Leif Garrett, eat your heart out
livesidog | Lancaster, PA USA | 05/09/2000
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Although I was only alive for two years during the 70s, I can definitely appreciate the annoyingness of overproduced 70s arena rock (mostly through the magic of those VH1 "Behind the Music" specials). This new 3-song EP from Jello Biafra, Al Jourgensen & co aims to poke fun at this very genre (well, at least the title track does). The 7-minute "70s Rock Must Die" contains just about every 70s rock cliche in the book: the cheesy guitar riff, the cowbell, the tambourines, the falsetto voice (which Biafra nails perfectly), the guitar-wanker solo, the chorus of "come on"s, the slow ballad-esque breakdown in the middle of the song, the kickin' drums, and just about everything else you ever heard a million times in every Ted Nugent or Aerosmith song. The two other tracks on the EP ("Volcanus 2000 (We Wipe the World)" and "Ballad of Marshall Ledbetter") are somewhat generic Lard songs (similar to the material on their last album, "Pure Chewing Satisfaction") and seem sort of tacked on and unrelated to the whole 70s rock theme, but aren't necissarily bad either. If you're a fan of Lard (or a non-fan of 70s rock), then this EP is definitely worth picking up for the title track alone (and for the excellent liner notes which, as usual, contain tons of humorous newspaper clippings and headlines)."