Showing posts with label Cheap Trick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cheap Trick. Show all posts

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Lovedolls Superstar Motion Picture Soundtrack





Great showcase for Redd Kross, Annette Zilinskas and Painted Wille...

The sequel to Desperate Teenage Lovedolls is perhaps superior to the original. The music too is almost superior. Unlike the soundtrack to that film these don't contain any ridiculous soundbites from the film. The songs themselves come from the mid-80's Southern California scene.

The Redd Kross songs are easily the best things on the soundtrack. They supply the wonderful title track to the film. They also contribute 'The Lovedolls' tracks: the wonderfully trashy "Rex Smith 9 (I Wanna Be a Cholo Chick)", the groovy rocker "Beer & Ludes" (with Cheap Trick's "Hello There" in the bridge) and the Brady Bunch cover "Sunshine Day". Lead vocals on these three songs are regrettably shared with the way-too nasally and off-key Jennifer Schwartz (who plays Kitty Carryall in both films). Their cover of "Purple Haze" is also included here as well (although that song was featured in DTLD not LDS).

There's also some truly great material supplied by others. Ex-Bangle Annette Zilinskas' beautiful Sonny & Cher cover "Baby Don't Go", Painted Willie cover Prince & The Revolution's Nikki ("Darling Shelah") and back Jennifer Schwartz on "Now That I've Tasted Blood". There are also unremarkable tracks by Dead Kennedys, Meat Puppets and Sonic Youth included as well.

Black Flag contribute the lifeless "Kickin' and Stickin'" and also back Schwartz on "The Love Machine". The wholly unimaginative score was done by Flag guitarist Greg Ginn's side project Gone. Ginn would later inexplicably deny the use of this material on the 2006 DVD release/soundtrack those eight these tracks are only available here on the original SST soundtrack.

Aside from the fantastic Redd Kross tracks, Painted Willie and the Annette Zilinskas stunner, these songs tend to work better within the context of the film than they do on their own on the soundtrack. The soundtrack is also an unwitting document of a fine time in the history of alternative music.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Tinted Windows (2009)



This is a strange one. Not the material mind you, but the band. Supergroups generally aren't supposed to make very good music - at least historically. Well, that's the theory at least. Tinted Windows is unassumingly comprised of Adam Schlesinger from Fountains Of Wayne, James Iha from Smashing Pumpkins, Taylor Hanson - the middle child from Hanson and Bun E. Carlos (aka Brad Carlson) of Cheap Trick. It seems less unnatural (than the notion of...) once you actually give it a listen.

I first saw these guys on The Late Show with David Letterman and was a little confused. What are these guys all doing together? The answer is making pretty-good Power Pop and players that sometimes have a tendency to play to their own record collection. And maybe dumb it down a notch for mass consumption (not like the very best Power Pop isn't already user friendly...). Having said this - it's overall pretty good. The band plays well together - no matter how unlikely the combination. And can still be enjoyed even without any point of Power Pop references.

The first single "Kind Of A Girl" is a sugary hook-filed knockout with lots of "Whoa, whoas". "Nothing On Me", "Messing With My Head" and "Can't Get A Read On You" are all big winners that fall somewhere between Cheap Trick (surprise, surprise), The Knack and Big Star. So, yes Power Pop. Songs about girls with big hooks, sugary choruses and sweet guitars.

Recommended: Yesly