Back in October of 1991, Ugly Kid Joe released their debut EP – As Ugly As They Wanna Be. 1991 was a year smack in the middle of the Grunge Music invasion… Ugly Kid Joe didn’t seem to care in the least. The mix of Hard Rock, Funk Metal and Heavy Metal had me more than interested in Ugly Kid Joe, I bought As Ugly As They Wanna Be and it served me right – back in 1991. Parodies aside, I could care less about what the titles of Ugly Kid Joe’s albums were making fun of… it was the funky heavy grooves of their songs that mattered most to me. Everything About You was a song that sounded unlike anything I was into back then, (Thrash, Death, Speed and mainstream Heavy Metal was what I was used to). When I first heard Everything About You, the first bands that came to mind that I was familiar with, in the Funk Metal genre, was Living Colour and Anthrax when they did I‘m The Man. White Zombie for certain had some Funk happening in their Metal back then too, yet this Ugly Kid Joe was not the dark side of heavy Funk either. This band was not as flamboyant as Faith No More, there seemed to be more of a street level accessibility to Ugly Kid Joe back in 1991-92. Ugly Kid Joe made the funk in their heavy come out and smack me offside the head. Metal Music be my saving grace, I became hooked by Ugly Kid Joe, both by their music and persona. 1991 and 1992 were turning points with Metal Music, so many great Metal Bands were still around and largely ignored by the mainstream media… Ugly Kid Joe busted onto the scene and was very hard to ignore, in my Metal opinion.
Obviously the freshness of Ugly Kid Joe caught on with MTV and FM radio, it had to. Ugly As They Wanna Be and America’s Least Wanted (from 1992), both sold over 2 million copies each, this Ugly Kid Joe sound really caught on, an undisputed Metal fact indeed. Ugly Kid Joe was not just about putting the funk into Heavy Metal, no sir. Their cover version of the legendary Black Sabbath’s classic Sweet Leaf exemplified their fondness for the heavier side, all the while paying tribute to their Heavy Metal influences. Ugly Kid Joe was not the refined and glamourous Hair Metal Band nor were they an extremely pissed off Extreme Metal Band. This was a band that was not even in the middle for they were so unique. What Ugly Kid Joe brought to the masses was a mixture of Heavy Metal genres, almost as if they grabbed ahold of the very best of what these genres possessed and intertwined them all into their very own sound. To the best of my Metal memory, Ugly Kid Joe was not a copy cat band and no other Heavy Metal Band followed after, that sounded like Ugly Kid Joe either. (Maybe there was, I just never heard of them and they never lasted very long).
In 1992, I bought America’s Least Wanted and could not have been happier about it. Listening to Ugly Kid Joe cover the late Harry Chapin classic Cat’s In The Cradle only solidified the diverse musical nature of this band. I was astonished as a Metalhead back in 1992… here is Ugly Kid Joe, covering songs from Black Sabbath to Harry Chapin. Cool. I had bought a Harry Chapin greatest hits album in the late ’80′s, (keeping it a secret amongst my Metalhead buddies), yet Ugly Kid Joe made it known to the Metal world they dug Harry Chapin – I realized then that music is one big connected family. I really look back on the first two Ugly Kid Joe albums with the upmost Metal fondness, this band was different, a Heavy Metal band that was fun without ever displaying any artificial pose to their music or appearance. Menace To Sobriety was released in 1995, followed by Motel California… I gave both albums their justified listens and due, yet I still uphold the first two Ugly Kid Joe albums as their finest moments.
The Metal bottom line is this, with all of the revivals going on in the Heavy Metal genres, especially with reunions and reunion tours, it would be cool to once again see and hear Ugly Kid Joe. It is not my intent to say that Ugly Kid Joe was the best thing since light beer, rather they were a cool band to choose from the Heavy Metal buffet… and still are. So many bands from the 1980′s and 1990′s are huge again, making albums and touring… Ugly Kid Joe would most likely be quite the hit with this new generation of kids that are just getting into Hard Rock and/or Heavy Metal. The Ugly Kid Joe look and sound is all around, as I meander around in public, (especially the Malls) in 2009. This now vintage band would fit right in today… what once was old is new again – yet this is only my Metal opinion… and I am sticking to it.
Ugly Kid Joe:
WHITFIELD CRANE — vocals
KLAUS EICHSTADT — guitar
DAVE FORTMAN — guitar
CORDELL CROCKETT — bass
SHANNON LARKIN — drums
A couple of years ago, I purchased All Hallow’s E.P. by AFI… man, this is a cool Horror Punk gem. Released on November 3, 1999, on Nitro Records, this is AFI when they were creating Horror Punk and it is worth every penny I spent on it. A tidy E.P. it is, with four songs that are lathered with quality Horror Punk attitude and speed. Davey Havok on lead vocals sounds vintage, even though it has only been about a decade since this E.P.’s release. Every time I listen to All Hallow’s E.P., I walk away believing Davey Havok was born to sing this style of Punk Rock. I could listen all day to this Horror Punk style of AFI. I have been currently rummaging through my Metal and Punk Music collection, sifting through the spooky titles of both albums and songs and putting them on my daily rotation of music listening. Horror Punk will always stand out when searching for the creepy tunes, All Hallow’s E.P. is an obvious choice. With the Halloween season knocking at my Metal doorstep, rounding up the scary stuff to listen to has become an annual right of Horror passage for me.
Throughout my travels to antique stores and thrift shops, more often than not, I come across albums and/or CD’s that grab my attention in milliseconds. I usually find the Metal, Punk Rock or Extreme Music that is not in stock at your local Walmart, Best Buy or f.y.e., therefore my journey’s to these eclectic shops are never in vain. Sure, the vast majority of underground and obscure music titles can be had online just about anywhere you look, I am an avid consumer of online purchases this way. However, it is just a tad more cool to actually hunt down or stumble upon a CD of a band that is not on any mainstream or commercial charts… not in the limelight whatsoever… and this band is unique, a definite qualifier for existing in the world of Extreme Music. Please excuse me, if I say that the three dollars I paid to bring home Violent Femmes “Why Do Birds Sing?”, (released in 1991), was a smart move. Three dollars versus the eleven dollars (or more) it would have cost me to buy this CD brand new online… not counting the shipping and tax costs. Used CD? Is there such a thing? Man, a CD really has to be scratched up and bent out of shape for me to consider it used. Besides, I am not that naive to purchase a used CD without inspecting the surface wear of the actual disc itself. Crap, I better get on with the actual music found here, on “Why Do Birds Sing?” and stop this ranting about the science of used CD hunting and purchasing.
U2 On Saturday Night Live… September 26, 2009, Some Metal Thoughts…
Posted in 1980's alternative rock bands, 1980's rock musicians, 1980's rock bands, 1990's alternative rock music, 1990's rock bands, 1990's rock music, alternative rock bands, alternative rock music, comedy shows on television, embarrassing rock music performances, late night television shows, political rock bands, Rock, rock & roll, rock & roll hall of fame inductees, rock and roll, rock and roll hall of fame inductees, rock guitarists, rock music, rock music commentary, rock music on television, rock music reviews, rock vocalists with tags adam clayton bass guitarist, bono u2 lead vocalist, bono vocalist, larry mullen jr. drummer, Music, nbc television network, Rock, rock and roll music, rock music, rock music news, rock music on television, rock music reviews, saturday night live, the edge u2 guitarist, u2, u2 on saturday night live, u2 rock band on September 27, 2009 by Metal OdysseyShare this:
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