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REVIEW: King’s X – Tape Head (1998)

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Complete studio albums (and more!), part 10

Scan_20151016KING’S X – Tape Head (1998 Metal Blade)

You never knew what you’d get with a new King’s X album.  Monstrous musicianship, intelligent lyrics, and integrity certainly; but they like to fly in all sorts of directions.  Tape Head, following the sweet pop rock of Ear Candy, was a monolithic slab compared to that earlier album.  In many regards Tape Head is a brother record to Doug Pinnick’s solo project PoundHound (more on them later).  The focus here is the groove.

Witness, the first song “Groove Machine”.  “Welcome to the groove machine,” sings Doug, letting his bass lay it down.  “Music oh music, such a funky thing. The closer you get, the deeper it means.”  He’s right.  Ty Tabor lays on a heavy wah-wah for his guitar solo, but not to be left out drummer Jerry Gaskill gets a bit of a solo too.  It’s simple, straightforward and unpretentious.  “Groove Machine” has but one purpose.

“Fade” continues the heavy groove direction, slower now, and with Ty Tabor taking the vocals in the chorus.  From the ultra-heavy bass to Jerry Gaskill’s beats, everything hits you exactly in the right spot.  A break in the groove occurs on “Over and Over”, a Doug ballad with sincere soul.  When Ty joins him in the chorus, the song becomes timeless.  Heavy again again but with the same kind of powerful chorus is “Ono”.  When you have an album as single-minded as Tape Head, you tend to grasp onto standout melodies like this even more.  King’s X let their 1960’s flag fly a little bit on “Cupid”, which doesn’t let up in the groove department, but does have shades of their hippie melodic bent.  That’s an appropriate way to lead into “Ocean”, a mellow Ty Tabor song that sounds like Ear Candy, but turned up to 11.  Doug’s hella-sonic bass just crushes, even though you could fairly call this song a ballad!  The difference between this and Ear Candy is all in the production.  Tape Head is self-produced and you can tell they just wanted to hear everything heavier and lower!

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Pure ear candy is “Little Bit of Soul” which sounds like it should.  Heavy rock knows no singer with as much soul as Doug Pinnick.  He even brings soul into “Hate You”, which is pretty straightforward in the lyric department!  Then “Higher Than God” is one of the mightiest choruses on the album, thanks again to Doug, with Ty and Jerry backing him.  Only King’s X can infuse R&B with their rock the way that they do.  Listen to Doug’s low vocal crooning on “Happy”.  Then he turns it up, lets it loose.  There is only one Doug Pinnick and he is a rock and soul treasure.

You might not expect the slight twang that starts off “Mr. Evil” but like most King’s X songs, it mutates into different forms.  (Nice steel guitar solo by Ty.)  If you were craving just one more killer chorus before it’s all over, then “World” delivers that and some heavy-ass grooves too.  The highlight here is a blazing rock n’ roll guitar solo, very different for Ty.  That’s not the last song though; there’s a surprise at the end that defies description except to say it’s pretty funny!

Tape Head is an impressive monument of rock indeed.  It bleeds pure gobs of soul, and it rocks the brain really, really hard.  It’s slimmer in the catchy melodies stockpile, but the relentlessness of direction draws you back in for another listen.  Some may lament that with Tape Head, their progressive metal past seems long behind them.  I think that was road they already turned from, with 1994’s Dogman.  They transformed into a heavier band, with echoes of their past but a sound that blends it all up.  The songs are not as distinct, but the groove is king on Tape Head.

4/5 stars

Part 1 – Out of the Silent Planet (1988)
Part 2 – Gretchen Goes to Nebraska (1989)
Part 3 – Kings of the Absurd (split bootleg with Faith No More)
Part 4 – Faith Hope Love by King’s X (1990)
Part 5 – “Junior’s Gone Wild” (from 1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey soundtrack)
Part 6 – King’s X (1992)
Part 7 – Dogman (1994) + bonus “Pillow” promo single review
Part 8 – Ear Candy (1996)
Part 9 – Best of King’s X (1997)

Part 192: Mix One

MIX ONE

RECORD STORE TALES Part 192:  Mix One

Blank discs are so cheap, and musical tastes so fleeting today, that I wonder if anybody but me still has the first mix CD they ever burned?

I’m hoping some of you have, and I’m hoping to hear it about from you too.  My first disc was made in early 2001 when we got our first burner.  It was made for a very specific purpose.

At the store, there was an informal rule that if you were closing one day and opening the next, it was “OK” to borrow a movie overnight, watch and return it.  So if that was true for movies, why not a CD?  Why not a dozen?  A few nights after having the CD burner installed, I borrowed a bag full of discs and burned this compilation on a Maxell CD-R 650.  74 minutes!  Up to 16x certified!

I returned the discs the next day, all albums that I wanted one or two songs from, but not the whole album.  Many were soundtracks and tribute albums.  I ended up buying The Strokes’ album a few weeks later, an ill-advised purchase that yielded only two or three listens.  I don’t have that one anymore.  But I still have my mix CD with “Last Nite”!

The Robbie Williams + Queen track is taken from the soundtrack to A Knight’s Tale.  I shall maintain the anonymity of the store employee who had the crush on Heath Ledger and inundated us with this soundtrack.  The same disc also yielded “I Want to Take You Higher” by Sly and the Family Stone.

Track 3 is an industrial-rock hybrid tune called “Violent New Breed”.  I later purchased the Violent New Breed album by Shotgun Messiah.  Industrial rock fans will know that Messiah’s original bassist/singer was Tim Tim, aka Tim Sköld of KMFDM, Marilyn Manson, and his eponymous band.  I liked the title track enough to later buy the album and the prior one too.  Both were keepers.

I’ve been a Goo Goo Dolls fan for a while so I thought I would grab their INXS cover “Don’t Change” from an Ace Ventura soundtrack.  Their cover of “Bitch” came from the 1993 No Alternative compilation album.

Apparently I was on a Warrior Soul kick at that time as well.  Shame that there isn’t a great Warrior Soul compilation album that suits all my needs.  I bought and sold their studio albums.  As for Michael Jackson, I later decided to add a single disc compilation to my collection, offsetting my burning of “Billie Jean”.

This being a real odds n’ ends disc, it’s not a spellbinding listen today.  It’s fun to remind myself of some oddball tracks that I liked enough to burn but not enough to buy.  I’m also amused by the title Mix One, the first of many!  And I was even doing cover art back then, too.  On the cover is myself dressed up as the alien from Part 148: Navigate the Seas of the Sun!

2/5 stars!

NEXT TIME ON RECORD STORE TALES…

The return of the Dandy!

MOVIE REVIEW: Black Dynamite (2010)

 

BLACK FRONT

BLACK DYNAMITE (Sony Pictures, 2010)

Directed by Scott Sanders, 84 minutes

Michael Jai White is…Black Dynamite!

Shot on 70’s film stock to give it that saturated vintage look, and loaded with great original music, Black Dynamite is a treat. It looks authentically 70’s, but it’s not for everybody. Some will look at the poorly focused camera work, the shoddy stunts, the bad dialogue, and the rubber baseball bats and turn it off immediately. Others will “get it” and appreciate this for what it is: A skillfully directed spoof movie that actually works!

Plus, the music is pure funky goodness and nothing but.  You’d think it was entirely vintage, from the 1970’s.  Nuh-uh, brother.  This funky masterwork is all new, dig?  Composer Adrian Younge wrote and played nearly every instrument on this soundtrack.

Michael Jai White came up with the look and concept of the title character, Black Dynamite.  It cleverly spoofs 70’s blaxploitation and kung-fu films, with built-in defects such as visible boom mikes and actors that are clearly reading their lines off cue cards (including the character names). You’ll see the same car blow up more than once.  There’s one character that speaks only in rhymes.  This movie comes off so authentic that some people actually think it’s a low budget 70’s film.

Black Dynamite, a former CIA agent who’s seen action in ‘Nam, hits the streets to find out who killed his brother. This takes him face to face with a drug dealing gang lead by Rafelli (Mike Starr), and some kung-fu treachery that goes all the way to the top. Black Dynamite is the toughest cat in town, a kung fu expert and smooth with the ladies. Yet he’s not all bad — he’s got a soft spot for orphans, and a vendetta against drug dealers.

As the movie progresses, it gets more and more absurd. Starting off as a street vigilante story, it eventually escalates to conspiracy and a deadly encounter on Kung Fu Island. By the time it gets to the climax, we are at a level of absurdity unrivaled by the worst action films, except it’s all intentional. Tie this in with some pretty awesome fighting moves by White, and some infinitely quotable dialogue, and you have a movie that you will watch over and over again.

Black Dynamite, as a movie, just works. It is an homage more than a spoof, and obvious love for the genre was poured into the film. At various times it feels like a legitimate 70’s blaxploitation film, at others you’re laughing your face off. As mentioned, it gets more and more bizarre as it goes along, so hang on tight.

Blu-ray extras are sparse, but valuable if you don’t know a lot about this genre. It will give you some insight if you’re unfamiliar with those 70’s classic B-movies. Clearly, Michael Jai White and co. did this lovingly.  One of my favourite features is the hilarious trailer featuring fake names for all the actors.  “Starring all-star running-back Ferrante Jones.”  Love it.

Sound like something you’d be into? Dynamite!

5/5 stars

In Cinemaphonic Quadrovision!

Soundtrack:

1. Black Dynamite Theme
2. Cleaning Up the Streets
3. Man with the Heat (Superbad)
4. Shine
5. Jimmy’s Dead
6. Shot Me in the Heart
7. Black They Back
8. Gloria (Zodiac Lovers)
9. Anaconda Malt Liquor
10. Jimmy’s Apartment
11. Jimmy’s Dead (Interlude)
12. Chicago Wind
13. Rafelli Chase
14. Jimmy’s Dead (Instrumental)
15. Dynomite (Suckapunch Re-edit)