Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Let's Cut Away The Skin That We Don't Need



As someone who dug the big rock action of Death of Samantha's "Coca Cola & Licorice" single a whole lot, the monster riff of "Blood & Shaving Cream" (which practically references directly back to "Coca Cola & Licorice") made this EP a welcome sight when it first showed up in my P.O box ages ago. "Laughing In The Face of a Dead Man" could be the toughest-sounding Death of Samantha release out of all of them, being straight rock almost all of the way through (save for a little goofing around at the end); project "Yellow Fever" ahead a few years and it could fit on a Humpers single, even. Keep your ears peeled for "sorry I'm late but I got held up at the bank", another great Petkovic throwaway line... standard operating procedure means that they would cover "Werewolves of London" and turn that jogging, happy melody into a complete mess entirely, of course.




Death of Samantha -

"Blood & Shaving Cream"

"Werewolves of London"

"Yellow Fever"





15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Man, if there was any justice in the world, DoS would have been as big as G n'R in the '80s - they were so much smarter and rocked harder too. I love the way Lucky Dog (Lost My Pride) on Where The Women... becomes almost an entirely different song halfway through. And Blood Creek on that same album is just ferocious.

Brushback said...

"Good Friday", too. "Where The Women Wear The Glory" could be their best album, though that's hard for me to say out loud because I've always liked "Strungout on Jargon" so much.

Holly said...

I love DoS, but have nothing constructive to say, except that "Coca Cola & Licorice" mixed with the Volcano Suns' "Greasy Spine" may be my favorite segue ever.

And _I_ care about the Vox shutdown 'cuz I do click :-(

Brushback said...

Yeah, it's gonna suck because I've got no way of hosting all of those old mp3s for people to listen to (we're talking over 5 GB worth of listen-only files that I have on Vox). I'll just have to let the links go dead.

Lightning Baltimore said...

I think Come All Ye Faithless may be my favorite DoS album, but they're all great.

When I saw them at CBGB's years ago, Steve-o came out onto the darkened stage in a bee costume, carrying a little lamp, like Diogenes.

Brushback said...

Yeah, how 'bout that -- back when the one in the band dressed as a weirdo was Steve-O and not Doug Gillard!

Anonymous said...

Strungout On Jargon is my favourite of theirs, Werewolfs on this is one great insane cover version. GREEN-O is my NAME-O

Brushback said...

I love all of D.o.S.'s covers - "Listen to the Mocking Bird", "Heroes", "Werewolves of London" are three that I've posted here and in the past... I'm not sure what others are out there.

Brushback said...

Wait, "Sylvia Plath" is a cover, I don't like that one. "Amphetamine" isn't a cover, though people think that it is..

Lightning Baltimore said...

Shonen Knife tribute album Every Band Has a Shonen Knife Who Loves Them: "Redd Kross"

Syd Barrett tribute album Beyond the Wildwood: "Gigolo Aunt" (far-and-away the standout track on the whole damn thing)

Cle Magazine Presents: Cleveland . . . So Much to Answer For compilation: "Nights in Venice" by The Saints

There might be more in my collection, but those three came to mind immediately (in addition to those already mentioned, of course).

Brushback said...

Obviously, I've never heard the Shonen Knife compilation (not that I really want to). I've always wanted to have "So Much To Answer For", though.

Lightning Baltimore said...

OMG . . . I can't believe I forgotted the best one!

They do the best cover I've heard of the Pink Fairies' "Do It," complete with Herman Munster reciting beat poetry during the instrumental break. It's on the Human Music compilation on Homestead Records, natch.

Anonymous said...

There's a version of '20th century Fox' by The Doors which is OK, from an other wise terrible compilation called 'Through the Looking Glass: 1967'. I've not heard The Saints cover though. Is their 'Listen To The Mockingbird' a cover or does it just have the same title of an old song?

Brushback said...

"Listen To The Mockingbird" was sort of a spoof, it's a "cover" of a song from The Flintstones.

I think I've heard the "20th Century Fox" cover...

John, I've never owned "Human Music" and "Do It" has one of my all-time favorite riffs, so I guess I gotta track that one down now... I don't know why I never bought "Human Music", maybe it's because there were a bunch of label comps back then that weren't all that great ("Wailing Ultimate" wasn't so hot, at least).

Anonymous said...

death of samantha - original line-up reunion show, beachland ballroom, cleveland 12/23/11