The Stiff Sheet… August 1995

Ramones
¡Adios Amigos!
Radioactive 

With a flick of the wrist, the Ramones have shown the world who the kings of American punk rock are, and have always been. Green who? ¡Adios Amigos! ranks probably in the top three great Ramones albums, if not their best. Special attractions on this new Ramones CD are some vocals by C.J. Ramone. YEA!! Not to mention some way cool covers of Tom Waits’ “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up.” Plus, a tribute to fellow New Yorker and ex-Heartbreaker, the late, great Johnny Thunders classics “I Love You,” and “Spiderman.” Yes, the theme from the cartoon (“Born to Die in Berlin”). The record also has some great new Ramones originals like “Cretin Family,” “Making Monsters for My Friends” and “Scattergun.” Is this the Ramones’ last record? Who knows. But at least they can quit knowing that they gave their fans a great fucking record before they left. —Mr. Pink

Teenage Fan Club
Grand Prix

The only reason I decided to review Teenage FanClub’s new record is because it is outstanding. Their record company was certainly no help. They didn’t even send a review copy! 

If diversity, innovation and memorable guitar lines count for anything, then Grand Prix wins the big prize hands down. Teenage Fan Club delivers some of their best work to date on an album that sucks you in deeper with each listen. Immortal melodies, cascading lyrics, the whole nine yards. These guys have to be sitting around wondering if this record can be topped. If not, then they are as modest as they are catchy. AII of the songs on Grand Prix are full of intelligent, easy-to-relate-to lyrics that somehow make you think about what they mean long after you’ve heard them. Musically, this record flows like a classic British pop album should. Starting off by getting your attention without screaming, “About You” sets the mood for some great songs. Namely “Neil Jung,” “Mellow Doubt” and “Sparky’s Dream.” After all is said and done, Teenage Fan Club stands untarnished by musical trends and in rare form as they ask the fitting question, “Is there life in this cartoon?” —Mr. Pink 

Elliot Smith
Elliot Smith
Kill Rock Stars

If you’ve ever wondered why you like Heatmiser so much, this is a big reason why. Elliot Smith is one of the brains in the Heatmiser operation. This is his second solo effort. On his new LP, he plays acoustic guitar and sings, sometimes with a little bit of drums or an organ in the background. There’s also one song that has some electric guitar for about two seconds and another with harmonies sung by Rebecca Gates from The Spinanes. The rest of the stuff is new, recorded in Portland basements by friends on four and 8-track recorders. 

This is a really good album for several reasons. One is that it forces you to listen instead of hearing it in the background, almost like a continuous whisper. The second is that most of the songs are well-written, with both haunting melody and thoughtful lyrics in mind. —Mr. Pink

John Coltrane Quartet
Ballads
Impulse! 

“The growth of Coltrane apparently continues unimpeded. Long may it do so” —Gene Lees. 

My buddy Scott at the luxurious Tower Theater would call this record “Infinitely listenable,” others would say Trane’s best album. Still, others have labeled it a masterpiece. It was just remastered by Impulse! and released with the booklet from the original LP. It features McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. It also features the man I believe to be the most expressive outstanding talent to ever pick up a tenor saxophone. If you only own one jazz album your entire life, this is the one. I think that about wraps it up.—Mr. Pink

Supergrass
I Should Coco
Capital Records 

Could this record be the savior of 1995? Maybe. At least as far as British pop-rock goes. Supergrass has the unique quality of reminding you of someone without being too derivative of anyone. This Oxford trio does it with diversity, super hooky chorus lines (“Why you lookin so crazy / Why you lookin so lonely for love”) and very cool use of guitar and piano—YES PIANO—melodies. While thoughts of Bowie and Ian Hunter shoot through your head, you’re hearing influences from many different musical genres. Songs like “Mansize Rooster” and “Strange Ones” make Supergrass seem wise beyond their years. If there were an Olympic scale for debut albums to rest upon, I Should Coco would get 9.5’s from all the cool judges. —Mr. Pink

Stanford Prison Experiment
The Gato Hunch 
World Domination

World Domination does it again with another world class release: The Gato Hunch by Stanford Prison Experiment. These boys rip, check out the opening song, “You’re The Vulgarian.” The phrase “We don’t care” will be ringing in your head for the next week. “Worst Case Scenario,” “Swoon” and “El Nuevo” will all give you something to wiggle your hips to.—Mr. Pink 

WIZO
Uuaarrgh!
Fat Wreck Chords 

“You’ve never told me that you didn’t like my face, so how could I have known?” That line followed by a burp is the opening line to one of the two songs on this record that are sung in English! The rest are in German, as this power punk trio hails from Sindelfingen. It almost makes you want to learn German because you end up singing along and you don’t know what the hell you are saying. Luckily, the album has the translations to the songs in English. This band does everything and maintains their sense of humor while slamming fascism and racism. They even go calypso of HUND (dog) while singing about social issues like the AIDS scandal in which untested blood donations carrying HIV were sold on the German market. “Life’s a dog / It barks and bites / It eats and shits / And once in a while it humps your leg.”—Mr. Pink

Brother Cane
Seeds 
Virgin Records

Although the name Brother Cane evokes images of bands like Black Oak Arkansas and Jackyl, the band, thank God, does not. The band is a driving rock foursome with a distinctive sound ranging from moody, edgy and textured ballads to full-force guitar assault on songs like “Hung On A Rope” and “Kerosene.” 

“A lot of the songs on Seeds are either about family members or friends”, explains Damon. “I’m getting better at looking inside myself and expressing things, but it was strange how many of the songs were written about people in my life. In this day and age of people writing these self-effacing lyrics about how they’re fucked up, we’ve just kind of accepted the fact that it’s all fucked up, and we’re just trying to get on with our lives” 

B.C. is a well balanced attack of good guitar work, layered songwriting and really good drumming in a rock context. Worth more than a listen. Seeds grows on you. —Mr. Pink

Read more from the SLUG Archives here:
Record Review: April 1995
Television: August 1991