Top Ten Album Ranking: Nine Inch Nails

Chancho en Piedra Discography Ranking

Primus and Les Claypool's side Projects and Solo stuff: Sausage, Oysterhead, Frog Brigade, Bucket of Brains and The Duo de Twang complete Discography Fixed

Primus
Suck on This (1989)

Genre:  Alternative Metal, Funk Metal

 Les Claypool pretty much redefines on this album the role of bass players in a rock/metal band, instead of Flea's bass humping your face approach it's more like bass punching your face jajajaja, and for me a bass player that's just fantastic, and Larry LaLonde guitars and Tim Alexander both already have a very particular and technical styles of playing setting primus apart from any other band of their time.

 Les's voice and singing style is somewhat an acquired taste but his lyrics are funny as hell. This album is recorded live and some of the songs are not totally finished because when they are progressively put out on studio records they do have a couple of modifications.

Overall: 60.6

Primus

Frizzly Fry (1990)

Genre:  Alternative Metal, Funk Metal


A limited progression from Suck On This, because the band mostly focused on finishing and rounding out the material that they had from their live album for the studio, but there is a fair share of new material for Frizzle. All the songs off this album are Primus classics and it has a couple of Holy Shit moments of musical brilliance and heaviness like on my favorite track Mr. Know It All on Spaghetti Western.  And something that got to mention even though Larry always is under Les's insane bass playing shadow, he's one hell of a guitar player he really gets to show his stuff on this album and he's freaking versatile player.

Overall: 60.3

Primus

Sailing the Seas of Cheese (1991)

Genre: Alternative Metal, Funk Metal, Experimental Rock, Progressive Rock, Hardcore Punk Funk
The first time I ever heard Primus in my life was on the Woodstock 1994 CD where they play Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers, and I was a fledgling bass player and it  blew me away he did stuff on that live track that I didn't know you could do on the bass, and the fact of having the bass in the forefront of the band just seemed cool as hell for me.  
Now on this album, the band just dives head first into their own sound and style being very experimental and unorthodox in the way they write songs, but at the same time writing surprising accessible songs.  More experimental with odd chord and note progressions like Jerry Was a Race Car Driver, which nothing on that song should work jajajajaja, but Les pulls it off, and holy shit the Chorus is probably the heaviest thing I've ever heard. "Is It Luck" is an insane hardcore punk funk track which I've never heard anything like it and Tommy the Cat sound like a Bass Slap orgasm. Less expands on his bass playing style adding to his trademark style slapping, typing on Jerry and even melody like on Fish On. Larry experiments with guitar pedals  And Tommy the Cat has the guest vocals of Tom Waits. What can I say this album is incredible.


Overall: 61.8

Primus

Pork Soda

Genre: Alternative Metal, Alternative Rock, Experimental Rock

Les and company are still riding on their creative high taking their very odd brand of rock and metal deeper into their own bizarre style of playing. Even though there is much of a progression or growth for this band, this production has an impressive batch of clasic tracks like "My Name Is Mud", DMV, Bob and Mr. Krinkle. Also, the album, in general, has a pretty dark tone in its sound and in lyrics.  Sadly there are a couple of fillers on this production. 

Overall: 59

Sausage

Riddles are Abound Tonight (1994)

Genre: Alternative Rock/Metal, Funk Rock/Metal

Ok today I bring you guys one of Les Claypools side projects from the mid 90's Sausage, which actually is Primus’s first lineup with Jay Lane on drums and Todd Huth on Guitar. "Riddles are Abound Tonight"  is their first and only album and it isn’t that good compared to Primus, Les’s singing and Lyrics are just not up to par, Huth’s guitar work isn't that interesting compared Larry Lalonde’s (Primus), but I must say Les and Lane really have some really good grooves on a of tracks. So as a conclusion   this production is probably is only for dies Les Claypool fans,  for the rest stay away. 

Overall:  41.5

 Primus

Tales From the Punch Bowl (1995)

Genre:  Alternative Metal/Rock, Progressive Rock, Experimental Rock

Even though this album is solid as hell, with an impressive track list you do get the feeling that the band is sort of running out of steam and fresh ideas, and this is the last album with Tim Alexander on the drums.
Overall: 57.1

 Primus

 Brown Album (1997)

Genre: Alternative Metal, Funk Metal, Experimental Rock, Progressive Rock, Hardcore Punk Funk

So Les tries to change things up in this album with the band's sound and production, the album feels more organic, more acoustic instruments are played like an upright bass acoustic guitar and the band sounds like they were recorded all together in a bar or some kind of room with wooden walls, nuch less metal to their sound. Tim is replaced with Bryan the Brain Mantia (Praxis, Guns N' Roses, Bootsy Collins...) and he has a particular drums style that kicks ass and accommodates well with the Primus style. But lyrical and instrumental even though Les and the band do a good job creatively there isn't anything too incredible, they are running out of zany ideas and there are at least 3 or 4 fillers on this album.
But I got to say I love this album anyways because it was the first Primus album I ever had, I got it off a mail catalogue, but when it arrived the asshole at the music store keeped the original and gave me a copy, jajajajaja, the thing I listen to the hell out of that album.
 Overall: 53.6

Oysterhead

The Gran Pecking Order (2001)

Genre: Alternative Rock, Funk, Alternative Funk, Experimental Rock, Jazz Rock

Being a Primus fan I stumbled onto this side project that Les Claypool had with Trey Anastasio, from Phish and Stewart Copeland from Police. This album is mind blowingly good and it's a great introductory album to jump into to the world of Phish, Primus or any of Les’s other projects.

Vocals and Lyrics: Vocally Trey and Les work really well together and their lyrics at moments are funny as hell 10

Instrumentation: 

Guitar: Trey is a formidable guitar player; his solos are great and he does a bunch of weird stuff with pedal effects.

Bass: Les plays more like he does on his solo projects a lot more funkier and less muscular.

Drums: Stewart’s trade mark drumming  are just perfect for these songs and he uses  percussion in a experimental way giving the song a very original feel. 9

Melody and/or Structure: The songs have a basic pop structure in general, but melody wise Trey brings a lot to the table. 10 

Sound, Production and Feeling: The Album sounds fantastic with a whimsical feeling, with all kinds of trippy effects floating around in the production. 10 

Songs: Even though they are super band the album is really solid at each track is great. 12

Originality:  This Album is a high point for  Les in the 2000's after this none of his solo stuff has this level of quality  10  

Overall:  61

Les Claypool Frog Brigade

Purple Onion (2002)

Genre: Alternative Rock/Pop, Alternative Funk, Experimental Rock

So here we go with Les Claypool’s first solo effort, and it’s pretty much Les’s oddness and bizarrefulness running loose and unfiltered. This album like most of his future solo stuff is less heavy compared to Primus and he experiments with different styles and genres, album does lose focus at moments but overall it’s a enjoyable experience in general.

Vocals and Lyrics: Les’s vocal style and lyrics are pretty much the same as the stuff  that he has done with Primus, which is telling stories that are fun, but Mr. Claypool tries to be more provocative at moments in this produccion. 8

Instrumentation:

Guitar: Eenor does a good job on guitar but the album predictably isn’t guitar driven, but there are some nice solo on his behalf on couple tracks.

Bass: Les’s bass playing as usual is top notch, he use more trippy effects and Les introduces to the world his crazy new instrument the Whamola,  also as a little treat on  “D’s  Dinner” has three Bass Players with Norwood Fisher ( Fishbone) and Lonnie Marshall.

Drums and Percussion: Jay Lane, along time Claypool associate (Sausage and the Holy Makarele)  does a great job and we have  Fish Fisher (Fishbone) as a guest on the “Whamola” track. On percussion we have Mike Dillion  and he plays a couple of instruments  from the vibraphone, marimba, Tabla baya…he’s pretty active in the album.

Saxophone: Sherik Sax sounds like an angry T Rex at moments, it bring an odd heavy element to some of the song.10

 

Melody and/or Structure: Les is able is able to keep things interesting on a structure level, but most of the songs are just excuses to Jam and let loose on the instruments.   8 

Sound, Production and Feeling: The album sounds great and Les’s production does a good job at setting the mood. 9

Songs: The whole album is great but it doesn’t start that strong it get much better as it progresses.  12

The Bad: 

Originality: Les tries really hard to differentiate his solo stuff from Primus, but the apple doesn’t fall to far from the tree. 8  

Overall:  57

Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains or I call them Praxis + 1

Great Big Eyeball in the Sky (2004)

Genre: Funk Metal, Funk Rock, Experimental Rock

When I discovered that Buckethead, Brain and Bernie Worrell (Praxis), joined forces with Les Claypool to make a band, I really jumped in joy thinking that Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) II wouldn’t be too far down the line, but to my surprise the Great Big Eyeball the album they made together doesn’t go in that direction but more in jam band funk rock/metal extravaganza, so here we go with my brief review: 

Vocals and Lyrics: Les just repeats too many thymes that he’s already worked on other project but to his credit he actually tries to be more provocative at moments and I love Gabby La La’s backing vocals on two tracks. 8

Instrumentation:  

Guitar: Buckethead is as versatile ever, he really shows off how flexible of guitar player he is using a large arsenal of guitar playing styles and his solo playing is on a guitar god level.

Bass: Les’s sick slapping is just fantastic just playing off Buckethead’s craziness; use a fretless bass during most of the album.

Drums:  Brain is one of my favorite drummers and I love his chemistry with Les.

Keyboards: Wow it’s one of Bernie’s Worrell’s best performances; he really lets loose at moments and he uses all of his classic Funkadelic sounds.  9.6  

Melody and/or Structure: Most of the tracks are songs born from  jam sessions while some songs are just straight up jams, so the structures are pretty basic. 8

Sound, Production and Feeling: The album sound good in general but nothing out of the ordinary.  8 

Songs: Album oscillates between songs and jams. 10

The Bad: Oh man “Junior” is just a terrible track why did they leave this track on the album. -1

Originality: It’s a good introductory album to get into Praxis or any of Les’s projects. 9

Overall:  51.6 

Les Claypool

Of Whales of Woe/WW (2006) and Of Fungi and Foe/FF (2009)

Genre: Experimental Rock, Alternative Rock, Alternative Funk

So I’m back today with a double whammy, 2 back to back solo albums from bass bad ass Les Claypool,

here we can see the tendency of Les's to dive deeper into his bizarre carton world, but the bad thing is that as the material progresses from one album to the other the songs are not that good, the songs in general just aren’t there. Whales does have some great songs but with a ton of throw always, while Fungi is just isn’t up to par for a guy of this caliber.

Vocals and Lyrics: Lyrically Les is running out of ideas, he normally tells funny stories but he starts to revisit one too many old  themes and from Whales to Fungi it gets worse WW 7 FF 6

Instrumentation:  

Guitar:  Very little guitar on both albums and Les play most of them.

Bass: Les play much more bass on Whale’s compared to his previous album Purple Onion and some of the bass lines are just fantastic like on “Rumble of the Diesel” while on Fungi there isn’t anything to interesting. 

Drums:  Les plays the drums on Whales and does a decent job; while on Fungi Paulo Baldi does the honors playing a pretty laid back style.  

Extended band: Skerik on the Sax, Gabby La La Theremin and Sitar, Mike Dillion marimba, table and other percussion this dude is a monstrous force in the album he just really rocks out on those marimbas and Skerik sax solos are super cool too. On Fungi Mike Dillion is back and he also shines in this album. WW 8.1 FF 7.8

Melody and/or Structure: Both albums seem to be inspired by jam session material that Les didn’t do much to rework into actual songs this is particularly evident in Fungi. WW 7 FF 6

 

Sound, Production and Feeling: Whales sounds good in general but Fungi’s sound and production really stands out and is the only interesting thing on the album, the album has a real dark mood to it. WW 8 FF 9

Songs: Whales has a couple of really good tracks, while Fungi is pretty mediocre, except for the “Booneville Stomp” is the only exceptional track from this album. WW 10 FF 8 

The Bad: While Whales has a couple of stinkers, Fungi is chuck filled with them. WW -1, FF -2.

Originality: Les tries to compensate the lack of good ideas on a composition level with making us jump into his bizarre world, Whales is Ok, but Fungi is pretty redundant in his catalogue.  WW 7 FF 6

Overall:  WW53.1 FF 40.8

 

Les Claypool/The Duo de Twang

Four Foot Shack (2014)

Genre: Country, Blue Grass, Alternative Rock

I always thought that Les just liked to poke fun at hillbilly culture, but this album proves that he really loves and respects Blue Grass and Country. On this album he collaborates with his pal Bryan Kehoe from M.I.R.V, and reworks songs from Primus, from Les’s solo projects and some interesting covers from Alice in Chains and the Bee Gees, giving them a Blue Grass/Country/hillbilly overhaul, infused with moonshine, being played only with Bass, Guitar and Kick Drum. This album is brilliant I really enjoyed it and its sound is super basic, but this helps you appreciate the songs more, nothing gets in the way of you being able to appreciate how very well executed each song is, so I super recommend this album, it’s one of the best stuff Les has done outside of Primus so far.

Overall: 57 

 
Claypool and Lennon Delirium
Monolith of Phobos  2016
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Experimental Rock
 


This is a fascinating album and I'm happy to see the Sean Lennon has put Les back on track, because he had been lately lacking focus on some of his projects, it probably his best collaboration since Oysterhead. It pleasant to hear vocally this odd pair really working well together. Instrumentally it obvious the bass will be great and Les tributes Paul Mc with a Beatlelesk bass line on Mr. Wright, but I must add the work on the keys Synthesizers and the Mellowtron by Sean really evokes old school psychedelic rock. The album is short but sweet and its sounds retro and fresh at the same time, it has a happy and whimsical feel, with touches of darkness.
I must note that this album really introduced me to Sean Lennon, that is a super artist in his own right I'm actually discovering the gem of Sean's Friendly Fire while I was writing this review.

Overall: 58.5 

Primus
Primus and The Chocolate Factory  with the Fungi Ensamble (2017)
Genre: Experimental Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Progressive Rock

This album was sort of a let down for me, since it's a Primus production as a band,  I thought to my self that it was going to be a more of a straightforward rock album instead of an overly infused musical drug trip that Les has been indulging lately, I was pretty wrong, get ready for another crazy show. It a concept album centered around the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory soundtrack, which I do not understand the cultural obsession around that movie. The mood of this album is dark as hell and Les vocally does a good job conveying an interesting mix darkness, insanity, and innocence and we get the treat of Larry Lalonde sings on a track and he does a great job. On an instrumental level, the band does a top-notch job in this voyage into crazy land, Mike Dillion work on vibraphone, marimba, and tablas, does get to shine on this album, and Tims Drums sound pretty unorthodox and have a very interesting sound. The band is able to incorporate melody into their which isn't very prevalent in any primus albums, but track wise there a couple of moments that are stinkers and even are tedious, where they overindulge in the craziness. 
 
Overall: 55

Primus

The Desaturating Seven  (2017)

Genre:  Progressive Rock

So Les and crew make their second full-on concept album, which is bizarre as hell but leaning more on their 90's style of playing,  centered more around a core band with Les finally working more complex and proggy bass lines and having Larry and Tim working around that to make interesting songs. Now the thing is that even though the concept of the album is interesting lyrically it lacks the charm and wit that Primus's earlier work had and the album is freaking short, so it's a bittersweet affair.

Overall: 57.5
 
 

Beastie Boys complete Discography review (work in progress)

 

Beastie Boys

  Licensed to Ill(1986)

Genre:  Rap, Rap Rock, Hip Hop

Over the years I have mostly grown out  of listening to Rap and Hip Hop in general, but every time I sit down to listen to a Beastie Boys I'm always impressed with their albums even this particular production that is at the very beginning of these guys career, they not only help push Rap and Hip Hop to the mainstream, they were already innovating  genre working with the legendary Rick Rubin, fusing rap and rock.  The fact they didn't take themselves too seriously, with a nothing to lose mentality thanks to the punk background, sets the base for a try anything mentality, so there is some crazy shit on this album. They are only limited by technical restrictions typical from the mid 80's from working with drum machines and working with samples, but this does not stop them from using an interesting arsenal of samples from Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Black Sabbath to Cool and the Gang, the Sugarhill Gang and Trouble Funk. There are a couple of colossal classics on this album like "Fight for Your Right" and "No Sleep till Brooklyn"  with a guest guitar solo from Kerry King from Slayer, which both received heavy airplay by MTV. The only bad part of this production is that the song writing is a little choppy and a tad stiff, and the Beasties are still  learning their craft of rapping. So if you are not familiar with this production  I recommend you go and listen to it, after more than 30 years this album still holds up.

Overall: 61.5

Paul's Boutique (1989)

Genre: Rap, Hip Hop, Alternative Hip Hop, Psychedelic Hip Hop

They really push the creative envelope on this album even further, working with the Dust Brothers and with longtime collaborator Mario Calbato Jr / Mario C, creating a very fluid and funky hip-hop, and artistically very ambitious. The samples and drum machines have been taken to a whole new level on this production, with an insane amount of samples from more than 50 artists from the Jackson 5, P-Fuck All-stars, Sly and the Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield,... and even Paul McCarthy and Pink  Floyd, this actually lead to legal issues, in part, which affects the rap world in the way they could use sample from here on. They elevate the DJ Turntables to a true instrument status that can do some really interesting shit. The Beastie's themselves have improved in the rapping capabilities being more organic and fluid. This album is a true milestone for Rap and Hip Hop.

Overall: 64.1


Beastie Boys

 Check Your Head(1992)

Genre:  Rap, Hip Hop, Alternative Rock, Hardcore punk, funk rock.

The Beastie's basically redefine what hip-hop band could do on this album, by totally breaking their genre's mold. First, they each picked up instruments to play on the instrumental tracks and to make material for their own samples, Ad-Rock plays the guitars, MCA plays the bass and Mike D the drums. Money Mark is added to the fold who would become a long time collaborator of the Beastie's who plays the organ, synthesizer, keyboards, clavinet... and they actually let him show off his skills
They add funky jams with "Funky Boss", 70 inspired funk rock like Gratitude, with some kick-ass percussion, trippy psychedelic track with "Something Got to Give" and they go back to their punk roots with "Time for Living". All these musical styles, except for punk will be staples on almost all of the album from here on out.
But the Hip Hop has not suffered due to the musical expansion with some mega classics for the genre with "So What'Cha Want" and "Pass the Mic", that really show off the Beastie's rapping skills and Mario C's production.Also,  this is one the first albums, with Praxis's Transmutation,  to actually integrate DJ sampling and scratching interacting with a rock band.

Overall: 64.6

Beastie Boys

 Ill Communication (1994)

Genre:  Rap, Hip Hop, Alternative Rock, Hardcore punk, funk rock, jazz

When I was a teen back in the mid 90's one of my best friends lent me this album and as total ass-hole, I never gave it back, it just blew me away how good it was, and it became a permanent fix in my Discman for the longest of time jajajajaja. The album itself is a Check Your Head part II, it sounds very similar and has the same feel and production, but this album does hold its own, with an insanely good track list. The Beastie's have gotten better in songwriting in general, working better as a  band and we have the addition of  Eric "Bobo" Correa from Cypress Hill on the percussion and DJ Hurricane who I forgot to mention that he was also on "Check Your Head" review. Money Mark also gets to shine more on this album especially on the funk jam tracks that have a more of a jazzy feel. The album has to guest with Q-Tip and Biz Markie.   

Overall: 62.6



Beastie Boys

 Hello Nasty (1998)

Genre:  Rap, Hip Hop, Alternative Hip Hop
Back when this album came out I hated it, I just wanted a Check Your head part III, but the band change up their sound and decided not to incorporate any punk or have any rock tracks, in many ways it felt like they totally sold out  stripping any grit to their sound. But years later I sat down to listen to this album and I was totally surprised to rediscover this production and how good it was. It was a ballsy move changing up their sound like they did, adding more keyboards, future type samples and using a clean a bright sonic pallet in general. There is a tradeoff no hardcore punk tracks, but we have the addiction of mellow indie hippy trippy ballads and some interesting experimental tracks, but the rest of the band's traditional types of song are on this album like the party rocking raps and instrumental jams, the whole experience is very rich.
 What I discovered recently is that the band had a batch of punk tracks that didn't fit into the sound of this album so they were put out on a EP called Aglio e Olio, which is a straight-up hardcore punk album, so that pretty cool of the Beastie's.
Now back to Hello Nasty, they try all kinds of crazy shit on it, it's a pretty experimental album but being very accessible a the same time that no small feat. Mix Master Mike as joined the band with his impressive DJ skills reinvigorating the Beastie's sound. Two tracks have a female vocalist with Jill Cunniff from Luscious Jackson and  Mino Hartori on another. And Lee "Scratch" Perry reggae legend is a guest on one on the tracks. Overall this album kick ass, go and listen to it.

Overall: 62



Beastie Boys

To the 5 Boroughs (2004)

Genre: Rap, Hip Hop

Even it`s a decent Rap Album, for the Beastie's it feels pretty lazy, they take zero risks on this one. The songs are ok but feel redundant in their catalog, no jam instrumental tracks or any experimentation with any other genre.

Overall: 52





Beastie Boys

 The Mix-UP (2007)

Genre:  Instrumental Rock, Funk Rock, Jazz Funk, Fuck

Surprisingly after a completely rap centered album, the Beastie's release a completely instrumental rock-funk album with a jazzy ting. Even though it feels that the play it too safe not experimenting enough it's a fun album. Money Mark play a big role on this album with his work on the keys, but I don't understand why Mix Master mike isn't on the album he could have done a lot of cool thing in this production.

Overall: 57.5




Beastie Boys

Hot Sauce Commit Part Two (2011)

Genre:  Hip-Hop, Rap, Alternative Rock

Sadly this is the last Beastie Boys album with poor Adam Yauch  passing away in 2012, but boy did these guys went  out with a bang, because this album is fantastic, even though they do not do anything groundbreaking, they mashed everything that we loved about their music during the whole carrier rap, hip hop, rock, punk, indy... with a fantastic batch of songs. The production is a mix of Check Your Head and Hello Nasty, great instrumentation and the Beasties sound reinvigorated and inspired working the material. I love this album Nuff said. 

Overall: 60

Illya Kuriaki and the Valderramas complete discography review + plus solo stuff

Illya Kuriaki and the Valderramas

Fabrico Cuero (1991)

Genre: Rap, Hip Hop, Rap Rock

This is probably the first Rap album ever put here in Argentina, and sadly it's pretty bad, the rapping and songwriting have a long way to go. The thing is that Dante Spinetta and Emmanuel Horvilleur, were really young when this album was made around 15 or 16 years old, so they are in their very basic formative stages as rapper and musicians. Another thing was that there was no rap culture in the country, so they learned how to do every from scratch because even coming across with a rap album in this country at the time was almost impossible. And even though these kids have a long way to becoming a creative driving force in Argentine music, this album has a couple of good moments. 

Overall: 40 

Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas

Horno Para Calentar Los Mares

Genre: Alternative Rock, Rap Rock, Funk Rock

There is a quantum leap in the quality of songwriting for this duo, there are still rough edges, but these kids land some memorable tracks, "No Way Jose" kick ass. Dante has taken up the guitar just like his father the legendary guitarist Luis Alberto Spinetta, changing up the sound and style becoming much more a rap rock and funk rock effort instead of straight up rap album. The Kuryaki also incorporate more melody into the vocals showing off an impressive evolution as artists, "Virgen de Riña" is an incredible song written by to kids. Also instead of using drum machines and keyboards, there is an awesome band behind the Kuryaki with the highlight of Argentine bass god Javier Malosetti landing a couple of good basslines, Fito Paez on the keys on a few tracks.

The only bad thing about this album is that the quality does not maintain itself in the whole production there are a couple of filler tracks, but this album is a classic anyways.   


Overall: 59.3 


Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas

Chaco

Genre: Hip Hop, Alternative Rock, Rap Rock

I remember when this album came out back in the late 90's, my parents wouldn't let me by it. Because the lyrics were pretty sketchy for a 15-year-old kid,  they were pretty provocative, sexually explicitly and vulgar for the time, it funny now these songs are almost the norm now, but lacking the wit and artistic value the Kuryaki would have. 

Now these guys have created Argentina's answer to the Beastie Boys's Check your head the Kuriaki's, they many of the cues from the New York band fusing rap, hip hop, 70's style funk rock and alternative rock, but the Kuryaki show off being more artsy, much better musicians and have a much better use of melody just killing it with a couple of ballads.

Overall: 60

Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas

Ninja Mental (1996)

Genre: Rap, Hip-Hop, Funk, Soul  

This album is the band official MTV unplugged live recording, and even though they cut a couple of corners using some electric guitars and some trippy effects hidden in the mix, these guys just thieved in an acoustic set. They rework their song in such a way that they work totally well unplugged, even hip hop tracks like the "Abarajame" or "No Way Jose". They take advantage of the format adding strings and keys anytime they can. The instrumentation is top notch,  it's a really treat, and this album is a true gem for music lovers.

Overall: 58.5 


Vs (1997)
Genre: Rap, Hip-Hop, Funk, Soul 

This album really let me down they went in a super mellow direction on this album, just overindulging with the ballads and pretty much axing the alt-rock out of their sound, having a significant presence of synthesizers. I went to see them when they presented this album and the funny thing that happened at that show was that Molotov, the opening act, blew everyone away with a high-octane set.  The place bursting with energy after their set and when the Kuriaki's came out with their mellow hippy set, and the crowd just started to throw everything they had at them.
Now the good things about this album is that it has some of the Hip Hop tracks are pretty experimental like "Expedicion al Klama Hama" and Jugo is a fantastic funk track, a direction the band will mostly take after this production.

Overall: 58

Illya Kuriaki and the Valderramas

Leche (1999)

Genre: Funk, Funk Rock, Hip Hop

The band always flirted with funk, being a significant influence in their style, but with this album, they just indulge in this genre. They take funk into some really interesting directions, from some straight up Dance/pop stuff in "Latin Geisha" or "Coolo" to an insane punk funk track called "Robot" and there are some pretty heavy funk rock tracks like "Apocalypses Wow" and "Wacho". Funk patron saint  Bootsy Coolins actually appears on the track DJ Droga with just killing it with one of his signature bass lines and  solos. 

The production sounds super clean, energetic and fresh, overcoming the dark feel of VS. The bass guitars have some super cool old school funk effects, and some of the keys  have an old school Bernie Worrell vibe. There is somewhat of a marriage between classic funk production with a modern electronic dance sound, something that artist like Jamiroquai ushered in to funk in the early 2000's. 

Overall: 60.1

 

Suicidal Tendencies and Infectious Grooves complete discography review (work in progress)

Suicidal Tendencies

Suicidal Tendencies ( 1983)

Genre: Hardcore Punk

I was really surprised when I finally got around to listing this album, it's a straight up Hardcore Punk production, very different from their latter work that has strong metal influences and funk at moments. Mike Muir lyrics are dark, morbid, ironic, political and he's a smart ass in general, they are really good and funny to listen sadly he doesn't maintain this quality on the rest of ST's albums. Grant Estes guitars are just thrashing through the songs, the bass and drum played by Louiche Mayorga and Amery Smith  respectively are just vehicle for the bands jarring speed and time shifts. Now this  album  sound still holds up over the years and it's a Hardcore milestone. this production  is  a great way to get into the genre because it's really accessible compare to over hardcore albums.

Overall: 58.3

Suicidal Tendencies

Join the Army (1987)

Genre: Crossover Thrash, Hardcore Punk

ST moves away from its Hardcore Punk roots and they go for a Thrash and Heavy Metal influenced album, note punk is still present, its pretty good but not brilliant like the previous album, it's really straight forward. Two new members in the band R.J. Herrera on the drums and Rocky George on the guitar, and I must note his playing has more shredding and 80's style tricks. Track list is solid, but the real high point of the production is when the classic "War Inside My Head" blasting out of your speaker.

Overall: 48 

Suicidel Tendencies

How Will I Laugh Tomorrow, When I Can't Smile Today (1988)

Genre: Thrash Metal

This album is a progression from the previous production, but it's completely Thrash and much more focused. The bands lineup is the same but they have added a second guitar player, Mike Clark, so you get some dueling guitars at moments and fantastic solos. Also just like Join the Army, it's a solid album in general but nothing groundbreaking.

Overall: 50.4

Suicidal Tendencies 

 

Lights...Camera...Revolution!(1990)

Genre: Thrash Metal, Funk Metal

Here we have a band consolidating there Thrash sound but at the same time experimenting with funk metal, with a Bad Brains styled funk metal  "Lovely" and the incredibly political and provocative "Send me Your Money" that is a real breath of fresh air sounding totally there own thing ST hasn't done something this good since "Institution". ST has always shifted in styles this album starts to show the band starting to do their own thing, slowly meshing styles. The bass is louder in the mix in this album and this is in part to the addition of bass god Robert Trujillo in the band.

Overall: 53.3

 

 

Infectious Grooves 

The Plague that Makes Your Booty Move... It's the Infectious Grooves (1991)

Genre: Funk Metal, Punk Funk

Here we have Mike Muir's side project with legendary bass player Robert Trujillo, Infectious Groove which is a straight up funk metal band. We find Mike being more light hearted on this project and we have the treat of Ozzy Osborne on one of the tracks. Trujjillo's bass lines are just incredible he slaps like a god and funky bass lines a magnificent, as a base player I admire his digitation and timing playing he's like Flea on anabolics. On guitar we have a series of Suicidal Tendencies player from past and present like Rocky George, Dean Pleasants and Adam Siegel, plus David Kushner future member of Velvet Revolver. On Drums we have Jane's Addiction's  Stephan Perkin just killing it on the drums adding his tradition percussions on the tracks,  very organic and relaxed but is able to pull off the hardcore punk explosions when they come around.

The album sounds very 80's in a good way with the use of keyboards here and there, give it a Fisbone feel at moments, but this production is very well recorded and surprisingly aged well. The Punk Funk aspect takes where the Chili Peppers left it on  Mothers Milk and they run with it take the style to the extremes.

 
Overall: 58.8 

Suicidal Tendencies

Art of Rebellion (1992)

Genre: Alternative Metal

This is a more experimental album, we have a band trying to redefine themselves again because the insipient Funk Metal style seems to have been absorbed into Infectious Grooves, now the songs are pretty good and  the focused seems to be centered on writing songs of their  own brand of alt Metal, not catering to a specific style. Josh Freese ( A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails) is the fill in drummer and he does a great job, the rest of the band remains the same. 

Overall: 51.1

Infectious Grooves

Sarsippius' Ark (1992)

Genre: Funk Metal, Punk

The return of  Muir's  Funk Metal band is sorf of a mixed bag, on one hand you have a band is  as solid as ever these, guys just keep on perfecting their craft, with a fantastic batch of songs, there are two covers the Led Zeppelin's Immigration Song that just blew me away and Bowie's Fame that was pretty cool, but there are a couple of uninspired tracks, that  aren't total fillers but are not super top notch, Muir fails to make some songs lyrical or vocally interesting, he just pumping out to many albums so he's starting to run out of ideas. And Sarsippius comedy interludes get tiresome, you just want him to shut up.

The new addition to this band is Josh Freese that is also playing the drums on Suicidal Tendencies and he does a great job working well with bass god Trujillo.  Siegel and Pleasants guitar works is great. Overall it a Ok album

Overall: 53.5 

Suicidal Tendencies

Suicidal for Life (1994) Groove Family Cyco (1994)

Genre: Alternative Metal, Punk Funk

 Both of these albums are on my pen drive in my car for about the last 6 months now and I listen  to both  at least once or twice a week, I just love them, they have a  energy level that astounds. The Punk/Funk/ Metal just comes out swinging  and both sound like a Infectious Grooves productions, ST has grown closer to its sister band style maybe being a  little more metal and alternative. Instrumentation on both is impressive and  even thought  Muir's  lyrics are basic as hell his charisma holds up on both  albums. Yet again a new drummer in ST this time having Jimmy DeGrasso fill the chair, he kills it with Trujillo on the incredible track "What Else Could I Do?" one of the best ST songs ever.  And on IG there is also a new drummers Brooks Wackerman ( Bad Religion, Avenged Sevenfold and  Korn) bringing  a cool groove and swing to its production and thankfully Sarsippius is gone. on the IG production Both albums are fantastic and pretty much high points to Mike's funk metal phase.

Overall:  ST 60.8 and IG 57.8

Suicidal Tendencies

Freedumb (1999)

Genre: Skater Punk , Punk Rock, Alternative Metal, Punk Funk

Betting on more energy, charisma and more of a Skater Punk sound, the Mike presents us a album that doesn't bring almost nothing new to the table but has a batch of adrenalin filled songs that keeps you head banging from front to back. The production has a  lot of flea styled bass slapping but surprisingly it isn't Trujillo, he's gone, replaced by Josh Paul and on the drums are played by Brooks Wackerman from Infectious Grooves. It's a effective album but I don't know how long the band can keep this up, betting on energy and forgetting substance. 

Overall: 59.8