Thursday, April 08, 2004
THE SQUIRRELS
Scrapin' For Hits
PopLust Audio, 1993
Let's start off with one that just happened to be sitting next to my computer. A "greatest hits" of sorts from pop-punk pranksters from Seattle. As a fan of comedic music, especially that which doesn't let the music end fall down, this has been a favorite that I keep returning to since I found it. I was first drawn to it by the cover, which is a parody of another famous record cover. Call me a sucker, but that instantly gets my attention. In this case, it's the "vegetarian butcher cover," a joke which a friend created himself years before this was released. This is a recreation of the Beatles "butcher cover" (probably the most famous and valuable oddity in the history of record collecting), but instead of the band members being draped with cuts of meat, they are covered in carrots, with parts of Cabbage Patch dolls adorning their bodies as well (just to carry the joke to an absurd level). As for the music, there are cuts here from 8 different releases covering a period of 13 years, with some straight-ahead yet punked-up covers of oldies ("Take A Letter Maria," "Hair" and the "Oz on 45" medley of songs from the Wizard Of Oz), plus combinations of songs like Johnny B. Goode with Johnny Comes Marching Home and Hawaii 5-0 with Dave Brubeck's Take Five. Also on board are their evisceration of "Seasons in the Sun" which appeared on one of the Pravada Records compilations of 70's hits, and a wild "Hillbilly" version of the Beatles' "Let It Be" which appeared on the "Exotic Beatles" compilation. Plenty of wacky fun. Get it. I need to see if they've released any more music since this release. (Yes, Pink Floyd tribute in 2000...) RATING: Used Buy.
See It
Scrapin' For Hits
PopLust Audio, 1993
Let's start off with one that just happened to be sitting next to my computer. A "greatest hits" of sorts from pop-punk pranksters from Seattle. As a fan of comedic music, especially that which doesn't let the music end fall down, this has been a favorite that I keep returning to since I found it. I was first drawn to it by the cover, which is a parody of another famous record cover. Call me a sucker, but that instantly gets my attention. In this case, it's the "vegetarian butcher cover," a joke which a friend created himself years before this was released. This is a recreation of the Beatles "butcher cover" (probably the most famous and valuable oddity in the history of record collecting), but instead of the band members being draped with cuts of meat, they are covered in carrots, with parts of Cabbage Patch dolls adorning their bodies as well (just to carry the joke to an absurd level). As for the music, there are cuts here from 8 different releases covering a period of 13 years, with some straight-ahead yet punked-up covers of oldies ("Take A Letter Maria," "Hair" and the "Oz on 45" medley of songs from the Wizard Of Oz), plus combinations of songs like Johnny B. Goode with Johnny Comes Marching Home and Hawaii 5-0 with Dave Brubeck's Take Five. Also on board are their evisceration of "Seasons in the Sun" which appeared on one of the Pravada Records compilations of 70's hits, and a wild "Hillbilly" version of the Beatles' "Let It Be" which appeared on the "Exotic Beatles" compilation. Plenty of wacky fun. Get it. I need to see if they've released any more music since this release. (Yes, Pink Floyd tribute in 2000...) RATING: Used Buy.
See It
