Nirvana: "From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah"
Geffen GED 25105 (54 mins) Dial-a-track code: 1201
I don't give a flying fish what the river that flows through Aberdeen, Washington is called; and after you've finished listening to this Nirvana livefest, you won't care very much either.
Wishkah is the finger flip side to 1994's Unplugged In New York, and it captures the Seattle three piece at its rawest and most rancid, cutting it up for the kids in venues from California to Amsterdam. The 17 tracks trace the band's cruelly short tour of duty from their early gigs in London's Astoria in 1989, to their January 1994 show in. Seattle's Center Arena, stopping off at Amsterdam's Paradiso and the Reading Festival on the way to oblivion. Of course, no live album can capture the feeling of actually being there, but since we'll never see Nirvana again, this record provides more than adequate compensation.
By The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah was meant to be a companion set to the MTV Unplugged set, but bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl found it difficult to listen to the concert tapes so soon after Kurt Cobain's death. Now they've finally got it together, and the result is astounding - to say the least. The album opens with a blood curdling primal scream from Cobain's ragged throat, and this is just the soundcheck, folks. School, Drain You and Aneurysm establish the band's undiluted power before Smells Like Teen Spirit sends out punked up pheromones into the ether. It's the lesser known, punkier stuff which really comes across here; tracks like Been A Son, Sliver and Negative Creep, although Lithium, Breed and Heart Shaped Box sound pretty kick ass for a bunch of radio friendly unit shifters. Other rough gems include Nirvana's earliest composition, Spank Thru, a sort at Elvis does Gloria live in Hellcapulco, and a full on electric version of Folly.
Fun Lovin' Criminals: "Come Find Yourself"
Chrysalis 7243 8 37566 2 9 (57 mins) Dial a track code: 1311
New York's classy Criminals are a genre hopping crew who really know how to take the rap, and give it some serious back up. This album practically knocked down my door and pistol whipped me into submission, and I'm here to tell you that the Fun Lovin' Criminals are the kingpins round here, so you better listen up good. The FLC, aka Huey, Fast and Steve, don't simply steal pop treasures from the past to use as backing tracks, they also play their own jazz, blues and rock, creating a live brand of hip hop which is as refreshing as a slap in the mouth with a .45. The Fun Lovin Criminal is the album's calling card, played on an old National Steel blues guitar, while Scooby Snacks up the ante, using samples tram Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs to set the scene for a whacked out bank robbery. Smoke Em wafts an a lazy jazz beat, while Bombin The L samples Lynyrd Skybyrd's Free Bird, making it an unwitting accomplice in the Criminals' incendiary intent. There's also a brazen cover of Louis Armstrong's We Have All The Time In The World. The band's Irish label took out a full page ad for the album in the Garda Review, so the cops already know about these characters. Don't be an innocent bystander - get with the criminal kings of New York.
Mundy: "Jelly Legs"
Epic MUNDY 3CDS (75 mins) Dial a track code: 1421
More than a year after he signed to Epic, the 21 year old folk rocker from Birr releases his debut album, and though it's not exactly Highway 61 Revisited, it's not too far off rock's beaten track. Offaly's answer to David Gray acquits himself well on this opening offering, and though the album has already been slated as being too folky, there's little evidence of hey nonny nonsense on tough, dirt stomping tracks like Pardon Me, Life's - A Cinch and Arrow Of Gold. OK, there's an abundance of acoustic guitars, and some over enunciated lyrics, but there's also some killer guitar riffs and wild woodsman drumming to offset the over wrought introspection of songs like Springtown and Private Paradise. Then there are songs like Gin And Tonic Sky and The Stone, which transcend genres and styles to stand out on their own merits. Mundy still hasn't found his true voice yet, but on the strength of this debut, he'll never be lost for words.
