Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Music Review: Wombat Rock 2007

I received my copy of 'Wombat Rock 2007' at THE party of the year, the joey Zone's 50th celebration. I really believe you CAN judge a CD by it's cover and once again, I have been proven oh so right.

Where do I start? How about the first track: The theme to the Muppet Show in HEBREW.

There are a couple of excellent mashups, namely 'We Will Rock Your Dirty Deeds' (ACDC vs. Queen) and 'Call Me Hung Up' (Madonna vs. Blondie.) The other mashup, 'You Believe Me All Night Long' (Cher vs. ACDC) is a little harder to wrap my little ol' brain around, but a hoot nonetheless!

Excellent covers abound: Shonen Knife covering the Runaways' 'Cherry Bomb' (herro, daddy, herro mom, ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!); an insanely enjoyable cover of 'Ghost Riders in the Sky' by Finnish death-metal band Impaled Nazarene; a spot-on cover of the Beatles' 'Drive My Car' by the Donnas and Patti Smith's great renditions of 'When Doves Cry' and 'Gimme Shelter.' The Los Futuristas cover of 'Now I Wanna Be Your Dog' is just crazy. Think Spanish lounge music. 'Layla' by 386 Dx is wonderful for a despairing drunk afternoon in the local pub.

There's a nice radio spot from 1970 advertising the Stooges to break up the musical manna filling the ears....and a killer skit called 'Spicy Pony Head' by Kasper Hauser. I almost drove off the road I was laughing so hard ('eet ees a pony head but, uh...spicy...')

That's not all- in the "So Crap it's Hysterical' category there's a cover of 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' by Bill Cosby.......and that's so much more enjoyable than the excruciating cover of 'I Write the Songs' By Chuck Woolery. Really. And it's marginally better than Barry Manilow, but that's like saying a rotted fish head on your plate is better without the eye still in it....
I hesitate to include the Who's 'Girl's Eyes' in the category above, but it's still a contender - terrible song performed without any sack whatsoever.

'Super Jupiter' from 'Odyssey!Original Cast' I had never heard before- probably with good reason. Rhyming 'super jupiter' with 'super dupiter' has to be a crime somewhere.

This CD is staying in my car for the summer! Wombats Rock!

7 comments:

Gene Kannenberg, Jr. said...

'Layla' by 386 Dx is wonderful for a despairing drunk afternoon in the local pub.

That is about the most charitable thing I could have expected anyone to say about this track (except for me - me quite likey 386 DX...)

'Call Me Hung Up' (Madonna vs. Blondie)

A great mashup not just musically, but also thematically. A+D = great stuff.

Rhyming 'super jupiter' with 'super dupiter' has to be a crime somewhere.

Certainly not here (maybe here or here).
But the song's no crime - it's sublime...

Glad you liked the CD!

Marko said...

I was also lucky enough to receive "Wombat Rock" at TjZ's 50th and must agree it rocks! We agree with a couple of exceptions. For the Donnas cover, 'spot-on' here means bland, I'm afraid. And 'Layla' is this song's worst cover. Even worse than Clapton's unplugged version... But I digress. Wonderful job, Wombats.

C. Margery Kempe said...

Whooo hoo -- glad you enjoyed it! Gene works hard on compiling the very finest of tracks for your pleasure.

The Queen said...

I can't wait to check out "Smack That On Baker Street"
AKON vs. GERRY RAFFERTY....

C. Margery Kempe said...

Are you dissing "Girl's Eyes"?!!

Keef's finest moment, although coming close is "Together" from the legendary most expensive LP ever recorded, "Two Sides of the Moon" and his cover of Lloyd Price's "Personality" which, unfortunately, can only be found inside my head.

The Queen said...

My dear Kate, 'Girl's Eyes' sucked.

It's the audio equivalent of a Keane painting....

CL said...

I still have that theremin version of Free Bird i need to get to Gene for the next CD.