CD Review: Up End Atom: A Tribute to Atom & His Package

atomVarious 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)