You know when I'm with you I can really be myself...
outlawsmate | Mobile AL | 01/01/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is the original punk funk. David Brown and the late Black Randy brought this version of the Metrosquad around in '79 or so. The price of the cd is worth the liner notes alone. David Brown was pretty much the catalyst of this whole scene along with Pat Rand, who had good day jobs...they brought us many other bands via Dangerhouse Records.Black Randy is dead and he was cool. He was a lyrical genius with a drunk automatic writing style. Remember the Green Frog!!!
This was a great bunch of guys and a fun scene. Sad that it's gone."
A Fiend on the LA Scene!
Glenn S. Hawley | NEW YORK, NY United States | 07/03/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I Knew this LP was out there, but I never thought I'd own it or see it on CD. Not just "Punk", Not just "Funk" This is Something Else! Black Randy was a LA Scenster who embodied the Prankster Fun of early Punk Rock. Nothing was Out of Bounds, and neither is this Collection. I thought it would be a mindless, directionless mish-mash of his speed induced ramblings. I Am happy to say I Was Wrong! Say it out Loud! He's Black and he's been Plowed! And Have a little Sympathy for the Record Industry!"
It's good but not great
Ryan Dante | Ann Arbor, MI (A community of musical magpies) | 11/17/2005
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Black Randy is the kind of musician who makes a career out of being sick and twisted and having little actual musical talent. He's a little like G.G. Allin but not quite so sick. This album is very basic punk rock with a little bit of synth thrown in. It's kind of funny. The high point is "Idi Amin", written about my very favorite Ugandan cannibalistic dictator. Dissect that sentence and you'll figure out what this album is like."
Imagine There's No Black Randy . . .
G. Gardner | 10/09/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"For Slash magazine the Metrosquad may have been "the joke band to end all joke bands", but their one and only album (and the only LP Dangerhouse put out) deserves to be held up as *the* recorded document of the L.A. "punk" scene of 1977-80. And it's not even a "punk" album, which is the point: it's crazy, pointed, sarcastic, wrong, and has absolutely zero commercial potential. The seventies funk-flavor songs benefit from the talents of some actual musicians -- people like David Brown, Joe Nanini, and others from Dangerhouse's own "Wrecking Crew" of kitchen/studio backing players. Then there's Black Randy. Forget about Darby, Kickboy, Jimbo, and (maybe) even Geza X -- if anyone deserves to be the subject of a Broadway musical, or a documentary or po-faced gallery retrospective, it's Randy. So, buy this album (or convince a gullible stranger to buy it for you) and put on "Pass The Dust" at a party. Then leave something unmentionable in a passed-out scenester's purse, dump buckets of water on Wildman Fischer, get up on the roof and howl until the cops come. And then claim to be the concerned citizen that called the cops and smile smugly as your innocent hosts are dragged away in handcuffs. Black Randy woulda wanted it that way."
Why yes, this IS punk funk!
pinkmonkeybird | United States | 09/09/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"woo hoo! Black Randy and the Metrosquad is the greatest thing ever! They have songs like, "Say it Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud!)" where they name-drop Dee Dee Ramone. They do the theme from Shaft. It's super-weird and great. Idi Amin, their song about the about the ruthless dictator, is the greatest: Idi Amin, I am your fan...next time you're in town we'll go to CBGB!
anyway, if you like weird and obscure punk rock, this is for you."