MOJO NIXON & THE TOADLIQUORS

MOJO NIXON
& THE TOADLIQUORS
HORNY HOLIDAYS (1991)
320 KBPS

Irreverent and raunchy, would you expect anything less from Mojo Nixon? Not for the kiddies or Tipper Gore's of the world, this CD is hilarious if you listen to it in the spirit in which it was recorded (a few trips to the eggnog-spiked punch bowl might help). "Mr. Grinch" is a perfect vehicle for Nixon's from-the-gutter vocals, while his original "It's Christmas Time" recalls the Memphis soul-struttin' of Rufus Thomas crossed with Clarence Carter's down 'n' dirty style. "We Three Kings" is turned into a tale of debauchery as Nixon growls "We were drunk for three days straight, feeling like we were Tom Waits." Play this not to be sanctified, but to be amused.

1. Happy Birthday
2. Trim Yo' Tree
3. Good King Wenceslas
4. Mr. Grinch
5. Head Crushing Yuletide Sing-A-Long
6. It's Christmas Time
7. Jingle Bells
8. Boogie Woogie Santa Claus
9. Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto
10. Run Rudolph Run
11. We Three Kings
12. Everyday Will Be a Holiday
13. Sleigh Ride
14. Little Man Song
15. Go Tell It on the Mountain
16. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

THE SHAGGS

THE SHAGGS
PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD (1969)
REMASTER
256 KBPS

Supplanting the Rounder single disc that combined the group's original album with later sides, this brings the package back to its original form. While a 12-song reissue that replaces a fuller and longer collection would seem like a beat for the money, this puts the Wiggins sisters' primitive attempt to make original rock & roll in its proper context. The guilelessness that permeates these performances is simply amazing, making a virtue out of artlessness. There's an innocence to these songs and their performances that's both charming and unsettling. Hacked-at drumbeats, whacked-around chords, songs that seem to have little or no meter to them ("My Pal Foot Foot," "Who Are Parents," "That Little Sports Car," "I'm So Happy When You're Near" are must-hears) being played on out-of-tune, pawn-shop-quality guitars all converge, creating dissonance and beauty, chaos and tranquility, causing any listener coming to this music to rearrange any pre-existing notions about the relationships between talent, originality, and ability. There is no album you might own that sounds remotely like this one.

1. Philosophy of the World
2. That Little Sports Car
3. Who Are Parents
4. My Pal Foot Foot
5. My Companion
6. I'm So Happy When You're Near
7. Things I Wonder
8. Sweet Thing
9. It's Halloween
10. Why Do I Feel?
11. What Should I Do?
12. We Have a Savior

UKULELE FORCE

VARIOUS ARTISTS
UKULELE FORCE (2005)
320 KBPS

Much of the charm in tribute productions is in the incongruity between the sound you associate with favorite songs and the sound delivered on the recording. What could be more incongruous than playing the music for Star Wars - perhaps the most well known orchestral music of the 20th century, big, bold, and brash, with blaring trumpets, soaring strings and pounding percussion - on an instrument with a thin, delicate sound and associations with Polynesian culture?
Ukulele Force is a 2005 release from Japan's Geneon Entertainment, one of several in a series of ukulele tribute projects covering Ultraman, Gibli Studios, Elvis, The Beatles and Mozart. All but one of the seven featured artists are Japanese; perhaps the two best known being conductor, composer and arranger Akira Miyagawa, and ukulele/guitar player Kiyoshi Kobayashi, who contribute one track each. The lion's share of the music comes from Ukulele Cafe Quartet (3 tracks), a group that grew out of an early 90's amateur ukulele practice and performance club called Ukulele Afternoon, and Kuricorder Quartet (4 tracks), a group active since 1994 that has recorded its own projects as well as music for film and television.
On some songs the arrangements and instrumentation seem quite fitting, such as the Cantina Band song played hot swing gypsy style (think Django Reinhardt on ukulele); Leia's theme as a Hawaiian lullaby, with ukulele playing melody over guitar chords and harpsichord accents; or Across the Stars (the love theme from Attack of the Clones) as a ukulele duet given a slight Latin shading with castanets, and in the middle section a dreamy, theremin-like sounding pedal steel.
But then there are the jaw dropping, laugh-out-loud moments of incredulity, like the Tie Fighter Attack, with a thumping tuba and ukulele chorus playing the orchestral string sections while a ukulele plays the lead brass line. Or the Imperial March played on tuba and recorder, an amusing contrast in sound and tone that conjures up cartoon images of big and small, like Laurel and Hardy, or Yogi and Boo-Boo.
My congratulations go out to whomever it was that had the audacity to propose a ukulele Star Wars cover project and to Geneon for taking the risk. Most record companies would have probably turned it down. Don't make the mistake of writing this off a frivolous commercial project. Sure, Geneon is counting on Star Wars fans to cover their costs, but they've provided music fans with what has to be one of the most amusing tribute albums ever recorded.

1. Twentieth Century Fox Trademark - Ukulele Cafe Quartet
2. Star Wars - Main Theme - Akira Miyagawa & the Galactic Ukulele Orchestra
3. Tales Of A Jedi Knight - Kuricorder
4. Mos Eisley Spaceport - James Hill
5. Princess Leia`s Theme - Kiyoshi Kobayashi & the Ukulele Swing Gang
6. Here They Come - Mikihiko Matsumiya
7. The Imperial March - Kuricorder
8. Han Solo And The Princess - Hajimeni Kyoshi
9. Yoda`s Theme - Kuricorder
10. Anakin`s Theme - Mikihiko Matsumiya
11. Love Theme From Attack Of The Clones - Ukulele Cafe Quartet
12. Augiez's Great Municipal Band - Ukulele Cafe Quartet
13. The Throne Room And The End Title - Kuricorder

THE UKULELE ORCHESTRA OF GREAT BRITAIN

THE UKULELE ORCHESTRA
OF GREAT BRITAIN
ANARCHY IN THE UKULELE:
ROYAL ALBERT HALL, AUGUST 18TH 2009 (2009)
192 KBPS

The ukulele may not be the biggest or the most dynamic of musical instruments out there, but when eight of them, and their pluckers, gathered in a small semi-circle upon the stage of London's majestic Royal Albert Hall two nights ago, six thousand promenaders and thousands more radio listeners were totally enthralled.
And when it came to the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain's rendition of 'Anarchy in the U.K.' they damn near blew the roof off. So the jumping flea made the big time. And what a gig it was!
Promenaders were encouraged to take their own ukes along for a participatory number.
And when over a thousand ukes play Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' with the other five thousand promenaders clapping along it truly is a joy to behold.
But of course the collective's real strength lies in their genre subversion. Bowie, The Beatles, The Stones, Shirley Bassey, The Who, Talking Heads, Robbie Williams, Hot Chocolate and more all get the subversive uke treatment. The segue of 'Ride of the Valkyries' into Hawkwind's 'Silver Machine' is just pure bloody genius. And if you haven't heard their version of Kate Bush's 'Wuthering Heights', well, that is well worth the download alone.
So, no matter where you are, what you're doing or what you're into; this is guaranteed to place a right big grin across your chops. And let's face it, we could all with a bit of cheering up, right! And believe me, you'll be humming 'Puffin' Billy' for ever.

1. Puffin' Billy (Edward White)
2. Anarchy in the U.K. (The Sex Pistols)
3. Ride of the Valkyries/Silver Machine (Richard Wagner/Hawkwind)
4. Life on Mars medley (David Bowie)
5. Thunderball (John Barry/Tom Jones)
6. Teenage Dirtbag (Wheatus)
7. Danse Macabre (Camille St Saëns)
8. And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time a.k.a. "Jerusalem" (William Blake)
9. Psycho Killer (Talking Heads)
10. Ode to Joy (Extract Beethoven's 9th: Choral)
11. Pinball Wizard (The Who)
12. Dambusters March (Eric Coates)
13. Sympathy for the Devil medley (Rolling Stones)
14. Wuthering Heights (Kate Bush)

WILLIAM SHATNER

WILLIAM SHATNER
HAS BEEN (2004)
320 KBPS

After his rendition of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" on the infamous Golden Throats album (though it first appeared on the Transformed Man LP), one could argue that the world needed a new William Shatner album about as much as it needed a big-screen remake of TJ Hooker. But Shatner's back all the same with an intriguing, introspective collection of mostly spoken-word tracks that are all the more compelling when it becomes clear that Has Been is, in fact, no joke. Ben Folds played on and produced the record, creating rich, melodic, and varied pop musical backgrounds to Shatner's world-weary, boozy-suave yet thoroughly impassioned delivery. Joe Jackson, Aimee Mann, Henry Rollins, Brad Paisley, and Adrian Belew also stop by to lend their divergent talents. Highlights include the Rollins/Shatner rant "I Can't Get Behind That" and the Folds/Mann/Shatner collaboration "That's Me Trying", which tells the painful story of an attempted family reconciliation. Shatner mixes a healthy amount of self-awareness with a just a dollop of self-mockery and then combines it all with plenty of raw vulnerability to create an effect that is surprisingly touching, highly entertaining, and unlike any music you've ever heard.

1. Common People
2. It Hasn't Happened Yet
3. You'll Have Time
4. That's Me Trying
5. What Have You Done
6. Together
7. Familiar Love
8. Ideal Woman
9. Has Been
10. I Can't Get Behind That
11. Real

RICHARD CHEESE

RICHARD CHEESE
LOUNGE AGAINST THE MACHINE (2000)
320 KBPS

On Lounge Against the Machine, alt-rock hits get the Vegas treatment way before their time. Vocalist Richard Cheese and his piano trio really know how to warp a song. Rage Against the Machine's "Guerilla Radio" sounds smooth as silk, if incredibly schmaltzy, in the hands of this wayward lounge act. The Dead Kennedys' "Holiday in Cambodia" gets completely defanged in Cheese's rendition. And it's definitely strange to hear the rage drained out of Nirvana's "Rape Me" and replaced with bland, mindless enthusiasm. The tone of these covers is so far removed from the originals that at times you forget what you're really listening to. At moments like these, Cheese and the boys sound like some anonymous combo going through the motions. But then you'll hear the singer let loose with some foul language or croon a harsh line and it sounds downright strange and funny. Lounge Against the Machine can be tiresome at times, but it certainly takes the piss out of these songs.

1. Nookie/Break Stuff
2. Guerilla Radio
3. Come Out And Play
4. Closer
5. Wrong Way
6. Bullet The Blue Sky
7. Creep
8. Last Resort
9. Rape Me
10. What's My Age Again
11. Smack My Bitch Up
12. Fight For Your Right
13. Only Happy When It Rains
14. Suck My Kiss
15. Holiday In Cambodia
16. The Rockafeller Skank

METALLICA XMAS TRIBUTE

SANTA CLAWS
AND THE NAUGHTY BUT NICE ORCHESTRA
...AND CHRISTMAS FOR ALL:
THE HOLIDAY TRIBUTE TO METALLICA (2006)

256-320 KBPS

No, its not the greatest album you've ever heard and no, its not exactly like listening to Metallica. However, they've done a fairly nice job of recreating some Metallica classics using the sleigh-bell sounds of Christmas music.
Great for background at a Christmas party, its not your typical schlocky Christmas album, but to outside ears, it will sound like it. A fun album.

1. Nothing Else Matters
2. For Whom the Bell Tolls
3. One
4. The Unforgiven
5. Fade to Black
6. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
7. Wherever I May Roam
8. Master of Puppets
9. Battery
10. The Call of Ktulu

PAT BOONE

PAT BOONE
IN A METAL MOOD,
NO MORE MR NICE GUY (1997)
320 KBPS

Monty Python have got nothing on Pat Boone. You want absurd, this is the pinnacle. No comedy writer in his/her dreams could have dreamt up anything even half as stupid. The mere idea of Pat Boone, Mr. Squeaky Clean himself, (ahem) crooning heavy metal tunes is bad enough, but it gets so much worse. Big name arrangers were brought in to take crunchy power chords and squealing guitar solos and turn them into jazzy riffs and big band horn blasts. Even a few of the artists whose material is covered make guest appearances. Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore plugs in on "Smoke on the Water," while vocalist Ronnie James Dio gives a shout out on his band's "Holy Diver." This musical "idiodyssey" actually works a few times. I'm not immune to the kitsch value that the swingin' versions of AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)," Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary," or Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" provide. These songs almost sound like they were written for this kind of overblown, slick swing. Very scary. As for the rest, well, let's just say that aside from the fact that they don't really work too well in this format, Boone just ends up sort of speaking the lyrics and sounding completely goofy. If that's not comedy enough for you, surely the extensive liner notes explaining (rationalizing?) why Boone felt the need to make this record are the topper. I liked this guy a lot better when he was pals with the Parents' Music Resource Center. Can't wait for In a Grunge Mood--sometime in the 21st century.

1. You've Got Another Thing Comin'
2. Smoke on the Water
3. It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock & Roll)
4. Panama
5. No More Mr. Nice Guy
6. Love Hurts
7. Enter Sandman
8. Holy Diver
9. Paradise City
10. The Wind Cries Mary
11. Crazy Train
12. Stairway to Heaven

SPINAL TAP

SPINAL TAP
THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984)
192 KBPS

One of the greatest ironies surrounding This Is Spinal Tap is that it's actually better than many of the recordings it parodies. Songs like "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight," "Hell Hole," "Heavy Duty," and even "Stonehenge" are fun, '80s-style rockers that any closet hair-band fan will enjoy, and "Sex Farm" and "Big Bottom" are hilarious, especially to those same closet fans. There's also the hippie-drippy "Listen to the Flower People" (even funnier if you've seen Rob Reiner's film of the same title), although Michael McKean and Christopher Guest singing "Cry, Cry, Cry All the Way Home" is sadly absent. The CD does lose some of its entertainment value if you haven't seen the film, but its mix of comedy and unabashed pop metal makes it the perfect party album.

1. Hell Hole
2. Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight
3. Heavy Duty
4. Rock & Roll Creation
5. America
6. Cups and Cakes
7. Big Bottom
8. Sex Farm
9. Stonehenge
10. Gimme Some Money
11. (Listen to the) Flower People
12. Christmas With the Devil

THIS IS SPINAL TAP

THIS IS SPINAL TAP
DVD rip (1984)
Runtime: 1 hr 22 mins

Synopsis
Largely improvised by director Rob Reiner and his cast, This Is Spinal Tap looks and sounds like a "real" documentary, with Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Christopher Guest as David St. Hubbins, Derek Smalls, and Nigel Tufnel, the key members of a going-nowhere British heavy metal band called Spinal Tap. The "group" started as an informal skiffle band, eventually maturing into an R&B act called the Thamesmen (their hit was "Gimme Some Money"). After going through a psychedelic period with "Listen to the Flower People," the band mutated into Spinal Tap, a hard rock outfit responsible for such albums as "Intravenous DeMilo," "The Sun Never Sweats," and "Bent for the Rent." This Is Spinal Tap finds them in the midst of their first American tour in years as they support their new LP Smell the Glove, with filmmaker Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner), who specializes in TV commercials, on hand to document the occasion. Just about anything that can go wrong does: shows get canceled, stage props go wrong, wireless guitar pickups start broadcasting air-traffic reports, no one shows up for in-store appearances, David's girlfriend tries to take over the band, they wind up billed second to a puppet show at an amusement park, and the group teeters on the verge of breakup. After the film's initial release, McKean, Guest, and Shearer did a short club tour as Spinal Tap; the "band" reunited in 1992 for a new album, Break Like the Wind, followed by a full-fledged tour and TV special, The Return of Spinal Tap.

SPINAL TAP
BREAK LIKE THE WIND (1992)
320 KBPS

Has there ever been a rock band more unjustly maligned than Spinal Tap? Accused of everything from heralding the demise of heavy metal to being the very raison d'être for alternative rock, they suffered their greatest indignity at the hands of director Rob Reiner (cowardly hiding behind the moniker Marty DiBergi), whose 1984 "rockumentary," This Is Spinal Tap, muckraked its way through the band's courageous, tragedy-strewn history in service of a few mocking laughs. Reiner/DiBergi even stooped so low as to employ a heartless, mercenary band of Hollywood writer/comedians to burlesque the band's core members--David St. Hubbins (played by mendacious Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (callow Christopher Guest), and Derek Smalls (haughty Harry Shearer). But the great ones just won't be denied; Spinal Tap reached deep down in 1992 and let loose with Break Like the Wind, another potent blast of the very stuff that made their legend. Featuring an all-star supporting cast (the title track alone boasts Slash, Steve Lukather, Joe Satriani, and Tufnel look-alike Jeff Beck), the Tap gallantly tried to stem the tide of flannel and tattoos with thundering odes to gender enlightenment ("Bitch School"), mystic quests ("Clam Caravan"), and its own glorious rock-fest legacy ("Stinkin' Up the Great Outdoors"). Pop diva Cher and St. Hubbins share a vocal tryst on the uplifting ballad "Just Begin Again," while even Steely Dan's reclusive Walter Becker pens technical notes, praising the album's pioneering use of the Crosley Phase Linear Ionic Induction Voice Processor System. Sadly, they just don't make albums like this anymore.

1. Bitch School
2. The Majesty Of Rock
3. Diva Fever
4. Just Begin Again
5. Cash On Delivery
6. The Sun Never Sweats
7. Rainy Day Sun
8. Break Like The Wind
9. Stinkin' Up The Great Outdoors
10. Springtime
11. Clam Caraban
12. Christmas With the Devil
13. All The Way Home

.

links in comments