It’s Crap!

Widespread Panic
Bombs & Butterflies
Capricorn 

Oooh! Hippies! Isn’t the title clever? Why, it takes me all the way back to a peace march on the Federal Building, a hit of Orange Microdot and “Alice’s Restaurant” at the Rialto. End the trip picking flowers in Memory Grove. “Radio Child” opens the disc in a galloping manner that had me all excited about wide open spaces, horses and farm work.The commune is back and rather than worry about the federal government like most the ‘90s compounds this commune has bud to cultivate and a deep dark cellar filled with fungus of the hallucinogenic variety. The only problem with the scenario is that the ’60s ended. Neil Young isn’t playing with Crosby, Stills and Nash anymore, he’s moved on to grunge. By the third song I’d disposed of the disc all together and retreated to Quicksilver Messenger Service and Mason Profit vinyl. Widespread Panic is booked for two upcoming shows. I’m not going because I can’t bear the thought of sitting in an enclosed room surrounded by the stink of Widespread Panic fans. Take a bath fuckers, wash your hair and quit worshipping a dead past. Once again the propane torch came out, as did the fireplace tongs. Bombs & Butterflies is now an incense burner. “Peace and Love don’t compromise.” —Kenny Queasy 

White Town
Women In Technology
Chrysalis/EMI Records 

What the fuck is this? Are X96 listeners complete morons? The #1 requested song on “alternative” radio during the final week of February is complete and total shit. Another sorry nerd without any social interaction created the load while hibernating in his bedroom. Where is that press release? “Surprisingly, they weren’t very happy to discover their night’s entertainment was to be a fat, Asian bloke with a headset mic and militant stickers on his synth. Have you ever tried singing live whilst dodging live fireworks being thrown at your head?” No, but if you ever come to town I will do my best to sneak some in and make you relive the experience. White Town is not a native of Britain but he has lived there nearly his entire life. Surprise of surprises. Fey as all hell, White Town will appeal to Smiths and Pet Shop Boys lovers. Needless to say, I can do without the lot of them. —Jenny Marr 

Longpigs
The Sun Is Often Out
Mother 

Longpigs is a British band. I hate British bands, but the press release said a lot of nice things and they’ve had a couple of big hit singles in England so I tried to keep an open mind. It didn’t work. There must be something about Deliverance. The movie must play constantly in England and for some reason the scene where the hillbilly “does” the city boy inspires one British singer after another to “squeal like a pig.” Crispin Hunt is squealing like a pig all over the damn CD. Stop squealing, Crispin, so I can hear the music. He won’t and he doesn’t. The Sun Is Often Out is another stupid CD from another stupid Britpop band. I hate it and just to make sure the Deliverance analogy is not missed the band put a picture of lips in an “O” on the back. You sure got a pretty mouth, boy. I think I know how to make you stop squealing like a pig. —Billy Bob Jack 

Violent World
A Tribute To The Misfits
Caroline 

This should be interesting. Can they get it right? Hell no, The Misfits are one band that can’t be covered, at least never as good as the original. Fucking Christ, The Misfits attempted to do the exact same thing with a new I singer, didn’t they? Get a whole bunch of punk rock bands together and have them do Misfits covers. Why didn’t Caroline sign on the reformed version for a cover or two? Who knows. The largest error is the absence of the former Salt Lake City band, since relocated to Boston – Deviance. Charlee Johnson can write a Misfits song better than the Misfits themselves. I’d love to hear Sunshine singing anything the Misfits ever did. I’d love to hear Charlee beating the shit out of his drums on a Misfits song, but Caroline has obviously never heard of Deviance. Now, I ain’t no god damned son of a bitch and I listen to the Misfits at work every stinking motherfucking day. It’s part of the corporate culture.

I guess the whole thing is pretty cool. It’s a good punk rock record and all these bands like Pennywise, Snapcase, Astro Zombies, Prong, Bouncing Souls, Goldfinger, Dead Guy, Sick Of It All, NOFX, etc. rip through selected tunes from the Misfits back catalog. My favorite covers of the entire disc are “Sick Of It All” and “Mommy Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight.” Surprisingly, Goldfinger does a credible job with “Ghouls Night Out” and Earth Crisis of all bands checks in to kick some poseur punk with “Earth A.D.” They all suffer from the lack of Glen Danzig. 

It ain’t a Misfits record, folks. It’s a tribute, and for those who already own the box set it is probably interesting. For the rest of you dumb motherfuckers, go buy the box set and then, if you are a serious fan, buy the tribute to hear how it shouldn’t be done. —Darrel Lonely

Read more record reviews from the 90s in the SLUG archives:
Record Reviews: April 1996
National CD Reviews: February 1997

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