Shockabilly - Colloseum & Vietnam
#336
1984 Housekeeping
Shockabilly
Colloseum
1.5 out of 5
No Highlights:
Shockabilly
Vietnam
Highlights:
Your USA and My Face
Nicaragua
Georgia in a Jug
3.75 out of 5
Imagine a post-punk band, let's say...The Residents (although it's not really like them at all) hosted an immersive class in music production and Donovan showed up, except he was so blissed out he thought he was actually David Bowie and he would only sing David Bowie songs if Bowie was writing an off-broadway musical but secretly just wanted to get played on Dr. Demento.
I think that about captures some of Colloseum.
Their cover songs *should* be interesting takes on bending standards but, whereas The Dickies could wring humor from their subjects, Shockabilly just makes me say, huh. Next. "Eight Miles High" is an LSD headache and "Homeward Bound" is purposefully twisted and, as such, feels forced and "Born on the Bayou"...the lest said, the better.
Their content gets a bit more haunting and on the next album, Vietnam. It's more assured and more blatantly political. It reminds me a bit of Summer of Hate by Crocodiles. I really like it.
Then I read the bio of one of the main people behind them and, it's one of those things that just points to unheralded and unreported stories of the underbelly of music. I recommend it.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/shockabilly-coliseum-2008-re-masters/334180125
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/shockabilly-vietnam-2008-re-masters/334134597
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kramer_(musician)
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