iT The Cadre

October 28, 1997

Music Reviews

American Psycho (Geffen)

I was prepared to hate this disc before I played it. Seeing a Goth-metal band, complete with black leather and make-up playing songs like “Hate the Living, Love the Dead” and “From Hell They Came” immediately gave me bad flashbacks to my high school death-metal phase. But after the first few tracks, I was completely sold on this CD. The best way to describe it is to say the Misfits would make the perfect house band for the Hilarious House of Frightenstein or Ghoul Theatre or some other cheesy celebration of B-grade horror icons. The songs themselves are short - roughly two and a half minutes on average - and have a heavy, melodic quality to them (think of it as the Ramones meet Megadeth). Lyrically, most songs are influenced by bad sci-fi /horror movies (the ones which could be remotely disturbing like American Psycho and the Haunting are rendered harmless by the catchy melodies), and feature plenty of sing-a-long choruses - lots of “whoa-oh-oh!!” type stuff. This disc is the perfect consolation prize for those nights when someone beat you to the last copy of Re-Animator. With Halloween coming up. it wouldalso make a fantastic party disc.

Troublizing (Columbia,

Various Artists We Will Fall: an Iggy Pop Tribute (Attic)

Let me confess something right off the bat: 1 HATE tribute albums! I think they’ re half-assed attempts to squeeze a few more nickels out of the record-buying public, and could best be used in lieu of skeet pigeons for target practice. So naturally, I wasa bit leery of We Will Fall, particularly since I’m not very familiar with Iggy’s work. As far as the music goes,

it’s standard for a tribute disc - a few half-decent songs (Sugar -

Ray’s version of “Cold Metal”, Adolph’s Dog covering “Ordi- nary Bummer”), some very well done versions (Monster Magnet’s rendition of “Gimme Danger”, Red Hot Chili Pep- pers’ “Search and Destroy”), and a whole lot of songs which are just plain awful (NY Loose doing “Lust For Life” comes to mind, while Joan Jett’s cover of “Real Wild Child” is so bad it’s almost criminal). But] have to qualify this critique: as I’ve heard very little if Iggy Pop’s stuff, I can’t honestly say if the songs on this disc are faithful renditions of the originals. I can realistically say that We Will Fall has made me more curious about hearing Pop’ s originals. This is what this tribute does best. Otherwise, it isn’t worth the effort. 2/5

Various Artists

Live from 6A: Great Musical Performances from Late Night with Conan O’Brien

(Mercury)

The battle for highest ratings on the late night talk show circuit is often won with high-profile musical guests. This compilation offers a taste of what Conan O’Brien offers on his nocturnal drug. Such diverse industrial heavy-weights as Ani DiFranco, David Bowie, and Elvis Costello present live versions of previously released material. Drawing from a variety of stylings and attitudes, Live from 6A... samples a cross-section of popular music. This disc, while nice in theory, seems to miss the mark a bit. It appeals to fans of today’s trendy compilation albums, but loses a great deal of the live feel to the harshness of studio production. Bjork’s rendition of “Human Behaviour” is much like the original found on Debut, but still stands out as one of the strongest tracks. The winner of Most Laughable Contribution to this compilation goes to Cake with their take on “The Distance.” While the thought was there,

Live from 6A... comes across more as a sales pitch for Conan

O’Brien than a live experience. pe

Mary Coughlan After The Fall (Big Cat/BMG) |

This disc is a difficult one to pigeonhole: Coughlan has drawn from many different influences - jazz, country, blues, to name but a few - to put this disc together, with the result being adisc which takes you in any which direction. Lyrically, there’s stuff ranging from depressing slices of life - Poison Words, about an abusive marriage - to humorous stories - Sunburn, about a one night stand in Turkey which leaves the protagonist

with nothing (literally!) but a U2 tape. In addition to the strong

lyrics, other songs, like Run Away Teddy and John Fell Offthe

ork-Around, use different musical elements to convey a mood to the listener - at times you fee/ this CD as well as hear it. Coughlan’s pie voice and thick Irish accent add further texture to the disc. Nota disc to play at your next drinking party, but definitely an enjoyable one. 3.5/5

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