[pokkeherrie]

This has got to be one of the most unlikely tribute albums ever:


VARIOUS ARTISTS: Shutupalreadydamn! A Prince Tribute Album 2CDR (CELEBRATE PSI PHENOMENON)

 

Thank god for the leadoff track...curator Campbell Kneale revealing his ability to rock out a good pop tune, with his usually avant/instrumental Birchville Cat Motel doing a note-for-note version of "I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man" that would make even the highest-grossing cover band in your college town blush. And dig the perfectly reproduced guitar solo! It's a version that might make noise bands blush a little too, revealing "making a bunch of noise and then sticking a Prince song title on it" to be a common strategy, which is what Afghan Cyborg Predator do with track two, a version of "Lets Pretend We're Married." Mr. Kneale himself sorta goes that route with his other band Sunship, doing a cover of "Orgasm" that is just a "1-2-3-4-AAAGJGJGGJGGGJJHH!" sexplosion like something off of Pop Tatari by The Boredoms.
Another tactic is the "use the lyrics but disregard the melody and chord changes" approach. In this vein, there's a creepy lo-fi version of "When Doves Cry" by Antony Milton, versions of "Little Red Corvette", by B.C. and Mr. Sterile, and "Head" by Panicsville. All the versions are pretty humorous and each track has a distinctive vocal. Panicsville is the only one of the four I'd even heard of before, and his track really stands out, because the complete lyrical text is sung by a Speak 'n' Spell or some shit. Lyrics like "You know you're good, girl/I think you'd like to go down" end up being kind of terrifying in a Demon Seed kind of way. A beautiful and haunting version of "Sign O' The Times" by A.Ra tackles the original text and original melody in a whole different way; I think it's a young kid in his or her bedroom singing a capella into a cheap recorder. It reminds me of something my 11 year old niece was doing this weekend while I was visiting her family in Omaha, but that was with some current teen ballad.
Another song that uses the entire lyrical text of the original is Poptart doing "Manic Monday" (which was actually a Bangles song written by Christopher Nevermind, of course, but evidently some people think Mr. Nevermind was actually Prince). They start with improv noise that isn't half bad but then -- psych! -- they go into a great kicking glam-rock version that's right up there with Birchville Cat Motel's jam. The CM Ensemble might have the nicest track on here with a solo church organ version of "Nothing Compares 2 U." This same track would've also been one of the best on the Soothing Sounds For Raymond comp reviewed above. Let's see, who else is on here: The Burt Lancasters ("Let's Go Crazy"), The SB ("When We're Dancing Close & Slow"), Matt Silcock ("Housequake"), Armpit featuring Dirk Diamond ("Sexy Muthafucker"), Pumice ("Get Off"), Witcyst ("Pop Life"), Seht ("Diamonds and Pearls"), Flower ("Hot Thing"), Cancerboy ("Kiss"), 1/3 Octave Band ("It's Gonna Be A Beautiful Night"), GFrenzy ("When You Were Mine"), ISO12 ("Head"), Clarinette ("U Got The Look"), and Extreme Nose Terror ("Purple Rain"). A lot of stuff on here, a lot of different approaches: noise vs. song, text vs. no text, the artist vs. The Artist.


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