Ultra Swank: A Cacophone Sampler - Various Artists

The good: 1313 Mockingbird Lane, Vodkasonics (doing their best song "Record Collection" although not sounding nearly as good as it does live, and, boys, that whole "phoned-in first verse" thing has to go PRONTO) and Annabel Lee (although they have much much better songs than "All About Eve").

The bad: THE FACT THAT THE LABEL IS PUTTING OUT A 28-TRACK SAMPLER OR MOREORLESS LOCAL-PRODUCED GARAGE ROCK!!! WAY TOO MUCH TO ABSORB THE GOOD STUFF WITHOUT GETTING STUCK IN SOME TOTAL SHIT!!

Christ, man, sell two twelve-track samplers if you need to! 28 tracks of same-y Albany Garage is kinda really overkill. It's a genre that thrives on stylistic repition, and if you can listen to this in one sitting and tell the difference between The Failures and Electraluxx, well, you have a more trained ear than I can ever hope to.

Brevity is a good thing sometimes. I want half of my five dollars back.


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Mike Keegan
5.29.2000

Dairy Farmers For Quebec's Independence