Costello, his idea was to let the band be themselves and not overproduce anything…and it works like a charm.
The album starts strong, but really hits its stride in the middle. Two MacGowan originals, “A Pair Of Brown Eyes” and “Sally MacLennane” are excellent. (“A Pistol For Paddy Garcia” is a strangely placed bonus track on my later version…it was a single B-side.) A fine cover of Ewan MacColl’s 1949 song “Dirty Old Town” is next. “Jesse James” was written in 1887. Finally, the 1971 Eric Bogle war song “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” is a perfect closer, running just over eight minutes. The band almost fell apart after this, then they came back to achieve their biggest commercial successes before MacGowan’s drinking became a problem, and the revolving door of band members became too much. The Pogues split up in 1996 after a bad final album. There have been a couple of reunions, but no new music in 30 years. Rum Sodomy & The Lash remains their best work.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
RAMONES
ROCKET TO RUSSIA
1977 – SIRE
Produced By TONY BONGIOVI & T. ERDELYI
1. Cretin Hop
2. Rockaway Beach
3. Here Today, Gione Tomorrow
4. Locket Love
5. I Don’t Care
6. Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
7. We’re A Happy Family
8. Teenage Lobotomy
9. Do You Wanna Dance?
10. I Wanna Be Well
11. I Can’t Give You Anything
12. Ramona
13. Surfin’ Bird
14. Why Is It Always This Way?
Never mind the Sex Pistols. Ramones were playing punk shows in America as early as 1974. While the first wave of British punk albums were just coming out in 1977, Ramones were releasing their third disc. Rocket To Russia is a blast, and had it not been for the surge in popularity of the Pistols and The Clash, this would have probably been THE punk album of the seventies. The British bands were all about being pissed off and looking overtly dangerous. And yeah…there was a place for that in the seventies. What Ramones brought was a dark take on The Beatles, heavier and yet almost as catchy. With the thing the UK acts really missed out on…a sense of humor. The band’s first two albums were cheap affairs, rushed to release with almost no budget. Here, the band had some money and some time, and a desire to make music better than what the Pistols were doing. And it worked.
The fact is, Rocket To Russia was never a big seller. The Ramones never were, period. But this album’s importance is bigger than the word platinum. Fourteen songs, and not one of them is as long as three minutes. They gleefully bash their way through the classics “Rockaway Beach” and “We’re A Happy Family” and “Teenage Lobotomy”, and especially “Sheena Is A Punk Rocker”. At the height of America’s obsession with what is now classic rock, Ramones were presenting a true alternative. It’s not mentioned as often as it should be, but this is truly one of the greatest rock records of the seventies. This is a good as they ever got, as this was the last record with the original lineup. Sad to think that the four guys who made this album have all been gone for more than a decade. It’s punk, man. Live fast, die young. Gabba Gabba Hey.
Link _________________ I'm leaning on the threshold
Of her mystery
And crashing through the walls
Of dying history
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