Jello
Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine
White People And The Damage Done
Download, CD, LP
Alternative Tentacles
(Review from the digital release)
Whatever Mr Biafra does he makes it sounds like a Dead Kennedys record. The new
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine album “White People and the
Damage Done” is no exception. Since 1976 Jello Biafra has been mocking the
stupidity of the Conservative America. Since 1978 he has done it on records.
Since the breakup of Dead Kennedys in 1986 he have had numerous collaborations
and Solo project. JBatGSoM is just another one.
The
problems JB faces is that he done some of the World´s most significant punk
hits with the Dead Kennedys like “Holliday in Cambodia”, “Let´s Lynch The Landlord”,
“Kill The Poor”, “Too Drunk to Fuck”, “Halloween”, “We got a Bigger Problem
Now” etc. And whatever he does now days I will, subconscious, compare it with
the hits of his past. Not least of his way of singing it.
As always
at a Biafra record there is a funny, thought-provoking title. No exception this
time, “White People and the Damage done”, as a miss quote of Neil Young´s “The
Needle and the Damage Done”. A macabre front cover as usual is in place. The
Lyrics on the album is as political as ever. The tunes sounds a lot like Dead
Kennedys tunes but with not as much treble as in DKs tunes. The similarity to
DK is a bit problematic to me. I love Dead Kennedys, but I don´t love this. The
record have a much more heavy sound than DKs ever had, so it should work, at
least in theory. But the tunes isn´t as catchy as the former tunes was. They
are catchy but not as catchy. After a while the record starts to stand out as
an own record on its own terms. But at a first listen to it, it sounds like
they try to be Dead Kennedys but can´t get it right. There are exceptions from
it. The title track “White People and the Damage Done” and “Crapture” and “The
Brown Lipstick Parade” are good tunes that I can like. Possible the “Hollywood
Goof Disease” as well. The rest isn´t bad in any way but it is more mediocre
and I got higher expectation on Mr Jello Biafra to get me jumping up and down
in cheer joy.
There are a funny little steal from Deep Purple´s “Space Trucking” in
“Crapture” that makes me smile.
Worth buying? Maybe, Possible, it depends. At least the good songs, on the
other hand, listen to a full album makes more sense to it.
Attentat
Fy Fan
Download, CD, LP
(Review from the digital release)
Attentat´s
singles released in 1978-1980 was the pride of my vinyl punk single collection.
They were my teenage Idols, even if it wasn´t OK to have idols by the time.
With the album era during the rest of the 1980ies I didn´t followed them as
eager as I did before.
Attentats
new album “Fy Fan” was proceded by a number of singles During 2012. The singles
“Fy fan Svenska man”, “Occupy Wall Street”, “Dö som en hund”, “Sweet and Slade”
with b-sides was released through the year 2012. So when the album actually
reached the desk in 2013 it felt like it wasn´t a new album. The singles had
already showed that this wasn´t going to be an easy album to review (that´s why
it took some time to review it). mainly because it isn´t one album. It is parts of
several different ones, hacked up and put into one album. At least that is my
impression. It is a complicated affair because of it, to be nice, unfocused, to
be rude.
Attentat
have been around since the late seventies and gained some main stream success
in the traces of KSMB and Ebba Grön. Not as successful as those however, but
almost. And went from be some -77 type of street punks to a more pop oriented
rock band. The silence that then followed during the years Attentat was down
must have build up several different directions in the minds and taste of the
members. And is it so, then it is what hear on the record. Like if they tried
to get their ideas down in the recordings. I don´t know, but I can´t find
another explanation to this record.
I can´t say I like it, I can´t say I don´t. Some tunes are good, some fair and
some….well I don´t know. Seems like the charismatic singer Jönsson* likes his
tune “Sweet and Slade”, about his teenage glam rock era idols. I can relate to
it because I was a Sweet fan as a kid, but I can´t relate to the song in
general. I think it is drivel, just as "Gilla mig" is. “Fattiga och rika” is something like a Clash “Should
I stay or should I go” Pastiche and it works quite OK. “Dö some en hund” is
punky and is like the old school Attentat been awake for a while.
This record isn´t great. Like the rest of the Attentat albums it isn´t. The
sound is big but could be harder. And the outstanding hits that the earlier
albums contained isn´t there either. But I think this was a necessary record for
them to do. To get rid of what have been brewing during the silent years. In
order to give place for another album much more sharp and focused in the future,
I hope.
Worth buying? If you are a hard core Attentat fan and if you like their softer
tunes, otherwise I would say, save your money because this year have many
releases by great bands.
*What I can see on Facebook
