Rock Star Journalist

Various Artists - “Up End Atom: A Tribute to Atom & His Package”
(Hartless Hind Records)
Wow. That showed up fast. Hartless Hind presents a tribute to the man, the sequencer, the legend, Atom & His Package. The comp features two nerdcore rappers (mcchris and MC Lars), a synth-driven power pop band (Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer), a punk-metal new wave act (the Emotron), and assorted others, including Atom himself, singing with his friends the Zombonis on a rendition of “Goalie” (he’s not that into himself, it’s just that they’re his good friends).

The tracks are a mixed bag. I found that the artists I wasn’t familiar with actually did a better job on the tunes than the artists I did know. I love Zolof, but they make every song sound pretty much the same (that was sort of the curse the last time they tackled covers on their Duet All Night split with Reel Big Fish).

mcchris doing “Punk Rock Academy” sounded like a dream come true, and I’m glad his track came second, or I would’ve had to skip ahead. I’m glad I didn’t, because it was pretty much a disappointment. I thought this would be a match made in heaven - two high-voiced geeks meeting in a glorious explosion. Nope. mcchris pretty much phones this in, sounding bored. He might as well have had just read it off a lyric sheet.

The real winners here are Locas In Love. They do a folk punk take on “I am Downright Amazed at What I Can Destroy With Just a Hammer” that keeps the humor of the original, but takes it in an acoustic direction, eschewing keys or sequencers or beatboxes for strummed guitars. This could be a campfire sing-along, and I’m definitely going to hit up their website and download their albums. Their albums appear to be in German, as is their entire website, but I gather that they are doing what is called a “Download Reissue Series” for their records.

Up End Atom does a good job, in that four bucks of every CD purchase goes to the American Diabetes Association, so it goes to a good cause. The downside is that every Atom song is like two, two and a half minutes long, so this disc clocks in at under thirty minutes with just 11 tunes. That’s why every Atom record has like, twenty songs. So, figure that you’re paying seven bucks for an EP, and donating to a good cause.

Atom & His Package - “I am Downright Amazed at What I Can Destroy With Just a Hammer” (from Attention! Blah Blah Blah)

Hey, for once a decent press release found its way into my inbox! Usually, I look at the subject line, and most stuff ends up in the trash. But when the subject read “Submission: Atom and His Package tribute album,” I am down like a sonofabitch.

Atom & His Package were one of those artists that popped up on a bunch of comps (when comps were still worth a damn), and I went absolutely batshit for him. Crazy Jewish dude with a synthesizer playing songs about the metric system? Helllllllllll, yes. Then I bought a bunch of his stuff, and wondered why one-man synth covers of Fugazi and Geto Boys songs didn’t make other people flip out. Maybe it was songs about Enya? Maybe the voice? Who knows? All I know is that Atom & His Package is one of those artists that I loved and never got to see play live.

Anyhow, Atom & His Package ended, he did Armalite, and I haven’t really heard anything about him since. I guess he had to retire because of Type 1 diabetes. Hartless Hind Records has put together a tribute record called Up End Atom (nice Simpsons reference), and four bucks from each disc goes to the American Diabetes Association.

The tribute features acts like Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer, MC Lars, hockey-core outfit the Zambonis, and - in what has to be the most perfect cover song / artist pairing ever, mcchris doing “Punk Rock Academy.”

I’m going to be watching the mail until this sucker shows. Seriously, that song alone is worth the purchase.

Steinbeck “Possessions (Not the One By Danzig)”
the Emotron - “Me and My Black Metal Friends“

LEMURIA / OFF WITH THEIR HEADS “Under the Influence” Volume 7
AUSTIN LUCAS / FRANK TURNER “Under the Influence” Volume 8

Vinyl Collective and Suburban Home are happy to announce the songs selected for Volumes 7 and 8 for our Under the Influence series.

On Volume 7, Lemuria cover “Alex Eiffel” by the Pixies and Off With Their Heads cover “Scarred by Love” by the Nobodys. There will be an edition of 2,000 copies pressed (300/700/1000).

On Volume 8, Austin Lucas covers “To Daddy” by Dolly Parton and Frank Turner covers “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen. There will be an edition of 1,000 copies pressed (300/700). Yes, we know that Frank’s cover is also being released on a 7″ in the UK, but since it is out of an edition of 300 and won’t have Mitch and Amanda’s incredible art. Speaking of Mitch and Amanda, they are currently working on the art for Volumes 7 and 8. We hope to have something to share with you shortly.

Lemuria - “Pants” (from Get Better)
Bruce Springsteen - “Thunder Road (live in Atlanta 12.02.02)

We’ve talked many times about Mr. Mitch Clem and his Nothing Nice to Say comic here at Rock Star Journalist. I interviewed him way back in September ‘06, and there was even an aborted interview at a Kansas City comic book convention earlier the previous year (the image to your right is the proof of said aborted interview). Anyhow, being as how he’s got this neat little collection of NN2S strips that has been recently published by Dark Horse, as well the fabulous artwork for Suburban Home Records‘ “Under the Influence” series of 7″s, to say nothing of his record label Facepalm Records and his band the Tigermilks, I figured it was high time to speak with the man again.

Since the interview aired last night on KJHK’s As Heard From the Hill, I can now share it with you all, in all of its awesomeness. This is the ten minute version. The full interview is nearly 45 minutes long and makes absolutely no sense. It will air in its entirety on Sunglasses After Dark this Friday, October 10 at 8pm Central Standard Time on KJHK 90.7FM.

Download the interview, as it aired on KJHK’s As Heard From the Hill on 10/10/08.

from the Tigermilks’ We Don’t Stand a Chance:
“Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying“

Drakkar Sauna – “Wars and Tornadoes”
(Marriage Records)
Does Drakkar Sauna know how to make a bad album, really? Jeff Stoltz and Wallace Cochran seem to have this ability to put together songs that exist outside of time, that might just as easily been written in the dawning years of the last century as today. Wars and Tornadoes has as its billing as “Drakkar Sauna Faithfully Sing Songs of the Louvin Brothers.”

Stoltz and Cochran demonstrate their musical ability to the fullest extent on these songs written by Ira and Charlie Louvin, in that it’s quite difficult to differentiate any of the songs on this album from their originals on previous releases. Drakkar Sauna is a lot of like BR5-49 in that respect. Chuck Mead and company have always made their songs and covers nearly indistinguishable, and acquit themselves well in the execution of both. This could have quite easily been an affair with mandolin and guitar only, and would’ve been just fine. However, Drakkar Sauna is joined by a stellar line-up of help on this album, and that’s really what pushes it from “good” to “fantastic.” Betse Ellis of the Wilders on fiddle, Wayne Gottstein of Split Lip Rayfield on mandolin, and Kory Willis of the Midday Ramblers are only three of the folks on hand for this album and the diversity they bring makes this release a must-own. It’s wickedly twangy, and filled with mournful longing.

No “Great Atomic Power,” tho’. Uncle Tupelo got it first.

“River of Jordan“

My son’s downstairs practicing for his chorale concert in two weeks.

Thus far, I’ve heard “Build Me Up Buttercup,” “Help!,” “Freeze Frame,” “Mr. Blue Sky,” and (most humorously) “All Night Long.” Yep, the Foundations, the Beatles, the J. Geils Band, ELO, and Lionel Richie, all in the same concert. Sung by junior high white kids.

I think the money I spent on tickets will be well worth it. However, I’m making sure that I don’t know if they do the African breakdown in the middle of “All Night Long.” If I know it’s coming, I won’t be able to hold back the giggles.

ELO - “Mr. Blue Sky”
the Foundations - “Build Me Up Buttercup”
Lionel Richie - “All Night Long”

Sweet Child O’ Mine” on electric sitar and Sufi-esque singing. Evidently this is an ad currently running on Channel [V]. It’s one of the best covers I’ve ever heard in my life, and probably the most I’ve grinned in ages.

Link courtesy GorillaMask.

Guns ‘n’ Roses - “Sweet Child O’ Mine“

Special awesome bonus Super Mario Bros. level wherein you beat it by doing nothing. Yeah, this has been linked a million times, but I never get tired of watching it.

Minibosses - “Super Mario Bros. 2“

It’s a rare occurrence here in Lawrence to hear a busker playing something quality. I work downtown, live within walking distance of downtown, and all my favorite stores are downtown. Basically, I’m a mallrat, only without the mall. Downtown bar rat, record store junkie, and java fiend. That’s basically the long way of explaining as to why I spend a good portion of my free time kicking around down here.

And, as I spend a healthy portion of my free time wandering here and there as I go about my day, I cover a good portion of downtown Lawrence on a regular basis. Now that the weather’s warming up, downtown brings something other than beer, records, and coffee - buskers.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, buskers are like panhandlers, but rather than just asking you for change, they do something to coerce you into giving them money. It might be singing, dancing, telling jokes, drawing pictures, or - more frequently - playing a guitar. Ah, yes… the singing troubador, playing songs and singing for his supper.

If it were only so wonderful as that description makes it sound. In all actuality, it’s usually some dishelved hobo knocking out bad covers. There’s one gentleman who specializes in classic rock: Pink Floyd, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc. Other folks like Johnny Cash or other such old school country. Nirvana seems to be popular with the younger kids, but whatever the artist or genre, the execution is usually warbling off-key and out of tempo with how he’s strumming.

Case in point: this morning, on my way to get change for work, there was a trustafarian young sir singing Nine Inch Nails‘ “Hurt”, but playing what sounded like the chord progression for Jewel’s “Who Will Save Your Soul?” No lie.

In short, it’d be awesome if I could hear some crust kid knocking out Against Me!’s “Baby, I’m An Anarchist” or Billy Bragg’s “The Milkman of Human Kindness.” While I wait, however, there’s going to be quite a few guitar cases sans my change.

Against Me! - “Pints of Guinness Make You Strong“

Due to a massive lack of planning on my part, there’s no actual album to download this week. However, thanks to the fact that most of the bands and record labels that I like being clued in to this whole “free music” thing, we have an alternative. That alternative is the following ten-track comp I have put together featuring songs that are completely legal, easy to get, and actually good. It’s pretty much punk rock, with a little ska to get you dancing.

It took me longer to put this together than it probably would have to just track down something available online, but once I got the idea in mind, it was pretty much necessary to get the fucker done. Hope you like it.

Rock Star Journalist’s Amazingly Legal Sampler

01. Clorox GIrls - “Flowers of Evil”
02. Slapstick - “There’s A Metalhead In the Parking Lot”
03. Sixgun Radio - “Culture Crave”
04. Angel City Outcasts - “I’m An ACO”
05. Radio One - “Pipebomb Rebels”
06. Valient Thorr - “Man Behind the Curtain”
07. Rancid - “Salvation”
08. INDK - “Off the Scope”
09. Leftover Crack - “Gang Control”
10. Me First & the Gimme Gimmes - “The Longest Time” (live)

If you want to learn to play electric guitars then a first good step might be to take a guitar lesson or two before you go out and choose between guitars to buy one. You may find out you’d prefer to play the drums instead.