FUCKED UP David Comes To Life (Matador) 2lp 19.98
Full length number three from everybody's favorite progressive punx, and this Canadian sextet continues to polish and hone their ever unpunkening sound, with the band apparently openly fessing up to no longer being a punk band. Which really what was so special about these guys in the first place. Back in the early days, when they most definitely WERE a punk band, they seemed to have sonic aspirations beyond punk rock, and the fact that Fucked Up was populated by a bunch of well listened music nerds, most definitely informed their sound, a sound which as it stands now, is as much indie rock as punk rock if not more.
Just check out the opening of "Let Her Rest", sure it's an intro, but it's a dreamily jangly one, super melodic, a gauzy bit of distorted buzz over a sweetly tinkling guitar, and even when the second track kicks in, it's hardly punk, kinetic, caffeinated, super hooky jangle pop, which as far as we're concerned. The punkest part at this point is frontman Damian Abraham's raspy bellow (which is sometimes distracting as he's a dead ringer for the singer from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, or maybe John Brannon of Negative Approach / Laughing Hyenas is a cooler comparison, or the dude from Scissorfight), but even those vocals have grown progressively more melodic, and the fact that there are some sweet female vox (via the woman from Cults reviewed elsewhere on this week's list) to balance them a bit, only presses the non punk point further home.
The multiple vocals are also part of the concept, as this is a rock opera of sorts, about a worker in a lightbulb factory, but unlike many 'rock operas' it definitely plays just fine removed from the concept as just a kick ass heavy indie pop record. Guitars crunch, drums pound, melodies soar, the sound as polished as ever, it's obvious these guys camped out in the studio and made that extra time count, there are hooks galore, the songs crazy catchy, those gruff vox keeping it from being pure pop, but just barely, a kick ass melding of modern indie rock, eighties post punk and Britpop into something that is most definitely Fucked Up.
MPEG Stream: "Let Her Rest"
MPEG Stream: "Queen Of Hearts"
MPEG Stream: "Under My Nose"
MPEG Stream: "The Other Shoe"

FUCKED UP Daytrotter Session (Matador) 7" 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

FUCKED UP Hidden World (Jade Tree) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Crusades"
MPEG Stream: "David Comes To Life"
MPEG Stream: "Invisible Leader"

FUCKED UP Hidden World (Deranged / Jade Tree) 2lp 25.00

RealAudio clip: ""

FUCKED UP The Chemistry Of Common Life (Matador) cd 13.98
AQ pal Forrest has been championing Fucked Up literally for years now, and as we mentioned in the review of the Year Of The Pig review, we just weren't feeling it before, But Forrest hassled and hassled and finally we began to see the light. So when this new record finally dropped, we figure who better to gush and swoon than the person who got us to like the band in the first place. Take it away Forrest...
Fucked Up are not worried about orthodoxy or the retro purism that seems to periodically seize up the gears of the perpetually self-consuming punk revival. Based on their interviews, which are farragoes of obvious bullshit interwoven with a fair amount of surprisingly candid insight into their working methods, it's pretty apparent that Fucked Up is in a lot of ways better considered an art project than a band. They take not giving a shit very seriously.
On the one hand, there's vocalist Pink Eyes's love of old-school Situationist shock tactics, which sits uneasily with his autodidact's preoccupation with esoterica and metaphysics, leading to lyrics that come across as Iggy Pop acting as Charles Baudelaire's puppet. On Fucked Up's debut album, Hidden World, the lyrical themes were as various as Henry Darger's phantasmagoric fantasy world of the Vivian Girls (look it up; no one-sentence summary can do it justice) and Blakean transfiguration; on Chemistry of the Common World the mixture is a little less indigestibly rarefied and maybe a little more quotidian, but not by much. It's still not really punk as we've come to know it, despite all of Pink Eyes's John Brannon-esque choked growling. It's still all over the place.
On the other, there's guitarist 10,000 Marbles's production and guitar work, an incredibly dense wall of overdubbed guitar, Pink Eyes's yowling, pounding drums, relatively straightforward bass playing, harmonized guest vocals (contributed, in an oddly recursive turn of events, by all-female Brooklyn chainsaw pop group Vivian Girls), flute, organ, bongos, whispered chants, horn drones, cheap analog synthesizers... you name it, it's in the mix somewhere. It's hard to say whether the songwriting is a product of influence or pastiche: "Royal Swan" owes a heavy, heavy debt to Pink Floyd's "Astronomy Domine" (they're even in the same key), "No Epiphany" pilfers both its melody and its sound from the Dandy Warhols, "Twice Born" comes across as a particularly easygoing Blood Brothers song, and "Black Albino Bones" is a hardcore take on Ride-style muscular shoegazer; "Lost of Days", with its malevolent punkabilly riff stolen from East Bay Ray and then improbably fused with avant-garde horn drones (contributed by 10,000 Marbles's high school band teacher) is a self-contained masterpiece that reminds me of nothing so much as the recent Asbestoscape album, although in all likelihood Fucked Up got there first.
Fucked Up's sound is deceptive; their fondness for bright, major-key riffs laid over apocalyptically loud minor-key harmonic beds, slathered in truckloads of effects, obscures the underlying sinewy grace of the relatively complex songwriting, and the relentlessness of the sonic attack (this is some thick music) conceals the fact that the sound shares more in common with the post-Glenn Branca multi-tracked noise-guitar drone of bands like Helmet, Sonic Youth or (most closely, to these ears) Band of Susans than it does with, say Negative Approach or Black Flag, to whom Fucked Up are more frequently compared.
Like Hidden World, The Chemistry of Common Life is a coherent, carefully sequenced album with a beginning and ending that mirror each other. I've tried to not give away too many of its secrets - it's a complex, rewarding listen that is more than the sum of its parts, and it deserves a wide audience. People expecting an ordinary hardcore record are likely to be surprised. Very little about Fucked Up, and The Chemistry of Common Life, is ordinary. It may not be beautiful in a traditional sense, but it is very powerful, and at times - in the literal, oldest sense of the words - awesome and magical.
MPEG Stream: "Royal Swan"
MPEG Stream: "No Epiphany"
MPEG Stream: "Black Albino Bones"

FUCKED UP The Chemistry Of Common Life (Matador) 2lp 16.98
AQ pal Forrest has been championing Fucked Up literally for years now, and as we mentioned in the review of the Year Of The Pig review, we just weren't feeling it before, But Forrest hassled and hassled and finally we began to see the light. So when this new record finally dropped, we figure who better to gush and swoon than the person who got us to like the band in the first place. Take it away Forrest...
Fucked Up are not worried about orthodoxy or the retro purism that seems to periodically seize up the gears of the perpetually self-consuming punk revival. Based on their interviews, which are farragoes of obvious bullshit interwoven with a fair amount of surprisingly candid insight into their working methods, it's pretty apparent that Fucked Up is in a lot of ways better considered an art project than a band. They take not giving a shit very seriously.
On the one hand, there's vocalist Pink Eyes's love of old-school Situationist shock tactics, which sits uneasily with his autodidact's preoccupation with esoterica and metaphysics, leading to lyrics that come across as Iggy Pop acting as Charles Baudelaire's puppet. On Fucked Up's debut album, Hidden World, the lyrical themes were as various as Henry Darger's phantasmagoric fantasy world of the Vivian Girls (look it up; no one-sentence summary can do it justice) and Blakean transfiguration; on Chemistry of the Common World the mixture is a little less indigestibly rarefied and maybe a little more quotidian, but not by much. It's still not really punk as we've come to know it, despite all of Pink Eyes's John Brannon-esque choked growling. It's still all over the place.
On the other, there's guitarist 10,000 Marbles's production and guitar work, an incredibly dense wall of overdubbed guitar, Pink Eyes's yowling, pounding drums, relatively straightforward bass playing, harmonized guest vocals (contributed, in an oddly recursive turn of events, by all-female Brooklyn chainsaw pop group Vivian Girls), flute, organ, bongos, whispered chants, horn drones, cheap analog synthesizers... you name it, it's in the mix somewhere. It's hard to say whether the songwriting is a product of influence or pastiche: "Royal Swan" owes a heavy, heavy debt to Pink Floyd's "Astronomy Domine" (they're even in the same key), "No Epiphany" pilfers both its melody and its sound from the Dandy Warhols, "Twice Born" comes across as a particularly easygoing Blood Brothers song, and "Black Albino Bones" is a hardcore take on Ride-style muscular shoegazer; "Lost of Days", with its malevolent punkabilly riff stolen from East Bay Ray and then improbably fused with avant-garde horn drones (contributed by 10,000 Marbles's high school band teacher) is a self-contained masterpiece that reminds me of nothing so much as the recent Asbestoscape album, although in all likelihood Fucked Up got there first.
Fucked Up's sound is deceptive; their fondness for bright, major-key riffs laid over apocalyptically loud minor-key harmonic beds, slathered in truckloads of effects, obscures the underlying sinewy grace of the relatively complex songwriting, and the relentlessness of the sonic attack (this is some thick music) conceals the fact that the sound shares more in common with the post-Glenn Branca multi-tracked noise-guitar drone of bands like Helmet, Sonic Youth or (most closely, to these ears) Band of Susans than it does with, say Negative Approach or Black Flag, to whom Fucked Up are more frequently compared.
Like Hidden World, The Chemistry of Common Life is a coherent, carefully sequenced album with a beginning and ending that mirror each other. I've tried to not give away too many of its secrets - it's a complex, rewarding listen that is more than the sum of its parts, and it deserves a wide audience. People expecting an ordinary hardcore record are likely to be surprised. Very little about Fucked Up, and The Chemistry of Common Life, is ordinary. It may not be beautiful in a traditional sense, but it is very powerful, and at times - in the literal, oldest sense of the words - awesome and magical.
MPEG Stream: "Royal Swan"
MPEG Stream: "No Epiphany"
MPEG Stream: "Black Albino Bones"

FUCKED UP Year Of The Ox (Merge) 12" 10.98
Fourth (?) in Fucked Up's ongoing series of Chinese Zodiac eps, this one featuring two loooooong songs, which find the punk band that even non punks seem to love, moving even further from their punk rock roots on these two extended, repetitive hypno-kraut post rock jams. And while folks were crowing about this being FU's 'krautrock' record, it's not quite that, although it is pretty rocking and repetitive, the title track notable also for some guest vocals from Mod Goth chanteuse Zola Jesus, but more on that in a second.
"Year Of The Ox" finds the band locking into a pretty serious chunk of hypnotic rock, after a gorgeous cello intro, the drums and riffs locked tight, with the howled vocals following right along, for almost six minutes straight, with only brief variances, until about 7 minutes in, when the strings return, and the song turns into some weirdly lush indie pop, dramatic and melodic, and then finally the song switches gears completely into a heavy swirling bit of psychedelic drift, with big guitars and swirls of cymbal sizzle, lots of soaring strings, all pretty epic and majestic. When the track finally resumes its rocking, Zola Jesus swoops in her deep dramatic vox the perfect foil for Pink Eyes' gruff howl, the two sparring over a frenetic crunch before fading out and leaving just the strings again.
The flipside, "Solomon's Song" is equally kick ass and not all that punk (and not a bad thing), beginning with just horns, then some dark crunchy riffage, before the band launch into another propulsive groove, droney, and hypnotic, and again sort of post rocky, the verses super tense and tight, but with some cool mathy breakdowns and some serious poppiness, the gruff vocals sounding more melodic by the second, not to mention a killer minimal second half, that's a stripped down stretch of drums and bass, distant horns, and some spidery bits of guitars, gradually unfurling and winding down until just the horns are left. Now we can't wait for the next 8 eps (year of the tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster and dog!)!!
MPEG Stream: "Year Of The Ox"
MPEG Stream: "Solomon's Song"

FUCKED UP Year of the Pig (Matador) cd ep 6.98
We always wanted to like Fucked up. C'mon, their called Fucked up! Plus the band members have names like Pink Eyes, 10,000 Marbles, and Mustard Gas. But when we got down to listening to them, they just sounded like regular old punk rock. Definitely cool, but nothing enough to warrant all that hype. If we wanted punk rock, we'd take Pissed Jeans before Fucked Up (both bands that were reviewed in the NY Times, with neither name deemed fit for publication, and thus each band got written up without their band names EVER being mentioned!), the vocalist too, had a definitely sort of Scissorfight howl that put us off a bit, but that all changed when we heard "Year Of The Pig". A nearly twenty minute piano laced jam, that features angelic female vocals, that aforementioned howl, simple shuffling drums, the whole thing erupting into some serious almost Killdozer-y noiserock jams, the whole thing surprisingly proggy, with tons of weird dynamics, warbly organ, freaked out drumming, strange arrangements, a long stretch of almost krautrocky garage rock groove, culminating in another noise drenched chaotic psychrock blowout. We're definitely gonna have to revisit their Hidden World full length now.
Formerly vinyl only, "Year Of The Pig", the cd version is packed with extra tracks, b-sides, and alternate edits of "Year Of The Pig", one for each region: US, UK and Japan. The B sides / extra tracks are much more punk rock, sort of how we remember Fucked Up sounding, but we're actually digging it more now. The vocals especially, a bit Lee Ving from Fear, a bit Killdozer, perfectly suited to Fucked Up's ramshackle punk rock frenzy. The edits are cool too, the Japanese one tending toward a more murky blurry blissy sound, the US and the UK leaning heavily on the female vocals, but each ending with a blast and a rrrooooaaar. We may weigh in on the full length eventually, but for even doubters like us, Fucked Up absolutely destroy with "Year Of The Pig".
MPEG Stream: "Year Of The Pig (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Year Of The Pig (excerpt 2)"

FUCKED UP Year Of The Tiger (Matador) 12" 10.98
The fifth in Fucked Up's ongoing series of Chinese Zodiac themed singles, this one obviously the Year Of The Tiger, and finds these punk rockers moving even further away from their punk rock roots, the only real punk thing about them is the members's handles, and vocalist Pink Eyes' howled bellow, otherwise the music continues to get more and more melodic, still heavy sure, but more sort of epic and jangly, this the A side of this one even has piano on it (courtesy of Austra) as well as guest vocals from director Jim Jarmusch (!) and someone called Annie-Claude Deschenes, and it's a good one, big bombastic, stadium indie rock, with soaring choruses, big jangly guitars, crunchy riffs, pounding drumming, and those vocals. The real surprise is the B side, which at 22 minutes long is apparently merely an excerpt of an even longer piece, and is a tripped out sidelong sprawl of experimental psychedelic Fucked Up-ness, starting with a symphony of backwards swoops, and blossoming into a blurred druggy wall of sound, that sounds a bit like multiple Fucked Up songs playing simultaneously, dizzying and carnivalesque in places, noisy and chaotic in others, the whole thing rife with cool backwards effects, which gives it a definite Teenage Filmstars vibe, and makes this out favorite Fucked Up jam in a while!
Includes a printed lyric sheet / insert and apparently, in the spirit of the theme, $1 from the sale of each record will go to the Save Tigers Now Foundation too.
MPEG Stream: "Year Of The Tiger"

FUCKED UP / SERENA-MANEESH Here Lies Are / Opium Priest (Best Of Both) 12" 15.98
An unlikely split it might seem, to some ears at least, but as far as we're concerned, tough to go wrong with these two bands, and hell if more splits were based simply on two bands that rule and that we love, well, the world would be a much better place wethink!
Fucked Up give us a short blast of totally epic progressive punk rock, the way only they can do it, beginning with an opening salvo that is about as epic and majestic as it gets, brooding, slow building, total super heavy post rock bliss, before launching into the song proper, the vocals that instantly recognizable bellow, the guitars chiming and chugging, the song rocking and hypnotic, but super dynamic, with plenty of start/stops and a few stretches of blissed out almost krautrock sounding melodic tangle, before launching back into it. If only all punk rock was this weird/cool/good.
Norwegian drug/drone/space rock combo Serena-Maneesh counter with another jam of their twisted druggy psychedelic weirdness, equal parts droned out space rock, indie jangle, brooding dark drones, and totally twisted avant experimentalism, sounding a bit like a mash up, the buzzing heavy guitars, and chaotic drumming, underpinning, mumbled whispery vocals and keening psychedelic leads, the song peppered with shards of white noise and abrupt bursts of crunch and static, sounding almost like someone flipping switches, while the band rock out oblivious, totally heady, druggy, weird as fuck, space drone hypnorock outsider heaviness, that continues to rule. Not sure why more people don't worship at the altar of S-M, but hard for us to imagine anyone listening to this and not being converted. Fucking AMAZING!
Both tracks rule, and make it well worth the sorta steep price...
MPEG Stream: FUCKED UP "Here Lies Are"
MPEG Stream: SERENA MANEESH "Opium Priest"

FUCKFACE s/t (Six Weeks) cd 10.98
Mysterious posthumous release of this irrepressible SF speed-punk-metal sect's entire recorded output. Led by the fearless SF scenester Matt Shapiro. Seriously in your (fuck)face. With a splatter of sampled dialogue. Mass unbridled thrashing and nudity abound. Watch the opposition cower in their boots.

FUCKHEAD The Male Comedy (Mego) cd 16.98
Calling this an industrial record certainly does this record no justice... Although Fuckhead's overblown testosterone laden angst is clearly presented through digital technology, thankfully none of the dated Front 242 or Rammstein references appear. Instead dense hyperactive sampling and digital noise processing dominate the album. Certainly an odd choice for digital electronica saboteurs Mego to release, but nonetheless an brutal and beguiling album. Recommended.

FUCKING AM, THE Gold (Drag City) cd 14.98
A couple years ago there was Trans Champs, now it's The Fucking Am. That's right, it's the second occurance of the unholy union of two bands whose identity you've hopefully figured out already. It's a good thing too, 'cause as you may or may not know, The Fucking Champs are down to just drummer Tim Soete and guitarist Tim Green after guitarist Josh Smith retired from their ranks a while back...and we weren't sure what Tim and Tim were gonna do without Josh in the band anymore. Actually we're still not sure, but at least they are keeping the Champs spirit alive with this project, which (although the Trans Am folks outnumber the Champs members) seems rather more Champsish than Transamy. First Trans Am record maybe. Anyway, Gold is an album of mostly instrumentals, a post-rock/prog/cock-rock concoction that finds the common ground betwixt the two parent bands and that means a lot of Thin Lizzy and a little bit of Kraftwerk/video game music, plus some of the Krautrocky psychedelia of Tim Green's Concentrick project as well... Tracks vary as widely as from the very '70s bar-rock blare of vocal number "Taking Liberties" to the lovely, folky jamming of "Acoustico Gomez" (one of the album-closing "Gomez" trilogy), but things seem rather more purposeful and fully realized than on these guys' initial ep collaboration (maybe 'cause for the Champs duo anyway, this was suddenly not really "just" a side project, but basically their next record?). So fans of either band ought to give this one a try. Hopefully this "group" will continue to work together...if so, next time, will it be The Transfucking Amchamps? Or, how 'bout the Amping Champ Trans Fucks?
MPEG Stream: "Bad Leg"
MPEG Stream: "The Gauntlet"

FUCKING AM, THE Gold (Drag City) lp 14.98
A couple years ago there was Trans Champs, now it's The Fucking Am. That's right, it's the second occurance of the unholy union of two bands whose identity you've hopefully figured out already. It's a good thing too, 'cause as you may or may not know, The Fucking Champs are down to just drummer Tim Soete and guitarist Tim Green after guitarist Josh Smith retired from their ranks a while back...and we weren't sure what Tim and Tim were gonna do without Josh in the band anymore. Actually we're still not sure, but at least they are keeping the Champs spirit alive with this project, which (although the Trans Am folks outnumber the Champs members) seems rather more Champsish than Transamy. First Trans Am record maybe. Anyway, Gold is an album of mostly instrumentals, a post-rock/prog/cock-rock concoction that finds the common ground betwixt the two parent bands and that means a lot of Thin Lizzy and a little bit of Kraftwerk/video game music, plus some of the Krautrocky psychedelia of Tim Green's Concentrick project as well... Tracks vary as widely as from the very '70s bar-rock blare of vocal number "Taking Liberties" to the lovely, folky jamming of "Acoustico Gomez" (one of the album-closing "Gomez" trilogy), but things seem rather more purposeful and fully realized than on these guys' initial ep collaboration (maybe 'cause for the Champs duo anyway, this was suddenly not really "just" a side project, but basically their next record?). So fans of either band ought to give this one a try. Hopefully this "group" will continue to work together...if so, next time, will it be The Transfucking Amchamps? Or, how 'bout the Amping Champ Trans Fucks?
MPEG Stream: "Bad Leg"
MPEG Stream: "The Gauntlet"

FUCKING CHAMPS, THE VI (Drag City) cd 12.98
You can always rely on The Fucking Champs. Even after a several-year recording/touring hiatus, during which time drummer Tim Soete and guitarist Tim Green had to face a major lineup change -- replacing founding member guitarist Josh Smith (now in mod garage trio The Makes Nice) with Trans Am's Phil Manley -- they've come back to follow up 2002's V with the boldly titled VI and it's like they've never been gone. True they kept their hand in with 2004's Fucking Am album. But still, it's nice to have them back and doing what they do best, which is making Fucking Champs music. Phil fills Josh's shoes with aplomb, fitting in with the two Tims like the old friend and excellent musician that he is. So no problem there.
With renewed fire, VI demonstrates that the Champs really have created a sound unique unto themselves. Say what you will about ironic hipster metal irony gimmickry (no vocals, no bass, nerdy humor), the truth is that you know the Champs when you hear 'em. Sure it's easy to spot the influence of their childhood metal heroes (Metallica, Maiden, Lizzy, Carcass...) but what they really sound like is The Fucking Champs. And not too many bands can claim that they sound most like themselves. And that it's such a damn good sound!! Their majestic harmonies ascend to heaven borne on shafts of light, their chunky "dahdahdah" riffs require immediate and incessant headbanging, their sleek melodies always catch the ear, and their mathy arrangements dizzy and dazzle. Whether in the long run they were smart or not to market themselves mainly to the indie-rock crowd rather than the metal underground remains to be seen. Some might argue that they've painted themselves into a corner, but it's a corner we love to visit!!
Leading of with indeed very Champsy "The Loge" (already heard on Kemado's Invaders compilation btw), VI runs the gamut of Champsy treats and tricks. There's uptempo party rockers that are actually gorgeous prog epics in disguise ("A Forgotten Chapter In The History Of Ideas"), a few gently spacey keyboardy interludes ("Insomnia", "That Crystal Behind You (Are You Channeling?)"), even some lovely, lush quasi-Zep folkiness ("Dolores Park"). And of course plenty more powerful, Champsy compositions showcasing fretboard acrobatics, precision drum battery and stop on a dime tightness. About the only thing long-time Champs fans (like us) are going to find disappointing about this record is that, well, we were hoping Tim Soete would step out from behind his drum kit and SING at least one song here, we love his voice. But he doesn't. Oh well maybe next time he'll go for it and give us another "Extra Man" or "Summer Knights". Instead, Neil Hamburger's voice appears somewhere on here...
By the way, stay tuned at the end of the cd for the "hidden" track of chopped up studio chatter / repetitive riff collage. Brought a smile to our faces, might have been even funnier if they whould have started the record off with it!!
MPEG Stream: "Earthen Sculptor"
MPEG Stream: "A Forgotten Chapter In The History Of Ideas"

FUCKING CHAMPS, THE VI (Drag City) lp 16.98
You can always rely on The Fucking Champs. Even after a several-year recording/touring hiatus, during which time drummer Tim Soete and guitarist Tim Green had to face a major lineup change -- replacing founding member guitarist Josh Smith (now in mod garage trio The Makes Nice) with Trans Am's Phil Manley -- they've come back to follow up 2002's V with the boldly titled VI and it's like they've never been gone. True they kept their hand in with 2004's Fucking Am album. But still, it's nice to have them back and doing what they do best, which is making Fucking Champs music. Phil fills Josh's shoes with aplomb, fitting in with the two Tims like the old friend and excellent musician that he is. So no problem there.
With renewed fire, VI demonstrates that the Champs really have created a sound unique unto themselves. Say what you will about ironic hipster metal irony gimmickry (no vocals, no bass, nerdy humor), the truth is that you know the Champs when you hear 'em. Sure it's easy to spot the influence of their childhood metal heroes (Metallica, Maiden, Lizzy, Carcass...) but what they really sound like is The Fucking Champs. And not too many bands can claim that they sound most like themselves. And that it's such a damn good sound!! Their majestic harmonies ascend to heaven borne on shafts of light, their chunky "dahdahdah" riffs require immediate and incessant headbanging, their sleek melodies always catch the ear, and their mathy arrangements dizzy and dazzle. Whether in the long run they were smart or not to market themselves mainly to the indie-rock crowd rather than the metal underground remains to be seen. Some might argue that they've painted themselves into a corner, but it's a corner we love to visit!!
Leading of with indeed very Champsy "The Loge" (already heard on Kemado's Invaders compilation btw), VI runs the gamut of Champsy treats and tricks. There's uptempo party rockers that are actually gorgeous prog epics in disguise ("A Forgotten Chapter In The History Of Ideas"), a few gently spacey keyboardy interludes ("Insomnia", "That Crystal Behind You (Are You Channeling?)"), even some lovely, lush quasi-Zep folkiness ("Dolores Park"). And of course plenty more powerful, Champsy compositions showcasing fretboard acrobatics, precision drum battery and stop on a dime tightness. About the only thing long-time Champs fans (like us) are going to find disappointing about this record is that, well, we were hoping Tim Soete would step out from behind his drum kit and SING at least one song here, we love his voice. But he doesn't. Oh well maybe next time he'll go for it and give us another "Extra Man" or "Summer Knights". Instead, Neil Hamburger's voice appears somewhere on here...
MPEG Stream: "Earthen Sculptor"
MPEG Stream: "A Forgotten Chapter In The History Of Ideas"

FUCKING OCEAN, THE Le Main Rouge (Double Negative) cd 9.98
If we were to describe this band as sounding halfway between The Fucking Champs and The Ocean, you'd probably think were were, uhh, fucking with you. We're not though! It's kind of true. These boys have heavy guitars, brooding angst and fiery aggression to spare, and they're getting some of it out of their system... and into yours! Metallic post punk that will for sure satisfy the throngs of dirty rockers who are into corrosive, spazzy, dynamic angular art rock as well, as this comes complete with boy girl vocals, some new wave fuzz, bits of blown out surf rock, some droney krautrock, all scuffed up, roughed up and wrapped in a dark scuzzy sheen. Cool stuff!
MPEG Stream: "Literacy Test"
MPEG Stream: "Adam"

FUCKWOLF s/t (Kimosciotic) cd 11.98
The SF indie label Kimosciotic run by Le Flange Du Mal's Chris Rolls is a hard one to pin down. In the last five years he's offered up the soul'n'hip hop of DJ Unagi, the electro-disco-bizarro of Crack We Are Rock, the atmospheric electronics of Not Breathing and the scuzz murk art rawk of Ezeetiger. One of the few common links we've been able to sleuth out is that many of the artists seem to have a penchant for costumes, disguises and devil-may-care attitude. Now get a load of Fuckwolf, Kimosciotic's latest release. They fit right in! From the looks of the photos in the insert, medical masks, wigs, coveralls, a lemon tree, sunglasses, a reel-to-reel, drums, electric guitar and bass all came into play during the recording of this cd. Some degree of propulsiveness lurks within and seeps out occasionally, but the overall results are a molten sludge filth stew that draws equal influence from the industrial and no-wave music of the '70s and '80s.
MPEG Stream: "What A Fuck"
MPEG Stream: "So What"

FUEHLER s/t (Ostinato Schallplatten/Amanita/ Dephine Knormal) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hey! Achtung! This lil' item was, along with the first Death Cab For Cutie, "Album of the Month" back in August '99 (list #78) and we've been out of it almost ever since, due to major import distribution snafus. So if you missed it then, hurry up and get it now (we got a bunch but some are spoken for already). Instrumental 'post-rock' from Germany that, in a word, rules. Here is what we said about it last summer, using Don Caballero perhaps unfairly as a comparison:
The relative ease with which this German band outshines the post-rock-fanboy holy-grail trio Don Caballero (keeping in mind that we really like Don Cab), makes one wish that the general indie rock audience at large was harder to please. Then perhaps more bands would try to expand on the Don Cab sound instead of incessantly aping it, and more records would sound as jaw droppingly brilliant as this one. In place of Damon Che's non stop avalanche of 'Moby Dick'isms and DonCab's metal-in-post-rock's-clothing is a complex sonic tapestry of hypnotic drones and cyclical riffs. Fuehler take the droning single note repetition of Tony Conrad, the scraping stones of Loren Chasse, the heavy prog of Voivod, the dynamics of Slint, and the slowly evolving Reich-ish rock of Circle, and fashion a music at once emotive and heavy, intellectual and kick ass.
RealAudio clip: "Harry"

FUGAZI 13 Songs (Dischord) cd 13.98

FUGAZI End Hits (Dischord) cd 10.98

FUGAZI End Hits (Dischord) lp 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

FUGAZI Furniture (Dischord) cd ep 4.98
Three song e.p. from the new Fugazi record 'The Argument'. Featuring three tracks exclusive to the single, including the song 'Furniture', and oldie but a goody that was up until now unreleased. Also features extra drumming from long time Fugazi roadie Jerry Busher.

FUGAZI Furniture (Dischord) 7" 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Three song e.p. from the new Fugazi record 'The Argument'. Featuring three tracks exclusive to the single, including the song 'Furniture', and oldie but a goody that was up until now unreleased. Also features extra drumming from long time Fugazi roadie Jerry Busher.

FUGAZI Instrument Soundtrack (Dischord) cd 10.98
The soundtrack to the 10 years in the making Fugazi documentary! Demos, etc.

FUGAZI Instrument Soundtrack (Dischord) lp 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The soundtrack to the 10 years in the making Fugazi documentary! Demos, etc.

FUGAZI Red Medicine (Dischord) cd 10.98

FUGAZI Red Medicine (Dischord) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

FUGAZI Repeater (Dischord) cd 11.98

FUGAZI The Argument (Dischord) cd 11.98
Not sure what to say. Newest album from THE independent indie rock/punk rock band. Their first in 3 years. The sound is similar to 1998's 'End Hits' but they continue on their path towards melody and away from explosive emo. Lots of actual 'singing' and the first studio appearence of Jerry Busher, long time roadie and second drummer. If you're a Fugazi fan you probably already have this, or you're -about- to buy it. But if you're not, you'd be better off starting with 'Repeater' and going from there.
RealAudio clip: "Life And Lime"

FUGAZI The Argument (Dischord) lp 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not sure what to say. Newest album from THE independent indie rock/punk rock band. Their first in 3 years. The sound is similar to 1998's 'End Hits' but they continue on their path towards melody and away from explosive emo. Lots of actual 'singing' and the first studio appearence of Jerry Busher, long time roadie and second drummer. If you're a Fugazi fan you probably already have this, or you're -about- to buy it. But if you're not, you'd be better off starting with 'Repeater' and going from there.

FUGU Fugu 1 (For Us) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Decent indie pop with a Beach Boys meets Stereolab vibe to it. You may recognize Fugu's name from the ultra collectible split 7" they did with Stereolab some time back. Also, S'lab's Laetitia appears on one track.

FUJIYA & MIYAGI Transparent Things (Deaf Dumb + Blind Communications) cd 12.98
Hey now, isn't this Japanese-surname-laden band moniker quite a red herring?
1. Although they do seem to be very obsessed with all things Japanese, they themselves are not Japanese. They are from Brighton.
2. The group is not a duo, they are actually a trio.
3. They have nothing to do with The Karate Kid.
All that stuff aside, apparently they've got the hip kids overseas drooling and dancing for their tunes that blend the kraut-synth pop of The Notwist, the icily detached electro-wave of Ladytron, the chillout groove of Air and the propulsive dance punk of LCD Soundsystem. This cd is their first U.S. release and it compiles new versions of the six songs that appeared on their first three limited vinyl only 10" singles (originally released in '05/'06 on U.K. label Tirk), three brand new tracks and one U.S. exclusive track "Reeboks In Heaven".
MPEG Stream: "Ankle Injuries"
MPEG Stream: "Reeboks In Heaven"

FULKS, ROBBIE Couples In Trouble (Boondoogie) cd 16.98
Chicagoan Robbie Fulks, here with his fourth full length album, makes the leap from the country troubadour's lonely road to much broader horizons, as many of the songs on this album remind me of non-country folks as diverse as Nick Lowe (Fulks' voice is similarly light), the art pop arrangements of Elvis Costello, the downtrodden tone of "Nebraska"-era Bruce Springsteen, the delicacy of Sparklehorse, the brightness of Nanci Griffith, and the wine-drenched wantonness of Tom Waits. And while there is certainly a lot of country twang on the record, Fulks has matured so much that he's able to jump off into more fully realized realms of tuneful pop and epic rock, songs that sound so perfect and classic that you page thru the liner notes expecting to find out that they're covers (yet they're all written by Robbie, yay!). Kind of the same way Wilco is doing, bringing in so many influences and combining them stunningly into a singular original sound. Windy and Andee are in love with this album (and we're also HUGE fans of his first three, more straight-up-country albums, which we also carry). Recorded by Steve Albini.
RealAudio clip: "Anything for Love"
RealAudio clip: "Banks Of The Marianne"
RealAudio clip: "Mad at a Girl"

FULKS, ROBBIE Revenge! (Yep Roc) cd 15.98
These days the appearance of skits on music albums has been pretty much constrained to the hip hop realm. True? But Robbie Fulks ain't one to follow trends, is he? Hence on his new live album we're hit with a studio recorded skit right at the get go! It all begins with what resembles an old tyme radio advertisement jingle. Y'know the ones that had a group of male singers in turn assuming different characters. The prim barbershop quartet stylings are quite a change from Fulks' slow burnin' smokehouse blues and rowdy barnburners, but the tune's lyrics uproot the well-mannered facade ("Spreading our hillbilly sound... just like a cancer! Ha!"). Fulks' music has always been a study in contrasts, bringing together the rowdy and the sober, loose ramblin' and razor sharp musicianship, the true blue rustic old country feel and his biting, black wit. This 2cd release continues on in that fashion, offering two sides of the Fulks coin -- Disc One is all electric, Disc Two is all acoustic. The actual live recordings took place one wild night in Champaign and one more subdued eve in Chicago. One yowch! moment pops up on the second disc when he inexplicably unleashes a cover of Cher's "Believe". Yikes.
MPEG Stream: "We're On The Road"
MPEG Stream: "Fixin' To Fall"

FULL TOILET Full Toilet (Sub Pop) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
How could we resist a band called Full Toilet? Especially when the cover features a crudely drawn 'full toilet', seemingly drawn on a piss stained piece of paper. And then when the label (Sub Pop!) describes the band with descriptors like "angry young man", and "short attention span", and "volatile and erratic", and "bad personal relations", and "turbulence and anger", and "channeling ultimate unhappiness" and finally "bursts of rage". All that and 13 songs crammed onto one 7". There's also some backstory about the Full Toilet guy being some impossible to deal with mentally deranged home recording loner, but we have it on good authority that Full Toilet is in fact one of The Fastbacks, in outsider lo-fi punk mode, and it suits him. And we can only assume one of the reasons we can't stop listening to this weirdo filth, is that there is something more musical lurking underneath, but it hardly matters, cuz this stuff KILLS, heavy and noisy and chaotic, the production totally twisted and lo-fi, the drums stumbling and confusional, the vocals barked and yelped, the guitars crusty and filthy and blown out, the whole sound off kilter and weirdly dubbed out, but in its own creepy damaged way totally catchy.
MPEG Stream: "Side 1 (excerpt)"

FULLER, LEVI This Murder Is A Peaceful Gathering (self-released) cd 11.98
The Seattle singing/songwriting gent known as Levi Fuller crafts somber elegant folk in league with Low, Black Heart Procession, Sixteen Horsepower, Red House Painters and Mountain Goats. Fans of any/all of those artists very well could find themselves taking quite a shine to the slow smoldering beauty of This Murder Is A Peaceful Gathering. An earth-toned tapestry of strummy acoustic guitar, sinewy electric guitar textured with unexpected percussive and atmospheric elements.
MPEG Stream: "As The Crow Flies"
MPEG Stream: "Bread"

FULLMAN, ELLEN & KONRAD SPRENGER ORT (Choose) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

FUN YEARS, THE Baby, It's Cold Inside (Barge) cd 13.98
By now, everyone must be aware of how into turntables we are. The glitch, the crackle, the hiss. Similar to how everything sounds better slow, or backwards, everything definitely sounds better all wrapped in crackle and pop (how about something backwards, slow and crackly!!!). Anyway, we discovered The Fun Years a while back and were immediately smitten with their unique line up, a duo of baritone guitar and turntable. The mix proved perfection. The guitar providing most of the melody, the turntable offering up most of the texture, but sometimes deftly changing places.
We played the heck out of that first record and were super excited to discover there was a new full length in the pipe and it does not disappoint. In fact, the new one is way heavier on the guitar, in fact the opening track might just be the best thing we've heard from these guys. As it was playing, Allan suggested it sounded like Philip Jeck playing Nadja-lite. Which is in fact not that far off the mark. The guitar is deep and resonant, unfurling a lazy minor key riff, the turntables creak and crackle in the background, offering up a stuttery staticky rhythm, the main riff has a bit of twang to it, and reminds us a bit of recent Earth, but underpinned by a subtle black swirl, a smoldering drone, eventually everything begins to bliss out and get all woozy and gauzy, and get really dense and heavy, the guitar and the turntable locked into a gloriously hypnotic loop, eventually building to a truly explosive finale. Man, once they lock in and the distortion begins to swell, we sort of wished this was the only song on the record and was gonna go on for another 30 or 40 minutes. But only until the next song started up...
The next track, not nearly as heavy, is just as darkly evocative, a crackly skipped piano loop wreathed in soft effects, the guitar offering up spidery melodic counterpoint, laced with super effected streaks of distorted guitar, a gorgeously mesmerizing repetitive loop that as far as we're concerned could go on forever.
And so it goes, three more extended tracks, lumbering crackly loops, simple moody guitar melodies, haunting effects, deep thick drones, layers of hiss and fuzz, the final track a gorgeous post rock drift, jangly clean guitar, a murky scraping turntable loop finishing off with a sudden burst of what sounds like full on metal, blown out, blissed out, psychedelic, super distorted, but also all glitchy and damaged, hiccuping rhythms, the main riff throbbing beneath all the buzz, so fucking awesome. Fading out just as quickly, leaving just a a bit of needle in groove scratch and crackle as the disc runs out...
These guys just keep getting better and better. Dying to hear what they come up with next, and hell if they ever decide to expand to a trio and get a real drummer, well, they know where to find me!
MPEG Stream: "My Lowville"
MPEG Stream: "Auto Show Day Of The Dead"

FUN YEARS, THE / .CUT FEATURING GIBET split (Three:Four) 10" 27.00
The return of our favorite (and perhaps the only?) baritone guitar / turntable duo The Fun Years, and another record of warm warbly mystery. Wonderfully warped turntablescapes, looped and crackly and fuzzy, the baritone guitar unfurling spidery melodies while the turntables weave lush gauzy backdrops of sepia sound.
Like past Fun Years records, this one is dreamy and otherworldly, ghostly and sweetly melancholic, the guitar manages to sometimes sound just as crackly and fuzzy as the vinyl on the turntables, the two elements so perfectly intertwined. The Fun Years side builds to a lush crescendo, a warm layered, soaring ur-drone, before slipping back into a slow shimmery outro.
.Cut Featuring Giblet are new to us, a guitar and laptop duo, who are a perfect match for the Fun Years, their sound a haunting elegy, the laptop is super subtle, adding texture and color more than glitch or bleep, gorgeous, creepy, warm and lovely, a slow building gauzy swirl over ghostly drifting guitar figures, eventually reaching a sort of soft cacophony, but even then still floating dreamily from the speakers.
Super limited, only 489 copies, each one hand numbered, and unfortunately super price-y as well, not sure why, but both bands offer up sounds pretty enough that for some folks, it'll definitely be worth it.

FUNCTION The Secret Miracle Fountain (Locust) cd 14.98

FUNCTIONAL BLACKOUTS Severed Tongue Speaks For Everyone (Criminal IQ) lp 11.98
Sometimes, punk rock just hits the spot. Especially when it's druggy and garagey and a little bit freaked out. So we have been seriously digging the Functional Blackouts. A fierce, thrashy slab of lo-fi garage rock Stooges style stomp from Chicago. Punk rock destruction unleashed, a handful of messed up, sloppy and slippery, drug fueled scuzzrock jams. Guitars are trashy and trebly, the drums sound like neighborhood kids throwing rocks at trash cans, garbled, affected sort of shouted vocals, all wound up into a white hot ball of Raw Power! This is old school hardcore filtered through new school garage rock. Plus there's plenty of spacey psychrock swoosh a la Hawkwind or Comets On Fire, adding a whole other layer of druggy delirium.
Packaged in a cool brain melting collage of a sleeve! Includes insert and a poster!

FUNERAL DINER The Underdark (Alone) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

FUNERARY CALL Fragments From The Aethyr (Crucial Blast) cd 13.98
Fragments From The Aethyr is the latest blast of caustic cinematic black ambience from this Vancouver based audio alchemist, although it's the first FC record to get reviewed on the aQ list, which is strange, since this is the sort of dense black mesmer that many of you can't get enough of. With a sound that lurks somewhere betwixt Gnaw Their Tongues, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Tenhornedbeast, MZ412 and Wolf Eyes, this band weave gristly sprawls of feedback drenched buzz, and keening high end squalls of swirling black psychedelia, the sound driven by what sounds like a violin, but a violin possessed, wreathed in effects and sent spiraling into the ether, a weird sort of droned out black folk drift, that manages to be lilting and lovely, even while being face meltingly brutal. The sound slips into a long stretch of haunting hushed shimmer, laced with chiming minor key harmonics, and lush rumbling drones, and oozes through clouds of blackened sonic murk, growing quite minimal, and almost modern classical sounding, the violin to the fore, soaring above the abyss, a harrowing bit of minimal modernism that broods ominously, and blossoms blackly into a gorgeous blackdrone cinematic epic, that ends up being far too short, even at nearly twenty minutes, before finishing off with a dense sprawl of echo drenched ritualism, processed vox and heavily layered tones, dubbed out and smeared into hazy blurs and almost liturgical sounding chants, seriously sinister and gorgeously grim.
Fans of abject minimal blackness and any of the above mentioned purveyors of sick sonic miserablism, heed the call.
MPEG Stream: "Libation"
MPEG Stream: "Fragments"

FUNGI GIRLS Some Easy Magic (HoZac Records) cd 12.98
Record number two from these Texas teens, whose debut was a big favorite with some aQ-ers (even though it never made it onto the aQ list), and this record starts up right where the last one left off. A dizzying collection of nineties beholden psychedelic pop, that while having much in common with the current crop of garage poppers, definitely has it's own thing going on, owing as much to the early years of Slumberland and classic C86 pop bands as it does to the usual suspects.
The guitars jangle and crunch, slither and buzz, and occasionally twang, the bass is thick and distorted and has a definite Joy Division vibe, the drums pound and crash, the sound is raw and brash fuzzy and frenetic, the vocals laid back and buried in the mix. Everything is echo drenched and softly reverbed, the band pounding away, simple two and three chord jams that are totally hooky and hypnotic, dreamy and a little bit druggy. Folks into all things fuzzy and jangly and garage-y with lots of oooh's and aaah's will go nuts, especially if you have a soft spot for classic nineties indie pop, which this stuff tends towards way more than modern retro garage whatever, sounding like it could be some weird K Records cassette, or Slumberland demo that had been sitting in a drawer for decades. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Sabana Breeze"
MPEG Stream: "Honey Face"
MPEG Stream: "Some Easy Magic"
MPEG Stream: "Doldrums"

FUNGI GIRLS Some Easy Magic (HoZac Records) lp 14.98
Record number two from these Texas teens, whose debut was a big favorite with some aQ-ers (even though it never made it onto the aQ list), and this record starts up right where the last one left off. A dizzying collection of nineties beholden psychedelic pop, that while having much in common with the current crop of garage poppers, definitely has it's own thing going on, owing as much to the early years of Slumberland and classic C86 pop bands as it does to the usual suspects.
The guitars jangle and crunch, slither and buzz, and occasionally twang, the bass is thick and distorted and has a definite Joy Division vibe, the drums pound and crash, the sound is raw and brash fuzzy and frenetic, the vocals laid back and buried in the mix. Everything is echo drenched and softly reverbed, the band pounding away, simple two and three chord jams that are totally hooky and hypnotic, dreamy and a little bit druggy. Folks into all things fuzzy and jangly and garage-y with lots of oooh's and aaah's will go nuts, especially if you have a soft spot for classic nineties indie pop, which this stuff tends towards way more than modern retro garage whatever, sounding like it could be some weird K Records cassette, or Slumberland demo that had been sitting in a drawer for decades. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Sabana Breeze"
MPEG Stream: "Honey Face"
MPEG Stream: "Some Easy Magic"
MPEG Stream: "Doldrums"

FUNKADELIC Free Your Mind ... (Westbound) lp 23.00

FUNKADELIC Maggot Brain (4 Men With Beards) lp 17.98

FUNKE, MAXINE Lace (Next Best Way) cd 14.98

FUNKY JUNCTION Plays A Tribute To Deep Purple (Kismet) cd 17.98
"Funky Junction are an exciting new group that has the pulse of today". All lovers of '70s classic rock & proto-metal, pay attention. This one's a bit of a curiosity, all right, but one that we'd been *very* curious aboutÉ Finally reissued, this obscure footnote to rock history: an album of Irish legends-to-be THIN LIZZY playing a bunch of DEEP PURPLE covers! Originally released on lp in 1973 by a budget label called Stereo Gold Award, this was what you'd call an 'exploitation' album, where a producer would get together a group of studio session musicians to try and capitalize on the success of a currently popular band, by putting out their own versions of said band's hits. In this case, it was none other than the young, not yet famous Thin Lizzy trio, who were recruited to record these Deep Purple tunes under a rather goofy pseudonym, 'round about the same time they made their Shades Of A Blue Orphanage album. But since Lizzy's husky-voiced frontman, bassist Phil Lynott, couldn't be expected to wail like Ian Gillan, they brought in the singer from another Dublin band, Elmer Fudd (that's the name of the band, not the singer!) who does a quite capable Gillian impression. Elmer Fudd's keyboardist also appears here, taking on the Jon Lord role. But for our purposes, the treat is getting to hear original Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell and drummer Brian Downey rip it up in the roles of, respectively, Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice.
They romp through these burly Deep Purple hits: "Fireball", "Black Night", "Strange Kind Of Woman", "Hush" (itself a Joe South cover DP did), and "Speed King". But there's also a handful of originals on here too, mostly instrumental psych jams full of wild soloing - in fact, "Dan" is primarily a Hendrixian guitar solo. Good stuff. They were probably all improvised in the studio, though one's based on "The House Of The Rising Sun".
For fans of Deep Purple & Thin Lizzy, obviously, and also those into the likes of Hell Preachers, Inc., The Purple Fox, and other such exploito-artifacts. Pretty neat. Of course, we'd have liked to hear what Phil would have sounded like singing these songs, but it's understandable why he didn't. If only they knew then what we know now.
Funny, they really don't make exploitation albums like this anymore - or, well, maybe today's equivalent are all those string quartet covers albums, like the String Quartet Tribute To Radiohead, The String Quartet Tribute to Bjork, The String Quartet Tribute To Slayer, The String Quartet Tribute To Tool, and A Baroque Tribute To Rush (and by the way, some of those are kinda cool!).
Now, if only someone would reissue the German-language covers of The Sweet that the Scorpions once didÉ
MPEG Stream: "Fireball"
MPEG Stream: "Dan"