I'm in the process of re-listening and re-evaluating my record collection, in no particular order. I'll be sharing the results of my evaluation and thoughts on the music in this blog.
Sometime ago I wrote a post on a record by Xylouris White. As I explained then, Giorgos Xylouris of Xylouris White is a Greek-born singer and lute player. As a young man, he immigrated to Australia and has made records blending Cretan folk with jazz and new wave. More importantly, he is also a member of a famous Cretan mountain clan; his uncle Nikos Xylouris started as a traditional folk musician but transcended all that to become one of the country's most beloved and respected singers of all time. He died in 1980, aged only 43, passing the torch of Cretan music champion to Giorgos' father, better known with the nickname "Psarantonis". What I didn't know until I watched documentary "A Family Affair" is that there's yet another generation of Xylourises: Giorgos' kids Apollonia, Adonis, and Nikos. They were born and raised in Melbourne Australia, where they were exposed to a lot of different music styles; Cretan, of course, but also punk rock and a lot of AC/DC. The whole family has since remigrated back to Crete, where the Xylouris youths hatched this little dynamite. It all started during the pandemic lockout: the boys, who earn their daily bread playing traditional instruments at weddings and festivals, switched to electric guitar and drums and started jamming, while their sister became the singer, main lyricist, and general frontperson of the group during the live performances. They released an EP in '22, and this LP last October (or is it a mini-LP? despite having 9 tracks, it's actually only 20 minutes long). The music is very fast and energetic, reminiscent of Black Flag, of Riot Grrrl archetypes Bikini Kill, or -closer to home- fellow Aussie troublemakers Amyl And The Sniffers. Favorites: opener "100°C" which somehow carries echoes of Rage Against The Machine, followed by "Sales", "Data Collector" and "Pink Tax"; these remind me a bit of Motörhead - until the vocals kick in, that is. Then the resemblance evaporates; Apollonia spouts the lyrics like a machinegun. "Angry" is the longest track, and it's one of those cases where the title says it all. It's also -along with the eponymous closer- the closest Frenzee get to thrash metal (think Suicidal Tendencies). The whole of the album really is a great little blast of manic energy and righteous anger. Highly recommended, I can't wait to witness this band live!
***** for 100°C, Angry
**** for Sales, Data Collector, Pink Tax, Ask Me Again, What's Wrong With Me
In 1992 I was studying dentistry in Athens University. Having long hair, I stood out there somehow. That wouldn't be the case in other departments, but Dental School was different: most students dressed and acted as the future petit-bourgeois they were; many were already preparing to take over their parents' dental practices. So I naturally would hang around with the other longhair in my year. We found out we had a lot in common: left-wing political ideology, similar tastes in literature (including a lotofSF), and music. Mine were much wider, all kinds of rock music and beyond that, he was more into metal. Like me, he bought a lot of records, both vinyl and CD, and I'd often go to his place, we'd listen to music, and I would tape anything I liked. One day he asked me whether I'd heard of Ice T. I said Sure, he's a famous rapper. Not your kind of thing, how come you ask? He said You have to listen to this record he made, it's un-fucking-believable! So, after the lesson, we went back to his place and listened to this LP, playing air drums/guitar, rapping along with the naughty lyrics trying to stifle our giggles - not easy when one's listening to "Evil Dick" and "KKK Bitch". I taped it, of course, and listened to the cassette from time to time that year. I had decided to buy the LP, too, some time - on vinyl of course, because at the time it was cheaper than CD, almost by half. I should have snatched it immediately, but how was I to know that it would soon get pulled from the shops, and replaced with a censored version? I kept looking for the original "copkiller" album, but no such luck; the few times I came across it, it cost way more than I was ready to pay, certainly over €100. One reasonably-priced CD I bought from Ebay turned out to be the censored version inside the original's case: normally, they're easy to tell apart, since the tattoo on the gangsta's chest reads "cop killer" whereas on the new version it reads "body count". But the CD itself is identical, so someone mixed them up. Disappointed, I tried to return it, but the seller said they'd refund me but didn't want the CD back. I still have it, as you see in the photo here. Recently, I came across a shiny new vinyl copy for €20. Sure, I knew it was a bootleg, but what about it? It still looks and sounds like the original, at 1/10th of the price.
Today, rap metal is an established genre - and a very commercial one, at that. But there was a time when such a combination was unthinkable. The two genres, and their audiences above all, were worlds apart. During the late 60's and 70's, black and white music had begun conversing, with artists like Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone bridging the gap. Disco, created mostly by black artists, was the music of choice across the race spectrum. But rap was a different beast altogether. It looked at the hard reality of urban ghettos face on, and unapologetically. Gangsta's, pimps, and ho's on the one side, wizards, warriors, and booze on the other. Musically, one used samples of pre-existing recorded music, the other relied on instrumental prowess. Rampant sexism was the only common thread joining rap and metal. Was the creation of Bodycount a conscious effort by Ice T to sell more records by tapping into a different audience, or was he seeking a different form of expression? I think it was a little bit of the former, but mostly the latter. With this band, he was aiming at white teenagers, selling them his cartoonish gangsta image. At the same time, I believe he tried to open their eyes to social injustices, in his own, politically incorrect, manner. One should also keep in mind that Bodycount weren't a made-up band formed to support Ice T in his rock dalliances; they were a bunch of homies, all of whom graduated from the same South Central high school. Ernie C (lead guitar), D-Roc (rhythm guitar), Mooseman (bass), and Beatmaster V (drums) just happened to be black kids who loved rock and metal music, it's only natural that they'd get together and jam at some point with their famous rapper friend. Ice T wrote the lyrics and rapped, while the others wrote and performed the music. The result didn't fit in any of the already known subgenres, and still doesn't sound much like modern rap metal: there are the familiar choppy riffs, but not as much funk as one would expect. Thrash and hardcore punk seem to be the main influences, especially in the fastest tracks e.g. "Bowels of the Devil", "KKK Bitch", "Voodoo", and -above all- the album's best and most controversial track "Cop Killer". Lead single "There Goes the Neighborhood"'s Sabbath-y riff is the closest it gets to conventional Heavy Metal, while there's even a power ballad with an anti-drug message called "The Winner Loses", and a mellow instrumental called "C Note" which is a better testament to Ernie C's guitar talent than the shredding he sometimes does in the faster tracks. "Body Count's in the House" and "Body Count Anthem" employ some great thrash metal riffs and feature countless repeats of the band's name - on the former, Ice T also introduces us to the rest of the group. The third(!) eponymous track "Body Count" is different: starting off with an acoustic intro, it evolves into hard rock dynamite replete with call-and-response vocals and drum and guitar solos. Most importantly, it is an address to white America, trying to open its eyes to the hopelessness, anger, and violence brewing in urban ghettos.
"Cop Killer" goes further in that direction, fantasizing about killing a cop. Album lyrics in general alternate between the angry/political and the humorous; sometimes -as in "Momma's Gotta Die Tonight"- the humor is very dark, others -as in "Evil Dick"- just naughty and puerile. Overall, Ice T is doing his best to shock and enrage Middle America by inhabiting the cartoonish gangsta "nigger" boogeyman character they've learned to hate and fear. It worked only too well: "Cop Killer" especially created a huge backlash from politicians, police unions of course, and members of the public. Record company executives started getting death threats, etc. Faced with this reactionary avalanche, Ice T agreed to pull all the records from the shops and replace them with a new version, the one still available: the tattoo on the cover is different, and "Cop Killer" is replaced by another track called "Freedom Of Speech", a rap piece featuring a Hendrix sample and a guest vocal by Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra. Cue the rarity of the original LP, mentioned in my introduction. But, really, what people should have done was listen. "Cop Killer" wasn't provocative in the same way that "KKK Bitch" was. It was an earnest expression of the anger brewing in the ghetto: the last years had seen an escalation of police oppression; while the Crips and Bloods gang war continued unencumbered, the LAPD conducted themselves like an occupation army, dispensing violence and humiliation, and harassing citizens based on their appearance or skin colour. Shortly before the recording of this album, there was the Rodney King incident; an everyday event of police brutality, only this one was captured on camera and endlessly replayed on TV, igniting passions further. When Ice T sings "Cop Killer - Better You Than Me" and "But Tonight We Get Even" he voices the feelings of ghetto youth. Had people taken the song as a warning, the L.A. Riots which cost 63 lives and $1 billion in damages, could have been avoided. Instead, the result was nationwide indignation for the "troublemaker rap star". White metalheads did listen though, and what could have been a one-off experiment sparked a parallel career for Ice T, and paved the way for other bands to combine rap and metal. Subsequent Bodycount albums all had their moments, but none came close to their debut. For its innovation and influence, I couldn't possibly give it less than 5*. The fact that I always have fun listening to it is, of course, an added bonus. Bodycount still perform at festivals, although Ice-T and Ernie C are the only original members still standing; D-Roc and Beatmaster V succumbed to cancer, while Mooseman was killed in a driveby shooting, one more innocent bystander senselessly mowed down in the ghetto. Just like in a Bodycount song. As they say in this album "This weekend, 17 youths killed in gang homicides. And now, sports".
***** for Body Count's in the House, Body Count, Cop Killer
**** for Bowels of the Devil, KKK Bitch, The Winner Loses, There Goes the Neighborhood, Evil Dick
*** for C Note, Voodoo, Body Count Anthem, Momma's Gotta Die Tonight
spoken word= Smoked Pork, Now Sports, A Statistic, The Real Problem, Oprah, Out in the Parking Lot
I had seen this band's CDs before but, despite the fact that after every visit to Spain I left with a few albums by local bands, I only got around to them during my last trip. The reason of course is that "La Polla Records" seemed to me to be the title of a record label rather than that of a band. I guess they must have realized how it sounds in English too, since shortly after the release of this compilation, they shortened their name to plain La Polla (translation: "The Cock"). The band comes from a small town called Salvatierra which is in the Basque country, although they choose to sing in Spanish instead of the Basque language - I guess they haven't been touched by the nationalism virus sweeping Europe lately. I don't speak Spanish myself, so I have to accept wikipedia's word that "the lyrics of the band harshly criticized fascism, militarism, capitalism, and catholicism". Of course the fact that Ska-P apparently consider them one of their main influences would be indication enough of La Polla's political sympathies - or should I say political antipathies? The band started out in 1979 with a gig at their town's only pub, with everybody present to -in their own words- "see what the fools of the village made". From the very start they were heavily influenced by classic English punk, and judging from the contents from this compilation, never strayed far from the path - something easy to see, as this CD is chronologically arranged. The oldest tracks here come from the EP ¿Y Ahora Que?(1983). These are "10 Perritos"*** and "Y Ahora Qué?"***. From their first LPSalve (1984) we get "Nuestra Alegre Juventud"**** and "Delincuencia"**** - two Clash-influenced compositions with nice guitar breaks and improved production. Obviously the band's musical influences lie in England, but I can't help but notice the striking similarities with their Greek counterparts, Panx Romana.
The two bands probably wouldn't be aware of each other, but they have similar influences and sing in similar languages - well, Greek and Spanish are actually very different but curiously similar-sounding. The next 4 albums seem to be more hardcore, with very fast and short songs (slightly over or even under the 1-minute mark), sometimes reminiscent of the Dead Kennedys and (more often) The Exploited: "Es Política"***, "Moriréis Como Imbéciles"***(from 1985'sRevolucion), "Odio A Los Partidos"***, "Todo Por La Patria"** (No Somos Nada, 1987), "El Avestruz"****, "Los Monos"*** (Donde Se Habla, 1987), and the live "Porno En Acción"** and "Chus"*** (En Directo, 1989). The frequent use of Oi!- like backing vocals is another new element. From 1989'sEllos Dicen Mierdawe get the eponymous song**** (a veritable "epic" at 4,5 minutes, featuring guitar solos and a catchy chorus) and the more hardcore "Nací Sin Carnet"***.
The 90's find them incorporating some American elements, specifically the melodic hardcore sound of Epitaph bands like NOFX and Pennywise: "Huelga General"****, "El Coleguilla"** (Los Jubilados, 1990), "Ángeles Caídos"***, the rockabilly-ish "Juanito Tergal"**** (Barman, Maxi-single 1991), "Alicia"**,"Fuego Y Cristal"** (Negro, 1991), "Calienta El Odio"***, and the uncharacteristically melodic "Hoy Es El Futuro"**** (Hoy Es El Futuro,1992). Their -up to that point- most recent album Bajo Presion (1994) is the only one that breaks the (apparent) rule of including 2 tracks per record. We get 3 songs from here: "El Ojo Te Ve"**, "Monopoly"***, and "Analizando"****. Whether you'll like this compilation depends entirely on whether the idea of Spanish-language punk rock appeals to you. Musically, there's nothing embarrassing but nothing especially exciting either. It's honest, workmanlike, straight-up punk rock with no detours to Latin or Ska territory like you'd get in a Ska-P album. That said, it's possible I'd be much more positive if I understood the lyrics - always an important factor in politically charged punk music. The latest news about the band is that they've reformed in 2019 after a 16-year absence, and that they are active, touring and releasing a new album which seems to include a number of re-recordings of older songs, not clear whether it's studio or live.
I've said it before, I like all anarcho-punk bands, so Toprot couldn't be an exception. Granted, these young guys from The Hague got their name from a disease affecting cannabis plants and identify themselves as "drunk punk"rather than anarcho-punk, probably to avoid sounding too serious, but they're also closely tied to an anarchist squat in Den Haag Moerwijk called De Samenscholing, and engage in political activities (playing benefits in support of refugees etc). The 7' EP Straight Outta Moerwijk seems to be their first release, at least according to discogs. They sing in both English and Dutch but there is no lyrics sheet included, so I'll be damned if I know what about - other than their apparent disdain for yuppies, hippies and hipsters. I personally find the anti-hippie sentiment too 1977, even punk guru Jello Biafra now agrees that the hippie movement left an overal positive legacy. Hipsters yes, they are a modern plague. As for yuppies, before coming to The Netherlands I'd say that they were an 80's thing. In Greece wearing a suit and tie at work is like wearing a Burger King uniform, you can't wait to get rid of them. In Holland, though, young people wear their suits and ties proudly even when they're not obliged to, and actually study "finance" and "business management" by choice, not just because they suck at everything requiring a modicum of ability. Back to the album at hand, the music is your typical fast-and-furious hardcore punk: 6 songs within 10 minutes, roughly recorded and played with an amateurs' enthusiasm though not amateurishly. If you like 80's punk like Black Flag, Exploited or GBH this may be something for you - the closing tune "Shiver For Ma Livah" even has a bit of oi!-like chorus thing going. If you'd like to know more about the band, check their facebook site
*** for Against Hippies, Vies Pijn En Dronken, A.B.A.B, Vuiluh Hipsters, Die Yuppie Die, Shiver For Ma Livah
A couple of months ago, I saw the Meat Puppets live at the Paard van Troje club in The Hague. To be honest I hadn't quite followed their career for almost 30 years, and didn't know what to expect. I wasn't even aware they were still going strong. For me they were always an 80's band, despite their coming to prominence in the 90's after a guest spot on Nirvana's gazillion-selling MTV Unplugged. A worn-out cassette of Meat Puppets II and this CD comp of their early years is all I knew of them. Well, apparently they've got a new album out in 2019, it's called Dusty Notes and judging from what I heard at the Paard not much of a departure from their indie psych country days. On concert, one could hardly guess the band's roots in hardcore punk, except maybe from the gruff vocals and long feedback/noise conclusion of many songs. The country streak was more obvious, from the song structure to their mountain men appearance, beards and all. This compilation taking a chronological approach though, we're greeted with two short sharp bursts of hardcore noise: "Foreign Lawns" from their debut In A Car EP 1981 and "H-Elenore" from the Keats Rides A Harleycompilation, both from1981. These got them noticed and signed to California's SST Records, home to the likes of Black Flag, Minutemen and Hüsker Dü. From their first long player Meat Puppets(1982) we get "Blue Green God" and "Walking Boss" which show some progress in the former's supercharged guitars and, especially, the latter's espousing of country music. Meat Puppets II(1984) presents a leap forward for the band as well as American alternative rock in general. The band expertly mixes punk, hardcore and psychedelia to create a new genre. "Lost" is a jaunty cow-punk hybrid, "The Whistling Song" is REM-like indie with winsome whistling, "Lake Of Fire" a psychedelic sludgefest and "Plateau" a folk ballad - the latter two were covered by Nirvana in their Unplugged album. 1985's Up On The Sun continued the band's slow trek to (a kind of) mainstream. "Up on the Sun" and "Two Rivers" are sunny, mid-tempo, psychedelia with sluggish vocals replacing their former throat shredding style. "Swimming Ground" and "Enchanted Porkfist" are reminiscent of The Byrds' country rock, despite the latter's metallic guitar intro. From 1986's Out My Way EP we get 3 tracks, the almost funky title track with its scorching southern rock solo, cow-punk "On The Move" and a more or less straight country cover of Wayne Kemp's"Burn the Honky Tonk Down". Their next albums never quite reached the same heights, which is reflected in the amount of songs sampled for this collection. We get 2 tracks from 1987's Mirage: the Byrdsian country of "Confusion Fog" and indie folk of "Get On Down" with some great guitars solos proving the guys have something more in common with ZZ Top than just the beards. Another 2 tracks here come from Huevos (1987), the Long Ryders-style garage folk of "Look At the Rain" and mid tempo REM-style indie of "Sexy Music". We get nothing from their last album of the 80's (1989's Monsters), but there are two alternate versions of songs that appeared in it, indie mid tempo "Light" and an energetic live workout of "Meltdown" with fiery guitar licks. More rarities include a live cowpunk version of Woody Guthrie's "Dough Rey Mi", and a demo of indie rocker "Strings On Your Heart". The CD closes with an unreleased 1998 song by Curt Kirkwood's band, then going by the name of Meat Puppets but containing no other original members. Classic Puppets makes for a great introduction to the band's best period, as it contains essential tracks from all their 80's albums throwing in some rarities for the older fans. The chronological sequence also helps track their progress, even if it means starting off with some uncharacteristically extreme hardcore. But if you really wants to experience the band in its peak, and see why bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Dinosaur Jr, and Red Hot Chili Peppers consider them a major influence, you should seek out their their 2 best albums, Meat Puppets II and Up On The Sun.
***** for Lost, Plateau
**** for Lake of Fire, The Whistling Song, Up on the Sun, Swimming Ground, Enchanted Porkfist, Two Rivers, Out My Way, Get On Down, Look At the Rain, Sexy Music, Dough Rey Mi, Meltdown
*** for Walking Boss, On the Move, Burn the Honky Tonk Down, Confusion Fog, Light, Strings On Your Heart, New Leaf
A few years ago I decided to acknowledge the 8th of March (International Women's Day) with the presentation of a Riot-Grrrl band, Sleater-Kinney. This year I thought I'd do the same with arguably the most iconic -certainly the most political- band of that movement, Bikini Kill. Why? you ask. Am I a feminist? No. Firstly, and more obviously, because I'm a guy. I know my profile photo isn't very clear, but don't let the long hair fool you. It's the photo of a guy, not of a bearded lady. And I don't think women need me to speak for them. Secondly, to one degree or another, all -isms seem to promote dogmatic and fanatic, even intolerant, behavior. That said, I do respect andsupport feminists, as I do all activists fighting for a righteous cause.
So I couldn't help being impressed while watching "The Punk Singer", a documentary on Kathleen Hanna, Bikini Kill's singer and de facto leader of the Riot Grrrl scene. I thought "wow! what an inspirational person! so radical, and provocative, and fearless!" which is obviously what the filmmakers wanted me to think, so kudos to them. They took an interesting story and made an arresting film out of it. I don't know if they overglorified their protagonist, but even if they did so what? The world needs hero(in)es. More to tonight's point, I liked the music in the film, so I went out and bought a CD by Bikini Kill. I chose this compilation of early material, as I recognized some titles from the film. Despite its title it doesn't contain any songs from their two LP's. The "two records" mentioned are the band's debut E.P. and a split L.P. with Huggy Bear. The reissue augments those with 7 unreleased demos, mostly of atrocious quality, but arguably of historic interest to fans. Not that the rest is the height of hi-fi but, hey, that's punk rock for you. Apparently many fans prefer these rough and aggressive recordings to the supposedly more "polished" later versions. The eponymous debut E.P. was "produced" by Fugazi's Ian MacKaye who basically just let them loose in the studio and recorded the result. His decision to not try to rein them in has ensured this EP has both fanatic admirers and adversaries (check out thiscontemporary review on Rolling Stone). If the best U.S. hardcore bands sound like a speeding train ready to destroy anything that gets in its way, Bikini Kill is the sound of a train that's been derailed and rolling down the slope at terrific speed. The drumming is just as aggressive but anarchic instead of mathematic. The vocals are simply out of control: Kathleen shouts, scoffs, snarls and screams with all the power she can muster. Which is a lot.
The first song of their first record serves as a perfect statement of intent: "We're Bikini Kill and we want Revolution Girl-style now! Hey girlfriend/ I got a proposition goes something like this: Dare ya to do what you want/ Dare ya to be who you will/Dare ya to cry right out loud 'You get so emotional baby' I Double dare ya/ Double dare triple fuckin' dare ya girlfriend". It's a veritable classic and, along with a few other songs here, strangely reminiscent of the Dead Kennedys. Surprising how often Hanna manages to sound like an unholy hybrid of The Kennedys' Jello Biafra and your typical valley girl. "Liar" could have been another anthem, but gets derailed by blood-curling screams over a mocking reference to John Lennon's "Give Peace A Chance". Both this and the Ramones-y "Suck My Left One" reference rape and sexual abuse, not the lightest subjects in the world. "Carnival" is a dark satire and "Thurston Hearts The Who" a musical improvisation over reading a review of the band's performance. "Feels Blind" is the tragically poetic one, starting with melancholy before letting the rage out again "I'm the woman I was taught to always be hungry... I'd (even) eat your fucking hate up like love". Songs 7-13 come from the split L.P. "Yeah Yeah Yeah". They touch similar subjects and sport a similar hardcore sound. The highlights are "White Boy" (basically casting the typical male as an idiot and potential rapist, no wonder the band were portrayed in the media as man-haters) and, of course, "Rebel Girl" which became an unofficial Riot Grrrl anthem with its blend of politics and lesbian infatuation. Truth be told, of the 3 versions of this song Bikini Kill recorded, this is the least good one. The anthemic chorus and provocative lyrics are there, but it seems unnecessarily noisy and angry whereas later versions are proud and celebratory. Of the last 7 tracks, the less said the better: mostly uncooked punk in real lo-fi quality. Even lyrically they're quite weak. I mean "George Bush Is A Pig"? C'mon, is that all you got? OK, the spoken word "Chevy Window" is funny, though I suspect it was going for righteous anger. I choose to ignore the extra tracks that came with the latest reissue and give a solid 4* to the rest of the album. And, seriously, watch the embedded documentary above. You'll become a fan, too.
***** for Double Dare Ya
**** for Liar, Carnival, Suck My Left One, Feels Blind, White Boy, Rebel Girl
*** for Don't Need You, Jigsaw Youth, This Is Not A Test, Outta Me
** for Thurston Hearts The Who, Resist Psychic Death, George Bush Is A Pig, I Busted In Your Chevy Window, Get Out, Why, Fuck Twin Peaks, Girl Soldier. Not Right Now
"In God We Trust, Inc", what an album! Even more hardcore than their incendiary masterpiece "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables", this one contains 8 songs of condensed fury in less than 14 minutes. Songs are played at almost supersonic speed and the words are barked rather than sung (thankfully, the lyrics are printed on the back of the album). The cover by frequent DK collaborator Winston Smith shows a golden Jesus on a cross of U.S. Dollars embossed with the number 666 and George Washington portrayed as a serpent. Was he trying to offend everyone? No, just midtown America. The back cover shows clearly his opinion on the American middle class, portraying a couple of well-to-do ladies approvingly watching a Ku-Klux-Klan ceremony. "Religious Vomit" and "Moral Majority" open the record with a not-so-subtle attack on organized religion: "All religions make me wanna throw up/All religions make me sick...They all claim that they have the answer/When they don't even know the question/They're just a bunch of liars/They just want your money/They just want your consciousness...". Further topics include pharmaceutical drugs ("Hyperactive Child"), murderous big corporations ("Kepone Factory") and violent neo-nazi's infiltration of the punk movement: "Punk ain't no religious cult/Punk means thinkin' for yourself/You ain't hardcore 'cause you spike your hair/When a stupid jock lives inside your head/Nazi punks Nazi punks Nazi punks Fuck off!!!". "We've Got a Bigger Problem Now" is a hilarious reworking of "California Uber Alles" aimed at the new Reagan government "Welcome to 1984, are you ready for the third world war?/You too will meet the secret police/They'll draft you and they'll jail your niece/You'll go quietly to boot camp/They'll shoot you dead, make you a man/Don't you worry, it's for a cause/Feeding global corporations claws/Die on our brand new poison gas/El Salvador or Afghanistan/Making money for President Reagan/And all the friends of President Reagan/California Uber Alles..." (Read the complete album lyrics here.) Well, Jello was a tad overreacting, Reagan didn't take it that far - it actually took the Republicans afew more years to draft the Patriot Act, spy on all their citizens and open the Guantanamo concentration camp. To top it all off, the album ends with a sarcastic kick-ass cover of cowboy classic "Rawhide". It's always been a party favorite of mine: to be played only after 02:00 AM, really loud and with everybody drunk out of their head. Can be combined with the Kennedy's "Too Drunk To Fuck" for maximum effect.
***** for Nazi Punks Fuck Off, Rawhide
**** for Moral Majority, We've Got a Bigger Problem Now
*** for Religious Vomit, Hyperactive Child, Kepone Factory, Dog Bite
