August 2001

Justy's Musical Cavalcade

I have been digging through the backlog to find some music to review, since now that I am broke I can't afford to actually buy any new discs. I think I've made a few selections that some of you all might have missed along the way.

ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT - Group Sounds (Vagrant Records 2001). San Diego's RFTC started out as a hard-charging, avant garde rock and roll experience in 1991. As the 1990s progressed, they became more and more of a, dare I say, poppier rock and roll outfit, still playing hard, but writing more melodic, radio-friendly tunes with horns and shit. Of course radio-friendly only matters if you get airplay, which they did not. From the sounds of Group Sounds, it seems like RFTC decided to tell the radio to fuck off. Every song on this album is stripped down and fast, the kind of rock and roll Brian Setzer has wet dreams about. This record represents a perfect blend of the guitars and bass and horns that RFTC should represent. I still have yet to hear a bad record from this outfit. Highlight song has to be Savoir Faire, a 1:54 romp about a beating. Loud, fast, and utterly disturbing. Steam on, indeed.

I give this tripe…5 of 5. This is rock and roll that makes a man get up and dance.

DELTRON 3030 - (75Ark Records 2000). This album was (I believe) the first collaboration between Del tha Funkee Homosapien and production master Dan "The Automator" Nakamura, who of course were co-conspirators on the recent Gorillaz album. Deltron 3030 is a rap concept album, Del relaying stories of the way it is in the year 3030. Intergalactic rap battles, worldwide computer viruses (I want to devise a virus/To bring dire straits to your environment/Crush your corporations with a mild touch/Crash your whole computer system and revert you to papyrus, from the song "Virus"), life on earth and other planets. Just an utterly crazy future in Del's eyes. Automator and DJ Kid Koala lay down some brutal tracks to support Del's lyrical genius, a perfect blend of spacy backbeats, orchestral samples, and weird renaissance music sounding shit. Laden with guest appearances from various dope folks like Damon Albarn of Blur and Money Mark (most notably keyboard man for the Beastie Boys), and thoroughly lame people like Sean Lennon. And hey, a Strange Brew reference.

I give this mediocre effort…4 of 5. Intelligent, witty, and stoopid. Del is a genius.

OK, I'm sure there are other reviews I could write right now, but something much more important came to my attention of late. Radio Shack is using the Marvin Gaye classic "What's Goin' On" in their latest series of horrible commercials with Howie Long and that chick who played Lois Lane. Is this some sort of sick joke? That song is a statement of humanity just struggling to stay afloat and stay together in a period of serious conflict and strife, not a tool for hawking cheap R/C cars and shitty CD players. I urge you all to write Radio Shack, Howie Long, whoever holds the rights to the song, your Representatives in Congress and Senate…anyone who should care. Berry Gordy, for example. I understand the economics behind this crap, and maybe the song doesn't have as much meaning now as it did 25 years ago. But this crap only serves to deteriorate whatever meaning is left to the rest of us. I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned elsewhere, so maybe you heard it here first. In any case, consider me irked.