RECORD REVIEWS
Mixed by Judge Jules
Clubber’s Guide to 2000
This CD was bad.
This CD was bad.
This CD was bad.
This CD was bad.
This CD was ...
Ok you get the idea.
Clubber’s Guide 2000 is overflowing with songs as repetitive and terrible
as the introduction to this review. And while this is absolutely no surprise,
given it is this type of music which clubbing is all about, it still doesn’t
change the fact that to this reviewer techno is, well, boring and pointless.
But there are the people (all 10 of them) who do enjoy this sort of music.
So it is unfair to criticise their tastes, even though it just does not
make any sense at all.
This CD receives 2.5/5. If you like techno, you can add 2.5. But if you
are a sane person, subtract 2.5. It’s your call.
Bug rating: 2.5/5
- Michael Gordon-Brown
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins - 1991-1998
Virgin
It seems as if these damn tribute albums just keep coming out earlier
and earlier.
Soon we shall be inundated with Ricky Martin - A Year of Brilliance, or
Brittney Spears - Twenty Seconds and Counting.
But then when you look closer and realise that the Smashing Pumpkins have
been around for quite a while, their tribute album is not such a bad idea
at all.
It also makes you realise how quickly the time has gone and how old you
actually are, but that is another story not worth mentioning here.
Where were we? Oh yeah, the Smashing Pumpkins. For years their dreary, melancholy
tunes have delighted and/or depressed cynical teens everywhere.
The band has managed to survive numerous reported rifts, the death of one
of their members from drugs and many, many more to be one of the more popular
bands around.
As you’d expect, the CD features all of their hits. Bullet with Butterfly
Wings is the pick, followed closely by 1979 and Ava Adore, but it is purely
a matter of personal preference.
The only problem with tribute albums is that there is nothing new - well
usually, as this album features a song called Mayonaise, an acoustic number
which is really the same style as all their other songs.
The best thing is that the songs on tribute albums are usually the band’s
best and brightest. Something which would probably not be possible for Ricky
Martin or Brittney Spears. Not yet, any way.
Bug rating: 3/5
- Michael Gordon-Brown
Kottonmouth Kings
Royal Highness
EMI
The songs by a band called the Kottonmouth Kings, with a debut album
entitled Royal Higness, is not purely about smoking pot and the problems
associated with it like not being able to find your bong.
Even though the songs have various titles such as Bong Tokin Alcoholics,
So High, What’s Your Trip? and so on, the band deals with a diverse
range of social issues such as “retaliating against the laissez faire
attitude of a close-minded middle class world” as well as “the
humanistic aftermath of someone doing time”.
Or to put it in the words of singer Saint Vicious: “We talk about doing
some crazy shit, ‘cause life is crazy.”
Translation: Yeah right.
Well, not that I could see. To this reviewer, the songs were all about drugs
and other issues not treated seriously. And that is fine.
Perhaps I just could not understand the words, as the band is pure rap/hip-hop,
a style which is never easy to pick up more than two or three words a minute.
Kottonmouth Kings are very comfortable in this funkadelic style, and show
enough on this album to suggest a future as the band of choice for pot smokers
everywhere.
It would be better if they didn’t pretend to be something they are
not. But then again, maybe they are singing about important social issues.
Who’d know?
Bug rating: 3/5
- Michael Gordon-Brown
Adam Brand
Good Friends
Compass through Festival
COMPARISONS can be odious but if Graeme Connors is this country’s
answer to Jimmy Buffet; if Kasey Chambers is our very own Lucinda Williams,
then young Adam Brand is the emerging Australian John Mellancamp.
Brand, a good-looking and high personable young bloke, has a similar rocking,
folksy and honest approach to his music.
Here on his second album Good Friends, Brand is joined in the writing department
by some highly credentialled mates including Connnors, Don Walker and the
irrepressile Colin Buchanan.
Some call Brand country, yet this former dental technician, belt salesman,
sprint car racer and signwriter (and now a Queenslander) has a much wider
appeal as a singer and songwriter.
He handles foot-tapping tracks as easily as the slower ballads, all with
a distinctive style.
The album is a clever mix of fast and slow tracks with plenty of steel guitar,
fiddle and dobro to remind us that Brand's albums are found in the country
racks.
Petrol heads will take up You're a rev head and then there's propably the
album's highlight, the Brand/Connors composition, Good Things in Life.
Then there's the sex-dripping Every Man likes You, the Bathurst dream, When
I get my wheels, and the sad and pretty Little Girl.
And the boys and girls in town in a few months for the Ekka will love "I
Did what?"
Good Friends has a well orchestrated mix and an ambience that proves Brand's
three golden guitars at TamworthMusic Awards were no fluke.
Here is a talent with a long way to go.
Bug rating: 3.5/5
Bruce McMahon
Slipknot
Slipknot
Roadrunner
The first time I even listened to Slipknot was when I walked out of Sepultura
mosh pit and there was a lady handing out some promotion CDs. Well, being
a metalhead, I grabbed one.
And it was by some no-name band, Slipknot. I went home, stuck it in, and
found the song Spit it out. It sounded wicked, with insane drum beats,
guitars and a crazy front man giving Slipknot their distinctive sound.
Who would of thought that nine people from that ol' cornfed US state of
Iowa could start a little band and end up as huge as they have. Slipknot
are DJ Sid Wilson, drummer Joey Jordison, bassist Paul Gray, percussionist
Chris Fehn, guitarist James Root, sampler Craig Jones, percussionist Shawn
Crahan, guitarist Mic Thompson and vocalist Corey Taylor.
And this is not just your standard nine members mixed into a freak show.
No way. You can classify Slipknot as their very own heavy horror show, with
members dressed up in prison and industrial overalls, wearing masks.
Slipknot first emerged on the scene in the latter half of 1995, with their
debut Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. They then found Roadrunner Records
and the Slipknot craze had begun. They begun recording their titular, first
major album – 15 songs of hard-hitting metal with highlights being
Spit it out, Wait and bleed and (Sic). Plus many, many more.
Slipknot kicked 2000 off with a tour of basically all of Australia and sold
out in seconds. Which just goes to show that Australia ain’t just techno
and pop; that there is still some metal in us all. Having a nine-man band
on stage would have been chaotic, which is what Slipknot are. If only the
Bug editor hadn't fucked up by forgetting to tell me there were a
few promo tickets waiting for me at their Brisbane gig!
While not my favourite band, Slipknot are still very good and should continue
to rip up concerts all over the world
Bug rating: 3/5
- Chris Gordon-Brown
Elephant Gun
Albino
RoadRunner records
It’s always nice to see an Australian band making a name for itself,
especially if the band in question actually has some substance to their
work, which relative newcomers Elephant Gun certainly have.
Elephant Gun are Todd Angus (vocals and guitar), Michael Barrett (guitar),
Sean Dennis (bass) and Simon Murphy (drums). Together these four blokes
have combined their talents to produce a 12 track CD called Albino.
And a very competent, enjoyable effort it is. So much so that you can forgive
the fact they hail from Melbourne.
Elephant Gun are pure rock. They formed in 1997 and after a few gigs, got
their break with a record contact. If you dig Live, Alice in Chains and
Jane’s Addiction, then check out Albino. They already have a
single out from the CD called Cataract and it is a fine song as well.
Elephant Gun will tour soon, the word has it, so it's likely to be a good
show if you can manage to catch it.
Overall this CD is sweet, very rhythmical rock, with some addictively catchy
tunes.
Bug rating: 3/5
- Chris Gordon-Brown
