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Picks by Sullivan Bianco (SB) and Michael Stabile (MS)
Dope
This moldy, Korn-y thrashing of Alice Cooper's corpse (he may still breathe, but he also plays PGA tournaments with Merv Griffin--you make the call) scrapes the lowest, most puerile level of commercial civil disobedience. Remember Los Pistoles' chant--"F*ck this" and "Fu*k that"? Felons and Revolutionaries gives the impression of five wisenheimer honkies in dreadlocks trying to out-fierce, out-extreme and out-"No fear" each other with thinly distorted anthems and 0=0 deep-thought words ("Everything and all of us/ Everything sucks"). If some stained product can be dubbed "bubblegum death," this drug-fumed, anti-USA, I've-been-in-jail stuff is 10 notches below it. With any luck, this album holds the last cover version of "Fuc* Da Police." (SB)
Woodstock '99
All the music--well, some of the music--but none of the sewage, rape or riots. While the food at the actual concert may have been intestinally disturbing, this two-disc set features generous helpings of Korn, Limp Bizkit and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's difficult to condense three days of a revisited Altamont--er, Woodstock--and not have a musical My Lai burned onto the disc, but the collection mysteriously satisfies. If the first disc is heavier and harder, with DMX, Rage Against the Machine and Megadeth, the second offers a Lilith and Ravestock lineup of Jewel, Alanis, Everclear and the Dave Matthews Band. While the concert may not have fostered community, the album, with its eclectic musical selections, will at least broaden one's aural horizons. (MS)
Falling Into Place
It's somewhat difficult to decide who Mr. Viola and his Candy Butchers are trying to pay homage to with their rocksy alterna-riffs. The Beatles' Revolver days? Elvis Costello pre-Bacharach My Aim Is True? Except that these Kodachromatic kids are Angelino, not Liverpuddlian, and as such are a welcome respite from the region's Offspring/Chili Pepper dominance. The Candy Butchers (as they should be called, should Mike Viola tone his ego a bit and allow the band to be monikered) are an Everclear with edge. Perhaps their debut album should have been called The Best of ... Everyone Else. (MS)
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