Saturday, December 7, 2019

The 1986 Listening Post - Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper - Frenzy

Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper - Frenzy



#157/1322
1986 Housekeeping
Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper
Frenzy
Genre: Alterna-Blues
4.75 out of 5


Highlights:
The Amazing Bigfoot Diet
Stuffin’ Martha’s Muffin
I Hate Banks
Where the Hell’s My Money?
Gonna Put My Face On a Nuclear Bomb



I can’t speak enough about how often I spun this record. So much that it’s nigh on impossible for me to be objective.
For a while my roommate subscribed to The Weekly World News because it was so ridiculously hilarious. We couldn’t wait for Ed Anger’s column. All of that and the lunacy of what was to come is on the opening track. 
Mojo gets as close to his live show here, especially on  “Stuffin’ Martha’s Muffin” (He even makes a mistake and just keeps going) and “Where the Hell’s My Money?”, the most unapologetic bite on the Blues I’ve heard but what he’s singing about is more honest to the form than Aerosmith or Mick & Keef’s versions. And everything Zappa tried to do on Thing-Fish is outdone here by Mojo who appropriates those styles and merges them with gospel and the aforementioned Jagger.
As we’ve seen in 86 this album has the requisite classic song cover. While most of them are awful, there’s something so hilariously charming about Skid Roper’s version of “Inna Gadd Da Vida”. His Elvis impression backed only by Mojo on harmonica & Arrowhead Water bottle is terrific. 

The album proper ends with one of my favorite songs of the era (and ever, really), “The Ballad of Wendell Scott”. The mini-lp that comes after is just added treats.  



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